So! You haven't fished seriously since you were knee-high and you can't remember at all what kind of gear you had because it all just magically appeared in your hands and you never bought any yourself (thanks, papa!)
What does one do in such a bewildering situation? The answer is thus: One reads every single post on the fine fly fishing forum site "flyforums.co.uk", and comes to the following conclusions...
- Rod and line weight: 6-weight, 9 foot seems to be the agreed 'all rounder' weight and length for trout fishing in lakes and rivers. [In retrospect it may be a tad light for lake fishing, but still serviceable provided you aren't trying to go against the wind too much]
- Rod: If you have plenty of money left over in your inheritance after buying that chalet in France, then according to these guys, the Hardy Zenith is the dogs' cremaster (400+ pounds). The rest of us (who over-extended ourselves on the chalet) should be well satisfied with a fine rod from the "Shakespeare" company. The Odyssey is heavily recommended (30 quid). I myself, planning to take my kit on many journeys abroad (often on the sly...), opted for the 7 piece Expedition (44 quid).
- Reel: again, there seems to be a lot of agreement on aforementioned forum that the Okuma Airframe is reel-ly great. Having bought it I do find that the line does not run against the anodised surface as smoothly as it would if it were steel, but it is adequate.
- Line: Aye matey, one would want to be talkin' to the Pitsford Pirate about that! Weight-forward, while not traditional, seems to have a lot of support. Whether the trout care about the colour is a topic of much debate. Personally I recommend looking at the underside of the nearest Spitfire aeroplane, and observing that it is painted white in order to match the colour of the sky that would be seen from below. Fluorescent orange could be pretty spiffy for fishing at nightclubs, although a bottle of bubbly may yield a more successful catch. Happy to be proved wrong on that and would be curious to meet the haul.
- Butt, leader, tippet: Factory-tapered leaders are a faff - get a few rolls of monofilament and tie your own. There is plenty of sage advice and scientific madness on offer. The goal is to have a relatively smooth transition downwards in line diameter as you approach the fly, so you need to cross reference this table (from leadercalc)
Table 1
Recommended Leader Butt DiametersLine
Weight(mm's)
Butt Diameter(inches)
Butt Diameter3 .45-.50 .017"-.020" 4 .45-.55 .019"-.021" 5 .50-.55 .020"-.022" 6 .55-.60 .021"-.023" 7 .60-.65 .022"-.024" 8 .60-.65 .023"-.026" 9 .60-.70 .024"-.027"
With this (from maxima):
I decided to go for just THREE sections in my leader, not SEVEN as suggested by some authors. This is also very close to the sage recommendations made by this gentleman (also mentioned above). So, my final selections are... - Butt: 20lb Maxima Chameleon (actually Clear would be better since it lies on the surface of the water, but it was not available to me). Diameter = 0.42mm
- Leader: 10lb Maxima Clear. Diameter = 0.3mm
- Tippet: Rio Powerflex 4X. Diameter = 0.178mm. In retrospect this is rather light (6.4lb) and a 3X may have been sufficient - have a look at this table, again from leadercalc.
Recommended Fly Sizes for Tippets
(inches)
Diameter
(mm's)
Diameter
X-Rating
Fly
Size.003".088X#20-#28.004".107X#20-#28.005".136X#18-#26.006".155X#14-#20.007".184X#6-#14.008".203X#6-#12.009".232X#4-#10.010".261X#4-#8.011".280X#4-#6.013".3301X#8-#12.015".4002X#4-#8.017".4503X#1/0-#4.019".5004X#3/0-#1/0.021".5505X#5/0-#3/0
For a fly box I highly recommend getting a foam box as this will float when you invariably drop it in the river. I also decided to get a good quality pair of stainless steel scissor/plier things as asides from the rod (and frying pan) this is the tool used most heavily when fishing.
The final assembled kit looks like this:
(A spare spool and sinking line is yet to come)
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