Orange N Grizzly Pike Floater: Floating Winter Flies for Pike

Floating Winter Flies for Pike

Floating pike flies are normally used for explosive surface fishing during the summer months, but floating flies are, sometimes, just the right medicine for lethargic winter pike that cling to the bottom. Fly tyer, Søren Flarup, has designed a special floating pike fly for the winter months ahead.

By Peter Lyngby

Most people, who have fly fished for pike, have had the same experience: The pike follows the fly in a hypnotic state, but it doesn’t strike. And the colder it gets during the season, the worse the problem gets.

When fishing clear and relatively shallow water on sunlit days, one might experience frustrating amounts of followers – but no contacts. However, when fishing turbid waters over dark, silty bottom in low-light conditions, one might simply get the feeling that there are no pike around at all – even though there might have been quite a bit of actual interest in the fly.

This is the plight of the pike fisherman, and when winter really sets in and the temperatures plummet, convincing a pike into striking can be a difficult task – especially when using traditional pike flies.

It’s not uncommon to experience pike that follow the fly all the way to the rod tip, park and stare at the fly for a long time before finally submerging and laying down on the bottom – or sedately taking off. Why they do this is a bit of a conundrum, but there are solutions to the problem. If, for instance, you use flies that can be fished slowly enough; hovering flies that can be waved enticingly in front of the pike’s nose for long enough, the most winter-depressed pike will eventually lose its cool.

Hovering above the Bottom

Floating flies fished on sinking lines with short tapers is a great method for connecting with pike during the winter months. The Danish fly tyer, Søren Flarup, explains the principles like this:

– Normally, the idea of pulling a fly towards the bottom will cause concerns about getting snagged, but when using a floating fly you can fish it right above all the bottom structures. Luckily, most of the tricky bottom weeds wither and fade away during the winter, and what’s left of it is brittle and can be pulled up- or apart. – Remember that sinking lines aren’t just sinking lines. They come in many different densities, and it’s not always recommended to use the ones that sink like rocks.

The whole point of using a floating fly is to be able to fish it ultra-slowly immediately above the bottom, keep the fly in the “strike zone” for as long as possible and thereby provoke otherwise winter-dwelling pike into striking.

The thing is; during winter, pike salvage all the energy reserves they can, and they don’t take any unnecessary chances hunting small prey items. However, with mobile materials and a slow but lively movement pattern that’s in the pike’s face, there’s a good chance the pike will think your fly is an easy and meaty meal – and that’s high up on the pike’s menu card during the cold winter months, says Søren Flarup.

Find the Pike

When the water temperatures drop, the prey fish (and with them the pike) are typically found along the drop offs. As winter progresses, both prey- and predatory fish will move into the deeper areas where stable and moderate water temperature pockets are found. Søren Flarup further elaborates:

– The coldest winters practically exclude fly fishermen from targeting pike on big and deep lakes. Not because the lakes might start to freeze over but because the pike settle at depths where they simply cannot be successfully targeted.

– Using sinking lines, it’s possible to fish effectively at depths of up to six meters, but if the fish are found in deeper water it becomes an uphill battle that requires more than good-will and patience. I’d recommend targeting pike in small and medium-sized lakes throughout the winter, preferable in places where depth charts exist and where you can get a rather accurate idea of where to find the pike.

– Also, don’t forget about the big, slow-flowing rivers around. They are a good bet – even when the lakes start to freeze over. Here, the pike are a bit more mobile too. Quiet parts of the rivers with back eddies, undercut banks, and contradicting current lines are good places to start. The floating fly can be particularly effective when it’s being pulled down by the sinking line, while it quietly swings cross current or stops and hovers for a bit where there’s lee from the current. Even the smallest of bumps can be a pike hitting the fly, so stay focused and strike resolutely, Søren eagerly explains.

Solid Strikes on Sinking Lines

As previously mentioned, sinking lines are a complex phenomenon and they can be anything from slow-sinking intermediate lines to heavy grain, fast-sinking lines. When fly fishing for pike it’s all about finding the right line for whatever body of water you’ll be fishing, so the floating fly fishes effectively. Søren provides the following pointers: – Even though the Orange’n’Grizzly Floater is designed to hover just above the bottom, it can actually be fished in the whole water column. If you use an intermediate fly line, it will slide in- or just below the surface film, depending on how fast it is retrieved and how long you let the fly line sink. As such, the fly can be used throughout the season at varying depths. However, in order to get to the bottom when the water is at its coldest, you’ll need regular sinking lines. I typically recommend Sink3 or heavier fly lines, when probing the depths.

– The leaders I use run between 0,75 - 1,5 meters in length, including a thin wire trace. A good rule-of-thumb is that the colder and deeper the water, the heavier the fly line and the shorter the leader. You’ll just have to experiment a little, but if you snag up too often, your fly line is probably a bit too heavy or your leader is too short. Conversely, if you never feel the bottom, you’ll need a faster sinking line and a shorter leader. With short leaders, the retrieves should be both slow and short.

If you do long and relatively fast pulls, you’ll risk dredging the fly across the bottom. When fishing rivers, you can let the current do most of the work and simply provide the fly with a few tugs and twitches here and there, says Søren.

Tying Tips

Orange’n’Grizzly Floater is designed by Flarup to have just the right amount of buoyancy, but you can vary the pattern according to your own preferences and favourite colours.

– Pay particular attention to the Booby-foam at the back end of the fly. It’s tempting to leave this out as it’s easy to find a popper head that will provide the necessary buoyancy. The Booby-foam, however, provides the fly with the right balance and makes it hover and swim in a more life-like way. If your local pike venue is littered with snags you can tie the fly with a weed-guard.

– Winter pike like big prey items, and it you know where the biggest pike typically hold, don’t be afraid to use really big versions of the Orange’n’Grizzly Floater. Just be careful about adapting the amount of foam to the size of the hook and use the required rodreel-and-line setup to handle the flies, Søren Flarup concludes.

Material List// Hook: Ahrex PR350 Light Predator # 2/0 Thread: White Veevus 150 D. Floater (back): Red Booby Foam Support: Orange Palmer Chenille. Tail: Orange schlappen feathers, grizzly flatwing saddle hackles and gold holographic flash on top. Body (back): Orange Palmer Chenille Floater (front): Yellow Foam Popper #L Body (front): Orange Palmer Chenille. Sides: Orange schlappen feathers with grizzly flatwing saddle hackles and gold holographic flash on top. Collar: Yellow Ghost Hair and Orange SLF Hanks. Head: Red varnish