Choosing a Fly Reel The definition of a fly reel has changed a great deal in the last couple of decades. Once thought of as simply ” a place to hold your line” the fly reel has evolved into a highly specialized piece of gear. With phrases such as “startup inertia”, “large arbor”, and “heat dissipative disc drag”, the beginner can often be led to believe that they need to be an expert in Newtonian physics to make an informed purchase. I'll try to simplify things a bit. Fly reel does do more than just hold line. A poor quality fly reel is a wonderful way to lose large fish, especially when fishing on light leaders and tippets. Additionally, selecting the wrong fly reel for a particular fly rod can throw off the entire balance of the outfit. So, let's get started learning about the world of fly reels.

Do Fish See in Color The fly fisherman also must remember that color behaves differently in water that it does when seen in the air. Water is denser, and the colors are diffused quicker. Cloudy days where there is less overall light will offer less visibility, and colors will disappear quicker in the depths of the water. And the clarity of water obviously greatly effects this as well. This is important in fly selection because certain colors travel farther in low light than others. Red is the first color to disappear, usually at about 15 feet in clear water, followed by orange and then yellow. Blues and greens are visible to the fish as long as there is light. Yet silver and white will be brighter. So while the Mickey Finn is obviously a great choice as an attractor fly, it would not be as good a choice in murky water or if fished deep. A better attractor might be a white Woolly Bugger or White Marabou Muddler.

The Way Of A Bass Fisherman With a Fly Rod And The Way Of A Bass With A Fly Bass and Flies One reason I believe bass fly fishermen are not as generally successful as their trout fishing brethren is because the bass fisher, as a class, has not put as much study into his waters and his methods. This is not to be wondered at when you consider that fly fishing for bass is, compared with trouting, in its first tooth stage. In other words, if some anglers loudly proclaim that the east wind bloweth when they are bassing with flies it is due, not to the bass but to the angler. True one seldom gets the big, old, granddaddy bass of 'em all on a fly, neither do the bigger trout come to the net by the same route, but the average of the stream or lake can be caught on flies and are on certain waters. Is it entirely because of certain local peculiarities of fish, water or conditions that fly fishing for bass is practiced so successfully on such widely separated waters as, to mention a few: the upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers in the Middle West; the Susquehanna, Potomac and Delaware in the East; the Current and St. Francis in the Ozarks; the Belgrade Lakes in Maine? I think not. Bass fly fishing has long been practiced and studied in these places, hence the success.

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