Fly Fishing Insider Newsletter featuring Stone Fly Dry

Dredger vs Greased Line (Written 12/19/04) The marketplace is a competitive arena. Continual product testing is part of the game. You have to know more than your competition. It probably wouldn't surprise you to find out that many other fly shops around the country refer to our web site for their primary information on Spey rod fishing. We also get the cleverly disguised calls from guys working in other shops so that they can advise there customers in a more enlightened manner. Quite a few other shop personnel subscribe to our weekly on-line newsletter. To all those guys we say, "Thanks for putting your faith in us. Here is your next product test report."
	My winters are spent in pursuit of winter steelhead with two-handers and sinking tip lines . A fourteen foot, nine weight rod is the size I like best for winter fishing on local rivers. I just received two new 14' RoaringRiver two-handers from G. Loomis. One is a Greased Line FR1688/9-4 GLX (14' #8/9) and the other is a Dredger Series FR1689/10-4 GLX (14' #9/10). Like many other members of the steelhead fishing community, I've become interested in Skagit Style of two-hand fly rod fishing. The Dredger Series is
designed specifically for Skagit Casting. The Skagit Style incorporates a short, heavy shooting-head type line with a sinking tip and very large, weighted flies. Many of the rods used by Skagit anglers are relatively lightweight. Rods of less than 14' are most common, but I like the authority the bigger rod gives me. Added was a G. Loomis reel and a Rio 10/11/12 WindCutter w/tips line with the tip-2 section replaced with a 5' Skagit Cheater and the standard 11-weight, type-8 tip weighing 173 grains was also added. This gave the fly line a head length of 44' with a weight of 643 grains. This outfit casts very smooth in the ranges from 50'-80'. For a period the type-8 tip was replaced with 16' of T-14 weighing 224 grains. With a total head weight of 695 grains this line felt heavy on this rod. However, the rod handled it okay and the T-14 tip took the fly deeper. It was during this test that a 30" steelhead was hooked and landed. The FR1689/10-4 GLX Dredger (14' #9/10) is a comfortable rod and I'm glad to own one. It is a good choice where large tube flies, string leaches and intruders are fished with medium length casts of less than 70'. There is a lot of that kind of water in the rivers I fish. The Greased Line FR1688/9-4 GLX 14' 8/9 rod was fitted with an Abel 4N and a stock 8/9/10 WindCutter with the standard 9-weight type-8 tip. This proved to be the longer range weapon of the two outfits tested. While I was testing this outfit Marty Sheppard came floating down the river in his pontoon boat. I had just made a cast and the 5" long string leech fly was deep in the water following a seam. The rod was pointed down stream, but I was looking upstream at Marty. A steelhead ripped out my shock loop, but didn't stick. Repeated casts wouldn't bring it back. We cast each of the two G. Loomis rods and agreed that we liked the feel of the Greased Line FR1688/9-4 GLX the best of the two. This rod balances perfectly with a Abel 4N Ported reel and casts very comfortably with a WindCutter 8/9/10 line.

Popularized in the British Isles for Atlantic Salmon as a way to construct big flies for use with small treble hooks, Waddington Shanks have found favor among Northwest Steelhead anglers as well. In the Pacific Northwest fly fishers tend to shun treble hooks in favor of small singles. Here the hook is rigged with a soft plastic hook holder very much like a tube fly except the leader is passed through the front loop of the Waddington, then along side of the fly and through the hook holder and secured to the hook. When a fish strikes, the hook detaches itself from the fly denying the fish the leverage of the long shank Waddington to dislodge the hook. The fly stays on the leader because it is still attached by the front loop.

Item	Description	Size	Price	To Top
343764	Waddington Shanks, 24 pack	25mm	$7.00	-->SALE ENDED
349117	Waddington Shanks, 24 pack	35mm	$7.00	-->SALE ENDED
344006	Waddington Shanks, 24 pack	45mm	$7.00	-->SALE ENDED

Florida Keys fishing report for Mid-late February. Hi all, down here in the Keys fishing is great, we have been catching good numbers of Cobia over 10 of them on many days, size ranges up to about 30# , average is around 15#. Pompano in the 5# class are biting good too.

I have been making the 45 min boat ride up to the everglades national park pretty regularly this last 2 weeks or so and the redfish are plentiful. There are tripletails found along the way hanging out on trap floats and they are a blast to catch as well. Jacks and bluefish in the 4 to 12# range provide constant and reliable action this time of year. They readily take ANY fly and can be found under pretty much any conditions. I have not been looking for tarpon but this is about the time when I start finding them in the backcountry. If its action in the saltwater you want, come see me in the Keys soon. Link me from www.captchris.com for more info and email address.

Thanks for reading the insider and tight lines to all.

Capt. Chris Morrison

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Item	Description	Size	Price	To Top
IV-JKT-SM	Simms In-Vest Jacket	S	$129.95	-->SALE ENDED
IV-JKT-MD	Simms In-Vest Jacket	M	$129.95	-->SALE ENDED
IV-JKT-LG	Simms In-Vest Jacket	L	$129.95	-->SALE ENDED
IV-JKT-XL	Simms In-Vest Jacket	XL	$129.95	-->SALE ENDED
IV-JKT-2X	Simms In-Vest Jacket	XXL	$129.95	-->SALE ENDED