So I'd like to demonstrate now, just from the very beginning, how to put your rod
together to get set up for fishing with a floating line today. So here's my rod.
It happens to be a four-piece rod - many of the rods you buy today they're four-piece
because they're easy to pack and travel with and the ferrule system is
indistinguishable from a rod that's one piece. So they've really
perfected the ferrule system. So we're going to take our rod and we're going to just
put the four pieces together and you're not going to jam it in hard; just snug so
it's snuggly in there and then top your pieces snug, and then we've got the main
piece. Your typical fly rod for lake fishing should be nine to ten feet
in length so nine, nine and a half is perfect. Nine-foot rods are great for
full-sinking fly lines, and when you're fishing with a floating
lines nine and a half or 10-foot is great. So this is a nine and a half rod in a six
weight. Fly rods come in different weighting system, so like a one
weight to fourteen weight - so to give you an idea of what you use what so
you'd use a two weight for fishing small creeks for small fish and you'd use a
fourteen weight for sailfish, tarpon or striped marlin. For fishing in
lakes a five weight or a six weight rod is perfect. This rod here is a nine
foot six inch for a six weight line so it's number six line actually it's nine
foot six and it's four piece and this would be perfect for fishing lakes in a
six weight or a five weight. So here's my reel. Here's the end of my leader on my
fly reel. So we've got to string it up through the guides but you don't want to be
using the leader to string it up because if you let it go it's going to fall
through. What you do is you strip off a bunch of
line until you get to your fly line and then just bend it over in half and then
start stringing it through and the beauty of this if you drop it the loop
catches and it doesn't fall all the way back through. It's just a quick
little tip to help you string your line up. Just follow it through. Again, you
let go, it doesn't fall back. And then we're gonna keep going up and you should never pull
on the rod to make it bend over to thread your line because it's pretty sensitive up there
very thin and that's how people predict a lot of rods. They're
reaching for the tip and instead of moving to thread it through they'd bend
it sharply over and you end up breaking the rod. So all the way up. Now the
lines through. I've pulled through my leader so now we've got the system
monofilament. This is your leader. Here's the end of your fly line and here's my
leader. If I wanted to fish with a floating line, long leader, no indicator
I've already got my leader set up and I just add more monofilament or
fluorocarbon - it's called tipping material - to get down
to the depth of water you want to be fishing. So for instance, if I wanted fish
floating line, long leader and I was anchoring fishing on the shoal in 15
feet of water thern I'd want to be using a leader that's at least about 20 percent
longer than that depth of water we're fishing. So in 15 feet of water
you're going to need to be fishing with a leader that's 23 to 25 feet in length
and that allows for the fly to sink until you do a retrieve. Because you
can't just use a 15-foot leader because when you're doing your retrieves you're
not going to get your fly close to the bottom. So you need that longer leader
let it sink and do that nice gradual retrieve up off the bottom. What I'm
going to set up though right now is another very common way to fish with floating
lines and that's with a strike indicator. I've got the end of my
tippet. I'm gonna thread on a quick release indicator like so. Now it's
sliding on my main leade and then I'm using a number 12
barrel swivel, to just add a bit more weight, and I'm tying it on with a clinch
knot like so. You wet it to lubricate the knot. There's my swivel
tied on to there and then you can buy tippet material in spools in different weights.
This is 4x which equals to 6 pound and 4, 5, 6, 7 pound tippet material
is what we typically use for lake fishing. This is 6 pound and so I'm
just gonna take some off the spool like so. I need about 24 inches or so
of tippet material that I'll tie in below the swivel. So I cut that off and
now I'm gonna take the other end of the swivel, thread my line through it. It's
called a clinch knot - seven times around the main line back through, let it slowly
tighten the knot and now we've got our two connections. Okay, so now we're into
the tippet material here. We're gonna tie on our fly that we're going to use.
I've just got a number 12 black and red chironomid - which is a
go-to pattern - and I'm tying the fly on with a knot
called a non-slip loop knot. So there's the end of my tippet.
I'm just making one overhand knot in it like so. Okay this is a very
important knot to learn forlake fishing because any fly you fish that's
subsurface- anything that's sinking through the water- you want to use a loop
knot because it pivots- the fly is allowed to twist and turn. So I've just
threaded it on. There's my overhand knot there, I bump it up.
This is my tag-end - and this is the last step- I'm wrapping it around five
times around the main line and then I'm going back through the overhand knot
and then letting it pulling it tight so now we've got this loop. The
flies tied on with a loop so it's free to float around and twist and turn. If it
was a clinch know the fly wouldn't move. You have a lot
more lifelike action by tying the new loop knot. You know the loop knot is done
right when the tag end, the short piece, is hanging at 90 degrees from the mainline.
We're just going to take our nippers now. Now we've got the fly on,
24 inches above it is a swivel, and then the swivel goes from there up onto
our main leader and here's our quick release indicator which has got a black
peg that the leader is throug. We just make a little loop and push it
through so you end up with a little loop there. The reason why these
things are effective is that when you get a bite it trips the indicator and
the indicator slides down and so you can land the fish and the indicator is not
way up on the leader. Now we've got our complete system and we're ready to
go fishing. It's pretty simple- you need two knots: a
clinch knot, a clinch knot to tie on the swivel.
It's a clinch knot or an improved clinch knot, and then a non-slip loop knot
which allows your fly to pivot and very important knot to learn. You can
Google these- just go on Google and type in 'non-slip loop knot' or
'clinch knot' or 'improved clinch knot' and you're ready to go. Every fly
rod comes with a hook keeper- just hook it on there, wind in the slack and we're
ready to go fishing. We'll set our indicator at the depth we want to fish.
So there's your floating line
system. Here's my sinking line setup. So similar to the floating line it's
another nine 1/2 foot rod. So 9, 9 and a half are good for for your sinking lines.
This is another 4 piece rod as well, so I've put it together, strung the fly line
just like I did with the floating line and then tied on a little black and maroon
leech with a non-slip loop knot again because you want that fly to
undulate and be 50% more lifelike versus tying it with a knot like a cinch not
that doesn't allow that fly to move.
Hookkeeper is ready to go. This
is a type 7 line that's that's on a wide arbor reel. All the reels I like to
use are wide arbor. So that that means that the diameter of the of
the of the reel is quite wide in the middle so the line doesn't develop a
memory like if it was a narrow arbor reel. These are reels that I can open-face I
can palm them if I get a really big fish on I can put my hand down here to slow
it down and they've got a drag system on them. I can adjust the back to increase
or decrease the tension on how easily the line goes out. I can back it
right off so it's really easy or I can tighten it and it's harder to come off.
So we're good to go- we've got our two lines a sinking line here and a floating
line and we've talked earlier about the different types of sinking
lines like type one, three and six or seven. So it doesn't necessarily mean you
need three different reels. You can buy one reel and then buy two spare spools
and put your other two sinking lines on that and then your covered off on the
different lines you need and then you're going to need another reel for your full
floating line. So there you have your basic setups for your fly rod, fly reels
and your lines, and tying the flies on.