Kenny Klimes

Check our FATC calendar. We will be fishing it Tuesday, 12/21 check for our trip report for results. Always check the water levels for outside the park on our website. (I know you do!).

Yes, It depends!! Need I say more? Jim, is correct. This is not an exact science. If I gave a “pro” two different leaders with one off by a total of 4 inches, I’ll bet the mortgage he would not be able to tell the difference. AND I hate blood knots! I find them difficult to tie. You can also mark the exact location on the leader with a Sharpie to help you know where you want your knot to be.

Yes, I have made “the” leader in question and fished with it for two days. I used two uni-knots to connect them and I was off on a couple of lengths by one or two inches. I used it on my 4 wt medium taper rod and used small flies to swing. As we found out from Jason later – if it’s windy it may not cast as well and you may have to cut it back to make it shorter and more weighted(?) meaning the 4x end may need to be a 3x end, etc… If you cast heavier flies you may have to shorten the leader to a “heavy tippet” like 3x or more. So to get it exact and be an awesome leader system you may have to play with it whenever you fish and depending on how you will fish – as Jim said – it’s not an exact science.

Also, I used UV thin cure on each knot to form a “tear drop” look and covered them with Sally Hansen’s “Hard as Nails” to preserve the UV cure. This way the knots HOPEFULLY will not get caught up in the guides but “slide” through better.

I have a Redington Strike rod, 10 1/2 length, 3wt. It works for me.

Great idea. I’m one of those that do not drink enough water when I’m on the water fishing. We need to stay hydrated especially during the summer months.

Joe,

Thanks for that information. We have already had several close calls within our fellowship this year. “Kenny Says” definitely have and use a belt and wading staff. My number one wading staff is the Folstaf Wading Staff – don’t go cheap – get the best!  http://www.folstaf.com

Steve,

Joe has some good recommendations and Lefty Kreh knew what he was taking about.  If you are wanting to “feel” the fly then you will NOT catch as many fish as the guy next to you.  Especially when nymph fishing if you wait to “feel” the take the trout has already spit out the fly. As Joe says practice by setting the hook more when you see your indicator do ANYTHING other than it’s normal float with the current, i.e. if the indicator slows down, stops for a second, “jiggles” or ANYTHING other than the normal float downstream – set the hook!!

So, dry flies – fast take – set the hook.  Slow sipping take then say “God bless America” and set the hook

Soft hackles – I point the rod at the fly with fly rod low, I watch my fly line and 9-10 feet past the tip of my fly line, and I have my fly line just laying across my pointy finger of my hand holding the rod. If I see a rise at the 9-10 foot point (where my fly should be in the surface film) I “lift” my rod slowly.  If I see my fly line being “pulled” forward (fish strike) then I slowly lift my rod.  If I feel the line being pulled through my pointing finger I trap the line against my rod handle and lift the rod slowly. Each time – fish on!.  If it’s a hard hit then I let go of my line allow the trout to take the fly and then trap the fly line against the handle of the rod and lift slowly. With soft hackles if a guy sets hard he will usually pull the fly out of the fishes mouth.

Nymphs – with indicator.  Mend, watch your indicator if it does ANYTHING other than the normal flow in the current – set the hook.  I have seen many guys that miss fish after fish, never knowing they had a fish that took their fly, because they don’t set the hook on anything other than….. Practice setting the hook on the anything other than …… (indicator slows, twitches, stops, etc…) and you WILL catch more fish than the guy next to you.  Also, when nymph fishing you must set the hook quickly. I teach guys to not allow your eyes to see the indicator movement, then tell your brain what it saw, then your brain tells your arm to raise up, then you raise your arm – TOO SLOW. Train your body to set the hook without thinking about it – see it BAM set it!!

Again, if you are waiting for the indicator to go under or “feel a tug” you are missing fish.

Steve,

Great question since many guys have this problem. First, DON’T BUY new fly line – yet!  If you don’t have cracks or breaks in the line let’s do this first.

First, make sure that where the welded loop was or where you cut it off, the line is “sealed”. Take a tiny amount of super glue and add it to the location where the line was cut. This should allow the fly  line not to “soak up” water up into the core of the fly line.

Second, clean your line with dish soap like Dawn. Get a bucket of water with Dawn dish soap and a rag.  Wash a good 30-40 feet of fly line at a minimum.  Be careful not to pile your fly line on the floor or ground because it can get tangled. Ugh

Now, take a Scotch Brite green pad and “scrap” your fly line – again a good 30-40 feet. Just take off a very, very tiny amount of the fly line coating. So you barely see some of the fly line coating on the Scotch Brite pad.  The coating is all the same down to the core so you are not taking off a “floating surface” because all the coating is made to float.  After you do this I probably would put some fly line conditioner on your fly line again.

Or buy new fly line.  With our discount with Woolybugger Fly Co. you can’t beat Rio Gold fly line. The Scott Radian is a fast action rod so you could get RIO Grand (which is a 1/2 wt higher than it’s number – i.e. 5wt line is really a 5 1/2 wt line). I have tried this line with my Sage One (which is fast action) but went back to the original RIO Gold 5 wt line cause I liked the feel better.

Hope this helps!

In my humble opinion, overall, we are not talking about apples and oranges but different variants of apples. In other words, the mono-rig and the Euro-nymphing rig are all “tightline” rigs. Joe Humphreys “invented” tight line fishing long ago. Look him up.

If you research you will see that Troutbitten has many different leader choices for the different tight line fishing he professes. Are you going to bring five different leaders when you switch from tightline nymphing to tightline streamer fishing, etc.?  Plus Euro-Style nymphing is just that, to me, – nymphing! The guys that do it say that you can throw streamers and dry flies with ESN also. But I say – not very well.

So if I’m fishing dry flies, I am going to use my 4wt “regular” rod for throwing dries and my 5 or 6wt for throwing streamers, etc.  If I am nymphing then I will probably use ESN (or indicator if the distance is far away)..  Should you learn tightline type fly fishing – YES.  Is tightline fishing similar to swinging flies – ah, I think so.  It is another arrow in your quiver!

Just in my humble opinion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dhKgm4dztg

• This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by Kenny Klimes.