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Jul 2018 - Editorial - Articles, blog posts
Jul 2018 - Editorial - Articles, blog posts
Make loops on fly lines
Make loops on fly lines for easier leader attachment. By making a loop on the front end of the fly line you can easily attach your leader to it - either by using a loop to loop connection or by tying the leader butt to the loop. Make the loop by stripping 3 centimeters or 1.5 inches or so of coating off the line and pulling the inner braid "into itself" through the side of the braid. Use a metal bobbin threader for the purpose. Cover the base of the loop with Aquaseal or a similar substance and let cure before using.
Clean the feathers before tying
Cleaning almost any neck or saddle before tying will make the job a lot easier. Only the premium products are properly cleaned when you buy them. Most cheap necks and saddles are quite dirty when you take them out of the bag, and washing them with plain hair shampoo will render them in a much better condition. If you on top of that treat them with some hair conditioner, you will be surprised how well the feathers behave. Use whatever you have in your bathroom or buy some bottles without perfume for the purpose.
Wax GSP threads
Gel Spun Polymer (GSP) tying threads can be extremely smooth, and will sometimes slip on materials or the hook shank. In order to overcome that, just add hard wax sparsely to a small piece of the thread. This can be done while tying, before a step where the thread needs to hold. The wax can be basically any kind of hard wax - made for fly tying, ski wax, toilet ring wax or anything suitable.
Handling difficult feathers
If you are having problems getting whole feather to sit properly on your flies, because it constantly rolls over and sits in the wrong angle, try this somewhat brutal, but efficient trick: Flatten the stem with a small pair of flat nosed pliers. Hold the feather up against the hook shank and asses the angle. Flatten the stem lightly at the tie-in point in an appropriate angle. Tying in the feather now, will force it to sit in the proper angle, and ease the process immensely.
Coping with leaky wader feet
If you are on a trip and realise that one of the feet of your stockingfoot waders are leaking, do not dispair! A fresh and whole plastic bag in a suitable size will fix the problem quickly. Simply draw the bag over your foot after having donned your dry sock(s), and stick the foot and bag in the waders.
Inexpensive hackle guards
Keep the hackles off when you finish the head of your flies. get a bunch of drinking straws from your favorite breakfast diner, cut some pieces - length 5 millimeters or a quarter of an inch or less. Slip one over the tube of your bobbin holder before tying on the thread. When the fly is done, pull it up over the hackle, finish the head, cut the thread, varnish and remove the guard. Slip it over the bobbin holder again, and you are ready to start all over.
Line indicator for night fishing
If you have trouble deciding when to pick up your WF line for a new cast when night fishing, try sliding a small piece of plastic tubing over the running section to fit tightly up against the back of the belly of the line. This will give an audible click when it passes through the guides, and you will know how much line is out of the top eye. Most tubes from braided leader kits will do fine, but both tackle shops and electronics suppliers often have suitable, thin plastic tubing in many colors. Night fishingMartin Joergensen
Casting backwards
Casting backwards Martin Joergensen Most flyfishers will complain if the wind is too strong. And true enough: the wind can spoil a good day of fishing -- but it should not be because you cannot cast. All other excuses are acceptable, such as a broken surface, no hatches, dirty water or frothy waves. But not being able to cast due to a wrong wind is a bad excuse unless you have a light rod and strong wind head on or we are talking about a storm. Wind can be coped with in different manners. Here is one trick.
Make room for the reel
If you use loops to attach the fly line to the backing, make sure the loop on the backing is large enough to let the reel pass through. This will help you avoid having to have the whole fly line pass through the loop. In stead you just pass the reel through. The large loop will not do any harm on the backing, and should a fish strip so much line that it takes you into the backing, the slender loop will pass through the eyes without trouble.
Curing bucktails
Bucktail Global FlyFisher You have to open the bucktails up and take the bone out and remove all the flesh and fat. Use a dull knife or some sort of rough spoon to scrape the fat and flesh away from the skin. An old serrated knife is excellent to deal with skins and tails. Wash the tail with a good detergent and hot water. Let it soak overnight, changing the water if it gets really dirty. When the skin is wet, you can easily see any remaining fat or flesh, which will need to be scraped off.
Debarb safely
If you are going to fish a hook barbless, you might as well pinch the barb before you tie the fly. By doing this you save yourself the agony of a hook that breaks or bends, when you do it at waterside. At the same time you have a suitable tool at hand - your vice. By putting the hook sideways in the vice and squeezing it, you can bend down the barb of most hooks in an easy and controlled manner. For larger hooks you might want to use a tool such as a pair of semi-heavy pliers.
Sparse hackles
Sometimes you want to tie on a hackle, which is either very sparse or extremely well controlled. This can be easily obtained by stripping one side of the hackle. Simply grab the stem or tip of the feather and pull off the barbs on one side. Make sure you remove the proper side depending on the type of hackle. Hold the whole feather close to the fly as the pattern and hackling method describes, and the remove the barbs from the side towards the hook shank.
Making herl overwings
Steaming herl Martin Joergensen First you must steam the herl. Steaming is done by putting a kettle with a little water over the stove, and holding the herl a bunch at the time into the ray of steam. As you will notice they will straighten or bend lightly and the barbules (the small, shiny, green 'hairs') will rise and the herl will appear really nice looking afterwards. The reason for doing this is to get the natural bend into the herl again. The bagging and storing will have kinked and curled them into strange shapes.
Control crest curvature and twist
GP crests Martin Joergensen There are a couple of options for getting nicely curved crests for streamers and salmon flies - one which can be considered more elegant, the other a little more crude and 'risky'. Elegant:
Roland Henrion
Recently Belgian Roland Henrion started focusing more on his art, and that made him a candidate for our fishy artists series.
See some samples here
Stretching a line
Most fly lines become curled when they have been stored on a reel for some time. With the best lines it takes the better part of a winter, while the mediocre lines often curl after just a few days on the spool. Stretch such a line before you start fishing. Do it at home or waterside. Attach the tippet to a branch, a door handle or some other suitable object, and pull the line off the reel with the brake set to offer good resistance.
Summer plopping
When fishing, we normally want a gentle, soft presentation. But sometimes you want a big plop, a slap on the water. If there are grasshoppers around, then it is one of the times you want your fly to land with a plop. Another time and place for the plop is when presenting your fly next to grass banks or under overhanging trees. The plop and splash of a fly landing hard on the water attracts the attention - like a grasshopper or big beetle landing on the surface of the water. Sometimes giving a little twitch after a second or three is also very effective.
Salvage a cracked fly line
If you full Weight Forward (WF) fly line has started cracking in the transition between the head an the running part, consider converting it to a shooting head. Cut the line in front of the cracked part (when seen from the reel) and splice an eye on the braided core in the back end of the line. Attach this to a shooting line, and you have a shooting head which will probably work well with a rod, which is a class or two lighter than the original line weight.
My Erna
This fly is not new, but a well proven pattern from several rivers here in Iceland. I originally made it for Laxa i Adaldal where it is one of the top catchers, and has an almost endless number of 10...
See the pattern here
Trimming at waterside
In stead of tying all your flies to precisely match the pattern you intend to make, you might want to consider trying some flies meant for 'waterside adjustment'. This means tying patterns with a bit of extra fuzz, some denser hackle, longer flash straws or similar surplus material. When you start fishing you can then judge the amount needed for the specific conditions. You might want to remove a bit of flash or bright material or cut it all off.
Stiff fly lines
Some lines curl Nils Folmer Jørgensen Do you know the feeling of a cold and rainy day, where your fingers are cold, your coffee is cold, fish are not biting, everything is lousy and on top of that you are not able to cast properly? The line is stiff and messy, and might even curl all the time, not wanting to stretch properly. Well, I cannot do much about the coffee and your fingers, but the casting might not be that lousy. It could be the line, which is just stiff! This makes casting very difficult.
Gaining control over fish
Under control Martin Joergensen When fishing non-running waters like lakes and ocean, you often experience the fish running towards the shore - and you - in stead of away from you. This has the unfortunate effect that in spite of your effort to get the loose line on the reel, it is not sufficient to keep the line tight. In many cases the pull in the line will lessen and the fish is likely to spit the hook, especially if you fish barbless. In stead you must pull the line directly and keep the line tight and the pull steady.
Twined or twisted leader butts
Dave Cook writes: If you use home made twined or furled leader butts the most annoying thing is to have the leader tangle and twist if it is stretched and released suddenly. This can be prevented by adding one strand of Fused GSP (Berkely Fireline) through the leader or make the complete leader from the reasonably clear "Fireline Crystal". This line has almost zero stretch. If the complete dry fly leader butt is made from this line the leader will float forever without requiring floatant. This line is available down to 1lb in size.
Trimming line tapers
When you buy a fly line of almost any taper, the tip often has fairly long a level section beyond the front taper. This section might be there because of the way the lines are produced or because of the additional wear-and-tear tolerance it offers. But on most lines it's good for very little! The tapered part of the line transfers and accelerates power from the level part of the line or the belly to the thinner leader and finally to the tippet and fly. This surplus level piece will not aide that process.
Lighten your fly on the fly
Many flies for salt water fishing have lead or metal dumbbell eyes or eyes made from bead chain, which help them penetrate the water and sink quickly. Unfortunately these weights also make the fly splash a bit, when it hits the water. If you are fishing for spooky fish - namely bonefish, but also mullet - in skinny water, this splash is very likely to scare the fish. In stead of spending time changing the fly, simply cut off the eyes with a small set of pliers. This operation can be done quickly, and will not harm a well tied fly significantly.
Holding material out of way before tying in
Martin Smith writes:
If you have a vise that won't take a material spring such as a Regal, find some small, flat magnets. If you don't have any, go to an electronics store or a toy store and purcha...
Inexpensive adjustable hair stacker
Hair stackers are usually made from metal - aluminum or brass - and bought in a fly shop. A good alternative to these ready made stackers are inexpensive syringes. Buy a few in varying sizes. In some cases you even get a needle with a protective cover in the package. This yields a free varnishing needle and a fine tube fly tube. Remove the piston and cut off the tip of the syringe. Remove any roughness on the edge with fine sand paper and reinsert the piston.
Placing the fly on your rod during breaks
Fly mounted on the rod for transport Martin Joergensen Many fly rods are equipped with a hook rest where the fly can be placed while you are not fishing. This hook rest is commonly located right above the handle, which can be a fine place to set your fly - providing your leader is significantly shorter than one rod length...
Securing rod parts
Check your ferrules Martin Joergensen Some rods have a tendency to slowly come apart while you fish with them. The ferrules will loose their grip and finally the parts will be so loose that the tip might fly off in a cast or -- even worse -- come partly off and break the male ferrule. This has a very serious risk of totally wrecking the rod and should be carefully avoided. There are several tricks, which will help you avoid the problem:
Untying tight wind knots
Wind knots - which have nothing to do with wind by the way - often seem to tighten up more than any manually tied knot. These knots not only weaken the leader but also seem to have an ability to pick up any small piece of weed or get even more tangled for each cast. Better untie them! But... how do you untie a tight knot on on a 4X tippet? Nails and teeth are usually no good on these thin lines and small knots. You use a fly! Fly hooks have extremely sharp points and will enter even the most minute hole between two strands of mono and force them apart.
Bringing home waste line II
Make use of an old film roll plastic container, which is small and fits in almost anywhere. Make small cuts into the top of the container with a sharp carpet knife about three or four that cross each other will suffice. In the end the cuts look like an asterisk (*). If you have waste material just simply push it into the container through the cuts. It will not come out again and there is room for hundreds of small lengths.
Bringing home waste line
When you fish you most likely cut off tippet and leader material several times during a fishing day. Tangles, wind knots, wear and tear will force you to change the tippet or most of the leader. Of course you never ever dump any significant pieces of fishing line in nature! That goes almost regardless of how small the snippets are. Name a pocket in you jacket or vest the "snippet pocket" and make sure that alle little tags and pieces of material goes in there. Do not use it for anything else, because anything put in there will tangle in monofilament.
Splicing pike wire with fire
If you fish for pike and use plastic coated pike wire for you leaders, you have probably experienced the difficulty of 'tying knots' on this very stiff material. There are a number of options when you want to attach leader and fly, but the easiest is using fire. Make a loop and twist the wire around itself 4-5 times over an inch or so, and hold it close to a flame. The coating will now melt and splice the wire very tightly. Attach the fly to the other end in the same way. Thread the wire through the eye of the fly, twist and heat. Watch out for feathers and synthetics!
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