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Upwing dries and twisted tippet

Started by Craigie17, June 26, 2013, 03:27:54 PM

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Paul Dryfly

Hi,
This is a very common problem for us southerners who fish winged dry flies and light tippets a great deal - propellering. Three solutions. Cut the things off. They don't really look like wings now do they! If you feel the need for a wing, just have one rather than a split pair. That seems to reduce the spinning. Best of all though, change the leader set up, it is the thinner material that seems to lead (ho ho) to spinning as materials have advanced it has consistently become more and more of a problem.

So, rather than go for a long thin tapered leader try a shorter fatter taper with a short thin tippet. When I fish the mayfly for example the flies have to have a wing to be accepted (contrary top popular belief chalkstream trout are very very picky once the mayfly is really under way). So, with a big mayfly (size 10 is a very big fly down here) on a 3 weight line and rod normally 6', 7'3'' or 7'10'' long  depending on circumstances I would use a 5ft tapered braided leader (Roman Moser are good) with a 18'' x7 tippet or a 4x 9ft tapered leader (Profil) cut back to 4.5 foot with a 7x 18'' tippet on the front.  The torsional stiffness of the thicker leader pushes back against the rotation of the tippet and helps reduce the spin. You do of course have to be very accurate with casting, if you line the fish with the fat leader its goodbye fishy and no cigar.... 

As for materials. I find fluorocarbon spins up way way more readily than other materials so I never use it.

If you wanted to get fancy you can always try Belgium casting, rotating the line against the spin through the forearm, assuming the spin is consistently in the same direction.

Take heart though, if  you use smaller flies sizes 18 and smaller, they don't normally spin for me.

Harpo


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