As big as you can cast. White and flashy, like their food. Deep, real deep, the ones that live to get big learn to avoid the surface. This is probably the number one reason you aren’t getting bulls, it takes a lot to get down there in fast deep water and it sucks to cast that much weight.
SHARP hooks, as in sharpen them throughout the day...they clamp down and often let go as you set the hook.
My “downsize” is used when I think they might be hook shy, because they never really key in on anything but fish. muddler minnow with lots of weight on a 15-20ft fluoro leader dragged through the bottom of a deep pool...but this pushes the limit of what you can really call fly fishing, more like jig fishing. Fun though, they do seem to really hate that pattern and strike hard.
Big heavy stonefly/salmon fly imitations sometimes work as well. I’ve thought of drifting an egg clump pattern, imitating whitefish eggs...never gotten around to it.
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“Nothing is more persistent than a liberal with a dumb idea” - Ebrand
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