Floating Fly Line Color Does It Matter

09.58 in Boat Plans, color, does, floating, fly, form, game, in, it, line, matter, memory, muscle, redington, time

You cant always pick your family but you can pick your fly line.

Over the last 10-15 years I have watched fly line manufactures building more lines with earth tone colors or even clear and fewer hi-vis or bright colors. Anglers seem to be asking for and buying more and more of these lines that are more camouflaged, but does the color matter to the fish. That is the question that few seem to ask, nor do I think we really know. When it comes to this subject color of a fly line, there are all types of opinions, so here is what I think.

I personally come from the train of thought that being able to see a fly line on the water and in the air really helps an angler’s ability to catch more fish. First off a bright colored line is easier to see while casting, this helps you judge distance and placing a cast in tight quarters. Second and most important is being able to see your line while it is on the water, if you can’t see your line, you cannot control it. As a former guide line control is everything! That brings me to the third reason; if you go on guided trips it allows your guide to see your line and judge where your fly is much better.

I am a steelhead addict and fish dry lines with flies on the surface or in the surface film as much as I can. I fish the brightest line I can, all though these bright lines in good tapers are getting hard to find. Here is why I like a bright line for steelhead angling. When fishing a damp fly in the surface film I am always scanning for a fish that came to check my fly out, but did not eat it, this is a fish I want to work. When these fish come up from the bottom to check a fly out they commonly make a disturbance on the surface as they turn to return to the bottom. It is critical to see exactly where your fly is, once you know where the fly is; now you can scan the area around it for any signs of fishing moving. If you do this you will catch more steelhead, but if you have trouble seeing the tip of your line this task will get much more difficult. Scanning an area 6 foot by 6 foot is much easier than trying to locate the tip of a fin in an area 20 foot by 20 foot.

Trout anglers that are very successful will generally tell you the most important tricks to catching more fish is presenting the fly properly. If your line is not controlled properly than the fly is not presented properly, the result is not very successful trout fishing. Drag on the fly is generally a big NO, NO. Drag is minimized by controlling and correcting the drift or drag of your line. This is much tougher to do with a line that is hard to see. I have never seen a trout spook from what I would say was the color of the line, but I have seen many spook from the shadow of the line. Even a clear line cast a shadow, I have seen many fish spook from a clear lines’ shadow.

Greg Darling joined me this year on our annual trip to the Palometa Club in Ascension Bay, Mexico. We did a rod comparison that Greg wrote an article about called NRX vs ONE...Who rules the flats!  Rio had just released the Rio Bonefish QS Fly Line in florescent orange; this looked like the perfect fly line to take to pop out in photos. A few days into the trip we found some nice bones on a outer flat, guides wanted us to put the permit rod away and get our bonefish rod out. I knew that these bigger single bones were much spookier, so here is the test. When we pulled out the 9’ 7 weight Sage ONE rod lined with this line, I was waiting for the two guides to start scream at me “what did you bring that line for!” As I cast the line 75 feet to a bone, the only thing that our lead guide said was “nice cast, strip, strip, strip. You got him!” I hooked and lost a bonefish in less than a foot of water. We fished the rest of the afternoon searching for permit and sliding into the shallows whenever a nice bone presented itself. Greg hooked and landed several bones that day on the Orange line. We asked the guides about their thoughts on the bright lines. They said that they love them, it helps them see right where the fly is. This helps them read the fish and see the eat. They wished that more of the lines anglers showed up with had these lines.

Sage ONE + Hatch 7plus + Rio Bonefish line = BONEFISH

Here is why I do not think a bright colored line spooks anymore fish than a camouflaged or clear line. Think about it this way, have you ever swam under water and opened your eyes? What does the surface look like? It has lots of broken colors and lines; this is from light being reflected in the surface water. This reflected light is always moving and changing, I would think that a bright yellow, green or orange line would be no different than this constantly changing surface light. Fish spook from the shadow of a fly line, bright or camouflage they shadow the same, even clear fly lines shadow.

Orange is the new Clear

At the end of the day fish what you have confidence in, but if you want to try a really bright line in a good taper they are getting harder to find. Line companies have had to go with consumer demand which is for natural colored lines. Rio does a very nice bright orange in the Rio Gold; this is a great choice for trout. For Saltwater Rio the Bonefish Quickshooter in a hi-vis.

By Travis Duddles
Owner, Gorge Fly Shop

"Fly Fish the World with Us"

Read more

Announcing it twice Announcing it twice

01.01 in announcing, bill, Boat Plans, infrastructure, it, twice

I see that Eric Pickles (who perhaps we ought now to refer to as ‘Little Sir Echo’) was sounding off earlier this week about his proposed repeal of section 25 of the Greater London Council (General Powers) Act 1973 (as amended), which provides that for the purposes of what is now section 55(1) of the 1990 Act, the use as temporary sleeping accommodation of any residential premises in Greater London involves a material change of use of the premises and of each part of them that is used for that purpose. Oh, by the way, that particularly pernicious piece of legislation (if you happen to share Uncle Eric’s view) was passed by a Conservative Government, although I suppose today’s Tories would regard the then prime minister, Ted Heath, as a dangerous crypto-socialist.

I wrote about this proposal when it was first announced more than four months ago (see Short-term lets in Greater London, 25 February 2014). I picked up on it from a story in the Evening Standard on 24 February, which reported that Kris Hopkins, who was then a recently appointed junior minister in De-CLoG, had said that ministers intended to scrap this provision, so as to allow short-term lets in Greater London (for example “for a few days while the owners go on holiday”). The demand for short-term accommodation during the 2012 Olympics was cited as the sort of thing that ministers think ought to be catered for.

Uncle Eric’s announcement this week made me think that the details of this proposal had now been published. But not so. We shall have to await the introduction of amendments to the Deregulation Bill, currently wending its weary way through parliament (having been carried over from the last session). I have no doubt that the amending legislation when it emerges will turn out to be hedged about with all sorts of ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ to prevent the sort of free-for-all that I warned against in my February commentary. So I am re-assured that Uncle Eric, despite his completely contrary intentions (if his bullish speeches are to be believed), will be making yet more work for the planning lawyers.

That is what I like about ‘reforms’ of the planning system. They just make planning law even more complicated. In the words of an old Flanders and Swann song – “Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do.”

© MARTIN H GOODALL

Read more

More pain for struggling planning authorities

08.34 in announcing, authorities, Boat Plans, for, it, more, pain, planning, struggling, twice

It has no doubt been a considerable disappointment to De-CLoG ministers that, despite all the huffing and puffing on the part of Yorkshire’s Biggest Export, only one local planning authority has ended up being put in special measures on the grounds of alleged poor performance (Blaby – a Tory-controlled council in Leicestershire), and it looks as though only one county planning authority (actually a unitary – Trafford) will join them on the naughty step, on account of their performance in dealing with minerals and waste applications.

It was with this in mind that ministers have tried to dream up other ways in which they could sweep local planning authorities into the net, although (when you think about it) the whole idea seems pretty daft, as most developers probably won’t want to apply for planning permission direct to the Planning Inspectorate. What vast number of such direct applications have there been in Blaby so far, I wonder?

Anyway, undeterred by the sheer pointlessness of the exercise, De-CLoG has now announced the outcome of the consultation it launched in March. Among the ideas that had been canvassed was a rise in the percentage threshold to 40% or even 50% for determining major applications within the target period (13 weeks, or 16 weeks where EIA is involved). Instead of abandoning the daft idea of judging LPA performance by the speed of decision-making, it seems the government has settled on a 40% threshold (which actually represents an increase of one-third in the number of major applications that LPAs will now have to process on time).

There will be an exemption for LPAs receiving no more than two major applications over the two-year assessment period, but this means that an authority that receives only three such applications will have to determined two out of the three on time in order to meet the 40% threshold, because meeting the target time for only one out of the three would be belowe the 40% benchmark! Such an authority would in practice be facing a 66% threshold. (Which just goes to show how daft this game really is.). Not content with this, ministers have thrown in a veiled threat that the threshold could still be upped to 50% at some time in the future, although this may be an empty threat if the current motley crew get thrown overboard by the electorate at the General Election in 11 months’ time.

The other whizzo wheeze that ministers have dreamed up is the proportion of decisions on major applications that are overturned at appeal. The threshold here is losing 20% of such appeals over a two-year period. LPAs will be assessed against each of these two criteria independently, and so could be put in the sin bin on the basis of either or both of these. On the lost appeals criterion, there will be an exemption for those authorities receiving 10 or fewer major applications in the two-year period.

One point which is not spelt out, but which may lie behind ministerial thinking, is that LPAs who turn down major housing applications on un-allocated green field sites, but then lose subsequent appeals because they can’t demonstrate a 5-year housing supply, could be at some risk of being ‘designated’ under the appeals criterion if they lose, say, three out of 11 to 15 major appeals in their area. This could act as a further strong incentive to councils to ensure that their local plans are updated as soon as possible, so as to allocate enough housing sites to meet the 5-year housing land supply requirement in the NPPF and, in the meantime, to let these applications through, rather than risk losing appeals and getting sat upon by the Secretary of State (a painful experience, as the Leader of Blaby Council has discovered).

I wonder whether the government is going to keep up this performance all the way to the General Election? With UKIP snapping at their heels (having jumped on this conveniently passing bandwagon), I find it hard to believe that ministers will be able to resist making a U-turn at some time between now and next May.

© MARTIN H GOODALL

Read more

Fly Tying Roundtable Event

02.36 in Boat Plans, color, does, event, floating, fly, it, line, matter, roundtable, tying

Winter Steelhead Fly Tying Roundtable

Fly-tying Roundtable

At the Gorge Fly Shop

201 Oak St. Hood River, Oregon 97031

Jan 27, 2015

6:00-7:30 pm
Event Host:
Andrew Perrault

541.386.6977

info@gorgeflyshop.com

The Rundown:

Tying Winter Steelhead Flies: tips and tricks.

A gathering of local tiers of all levels to share tips, tricks and patterns for successful winter steelhead flies. This is an open forum for all tiers or people interested in tying winter flies.

Details:
Bring a vise if you have one. We will provide a couple of them for those that dont have one. Bring materials to tie your favorite fly. We will discuss how to tie shanks, using wire vs braid, how to build a bulky profile without using too much material, what type trailer hooks to use and some tips on tying with tubes. We will also discuss our favorite patterns and techniques.


Store will be open for any after hours purchases.

Snacks and beverages provided...

"Fly Ty the World with Us"

Read more