Please Help A Fly Fishing Fresher......

[Mark Elvin]

OK, I have two reels (one with WF6 floating line, one with WF6 sinking line), a nice rod (IMO, an Airflo Pro) I nned some very besic help if you would be so kind.

How do I attach fly to main line, I understand I need a leader, but what , type etc to go with the WF6 line.

[Dubbed Squirrel]

Hi Mark, A leader is just a length of mono or fluoro. carbon line, that`s tied to the loop at the end of your fly line. Depending on what you`re fishing for, this can vary in, 1) length and 2) breaking strain. I use a 5/6wt fly line for rainbows and fit a 6-8lb leader, about 10ft ie. 10ft of 6 or 8 lb line. to tie the fly to the end of the leader, I use a blood knot. To tie a blood knot, feed the leader through the eye of the hook, about 5 inches (this is the tag), hold both strands (main leader and tag) halfway down the tag, and twist the fly 5 or 6 times and feed the end of the tag through the small loop at the eye of the hook and pull tight. All you have to do now is snip the tag end close to the knot (leave about 2mm on) and you`re ready to fish. Hope this helps.

Peter

[Mark Elvin]

Thanks, are the braided leaders I have no good then? You slide them over the line & pop heatshrink over.

One more question too... how much backing line should I have on my reel?

[Dubbed Squirrel]

Do you mean braided loops? If you do then they`re fine, just use them as you say. If it`s a braided leader, then it should be just a loop to loop to your fly line. On backing, the box it came in should tell you how much backing you need, I never take their word for it though, as all reels are different. I reel on the fly line, then attach the backing and fill the reel with the backing on top of the fly line. Once that is done you have the perfect amount of backing for your reel and fly line. Now comes the boring part, I rewind the backing back onto the spool, and then the fly line onto it`s spool and reverse the process. spool on the backing, then the flyline and you have the right amount of backingon your reel. this takes about 10mins, but well worth it.



Peter