New Things Learned in '12

[rangerrich99]

Had an extended conversation with a fishing buddy recently which temporarily swerved onto new things learned from last year. Tonight I thought I'd share a few with you guys.

1) When you see fish rising and they aren't taking your dry, switch to cripples and hang on.

2) This one is for anyone that fishes/has fished Lee's Ferry. Most of the time you don't need to fish the double zeeb with the thingamabobber rig at the walk-in at the Ferry. Simplify your life and discover hopper/droppers. (thank you Skip).

3) In general, an 8.5 ft. rod of the same weight will be slightly slower than a 9 ft. rod. This may or may not have an effect on which line weight works best on which rod. i.e., my 9 ft. 4 wt. Winston BIIIx loads better with 4.5 wt. line, while my buddy's 8.5 ft. 4 wt. Winston Biiix loads better with true 4 wt. line.

4) The para-adams/bwo might be the most versatile dry ever created. Squeeze water into the body and only apply floatant to the post, its a drowner, or just much easier for fish to target in choppy water. Clip off one side of the hackle and it will lay on one side like a spinner (that might be a trico, I always get the two mixed up). Clip half the post and trim the back of the hackle, it's an emerger (only gink the front of the hackle). Clip half the post, trim hackle on both sides and don't apply floatant, and it's a nymph. Neat, huh?

5) Over/underlining can be scientific. For instance, early spring here in AZ usually means monster winds. Good time to overline for punching power. As the year progresses and wind speeds drop, you might end up underlining and get nearly the same distance.

6) Purple is for rainbows. Pink is for browns.

7) Tailing loops are not the product of overacceleration.

There's more, but that's a good start. Anyone else?

Thought of another one:

8) Low water is good fishing (in a lake, haven't tried it in a stream yet).

Peace.

Ha, just learned another one. If you leave your cursor on one of those little green squares just under where it says how many posts you have, it tells you that you are "a glorious beacon of light." Almost blew my drink all over my screen when I saw that one.

[Rip Tide]

Back maybe 15 years ago my buddy and I used to meet at a coastal location every other Friday and fish all night.
Same place, same tides, the only difference was the change of seasons and the resulting change of baits and subsequent game fish behavior.
We caught lots of fish, but we never discussed numbers. On the mile walk back to the parking lot each morning it was:
"What did you learn today ?"
There was lots of lessons to be learned and when you're fishing in the dark, that's just about all you think about.
That and the boogie man

[busbus]

This is really easy for me:

Since I never fly fished before this past September, I learned that fly fishing is the best! I have only gone out about a half dozen times but they were all in the top ten fishing experiences ever.

I learned that you CAN fish in the rain and love it. And even catch fish!

I learned that you glean more about your surroundings whenever you fly fish even more than if you take a walk thru the same place. Maybe it is because you aren't rushing by everything; you have a chance to soak things in.

I learned that it is an incredible feeling to have a fish, a BIG fish, take a fly that you made. It may have been an ugly fly and didn't really look like the picture of the one you were trying to mimic but that fish didn't care!

Finally, I learned that I have a lot to learn and I can't wait to learn it.


ray

[dhaynes]

You wrote:

"7) Tailing loops are not the product of overacceleration."

Would love to see you expound on this point.......

[dabluz]

I would have thought that a shorter rod would be a faster rod.

[biggie_robs]

I learned a number of things in 2012. In no particular order:

--Missoula, MT is awesome.

--Zingers can/will fail.

--Carp will take a fly, but only when they want to.

--Tilley hats are great.

--It's fun to teach an 8 year old how to fly cast.

--It's also fun to teach that same 8 year old how to tie a woolly bugger.

--Coming back from one's lunch break with fishy smelling hands makes one's afternoon much better.

[siskiyoublues]

1) Fishing for steelhead is more important then maintaining relationships, friendships, and a reputable work ethic.

2) The Tug is the drug.

3) See number 2.

[rangerrich99]

Originally Posted by dhaynes

You wrote:

"7) Tailing loops are not the product of overacceleration."

Would love to see you expound on this point.......

Here's the short short story on this. Met a guide while fishing that showed this to me. The bottom line is this: "shocking" the rod, or overacceleration alone is not the culprit to creating a tailing loop. He even showed me by exagerating the stops of a casting stroke, but he kept the rod tip moving downward during the front cast. The loop never tailed. He told me tailing loops are created by the rod tip moving higher in altitude at the stop of the front cast than the lowest part of the back cast.

Now I know that I didn't explain that in enough detail, but I recently found an article in Fly Fisherman magazine (I think this month's) that talks about tailing loops by Barny Wong. Imagine my surprise when I saw that he described something very similar in his piece, and with high speed photography.

If I get a chance I'll try to transpose the pertinent part of the article here in a week or so.

Peace.

---------- Post added at 02:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:48 AM ----------

Originally Posted by dabluz

I would have thought that a shorter rod would be a faster rod.

I always believed the very thing, until me and my buddy test drove our Winstons side-by-side. And as I'm no expert, I can't say that some rods don't behave in the opposite manner. But since then, I tested a St. Croix imperial 8 ft. 6 inch and a 10 ft. vs. my 9 ft. and found the 10 ft. was stiffer, while the 8.5 was indeed a bit softer. I'm sure there's a scientific explanation, i just don't know what it is.

peace.