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bluefishjim

Heavy flies

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Hello all,

 

recently I was given some flies from a freind, I have never seen flies this heavy, I'm sure he thought I would use these in salt water, but how does one cast flies this heavy, they have dumb bell eyes about 1/4 inch in diameter, not sure the weight, but heavy for a fly. My current rod in a 5 weight, 7 ft, I'm assuming a heavier rod would be needed for these flies.

Thanks

James

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Hello all,

 

recently I was given some flies from a freind, I have never seen flies this heavy, I'm sure he thought I would use these in salt water, but how does one cast flies this heavy, they have dumb bell eyes about 1/4 inch in diameter, not sure the weight, but heavy for a fly. My current rod in a 5 weight, 7 ft, I'm assuming a heavier rod would be needed for these flies.

Thanks

James

 

Alot of my flies are weighted, and as NJ said you will need a heavier rod and open your loop on your cast.

 

Kevin

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Hello all,

 

recently I was given some flies from a freind, I have never seen flies this heavy, I'm sure he thought I would use these in salt water, but how does one cast flies this heavy, they have dumb bell eyes about 1/4 inch in diameter, not sure the weight, but heavy for a fly. My current rod in a 5 weight, 7 ft, I'm assuming a heavier rod would be needed for these flies.

Thanks

James

 

An ultra-light spinning rod with a bobber.

 

If you choose to cast with a flyrod, a 9wt sounds appropriate and I would highly recommend a hard hat, especially if you have a tail wind.

 

Another alternative, if the flies have a hair wing tied on the underside of the hook to make it ride point up, is to take a wire cutter and snip off the bell part off of each side the fly eyes, you will still have the weight of the bar that is tied to the hook to make it sink and effectively fish three to four feet of still water. Bonefishermen do that without hesitation if the fly is sinking to fast or the fish are showing up in shallower water and they don't want to take the time to change flies - they just cut the balls off the bead chain or lead barbell eyes.

 

Kirk

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Hello all,

 

recently I was given some flies from a freind, I have never seen flies this heavy, I'm sure he thought I would use these in salt water, but how does one cast flies this heavy, they have dumb bell eyes about 1/4 inch in diameter, not sure the weight, but heavy for a fly. My current rod in a 5 weight, 7 ft, I'm assuming a heavier rod would be needed for these flies.

Thanks

James

 

An ultra-light spinning rod with a bobber.

 

If you choose to cast with a flyrod, a 9wt sounds appropriate and I would highly recommend a hard hat, especially if you have a tail wind.

 

Another alternative, if the flies have a hair wing tied on the underside of the hook to make it ride point up, is to take a wire cutter and snip off the bell part off of each side the fly eyes, you will still have the weight of the bar that is tied to the hook to make it sink and effectively fish three to four feet of still water. Bonefishermen do that without hesitation if the fly is sinking to fast or the fish are showing up in shallower water and they don't want to take the time to change flies - they just cut the balls off the bead chain or lead barbell eyes.

 

Kirk

 

 

I make "jigs" with large lead dumbell eyes to cast with my light spinning tackle, they must weigh around 1/8 or 3/16 of an ounce. Very difficult and dangerous to cast on fly tackle, even my 8 weight is not enough, and it is no fun.

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I cast some flies with very heavy barbells with my 10 wt, but fishing from a boat it's more like a lob than a cast. Don't need to cast them very far either. I've cast some large flies with a 6 wt, but they're not that heavily weighted, just a lot of wind resistance. Again, don't cast them very far either. 1/4" diameter lead barbells are pretty heavy!

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some lines cast weight better than others

such as indicator lines or clouser lines

i have a 295 gr. sage indicator line on an 8wt i can throw anything with it

heavy leader will also help

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I would suggest a 8 or 9 wt rod and a leader with a stiff and thick butt section to turn over the fly. As was stated earlier, you have to really open up your loop. I've cast some flies for catfish and carp that could be easily thrown with a spinning rod. When you get into really heavy flies, there is a safety consideration. No matter how good of a caster you are, you gotta watch those big and nasties. I don't brag, but I'm a decent caster and I've had too many close ones. (Especially heavy flies and wind!) I always wear a hat and sunglasses now.

 

 

If you're really wanting to cast these big flies out, I'd suggest looking into a two-handed rod with a skagit style set-up.

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