Kenny Klimes

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, 5 months ago by Kenny Klimes.

I am using a 10 1/2 foot, 4 wt Redington Euro-Strike rod. Got it from Woolybugger Fly Co., one of our sponsors and owned by our very own Jason Edwards. I like it. It had a longer cork handle so no matter what reel you use it should balance itself depending on where you hold the handle. Plus, the price won’t break the bank.

I have also had a moonshine (sold it) and a Redington Hydrogen (sold it). They are also decent rods but Redington no longer sell the Hydrogen rod.

Jim,

Not all quills are created equal. They are delicate and can break. I find soaking them helps. Polish quills seem to do better than others. I have two kinds: Hand Stripped Quills – Polish Quills (they are tiny but seem to break less) and Quill body – D’s Flyes which are longer but seem to break more.

I soak both. I have a large oval (hockey puck shaped) jar full of water and they sit in there until I need them. Once on the hook I hit them immediately with  UV clear fly finish flow from Loon (thin type).  Not sure if there is something else you can soak them in – would be good to research that!

OR you can take the peacock herl – use a pencil to “erase” the feathers and use the quill after getting the feathers off.

Thanks Mike! That’s great news. Hope the Table Rock Lake doesn’t “turn over” soon. LT water stays cold and oxygenated! I may just have to head down for a trip to LT.

Fish when you can fish. Hate to pick certain days and only fish then – so go. If the flows are 700-900cfs the better fishing could be because the water was on the “rise”. As water rises the fish have a tendency to move more – out of their hiding places. When flows drop they go back into hiding. 700-900cfs is getting fast and limits some of the techniques that you can use when you are wading. Fish the Meramec river from the park down to dry creek (about 1 1/2 miles) good fishing throughout the walk.

Jabest

If you have seen the Rio small clips used for fly fishing (tiny flies) I think I would definitely want to “tie” my flies on my tippet. BUT, I do use clips, the big, big ones when I fly fish for big smallmouth, Pike and Musky.  Get some type of “cheaters” and just learn to tie with them. Learn the Double Davy by using your forceps – piece of cake!!

Well? Did you use a mirror or did your significant other look in places that haven’t been looked at in a long while???