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Post Info TOPIC: The last six feet of your line??


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The last six feet of your line??
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Here is my tip of the day for Putah.  The last six feet of your setup are the most important. You could go out and buy a brand new Sage The One rig it up with a brand new Abel reel and hit the creek with 4x and 5x mono.  You might catch a fish or two, but you will probably catch a few more with a 90 degree setup and Rio Fluorflex tippet down to 6x.  Rio Fluoro is about as strong as most mono at 4x and the fish can't see it as well.

90 degree setups sink faster and can be controlled by adding or deleting weight.  Keep adding weight until you snag it up.  Buy or tie lots of flies for Putah.  Changing flies will help in the hookup ratio!  You are allowed three flies, so I usually start with a size 16 caddis, size 18-20 mayfly, followed by a size 20-22 midge.



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chris


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The last six feet? I thought it was the first six feet? Now Im confused, great thanks!!!

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Ty


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I've seen the 90 degree setup in a book.  I've also recently read in one of the big national ff magazines about regular 2 fly setups using tippet rings?  I guess there are alot of ways to rig up.  I just go as basic as possible.  I always use flouro though.



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I'm going to try this the next time, maybe this Thursday if there's any water left in the creek.  I can see how the depth can be adjusted based on weight except for fishing the slack water right next to the main current where the flies sink to max depth and hardly move.  What do you do there other than cut down the leader?

I'm not sure you need to go down to 6x, however, at Putah.  I've been doing very well with 5x (5lb) Umpqua fluoro and love the sense of security having a slightly thicker line on big fish.  Haven't broken off a single one.  On the Rio website it says the Fluoroflex 6x is 3lb which is good, but not as strong as Umpqua 4x which is 7lbs.

 



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Hahaha, I love this stuff.  There's a company out there that I recently discovered that has the normal run of tippet.  They don't make leaders.  They make a copolymer as well as regular.  3x rates a full pound stronger than Rio's....and it's thin.  Not going to tell you what it is because you guys will buy it all up.  Not to mention they make 5.5x and some other in between sizes.  I will leave it you to figure it out.  Thanks for this advice Otter...Greg from Sweeney's told me about this setup for Putah years ago but I haven't tried it yet.



-- Edited by Cole Davis on Wednesday 5th of October 2011 06:27:35 PM

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I can see how the depth can be adjusted based on weight except for fishing the slack water right next to the main current where the flies sink to max depth and hardly move. What do you do there other than cut down the leader?

High stick the line. You can lift the indicator above the water. On many waters including Putah you can imitate an emerging nymph by lifting or slashing the line...

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chris


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Chris/Otter,

I tried the rig out today and had a lot of success with it.  It worked great about 90% of the time.  What I might do is put this setup on and fish the spots where it is suitable and then switch to the other rig for the spots where it works better.

BTW, thanks for the tip.

ct.



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Sounds like you were having fun while everyone else was working! There is a new indicator out now that is very versatile and allows you to switch to 90 degree by pulling the leader into the indicator. I haven't tried them, but the Umpqua rep says they work. Insta set indicators. I asked him if they set the hook for you! http://california-flyfishing.com/instaset.htm



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chris


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The only issue with these is the 90 degree kink it will put in your leader when you adjust your depth.  Years ago there was a similar indie that was a corkie with a large bore hole on one side.  It came with little strips of poly yarn that you used to pull your leader through to seat it so it wouldn't slide.  As soon as you adjusted your depth you had a gnarly kink especially in the butt section which is very hard if not impossible to get straight again.  If you are adjusting down the leader for less depth not so bad.  If you have to go back up you now have a crooked leader which may compromise your hook set.  Since I'm not sponsored by Rio I try to use my leaders a long time.disbelief The 90 degree thingamabobber setup is the better way to go IMO.



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Yeah, I have a pack of those exact indicators and I never liked them because of the kinking and they were a pain in the a$$ to use.  However, in the name of science I have ordered some of Otter's officially recommended bobbers - I mean strike indicators - to see if they might be more convenient and less kinking on the line.  I don't plan on using an expensive tapered leader with this.  I think a 2 ft length of 1x or 2x for the indicator attachment/adjustment piece with the rest of the leader 3x, 4x and 5x fluorocarbon should be a good test.

I wasn't sure if the unusually large number of grabs I had last week was just luck or due to the 90 degree rig.  But I'm certain I felt a little annoyed that my ability to adjust for depth was limited by this setup.



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Some other advice is that the best guides on the creek will usually fish without an indicator?? You will have to figure it out or hire Greg Bonovich....

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chris


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When I first started fishing at Putah, I didn't use a strike indicator and still caught fish.  However, when I switched to bobber fishing, I noticed I got more takes and they were easier to spot.  But occassionally I would take the bobber off and caught fish in the same spot where I'd made several passes with the indicator rig.

I am going to give this a try again, maybe with a Czech setup.  I think the flies might move more naturally in the water without an indicator.  The downside is you have to get right on top of the fish which could spook them in low/slow water.

"There's nuthin' like experimentin'"



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I must report that the Insta-set indicators work great!  

The only problem I noticed was that the bobber had a tendency to slide if you put it on a thin tippet.  I modified my leader so that the bobber was only sitting on 2X and this seemed to hold it in place.  If I needed the indicator closer than that to the fly I switched to an Undercator which holds more securely to finer tippet. 

Overall, I felt like I got more hookups and landed more fish with the Insta-set over the Undercator at PC yesterday.  The fish were biting so I got a good chance to experiment with these.  I felt like it was easier to detect subtle strikes with the Insta-set.  Quite a few of the hookups occured when the bright tubing just barely twitched.  I am pretty sure I would have missed many of these with another indicator.

Finally, I used an interesting product from Climax which I plan on using extensively from now on.  This is a micro-ring that can form a nexus of tie-ins.  What I did was tie 2ft of 4x fluoro from the 2x indicator attachment section and tie the 4x onto a ring.  I attached a 15" 5x fluoro dropper from the ring to the top fly of a tandem rig.  Then I attached an 8" dropper of 5x to the ring to another fly.  The sinker goes on the 4x just above the ring.  This way I can get all 3 flies fairly close to the sinker which seemed to work great.  At one spot, yesterday, I caught fish on all 3 flies on different casts.  It only bird-nested 2 times on me.  One on a fish that popped off and the rig went into a tree and on a missed strike.

You guys should try this out and report back!



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