Fishing The Fly Scotland Forum

Loxiafan

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #480 on: 24/05/2012 at 10:14 »
Firstly, glad to see someone else has been getting out - was beginning to think this thread was dying.  :roll

I had a problem with knots breaking at the hook at the end of last season when I switched to a different tippet, was driving me nuts and lost two decent fish. It was a highly recommended material and used by a lot of great anglers but it just wouldn't work for me. I switched back to Stroft GTM and no problems since. I would echo Allan's comment that the Maxima will simply not let you down if you can live with the diameter, the knots don't have to be tucked either which they do with most of the posh stuff (in my experience).

Also, I have had Wychwood tippet slipping at the hook if you dont tuck the knots, but you are using this further up the leader so not sure if that would be a problem, but it is pretty slippy stuff. With Stroft, at the hook I use "The Knot" ala Paul Procter and recommended by Richard Tong on here. So far it has not let me down, is easy to tie with frozen fingers, doesn't use lots of tippet when changing flies etc. 3 (or 4) turn waters seem ok for tapering tippet.

Stroft, other than 'chunky munkey' Maxima, is the most reliable material I have used, so it is just a case of finding or using something you have absolute confidence in eg. what were you using/doing differently for the big fish you caught ( I know it was a streamer and not a size 16 dry) ! ?

L

Marc Fauvet

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #481 on: 24/05/2012 at 10:37 »
i also agree with all the Stroft suggestion. it's as flawless as it gets.

Rob Brownfield

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #482 on: 24/05/2012 at 13:00 »
Hi Marc, yes, its the "Duncan" knot I use. 5 turns for thin line, getting less the thicker it goes.

Always well lubed, tightened slowly and tags pulled evenly. As I say, its a sudden thing. I have no idea why its suddenly started happening. Maybe my "spit" has suddenly stopped being so slippy?..lol

Maxima was always my go to line when course fishing until I took up pole fishing. Now I use some pretty funky low diameter lines that are far thinner than fly leader, but seem to knot better.

I shall continue to play about with knots. I must try this Proctor knot..heard a lot about it.

Peter McCallum

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #483 on: 24/05/2012 at 13:59 »
I would echo Allan's comment that the Maxima will simply not let you down if you can live with the diameter

Think you've pretty much hit the nail there L, if you use dia as your standard (or 'x' number) you'll find maxima is not that different it's just they understate the breaking strain by a fair bit, so '10lb' maxima actually breaks at a higher load. Clever bit of marketing there.

Rob Brownfield

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #484 on: 25/05/2012 at 16:24 »


 :X2

danbruce

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #485 on: 25/05/2012 at 16:28 »
Nice fish Rob,

Was that the monster you had a week or 2 ago, or have you gone and done it again?

Dan

Marc Fauvet

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #486 on: 25/05/2012 at 16:50 »
 :z16   :z13

Iain Cameron

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #487 on: 25/05/2012 at 19:52 »
Was that the monster you had a week or 2 ago, or have you gone and done it again?

must be the same fash from two weeks ago. my pics were obviously not good enough  :-0

there was a 3rd member of the trip, sean/shaun (sorry) who was taking serious photos.

we ended up in the river wearing 240v battery packs and light reflecting umbrellas nearly 5 feet wide and praying that we didn't get blown into the water and electrocuted. Hopefully Rob should have some good photos soon of us mucking about with casting and then some real photos of Ben_D showing us how it ought to be done.

Matt Henderson

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #488 on: 25/05/2012 at 20:55 »
Had an nice afternoon today. Bit frustrating though. Tried up stream spiders, upstream dries, klink and dink, and streamers! Lost one fish on a streamer. Was joined by Iain Goolager who landed a monster.

Things were beginning to look a bit more lively when I was leaving.

Cheers Matt

Michael Buchan

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #489 on: 26/05/2012 at 23:42 »
Just back had a good evening decent amount of fish moving  :z16.  Went through a few fly changes before i started getting rises to a rusty spinner pattern. 

Highlight of the night was when i struck into a tiny sip to the spinner expecting a 6 incher only for it to go screaming down the pool turned out out to be around the 2lb mark.

Should be out most nights in next couple weeks as wife is away with her work for 12 nights yipeeeeee  :grin

Michael

danbruce

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #490 on: 27/05/2012 at 21:02 »
Well its looking like another lovely evening so I have made my excuses and have ventured out to see if i can't catch a late evening rise. Sitting on the bank there seems to be loads of fly life but no decent fish showing, maybe still a little too bright :z8. Decided to ditch the wets and spiders for the dries and wait patiently for something to happen.

Could be a long night.

Dan

Noel Kelly

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #491 on: 28/05/2012 at 23:44 »
Just home from the river. A good night at long last. Must have hooked about 10 and landed maybe more than half of them. Best 1.5lbs and a few about 1lb. All on cdc&elk. Took a few pics but they are horrible.
Was quiet difficult water I was fishing but that's where the fish were rising. Seen a 4+ lbr jump clear out of the water and also seen an absolute monster make a few surges on the surface. It was just about in casting range but I didn't even go for it, felt my leader wouldn't have been up to the job and was 2 dark to change. There will be other nights :grin

Phil

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #492 on: 29/05/2012 at 12:53 »
Hi An Chileog,

wow that sound like a good session!  :z16 Did you catch them all on the dry? at night?  :?

I am asking as this is my first season and I am still not so confident with my fishing so far...  I fished last Friday from 6 to 10pm... There haven't been a lot of trout rising, some very small ones once and a while as there was no hatch going on... So I switched from dry to nymph, wet, streamer, dry again and so on...  It's really difficult! So I'm always thinking if I should walk more and look for rising trout, stay and wait if something happens or fish blind in good looking spots...?

Did you see the trouts you have caught last time?

Cheers,
Phil


Noel Kelly

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #493 on: 29/05/2012 at 13:33 »
Hi An Chileog,

wow that sound like a good session!  :z16 Did you catch them all on the dry? at night?  :?

I am asking as this is my first season and I am still not so confident with my fishing so far...  I fished last Friday from 6 to 10pm... There haven't been a lot of trout rising, some very small ones once and a while as there was no hatch going on... So I switched from dry to nymph, wet, streamer, dry again and so on...  It's really difficult! So I'm always thinking if I should walk more and look for rising trout, stay and wait if something happens or fish blind in good looking spots...?

Did you see the trouts you have caught last time?

Cheers,
Phil



Hi Phil
Yes all on cdc&elk dry. It's my go to when there are sedges about. There are 2 pools on this stretch that I have previously seen rising fish so I started at one and walked to the other. About a half mile between them. Last night there were a few rising in the first pool when I got there at about 8.30, got one and dropped 2. So left that pool to rest it and went to check out the other. Not much happening there so after watching it for 20 mins or so I headed back to where I started. Stopping every 100m or so for a look and listen. Picked up a few more by doing this and when I got back to first pool there were fish feeding again :grin
Last night was only the second night I have see lots of rising fish this season so don't worry about not seeing much. Next time I'm back there it will prob seem like there isn't a fish in the river!
I don't understand your last question?
Cheers
Noel

Duncan McRae

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #494 on: 29/05/2012 at 14:48 »
Hi Noel

Any chance that the big fish you saw might have been sea trout?
I was also out last night and noticed a couple of real big fish lunging on the surface.I suspect they were sea trout but  i'm not certain.This is about the time i would expect to see them arriving.

Regards
Duncan

 




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