Was it the softhackle, the flourocarbon, or me?

[tjw37909]

Once again I spent the day on the Catch and Release section of Raven Fork. The 38 degree water made for what looked to be a long day, but turned out to be fun. I dropped my beadheads and opted for two softhackle pheasant tails with splitshot. I also broke down and dropped a dime on some flourocarbon tippet. Maybe the change in flies or tippet made the difference, but today was a good day. I had 5 fish break my 4x off like it was a piece of thread. I did manage to land 10 fish, the smallest being a 13 inch brookie. Here are pics of the brookie and the two biggest bows I got in.

Here is the 20 inch rainbow

And here is the 21 inch rainbow. I nkow it looks shorter, but it's just so fat it looks that way. Fat fish.

[Hatchie Dawg]

Nice fish. I'm sure it was the fisherman.

[elkhaircaddis]

that floro has no stretch, you have to watch it sometimes. Itll snap quick if you let it

[pmike]

...that tying flouro to mono will result in frequent snaps...

Mike

[jeffnles1]

I'm absolutely sure it was the flourocarbon tippet!

I use soft hackles and regular old mono tippet and never catch fish like that so it has to be the tippet!

Of course, the fisherman may have played some small part in this, but I'm pretty well convinced it was the tippet.


Oh by the way, nice fish.

[tjw37909]

That would be an insult, but I believe the same thing haha. I am going to have to get some stronger flouro to get some of those hogs over there in though. Need some 20 pound test on some of those things even when I play them for a long time.

[jeffnles1]

TJW,
Just joking with you a bit.

In all seriousness, I've never seen equipment catch a fish. I've seen equipment help land a fish and I've seen equipment help present a fly or lure to a fish, but it's the fisherman who has to know where the fish are, what they're eating, how to present the fly and when to set the hook. Equipment will never help with these things.

Jeff

[tjw37909]

I think the thing that helped the most as far as the fisherman is concerned is reading and getting advice on here. Some hints on improving my drigt and other things(which came from this forum) seem to have helped me tremndously. I am trying to limit myself to fishing once a month, but I don't think I can do it.

[Bran]

Nice fish! I still want to go over there sometime but dang, there are actually paths on the bank in the pics! That place must be getting a pile of attention.

[tjw37909]

It gets a lot of attention, but their stocking program is so good that it makes up for it. The easiest thing to do is go early and stake your claim on a good hole and sit on it. If you move you may not find another good stretch for a while, so I fisha hole, sit on the bank and let them calm down, then fish it more.