SLP

[Paul Arden]

used to be I needed an #8 and a #10. Now I need a #7 for calm days an #8 for wind, a #9 and a #10 for permit and baby tarpon....and on and on.

I’m quite sure that Magnum and Brian have more rods in their cupboards than the rest of us combined.

[FishNoGeek]

I’m quite sure that Magnum and Brian have more rods in their cupboards than the rest of us combined.

Guilty as charged....but I don't have the ONE ROD TO RULE THEM ALL yet. If only I knew who to talk with about getting an HT7....

[Paul Arden]

Haha. I had a chuckle when on Tuesday I wrote “ There are two ways to build a rod. One is that you can build it as fast as you can. As many of you will know, we don’t do this.”

Building yours now and I’ll include a tip for Andy/Phil for when you meet one of them.

Starlink has arrived. I’m just waiting on two solar panels and a 64KG battery.

Cheers, Paul

[Lasse Karlsson]

Interesting take. Most brick on strings are around 30-35 feet head, a few feet of overhang, plus the three feet for hauling and we're looking at a 35-40 feet carry, easy with a 20 cm fly and a flick and its 90-100 feet away. But I am a rather unsophisticated caster.. please elaborate on what that water load loads all the lines I'll be taking to the Maldives in a few weeks are so called bricks on a string. I am a lazy bugger.

Lasse,

Hmmm. Well, at the moment I'm imagining two (though there are surely more) primary use cases for brick-on-string lines: one is the novice-in-jungle scenario that I outlined above, where the heavy head enables folks who fish once a year (and never practice casting) to flop 20ish feet of line out behind them, then use that water load and the chunky head to throw 40ish feet (and a big fly) towards the bank with relatively little effort. That last part is important since they need to do it several hundred times in an average day, something many people aren't in shape to do with a 9-10wt rod.

The other use case is where a "rather unsophisticated caster" like yourself (you aren't fooling anyone - that giant blue wall reveals EVERYTHING) can turn a 35-40ft carry into triple digits with a flick in a scenario where your backcast is unobstructed, you're mostly blind casting, there's likely wind in the equation, and distance is very useful. I think those lines make good sense for both of those situations, and probably more?

But the way we approached the Amazon thing was neither of those. We were trying to punch flies as far back into the tangled interface of jungle and river as possible, both poppers and streamers. Most of the time we'd both try to hit roughly the same spot at 60-80ft, usually threading the needle through and around sticks. It was tremendously fun fishing - chugging big poppers on top with a subsurface fly below, calling fish out from deep in the snags - but it required fairly good accuracy and lots of aerial mends. Those brick-on-string lines don't do that kind of fishing very well, I think.

Also, we obviously got hung up on the trees quite regularly. I'm generally of the opinion that even the best among us are going to miss a few if we're really going for those long, penetrating casts, and I wouldn't count myself among that number. As such, using long-belly floating lines made it VASTLY easier to un-hang flies from a distance with rolls and flips. They don't always work, of course, but it's almost impossible to do those fun little tricks with a short, heavy head.

Thoughts?

Hi Brian

Flopping 20 feet onto the water and using the stick to eliminate slack and flop it out the other side with a massive 20 feet shot is something I can't do, without the Arden snakeheadshotslippin' so not sure your beginners with no practice can't either. And in that case I would have opted straight for a 20 foot head, so those beginners could play. But that's me.

And no, I am definetly aiming to place that fly in the path of the crusing GT. Yeah, my backcast is unobstructed, yes there's wind, but not necessarily straight from the back. And I practice it in no wind too.

Threading the needle is not the issue with a shot and a brick, the mend part though, that's the only thing I'd agree on in that scenario. 30 feet head, 2 feet overhang, 3 feet haul, 10 feet leader, 9 foot rod. In a straighish line, that plops the popper down a bit over 50 feet from my feet. A 10 foot shot and I'm in the range you're talking about.
I have never been to the amazon, and probably never will, so I have to use my imagination and youtube to get a feel for the kind of fishing. And take away the moving water, its similar to my spring fishing from boats in small forest lakes, where I throw poppers under the tree branches to lure out pike. I usually use shootingheads for that.

And yeah, the longer heads do make it easier to untangle when in the trees, we all end up there no doubt I just like the shot more than the carry, hence the shorter heads.

Cheers
Lasse

[FishNoGeek]

I just like the shot more than the carry, hence the shorter heads.

I can respect that. I kinda like the carry just as much as the shot. Can we still be friends?

Except that now in addition to your giant blue wall, I'm also jealous of your trip to go chase GTs. When's this happening, and will you be sharing photos and stories here??

[Paul Arden]

I’d much rather have a tropical MED in 10WT for general shots. That’s on my wish list. I always feel restricted when I cast short heads. GTs may not be the best example. I’ve watched them veer 20’ off course to take a fly.

I am really looking forward to spending some serious time chasing SW fish in the tropics. Thats going to be my next environment. Can’t wait!!

IMG_6533.jpeg (81.83 KiB) Viewed 204 times

[FishNoGeek]

And take away the moving water, its similar to my spring fishing from boats in small forest lakes, where I throw poppers under the tree branches to lure out pike. I usually use shootingheads for that.

With the exception of a few fairly narrow, twisty (and extremely overgrown) sections where you could see and feel the current, the majority of the 100km or so of Amazonian tributary we fished was wide and very slow. We spent a lot of time in oxbows off the main channel, and they're almost indistinguishable from lakes. I suspect the fishing is very similar to the "strategic bank bombing" you're doing for pike in those ponds where you need to tuck flies up under the overhanging branches. It reminded me of jungle fishing I've done in Malaysian dams (not with Paul, and not with his fancy toman techniques), tidal bass in Australia and many parts of the US, bowfin in the southern US, and also snook and tarpon fishing in mangroves.

I didn't feel like I had as much control with the shooting heads as with the longer heads, and as we agreed, I'm definitely sold on the virtues of long-belly lines when it comes to flipping free from snags at a distance. But if you need to get down quickly....well, now we're back to those heavy heads, especially for current.

I don't envy people just getting into this game....there are just so many right answers, and so much of the rightness or wrongness of a particular line or rod or technique is highly situational. Chatting through all the permutations and different approaches is great fun for me, but it's clearly a nightmare to navigate for newcomers.

[Lasse Karlsson]

I’d much rather have a tropical MED in 10WT for general shots. That’s on my wish list. I always feel restricted when I cast short heads. GTs may not be the best example. I’ve watched them veer 20’ off course to take a fly.

I am really looking forward to spending some serious time chasing SW fish in the tropics. Thats going to be my next environment. Can’t wait!!

IMG_6533.jpeg

The shooting head is the riffle

And yeah, sometimes they even turn around and take the fly anyway. Those are just more the exception than the rule, but it proves even you can get lucky mate

[Lasse Karlsson]

I just like the shot more than the carry, hence the shorter heads.

I can respect that. I kinda like the carry just as much as the shot. Can we still be friends?

Except that now in addition to your giant blue wall, I'm also jealous of your trip to go chase GTs. When's this happening, and will you be sharing photos and stories here??

In some circumstances I like carry too, I just have as good accuracy shooting most of the time



And yeah, if not during then after, last time the Internet was sketchy and in a couple of weeks friend

Cheers
Lasse

[Paul Arden]

I didn’t know you were a GT expert Lasse

The riffle didn’t fare too well in the movie.

Cheers, Paul