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Last Updated:
December 10, 2000

 

 

Tips & Tricks To Catch More Fish In Freshwater

Bumps in the Night
Sometimes at night it can be difficult to tell just how much line you have out from the rod tip. It can be very frustrating to pull the leader through the tip guide. Try dabbing a few ‘dots’ of Twink typing correction fluid on the line at the point where you want to stop your retrieve. As you pull the line through your fingers it is very easy to feel the ‘bumps’ and stop the retrieve.
This trick works well when using shooting heads, where a matter of only a few inches of backing out from the rod tip can blow a cast. A few dabs of Twink on the line at the correct distance acts as a good guide.
Some of the new shooting heads with built in backing include a ‘hump’ in the line to indicate the optimum amount of line of to cast before releasing the backing line.
Lumo Beads
Gold beads seem to be all the rage when nymphing, and there are even a few gold bead wet fly patterns appearing. Beads are even making it onto the night fishing scene. Lumo beads are now available. These beads are designed to be added above the hooks of sea fishing sabiki type jigs, but they make an excellent bead to slip over a fly hook prior to tying.
Lumo beads are soft so they fit over just about any hook shape. You can tie your favourite pattern on behind.
BluTak Tackles Leaders
A pinch of BluTak, that sticky putty like stuff, on the side plate of your reel, is a great leader holder. Stops that nuisance of trying to pick out your leader from the coils of the fly line.
Substitutes
The Super12 introduced substitutes to rugby, and it should be part of your fly tying. Many of our traditional rabbit patterns can be tied to great effect with some of the newer furs coming onto the market. Artic fox fur, mink, polecat and stoat fur have a softer more sinewy action than rabbit. Try Marabou in place of rabbit.
Using some of the longer softer furs as hackles on wet patterns can give extra life and movement. Who knows you may build a famous fly.
Straighten Leaders Easily
Curling leaders are a pain but easy to get rid of, with simple techniques. Tuck a piece of rubber glove, or an eraser with a slit cut in it in your fly vest.
Pull the leader, gently, through the slit in the eraser, or the piece of rubber glove pinched lightly between your fingers, and bingo, a straight leader. But gently does it, too fast or too hard, and you will heat up the leader and lower its breaking strain
Tie And Re-Tied
Nothing will succeed in losing a good fish like using yesterdays knots.
Knots put the line under tension, and mono under tension tries to recover its shape placing the line under more tension. The longer time a knot is left the more the tension builds up, the weaker the knot becomes.
Always un-rig a rod after a days fishing and re-tie your terminal rigs on the next day out.
The better fishermen we know will even go to the trouble of re-tying traces and terminal rigs after a good fish. They know that the fight of a good fish will terminally damage any knot, and the next fish they hook may be that prized trophy fish.

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