I ran the topic of barbless hooks causing more damage than barbed hooks through my bullshit meter, and it ends up somewhere around Monty Python. I pinch the barbs on my hooks for the following reasons: 1) they come out of the net way easier 2) they come out of my clothes/gear way easier 3) they com...

Hi Malcolm, I have similar fishing through the summer months, most less than 2 lbs and few not more than 4lbs, if that. I don't really know where the big browns go in the summer, but they are rare. The rainbows and white fish top out at about 2 lbs. In November and the first two weeks of December, ...

Hi FFWM, I don’t tie my own flies, so I have no idea what hooks are being used. But, you bring up a good point about the better performance Partridge SLT hooks. For many years now, I have fished most mayfly and little green stone fly imitations at size 16 and 18. Green Drakes and March browns are t...

I’ve spent most of the year fishing a hedged-bet dry fly setup, where I use a size 12-16 dry fly (EHC) and a short piece of tippet to a size 20-22 cripple, emerger, or prince nymph. My impression is that I’ve hooked more fish, and definitely more larger fish. I’ve even gone to using a size 18-20 pr...

Hi, I'm located out West where we have lots of public land and river/lake access, so I'm not sure how good my advice will be. Since I'm not from 'there', it makes feel somewhat like I'm pissing in someone else's pool to give out suggestions. I do travel quite a lot for business and I'm always searc...

Andy, That is an excellent question. I don’t build rods so I don’t have an answer. Hopefully our spilt cane rod builders can provide an answer. My guess is there is some correlation but not necessarily a direct correlation. The Gillum taper rod is 3 inches longer, so that additional length must add...

Would be interested to see images of your rod, if you have some to post... Andy, Back in Post 17 on April 29, asked to see images of my cane rods, let's see if I can get images up on the post; http://i1255.photobucket.com/albums/hh624/Eagle_Crest/Bamboo4wt.jpg 4wt, 3 pc with the No. Tip shorter whe...

Has anybody had experience with the TroutHunter products? A local fly shop manager pointed them out to me and said the entire staff of the shop had gone to using TroutHunter leaders and tippets. He handed me a piece of 6X fluorocarbon and said "try to break it". I never did because I was ...

Andy, I have a 7ft 9in bamboo rod in 4-5wt I bought from a family friend and master rod builder. I feel that I have ‘over lined’ it with a 5 WFF line and it was a slow action rod. I had the rod builder do maintenance a few times and he told me I was over fishing the rod because my tips were showing...

Thanks Matt, I don't how much good work on my behalf was involved. The fish were willing participants in the endeavor. I went out again last Saturday and another big number day. I picked up a couple of nice rainbows on the dry fly/dropper setup, but mostly dinks. I hate to catch the little ones as ...

Hi Matt, I've been fishing the mystery river C, southeast of the semi-imaginary town of Prinetucky. I typically fish it for the two hours or so before sunset up to half and hour after. Catching some nice rod bending whitefish, and rainbows of all sizes, dinks to 20", on nymphs. I’ve had a coup...