brian dunigan
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Zach, I’m sure this post-finals period has left you feeling empty and unsatisfied, as if you’d really like to write just one or two more issue-spotting essays about improbably complex hypothetical cases.
We don’t get many great opportunities for dry fly fishing here, but I have to admit that it sure is neat to cast to a rising fish and have it come up and sip the fly off the surface.
I’ve never caught a big fish on a dry, but if you could ever consistently get 24-inch trout to hit on the surface, I can see how it would be tough to go back to anything else.
I’ll never get to the point of “fly fishing is religion and dry fly fishing is high church,” but it’s a fun way to fish when conditions are right.
bd
I will always vote for less, but bigger fish.
Zach
I have mixed feelings about, probably because I’m such a generalist when it comes to fishing.
I appreciate what you’re saying from an aesthetic sense, but from a macroeconomic point of view, the government is running something vaguely resembling a Kroger, in that revenue generation is the objective.
All our tailwater fisheries, Arkansas or Tennessee or whereever, are managed to “provide recreational opportunities” for as many people as possible.
I’m going to play devil’s advocate and defend the bait chunkers, just because that’s the ornery type of guy I am.
You said something about “chumming with corn has got to stop.”
I know this is a mondo expensive approach, but would an alternative be to just go to a fluoro leader?
I’ve always used a triple surgeons knot for the leader to tippet connection, but Steve is correct that it is often the weak link in the chain.
The website stated that the knot has 100% knot strength.
My point really is that Fluro and clinch knots don’t mix well and the recommended fluro knot, the trilene knot, is hard to do when you crowd the eye like I tend to do. Factor in a size 20 hook and you really have a problem. Then there is the problem with the 1 or 2″ of squiggly leader you get sometimes from tying the clinch.I have also seen sites claiming the improved clinch has near 100% strength, which is clearly hogwash (70% is probably more realistic when the knot is tied properly).
BD-
Your obstreperiety may be related to your ostentatious talents in mid-air knot tying. 🙂
I have been playing around with adding a couple wraps to the final tag wrap and it seems to greatly strengthen the knot, especially on a bigger hook, without increasing the size of the knot.
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Hmm. Maybe I’m just in an ornery mood this morning.
I have watched that animation for the Castwell knot a dozen times, and for the life of me, I can’t figure out what would prevent the risk of the tag end from slipping back through the loop and unraveling the entire knot. I will have to do more investigation on that when I have some free time and some string.
As far as the Davy Knot, I would really, really like to see a tension test on it. I may be reading the diagram wrong, but I think if you take the fly out of the loop, isn’t it just a double overhand knot?
For that matter, I guess a clinch knot is essentially an overhand knot too, though the multiple wraps are intended to keep the opposing parts of the knot from cinching down against one another. (The danger of the overhand knot is that as it cinches down, it places two pieces of line in opposition in a way that creates somewhat of an edge that can cut into the line).
I don’t have time or string to experiment right now, but I’m not sure what I think of these knots. But like I said, maybe I’m just being obstreperous.
bd
