Jonathan Cook wrote:

wrote:


Willi, Stick around, mang!


Yeah, rw promised you'd post a belize TR...and while yer
at it, pics would help ;-)

I was going to post one, but my ISP in Stanley is so pathetically bad
that I can't upload photos or even send them to abpf, so I gave up.

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

Wolfgang wrote:
"Tim J." wrote in message
...
...I've gone fishing three times this week, caught...baby 'bows...

Faintly ridiculous.

Yeah, but there it is.

Knowing how quickly the little ones tire, I hope you at least used the
largest hawser you could find.

1/4" sisal, and *that* nearly broke. I was told I should have been using
6-7X on the water I was fishing, but I didn't and probably missed the
big fish because of it.

Wolfgang
who would, in a similar situation, post pictures......though, only for
sharing purposes.

I'm getting worse at taking photos as the years go by. I'll have to at
least take one or two of some of the places I've visited lately (and
will visit next week), but fish photos are difficult for me, at best. I
just get all squishy inside watching the little guys gasp as I focus the
lens. Hmmmm. . . sounds like an excuse for a better camera.
--
TL,
Tim
------------------------
http://css.sbcma.com/timj

"Tim J." wrote in
:


1/4" sisal, and *that* nearly broke. I was told I should have been
using 6-7X on the water I was fishing, but I didn't and probably
missed the big fish because of it.

I am surprise George, Stan and yourself have been quiet in this thread
knowing what you know of th4e Y-Pool .... the only reason I own 8x.

Jonathan Cook wrote:

I tried 7x a few times while living in Colorado. Too many broken off
fish and too many way-too-tired fish at hand. It seems like the
tiniest nick in 7x and you're hosed -- you will break off any
decent-size fish. 6x for me has proved far more robust, and (as you
say) you can fight a fish close to what a 5wt rod gives you anyways.

When I use 6x or, more rarely, 7x tippet, I play fish exactly the same
way I would with 5x. The strength of the tippet never enters my mind. My
stragegy is to use something close to the full strength of the rod to
tire the fish and shorten the fight. The longer it goes, the more likely
something bad will happen. The most dicey part is often landing the fish
if I'm not carrying a net.

If I break off, so be it. The take is the best part, anyway, and I can
always tie more flies.

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

"rw" wrote in message
m...
Willi wrote:

rw wrote:




With a typical 5 wt. rod you can play a fish as hard with 7x tippet as
with 5x tippet, or even with 2x tippet.


Bull****

You never use 7x tippet so you don't know what the **** you're talking
about. The only time I've seen you use 7x tippet (or maybe it 6x) was
when you were using MY rod, and you caught and brought to hand a fish,
and reached for the tippet to land it. I told you not to do it, that the
tippet would break, but you did it anyway. And it broke when the fish
struggled, and you lost my damn fly.

:-)

I will admit, however, that fine tippet was probably not justified in
that situation.

--


Willi is right; you can't do this with a #5 rod/line. I moved up from a #3
8footer with 444 DT to a 8'3" #4 very recently. I continued to use my 7x
(2.2lb b.s.) tippet with the slightly heavier rod and line combo, and broke
off when striking into first decent fish. This was at a fish 60 feet away,
and very fresh in my memory as it was just 2 days ago; could have been fish
of the season and all that... :-). With my old #3 outfit, the striking
action would probably have not snapped the leader. Ah well, c'est la vie as
they say over there..

MichaelM wrote:

Willi is right; you can't do this with a #5 rod/line. I moved up from a #3
8footer with 444 DT to a 8'3" #4 very recently. I continued to use my 7x
(2.2lb b.s.) tippet with the slightly heavier rod and line combo, and broke
off when striking into first decent fish.

Breaking off on the strike is a common mistake with light tippet. That
was your fault. Once you have the fish hooked, though, you have a decent
chance of landing it.

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

Jonathan Cook wrote:
wrote:


Willi, Stick around, mang!


Yeah, rw promised you'd post a belize TR...and while yer
at it, pics would help ;-)

Jon.
Whose to-do list from the semester still hasn't shrunk enough
to wet a line, but I'm getting closer...hatching plans that
might result in a fantastic TR in 2-3 weeks...


I'll do it, but I'm waiting for RW to send me his photos. Aside from the
big Tarpon Steve landed, the fishing wasn't spectacular. However, the
snorkeling, the countryside and the people were.

Willi

rw wrote:
Scott Seidman wrote:


rw wrote in
m:

With a typical 5 wt. rod you can play a fish as hard with 7x tippet as
with 5x tippet, or even with 2x tippet.



Perhaps I'll employ your tactic, and save that gem for some day when I
need a ludicrous post of yours for some argument (two years can fly by
pretty fast). Do you really believe that's true?


I just did an experiment. I tied on 6x tippet (can't find any 7x at the
moment) and tried to break it with my 5wt rod (a Sage SP). This is Rio
Powerflex tippet rated at 3.4lb test.

I couldn't break it by putting a bend in the rod about as far as I dared
to go. That says to me that I can put as much steady pressure on a fish
with 6x as I can with anything else.

Now it's true that 6x or 7x will break more easily if it's subjected to
shocks, like if you strike too hard, or if the fish jumps and you don't
lower the rod, or if you grab the tippet while landing it, or if it gets
hung up on something, or if you let the line and rod straighten out when
the fish makes a run. Also, the knots have to be tied very well and the
material has to be free of nicks and abrasions. It does require more
skill (or luck) to hook and play and land a large fish on light tippet,
but when it comes to steady pressure on the fish it makes no difference
at all.


Your experiment isn't worth a **** because it doesn't reflect real life
conditions.

When's the last time you caught a big fish that applied steady pressure?

If you're so confident about the strength of 6X, you use it when we go
to Alaska and I'll use the 2X. We'll both use a 5 weight rod and we'll
see how the landing goes.

Willi

Wayne Knight wrote:
"Willi" wrote in message
...

Many of the West's famous waters are tailwaters. They do produce big fish
but give people a distorted view of what most of the fishing is like in
the Rockies. 90% + of our waters are freestone streams and rivers with
fish that definitely don't "demand" long leaders, small flies and thin
tippet.



If I had been using my experiences only I probably would not have chimed in,
but the last couple of years I;ve done my June Michigan thing, we've had two
guys that guide out west pretty much full time join us. And they catch fish
like a vacum cleaner with those small flies and long small tippets. My
observation is that the use of smaller flies and longer small tippets is
more common out west than in the East. Of course everyone;s experiences may
and can be different.




With the exception of the Stoneflies and a couple of hatches, we have
fewer hatches of big Mayflies in the Rockies than the guys do back East.
This might explain part of the difference. (We do have our big
Stones though).

Another thing is that most full time guides are likely to be taking
their clients out to famous waters, which for the most part are our
tailwaters with their tiny flies.

I have pretty limited experience with anglers from back East. I'm going
more on "historical" stuff from the books that comment on the East using
smaller match the hatch type flies and the West using the big attractor
patterns. I still think that's somewhat true with the big foam patterns
Chernobyl Ants, etc. and the big Stimulators used out West but there has
definitely been a change over to smaller flies since I moved out here.

Willi

Scott Seidman wrote:
Willi wrote in :


rw wrote:


With a typical 5 wt. rod you can play a fish as hard with 7x tippet as
with 5x tippet, or even with 2x tippet.

Bull****

Willi



Hey Willi--

Good to see you around!! Ya ever try out those woven nymphs??

Scott


We're still having major runoff and I was in Belize during the best part
of the prerunoff. The flies are in my vest. I'll give them a shot when
the water starts to clear. (Which may take some time with the good
snowpack we had this year.)

Willi