bob your flies are beautiful i just wish i had half the talent that you have. I am not ready to salmon flies yet have only been tying one year and i am getting the hang of nymphs, drys.emergers and streamers ,deer hair poppers and someday going to try full dress salmon. so keep up the hard work and dont be so hard on yourself
Robin
Russ,
When working in 9, 10 and 11 weight rods, the difference between one line class and the next is quite significant, and if you are talking premade shooting heads (just the head with no running line), I would hesitate to acquire an 11 weight head for a 9 weight rod - even with the intent of cutting it down.
Lefty is right in his arguments (what else, he's Lefty!) that a longer head will give potentially longer casts, but depending on your casting position and skills, remember that keeping a 40 foot head in the air is no easy task. If you fish from a boat it's manageable, but if you wade, it's a lot harder.
But the idea of starting long and working your way down is still my preferred way of doing things, and in you situation I would consider finding a full double taper line in a suitable weight class - typical a 10 weight in your case. This is the way I usually go about trimming shooting heads. Most DT-lines are even longer than 80 feet meaning that you can most likely get two heads from one line.
If you look for Salmon Double Taper lines in shops and on the web you will most likely find lines in the 9-12 weight range, and some of those might be what you need. Some of the manufacturers have them on their program in both floating, intermediate and sinking versions.
They are not uncommon in UK and Scandinavian shops, where classical two hand rods for salmon might be more common than in the US.
In my own case I have been able to buy inexpensive mill end lines at really good prices on a couple of occasions, and that just makes the deal even sweeter.
Hope this helps.
Martin
Martin, I am just rigging up for saltwater flyfishing (mostly fishing for snook, redfish, spotted trout, bluefish and various snappers in Indian River in Florida) after being a trout fly fisherman in PA for many years. I've acquired a 9wt graphite Lamiglas flyrod that's 9feet 6 inches long. I've read alot of Lefty Kreh articles about saltwater fly fishing and have made it a habit to heed much of his advice. One piece of advice he gave me is not to use many flies bigger than 1/0 in size. That they are just difficult to cast. With the casting difficulty aspect in my mind, naturally the idea of using shooting heads has caught my fancy. Mr Kreh in his book writes that most of the line manufacturers provide shooting heads that are precisely 30 feet in length because that's how flyline weights are measured, by the first 30 feet. He finds fault with that because as soon as the shooting head unfurls in mid air it quickly falls to the water. He says to get better casting distance it's better to start with a shooting head of about 40 foot or longer and work your way down to the optimal SH length thru trial and error much the same way you advocate to determine what's the best SH length you can handle. In my case I am finding 40 foot shooting heads hard to find in 10wt. I know where I can get one in 11wt. Would I be making a huge mistake attempting a shooting head that's 2 steps above my 9wt rod? Not that it matters much but I will be using a 10wt Tioga reel.
I have found that the wax used on bow strings works quite well as any dubbing wax used previously.
The costs associated are less than $3.00 per tube which gives enough wax to last quite a long time.
I comes in a plastic push up tube with a cover.
I have used these wax rings for years. I like your system of melting into containers. Do you have a website for this supplier?
Yip- I am afraid that I cannot see it either! Wish I could!
Anonymous,
The image was shot on Corsica.
Martin
WHERE IS THIS???
Peter,
There was no particular post processing done. The original was slightly darker than this version, but the levels through the image are unchanged. I used a digital SLR with an external flash for the image, and they tend to control tricky flash exposures like this a bit better than compact cameras with their small built in flashes. It was shot at a fairly low shutter speed - a 45th of a second - to get the sky right, but apart from that keine Hexerei, nur Behändicheit...
Here is a shot of the same scene with no flash. No clear water.
Martin
Martin,
Your picture of Henning night fishing with illuminated sea weed in the foreground is just great! I don't recall having seen anything like this before. Any significant post-processing, like dividing the image and lightening the lower part?
/Stoltze
Marvellous, but is there anywhere that I can buy a Waldron Reel. I have phoned Lawry Waldron but he unfortunately do not make them anymore. Can someone please help me! Regards Morne Steyn
Peter,
As far as I can deduct from the web IMBA is often used in Warcraft and means either imbalanced or immensely badass. We prefer the latter interpretation. Kasper's crashing wave is a great picture.
Martin
Some really good tips and stunning pictures in this article.
Love this pic! How do I get permission to use it in the Oregon Council Federation of Fly Fishers Newsletter?
I am the VP communications for the council.
I want to make a few of them up using your method but I can't get any Orvis Marabou hair (I don't think they make it anymore?). Whats the best alternative?
tight lines
Trent
Alan, it shouldn't matter the brand or tier. All hair bugs are great and anything at your local fly shop will work great to find your kids some nice fish.
Excellent article, I've been trying to figure out how to tie some patterns on circle hooks and this gives me the ability to do just that. I prefer to use circle hooks for all my fishing due to the advantage of the hook's tendancy to hook only at the mouth of the fish. I do a lot of catch and release and the circle hook keeps damage to the fish to a minimum. Thanks!
Wow,
Great tutorial. I was looking for it for the long time.
Can you please explain how do you looping the hackle in the little more details?
When you putting hackle in the loop do you align hackle tips with hook shank?
Thank you
Lowspark,
the DVD contains an English track, also. I bought mine at sportshuset.eu but there are many other places.
Kasper
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