[Hamish Young]

As the trout season rapidly approaches I've been gradually getting stuff ready and treating myself to some new toys (as you do  ) but whilst I was putting a new silk furled leader onto one of my lines I started thinking about 'stuff' in a wee bit more in detail and this is what my question is......

My favourite river line is the Partridge Dry & Delicate (because it's green and I like green  - ok  ) but when I'm on the river do I really need a fly line with yards and yards of continuous running line

I don't think so.

So I got to thinking about exactly how much of the line do I really use on the river, the answer was probably a maximum of 15 yards and that's a maximum distance I probably cast when wading up to my oxters etc etc. More often than not it's going to be under 10 yards.

The reason this is bugging me a smidgen is becuase I just chopped a good 8 yards+ off the running line end of my Dry & Delicate as I simply don't need it and it now fits on my wee Lamson better  But I really hate chopping up a perfectly good fly line  .... then again do I really need it all

But how many folk jam a line onto a reel that they're never going to get the full use of Especially on a river

Is there a case for having shorter length presentation orientated WF lines for close up use A return (as many of us already have) to DT lines

Or am I just thinking about this way toooooooo much

Hamish 

[Sandy Nelson]

Or am I just thinking about this way toooooooo much

Nah!

Having the wee loop for the 3wt has meant i have been cutting the last 20ft of line off almost every line, especially the DT for the last few years (sometimes 10ft,sometimes 30ft), often why, when people have a go they are shocked by how easily the cast the whole line
It has made no difference to fishing at all as you say a 50ft cast on the river is a long one so why carry what you dont need, i figured that if i used more GSP backing then i can fit enough of a wf or dt3 on the reel with about 70yds of backing and the reel is for 2 wts really. But is as light as a reel gets so the advantages in weight are worth it, plus if a fish runs he is taking ultra thin Backing line with less resistance than the thick pvc and there is probably more line on the reel than many people have on larger ones
It works for me, just remember to cut the line of the right end 

Sandy

[Rob Brownfield]

I run out of fly line  ...shooting heads and 30 metres of Hardy shooting line..zipppppp.gone..

I have a 5 weight Dry and Delicate line, and I just cant get on with it. I ended up buying one of Mikes WF lines to replace it...I found I could not roll it, if I aerialised the head to utilise the shooting part of the running line the cast felt "wrong" and if I had to do a short cast then it would not load the rod

I use a 7 weight DT on my Norboron as I can cast short or long when and if need be whilst the same rod with a WF 8 will only do long casts and feels way too overpowered with a short cast.

Its all to complicated for me 

[Hamish Young]

I've found with the dry n delicate that you go one weight up for the right line eg. my #4wt rod has a #5wt d-n-d line on it and it's tickity boo - it's an odd line  Quirky you might say - probably why I like it

Feels more like a 'half weight' line if you know what I mean (#5wt = #4.5wt) and the odd thing is that any #4wt rod I've tried with the #5wt d-n-d on it doesn't feel over-lined.

[Rob Brownfield]

Mine is a 5 on a 5...might try it on that XP of mine

[Hamish Young]

Let us know how you get on why you try that Rob  Is the XP a #4wt

[Sandy Nelson]

Nah its a 3

And it'll cast the 5 no probs, but wheres the fun in that

It cast a GPX 3wt best of all, but then that all depends how you cast . The snowbee XS wf3 runs it a close second, but the DT3 is best for fishing with.

Dry and Delicate is pants IMHO anyway give me a DT any day

Sandy

[Rob Brownfield]

Tiz indeed a 3...now where can I get a 3 weight shooting head fast sinker?

I never liked Sage rods until I had ago of the XP...away to try and get a little more cash and buy a 5 weight and a 7 weight blank to build Bad bad Rob! 

[Sandy Nelson]

Rob

The 5wt is nice, but i didn't find it as good as the 3wt, starts to become a beast especially once you get up to 7's. The blank is Spined proper too, sage dont do this and it does make a difference especially to the Xp and even more so the TCR , Officially i built the most powerful TCR 5wt yet measured.
The 2 piece blank is better than the 4 piece for fishing with

However what you need is a cast of my B11x, now thats a 5wt proper A very dangerous rod to cast with

A 3wt shooting head sinker, try a 10ft salmon weight poly leader

I've a 3wt clear intermediate thats shoots like a rocket, never needed anything heavier.
I just used to fit 5ft light trout polyleaders (extra fast sink) to the end, works pretty well on places like Leven

Sandy

[Rob Brownfield]

A 3wt shooting head sinker, try a 10ft salmon weight poly leader

I will try it when I get home..I have a 5 foot saltwater polyleader extra fast sink!!  Could be fun!!