11-24-2003, 05:11 PM
The majority of my fishing is stream fishing for trout. I usually fish hardware, but switch back-and-forth with bait as the lack of action or type of water dictates.
When fishing hardware or continuously switching back and forth, I fish either 2# or 4# blue Ande mono or 8# Lo-Vis fluoro.
On occasions when I mostly end up bait fishing, except when using 2#, I go to Hi-Vis Yellow/Gold mono or fluoro in order to better see, with my aging eyesight, how/where my bait is drifting and to watch the curve I try to keep in my line while drifting bait. During these times, as a leader, I use three to four feet of Lo-Vis fluoro of the same test when fishing 4# or 6# Lo-vis fluoro when fishing 8#.
In most cases, I attach the leader directly to the main line using a blood knot (which I think some call a barrel knot). If there's a lot of moss in the water, I use a small swivel between the main line and leader using improved clinch knots. The swivel is small enough to pass through the tip top and guides, but causes a lot of the moss to catch on the swivel and keeps the bait clean over a longer drift.
A friend of mine, who's the best stream bait fisherman I've ever seen, switched to Hi-Vis yellow/gold mono because he's even older than me. Although he strickly uses mono for both the hi-vis main line and low-vis leader, my use, described above, of a lo-vis leader, is patterned after his technique. Except for a couple trips, he always outfishes (more and bigger) than the rest of us, several of whom only fish low-vis line, both mono and fluoro.
I haven't tried hi-vis in 2# yet. Japan Ron has recently been nice enough to give me information on the avalability of 2# fluoro and I'm planning to try and get some soon. If I can find it in hi-vis for bait fishing, I'll be using a 2# lo-vis fluoro leader.
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When fishing hardware or continuously switching back and forth, I fish either 2# or 4# blue Ande mono or 8# Lo-Vis fluoro.
On occasions when I mostly end up bait fishing, except when using 2#, I go to Hi-Vis Yellow/Gold mono or fluoro in order to better see, with my aging eyesight, how/where my bait is drifting and to watch the curve I try to keep in my line while drifting bait. During these times, as a leader, I use three to four feet of Lo-Vis fluoro of the same test when fishing 4# or 6# Lo-vis fluoro when fishing 8#.
In most cases, I attach the leader directly to the main line using a blood knot (which I think some call a barrel knot). If there's a lot of moss in the water, I use a small swivel between the main line and leader using improved clinch knots. The swivel is small enough to pass through the tip top and guides, but causes a lot of the moss to catch on the swivel and keeps the bait clean over a longer drift.
A friend of mine, who's the best stream bait fisherman I've ever seen, switched to Hi-Vis yellow/gold mono because he's even older than me. Although he strickly uses mono for both the hi-vis main line and low-vis leader, my use, described above, of a lo-vis leader, is patterned after his technique. Except for a couple trips, he always outfishes (more and bigger) than the rest of us, several of whom only fish low-vis line, both mono and fluoro.
I haven't tried hi-vis in 2# yet. Japan Ron has recently been nice enough to give me information on the avalability of 2# fluoro and I'm planning to try and get some soon. If I can find it in hi-vis for bait fishing, I'll be using a 2# lo-vis fluoro leader.
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