Scientific Anglers Trout
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Fly Fishing need good tippet line in 6x or 7x?
I was fishing this weekend in a extremely clear stream. You could count the rocks on the bottom and see the Trout from 40 ft away. I was using dry fly's and had a ton of looky loos that turned away at the last second. I was using Scientific Angler 4x trout tippets. The guy a the local Trout shop said I need to move down to a 6x,7x, or even 8x because of the clear water. What tippet line do you trust in this weight? The Trout are pretty good size as I caught one brown that weighed 4 lbs and one rainbow that weighed 2 lb.
Tippet choice is always a trade off. You sacrifice strength for stealth and vice versa. Heavier tippet also tangles less but can cause line shadows and scare away the fish. Moving to 6x or 7x is a good move to try in clear water with line-shy trout, although 8x is way too delicate to consistently catch 4-pound browns. The smallest I generally go is 6x. I use #22 flies with 6x and I don't have much problem. Haven't snapped my tippet in I can't remember how long. What brands do I trust? Pretty much all of them -- lately I've been using Frog Hair, Orvis, and Climax, mostly because I like the design of the spools and the way they handle.
I want to take issue with your local fly shop guy, though. If you were getting looks at your fly, the fish weren't exhibiting line-shy behavior. When your line is scaring the fish, they panic and scatter. They see the line, its shadow, or the dimple in the water, and they'll take it for a threat above them. When that happens they go DOWN, or they swim off fast.
What you were seeing is clear-water refusals. On clear and/or slow water, where the trout can carefully examine the fly, you have to up your game on fly choice, not tippet choice. You have to switch flies often and you have to be VERY aware of the forage you're trying to imitate.
Think about it -- the water's clear and slow. A potential meal floats by. The trout rises and slowly drifts along with the fly, making sure it's something he wants to chow down on. If it looks wrong in any way, the trout has the luxury of waiting for the next offering. This is not necessarily because the fly is suspicious that it's an artificial (though some trout seem very suspicious) or sees your tippet. It's often because the trout simply doesn't want to eat anything that's not food, and there's generally a lot of stuff on the water that may look like food but that is not food -- cottonwood seeds, duck feathers, bits of leaves, etc.
So, I'd make sure you've got the right fly. Match the hatch and match it GOOD. Use spent, cripple, and emerger patterns as part of your attack, and change flies often. A fish that refuses one artificial will probably refuse the next one.
If you can't do that, I'd try fishing riffles and faster water. In these areas the fish have more trouble seeing the fly and less time to make the choice to rise. Bigger fish have learned that foraging in clear, slow water pays off, so you might get smaller fish in faster water, but if you can't dial in your imitation, you'll have to move to water where the fish are less selective.
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