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Friday, January 17, 2014

Hopes....... and Dreams

Keeping the Dry Line dream alive:


Hopes....




 and Dreams...


A bright, perfectly formed dry line winter buck (taken on the 8'5" 9wt JM Reid single hand cane prototype, full floating 9wt Ambush, and 2/0 Winter's Hope) and having the unexpected opportunity to field test the JM Reid 8592 prototype are dreams come true. 

Dry Line winter steelhead encounters have been tough to come by for me this season so I was pleasantly surprised to encounter the fine specimen pictured above on a coastal Oregon stream today. After fishing the upper section of the run with a 5/0 Winter's Hope I decided that when I got to fishing the lower section/tail out of the run that I would change over to a smaller Winter's Hope tied on the commonly available 2/0 Tiemco 7999, to avoid getting hung up.  This little buck grabbed in water that I thought was getting too shallow to hold a fish, luckily I was wrong.

This is the first winter steelhead that I've taken on James Reid's 8592 prototype and I was immensely pleased with the smooth authority, lifting power, and sensitively the rod provided while fighting this fish - it felt good.  I can't believe that James built such an incredible rod that is absolutely tailor made for my style of winter steelheading.  I couldn't have imagined a better design for a single hand cane rod for winter steelheading. It's as if James had been out winter fishing with me the past couple years and created a rod specifically for what I am doing - don't know how he did it, but I'm so glad he did!  Fishing the 8592 prototype is pure joy and just keeps getting better.

The JM Reid Website:  http://www.jmreidbamboo.com/

I wrote a review of this rod here on my blog a few weeks ago.
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7 comments:

  1. RiverafteriverJanuary 19, 2014 at 2:11 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. RiverafteriverJanuary 19, 2014 at 2:12 PM

    Hi Todd nice fish and congrats on getting a pull!

    Hey do you use sinking leaders with your floating line or just mono leaders? Sinking leaders would not be dry line fishing like Bill Mc. has described so I assume you are use mono leaders with your winter fishing tactics.

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  3. 808steelheaderJanuary 19, 2014 at 4:31 PM

    Thanks for your comments. I was truly blessed with this dry line winter steelhead encounter. As to your question, no, I don't use sinking poly leaders. I use hand tied Maxima leaders.
    Here's my formula for a leader that ends up around 12' and turns over well:
    Butt/mid section is made with Maxima Chameleon: 40# - 4', 30# - 3', 25# -6", 20# - 6", 15# - 6' w/perfection loop.'
    Tippet section is made with Maxima Ultra green: (perfection or non-slip loop) 12# - 1', 10# - 2.5'
    This is my winter leader formula. For summer I end up with 8# for the tippet.
    Of course this is just my formula and you can tweak it however you like. I've even experiment with just a straight 10' piece of 10# ultra green when fishing winter flies and that works as well since a smooth presentation is not necessary in winter.
    Let me know where your dry line journey takes you.

    Todd

    ReplyDelete
  4. RiverafteriverJanuary 26, 2014 at 11:33 AM

    Hi Todd, that looks like a good recipe. What do you use for your summer recipe swinging flies?

    ReplyDelete
  5. 808steelheaderJanuary 26, 2014 at 8:21 PM

    I use the same butt/mid section above, but change the Ultra Green tippet section roughly as follows:
    Perfection or non slip loop on 12# - 6", 10# - 6", 8# - 2.5'

    ReplyDelete
  6. MariamFebruary 15, 2014 at 2:24 PM

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