Month: April 2008

Big Rainbow Trout Time In North Island, NZ

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For North Island, New Zealand, fishermen it is coming up to the peak rainbow trout season. From May through to October, our Winter and through to Spring, these beautiful silver fish, rainbows flecked with red, fat with autumn feeding will make their way from the lakes up the rivers and streams to spawn. Top fly-fishing time, top fish, and time to make sure your gear can handle it.

Have a look at this checklist.

Posted by Tony Bishop in fly fishing

Caught Any? Again!

A girl in ripped t-shirt, tattoos and piercings (obviously a grunge rock fan ) is fishing at the river listening to her iPod.

A guy passes and asks “caught any, love?”

“No,” she replies “Nirvana.”

Another from John R in the UK, well, Ireland to be more specific.

Posted by Tony Bishop in fishing humour

World Record Line-Class Confusion

I just read a bleating blog comment from a Big Game boat skipper somewhere in the US beefing about the fact that he bought some 20lb rated line, but he said it over-tested by nearly 1lb, i.e. broke at 21lb and was therefore useless for chasing 20lb World Records.

The moan reveals some widespread confusion, and flat-out miss-information, about the breaking-strain line classes as used by the IGFA (International Game Fishing Assoc.) to determine World Record claims.

When the IGFA was set up they decided that as the organisation was international they would use metric weights for setting line classes – that is the line classes would be set in kilogrammes.

But in the US line classes were described in pounds, and still are. But the nominal US pound rating (called US Customary) does not match the line-class in kilos. For instance the 10kg line-class, is 20lb line in US customary terms, but its IGFA rated class is 22.04lbs. So the line being moaned about above was within class.

So if you are chasing World Records it is usually best to buy ‘IGFA rated line class’ line – that is line that is manufactured to break under, but as close to the line-class as possible – but know that the line is rated to kilogrammes not the pounds often shown on the pack. It should also be remembered that line tested for claims must break under the line class.

Here are the line classes used by IGFA, showing the kg class, US customary, and the actual lb line-class the line will tested under by the IGFA.

Line Class (kg) US Custom (lb) Test (lb)
1* 2 2.2
2* 4 4.4
3* 6 6.61
4* 8 8.81
6* 12 13.22
8* 16 17.63
10* 20 22.04
15 30 33.06
24 50 52.91
37 80 81.57
60 130 132.27

* Also Fly fishing record tippet classes

Posted by Tony Bishop in Articles and stories on fishing in general, big game fishing

Flyfishmagazine: Dont be that guy….

A story for all fishermen, salt and fresh water……

Via MaineToday comes a story of fly fishing conversation etiquette. I think we all have met that guy…
“I caught a 22-inch rainbow yesterday,” he offered, with nothing else. I could see he was waiting for me to, pardon the pun, take the bait.
He waited a few seconds, maybe 10, and took a quick puff of his cigarette.
“Not here, you know.”
I just nodded, and he puffed again.

He then went into a long litany of where he’d been fishing, how many fish he’d caught and how long they all were. To hear him tell it, he’d filled an entire wall with trophy-sized mounts — all from the last six days!

He caught a brown out of China Lake. “You know that’s open, right?”
He caught splake by the bucketful near Bingham. “They’re all, like, 15-24 inches up there.”
And then there was the rainbow.

“Oh, they’re biting all right. You just got to know where to go.”

I guess the only fisherman I hate to be accosted by as much as the guy above is the old, “Ya should ‘av been here yesterday” guy, who then proceeds to tell you in meticulous detail, why. Just what you need when the fishing today is hard.

Don’t Be That Guy

Posted by Tony Bishop in fishing humour