Anyone ever use Egg Patterns on the Bow?

[BigFoamy]

Just curious, I have never used or tied an egg pattern. I did however tie some Crystal Meth patterns today. I read up a bit, apparently theyre a good spring pattern and Trout will eat them. Any feedback on whether they're a good Trout pattern on the Bow.

 

[fishinglibin]

I would eat that.

[monger]

Whitefish should love you. I think they follow the spawners around.

Most rainbows don't spawn in the river so I would imagine the other fish don't see many of their eggs. More eggs available in October from those gold colored fish

[threepwood]

Do suckers spawn in the river? That might also be a good time to try. I've caught rainbows in the fall on a yarn egg.

[scel]

In salmon rivers, it almost feels like you are cheating fishing eggs.

On the Bow River, I have caught whitefish on egg fly patterns.

Quite honestly, though, if I fish an egg, I use a trout beads and a toothpick with a dark hook dangling about 3-5 cm below the stoppered egg.  It is more effective than any fly I have used.  The separation between bead and hook means the hook set generally misses the small mouths of a whitefish, but trout hookups are unaffected and (so far) seems to avoid the risk of trout swallowing the hook.

Great looking flies btw.

[BigFoamy]

1 hour ago, threepwood said:

Do suckers spawn in the river? That might also be a good time to try. I've caught rainbows in the fall on a yarn egg.

The Crystal Meth is a sucker spawn egg pattern. As I continue to read I do believe this pattern will work. On the Bow, looks like fall while the Browns are spawning would be most productive for trout as they do spawn in the bow river. 

[BigFoamy]

1 hour ago, scel said:

In salmon rivers, it almost feels like you are cheating fishing eggs.

On the Bow River, I have caught whitefish on egg fly patterns.

Quite honestly, though, if I fish an egg, I use a trout beads and a toothpick with a dark hook dangling about 3-5 cm below the stoppered egg.  It is more effective than any fly I have used.  The separation between bead and hook means the hook set generally misses the small mouths of a whitefish, but trout hookups are unaffected and (so far) seems to avoid the risk of trout swallowing the hook.

Great looking flies btw.

Thanks man 

[Dangus]

Sucker spawn is bright yellow, though isn’t it?

 

 

[BigFoamy]

15 hours ago, Bron said:

Sucker spawn is bright yellow, though isn’t it?

 

 

Not 100% sure on that. Ive looked at read a lot of stuff on the internet and theyre usually in a range of colours. Pink, orange, pearl, yellow, green etc. 

[Dangus]

Sorry, I mean the actual eggs themselves. 

[bcubed]

Not sure color matters. It's in a fish's brain to kill an egg if they see it..

[BigFoamy]

Bron: Yes they are, gold to light yellow.

 

bcubed: Yes,  would Imagine thats why they come in a variety of colours.

[Dangus]

14 minutes ago, bcubed said:

Not sure color matters. It's in a fish's brain to kill an egg if they see it..

Troll. It doesn’t matter what color, Which means l need every color in the box. 

[bcubed]

1 minute ago, Bron said:

Troll. It doesn’t matter what color, Which means l need every color in the box. 

Sounds like steelheading to me... they eat all the colors, particularly the one you have on when one finally eats..

 

Except orange... they dont eat orange.

[scel]

4 hours ago, bcubed said:

Not sure color matters. It's in a fish's brain to kill an egg if they see it..

I fish the Thompson River system every year for a couple of weeks.  The Rainbows and bulls will sit just a couple metres behind spawning salmon to eat the eggs.  Best success is to match the size and colour of the actively spawning species, but seems more important to match the size than the colour of the dominant spawn---sockeye eggs are smaller than chinook eggs.  Painting a little red dot of nail polish on the side of the bead seems to be more valuable than the actual colour of the bead.

Last year, we were out with a DFO biologist.  He had fished with an 11mm bead in mid-September.  Three of us were out together mid-October.  He was using the same 11mm bead from mid-September.  My friend and I had both caught 5+ fish on an 8mm bead but he had not yet caught anything.  He looked at the bead we were using, facepalmed himself, then started catching fish with an 8mm bead.  The trout did not seem to care if the bead was yellowish or pinkish, but definitely preferred the red dot over the plain beads.  These are trout that could afford to be picky though.  I am not sure how it would translate to the Bow.  Like I said---I have only had whitefish eat egg patterns.

[bcubed]

I should have clarified, ya i think it's a bit different when you're matching a "hatch" (particularly fish that are following sockeye/pinks/etc) and matching actual eggs that are present... but you can catch fish on eggs in the middle of winter when there are no natural eggs around, cause fish are programmed to eat them as they're the perfect meal.

[Dangus]

56 minutes ago, bcubed said:

I should have clarified, ya i think it's a bit different when you're matching a "hatch" (particularly fish that are following sockeye/pinks/etc) and matching actual eggs that are present... but you can catch fish on eggs in the middle of winter when there are no natural eggs around, cause fish are programmed to eat them as they're the perfect meal.

Sure there are eggs around in the middle of winter.  That’s why you see patterns tied in pale yellow, white etc to mimic dead/dislodged eggs. 

Also, don’t whites spawn in December?

I guess color DOES matter?

 

[Jayhad]

Yes I have with success, but I have just used beads.  I typically fish them in spring when the rainbows are getting busy.

[BigFoamy]

2 hours ago, Jayhad said:

Yes I have with success, but I have just used beads.  I typically fish them in spring when the rainbows are getting busy.

Def gonna give them a try. 

[toolman]

I have fished an egg pattern in winter/spring with success. However, it's always been attached to the head of a big black leech and 15' of T14. Fish it slow and deep.

Crawl it back to you at a snail's pace, at the end of the drift. *hit gonna happen...

Amber is a natural egg color in the spring, on the Bow.

[monger]

Do you guys use an Ugly Stick for this style of fishing...

[Dangus]

On 2018-04-10 at 1:05 PM, toolman said:

I have fished an egg pattern in winter/spring with success. However, it's always been attached to the head of a big black leech and 15' of T14. Fish it slow and deep.

Crawl it back to you at a snail's pace, at the end of the drift. *hit gonna happen...

Amber is a natural egg color in the spring, on the Bow.

What are your thoughts on t14?

[toolman]

In the case of fishing a large leech that has a large egg attached to it, it is useful in the creation of a natural presentation.

The T14 will keep the egg sucking leech down on the stream bed and slow the presentation down. Imagine how a real leech, attached to an egg, would behave. It would on be hugging the stream bed, moving very slowly after escaping from midstream currents and likely attempting to make it to slower, shallow water, to evade predation and consume it's meal. 

T14 is useful in many types of deep, slow presentations. I try and think about how the natural aquatic world behaves and try and replicate it.   

And yes Monger, ugly sticks are my preference for heavy tips. I once used a 9 weight single hander to fish a 15' T14 sink tip one cold December day. I'll not forget the pain of  the 3" leech with bright orange egg attached, felt when it hit me on the back of my frozen hand on the forward cast.  I did catch a huge brown shortly thereafter that had followed my creep retrieve for about 30', so that helped.

[troutlover]

One of the Biggest browns i have ever caught was using this exact technique. 

[monger]

Toolman, do you find your T14 ever gets snagged in the rocks....or do you just make sure you cast downstream enough so there is not so much arc to the swing?