You'll have this 😂. If I could figure out how to always impress the fish I'd be fishing the Bassmaster circuit 😂.

@@bradleyhattendorf7136 You can always try a stiffer material for your dropper. It will never be something that casts well.

$120? Somewhere around there. It was two years ago, I couldn't tell you for certain.

@@ontheflywithryan5611 is the new one you got a -5+, thinking about getting the same reel as my first fly reel

What rod wt did you put that on. I have a 6wt and trying to figure out if I need a +5 or +7

@gregjr63 on the 7+ I have an 8 weight line. I THINK the reel size is based on -7+, so 6, 7, and 8 weight. And the -5+ is for 4, 5, and 6 weights.

@@ontheflywithryan5611 so it probably doesn't matter if I get the 5+ or 7+ for my 6wt. Thanks for the help. I saw it at sierra the other day and you're one of the very few with that color.

Happy to help!

That is a cheap zinger I think I got from Postfly Box, which I would never subscribe to again 😂 but that's a different story. If you search zingers on Amazon it's the generic one that everyone is selling. The price is right though 🤣. No one will ever convince me that Fishpond zinger is worth $30

​@@ontheflywithryan5611 dude fishpond zinger is the shit. You'll never look back

I totally missed this, I'm sorry. I fish them anywhere from size 6 or 8 all the way up to 1/0. If I'm fishing for smallmouth (depending on the time of year) I'll usually start with something like a big bulky deceiver, then work down to a Clouser or smaller. Typically try for the bigger bait bigger fish thing but sometimes big fish will eat a little Clouser and small fish will try to eat a 9 inch musky streamer 🤷. The nice thing about a Clouser is it will usually give you a shot at most sizes of fish. Typically it's a smaller fly but I think it's just enticing. You can also tie them lots of different ways, big and bushy, really small and sparse for when the water is low and clear, with bead chain eyes for shallow water, heavy lead for deep water, etc. A few colors of bucktail and some hooks and eyes are really all you need. A little flash doesn't hurt but definitely isn't necessary. It's a great fly to experiment with and really dial it in for the water you're fishing.

There are a lot of possibilities. Especially with older cameras sometimes the double image gets very hard to see. Dropping can definitely cause issues.

Glad it helped! I just back from fishing an intermediate line this afternoon.

Total crap 🤣. Knocked a bunch of it off the second time I fished it. I definitely recommend finishing any paint job like this with multiple coats of a clear hard finish.

They definitely are!

Especially when other companies are charging $50-100 for aluminum nippers. The Simms Pro nippers have replaceable blades but you have to send them back to Simms. 🤦 For $100 I expect blades I can replace myself. Pretty nice when a company actually charges a reasonable price for a product.

@@ontheflywithryan5611the tough part is the Simms have a fly threading feature that the other high end cutters don’t.

The issue with this is that your standard weight forward floating fly line has tapered mass at its head, meaning the first 20-50 feet (give or take) is thicker in diameter then the rest of the line, which also makes this section heavier. This is what makes a fly line easy to cast. If you attached a Skagit head to the front of your WFF fly line you'd essentially have two heads at the beginning of your line. It would not cast very well at all. Technically you could reverse your weight forward fly line and use it backwards as running line for a Skagit head because the rear of a wff fly line is just thin level running line, no head or taper. To get the result you're looking for I typically carry a small tapered floating tip and swap that out with the sink tip. Then I can fish dries or nymphs under and indicator. This works well but presentation becomes an issue, especially with heavier lines because a Skagit head carries more mass in a shorter length then a standard floating line. That means it lands harder. While I've used floating tips with great results with larger terrestrials and bigger foam dries it definitely leaves something to be desired if you're wanting to fish smaller dries that require a delicate presentation. Midges, Tricos, bwos, these sort of bugs are usually a bit too small and delicate for even a lightweight Skagit system. Great question though. I may very well try to do a video on floating tips, although there isn't much surface action here in February 🥶. Might have to wait until spring.

You certainly don't need an expensive vise but the number of cheap vises out there today that can't hold a 3/0 down to a 20ish size hook is surprisingly high. You also don't need a high priced car but plenty of Ferraris get sold every year. 🤷 Same goes with fly rods. You can catch fish on a $10 5 pound fiberglass rod, but most people would rather not.

That's about right. It depends on the fly and the type of cast, but 75 feet is definitely doable

You definitely need to be prepared for some punishment 😂. Catching fish there is definitely never a guarantee. Still, if a challenge is what you want it's a great place to get it. I think the difficulty is what makes success so rewarding.

I use the OPST 5 foot micro sink tips as well as their floating micro tips. I also use the SA Sonar in a 7 foot length as well as occasionally light Rio MOW and IMOW ten footers. Those Rio tips usually end up on a single hand six weight or a trout spey rod if I need a little extra length in the system. It took me a while to dial it in. My only advice is to experiment. That's the best way to figure out what will work best for your rod and head and casting style. The OPST micro tips are a good place to start though, especially if you're fishing a light single hand rod and a short skagit head.

​@@ontheflywithryan5611 yeah I am about a year into experimentation, and I feel like I am transitioning from super basic beginner to improving my casts. I really struggled to cast with those 5 foot OPST tips early on, so I fished with 5/6-foot floating and light sinking versi/poly leaders. Things are starting to come together, so I am revisiting the OPST sink tips.

Amen to that 👍

Glad to hear it! Good luck out there!

I do use backing, just because it takes up less space on the reel than mono does. A Skagit head is big and fat, so I want all the room for it I can get. You could totally use all mono if you wanted to though.

Thank u so much ..the video was very informative and your reply is greatly appreciated 👍

@@efam7349 Happy to help!

The lead eyes on a traditional Clouser Minnow will make it sink pretty fast, no sinking line needed. They are usually fished on a floating line. Only time you'd ever need a sinking line is for deep, deep water which isn't much fun with a fly rod anyway 😂. Sometimes I tie my Clousers with bead chain eyes instead of lead to lighten them up. Then they sink slower.

Yes you can, either the smaller body new QL19 or the older models with the larger body.

Leader size is definitely variable. You need something that will turn over the weight of a popper and another fly, so bigger is better. I'd definitely say at least 1x if not bigger. For me personally if I'm fishing where there are big bass (4 pounds plus) I'll use 50 pound mono to 40 pound mono to 20 pound mono then maybe down to 17 or 15. If you're just looking at panfish or smaller bass you can of course size that down. I like the big heavy butt section of 40 or 50 to help transfer energy to turn the flies over. Leader length depends on the fish usually. Bass aren't usually line shy, but cutting back from 9 feet will make an unruly rig a little easier to cast. I usually start at 9 feet and see how it feels. Similarly with the dropper I'd fish an appropriate line strength. For panfish 1 or 2 or even 3x should be fine. If you're fishing for trophy bass you'll want something beefier. Dropper length is another story. I like to think of it like nymphing for trout. You want the fly near the fish. So if you're fishing 2 feet of water a short dropper is perfectly fine. The deeper you get the more length you'll want, within reason. The longer the dropper the harder it will be to cast.

Exactly!

You could definitely be right. I bought it second hand. You're absolutely right about the slotted jaws and small flies. Thankfully I don't tie many small trout flies 🤣.

Glad it helped! Good luck finding a vice, it can definitely be intimidating

Ah, that's OPSR Laser Line. It's friggin expensive for running line but it works great. There's a review on my channel and I just did another review after using the same running line for 3 years but haven't uploaded the video yet. Stay tuned

@@ontheflywithryan5611 hmm, funny you say that. I just threw away almost a whole spool of Lazar that I used on my euro rig after it got hopelessly tangled with backing

Oh that sucks. That's the advantage to using cheap mono 😂. I used Stren Catfish mono for a long time. Nice thing was it's so cheap you could throw away a whole spool and not be too worried about it

@@ontheflywithryan5611 haha ya. I’m inclined to try some slick shooter for my big rod. But thanks for your single hand Spey videos! I have some light 150 gr commando head with tips and a 5wt classic trout. Might be too light to load that rod but now I’m definitely curious to try

The rest of the week was cold, rainy and 5-7 foot seas 😂

Isn't like it used to be, is it? 😂

@@ontheflywithryan5611 No, but the tying industry has made enormous leaps from back in those day as way more materials , colors , hook styles , sizes since then . I’ve been tying since highschool in sixties and to me these are the good old days ! I can remember dying furs with rit dye, don’t ever want to go back to those days.

I couldn't agree more. It's very satisfying