05-12-2011, 12:10 AM
I will jump in here. You can do the mono now for sure. You will want to get a small spool of 3x and or 5x tippet at some point and even more. The bigger the number the smaller the tippet. You will need the 5x later when the waters clear and can get by with the 3x now for sure. Check your leader you have now and tie on closest match with a blood knot that should be in your book. The 5x will be harder to throw bigger flys with. I have found I can skip a number building leaders but when I try and tie a 5x to a 2x or 1x it doesn't build a good leader. You will end up getting more and learning more. You can go with regular mono for now for what you are doing and this time of year also. You aren't going to be need to be to awful stealthy in May with off color waters and while learning for the most part. You can practice all that with some mono and fish too.
Now that you have this setup you can scour the garage sales and stuff for a reel for the Heddon and fill that with sinking line for fishing nymphs and streamers on the lake or bigger rivers but you are starting right I think with the weight forward floating line for sure. (WF 7 F).
Good advice here for sure but all fly shops have friendly people in them and talking to one of them would help as they will have stuff on the wall for you to see as they explain stuff. I don't think you would feel any pressure to buy from them right then but as a general rule those guys will be more helpful than the guys at sportsmans. They will explain the leader building and tippet and stuff to you where you can make sense. That was the most confusing I thought when I learned. You will replace your tippet often in hours or a day but you can get by without changing the leader tied to the flyline for a long time, even a season depending on what you are doing and how often. I am sure they would also be glad to see your leader on the line and make suggestions to you without any pressure to buy their stuff. And when it comes down to it, they are competitive on pricing on the same things that you find in other places that cross over and their help and skill are worth the visit to their shops.
Still you can tie on mono to your leader now, match it up as close as possible and go fishing or casting right now. 20" or so like Flygoddess said and just keep replacing that.
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Now that you have this setup you can scour the garage sales and stuff for a reel for the Heddon and fill that with sinking line for fishing nymphs and streamers on the lake or bigger rivers but you are starting right I think with the weight forward floating line for sure. (WF 7 F).
Good advice here for sure but all fly shops have friendly people in them and talking to one of them would help as they will have stuff on the wall for you to see as they explain stuff. I don't think you would feel any pressure to buy from them right then but as a general rule those guys will be more helpful than the guys at sportsmans. They will explain the leader building and tippet and stuff to you where you can make sense. That was the most confusing I thought when I learned. You will replace your tippet often in hours or a day but you can get by without changing the leader tied to the flyline for a long time, even a season depending on what you are doing and how often. I am sure they would also be glad to see your leader on the line and make suggestions to you without any pressure to buy their stuff. And when it comes down to it, they are competitive on pricing on the same things that you find in other places that cross over and their help and skill are worth the visit to their shops.
Still you can tie on mono to your leader now, match it up as close as possible and go fishing or casting right now. 20" or so like Flygoddess said and just keep replacing that.
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