Trinity Steelhead pic
 

Peter Charles wrote

4X isn't the problem, a 6 wt. singole hander is. I land much larger
steelies on 4X but I'm not using a little, wimpy six weight when I
do
it. Those steelies in the photos I posted were landed on the
equivalent of 4X.

Unless one is fighting wind or using weighted flies, I think a good
6wt with backbone is plenty of rod to handle steelhead in the 5-12 lb
range. My regular summer steelhead rod is a 9ft Sage VPS 6wt. Using
8-10 lb tippet, I can quickly bull even hot fish in with it. I recall
being undergunned only once, and I broke the fish off with no qualms.

Trinity Steelhead pic
 

On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 17:07:24 -0700, Willi & Sue
wrote:

Peter Charles wrote:

What confuses me is that you told Tom to use heavier equipment. 4x
tippet runns about 7 lbs. Using your formula, that's adequate for a 20
pound fish. I'm guessing he wasn't fishing over anything nearly that
big. (not that I agree with your formula)

Willi



Acually, let's get this discussion back to where it started. It began
with the requirement of using 7X to catch fish on heavily pounded
waters. I use the heaviest tippet I can get away with, given the
circumstances. I don't go with the lightest for some macho reason.

For example, when the Grand is heaily stained, I use Maxima 10 lb. for
steelhead because the conditons allow me to catch fish on 10 lb. When
the water clears up, I won't catch fish on 10 lb. so I drop to 6 lb.
and still land the same percentage of fish. Out of the 11 I wrote
about, only one broke me off and that's because I had a brain cramp.

Same thing about the upper Grand. I'll fish 3X or 4X when swinging
streamers but I know I have to drop to 7X to *reliably* hook fish when
using dries. Since switching to high quality FC, I have not lost one
fish to breakoff. The largest landed was 19", not the 20" you
mentioned, but close enough.

Peter

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Trinity Steelhead pic
 

On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 17:07:24 -0700, Willi & Sue
wrote:

Peter Charles wrote:

What confuses me is that you told Tom to use heavier equipment. 4x
tippet runns about 7 lbs. Using your formula, that's adequate for a 20
pound fish. I'm guessing he wasn't fishing over anything nearly that
big. (not that I agree with your formula)

Willi



Acually, let's get this discussion back to where it started. It began
with the requirement of using 7X to catch fish on heavily pounded
waters. I use the heaviest tippet I can get away with, given the
circumstances. I don't go with the lightest for some macho reason.

For example, when the Grand is heaily stained, I use Maxima 10 lb. for
steelhead because the conditons allow me to catch fish on 10 lb. When
the water clears up, I won't catch fish on 10 lb. so I drop to 6 lb.
and still land the same percentage of fish. Out of the 11 I wrote
about, only one broke me off and that's because I had a brain cramp.

Same thing about the upper Grand. I'll fish 3X or 4X when swinging
streamers but I know I have to drop to 7X to *reliably* hook fish when
using dries. Since switching to high quality FC, I have not lost one
fish to breakoff. The largest landed was 19", not the 20" you
mentioned, but close enough.

Peter

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Trinity Steelhead pic
 

Peter Charles wrote:


Peter

Umm...ok? Where can I buy this stuff...NASA? ;-)

brians


Hey, you live down there, you figure it out. I just buy your exports.

Peter

:-) But seriously, what brand fluorocarbon do you use. I've found that
they are not all alike.

FWIW, I use 6x fluoro on very spooky/selective fish. Never bought a
spool of 7x fluoro.

brians

Trinity Steelhead pic
 

Peter Charles wrote:

We should be able to land a fish that weighs about three times the
rated strength of our tippet. So, we should be able to land a 5 lb.
fish with 2.7 lb. tippet without a problem.

Don't try it in the heavy current of the Madison, Peter. That's a sucker
bet. If a 5 lb. fish gets downstream from you on 7x it's gone.

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.

Trinity Steelhead pic
 

Peter Charles wrote:

We should be able to land a fish that weighs about three times the
rated strength of our tippet. So, we should be able to land a 5 lb.
fish with 2.7 lb. tippet without a problem.

Don't try it in the heavy current of the Madison, Peter. That's a sucker
bet. If a 5 lb. fish gets downstream from you on 7x it's gone.

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.

Trinity Steelhead pic
 

On Wed, 1 Dec 2004 16:39:26 -0800, "JR" wrote:

Peter Charles wrote

4X isn't the problem, a 6 wt. singole hander is. I land much larger
steelies on 4X but I'm not using a little, wimpy six weight when I
do
it. Those steelies in the photos I posted were landed on the
equivalent of 4X.

Unless one is fighting wind or using weighted flies, I think a good
6wt with backbone is plenty of rod to handle steelhead in the 5-12 lb
range. My regular summer steelhead rod is a 9ft Sage VPS 6wt. Using
8-10 lb tippet, I can quickly bull even hot fish in with it. I recall
being undergunned only once, and I broke the fish off with no qualms.


I've been fishing for steelies with a 6 wts too, but after getting my
butt handed to me, I put it back in the closet. I don't think a 6 wt.
is compatible with C&R. I do think it is compatible if you intend to
kill and eat the fish.

Peter

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Trinity Steelhead pic
 

On Wed, 1 Dec 2004 16:39:26 -0800, "JR" wrote:

Peter Charles wrote

4X isn't the problem, a 6 wt. singole hander is. I land much larger
steelies on 4X but I'm not using a little, wimpy six weight when I
do
it. Those steelies in the photos I posted were landed on the
equivalent of 4X.

Unless one is fighting wind or using weighted flies, I think a good
6wt with backbone is plenty of rod to handle steelhead in the 5-12 lb
range. My regular summer steelhead rod is a 9ft Sage VPS 6wt. Using
8-10 lb tippet, I can quickly bull even hot fish in with it. I recall
being undergunned only once, and I broke the fish off with no qualms.


I've been fishing for steelies with a 6 wts too, but after getting my
butt handed to me, I put it back in the closet. I don't think a 6 wt.
is compatible with C&R. I do think it is compatible if you intend to
kill and eat the fish.

Peter

turn mailhot into hotmail to reply

Visit The Streamer Page at http://www.mountaincable.net/~pcharl...ers/index.html

Trinity Steelhead pic
 

On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 16:48:29 -0800, brians wrote:

Peter Charles wrote:


Peter

Umm...ok? Where can I buy this stuff...NASA? ;-)

brians


Hey, you live down there, you figure it out. I just buy your exports.

Peter

:-) But seriously, what brand fluorocarbon do you use. I've found that
they are not all alike.

FWIW, I use 6x fluoro on very spooky/selective fish. Never bought a
spool of 7x fluoro.

brians


There's a lot of good stuff on the market, just avoid the copolymers
as they're crap. I've found that 7X FC is way better than 7X mono
because it knots better. I've lost fish on 7X mono when the knots
failed and I'll never use it again. I use Mirage and Rio FC

Going back to our original discussion, we never discussed knots. I
normally break off fish at the knots and in these cases the breaking
strength of the knot is way lower than the rated strength of the line.
With better knots, my breakoff rate goes down. With FC, the breaking
rate of my knots is higher. So, I'll face a fish with 7X FC that I'd
face with 5X mono. The 5X mono has a much higher breaking strength
but not on my knots.

Peter

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Trinity Steelhead pic
 

On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 16:48:29 -0800, brians wrote:

Peter Charles wrote:


Peter

Umm...ok? Where can I buy this stuff...NASA? ;-)

brians


Hey, you live down there, you figure it out. I just buy your exports.

Peter

:-) But seriously, what brand fluorocarbon do you use. I've found that
they are not all alike.

FWIW, I use 6x fluoro on very spooky/selective fish. Never bought a
spool of 7x fluoro.

brians


There's a lot of good stuff on the market, just avoid the copolymers
as they're crap. I've found that 7X FC is way better than 7X mono
because it knots better. I've lost fish on 7X mono when the knots
failed and I'll never use it again. I use Mirage and Rio FC

Going back to our original discussion, we never discussed knots. I
normally break off fish at the knots and in these cases the breaking
strength of the knot is way lower than the rated strength of the line.
With better knots, my breakoff rate goes down. With FC, the breaking
rate of my knots is higher. So, I'll face a fish with 7X FC that I'd
face with 5X mono. The 5X mono has a much higher breaking strength
but not on my knots.

Peter

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