What's your most surprising turn?

Para_Adams

Para_Adams

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I'm curious if our "classic gear" community might offer their own "most surprising turns" from 2025? As I was organizing my fly vest this morning I pulled out this spool of 6.5X tippet. 43 years of fly fishing and I honestly NEVER thought I'd ever fish with 6x, let alone 6.5X (I draw the line at 6.5X...still can't stomach 7X). I've resorted to this tippet for the #18 and #20 BWO emergers I cast over the rainbows lazily rising on Fall River down near Sunriver OR. What's something you've started doing that surprises you?

6.5X.jpg
 
My surprise is usually not being able to find the fly box i actually want to take wirh me. Usually at the last minute..

But I have found old spools of tippet and tools that I had forgotten about and sometimes even have duplicates or indicators I had forgotten I had. No one specific item I can think of at the moment..
 
I've gone the opposite direction and almost never fish tippet lighter than 5x anymore. If I can get 4x through the hook eye, I usually stop there. I have heard the Fall River is flat out spooky, so I can believe it might be necessary to go smaller there.

I think my biggest "change" over the years has been that the black woolly buggers I used to fish all the time when I was starting out (because they flat out worked) hardly ever get fished these days, and when they do, they rarely solve the puzzle. No idea why, but maybe it's because I have become a better fly tyer and like tying different patterns in different colors?
 
My biggest change over the years was acquiring a Granger Champion 9050 bamboo fly rod maybe 10 years ago. Started down the bamboo path. Today 25 of my 28 fly rods are bamboo. I don't think I've fished anything but bamboo for the past three years and that includes winter spey fishing.
 
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My most surprising turn was the success I had fishing the jiggy craw every outing over a full season (year).
And the number of times I didn't go fish to watch the kids play instead.
 
My biggest turn in 2025 was learning to love indicator fishing. I used to have no patience for it, but after getting completely out-fished by a regular using an indicator at a local lake in late 2024, I committed to being all-in on the indicator method in 2025. Confidence is everything. A year later I prefer it to pretty much any method other than dry fly.
 
I dunno that it's necessarily a "classic rod forum" specific type of thing, but my biggest turn in 2025 was REALLY getting obsessed with capr to a point where I would go fishing for them even in the worst of conditions for them figuring that if I can figure them out in those conditions, when conditions are good, it'll be that much easier. I was right. All of this while maintaining my obsession with muskies (taking the same approach a number of years ago has definitely helped on this front as well).....still all on glass (for both)--so not really a turn there, just maintenance.

🍻
 
Para_Adams said:
I'm curious if our "classic gear" community might offer their own "most surprising turns" from 2025? As I was organizing my fly vest this morning I pulled out this spool of 6.5X tippet. 43 years of fly fishing and I honestly NEVER thought I'd ever fish with 6x, let alone 6.5X (I draw the line at 6.5X...still can't stomach 7X). I've resorted to this tippet for the #18 and #20 BWO emergers I cast over the rainbows lazily rising on Fall River down near Sunriver OR. What's something you've started doing that surprises you?

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Living in Sunriver, Fall is my local, and TH 6.5x the go to tippet there for dries. Using 6.5 is a two edged sword - won't get many/any takes on dries without it, the bigger fish almost impossible to bring to hand using it.
18" is my personal best using it, having had bigger studs sip a BWO or size 22 midge and then tear up the pool until the leader parts, despite using a whippy 4 weight to provide max cushion, so will likely pick up a 10/3 and give that a go.
 
SurfnFish said:
Living in Sunriver, Fall is my local, and TH 6.5x the go to tippet there for dries. Using 6.5 is a two edged sword - won't get many/any takes on dries without it, the bigger fish almost impossible to bring to hand using it.
18" is my personal best using it, having had bigger studs sip a BWO or size 22 midge and then tear up the pool until the leader parts, despite using a whippy 4 weight to provide max cushion, so will likely pick up a 10/3 and give that a go.
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There's a reason I like to rip streamers on your local. One of my largest fish from there came on the flat above the hatchery where the fish were rising to some sort of no see um size 62 midge. I just ripped a little 2" sculpin pattern and the largest one of the bunch slid out and grabbed it at my feet. Doesn't happen all that often, but just often enough for me to keep doing it when I fish that river....so fun!
 
I used to fish down to 7x frequently. Prior to WA, I lived in a few places that were tail water heavy. When I first started off, I broke off way too many fish on the hook set than I care to remember. I used to know some guys that fished down to 8x. Especially on a particular, slow stretch of a heavily pressured east coast tailwater. I never felt the need. My skill level, equipment I was using, or both led to me landing very few fish using it.

My switch has been to go in the opposite direction. For the first 10-15 years I fly fished, I fished dries nearly exclusively. My favorite hatches were the small stuff. Tricos and Bwo’s in particular. Living in western WA the last 12 years fly fishing saltwater 85% of the time, I fish streamers on straight shots of 10-15lb flouro most days now.
 
clarkman said:
There's a reason I like to rip streamers on your local. One of my largest fish from there came on the flat above the hatchery where the fish were rising to some sort of no see um size 62 midge. I just ripped a little 2" sculpin pattern and the largest one of the bunch slid out and grabbed it at my feet. Doesn't happen all that often, but just often enough for me to keep doing it when I fish that river....so fun!
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very effective method, and certainly has got my biggest fish to hand ....these days enjoying trying to make that perfect cast and drift for a dry take. And having Fall 15 mins away, time my mid-week sessions for when the bugs hopefully reach the surface. And if that's not working, my sub-surface rod is always leaning against a tree close at hand.
 
SurfnFish said:
very effective method, and certainly has got my biggest fish to hand ....these days enjoying trying to make that perfect cast and drift for a dry take. And having Fall 15 mins away, time my mid-week sessions for when the bugs hopefully reach the surface. And if that's not working, my sub-surface rod is always leaning against a tree close at hand.
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yeah, that's definitely not a bad place to hone those skills! Especially since it's literally in your back yard.
 
SurfnFish said:
very effective method, and certainly has got my biggest fish to hand ....these days enjoying trying to make that perfect cast and drift for a dry take. And having Fall 15 mins away, time my mid-week sessions for when the bugs hopefully reach the surface. And if that's not working, my sub-surface rod is always leaning against a tree close at hand.
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15 minutes! My vacation condo is up in the north end of Sunriver, so it takes me 24 minutes, LOL!

I started the thread because I saw my 6.5x spool sitting there which reminded me of Fall River, but when we visit Sunriver my real passion reveals yet another unexpected turn for me...fishing dry flies on the lakes. Specifically, a floating calibaetis emerger (think Chopaka Emerger), and a #12 black foam beetle, often with the beetle as my point and the emerger as a dropper. I'll still indicator fish a chironomid and a nymph but find myself going on the surface most of the time. I spent decades happily trolling flies around the lakes in the PNW but have lost much of my interest in that now. What's become of me???

My son on East Lake with a beetle fly last September...

East Lake Ben.jpg
 
Seeing those smaller diameter tippet materials caused a flash back to the 1960s and reminded me how far leader material has advanced!

When I started fishing small dry flies (18s) in the early 1960s I used a lot of 6X tippets and even some 7X. As I recalled the 6X when new tested at 1 3/4# and which by the end of the season would test 1/2 of that. By the mid 1990s where some of my fishing was on spring creeks and clear water ponds where small bugs ruled the day; a size 18 would be a large but. I would tie and fish dries down to size 24 and after discovering "big eye" which allowed the use of beefier tippets I was able to land some very large trout on flies I could barely see!

May recent return to the past is the increasing role various soft hackles play in my lake fishing (especially in BC). Currently the fly count in my soft hackle box is approaching 100.

curt
 
SurfnFish said:
Living in Sunriver, Fall is my local, and TH 6.5x the go to tippet there for dries. Using 6.5 is a two edged sword - won't get many/any takes on dries without it, the bigger fish almost impossible to bring to hand using it.
18" is my personal best using it, having had bigger studs sip a BWO or size 22 midge and then tear up the pool until the leader parts, despite using a whippy 4 weight to provide max cushion, so will likely pick up a 10/3 and give that a go.
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Have you thought about switching to fluorocarbon ?
 
SurfnFish said:
Living in Sunriver, Fall is my local, and TH 6.5x the go to tippet there for dries. Using 6.5 is a two edged sword - won't get many/any takes on dries without it, the bigger fish almost impossible to bring to hand using it.
18" is my personal best using it, having had bigger studs sip a BWO or size 22 midge and then tear up the pool until the leader parts, despite using a whippy 4 weight to provide max cushion, so will likely pick up a 10/3 and give that a go.
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Try using a 14-16' leader if you have to go very light, it also absorbs alot of shock. If you can learn to cast and fish it, it's the way to go for technical fish.
 
Tallguy said:
Try using a 14-16' leader if you have to go very light, it also absorbs alot of shock. If you can learn to cast and fish it, it's the way to go for technical fish.
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good tip, been tying 12'..sometimes, however, those fish are only 20' away..
 
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