Tracy&James | Sunday, 17 March 2024
I've been busy finishing the tackle preparations for our upcoming saltwater trip this weekend. Firstly I spooled up two new Celestial fly lines that I've promised Steve (the owner) that we'd try out in a tropics environment. I was seriously let down by the Rio saltwater lines we had last time in that the coating de-bonded from the core along the entire length of the front tapers of 3 different fly lines. I think the root cause of this lies with a fundamental flaw in trying to get plastisol to adhere to a smooth nylon monofilament. I say this having spoken to a number of other flats anglers who have seen exactly the same issue with Rio saltwater lines. Now I know Rio have great customer service and would probably replace these (hugely) expensive lines if I contacted them, however I simply don't want another line made with this construction method. Celestial lines are built on braided cores, as per conventional fly lines, and the stiffness is controlled by the properties of the plastisol coating.
I've prepared the lines by making loops by bending the tip (and the back end) back on itself and securing it with three 6 turn nail-knots. A few years back I did some Instron testing (reported on SL) pulling fly line loops to destruction; the three loop types in the tests; the nail-knot method, welded loops and sleeved braid, all performed very well in terms of failure strength. However, from a fishing and durability aspect I think the nail-knotted loops win out – welds eventually peel apart and sleeved braids crack (although whipped braids perform better). You still have to be careful with the nail-knots though; too many turns and you risk failing to draw the middle ones tight, resulting in a barrel-shaped knot that will ultimately work loose. Thus, for my loops I find 6 turns to be optimal (I also have a favourite 'goldilocks' nylon which I use – not too thin and not too thick) and using three such knots offers a high degree of confidence (even with one knot in place the loop is pretty much at its full strength). I should probably point out that I'm happy to use welded loops on the back-end of the fly line as this sees less 'abuse' than the one on the front.
I've also been finishing fly tying to re-stock our fly boxes. Over the years my bonefish flies have become more and more dull. This is purely to match the bottom of the flats which we're going to be fishing over. I think people who don't go bonefishing think that bonefishing is exclusively conducted over pristine white flats, and whilst these flats do exists they are few and far between for a DiY angler (or at least on the island where Tracy and I have been fishing for the last few years). We tend to hunt fish in rocky, silty (sometimes muddy) and grassy flats. These areas offer much more cover for prey species and, as such, attract predatory fish, i.e. bonefish. The flies I've tied reflect this – they are either green or brown and this time I've even dispensed with the minimal amount of flash that I used to tie in – they are as dull as I can make them and also tied with weed guards. Now a lot of flats anglers, used to being poled around pristine flats, may suggest that a correctly tied fly will fish hook point upwards and will naturally avoid snagging. This simply isn't the case on the flats we'll be fishing though, where without using a good weed guard you risk having a very frustrating day of hooking the bottom immediately in front of an oncoming bone. We still get the occasional snag with the flies we use – I'm sure I've previously mentioned the fish that tailed on my fly that was stuck solidly in a rock and manage to dig it out and get itself hooked.
I've also tied some garfish flies with 'silk-hooks'. These are loops of material designed to snag in the teeth and around the beaks of the gars. They're a bit experimental but I'll see how they perform.
Tomorrow (Sunday), will see Tracy and I on our usual casting field competing in the Australian (Geelong) casting competition which allows virtual entries. The fly casting events are the #5, T38 and T120. We'll then be heading home to pack. Next week's front page will be coming to you from the Bahamas, hopefully the our first bonefish of the year competition will be decided by the time we write.
Have a great week,
James.