headscan

Yeah, I saw that previewed in one of the fly mags a few months ago. As soon as I see one in a shop I'm getting it. Right now at the end of the day it seems as though every one of my pockets has bits of mono in it.

Try superglue and/or nail knots instead. I don't think heating the braids would work since they're just nylon. http://www.danblanton.com/gettinglooped.html Check out step six at the bottom of the page.

That's 10lb Maxima Chameleon mono and I think there were five wraps in the nail knots. I've since gone down to only two nail knots instead of three. Another thing if you're going to use these loops is to check the line at the base about once a month. It'll wear out eventually and the line will start to crack a bit. Once that happens you'll probably ldr the next big fish you hook along with your leader. I don't know if head cement would work, but I use knot sense because it's flexible and you can also use it streamside if needed.

You don't find that the braided loops hinge a lot? It was years ago that I last used one so maybe they've improved them since.

My guess would be vibration when a fish is running on you and potentially while reeling in. The FW doesn't have the "full" CCF brake, though. The Nautilus site says "The Nautilus Feather Weight series inherited the most desirable features of the CCF Nautilus series yet weigh in at almost half the weight." http://www.nautilusreels.com/Reel02.asp?ReelSize=NautilusFW Two things I don't like about the Loop Opti reels are that the screw cap comes right off and there is an alignment tab for the spool. Makes changing out a spool streamside a bit of a pain since you have to align the tab properly and worry about not losing the cap. And I'm speaking from experience on this since I own a MegaLoop. Fantastic design, super light, and huge arbor to reduce line memory though.

I think all of the Nautilus reels except the FW series come with the CCF brake. Don't think I've put 100+ days on any of them since I bought them all in the last year. Sounds to me if it did happen to my FW that it'd be a warranty issue and I'd just send it back to Kristen.

I used one of those braided loops years ago when I first started out and they can hinge quite a bit. The mono loop you have at the front of your line is much better (provided it was done right). Another option is to fold the end of your fly line back on itself and secure it with a couple of nail knots to make your own loop. Throw some UV knot sense or Aquaseal on it to streamline it a bit so it goes through the guides easily. Looks sort of like this:

Do you mean empty space between the spool and the cage or that the spool floats? I have a Nautilus FW5, 8, 10, and 12T and haven't run into this on any of them.

I use the regular clinch knot as well and haven't had one fail. I usually use 4-5 wraps for 3x and 4x tippet. One less wrap for heavier tippet and maybe one extra for lighter stuff. It could be that your tippet material is bad if your knot is good. If you suspect your knot, try practicing it at home. Also if you're using mono, make sure you're lubricating your knots before you tighten them. After I tie the tippet to the bend of the hook I grab the trailing tippet and the tippet tied to the front of the fly and give a couple of little tugs to test it. Here's a great site for learning to tie fishing knots: http://www.animatedknots.com/usesfishing.p...imatedknots.com

+1 on the Nautilus FW5. Excellent reels with a sealed drag. Mine has put up with a year of abuse (dropped on rocks, dunked in water temps below 0, etc.) and other than a few "character marks" in the finish is as good as the day I bought it.

This was always my interpretation of it. If a CO stopped someone with 2+ treble hooks on a line they could probably charge them, but using the points you quote from the regs they could probably successfully challenge the fine in court.

What kind of knot did you use?

Not a direct recommendation, but if you contact Brian Niska at Whistler Fly Fishing he might have some suggestions for you.

And what about supposedly Canadian stores that are now owned by American companies (The Bay, Tim Hortons, etc.). I think McDonald's and Wendy's have had a maple leaf in the logos of their Canadian stores for years but I doubt anyone thinks they're Canadian. Besides, they'll be selling the same products as the locally owned stores - mostly from American companies with many manufactured off shore. How many fly fishing companies are Canadian anyways? The only one that comes to mind off the top of my head is Islander.

The pic is of my 4wt Opti Stream. Casts as nicely as the Coast, though

'nother Opti for ya.

I thought it was on a trico...

Yeah, the Opti single hand rods are pretty sweet. Since I got my 4 and 7 weights I haven't touched my Sages.

Maybe I'll show up and only bring a couple single-handers to spey cast

Could be a lot of different things. Some people think that when there are big changes in barometric pressure, like going from a really nice day to a crappy one, it puts the fish down. If you do a search for "barometric" or "barometer" you'll find a couple of threads on it.

I'm pretty sure Whistler handles all Loop warranty service for Canada. I'd just give Brian a call and talk to him. They have a toll-free number listed on their site http://www.whistlerflyfishing.com/

I think #2 is called a hot wire caddis or something like that. I'm sure once Din sees this thread he can give us the exact names for 2 and 3, but what's most important is knowing what they're supposed to imitate.

I think a few of the shops get their flies from the same distributors so they'll have similar selections. Westwinds has some really nice flies that work well around here and I haven't found at any other shops.

I've been using Aquastealth for the past several months and wouldn't go back to felt. I find them just as good in the water and way better for walking on dry (or not so dry) land than felt.

I heard Montana might be considering the same thing. I'm all for it if it actually helps stop the spread of didymo, whirling disease, etc.