Weighting

[jacald]

I would like to hear some oppinions on what a good way of weighting flies is. I'm not a great fan of beads and i wonder if posibly using solder/ lead wire could be a better option on some flies? thanks...

[dizzy]

I use lead in most of my flies. My brother uses solder, but I find that solder is not as heavy as lead.

[ShaunF]

Weighting flies for streams or stillwaters ?

[Jasper]

I always used to use the lead wrapping around wine bottle necks ... but now they come with plastic!! .. cut into very thin strips it was ideal for weighting the hook shanks.

[Methos]

jacald

There are different options available to weight the flies. Lead wire at most fly shps comes in different gauges so you can play around with that.

There are cone heads that works well on some flies.

You get lead foil that can be cut as needed. I know in the old days they used the lead foil from wine bottles to weight flies.

You also get a tungsten putty that can be put onto the line when you are at the water and need to get down deeper.

When I started out I mostly used unweighted flies with a splitshot or 2 crimped about 15 to 20 cm in front of the fly. Come to think of it I caught a lot more bass on that than what I'm currently doing. This allowed the fly, espescially a bouyant fly to be about 15cm above the bottom. The split shot were very small - the have different sizes - I think mine was a #4.

Should get myself another tin of those things.

Cheers

[jacald]

Thanks for the oppinions. I was thinking of still water flies.

[ShaunF]

Personally, I no longer weight any of my stillwater flies except Zonkers which require the lead tape underbody to swim rightway up. I prefer to use the appropriate flyline to get the fly to the depth I want to fish at.

[chris williams]

tHE SIMAN SQUARE LEAD WIRE IN DIFFERENT SIZES IS EXCELLENT OF COURSE FOR CZECH NYMPHS ETC, THO PRICEY. YOU CAN MAKE SIMILAR AT HOME BY PASSING NORMAL ROUND LEAD WIRE VIA PASTA MANGLE, BUT DON'T LET ITIE SWAMBO CATCH YOU

[Methos]

Chris


"BY PASSING NORMAL ROUND LEAD WIRE VIA PASTA MANGLE, BUT DON'T LET ITIE SWAMBO CATCH YOU"

LOL - You speaking from expierience ?

Cheers

[Scythe]

Stillwater flies (I'm assuming for Troot using Nymphs and Caddis specifically) should be weighted underbody with lead if you're tying them small, also don't be scared to use a gold plated bead or fluo orange bead for the attractor value, especially when fishing a tandem nymph rig.

I'd rather fish a #16 with 2mm Nickel Black Tungsten bead than a bigger fly with a larger brass bead.

Splitshot is nothing but an irritation when you're casting long lines, mostly you end up casting them off anyways, it doesn't last.