Inexperienced Fly Fisherman

[Helios]

Sharing my inexperience, enjoy

I spent today fly fishing at Brookwood, I arrived at 06:05 and I would say around 7:30 I felt a very strong tug at the end of my 4X tippet, finally a trout has found my Pancora WB edible. A fight ensued, I figured that this was a very big fish and that I should play it on the reel, hopefully a wise decision. I eventually got rid of all the line lying around on the ground and now it was just the fish and I in a dance.

My inexperienced mistake; I started to fiddle around with the drag setting on the reel, which eventually led to such a strong drag setting that the fish cleanly sheared my tippet at my loop-to-loop connection with my leader.

I am used too muscling a fish which can be a problem but what size fish can break a 6.8 lbs tippet, still baffles me, and I feel like crying because of the stupid mistake I made, Man it sucks; its really the case of the one that got away.

At least I can say that I got my rod bending but not my net wet.

My inexperienced 2c's worth.

[BenzoV]

Be honest now, you didn't have any cash in your wallet did you?

I spoke to a guy at Kloofzicht on Friday who recently had to fork out R900 for the fish (plural) he caught at Brookwood. I think it's the first time I ever heard a guy complaining that the fish he caught were too big.

[Jax]

Bin There Done That! The Good News is It Gets Better. Have Fun.

[icstuff]

You could try a modified catspaw knot. It creates a better knot that does not shave though the line. on this video it is a bit overdone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXNqZ1op4_M

[briansflyfishing]

I've made that mistake twice in the salt with a tippet that was to light. But that is how we learn.

You need mistakes to learn, some need a couple to learn.

[swsmith]

I dont think its a case of thin tippet.....best to preset ur drag and if you feel you need to apply more pressure then palm the spool.Until you are comforatble adjusting drag settings during a fight...hope you get the next one

[Andre]

Ha ha...yeah, it happens. Yeah, I would investigate the other options of attaching leader to flyline....loop to loop is really not a great option. Also try and play the fish off the reel by hand, you have much more control. Trout really don't require a reel with a drag setting, unless they are really big and very angry.

Sharing my inexperience, enjoy

I spent today fly fishing at Brookwood, I arrived at 06:05 and I would say around 7:30 I felt a very strong tug at the end of my 4X tippet, finally a trout has found my Pancora WB edible. A fight ensued, I figured that this was a very big fish and that I should play it on the reel, hopefully a wise decision. I eventually got rid of all the line lying around on the ground and now it was just the fish and I in a dance.

My inexperienced mistake; I started to fiddle around with the drag setting on the reel, which eventually led to such a strong drag setting that the fish cleanly sheared my tippet at my loop-to-loop connection with my leader.

I am used too muscling a fish which can be a problem but what size fish can break a 6.8 lbs tippet, still baffles me, and I feel like crying because of the stupid mistake I made, Man it sucks; its really the case of the one that got away.

At least I can say that I got my rod bending but not my net wet.

My inexperienced 2c's worth.

[Helios]

Ha ha...yeah, it happens. Yeah, I would investigate the other options of attaching leader to flyline....loop to loop is really not a great option. Also try and play the fish off the reel by hand, you have much more control. Trout really don't require a reel with a drag setting, unless they are really big and very angry.

Just to clarify, my leader is attached with a loop-to-loop connection with my flyline but that held up fine, it was the extra tippet I attached to the leader which sheared off. I use the loop-to-loop connection because its easy to attached extra tippet when it gets short and to adjust the length of the leader and from hearing advise from someone who knows a lot about stillwater fly fishing that is a good setup.

[Umhlangarox]

Just to clarify, my leader is attached with a loop-to-loop connection with my flyline but that held up fine, it was the extra tippet I attached to the leader which sheared off. I use the loop-to-loop connection because its easy to attached extra tippet when it gets short and to adjust the length of the leader and from hearing advise from someone who knows a lot about stillwater fly fishing that is a good setup.

Connecting your fly line to leader with a loop-to-top is not an issue, if your Knots are set properly it will never snap. However I wouldn't use the same connection for leader to tippet, I tie my own still water leaders and use a triple surgeons throughout my leader and tippet setup, I never have an issue with break offs as long as my knots are set correctly.

Regarding your reel, if you are going to be targeting big trout (anything upwards of 2kgs) I think a smooth drag system is very important. Small trout will never take you onto your reel but big trout definitely will, so maybe have a look at your reel and ensure the drag works smoothly. Also with cheaper reels(not sure what you using) sometimes they don't have the best drag system, it will go from pretty much a free spool to extremely tight in like 3 turns of the drag.

Unfortunately these things happen from time to time, one thing is for sure, you will be ready for the next one

[Helios]

Connecting your fly line to leader with a loop-to-top is not an issue, if your Knots are set properly it will never snap. However I wouldn't use the same connection for leader to tippet, I tie my own still water leaders and use a triple surgeons throughout my leader and tippet setup, I never have an issue with break offs as long as my knots are set correctly.

Regarding your reel, if you are going to be targeting big trout (anything upwards of 2kgs) I think a smooth drag system is very important. Small trout will never take you onto your reel but big trout definitely will, so maybe have a look at your reel and ensure the drag works smoothly. Also with cheaper reels(not sure what you using) sometimes they don't have the best drag system, it will go from pretty much a free spool to extremely tight in like 3 turns of the drag.

Unfortunately these things happen from time to time, one thing is for sure, you will be ready for the next one

I am having second thoughts on using a loop-to-loop connection to add tippet, I will give a surgeons knot a try, regarding my reel, I was using a Hatch Finatic which has very smooth but strong drag settings, I landed two weeks before this happened a 1.5 kg Bow with no problem using the drag on the reel to tire the fish.