Tippet help

Can anyone help me out here, when i did that filming in Scotland fly fishing, well the tippet was two different strengths of line. Is it a neccesity to do that? Or can you just use one strength? Also what length would you suggest?I'm fly fishing a river tomorrow.

If I am fishing a river I would personally prefer a knotless tapered leader of about 7 feet with a tippet of say 3 to 4lbs fluorcarbon at the end. This tippet can be joined to the tapered leader using a 3 turn water knot that can be used as a dropper for wet fly fishing.

For dry fly fishing use a single fly.

Wendy, with all due respect to Ron who without question is an extremely competent caster he is forgetting that you are just beginning. Therefor to make life easier I would suggest the following.

A tippet length one foot longer than the length of your rod. This is more than enough for fishing smaller rivers such as the Tame in fact a longer leader would be a hindrance for weighted nymph fishing.

Also when bringing a fish to hand it is just the right length to avoid dragging your braided loop through the tip ring.

Secondly use the same tippet strength straight through from the loop to the hook. Remember you are fishing moving water where fish have seconds to snatch at food passing by them. They do not have time to inspect and scrutinize the prey unless you are fishing a dry fly in a slow smooth glide.

The advantage of a continuous leader and tippet in the same breaking strain is that there are no knots. Knots such as water knots can catch and pick up debris and slime which in turn spoil your presentation.

Knowing the Tame you should be fine using no more than five pound breaking strain even with a 6 or 7 weight but ideally a 5 weight if you have one.

If it is hot then fish the more rapid shallower water where the fish gather for the increased oxygen, your fly will travel faster and they have less time to inspect.

If the fish are small in size including coarse fish then do not be afraid to step down to four pound. Cover water slowly.

Cast short at 3 O Clock keeping the line reasonably taught until it reaches 6 then recast again at 3 but longer and closer to the bank. With line taught the flow picks up the line increasing the speed of your fly and hopefully they will snatch at it.

By doing this you are searching your swim covering a wider arc. Before moving downstream now cast to the opposite side and do the same. Without moving you have now covered 180 degrees. Give it a go it is a wonderful way of fishing and remember take slow small steps.

Good luck lass and try not to fall in.

There you go Wendy --

Nice one BC ---Wise words, simply put

Excellent advice there BC, and made simple for me I'm off there now so i'll let ya know later tonight how i get on.

WOW, what an awesome days fishing i've had!

BC, i did everything you told me to do and caught loads and loads of fish! Every single one of them roach haha. Not one trout all day.

I fished at Reddish Vale park and walked for miles and miles in the water. At one point i was quite scared, because the water had gone very deep, when i turned round to walk back, the water seem to be running very fast, so it made it difficult to walk in. I ended up climbing up a huge hill to get back,holding on to broken trees as an aid.

The feeling of fly fishing on a River is un-describable, and when you catch a fish it's awesome! I was talking to the roach saying "I'm not supposed to be catching you" haha.

So thank you to everyone for the tips and advice, it is greatly appreciated.

Wendy, if you're going to wade a lot then you really do need to get a wading staff, that is if you haven't got one already.

Glad you had a good day though.

Adrian, wading staff? is that people who carry you along the water? hsha.

I've got proper waders and some none slip wading boots, with felt on the bottom.The only problem is they are no good for walking up hils afterwards!

OK, you need to get some tungsten studs to put into the felt soles of your wading boots, this will give you good grip on the hills.

And, if you're going to be wading on a regular basis, then you MUST SERIOUSLY CONSIDER getting a wading staff, especially if you're going to be fishing rivers you've not fished before. If you don't have one, how are you going to know where drop-offs, holes, snags etc are? You could get yourself into some serious difficulty if you're not careful. FWIW, I've got a collapsible one by Snowbee. Comes with it's own holster that you can attach to your wading belt. Also, has a rubber foot on it so you don't make any "tap tap" noise when you're wading, if you would with a metal tipped one.

Hi Wendy,talking to the roach, did any of the roach know Ron?.

Were any of the roach any decent size ??

They didn't say.

That's because they didn't want Ron to know ...

So Ron does know them.

Yes Ed they were some decent sizes.

Morespiders, They did mention something about Ron

Blimey Wendy, I'm well impressed with your result there!

I live nearby, I fly fished Reddish Vale myself 3 weeks ago. I caught absolutely nothing, didn't have any takes at all!!

As a matter of interest, were you catching the fish in fast shallow water, or deeper runs?

Hi Ric, It was awesome honestly, we should meet up and fish there one weekend. As you walk over the bridge, i went to the right and started to fish there. I caught most of the roach in the deeper water.

Ah right Wendy it's quite deep and slow there, then it gets shallower and faster. Then deeper again I think, too deep to wade.

I also tried upstream of the bridge. There are some nice runs near that viaduct, upstream of the ponds. Again though, nothing!!

Actually I think the Tame here is a middle course river, more suited to game fish than Trout. At least there's fish of some description here!

Roach and chub Ric, so i was informed by a local on tuesday,someone had a netfull the day before according to him.