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Fly Line, Backing, Leader help


PRED-ATOR

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Hi Raiders,

Been casting away everyday trying to get my increase my fly casting skills. Wow, the videos make it look easy lol.

A couple of things ive encountered so far:

- A sore shoulder, im assuming this is normal?

- I have hooked the back of my head and my scarf like 3 times, lucky it was there lol ended up casting hookless for a while

- After a few casts, the fly might actually snap of. Is this happening becuase im whipping back and forth too fast?

I will be getting my new reel soon and want to spool it up. Can anyone recommend a good fly line. Its a 6wt Rod and Reel. Also, should I be using braid or dacron as my backing or both? Would 6lb braid be ok?

Thanks Raiders,

Stan

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Hi Stan,

My Mate bought a saltwater line which he fishes regularly in freshwater, so yeah they are good for both.

As Royce said, go Dacron for your backing line, in the 25-30lb region. (I think its sold mostly as 30lb these days)

If your not sure what knot is best to attach the fly line to your backing line, depending on whether there is an open loop on the fly line, in which case you could do a loop to loop connection, I actually prefer the nail knot.

The best advice I could offer you regarding casting, is to stop your forward cast at 10 o'clock, and your back cast at 2 o'clock. Also, keep your forearm straight, i.e. don't bend your wrist.

Check out Lefty Kreh online, he has some great instructional casting video's.

Cheers, Chris

Edited by foolforjesus
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  • 3 weeks later...

all good advice here.

most fly lines are good these days, just make sure it weight forward, they make short and medium length casting easy, lefty is great but i also like mel kriegers tuition he is a funny man.. and a true legend - but honestly treat yourself and get a lesson or a couple of them ( it will save you loads of heartache, some of my mates took up fly fishing much later in life than i did, they got lessons and practiced and are much better casters that i am (see i can admit it , lucky im a better fisherman, thats all i can say lol) For me to get better i need to unlearn some bad habits = lots of work ;-)

- A sore shoulder, im assuming this is normal? - yeah its pretty normal (but you get used to it and cast with less effort as you get better) PS don't try too hard... fish a short length of line upto say 15m get used to that, watch the loops feel the load, then pull another 1 or 2m off the reel cast that a while more and build up that way).
- I have hooked the back of my head and my scarf like 3 times, lucky it was there lol ended up casting hookless for a while - hold rod tip out at a slight angle away form your head, only a little maybe 10 degrees and watch the wind angle - you dont want it coming from your casting arm side if you can help it ( change spots , angle of cast, - if you cant do that then put you rod tip on the other side of your head and bicep across your chest and try cast that way (harder than normal) or cast backwards facing away form the water and deliver the fly to the water with your back cast)

- After a few casts, the fly might actually snap of. Is this happening because im whipping back and forth too fast? most likely its hitting the ground/ grass / trees behind you.

I will be getting my new reel soon and want to spool it up. Can anyone recommend a good fly line. Its a 6wt Rod and Reel. Also, should I be using braid or dacron as my backing or both? Would 6lb braid be ok? dacron as its thicker, wont cut your finger off as easy, if using braid use 50lb minimum it will usually hold more than 30lb dacron anyway

thats my 2c worth

cheers and best of luck

PS get a lesson

PPS get a lesson and practice

Edited by jimmy72
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Hi all, a sore shouider is the result of you trying too hard. A good cast is totally effortless,as others have suggested get yourself some lessons by a qualified instructor and save yourself a lot of heartache. The fly snapping off is a result of you commencing the forward cast before the back cast has fully unrolled hence a sudden speeding up of the fly and a snapping of the tippet. Do you hear a whip cracking type noise when this happens? It is the fly breaking the speed of sound. Hitting youself with the fly / line can be alleviated by canting your rod around 10 to 15 degrees outside your casting arm,but you must keep the rod tracking on the same plane to do this effectively.Once again a lesson or 2 from a qualified instructor is your ticket to really enjoying your fishing. cheers troutboy

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Hi Raiders,

Thanks for the advice. I have gotten alot better of late, making casts at the local lake.

I just purchased some rio gold 20lb dacron backing and will be looking at a weight forward floating line, to make presentations to Carp, Salmon, Tailor bream etc. Is a 4lb tippet ok?

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Hi Predator, 4lbs tippet is a bit light on in my opinion for the carp,salmon and tailor, may be ok for the bream in an open water situation, but I would be using a tapered leader to 8lbs and add tippet from there.You could safely go to 6lbs tippet or up to 10lbs for a bit more strength on the salmon and carp.Can you exchange your backing for 30lbs instead of the 20lbs as most modern flylines break around 30lbs and you dont want to loose a whole flyline to broken backing.

cheers troutboy

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Thanks mate,

Still dont no where to find the breaking strain of my line though. What would the breakign strain of a 6WT line be?

ITS NOT ABOUT BREAKING STRAIN ITS ABOUT YOUR CAPACITY OF ROD AND LINE TOGETHER.

If you ran a 60lb leader tied to your 6wt fly rod and loaded it whilst holding the reel locked and had a really big fish on you would snap your rod and perhaps your flyline at the join.

5 and 6 wt is for smaller fish with say a 6 to 10lb leader.

7 and 8 wt you may get away with 10 to 16lb leader or 5 to 7 kgs

9 and 10 wt is for much better fish and you could go up to 30lb or 15kg leader

11 and 12 wt and beyond are for very big fish and leader can be anywhere from 50lb or 24 kgs and upwards.

Regards Stewy

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In flyfishing there are no hard and fast rules,very large fish can be caught on 1 and 2 wt rods it just takes time and patients.As I stated above modern flylines in the weight you are talking about have a breaking strain of around 30 to 35 lbs. The chance of breaking the flyline on even a big fish is highly unlikely unless you end up run around some coral bommie or such structure.Usually the lighter leader or tippet will give way first.30lbs dacron would be my backing of choice for the line weight you have . You can run any strength leader you like but specific flies will not turn over with too heavy or too light a leader.cheers troutboy

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Troutboy is on the money its all relative to the size of the fly and type of leader you use to turn them over you cant turn a bass popper over on a 0 weight! Thats 6 and 7 weight stuff where as you are not going to put down a size 18 parachute adams using a 12 weight Sage Xi3 with any finesse though you can try

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