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headscan

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Posts posted by headscan

    Help Choosing A Reel

    in General Chat - Fishing Related

    Posted

    See if you can find a Bauer Mackenzie Superlight, or Junior Mac..I think Hanson's has some (dunno their price, as their sites are in american (odd))

     

    Hanson's price on the Bauers is roughly the same as the US price. I just picked up a spare spool for my M2SL from him a couple weeks ago for $145 - same as what's listed on the Bauer website. It is a nice reel, but if I got a do-over I'd go with a Nautilus instead. Have one on my 8wt and love it.

    Hackle

    in Fly Tying Bench

    Posted

    My understanding is the cape is from the neck and shoulders of the bird, so the necks you have are probably similar to a cape or the same thing. The saddle is from the back (and maybe part of the sides) of the bird. I think the cape is considered best for dries, while the saddle tends to have feathers decent for dries and also the webbed feathers that are good for wet fly hackle. I have only been tying for a month now, so someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

    Loomis Metolius Trout Spey

    in Spey Casters Lounge

    Posted

    The Metolius Trout Two Hander is a nice little rod...It would give you many years of service on the Water ways of Southern Alberta,BC,Idaho and Montana...as far as FASTER is TIGHTER and FURTHER is really not the case...all you have to do is understand that Alexander Grant (with a Greenheart rod)

    cast further than any modern day caster with modern day lines and rods simply by understanding what and how it had to happen. The fact that fast is good is a very complex statement. Fast lighter rods like Hardy's Angel are simply unbelievably comfortabe in hand,matched with the correct line casts 120' without without a whimper....but ask it to work overtime and it shutters. There are many light weight rods being manufactured that handle advanced casters well and are not too expensive. These same rods in the hands of New Casters are equally effective as learning and fishing tools...and that is what it is all about..Buy the Porsche after you have learned how to handle the Mustang. The greatest and most complex issue is line combinations..as you will see in Calgary at the Fly Fishing Show.....

     

    Since I first posted this I started doing some reading at speypages. So just when I thought I had my rod choices narrowed down, I start learning about these other great sticks like Beulah and Snowbee. At this point I'm waiting until the show before plunking down any cash. Less than two months to go anyways...

    Flysource

    in Fly Tying Bench

    Posted

    not sure...all i did was click download. they are on my desktop. tried opening them w/ flysource but no go. ill try and mess around with it some more...

     

    Copy the zip file to Program Files\FlySource\FlySource Files\flys then right click it and choose Extract Here from the menu if you have Winzip installed. The next time you start go to the pattern database in FlySource the new patterns should be there.

    Loomis Metolius Trout Spey

    in Spey Casters Lounge

    Posted

    Hi Headscan,

    A stiffer rod will not cast further or give you tighter loops, look at what the best speycasters use in competition and design, they are all full flexing rods, rods that flex to the butt but with a lot of backbone.

    In the UK the speycasting market is at least 50 times the market of Canada and the US, all that really means is the guys here have access to lots of different rods and some of the companies that have been making them for at least 50yrs sometimes i have to say i worry about companies jumping on the Spey bandwagon in the last few years.

    In the last year i have cast around 20 rods ( perks of the job), some i like, some i don't, thats why my advice would be to meet up with some of the guys, and try a few rods, see what suits you.

    I will be at the Calgary show with some rods from differet UK companies, so drop by if you get the chance, even for a chat.

    Thanks Gordon

     

    Thanks for the information Gordon. I'll probably be at the show at least one day if not both so I'll make sure to drop by. Between the snow that fell last night and the cooler weather, I'm not in a rush to get outfitted with some spey gear...

    Loomis Metolius Trout Spey

    in Spey Casters Lounge

    Posted

    Do you know who's bringing 2 handers to the show......or how a lack of running water will really show you spey casting

     

    I emailed Rajeff Sports to see if they're bringing any Echo Speys to the show. Heard a lot of good things about them on Speypages.

     

    Might be worth emailing a few of the other rod manufacturers that are confirmed exhibitors at the show to see if they're bringing spey rods with them. If they think there's interest they'll probably bring a few at least.

     

    The Metolious is a terrific trout spey that also makes a great summer steelhead rod as well. I fished one for about a month this year and Max also owns one that he loves. Great rod. That said, the TFO 12'6" 5/6 wt. Deer Creek is also a great rod and maybe a bit easier to fish with, in tight quarters. One of my favorite Bow river rods is the TFO 12"6' 6wt. Pro series with a Scandianvian shooting head or Delta multi tip line. Another great option to consider is the 12'6" 6wt. Sage z-axis. All great rods for troutspey fishing. Give them all the wiggle test at the local shops and try and come out and cast a few rods the next time the guys here at FFC are getting together for a bit of Spey casting, when the next chinook hits. You can and give these rods and many others, at test cast or two. Also, there will be many new two handers to test cast at the Flyfishing Expo at the end of January.

     

    Yeah, I've given consideration to the Sage speys as well. Both the Z-axis and VT2 sound appealing and I'm a big fan of Sage rods in general. The lightest VT2 is a 13' 7wt, though, which seems like it might be a bit of overkill for the Bow. Though if I line it with a WC 8/9/10 instead of a 7/8/9 that might make it more manageable. Bah, who am I kidding? I know I'll end up owning at least a couple of spey rods by the time July rolls around...

    Loomis Metolius Trout Spey

    in Spey Casters Lounge

    Posted

    I'm looking for a bit of feedback about this rod. I'm looking around for my first spey rod that will be used primarily on the Bow. According to the Loomis site this is a medium action rod. My understanding is that a stiffer rod will produce tighter loops and greater distance but is far less forgiving.

     

    Any opinions? Should I be looking at an entirely different rod? There are a few others I've looked at, but most of them aren't available locally...

    New To The Tying!

    in Fly Tying Bench

    Posted

    When I started a few months back I checked with Dave at Fishtales, and he sold me one of the kits they put together for their courses in the fall and winter. Alot of stuff in it, but the packages were cut down to keep the price to $75, i think. Just needed to buy a vise and a couple tools on top of that. There's also a book by Peter Gathercole called the The Fly Tying Bible (check Chapters for it, picked it up at Sunridge) that has some beginner's steps and a ton of patterns to get you started.

     

    I'll second the Fish Tales kit. Just enough of everything you need to start tying some useful flies. There are mass-marketed starter kits you can find, but they tend to include things you won't necessarily need if you only fish for trout in Alberta. Fly Tying Made Clear and Simple by Skip Morris and The Benchside Introduction to Fly Tying by Ted Leeson really helped me out, although I have to admit I haven't looked at either one since I picked up The Fly Tier's Benchside Reference.

    Frog Hair

    in General Chat - Fishing Related

    Posted

    Thanks for the replies gents!

     

    One other question.. Are you guys using Frog Hair leaders too? Or just using the tippet material and tying your own?

     

    I picked up a Frog Hair fluoro leader for nymphing but haven't used it enough to form a solid opinion. The little I have used it, though, I can't see a significant enough difference from my trusty SA leaders to justify the price difference (about $10). The tip of the fluoro leader doesn't retain memory as much as mono, but the butt section still does on mine. Haven't had an opportunity to try the Frog Skin mono leaders yet.

     

    The fluoro tippet works great with mono leaders as long as you use a 4 wrap surgeon's knot to connect them. Fewer wraps seems to increase the likelihood that the fluoro will cut through the mono when you put weight on it (ie. a fish).

    Frog Hair

    in General Chat - Fishing Related

    Posted

    It's located off of Southland drive. Gord is a master flyfisherman, in my view and he has taught me many things about the art of fishin'...All customers get a free fishin' lesson with their purchase, if they ask nicely.

    Drop in and say hi to Gord for me.

     

    ps. I use Frog Hair Fluro for sub surface and Mono for surface flies. Simply the best...IMO

     

    I'll vouch for that. Picked up some sinking tip line from Gord on Weds and mentioned that I had never fished anything other than floating line before. He gave me some good tips on how to fish it properly and the next day I caught my biggest fish on the fly to date.

     

    I also agree with the Frog Hair fluoro for sub-surface and mono for dries. The only other type of fluoro that I've used was Rio and I had some problems with it that I don't with Frog Hair fluoro.

    Landing Fish With Fast Rods

    in General Chat - Fishing Related

    Posted

    I have had problems with flouro in the past (and still do)

    I think the knots are way more sensitive to breakage.

    I will leave it to the pro's here to explain the knots or inadequate spit usage.

    If your using flouro try switching back to mono.

    cheers

     

    If you're connecting fluoro tippet to a mono leader try using a four wrap surgeon's. I had breakage at the knot all the time when I was only using two wraps but haven't had one since I switched to four. The breakage is probably because the fluoro actually cuts through the mono.

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