It's been a while and I don't feel I've ever really untangled the humpy psyche, but guys like Tony knock the piss out of them on the Skagit and I have hooked a bunch on the Stilly on floating lines, long leaders, and small matuka style bunnies or pink estaz chenille bodied flies with light marabou wings, etc.
If I recall, the spot where you fish is key. Choose a spot where the fly will languish in the strike zone. The advantage that gear guys have is to slow the presentation down and leave it "in their face".
Figure out when they get aggressive and fish then. I landed 9 big (very big) chum on a fly rod using floating line to avoid snagging among a line of gear guys who were snagging them intentionally. All of mine were hooked in the mouth, all came up near the surface to swirl on the fly, and I never had to chase them very far because they weren't hooked in the tail or the back like the gear guys. Mid-day and afternoon they would not come after my fly like that but in the early morning they were all over that fly. I used to do this before work just to get a battle in before the day begun.
There are hundreds of thousands of pinks in the Skagit I'm sure, find a place where you can focus on what YOU are doing, not getting distracted by others, and experiment until you unlock the mystery. Then go back to where everyone is and show them how you spank them on the fly! }>
If I recall, the spot where you fish is key. Choose a spot where the fly will languish in the strike zone. The advantage that gear guys have is to slow the presentation down and leave it "in their face".
Figure out when they get aggressive and fish then. I landed 9 big (very big) chum on a fly rod using floating line to avoid snagging among a line of gear guys who were snagging them intentionally. All of mine were hooked in the mouth, all came up near the surface to swirl on the fly, and I never had to chase them very far because they weren't hooked in the tail or the back like the gear guys. Mid-day and afternoon they would not come after my fly like that but in the early morning they were all over that fly. I used to do this before work just to get a battle in before the day begun.
There are hundreds of thousands of pinks in the Skagit I'm sure, find a place where you can focus on what YOU are doing, not getting distracted by others, and experiment until you unlock the mystery. Then go back to where everyone is and show them how you spank them on the fly! }>
