WC Streams report back

[FlyCraft]

Spent yesterday on SB3. Went "quite well" I suppose, found quite a good number of fish and fish activity but...

(So I am a broken man today in so many ways.)
Managed to positively hook & fight 4 fish(lost all of them!!!), had a missed take on the nymph as I set he/she spat the fly.

I am trying to figure out what went wrong. With 3 of the 4 fish lost the knot parted. the other one of the 4 I lost because I was scared the knot would part and didn`t apply enough pressure so it got off...
But the knots parting is what baffles me... I have been fishing the Davy knot for about 2.5 years now and very rarely have I had the knot break, more often the tippet would part but not the knot itself.
Anybody experience something similar or have an alternative knot I could try? The reason I like the Davy if its low profile, ease of tying and ability to not damage the line while seating it.
Or was it just one of those days where it all went wrong.

Hi George,

If you suspect your tippet to be old, break a section, it is often quite obvious that it breaks way below the stated breaking strain.

[MR.GT]

I was chatting to one of the guys at Frontier fly fishing about a month ago. The conversation centered around tippet material and I was lamenting how I had had numerous fish come off at Lakenvlei. I use mono and his explanation was thus; During manufacture, nylon is drawn through a die and this aligns the molecules up. Exposure to sunlight breaks these strands weakening the line. This parting of the strands will continue even when the mono is packed away. It was recommended to me to replace my tippet material seasonally.

If you are using older tippet material this could be the cause, there is always a little damage to the line when tying a knot so it is the most likely place to break.

P.S. Not a expert on fishing lines but I did give my old tippet spools to a buddy;-)

Certain Monofilamnets hold certain knots better than other.
Use the Pitzen knot, easier to tie than Davy.
I will do a little SBS on Pitzen and the easy way to tie it.
you will never use another knot.
(there are 'dificult' ways to tie the Pitzen, trust me, my way is the easiest)

Some methods have a long tag etc, i have less than 1 to 0,5 centimeter. NO TIPPET WASTAGE.

Hi George,

If you suspect your tippet to be old, break a section, it is often quite obvious that it breaks way below the stated breaking strain.

Thanks for your feedback!
I realy hope it`s not bad tippet as it's not been in my bag for a full season yet and stroft isn`t cheap.
Korrie, you gave me an idea, I think I am going to do some "scientific" experimentation of my own. Going to tie different knots at each end of a section of line and pulll till I find the "weakest link" best out of 10.
PS waiting on the SBS for the pitzen, found samples on the interwebs but everybody ties it differently and ends up looking different.

[gkieser]

Spent yesterday on SB3. Went "quite well" I suppose, found quite a good number of fish and fish activity but...

(So I am a broken man today in so many ways.)
Managed to positively hook & fight 4 fish(lost all of them!!!), had a missed take on the nymph as I set he/she spat the fly.

I am trying to figure out what went wrong. With 3 of the 4 fish lost the knot parted. the other one of the 4 I lost because I was scared the knot would part and didn`t apply enough pressure so it got off...
But the knots parting is what baffles me... I have been fishing the Davy knot for about 2.5 years now and very rarely have I had the knot break, more often the tippet would part but not the knot itself.
Anybody experience something similar or have an alternative knot I could try? The reason I like the Davy if its low profile, ease of tying and ability to not damage the line while seating it.
Or was it just one of those days where it all went wrong.

Hi Mr GT - how close do you snip off the tag of the knot? another reason for the knot failing would be if you cut it too close, so any extra tension pulls the end of the tag into the knot and the integrity is immediately lost. You are pretty safe to leave maybe 2mm of tag so that on tightening on a fish, it may shorten slightly but not get pulled into the knot.

[MR.GT]

Hi Mr GT - how close do you snip off the tag of the knot? Another reason for the knot failing would be if you cut it too close, so any extra tension pulls the end of the tag into the knot and the integrity is immediately lost. You are pretty safe to leave maybe 2mm of tag so that on tightening on a fish, it may shorten slightly but not get pulled into the knot.

Hi gkieser
I normally leave between 1-2mm of tag end for the reason you mentioned. But my "science experiment" is proving interesting (to be continued).

[Bob7]

Morning guys,

I was on Transport beat on Saturday the 30th.
Caught only one fish and lost a decent size fish due to my tippet breaking :/ (probably a bad knot).
Saw only 3 fish on the whole beat, of which one was having none of it and the other two I had a go at.
Lots of mayflies on the water the whole day, but strangely no rises where the hatches occurred.

Anybody have any luck on the rivers this weekend?

[MR.GT]

Morning guys,

I was on Transport beat on Saturday the 30th.
Caught only one fish and lost a decent size fish due to my tippet breaking :/ (probably a bad knot).
Saw only 3 fish on the whole beat, of which one was having none of it and the other two I had a go at.
Lots of mayflies on the water the whole day, but strangely no rises where the hatches occurred.

Anybody have any luck on the rivers this weekend?

We were on transport yesterday. Caught 3 fish in total. Lost 3 others... Saw a quite a few more fish that we spooked or weren`t interested and stopped rising as soon as a fly drifted over.

Interesting to see what a difference a day makes.

[Jason vL]

Fished lower Mollenaars on Sunday. phew it took alot out of me. water was very fast flowing and it was very difficult spotting fish. no rises seen even tho there was some hatch activity on the water. was a very tuff and frustrating day fishing with zero fish to show. was talking to my buddy who was with me on the water and unfortunately we only familiar with upstream fishing. we do need to explore the other aspects. within seconds of a fly landing on water it came zipping past you. was very difficult controlling line. PS im still very new to FF and still have tons to learn. personally I would have loved to nymph that water but wasnt prepared.

[JadeDsantos]

Get your nymph on . . . Dry fly in high water is tough unless you are bashing beetles and hoppers. High water generally is time to nymph.

[Jason vL]

Get your nymph on . . . Dry fly in high water is tough unless you are bashing beetles and hoppers. High water generally is time to nymph.

this response made me so happy...my instinct told me nymph in that high water.

[JadeDsantos]

this response made me so happy...my instinct told me nymph in that high water.

Yip, I grew up dry fly fishing in the Cape, but since moving up to Jozi, I have fallen in love with nymphing. In my opinion (dont crucify me) I find it more technical and rewarding than dry flyfishing. Watch this, its all you need to know: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/modernnymphing

I built a 2wt ESN strictly for nymphing smaller river where I used to take the 0wt TXL for dries. Time and place for everything though, low water is really hard for nymphing because of the landing plop on the water - fish scatter. But this is like the land cruiser land rover debate . . . . .