I am often asked, “What is your favorite fly-fishing technique?” For many years, I would without hesitation respond, “Number one is the dry fly. A close second is streamer fishing, and way, way at the bottom of the list is nymphing and in particular nymphing under a bobber disguised as an ‘indicator.’ ” Having such preferences is the luxury of fishing for one’s own enjoyment. But as a guide, there have been times when I have had to rely on nymphing for the success of my clients, and that was never more the case than when I guided for shad in low-water years with two small Perdigon trout flies under an indicator.
I learned to fish for shad late in the previous century. Everyone swung flies with 30-foot shooting heads of varying sink rates. The flies were larger back then, too. None of my friends fished for shad with indicators on a floating line. Now, though, it’s what I do. I’m certain that the instant this article hits the streets, all my deceased fly-fishing buddies will turn in their graves, rolling their eyes at me for speaking such heresy. Sorry, old-timers, but change is inevitable. Indicators are here to stay, and this dinosaur guide has saved his bacon many a day during shad season when the fish were reluctant to follow the old, highly productive ways, including swinging flies.
Two Perdigon flies, one peacock green and one orange, bobbing along the American River in May and June, is my security blanket, my guaranteed ticket to a good tip at the end of a shad-drift trip with clients.
The Perdigon is a fly design of compact simplicity, allowing the fly to sink quickly to the desired depth without the assistance of a bunch of additional split-shot weight pinched above the flies. And Perdigon flies are quick and easy to tie! Here’s how to construct my favorite Perdigon pattern for shad.
You start by selecting a size 14 60-degree jig hook and sliding a slotted 1/8-inch silver tungsten bead up to the eye. Insert the hook into your vise and attach fluorescent orange 6/0 thread behind the bead. To make a sparse tail, remove about five barbules from the stem of a Coq de Leon feather. Tie the butts behind the bead with the tips sticking about half a hook shank length past the bend, then wrap your thread to the rear of the shank and back to the bead.
Make the body by tying in one strand of peacock-colored Flashabou behind the bead. Wrap the flash to the tail, then back to behind the bead, snip away the excess, create a small orange thread collar, whip finish, and you are almost finished.
Take a black Sharpie marker and draw a black dot on the top of the head of the tungsten bead. Now lightly coat the fly with UV resin and set it with a UV light. You’re done, As I said, it’s quick and easy.
Peacock and fluorescent orange are my favorite Perdigon fly colors for shad, but you should experiment with others. That’s what’s fun. I tie them in sizes 10 to 16. Sometimes I fish two, sometimes three flies at a time. I still add split shot if necessary. My bobber choice is a Thingamabobber, but use what ever you want.
It feels like I should be whispering this information to you or writing under a pseudonym so that my purist fly-swinging chums won’t hear such blasphemy and shun me. The next time you go shad fishing, though, give the Perdigon-and-indicator method a try. It is deadly under any circumstances. And you can even swing the Perdigons, if it comes to that.
— Andy Guibord