The action of a rod is a description of the flex in the rod when it is bending. Actions areusually described as fast, medium or slow, and other increments, such as medium fast,medium slow, etc. Rods that flex near the tip are referred to as “fast” action rods where as rods that bendor flex uniformly throughout most of the rod’s length are referred to as… Read More »Fly Fishing Gear – Fly Rod Action
The tippet is the final deceptive component in the overall fly-fishing system and ofcourse, is what the fly is tied to. You probably can’t even see it in this shot. It is also theweakest link in the overall system. Smaller size leaders are designated by their length and the tippet size number, whichis designated by a “X” that identify the size and breaking strength of… Read More »Fly Fishing Gear – Tippet
The leader serves two important purposes. One, it conceals the fly line and two, itserves in the delicacy of the presentation. The fly must look and move about freelyas if it were unattached. Just as your rod and fly line is tapered, so is your leader. Most anglers use factorymade knotless tapered leaders that are gradually and uniformly taperedthroughout their length. Knotted, leaders are made… Read More »Fly Fishing Gear – Tapered Leaders
Since the standard fly line is only about ninety feet long, hard fighting, fast movingspecies of fish can strip your reel of line quickly and that is where the backing comes intoplay. Normally, backing line is made of braided Dacron that doesn’t rot or mildew. Othermaterial, such as Micron, is also used. Both are better than monofilament that maypresent problems by coiling. Even the smaller… Read More »Fly Fishing Gear – Fly Line Backing
The color of a fly line is considered by most anglers to be an unimportant issue. That’sbecause in a perfect world, the fish never sees you fly line. Of course, the main purposeof the leader is to make sure that the fish doesn’t see the fly line. Of course, the fish mayvery well see your fly line and in those cases probably a less visible… Read More »Fly Fishing Gear – Fly Line Color
Casting a tapered line is much easier than casting a level line and for that reason, weonly recommend that your use tapered fly lines. All fly lines, except the level line, are tapered. The distribution of weight varies in atapered line. Generally, tapered lines gradually decrease in weight near the leader end.This helps you present flies in a smoother, quieter manner and more accurately. Theoverall… Read More »Fly Fishing Gear – Fly Line Tapers
Now, although a rod may be designed with a certain species of fish in mind, there’sactually not such thing as a trout rod, or a bass rod, rather rods that are designed forcertain size fly lines. There’s also really not such a thing as a trout fly line, a bass fly lineor a sailfish fly line as such. If you rely only on species of… Read More »Fly Fishing Gear – Types of Fly Lines
Because there are a large variety of fly line tapers and weights, there are standardizeddesignations to identify various fly line types and sizes. The American Fishing TackleManufacturers Association adopted a system of designating fly line sizes that is almostuniversally used. Example: WF8S The first part of a line designation is the taper of the line, which is identified by two letters.In this case it is… Read More »Fly Fishing Gear – Fly Line Designations
Try throwing a unweighted, small trout fly such as a midge as far as you can. You can’tthrow it very far, can you? That is because in fly-fishing, it’s the line you cast, not the fly. Even a large fly, such as a bass popping bug is still very light. Casting it isn’t any easierthan casting the trout fly because the weight still isn’t a… Read More »Fly Fishing Gear – Fly Line Purpose
Fly fishing is considered by many to be complicated simply because some of the flyfishing gear and tackle appears to be complicated. Fly lines are certainly one of thoseitems that at first glance, appears to be complicated. A “WF8S” designation on a fly linebox doesn’t mean very much to a person just getting into fly fishing. With normal casting or spinning tackle, lines are designated… Read More »Fly Fishing Gear – Fly Line Types and Terminology