Bernd Ziesche | Wednesday, 13 March 2019
Last week I was testing some extreme line set ups in order to get the best contact between my fly and me.
When Flavio some days ago mentioned to test some very thin lines far outside the normal toolbox of fly fishing he indeed got me thinking!
So last week I was teaching fly casting and besides that I spent all my time on the water testing new line set ups. I probably tested more than 30 set ups!
Too shorten my findigs quite a bit, I like to present 3 of these line set ups.
1. 0,50mm fluoro carbon + 1m leader 0,30mm fluoro carbon + fly 3,3 gram
This line set up is extrem for casting. But surprisingly it's possible to cast the fly upto 20m. I wouldn't really call it to be fly casting anymore. That is even though I did cast my fly back and forth. But it was the fly pulling the line and not the other (normal) way around.
Anyway I thought this set up should offer me best possible contact. I was wrong! The fc doesn't really get straight (even when fishing a 3+gram fly). Also my fly was running thru a very low amplitude and though making it impossible to tell (by watching the line in front of the rod tip suddenly relax), when exactly the fly hit the bottom after each strip.
2. sinking shooting line 0.025 in 1,5 inch per second sinking rate + 3m short shooting head sink rate 3 inch per second + 1m 0,30mm fc leader
This set up worked best. The indication when my fly hit the bottom was good. And the head pulled the shooting line into proper tension, because of the higher sinking rate. That was the key not to miss takes and getting the lowest damping effects. I caught even several small fish with it.
3. sinking shooting line 0.025 in 1,5 inch per second sinking rate + 1m 0,30mm fc leader
This line made too much of a banana curve on it's way down (being pulled by the heavy fly). Due to that I lost contact for the smaller Zander (sucking in gently). But it did give my fly slower movements and thus makes it interesting for bigger fish in some situations. The indication of when my fly hit the bottom was best here!
You may find these 3 set ups in my drawing below:
There was really a lot to learn for me here. I didn't think such extreme set ups would still be castable. For me number 2. though is the edge of fly fishing, since the fly only overtakes the leader after the final line turn over (not the line itself).
We have a great discussion about all this here:
Sexyloops baord 2
Lots to learn here for sure! All pretty new stuff!
Ok, have to run into a fly casting lesson right now!
Great fly fishing week to all of you!
All my best
Bernd
Some pictures of last week...