Things You Should Know about the Fly Fishing Gear

Congratulations on choosing to learn fly fishing. This is a great fishing technique because it has got its own challenges, different from other fishing techniques. An artificial fly is an almost weightless lure and so the method requires some specific skills which you will have to learn. While learning the techniques, it’s also interesting to know about the various types of gear needed for fly fishing. Here are a few fly fishing gear tips.

Leaders and Tippets

Materials: To have the best knot strength in leaders, keep in mind to use the same brand for all section because same material makes stronger knots.

Lubricate the Knots: Before tightening your knots, don’t forget to lubricate them. Saliva is fine for monofilament; however, lip balm or a commercial knot lubricant is recommended for tying fluorocarbon knots.

Matching Tippets to Flies: To find a correct tippet size for trout flies, divide the size of the hook by 3. The result is equal to the typical “X” rating of the correct tippet. For example, if a hook size is 12 and when it’s divided by 3, it’s equal to 4X tippet.

Tippet Size: The “X” designation is derived from a very old designation of wire size of watch parts, applied later to cat gut leaders (change in size by one equaled to 0.001 inches in diameter).

Leader Butt Sections: Make sure that the butt section of the leaders is heavy enough. Typically, it should be 70% of the diameter of the fly line.

Check the Bait: Check your tippet and fly especially when casting frequently every four or five casts. Wind-knots (overhead knots) make your tippet weak by at least 50% and tippets can mess up with your fly or hook bend, and you may even not notice this as the fly is 40 feet away from you.

Keep Fishing-ready: After you finish fishing, hook our fly in a snake guide and wrap the leader around the spool of the reel because of which the end of the fly line will be kept out of the rod top and will be always fishing-ready.

 

Fly Rods

Use a Leader for Testing: While testing a rod or fly line, make sure to attach an appropriate leader; most fly lines are meant for casting with a nine-foot leader attached.

Prevent Corrosion: Make sure that your fishing gear or Fiskegrejor i.e. rods and reels are dry before storing them in cases so as to prevent corrosion. After every use, rinse saltwater rods. Regular furniture polish is a great cleaner and protective agent for fly rods.

Breakage: Things that often cause breakage of fly rods are:

• Car doors
• Ceiling fans
• High-sticking a fish (lifting the rod vertically so as to put most bend on the tip)

 

Fly Reels

Protection of Fly Reel Drag Systems: Always after fishing, back off the drag on reels, particularly those with compressible materials like cork. Cork drags work the best if lubricated on an yearly or 6-month basis. Use a lubricant suggested by the manufacturer.

Buying a Fly Reel: Consider 4 main features, while buying a fly reel:

1. Weight
2. Diameter of spool
3. Drag system
4. Materials and finish

Generally, you should buy as light a reel as possible with a proper drag system. Big, hefty drags usually add significant weight to a fly reel, but offer low start-up inertia and constant pressure at higher drag settings. The diameter and width of the fly reel spool decide how much backing and line the reel holds and how fast the line can be retrieved.

 

Fly Lines

 

Fly Line Care: Most of today’s fly lines come with lubricant additives in their coatings and require only infrequent cleaning with hand soap and water to maintain their floating and casting characteristics. Wiping with a damp cloth while on water is helpful. Commercial lubricants can also add distance to the casts and can work on wet line, though they work best before the line gets wet.

Fly Line Memory: Fly lines have ‘memory’, mostly seen in the form of coils when the line is stripped first from a reel, particularly in stiffer lines made for warmer climate and distance casting. Stretching your line in hands will improve your casting distance and make its loops less prone to tangling in the water or at the bottom of the boat.

Visit Fiskeshopen.com for a range of fishing gear including reels, rods, flies (flugfiske) and more.