On July 28 I will note the occasion of catching my first fish on a fly in 1951, 73 years ago. Man, have I seen some changes in fly fishing in 7 decades! The one constant, other than ever rising cost, has been ever rising complexity due to the proliferation of equipment available. Many of us have been conned into believing we need all this crap to be successful and our wallets are much lighter for having drunk the kool aid. Although never having been a gear whore I am guilty to some extent myself. Or was anyway.
The discussion on tippets dovetails with the discussion about fly rods and fly lines-are they really what they say they are or is a 5wt rod really better as a 6wt or a 4 wt weight forward line better suited to a 3? There is a lot of marketing hype that clouds the issues and as Jake has noted some of it is just plain bullshit. Nowadays, having fought off gear whoreism, I am constantly trying to simplify everything and reduce fly fishing to the lowest common denominator while covering all the bases. To that end I have standardized fly reels by buying 6 identical reels for bigger fish and 3 bodies and 9 spools for smaller stuff. Rods are similar with most rods being from just 2 manufacturers and lines pretty much stable over the years also. I still use WF GPX for most things floating along with 444 Peach DT and Cortland sink lines for most everything else. Is there better stuff? Of course but I am not going to chase incremental improvements with dollars when what I have is already probably better than my ability. Instead, everything I have is familiar and comfortable with the learning curve far behind me now, no gear surprises or failures anticipated.
This year I have simplified my tippet selection also by backing away from fluorocarbon for most things and going to Maxima Ultra green in 4# test instead. It mike's at .008 which closely compares to the TroutHunter 3X at .0083. A 110 yard spool cost about $12 whereas a 50m spool of TroutHunter is about $25 now. Everything under an indicator is still flouro but I have had issues with the TroutHunter I had been using being way off of the advertised diameter, at $25 a spool they should at least get it right. Like everyone else I am looking forward to the results of the test. I want to upgrade my 4,5 and 6X tippets for small stream fishing and maybe find a flouro that is accurately labeled and dependable for indicator fishing.
The discussion on tippets dovetails with the discussion about fly rods and fly lines-are they really what they say they are or is a 5wt rod really better as a 6wt or a 4 wt weight forward line better suited to a 3? There is a lot of marketing hype that clouds the issues and as Jake has noted some of it is just plain bullshit. Nowadays, having fought off gear whoreism, I am constantly trying to simplify everything and reduce fly fishing to the lowest common denominator while covering all the bases. To that end I have standardized fly reels by buying 6 identical reels for bigger fish and 3 bodies and 9 spools for smaller stuff. Rods are similar with most rods being from just 2 manufacturers and lines pretty much stable over the years also. I still use WF GPX for most things floating along with 444 Peach DT and Cortland sink lines for most everything else. Is there better stuff? Of course but I am not going to chase incremental improvements with dollars when what I have is already probably better than my ability. Instead, everything I have is familiar and comfortable with the learning curve far behind me now, no gear surprises or failures anticipated.
This year I have simplified my tippet selection also by backing away from fluorocarbon for most things and going to Maxima Ultra green in 4# test instead. It mike's at .008 which closely compares to the TroutHunter 3X at .0083. A 110 yard spool cost about $12 whereas a 50m spool of TroutHunter is about $25 now. Everything under an indicator is still flouro but I have had issues with the TroutHunter I had been using being way off of the advertised diameter, at $25 a spool they should at least get it right. Like everyone else I am looking forward to the results of the test. I want to upgrade my 4,5 and 6X tippets for small stream fishing and maybe find a flouro that is accurately labeled and dependable for indicator fishing.
