alhuger

I switched up from full sink lines this year to sink tips and have had really good luck on them. Having said that, this is for stillwater. I can say though that I know headscan uses them and does well with them in the bow. -al

Hey Brent, do they sell it at your shop?

Has anyone here ever used Berkley Fireline for leader material? It looks to be available in high test strengths with a very small diameter. For example, their twenty pound test has the diameter of 8 lb test line. I had some in hand today and was pretty impressed. It looks like it would be ideal for nymphing or streamer fishing. The downside is that is looks to have little shock absorption although with a softer rod this should be less of an issue. Has anyone used it? I would interested in your experience if so. -al

Yeh it was great to run into you, small world. When the weather warms up we need to hit the water for sure.

*hit. It might be, I will check.

Is anyone headed to Spey-o-rama this year in Sanfrancisco? It falls on Friday April 18th - Sunday April 20th, 2008. The URL is: http://www.speyorama.com/ I am likely going to be there that week for work and am thinking staying the weekend. -al

It's pretty handy for understanding how far your cast is for sure. The best part of the pools IMO is that the people there are fantastic. Some of the best casters you will ever see frequent those ponds daily and nearly everyone is willing to help you sort your cast out, it's awesome. During the competitions there in the summer I got to watch the distance and accuracy trials, pretty mind boggling stuff. Watching someone put down a dry fly with a perfect lay down at 90 feet with a mild wind is pretty cool. It's no big surprise that guys like Rajeff and others come from those ponds, they are a pretty valuable resource for practice and have a really healthy community to help you refine your cast. The only downside I can think of is that actually learning to cast there can be a bit misleading at least when it comes to the spey. The current makes a huge difference and you have to adjust a bit when you learn on the ponds and then go to a river as I did. I can cast half again as far on the ponds as I can in a river. As far as that goes though I think my cast is fine enough for fishing but I would like to get the distance going because I really enjoy it.

My work takes me to SF about once a month so I am lucky to enough to get to the ponds pretty often. Oddly enough when I lived in SF I pretty much ignored them, it's funny what someone will take for granted when it's right next to them. It was there I actually decided I wanted to buy a spey rod. Last summer I watched this tiny woman name Donna move a line 130 feet with nearly no effort across one of the ponds. It was one of the most graceful things I've seen in casting and it planted the seed in me. So rather than pick up a two hander for practical reasons I bought one because I just love the way they cast. There, I said it. Ahhh 4C, must be nice. I nearly opted to stay in SF over the weekend just for the weather but I figured the martial discord that would engender was not worth the hassle. I will have to cast the Tamar one of these days. I actually would like to load up my sage with an Elixir line to see how it handles it.

I picked up some snowbee full sink lines at the show with the intention of fishing them in stillwater. After taking them out and practicing with them I've come to the realization that without a current to swing it back up it's going to be a bitch to work these things back to the surface in the lake for the recast. They do cast really nicely though and I think they will be very handy for fishing river mouths where I have enough current to work with it without it being a really noisy intensive effort to bring her back up. I am also going to try them in the salt this year. -al

I hit the Golden Gate casting ponds this morning and finally got to cast my Beulah with the matched Elixer line. Wow!! I was rolling out 100 foot casts and felt like a god! Mind you this is in a casting pond so it bares no resemblance to actual river casting, but hey, it's still good for the ego of a beginner caster. I have to say this rod with the matched line is on fire. I also got a chance to push a long belly line today. It was humiliating :< The more time I spend with new lines I am finding I gravitate towards heads less than 50 feet long, likely because I find it easier and also because they suit my needs for the water I am typically fishing. Very cool stuff. Gives my something to think about on flight back to our wintry northern paradise.... -al

It was great to meet yourself and Val, thanks for everything and I hope the drive was not too terrifying on the way home :> al

That is awesome. Did you get a shiner out of that bloody eye?

I was wondering something similar today (re: how much backing). I tend to load up my reels with a ridiculous amount of backing without putting much or any thought into it. If you break it down though, 150 yards or ever 200 yards is likely, waaaaaay too much. If you think about it, 200 yards is 600 feet, if you add a typical line length in there your at 700 feet. I am admittedly not as experienced as allot of people here and I have not steelheaded (much to my regret) but I have fished the salt and I have never had anything run me out 700 feet. Or anything close to it. In fact, I have never had much luck landing fish who ran out past 100-120 feet unless I was able to get moving (like in a boat) to maintain really good tension. With that in mind I may strip down my reels so I can maybe fit some spey lines on my larger single handed reels. -al

Cool, Thanks Cheeler.

I would go in. Consider me in if it's a go.

Thanks, that's good to know. I will be fishing tips which is a little intimidating given I suck at casting them although I am told a skaggit lines makes it a little easier. True? Hopefully I will get some practice time in before I make the trip. -al

Max, Do you know if the cheater material comes w/ the line or do you need to find it elsewhere?

All, I need to pick up a skaggit line for an upcoming trip in March. I am rigging up a Beulah 8/9 and a Sage 7134. I am looking at a Rio 450 grain w/ a 5 foot cheater on the sage. Practical advice anyone? al

I have never been checked in Alberta but I did not get many days on the water last year either in AB, maybe 15 trips? In BC I hit the water maybe 50 times and I got checked 6 times, all in Region 3.

For what it's worth, I own and have fished with my DC 5/6 and I find it a fantastic rod especially for the price. In fact, my first bow river brown came in on the DC so it's my lucky bow river rod :> I load it with a Delta Airflo 6/7 and it works really well for me. -al

Thanks Courtney, if you bring any to the show I will pick up a bottle, and thanks again for the post. -al

You could always use a swivel :>

That's a fantastic post, thanks Courtney. I have a couple of questions from it though, how do I know if my line needs degreased and how do I do it?

That is a fantastic chart, thanks allot!

It is a 7/8 thanks Greg.