BUYING
YOUR FIRST FLY FISHING OUTFIT HUNTING INSTINCT – The ability that some people have which allows them to apply “stealth & cunning” as they approach a fish, understand where to fish and when, to feel at one with nature etc. etc. To an extent hunting instinct can be learned but the best hunters have “hunting instincts” embodied in their very makeup and apply them intuitively rather than by practice. CONFIDENCE – If you take two fishermen distinguished only by their confidence level, that is, with identical gear and using what appears to be the same methodology, then the person that has confidence in what he or she is doing and the equipment that he is using will nearly always catch more fish - I don't know why this is but it is a fact of life.
SKILLS – The ability to
use
all the “gear” appropriately at the right time. Understanding what fly
to use and at what time. Understanding the appropriate technique to
employ
for the targeted species at that time and in that place. Understanding
what your fly is doing. The ability to tie and use the right knots for
the right application. The ability to cast a range of distances
accurately.
The ability to present a fly in different ways. The ability to fish or
retrieve a fly in a way that triggers a response from the targeted
fish. And last but not least the skills to play and land your prize. GEAR – this includes
the rods, lines, reels, flies (or lures),
tippets, leaders, clothing, waders,
boots,
fly vest, water craft etc. etc. If you think about each of these criteria being
worth
a possible score of say 25 points then, except for some fluky
occurrences that you can't rely on, the higher the score you can muster
in each of the above areas then the better will be your fly fishing
outcomes and enjoyment. The aim of this article is to cut to the quick in
relation to the essential components of the question of gear that is
the rods, lines, reels, leaders and tippets and of course flies and to
help you score high at least in those areas. Rods 1. I like 3 to 6 piece rods and
probably will never buy a 2 piece rod again. Two piece rods are harder
to store and transport and are much easier to break during
transportation. Three to six piece rods once had a reputation of
having a poorer action than the equivalent rod in a two piece
configuration. That has now all changed and the technology is now so
good that in most rods there is little or no
degradation of the action as a result of adding a few extra joints.
In any case the benefits far outweigh the cost and I would
encourage
you to buy a 3 to 6 piece rod rather than a 2 piece rod. 3. If I am paying over say $350 for a rod
I like them to that have life
time guarantees. I have seen a lot of rods broken both during fishing and
otherwise. In recent years I have been fishing with people who
have broken a fly rod. Leo Harding was playing a small tailor in the
Clyde River and "high sticked" the fish and broke the tip of his
Reddington. Scott Tucker was dismantling his Strudwick rod after a
fishing outing and the rod broke just above the joint rather than at
the
joint. Chris Mills was playing a 2 to 3 lb late spawning rainbow in the
lower Thredbo and his Sage rod broke just above the butt. In each of
these cases it was a pain in the butt but not devastating because each
of the rods had a lifetime guarantee. Imagine haw much worse each of
them would feel if there was no warranty. By the way warranties differ
company to company with the most common practice being that you pay
about 15% of the value of the rod to have it repaired or replaced under
the lifetime warranty. Also keep in mind that life time warranties these days
typically don't cover 100% of the warranty claim and you will be expected to
chip in around $200 in most cases against any claim. If a rod costs less
than say $350 you cant really expect a warranty and I think that's quite
reasonable. Loomis remain my preference but are expensive. Have
a
yarn with Mark Goodger at Ern Webs in Flinders Street (phone 42291915)
for more details.
These rods are not on there web site yet but may be there soon so it
might also be worth a look at www.ernwebbsports.com.au. Streamdance
Metolius 4 piece rods are around $700 and the firmer and therefore
better in my view Streamdance GLX 4 piece are around $1300.
Alternatively have a look at the Cross Current 10 foot 4 piece at
around $1200. As I said there expensive but they are good. Lines With a firmer action rod I suggest you use lines one weight up as this will make loading up so much easier and casting larger streamer and estuary salt water flies easier and still allow you to do shorter delicate presentations in streams and of midges etc.. Buy good quality lines (from $70 to $130) only as the cheap lines often have short lives, a lot of memory, inferior coatings and some are poorly graded (i.e. #7 may not be a true #7). If your buying only one line make it a floating
line if trout will be your main target (Scientific Angler XPS and
GPS are my current preferences but there are many good dry fly lines).
Whilst floating lines come in a wide range of colours I have found that
olive colours are the most versatile closely followed by grey. A full sinking line is also very handy and again
many are available (I like the Talon
fast sink at $70 or the Scientific Angle Mastery Series sinking
lines at $100). Reels Buy a reel with a reasonable drag. Sooner or later
you'll be hooked up to a big fish stripping line off your reel and it's
then that the quality drag makes the difference. I think that the best
value for money reel on the market at the moment is the BFR Modular
reel. It's priced around $300 but comes with three spools so that the
change between your floating, intermediate and sinking line is easy,
has a nice drag, balances well on #6 weight rods and importantly
for fly fisherfolk looks good. Slightly better engineered but without
the extra spools is the Talon
Titanium Blue at only $222 for the #6 weight version. Leaders and tippets I have gone off tapered leaders in recent years. for stream, lake, estuary and bass I use a simple system that allows me to swap line easily. On the end of each of my fly lines I attach a small monofilament loop of only about 5mm in length. I build my own leaders out of 2 or three sections of decreasing thickness of Maxima Ultra Green monofilament. For estuary and bass I typically start with a meter of 15lb or 20lb attached to the fly line loop with a loop in the leader that is about 15cm long. You need a big loop for this connection so that you can slip you full fly reel through the loop and change lines without changing you leader and flies. To that heavy butt section of my leader, that is connected to the fly line, I attach two meters of 10lb Maxima Ultra Green and attach my flies directly to that. For trout I use a similar set up but with a shorter second section and a couple of meters of 6 pound tippet material. The trout tippet can be Maxima Ultra Green 4lb or 6lb or my favorite tippet material is 7lb Rio Fluroflex plus fluorocarbon. Work toward an overall leader + tippet length of around 1.5 times the length of your rod but keep in mind that a good presentation with a short leader/tippet will catch more fish than a daggy presentation with a long leader/tippet. Having said that a leader less than .75 the length of your fly rod is just too much of a compromise and you will continually spook fish.. Flies Have a look at MY FLYBOX and you'll see the various flies I carry. If I were limited to just one fly for trout fishing it would have to be a size #10 black unweighted woolly bugger. By swapping lines you can fish it at a variety of depths and black woolly buggers take trout and other species world wide. If I had a bit more latitude and wanted a small selection of flies that would cover most trout, estuary, saltwater and bass fishing applications I would carry the flies in the first column of the following table. If I could carry more I would add the flies from the second column and so on.
You could carry these flies in one box as in many cases they cross over between the different fisheries. One tip however is if you use a fly in salt water or brackish water don't put it back in your fly box unless you wash it and dry it first. Now remember your are still only 20 points to 25 points out of a possible 100 points along the way to succeeding in your fly fishing and you still need to brush up on your hunting skills, learn some casting and presentation skills and last but not least build up some confidence. Tight lines, STEPHEN CHATTERTON
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