Fla wrote:
Great FP! Thanks for sharing your setup for Zander . Some very interesting observations and findings - I am sure this insights will be very useful for the perch fishing that I plan to intensify this year.
Hi Flavio,
Thanks for your fine feedback! Yes, perch are pretty similuar and a lot of takes will always be missed in the fly fishing world (for many of us without ever knowing it).
Fla wrote:
- Do you let the fly sink on a tight line right after your cast, or do you feed some more line first?
Yes, I do (not feeding any line). Feeding line would make it harder to detect the fly hitting the bottom. You need to watch that part of line just in front of the tip. It will relax slightly (very slightly) in that particular moment. But for seeing that sudden loss in line tension, the line needs to be under proper tension first. The amplitude of the fly needs to be steep. Otherwise the sinking fly doesn't sink enough of a distance. That sinking distance is needed to put the hole line under proper tension again and again. So a heavily weighted fly and a very light line is a must have combination here.
Fla wrote:
- For lets say a 20 m cast: How much is your carry and how much do you shoot?
My carry easily can be the whole distance. I use an old Wet Cel 2 of SA. Front taper shortened a bit though. I need high line speed (170 style works well here) in order to have enough momentum in the line driving the heavy fly to the fish.
Fla wrote:
- Did you study the influence of the flies materials and shape towards their sinking rate? Most importantly, do you use loop knots in order to allow the fly to orient itself in a way that the drag is minimized? (This video might help to understand what I mean:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9Cr1O1P4cw)
Well, it all depends on a) the bottom and b) the water depth.
If the bottom is really rocky a pretty light fly gets stocked much less. Also flies not jigging get stocked much less. That works unless you have more than 2 meter of depth. I prefer tube flies here (easily changing the hook after damage). These flies are usually not as easily identified to be wrong by the Zander as the heavily weighted ones are.
http://www.first-cast.de/Textdateien/to ... iegen.html
If I want to fish deeper than 2m, I prefer (need) flies with an eye put on a loop knot. I always use the none slip mono loop here. Thinner leader, loop knot, hook eye, softer materials and shorter tails all will allow the fly to sink faster = improved tension in all the line between the tip and the fly + steeper amplitude.
http://www.first-cast.de/Textdateien/za ... iegen.html
Lately I position the hook in the middle of the fly. That works great on Zander. I use Sawada double hooks here. Also upside down is smart when having your fly jumping on the bottom!
For perch I yet prefer to have the hook at the end of the fly! (starting to seriously working on perch at the moment)
Fla wrote:
- Did you test rather short shooting heads and thin running line? The thin running line should improve the contact to the fly / the line resistance.
That's what I thought, too. But it did not improve my results. I tested it. I used Sawada Mono SL. The SL has some flex = not good. It also wasn't as straight as my sinking line based shooting line was. Problem is, that the slightest waves in the line at whatever point dampen away 90% of all takes.
Fla wrote:
- Thinking this further: Did you try to cast the flies with just mono running line? I experimented with tight line nymphing last year using a very long mono leader only - no fly line is leaving the reel. A 1.5g streamer can easily be cast more than 10m with such a rig (backcast, shoot some line, forward cast with haul).
That's a great idea. Not sure what serious wind would do to this outfit. I did cast my flies on a spinning rod to see what the than improved contact would be like. I am pretty excellent now with being able to detect even a high percentage of small Zander (soft) takes. But there is still little room to improve. In little wave situations I don't need it. But when fishing from a boat in waves I yet loose contact. Thanks for sharing that thought. I will test and see where the limits for the weight of the fly are here! Being able to use lighter flies can be important sometimes (more easily to be sucked in and moving slower, but making less noise when hitting the bottom = it all depends).
Fla wrote:
- If you think this even further, you will probably end up with a ultralight spinning setup with thin braid. That's probably not where you want to go
.... Is there an advantage of using fly fishing tackle, apart from that it is cooler?
I did test my flies on a spinning rod, to see where I am. Well, fishing for really small Zander my friend Hansi still gets more fish. That is because his rubber fish has very little weight (drop shot) and thus easily can be sucked in. Also he obviously has a better contact! As soon as the Zander are over 40 - 45cm our catches are even (takes get strong enough for me to be detected. Bigger Zander over 60cm yet seem to like my flies more than his rubber fish! So, in regard of your question... my fly seems to offer a pretty attractive movement, which most Zander never have seen yet! Besides that, a professional spin fisherman will always be hard to be beaten. Especially in deeper water + current + waves he will outfish me on Zander. In my homewater I now for some time did significantly outfish the average spin fishing bears.
Fla wrote:
By the way: I enrolled into your fly casting course in Zurich (the one on Sunday). Looking very much forward to getting to know you then!
Looking forward to meet!
Regards
Bernd
