Do you know this scenario: You're somewhere on a great stream, you're camped out in a tent and haven't had a bath for several days and you're fed up with Chili Beans. The one thing that'll make you happy is some good fishing, and all day the fish have been rising happily to sedge-pupae which you happen to *not* have in the box! So, upon returning to the tent you decide to tie some and usually that either means tying in the dark or having your mate hold up a torch!

Well, I have this little trick. You all know the classic fishing-torch - The FlexLite. A company called LED has made a version of it that's so small that you can tape it to the bobbinholder arm of your vise (see picture). In my little Viking-World, that's damned brilliant thinking :-)))

Dry-fly leaders

Alright, dryfly leaders. The purpose of a dryfly leader (or any leader or course) are several things. To create an invisible (or as near invisible as possible) link between the flyline and the fly and to take out the final power of the line and present the fly softly. With this in mind let's take a look at the more specific properties one could wish for in a dryfly leader

Aside from taking out final power and all that, you really want a leader that is capable of presenting the fly in several different ways. Contrary to saltwater-leaders where you want to present the leader as straight as possible to be able to fish the fly at once, it is often desirable to fish the dry on a leader that more readily accepts the goals of a good presentation-cast. And that is 9 out of 10 times slack-line in some configuration (check our very own Presentation-CasterMaster Carlos' superb games for practicing presentation).

So basically, what you're after is a leader that actually doesn't straighten out too well! Often that means a long leader and a long leader has to be well constructed in order to function correctly. So here's my leader-configuration for a standard, dryfly setup (4-wt rod).

0,483mm 120cm
0,381mm 80cm
0,33mm 40cm
0,279mm 30cm
0,229mm 30cm (now would be a good time to switch to Fluorocarbon, if you believe in it
0,178mm 60-80
0,152mm 80-100cm

This is the standard leader that works for me in most situations. It's slightly long if it's windy, but the great thing about a knotted leader is that it's quick and easy to shorten it down. A shorter leader will ease presentation in windy conditions and of larger flies too. If you want it longer for fishing super-small flies in calm water, it's easy to prolong the leader with some 0.12mm or even 0,10mm.
Basically, it's a very flexible leader that with modifications will suit all kinds of flies, conditions and fishermen and you will be able to present a straight leader as well.
I'm currently looking into another solution, where I replace the heavy parts of the leader with a tapered, 7.5 foot leader and prolong this to suit my demands. This has the benefit of avoiding the rather clumsy knots in the heavy parts. And speaking of knots, on the heavy parts I use double blood-knots and from say 0,178 and down, I use double or triple Water Knot (Surgeon's Knot). When these experiments are over and I feel comfortable relaying the results, I'll update this column.
So if you like, try out this configuration or take this as an invitation to do some experiements of your own! Enjoy!

Stuck rod pieces

Sometimes flyrods are virtually impossible to take apart. We've all tried this and it's not entirely bad, because if this happens, it means that you've assembled the rod properly in the first place. I think one of the main reasons for rod-breaks is slipping ferrules caused by improper assembly of the rod.

Still, most of us prefer to bring the rod back home after a days fishing, and the easiest way to do this is of course to take it apart and put it in the bag or the booth of the car. So it's damn annoying when the pieces are stuck!!! But of course we have advice for solving this problem as well here on Sexyloops.
Stefan Backhaus from Germany suggests you put the rod behind your knees, grab the two pieces on the outside of the knees and let the legs help take the thing apart. This is prime advice from Stefan and it works a treat! A few words of caution though: *Never* grab the rod around the guides - you might be allright a few times, but after a while the guides will come loose. And make sure hands and rod are dry, otherwise your hands might slip and you will hurt your hands on a guide or tear one off, which is far worse of course. Hands heal by themselves - guides have to be re-wrapped :-)!

Another way to do it is, if you are fishing with a mate, both to grab hold of the rod and pull! If you make sure that you both have a hand on each part of the rod, you should be allright!