River Shrimp by Ken Abrames | Reel-Time: The Internet Journal of Saltwater Fly Fishing


Copyright Š1997 Ken Abrames & Reel-Time	River Shrimp By Ken Abrames
	Hook: Any light wire 2X long carbon steel hook. Tail: Barred wood duck or golden pheasant tippet. Underbody: Gold or silver flat tinsel. Overbody: Amber Swannandeze. Underwing: Bronze mallard. Overwing: Gray Fox or woodchuck guard hair. Head: Spun deer hair clipped flat on the bottom and very short. The top and sides are clipped short and angled back to conform to the shape to the tail section of a shrimp. This fly can be greased to suspend in or just under the surface film and is effective when fished with a dead drift or greased line presentation. Shrimp In the spring, on the New Moon, shrimp come to the surface to mate. They are carried along by the currents and are preyed upon by stripers and other gamefish. Stripers that are feeding on these mating shrimp hold in feeding stations. They position themselves in the current and sip in the shrimp as they drift down over their feeding station. A floating line with a dead drift presentation will catch these fish. The fly should be high in the water, as close to the surface as possible. Greasing the leader and fly helps. With the dead drift presentation the fly should be cast above the rising fish and allowed to float over his position in the current. This maneuver can be executed either upstream, cross-stream, downstream and everyplace in-between. You will have to tend your line differently depending on what direction you choose. If you choose to fish upstream you will have to gather in the line as the line and the fly come down the current towards you. If you choose to fish cross-stream then you will have to mend the line so that drag does not pull the fly out of the fish's feeding lane. If you choose to fish downstream then you will have to have slack line in hand and be prepared to feed this line into the drift to allow the fly to drift over the fish naturally. When fishing the downstream drift one has to learn how to hook fish consistently. The fish do not aggressively pursue the fly and engulf it, they simply rise and sip it in. The tightness of the line prevents the fly from entering their mouth as a free floating shrimp would and when they close their mouth there is nothing in it. When the angler attempts to set the hook after seeing the rise or after having felt the bump of the fish's attempt to suck the shrimp in, there is no fish there to hook. Often the angler concludes that the fish has struck short but this is seldom the case the tension on the line is the force that prevents the fish from completing the take. The secret is in finding the balance of just enough slack in the leader and just enough patience to wait for the fish to turn down with the fly securely within it's mouth.

	Reel -Time *Copyright Š1997 Reel-Time*

River Shrimp

By Ken Abrames