A further look at my fly fishing development

In my last column, I wrote about my early days on the water and how my fishing eventually evolved into the pursuit of fly-fishing. 

It was a gradual process, learning about the types, lengths, and weights of fly rods, Fly rods are designated by the weight of the line they are designed to cast. For example, a six weight rod is designed to hold 30 feet of a 6-weight line in the air before the rod loses its ability to cast efficiently.

There are also different types of fly lines from floating to various sinking lines, with a backing line. A backing line, normally 50 to 100 yards in length, is most often made of braided nylon of a 20 pound test breaking strength or more that is wound on the reel and attached to the fly line providing back up to the normal 90 to 105 foot length of an average fly line in case a large fish takes off on a strong run. 

I also learned about leaders (attached to the fly line), tippets (attached to the leader), and flies.  Quite often, because I had learned to tie my own flies, I would purchase a fly to study and then replicate it on my fly-tying vice.  Of course, there were always those fly fishers ahead of the curve that went beyond commercial ties and produced creations of their own which usually represented the insect or organism they studied much better than those flies found in the store. 

These patterns were usually kept secret by some of their creators as most often they were much more effective in fooling the fish. I tied my own flies as much to save money as to create patterns that I thought looked more real to the fish,

After marriage, purchasing fly fishing paraphernalia became a matter of budgeting, as food, housing, kids, vehicles and utilities always came first. I managed to convince my wife that in order to keep maintaining our lifestyle, I needed some outlet to maintain my sanity, namely fishing. 

I am not so sure she agreed with my logic, but was kind enough to let me indulge in pursuing my passion for fishing; conditionally of course.  But any kind of approval was better than none.  As was usually the case, discussing the purchase of new fishing gear quite often led to some type of dissent.  I don’t know how many times I had to forgo purchasing new shoes or pants for myself so I could buy a new fly line or reel.

Eventually, I began to build my own fly rods as well, as I could usually build one custom-made to fit me for less than half the price of a new one.  Speaking of fly rods, I think that to better understand the weights used for fishing, one must know what fish is being pursued. 

I have three and four weight rods for fishing smaller trout, usually under one pound, in streams or lakes. For larger fish species, of two pounds up to eight pounds, my choice would be a five or six weight rod.  While fishing for smaller salmon species I would like to have a seven or eight weight and for larger salmon species eight to nine weight rods would be my preference.  

For the pursuit of tarpon and other large fish, if I ever had the opportunity, the rod of choice would be a 10 to 12 weight.  Here, I would like to emphasize that what I just mentioned would be my preference.  Obviously, I would match the line to the rod for ease of casting and ensure that the leader and tippet breaking strengths would also reflect the type of fish I am targeting.  As an example, for small fish up to a pound, my leader would be six or eight pound test and my tippet a four-pound test (test referring to the breaking strength).  For most applications, I now use seven or eight pound fluorocarbon for the tippet allowing me to get the fish to the net quicker for release.  Fluorocarbon is mostly invisible to the fish, so a larger breaking strength could also be considered,

For my next columns, I would like to discuss in further detail fly rods, reels, fly lines, flies and preferred knots if the column size permits.  I encourage readers to contact me relating what they would like to see in my columns. 

Please email me at doug_p@shaw.ca with your suggestions.