ditz2

Nothing wrong or new about putting the bead behind or in front of the hackle. I actually like the bead behind a real soft hackle. I think it enhances the swimming effect of the hackle when the fly is stripped. I personally like a slimmer body but that is just me.

Lee Wulff also fished for and caught some huge tuna on light tackle. The term is also a relative term. His light tackle was 80# tackle where the tackle generally used for that fishing was 180# so 80# was light tackle. If I remember correctly Joan was also fishing with him on that trip.

That is it my friend. If you want a 7wt with lots of backbone get a Colton tradewinds. That is a rod with some back bone. I do believe that you would like a 9wt to help fight the wind and cast some bigger flies but if either of those issues is not a factor then as mentioned a 7wt with more backbone might be your answer.

Mike is only partially correct. A heavier line will carry a heavier fly but it will only cast further if the rod has the backbone to push the extra weight. Some rods do and some don't. I learned on glass rods and they tend to be quite slow. Many of the graphite rods are quite fast. When I first got a graphite rod I did find that I preferred to over line because it tended to slow down the rod which was more to what I was used to. I no longer do that. I have finally learned to cast the fast rods and generally use a line rated for the rod. As phg stated, The skill of the caster has a major bearing on which line is best for any given rod. Also as stated above there are lines that are sold as 4wt but are in fact 5wt lines. The same is true of rods. In the rod manufacturers race to build 'fast' rods many 4wt rods are actually 5wts. It is all very confusing and it is a shame that the manufacturers have done this. The whole sport is very confusing to newbies without the manufacturers making it more so. Simplification would bring more folks into the sport instead of scaring them out of even trying.

SilverCreek is exactly correct about pointing the rod at the fish. As stated above it is not wise to use a tippet stronger than the fly line core. ......something all fly rodders should try. Set a 2# box of sugar on the floor and tie it to the end of your line after stringing up the rod and lift it off the floor. Careful, you might break your rod. If you are doing it with a 9wt or so use a 5# box. Many think they are putting a lot of pressure on a fish when in fact they are not. The problem of broken tippets are many times because of a knick in the tippet which greatly reduces the line strength. Even a 6# tippet will take a remarkable amount of pressure if it has not knicks or it comes up against a sharp edge of some sort.

I was not trying to come down on anyone either. My comment was just a good natured reminder that not all of us understand the aspects of small measurements and what they represent. The difficult thing for most of us is communicating emotion in our writing. No foul intended or understood. All is well here.

That snake fly looks good to me. ( what do I know? ) I have never thrown a fly at a tarpon and if I ever get the chance my knees will be shaking bad. ...... We do expect a full report.

Everyone should have a few hair bugs of different designs in their bass fly boxes...........Make sure some are weedless too. Put 4 or 5' of straight 15 or 20# mono on as a leader and throw right up into the weeds or pads and hang on. You won't get them all to hand but they are fun while it lasts.

Your tippet strength is more of a limiting factor than the rod. Your personal ability is a consideration. The bigger fish can be fought more from the butt of the rod and the reel. If you high stick em then you can expect to break the rod on large fish. I have seen very large carp caught on 3wt......It did not take long either. Just got to know what you are doing. Would I target a 20# salmon on a 4wt? No .....but salmon and trout are 2 different animals.

Come on fellas! Give the guy a break. Most folks don't work with such small measurements. I am sure he meant .0038".

Good luck with the tarpon......I had not heard any problem with the moderators and PJ. If there was there could well have been several of us booted. I even tried his personal email but go no response there either. I sure hope all is well.....I also have missed P Red. I am sure he was having some health issues but the last time I heard I thought he was getting better.

My thing is fly tying materials, fly reels, and fly lines. ( though I would like to have an '0'wt rod combo ) I do think that I have learned my lesson on fly lines. I have a new $20 SA WF line and an expensive SA WF line that has a real short front taper and a heavy head with a long rear taper. I have been practicing a quick cast for sight fishing in the salt so I had been using the heavy headed line because I bought it specifically for quick casts. I decided to begin practicing with the cheap line so as not to mess up my expensive line and figured that if I could not cast it as far that was OK and better than messing up the expensive line. I found that I was just as able to cast the 50 to 60' with one back cast with the cheap line as the expensive line. It may be different when I get on the water but I see little if any difference in castability. I also put a lot of thought in any purchase before I buy so I seldom regret any of my purchases. I have bought 2 rods and matching reels and lines in the last 7 or 8 years and they both were for the salt which I infrequently get to fish and they are both my most expensive outfits I own I have not regrets even though they mostly sit in the corner and seldom leave their tubes.

Has anyone had any communication with Peterjay? I have tried to contact him to no avail? I miss the ole perv........

1/16 oz is UL spinning stuff and even lighter. 1/32 oz is getting to the light side of UL spinning. There are much better ways to throw 1/8 and heavier lures than the fly rod. To each his own I guess.

I personally don't see a problem here in middle TN of under harvesting. Poaching is rampant and I am not talking about a few fish over the limit. Gross quantities of fish being kept and apparently sold. Most of the offenders are folks that are from outside the US. I suppose they are not familiar with possession limits.

My go to rod for my local warm water creeks is a 6' 2wt Signature that I have owned for at least 3 years. Can't comment on the longer rods other than where I fish the longer rods cause me to spend most of my time trying to get my fly out of the trees. The short rod eliminated about 95% of that problem. My long rods just sit in the corner.

Breambuster, like you, I have tied on a Danvise for several years. Before that I used a home made vise. I have never had a problem with my danvise jaws but who knows what will happen tomorrow. I doubt that one can find a poor vise in this day and age outside of the cheap knockoffs. If I was starting over again with tying I would get a norvise without reservation. Go to their site and watch some of the videos. That system is a wonderful tool and there is nothing on the market that compares and I don't tie professionally. I also retired a couple of years ago and I fish sunfish a lot as well but I also dabble in other things as well so my tying is more varied than yours.

I am an old dog and I also prefer to left hand wind though I am right handed. I don't buy the strong hand argument either. It makes more sense to me personally to control the fish and rod with the strong hand. As Capt. Bob mentioned the Billy Pate fly reels are not interchangeable. When I went looking to buy a good salt fly reel the Pate came highly recommended and after learning that they were righty only I discounted their purchase. I also heard that the parts change over to left wind were expensive and difficult to obtain so I changed my direction. The only right hand wind reel I own are baitcasters and I acquired them before lefties were available.

I have recently purchased 2 new 7wt fly lines. One is a $70 short front taper, heavy head line touted as a line to help push a heavy or bushy fly out against the wind. The other line is an $18 WalMart line WF nothing special line. I have been working to learn to make quick casts or 50' or more with just a few feet of fly line out of the rod tip and with only 1 back cast. I tied up a fairly bushy fly on a 1/0 hook and then cut the hook off to use as a practice fly. It took 3 or 4 short learning session in the back yard but I finally started getting the hang of it using the $70 line. I decided that I did not want to wear out the good line so I changed over to the $18 line. Surprisingly I found no discernible difference in my ability to make the same quick cast to the same distances that I had been doing with the $70 line. The rod I have been using is a very fast rod and by far the fastest rod I own. IMO just decide what style of line you need or want and look for the cheapist you can find. I appears to me that all these special tapers make very little difference to ones casting.

Gene is absolutely correct. Most all fly reels used to be designed for right hand retrieve. Spinning reels all used to be left hand wind. I started with the old cheap bait casting reels that were all right hand retrieve and needed a 3oz sinker to make more than a 15' cast. Spinning was a far more natural set up, at least for me so I spent years with left hand wind. When I went to fly tackle left hand retrieve was just the natural way of things. Cast right, wind left so no hand changing is required. I did finally go back to good bait casters but just never liked right hand wind though companies did start offering good baitcasters in both right and left hand wind. I guess it mostly depends on whether one is right or left handed or what ever one started fishing with. All that aside, most reels of all types are today either changeable or actually manufactured in many models in both hands of winding preference. Todays offerings are wonderful and there is something available for everyone.

I would think that regular wading boots would work fine though probably heavier than what one needs. For a few years I have been using canvas or nylon mesh running shoe with carpet glued to the soles for my local creeks. They work great....except for one thing, they fill with small gravel that is very uncomfortable to walk in. Painful in fact. I finally broke down and bought some wading boots and some gravel guards and the gravel problem went away. No more painful walking. The only draw back is the weight. The boods and gravel guards are way way heavier. Not sure which is more objectionable, the weight or the pain. As in most things in life. Everything is a compromise.

Thanks for the response tidewaterfly.....I had never messed with zonkers until recently and still haven't fished them much. I did tie a couple of bugs a while back that has a tail slightly longer than the standard hook shank length and then wrapped the rest of the shank with the same strip. Quite simple and all black but it sure looked good in the water. I didn't get any takers but the fly is almost as large and most of the fish in the small creeks that I wade locally.

That is a good idea. Simple, cheap, and quick.

Thank you much. I am surprised that he has not yet responded. He did indicate that he frequented this forum or I would not have posted here. During our brief conversation it came up that he was considering spending a week or so in the Boundry Waters area. I related a few of my experiences up there and encouraged him to go as it was some of my life adventures as I was there several times and I am so glad I did. I am too old and out of shape for the many portages and other activities required. I might be able to get through it but the effort required would take the edge off of the experience.

Hey tidewaterfly, I notice that you tend to use a lot of bunny strips. What do you think of the narrow cut strips? I would think that they would be easier to cast but are they fish as well?