Breaking strain recommendation for dams?

[saflyfish]

What is a recommended breaking strain to use for dams?I know tippet should be chosen on the size fly youre using but im interested to hear what other guys use.Theres always that chance of a lifetime fish taking your fly so you dont want to go too light...
Im considering using 0,15mm (2,4kg) Stroft GTM

[JAG]

Hi

I like to use the smallest dia that i can get away with, for it results more takes.

2.5 kg Stroft is stronger then you think. Give it a go. Try breaking it of when stuck on the bottom without yerking.

[dlampert]

The size fish you expect to encounter and whether or not the dams are heavily weeded will determine the breaking strain. You also need to take into account the tactic you are using, if fishing static you can get away with lighter tippet compared to stripping streamers. Water clarity and fishing pressure also need to be taken into account. For heavily weeded dams with trophy fish I would fish 1X or 2X down to 6X for open lakes with predominantly smaller fish.

What is a recommended breaking strain to use for dams?I know tippet should be chosen on the size fly youre using but im interested to hear what other guys use.Theres always that chance of a lifetime fish taking your fly so you dont want to go too light...
Im considering using 0,15mm (2,4kg) Stroft GTM

[dtayl13]

It depends. On Lakensvlei I usually go with 5x fluoro because the fish are small and the water is very clear and they can be very tippet shy at times. On the other hand when I was fishing in the Underberg in 2010 nationals we were using 2x fluoro because the fish there were hitting very large flies extremely hard. for me rather than fly size it depends on whether the fish are wild (read stocked as fingerlings and behaving like wild fish) or proper stockies and water clarity.

[Korrie]

The most important aspect of tippets are the KNOTS.
a bad knot, can reduce the tippet strength by 50%
I will break your rod tip with the 2,5kg Stroft, if the knots are correct.
Another factor is the strip you do and the drip of your hand on the fly line.

I have heard the "fish of a life time".
I wonder how many fly fishers have lost the "FISHING TIME OF THEIR LIFE" by fishing to thick, in the hope to catch "the fish of a life time"
I will rather catch 10 or 15 or 20 fish on a day, than catching 3 or 4 of fish, because you have to thick mono and the frightens the fish. With the hope of catching the one fish on the thick mono and that it "should not break off"
By fishing thinner, you will have more takes, and more fish and sooner or later, you will have open water where you can land the big fish.

there is the story of the 2 fishermen, the split up and will meet later the day.
on return the ones says to the other and how did it go, which he replies "OK, landed 3 fish of about 4 pounds, and one that must have been 9 to 10 pounds that broke me off"
the other asks him on what fly and he replies " brown dragon nymph with red eyes"
the next day they fish again and at the end of the day, they meet up again.
the other guy says to the first fisher man, "do you want the good or the bad news?"
The fisherman replies the good and then the bad news.
where the second fisherman replies "the good news, I got your fly back, the bad news, it was only 3,5 pound fish."

Go and enjoy the fishing, you might have more fun, catching more fish, than trying to catch the "big one" unless your enjoyment is in catching the big ones.

[Andre]

Tippet strenght and diameter is very much related to the anglers skill level, and his understanding of his equipment. Some rods and are better able to protect light tippets than other rods, in the hands of a competent angler. Also trout sometimes hit the fly harder than other times, so its a combination of many things. If you dont have a lot of experience yet, stay away from flurocarbon, as it can tend to be more brittle than mono, and even a hiher rated fluro can break sooner than a lower rated mono. For trout, anywhere from 5x should be fine in most conbditions, but be sure to check your knots.

[river_runs_through_it]

Consider this can of worms now open

[Ko7Ad]

I think Andre hit the nail on the head here for me!

Here is a LINK to a page Bill Byrd posted to his website which could be used as a rough guide at determining what equipment, tippets and size flies work best together. But as noted before, an angler with some some time on the water may find ways to use lighter tippets on unforgiving rods by playing fish more conservatively and striking fish with a lighter touch.

Back to the original question, what breaking strain is recommended for dam fishing? The summarized answer from this thread is it depends... :biggrin:

[dlampert]

The summarized answer from this thread is it depends... :biggrin:

Yup, if fishing at Lakensvlei you could probably fish 6X and land most of your fish as they typically only weigh a couple of pounds on average and have very little structure to break you off on. In some of the NEC lakes, the fish average 5 - 6 pounds with 10 pound plus fish a daily reality. A lot are also heavily weeded and on some lakes you kick out over solid weed for 30 - 50m and then fish the channels in-between. You can fish 5X or 6X but I guarantee you will not land many fish no matter how skilled you are. On the first run they typically take you straight into the weeds and suddenly you have added another 10kgs of weeds to your 5X/6X. You typically visit these lakes to catch trophies over 10 pounds as opposed to Lakensvlei where you might catch a 6 or 7 pound fish once every 10 years or so if you are lucky. A couple of years ago I caught 23 fish in a 3 or 4 hour session on 2X where the fish averaged 5 pounds. Maybe I could have caught 50 fish had I been fishing 5X although I somehow doubt it.

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[Andre]

No, I dont think its a can of worms....quite practical actually. Remember if you read UK articles, they fish stillwaters and reservoirs very differently to us. Their methodology is to go as heavy as possible, and only lighten up on the tippet when fishing smaller flies. They fish 7wt rods on reservoirs, where we fish rods of 4 and 5wt, and 6wt on the absolute heavy side. We tend to look at things differently here, where our way of thinking is to go as light as possible, and only go with heavier tippet if we need to. Its an argument that really is completely counter productive, like fast rods vs slow rods, or nymphs vs dry. The reality is that the better you become, the more you are going to understand your equipment, and the fish that you are targetting. So, in short, play around and see how it goes. Dont worry too much about what people say, and dont relate too much technicality on it. Anything from 4x to 6x is going to do fine in almost all conditions.

Consider this can of worms now open