I designed the Stinger reel to save weight. People ask “why,” so I wrote this because I realized that the answers are not so obvious, especially to those who have been fishing the same way for decades.
Lightweight and high performance are synonymous terms with regards to competitive sports equipment- the world I came from. Lightweight almost always improves performance because mass and inertia are your enemies when trying to increase quickness, accuracy and or maximize endurance. But what does high performance have to do with fly fishing? Lots.
If you’re regularly hooking into river trout but your “landing rate” is dismal, you’re not alone. By the way, it took a lot of hard work and practice on your part to get where you are now so congratulations.
Assuming you’ve presented the correct fly, the fish takes your fly, and you’ve managed a good hookset, you’re still miles away from getting that lunker into your net. Inexperienced anglers are always bewildered when the fish is suddenly off their line. It still happens to me but far less.
As you've probably noticed in our videos, our dogs love to go fishing with us. While we anglers sometimes have our struggles and tough days, the dogs are having the time of their lives, and I’m happy to share that with you. But off-camera things are a bit trickier when taking your pups to the river - Here are things to consider if you plan to fish with your dog.
When fishing with your dog, or any time you take your dog outside the security of your home for that matter, you’re responsible for your dog’s safety and well being- So lower your expectations of catching fish by realizing that your time in the water fishing will be less than usual, your choices of fishing locations will be limited, and you’ll now have to redirect your focus and keep an eye out for what your fur buddy is doing.
If you’re new to ESN (European Style Nymphing) fly fishing you probably have lots of questions regarding tippet line. There’s very little information out there because tippet setup is specific to types of water, fish, conditions, etc. Here’s how I rig my tippet and why.
First the basics. Tippet is the thin clear portion of the leader that attaches the fly. It’s thin to cut through the current and minimize drag, and clear to not spook the fish. In Euro-nymphing tippet takes much more abuse because it makes frequent contact with rocks and gravel down at the bottom, so fluorocarbon is used because it is more abrasion resistant than nylon. And because fluorocarbon it tougher I can use thinner tippet than Nylon.
