Bit of a newbie question but I haven't seen it answered in any of the 'how to' books I've read so far.

I'm comfortable with how and why a rod is matched up with fly line weight and how you can generally chuck heavier line further but how strong is fly line? I ask because I've just bought a 5wt rod for a spot of river fishing but I was advised not to tackle a stillwater with it - even though someone on the Lechlade thread mentioned big doubles coming in on a 3wt.

Assuming my cast was good enough to get the 5wt line out to the fish can I rely on (say) 8/10lb leader, though I normally fish a bit lighter than that, or my knot to fail before my rod or fly line broke?

Also, what's the best way to protect my rod if I did hook a monster? Can I just let the rod bend double and let the rod absorb the fish's lunges or should I keep the rod as straight as possible and minimum force on the fish until it tires out?

The essence of the process is to allow the springiness of the rod to fight the fish - if you allow the rod to be straight the leader will almost always snap.

As to breaking strains - a three pound trout in still water can be fought very effectively with the drag force set at about eight ounces...

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Plusnet/Madasafish > Liars to the internet community

You could rely on your 5 weight rod, line with a 6lb leader to tackle most of the fish at Lechlade easily. It's nothing to do with the strength of the fly line (a 5 weight fly line i'd guess could lift 150lb...) Whoever told you that, probably thought that you wouldnt get the distance with a 5 weight (not true) or that the rod wouldnt have the backbone to land a big trout (again, not true). Most Lechlade anglers use a 7 weight, but it's by no means uncommon to see people weilding a 5 weight.
NEVER keep the rod as straght as possible exerting minimum force on the fish. It's not fair on the fish, and won't necesarily mean you'll land it eventually as the longer a fight goes on, the more's the chance you'll lose the fish. Treat a big fish as you would anyother with your 5 wieght and you'll have no problem.

Cheers
Alex

No easy answers .

Rule of thumb - don't go more than 2lb bs below the WF line you find best on the rod !

viz - 5# - no less than 3lb .

BS of Flylines - variable but very few below 24lb on a straight pull - strength is in the core - not the coating .

If you aim the rod down the line you negate the shock and pull absorption of the rod and you will break quite easily what with your 3lb end being directly coupled to your hand and the ( say ) 175lb of you attached to that .

For fun couple a fairly light spring balance to your tipring and read it as a pal flexes the rod . Very few normal flyrods flexed are actually capable of putting more than 1.5lb pressure on a fish - the most powerful actual fly rod I ever tried this with was a 9' AFTM13 Ugly Stik Tarpon Special ( US Only ) with that and a big heave you could apply 4lb !

Looks easy with the rod flexed - theory says with your 5# outfit you could go down to around 1lb bs . Don't you try it - there's many a slip and you need the safety margin in practise .

The way I found out the rules of thumb over the years was to keep on increasing the bs of leaders until I didn't get busted off - willingly being busted off and leaving flies in a fish is a crime where I come from !

The way you deal with big fish is easy and boring - flex the rod and let them get tired if you've got a too light outfit . Or use a heavier outfit and bully a bit !

So after 40 minutes of playing my biggest stillwater seatrout ( 14lb 12oz ) ( and I'm looking at it on the wall right now ) on an 11' Noodle Blank that turned into a super soft 6# drifting flyrod - bent double for 40 minutes I said to Stu Billam ( the best of boat partners ) 'Get the rifle out ( Cormorant Special) Stu - you shoot me if it gets off or you shoot it if I drop dead ! '
After another 5 minutes Stu netted it very expertly and all was well - rod bent double and gentle pressure on for 45 minutes - no panic, just extreme worry about the hookhold ( a Sprite 10 ! ) giving !

Sorry the units are Imperial - I'm rather old !

Best wishes

SteveP

Thanks all - some great answers.

Re. Leaders and tippets then - I know they get lighter towards the fly to aid turnover but if I'm getting pulls and therefore not struggling with presentation I guess it's wise to keep as strong a line as possible then (maybe 5ft x 8, 4ft x 6 and then 2ft of 5 to the fly) to avoid break offs?

That would work just fine.

Jim

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The Fishermans Friend is the Flirty Fly,Fickle Food for Fleeting Fish.

In ref to your other query above, most fly line core is a round 20lb breaking strain. Some are 30lb and Airflo, for one, produce a 50lb core - mainly in use for serious offshore big game such as Tuna, Billfish and GT's.

Thus, it will generally be your leader/tippet that break first.


Something to ponder in relation to the suggestion you dont use your #5 outfit for big trout.................Sailfish have been landed on #7 outfits and I knwo of someone who even landed a 20lb Queen Mackerel on a #3 rod and reel!


Ben

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Generally, this is true, it's best to stick with the heaviest tippet and leader you can get away with. However, two points:

- Tippet/leader visibility is one of the many "interesting" variables that you have to learn how to deal with to fish effectively.

Trout can be very sensitive to tippet visibility and also the stiffness of heavier tippet can affect presentation by making the fly move differently in the water. If you're ever using a fly that is working for other anglers or if you just think it should be working better, try changing your tippet by moving up one X size, like from 4x to 5x.

Many times I've gone from catching nothing to catching fish not by changing flies, but by changing the tippet. Sometimes it takes more than one change, I've gone from 5x to 6x to 7x many times in the process of discovering just how sensitive the fish are in that particular stream. I think this is a really important point, a lot of guys get obsessed with swapping flies, but that's only one variable and it's not, IMO, the most important one.

- Keep in mind that the weak point is always the knots. There are no 100% strength knots, so if you tie a knot, you're automatically reducing the stated strength of the leader of tippet by some percentage. What this % is varies by the knot and who ties it.

I don't want to get into a propellerhead debate about what that real or average percentage is, but from articles I've read I believe that the average angler would be lucky if he could consistently tie knots at 80% strength. Bottom line is the weak link in the chain is the knots and you have to use them so take that into account when choosing the BS of your leaders and tippets.

This gets really important when you get into the fine tippets like 6x-8x, because this leaves very little margin for error when you consider that you're cutting the strength by 20%.

Grouse