Okay dont laugh at me but..

I used to do a lot of sea trout fishing in my younger days in wales.

It pretty much involved a floating line with a knot in the end then using a knot with a loop (i dont know the name of the knot) of 6-8lb nylon joined to the fly line.. a decent lengh of this, depending on conditions and where i wanted the fly to fish and off I toddled. This used to catch my numerous trout and the odd couple of salmon.

Well about 2 years ago I decided to dig out my old gear and try my hand at resevoir fishing for rainbows and brownies. Depending on the fly / lure i was using i selected a line, knotted the end, tied on my 6lb line of the correct lengh tied on a fly and again off i went.

Well ive now had 2 years of resevoir fishing and considered I'd actually got quite good at it. (never blanked, touch wood and had a couple of 5lb + fish).

Well my world came crumbling down around me last month. I was talking to some other guys fishing and started looking at their setups. Little braided loops holding the nylon to the fly line, various lenghs of other lines between their line and fly, 2,3,4 or more flys secured on droppers (?) as well as their main fly!! I suddenly felt very out of my depth.

Do i need all this fancy stuff? I had already bagged up using my single lowley buzzer fastened to my 6lb line when I met these guys but i feel i am doing something wrong? how does all this extra terminal bits and bobs of different line etc help?

I did buy some of the braided loop thingies to attach the nylon to the other day all i managed to do was superglue myself to my line, get angry, chop it off and go back to my little knot!

Do you need... - No you've proved that over the last couple of years.

Long, long ago I started out with the small knot and loop approach - but in braided silk line - I suspect that, on some modern lines, it might be possible to cut into the soft PVC outer with the nylon.

The one certain disadvantage of the jamb knot/loop is that it hangs up in the rod rings - which doesn't happen with braided loops.

I've since moved to home made braided loops, whipped (NOT GLUED) to the line and a loop-to-loop connection to the leader/cast and this seems to work well.

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Plusnet/Madasafish > Liars to the internet community

I'd always work on the basis of "if it aint broke, dont fix it"

If you start to struggle to catch then think again about changing tactics, but I wouldnt change just for the sake of it. Then again, if you really want to theres loads of information on this forum to help you decipher these techniques, I'm in my first season and using this forum has helped loads.

Hi' Guppy. I started like you did, with silk lines, joined to the loop of the cast using a sheet bend. Then I just used the clench attachment that is the knot that appears when you straighten out the sheet bend in order to take the cast off. I caught more trout in those days, too, and sea trout, but to be fair, there were a lot more fish and flies about fifty years or more ago.
I see your point -- why buy a double-decker bus if a 'mini' will get you where you want to go? Cheers, TerryC

Im willing to give all this new stuff a go if it aids fly presentation. But the only reason I picked up my fly rods again is the cheap availability of resevoir fishing nowadays.
Fly fishing got too expensive for me and forced me from the sea trout rivers i loved.
I just wonder if all this fancy gubbins is really needed or if 90% of resevoir fishing is watercraft, fly selection, and technique. I seem to be doing fine with my old glass fiber 8ft brook rod (i know i will save up for a decent rod of a more suitable lengh) and a lengh of 6lb nylon. There again if i have never known better tackle im not missing anything i suppose.
Using droppers is something i really would like to look into as opposed to a singal fly as, im guessing, having a few small flies is designmed to aid visibily for the trout?

I started fly fishing again after a 20 year gap and found that everything seemed to have changed except the trout.

Living, as I do, near Rutland I was subjected to the full technicalities of strange flies/lures, washing lines, indicators, DI line ratings etc etc. And everyone seems to have so much kit - flyfishermen seem to be as heavily burdened as coarse fishermen.

Anyway, I still manage with much the same gear, though as the mice had eaten my old fishing bag I bought a new one and also some new flies, some of which like boobies do seem to work extrordinarily well when the old favouries fail.

If it aint broke, dont fix it

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