Continung the Q&A series.
TRM promised you two expert guides’ answers but SWMBO must have messed up somewhere, again.. We are still waiting to hear from No 2 guide who may not have received the questions in time…
Question No 3 – Hi SWMBO, We have enjoyed your fishing reports over the last few years and the other technical contributions from the TRM fishing guide too. Can you ask your fishing guide about the difference between standard nylon (at $7 for 110 yards) and fluro (which I have to take out another mortgage for). When I put them both in a glass of water it is almost impossible to tell one from the other. So is it really worth the extra cost?. Is fluro that much better? Thank you for the Q&A series which I will watch with interest. Regards Keith C. Tauranga
Answer - I’m not entirely convinced myself about the advantage that using fluorocarbon supposedly gives us when fly-fishing… saying that like many others I do use it on occasions….and like everyone else I moan about the price.
It’s potential as a fishing line was first discovered by a couple of Japanese chemical engineers in the late sixties who eventually took out a patent. Even today I think that all fluorocarbon line is manufactured in only three factories…two in Japan and one in Germany. Bearing this in mind it’s amazing the difference in various brands. Some claim to be more invisible…others stronger or less stiff and the price can also vary. The main selling point has always been it’s ability to virtually disappear in water and the fact that it sinks more quickly. It is almost twice as dense as mono and because of that I always use it when fishing nymphs under a big Cicada pattern in summer to help the flies get down a little.You have to be careful when using fluro to attach the dropper on smaller dry-fly patterns because it can help cause the dry to sink.The manufacturers also promote it’s resistance to UV light which among other things gives it a longer shelf life.
The well known disadvantages are first of all price. The raw materials to make it are four times more expensive than other lines and they have to use more of it to make a similar amount of mono. Another is knots…you have to ensure you tie a neat knot with no overlaps…lubricate it well with saliva and snug it down properly. It can also be quite stiff although this also depends on which brand you choose.
At the end of the day I suppose it all comes down to personal choice. If using fluro means that you fish more confidently then that alone is worth the extra expense. Thankfully we all now benefit from the huge advances in modern fly-fishing tackle and design… but recreational anglers were catching fish long before flurocarbon came on the scene. When you look at those grainy old monochrome photographs showing those wonderful characters proudly displaying their catch… it just makes me wonder…were all those fantastic trophy fish somehow a dumber strain…who knows.
Back to SWMBO’s shopping trip to UK…
We can’t win them all. We have been reminded by alert pedantic fishos that Izaak Walton is not the “father of fly fishing”. Although the artificial fly was invented by ancient Greeks, the earliest account of catching salmon on the fly occurs in “A Treatyse of Fyshinge with an Angle”, attributed to Dame Juliana Berners and published in 1496. Landing a salmon (or a big trout) on a horsehair line attached directly to the rod tip would have taken a considerable amount of skill.
(This is also mentioned in anticipation of some picky members of an exclusive select sub-culture in Adelaide who will undoubtedly feel obliged to complain in honour of their patron saint. I know they will be relieved to see her acknowledged.)
The earliest illustration of a winch or fishing reel occurs in the second edition of Thomas Barker’s “The Art of Angling” in 1657. And before further complaints are received that these refer to salmon gear, on the Tongariro we are only concerned with rainbow and brown trout which are often at least as big as salmon… (i.e. see image of the 13 .9 pound Brown Jack, 78 cm long, landed in Hydro Pool on our home page)
So TRM acknowledge the important historic contribution by Izaak Walton instead.