[Mike Barrio]

How do you choose what strength cast to use when setting up your rod for trout fishing  :

You may take in to consideration the action of your rod, the weight of your fly line perhaps? What about the size of fish that you expect to catch on the water that you are fishing? And the size of your fly? Is your fly weighted or has it got a gold bead?

And then what about the conditions on the day ...... is there a ripple on the water, is it cloudy or sunny, is the water clear or coloured?

Do you actually think about any of the above? Or do you always set your kit up the same?

Can any of the forum members come up with a nice simple formula that might help anglers to choose the right cast   :idea:  

Best wishes
Mike
 

[Euan Innes]

I'm probably not the one to give really helpfull advice on this.
Since I started using my Scott #4 and one fly (2 in a drifting boat) I use a Froghair 9' 7lb point, tapered leader needle knoted to the end of my line.
Now the weird bit. I cut off the last 4' from the tip of the leader and water knot on 3' of Drennan 4lb standard nylon, followed by 3' of 3lb.
Turnover is superb, the nylon strong and willing to take a rub down with Fullers Earth and this rig has landed double figure fish. It cuts through the surface film with ease but can be made to float. Fish can't see it cos it's thin and flies like it cos they get movement. Big lures hate it it but the feeling is mutual. It also seems to tangle a lot less, even with direction changes in a swirlling wind.

Just a thought that will probably mess with a few heads...

Euan  

[Kev Danby]

Most of my fishing is with a 4/5 wt and flies in the 12 - 16 range and I like to use 4lb fluorocarbon on the point tapering from 8lb to 6 lb to 4lb this seems to suit my style of fishing. On rivers I'll go to 3lb on the point and for those pesky blobs/lures 6lb point seems ok. The length of leader varies between 10 - 15 feet usually longer in winter to allow the fly to fish deeper with a floating line.

For pike I have been using 10 feet of 15lb maxima to a short 20lb trace and the barbel was on a 4lb point.

[Sandy Nelson]

My leaders are a bit different.
I tend toward the same frohair taper that euan uses but add 12" of 7lb then 36" of 5.9lb and then another 36"of either 4 or 5.9lb depending what size of set up i'm using. ie 3wt 4lb point, 5wt 5.9lb point.- this goes for stillwater fishing.
However on the river i scale everything down about 2lb.

The only thing close to a general rule that i would suggest is the point size(tippet breaking strain) should match the weight of the fly line.

ie 5 wt line 5lb point
3wt line 3lb point.

As for conditions if its windy i will shorten the cast (to about 12ft) and use one fly.
Otherwise i use the same set up most of the time.

Sandy

[Sandy Nelson]

Kev

I have a query i've been pondering

Is it Kevlar D in some hint at being hi-tec
or is it Kev Lard as in fat bastard

 :  :  :  :  :  :  :

[Mike Barrio]

Great stuff  

What about making up DIY tapered casts from straight nylon? ......... Lets say we have the following nylon:
3lb = 0.18mm
4lb = 0.20mm
5lb = 0.22mm
6lb = 0.25mm
and we decide to make a simple formula broken down in to two weights/types of fly rod, eg:
Rods of 5wt or lighter ( #3/#4/#5 )
Rods of 6wt or heavier ( #6/#7/#8 )

Would this be helpful for beginners? If so and going back to the original question........ what might the formula be?

Best wishes
Mike
 

[Mike Barrio]

Why am I asking all this?  :



I have just received stock of my new product ......
BARRIO "Troutcast"
Strong Reliable Clear Nylon
Great For Knots
Superb Quality

3 lb ( 0.18mm )
4 lb ( 0.20mm )
5 lb ( 0.22mm )
6 lb ( 0.25mm )

Price = £3.00 per 100m spool

[wildfisher]

And damned fine stuff it is too. Not that I tested it often  in the  fish department today at Haddo…… : …. Nice and stiff, knots  well   and cheap!!!

Mike,  are these the diameters   of  "Troutcast" in your post above?

By the way – I like the name – sounds like an  online fishing conference.  :

[Mike Barrio]

By the way – I like the name – sounds like an online fishing conference

You are responsible for the name in a way ........ Do you remember pointing out to me ages ago that I should call my nylon a "cast" and not a "leader or tippet"?

Cheers
Mike
 

[wildfisher]

By the way – I like the name – sounds like an online fishing conference

You are responsible for the name in a way ........ Do you remember pointing out to me ages ago that I should call my nylon a "cast" and not a "leader or tippet"?

Cheers
Mike
 

Indeed I do. Glad to see you took my sound advice on board!   :

By the way are these the diameters  above? I'm sure they are but best check. ********ignore that of course they are !!!  :

[sightbob]

hi mike
i would be interested in stocking some of your nylon, if you could confirm the diameters and give me a call if you're interested in a bit of distribution??
cheers
brian

[Mike Barrio]

Hi Brian

Yes, the diameters are as listed above. I'll give you a phone  

Best wishes
Mike

[Kev Danby]

Sandy you are right on both accounts.

A pal from Glasgow thought that my rotund belly was used to develop and manufacture new hitech material and cristened it kevlard, since then the name has kind of stuck with me.

So that makes me a hitech fat bar steward.

Fortunately due to lack of demand production has been slimmed down by approx 17 lbs and there may be a need for re-branding to kevlesslard.

[Rod Mackay]

Hi Mike,

Used "Barrio Troutcast" for the first time at the weekend.  Fished for 8 hours without having to remove a single fangle - a first for me

Great Product and a great price.

Rod

[the water buoys]

hi guys
                  what is the best set up for floattubing, since i started using fluorocarbon i have been broken quite a lot.I always used maxima 4 or5lbcanot remember ever been broke .The thing is my catch rate has gone up quite abit.using fluorocarbon.i used mamba 5 and6lb broke afew times went up to8lb was alright ,But did not feel sporting about it .tried sight free 5lb rainbows got 3lb for the brown trout up the highlands the 3lb was so weak,ihad to usethe 5lb for half pound brown trout. This stuff cost about 13 quid 100 metres .i bought one got one free  Iam now using virage which is pritty good. But only comes in 40 metre spools at5 pounds dose not last long between me and andrew started with 8lb now down to 6lb would like to go lower would be grateful for any advice . seem to have more breaks on the tube .do you still get fog gut that used to be good gut .when i could not afford maxima ,how things change. :  :z4henryfrom the waterbouys :

[moffty]

I had great troubles with the above horrible stuff when I first used it, so much so that even though I found out what the problem was, I moved back to nylon and have stayed there ever since.

It was all down to the knot that was used, I used to be quite happy with a half blood knot for attaching the fly. Unfortunately, fluorocarbon wasn't!!!

I reckon I'd get a 1lB breaking strain max from 8lB fluoro. it ended up costing me a fortune in flies!

Check out http://www.orvis.com/orvis_assets/files/index.html

The Orvis knot sorted all the problems out and even though I don't use fluoro any more, I still swear by that knot.

Try it and let me know what you think.

Steve

[wildfisher]

Mofty, that knot looks very complicated…some of us are now using this

The Davy Knot.

http://utahoutdoors.com/pages/Davyknot.htm
http://www.itinerantangler.com/podcasts/2006/02/video_archive_how_to_tie_the_d.html

It is possibly the easiest knot ever to tie and so far no problems.

[notkeenonlures]

for casts i only ever use sightfree 6lb flouro and it always seems to do me fine but my mate cant stand flouro saying he always breaks with it but i think its ok (he always catches more than me so he has more chances to break) : when we go for wee broonies we both use drennan subsurface 2lb and we never have probs with this stuff and its nice and cheep too

[moffty]

Wildfisher

Thanks for the Davy knot, I'll try it out. It's funny though, you say that the orvis knot looks complicated which I suppose it is, but hey, remember the first time you tried to tie your shoe laces was that not a total bar steward???

I would imagine that now you could tie your laces standing on your head whilst reciting War and Peace backwards.....

The first few times you try tying any knots they are tricky, this bit behind, this bit in front, loop it over and through...blah blah blah. After a bit of practice though, the whole thing becomes a least resistance path in a neural net, something we no longer have to consciously think about. This of course, gives us all the more time to think about how on earth we are going to catch the devious little FU......FISH! that sit just under the surface sticking two fingers up at us and ignoring all our flies!!!

Regards

Steve

 :

[the water buoys]

Thanks for the davey knot very easy to tie hope to try it out tomorrow,Hopefully with a fish on it .I give the sight free another go and let yous no how i get on Thanks again Henry from the water bouys :  :