Fishing braces
Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2009 10:04 pm
Lets talk braces of flies (where legal of course). Up here in Alberta we can fish up to 3 flies. growing up in a fly fishing family and Grandpa was of the classic dropper school. After wets where tied you then added on a Snell with loop exactly 6" long. The leader had 3 loops about a foot apart. Flies where changed fairly quickly with this loop to loop arrangement. These snelled flies where ideal for the fly wallet system. Nice thing was you could prospect with three different then change up till there was interest. Dad was of this school too as Grandpa would certainly be vocal about any new version of leader that would insult the trout with any new methods.
As time changed and so did rods and tackle I abandoned the snells as old fashioned. For years I went over to the Double Surgeon's Knot, using the tag ends as droppers, Worked Ok but as you changed flies your tags became shorter and shorter. Eventually forcing you to re tie the entire section. Finally for the last 8 years I have been using the eye to shank method. It is nice and clean, cuts down on tangles and does work nicely as long as you keep your loops open.
Both wonderful men who gave me so much are now long gone but late this fall something strange happened. I tend to fish the Bow river up here in Calgary Alberta with a few different rigs. A wonderful 9 foot Loop trout bum rod, A wonderful Meiser 4 wt. Spey rod and a number of bamboos old and new. While out with a bamboo rod and rigging up in the darkness at 4 in the morning I squinted to get my leader together. The only light was a small bulb at the back of my pickup. Didn't want to unlock the cab and work in more light which now secured for the walk to the river.
My hands kind of flipped the two dropper loops and final end loop into the leader. It was unconscious memory done without thinking. I leaned up against the truck gate cold on the bum. Adding a few snells to the heads of wets was much of the same auto tying not though about in 20 years.
I won't really describe the day except to say it was terribly enjoyable with the shadow of both parents with me through the experience. The brown trout where eager and fought hard with the cold water. There are times that the old classic methods work as well or better than new. Rediscovering those old dropper methods got me thinking about braces of flies. In the coming spring season I intend trying the old braces of dries and introduce this method also to the local browns and Rainbows. Ah well I'm babbling, perhaps this will become a thread to discuss braces of flies.
As time changed and so did rods and tackle I abandoned the snells as old fashioned. For years I went over to the Double Surgeon's Knot, using the tag ends as droppers, Worked Ok but as you changed flies your tags became shorter and shorter. Eventually forcing you to re tie the entire section. Finally for the last 8 years I have been using the eye to shank method. It is nice and clean, cuts down on tangles and does work nicely as long as you keep your loops open.
Both wonderful men who gave me so much are now long gone but late this fall something strange happened. I tend to fish the Bow river up here in Calgary Alberta with a few different rigs. A wonderful 9 foot Loop trout bum rod, A wonderful Meiser 4 wt. Spey rod and a number of bamboos old and new. While out with a bamboo rod and rigging up in the darkness at 4 in the morning I squinted to get my leader together. The only light was a small bulb at the back of my pickup. Didn't want to unlock the cab and work in more light which now secured for the walk to the river.
My hands kind of flipped the two dropper loops and final end loop into the leader. It was unconscious memory done without thinking. I leaned up against the truck gate cold on the bum. Adding a few snells to the heads of wets was much of the same auto tying not though about in 20 years.
I won't really describe the day except to say it was terribly enjoyable with the shadow of both parents with me through the experience. The brown trout where eager and fought hard with the cold water. There are times that the old classic methods work as well or better than new. Rediscovering those old dropper methods got me thinking about braces of flies. In the coming spring season I intend trying the old braces of dries and introduce this method also to the local browns and Rainbows. Ah well I'm babbling, perhaps this will become a thread to discuss braces of flies.
