Visit to RL Winston rod factory

During one of my trips to Montana in the mid 1990's I planned to visit the RL Winston rod factory in Twin Bridges on our way to Yellowstone National Park. But unfortunately the building was closed because the company was attending a big fly fishing show elsewhere in the country. It's now almost 20 years later and due to a slight change of travel plans during this trip, I had a few hours to spare to drive to Twin Bridges on my way to Bozeman.

I remember having a map on my lap while driving during my last trip in 2005. Nowadays we have this amazing technology called the iPhone, a map app and an unlimited ultra fast LTE temporary data plan for just $60!


The scenery of the trip from Helena to Twin Bridges was amazing.


The last part of the trip to Twin Bridges slowed down a bit due to road construction on highway 55. Both directions had to take turns to drive on the same lane that was available.




Finally Twin Bridges


The familiar view on the Twin Bridges water tower with the Beaverhead river


After a short drive outside the town, the RL Winston rod factory looked just as I remember from many pictures. As famous as this factory is to fly fishermen, it also looked like every other warehouse I've seen along the roads. I parked my red rental car and walked around the front yard. There was this neat little lawn with a sign.






While entering the building I expected the general manager of the plant welcoming vistors with coffee and cup cakes. Too bad I was too late for the daily factory tour at 11 AM. A small front office and a door next to it with the sign 'Winston museum' was all there is.




A room of about 6 x 6 meters (around 20 x 20 ft) with some memorabilia of the history of Winston was displayed. The most eye catching item being a frame with a dozen or so rods from the past, only bamboo and fiber glass rods. There I recognised the Leetle Feller (misspelled as 'Light feller') and the Stalker (misspelled as 'Stalber') glass rod. I wonder how they could make these mistakes on their heritage?...








Besides rods, there were many pictures om the wall. Many of them I remember seeing them in the old Winston catalogs I got at home.






Many tools of era gone by


Gary Howells, one of the best bamboo rod makers ever




A view of the workshop



Did you know that the Sage head rod designer Jerry Siem started at Winston?


It's nice to know the guestbooks of vistors are kept.




Next stop: A day with George Anderson on the Armstrong spring creek!

My 2018 USA trip:

1) Upper stretch of the Elk river (BC)

2) Visit to RL Winston rod factory

3) A day with George Anderson on the Armstrong Spring Creek (MT)

4) Backcountry fishing in Montana

5) West Yellowstone

6) Henry's Fork - part 1

7) Henry's Fork - part 2

8) Henry's Fork - part 3

9) Cutthroat fishing with Dusty & Colt

10) Fiberglass Clave 2018

11) Last day of the trip - Soda Butte & Lamar (YNP)

12) Drone video of my BC / Montana / Idaho trip

Start of USA/Canada trip Aug 2018 - Upper stretch of the Elk river (BC)

This blog started in 2005 as a means to keep my friends in Montana and Idaho informed about my fly fishing whereabouts. Almost 15 years later I'm back in the Rockies, the blog has come full circle.

My two week trip early August 2018 started with a short trip to British Columbia with my friend David, the owner of the Fish Tales fly shop in Calgary. I've known David since the early days of the internet in the mid 1990's. We participated on an internet fly swap and stayed friends ever since.

The idea I had was to fish Michel creek near the town of Sparwood, BC. Michel creek is well known as a very nice westslope cutthroat stream. Unfortunately this stream is recently listed on the restricted waters by the province of BC. This generally means these waters have limited tickets available for fishermen outside of BC and was sold out for the summer. Good thing BC Fishery is changing the reservation system because now these restricted waters are fully booked right away from the start of the year. The idea is to sell tickets in stages during the year. With change of plans the next morning we headed for the upper stretches of the Elk river above Elkford to look for westslope cutthroats.

When I arrived in Calgary the heat was on for several weeks. Due to the heat the whole western coastal area from California to BC there has been numerous forest fires. Daytime temps went as high as 37C / high 90's F! The typical amazing vista of the rocky mountains during the drive to BC was severely hazed by the smoke.



Frank Slide and the smokey sky


After checking in at our motel in Sparwood, we headed for the upper parts of the Elk river above Elkford. The second part of an almost two hour drive to the the upper Elk was a long drive on a dirt road up the mountains.





I'm not sure what caused it but the fishing was very mediocre during the two days in BC. The upper Elk river looked very fishy but the fish we caught were very limited in size and numbers. The extreme heat during this week was probably part of the reason the fishing was so slow.





The next day we decided to try a tributary of the Elk river. The sky opened up a bit after the thunderstorm of the evening before. This stream looked like cutthroat heaven with nice runs and pools, but the results were disappointing too. Fish size were around 8-10 inches.

Due to new restrictions on felt soles in parts of Montana, I bought a new pair of Patagonia Ultralight rubber soled wading boots at David's store. Boy do they feel different than the felt soles I'm used to. In spite of more than 10 years availability of wading boots with rubber soles, the manufacturers still haven't come up with a rubber sole that has the traction that comes even close to felt soles. Without cleats, it's it's like skating on ice on the slippery rocks!









I wanted to get to cross the Montana border before 6 PM, so we decided to call it a quits around 4 PM. David drove back to Calgary and I headed south on highway 3 and 93 to Montana. The idea was to drive as far south until around 9 PM, check in at a motel and drive to Helena to see my dear friend Don and his wife Rosi in the morning.

I arrived in Missoula around 9 PM and saw that all hotels/motels were fully booked. After a phone call to Don, I drove another two hours to Helena to spend the night at Don's place. This slight change of plans meant the next day I had about 3-4 hours to spare on my way to Bozeman.

I decided to drive to Twin Bridges to (finally) visit the Winston rod company.

My 2018 USA trip:

1) Upper stretch of the Elk river (BC)

2) Visit to RL Winston rod factory

3) A day with George Anderson on the Armstrong Spring Creek (MT)

4) Backcountry fishing in Montana

5) West Yellowstone

6) Henry's Fork - part 1

7) Henry's Fork - part 2

8) Henry's Fork - part 3

9) Cutthroat fishing with Dusty & Colt

10) Fiberglass Clave 2018

11) Last day of the trip - Soda Butte & Lamar (YNP)

12) Drone video of my BC / Montana / Idaho trip

Review: Zpey Dreamcatcher II - the ultimate lake rod?

I met Per Pedersen of the Danish company called Zpey at the recent Nordic Fly Fair in Elverum. Per graciously donated a fly line for raffle during the RISE Fly Fishing Film Festival later that month. At the Nordic Fly Fair I did some extensive casting with the Zpey Dreamcatcher II rod, especially the 4 and 5 weight. A short message to Per resulted in arrival of two rods for a review: 9ft #3 and 9ft #4.

Zpey entered the fly fishing market in the mid 2000 with a series of double handed rods with iconic the bent lower handle and has been popular in the Scandinavian salmon fishing scene. Especially with Henrik Mortensen Zpey had a very strong first step in the competitive market. In the meantime Zpey has established itself as a serious company with a good presence in the salmon fishing scene.

These days Zpey has expanded their product line with a broad range of fly rods as well as fly lines and shooting heads. The Dreamcatcher II is listed as a series of rods for typical large Scandinavian rivers, lakes and sea run browns at/near the Scandinavian coasts in the line weights 3 up to 7. All rods are 9ft long (except the 7 weight which is 9.2ft).

The action is typically beefy without being really stiff. The finish looks very similar to the rods made in the same Korean factory by Hardy, Greys, Douglas Outdoors and Loop. Both the 3 and 4 weight rod are finished in a full wells grip and (unusual for light weight rods) an extension butt. Not sure about the heavier rods (6 and 7 weight) but the rods don't look like they are saltwater safe as they both have a nice burl wood spacer.

I was especially curious about the 3 weight rod as opposed to the 4, 5 and 6 weight I cast at the show. Very thoughtfully Per sent the rods together with two reels filled with fly lines. Remarkably both reels were loaded with a fly line one line weight up. Casting both rods with a line weight heavy line feels very smooth and powerful. The action reminds me of the original Sage RPL. The tip isn't particularly soft like the G. Loomis NRX LP, yet it doesn't feel lifeless either. Due to the fast action, casting short around 15-25 feet, even though it still casts remarkably precise, definitely isn't their sweet spot. The best distances seems to be around 40 to 60 ft, while with minimum of false casting reaching to 80ft is quite easy.

Matching the rods with fly lines their own line class turned out to be quite a surprise. Yes, the lines do feel a bit too light up to 20ft, but all together they still cast and feel pretty much similar as with a line weight heavy. With a line weight heavy, the rods load a bit deeper and feels a bit smoother.

Casting a 3 weight line up to 60ft does sound odd. When does one need a delicate presentation like a 3 weight can at such distances (or even further)? The only situation I can think of is shallow lake fishing with long leaders. Fishing at these distances, you certainly need a beefy rod to set the hook. Due to the fast action too light tippet (7x and thinner) is probably not advised. Same goes for the 4 weight rod. This rod is capable of handling quite a broad range of fishing situations, but it's probably at its best when casting long delicate presentations on lakes or large rivers.

Now how does Zpey's rods fit in a very crowded global fly rod line up? For Scandinavian fishermen it is probably a logical choice but for others it is not an easy task. Priced at €510 (almost $600), it's a price range with some serious competition. It's not an entry priced rod (around $350) yet about $200 below the high end rods from established brands like Sage, Winston and G. Loomis. Targeting the American market is going to be quite a challenge with competition from rods with a similar action and price like the Douglas Upstream Plus, Sage Pulse and the Winston Nimbus. My advise would be to concentrate on the Scandinavian market with specific Scandinavian fishing conditions and style. Or as the ultimate (delicate) lake fishing rod.

Review: Douglas DXF

Just did some casting this evening with the new Douglas Outdoors DXF 4864 (8.6ft #4) which was kindly sent to me for a review by Qflyshop.

This rod is made for dry fly fishing. The action is delightfully moderate. Slightly more powerful than their superb Upstream series yet not as beefy as the Upstream Plus series. I particularly liked the rod's delivery between 6 m (20 ft) and 9 m (30 ft). That's probably the distance most dry fly fishing is done. The DXF couldn't match the superb feel of the fiberglas rod by Chris Barclay at 20 ft, but that can't be considered a flaw 😀

The rod has some surprising back bone at the butt section but it's surely not the rod for casting double hopper rigs at 50 ft from a drift boat. For gentle delivery to a sipping trout at 25 ft, it's a winner.

The rod is finished in a matte metallic green color and comes in a codura rod tube. I'd prefer the handsome aluminum tube of the Upstream and the Upstream Plus.

At $349 (in Europe € 349) it's definitely a rod that won't break the bank. Give the rod a test at your local fly shop. You won't win the distance casting competition but surely enjoy some great dry fly fishing on your favourite stream!

Ps.
I did do some distance casting before wrapping up. I ended up casting almost the whole line at around 80 ft. Sorry couldn't help myself! 😀

RISE Fly Fishing Film Festival Rotterdam 2018

It has been five years since the last RISE Fly Fishing Film Festival in 2013 was held here in Rotterdam. The road to the 5th edition has been a bit bumpy.

This year our promotion was solely based on social media rather than physical promotion at fly shops. As much as many think it is, social media's reach isn't as large as we hoped for. We were unable to reach the more casual fly fisher(wo)men. Next time we'll still support the promotion the old fashion way.

The preparation time (about 8 weeks) turned out to be a bit too short. Also planning later in the year, mid May, as apposed to February was didn't help either. We are not sure what hurt the sales the most but we didn't sell out by about 20%.

It was great to see people coming to the cinema to enjoy some amazing movies. Viewing on a large cinema screen is definitely a different league than a laptop screen or even a TV screen. It was nice to see the excited faces after the show. The diversity of the movies was just right to cater for interest of just about every type of fishery.

What did go extremely well this time was the number of sponsors. The give aways made available by the sponsors during the raffle were quite nice, including a free weekend at a fly fishing lodge along the river Kyll in Germany and a half day guiding in Slovenia.

We are looking to see if we can host the next venue in 2019 in another cinema in Rotterdam. We are also planning the date back to the usual period in February/March.

Finally I would like to thank our sponsors.

Next stop: a short fishing trip in June?

Nordic Fly fair 2018

Last weekend I was invited to tie some flies at the Nordic Fly Fair in Elverum, Norway. Elverum is about an 1.5 hour drive north from Oslo. My friend Roger Enger Lie, a superb fly tier himself, is the fly tying coordinator at the show. The venue was held at the wonderful Norwegian Forestry museum in Elverum.

In the late 1980's / early 1990's this show had quite an international attendance. But due to the rise of the internet and the costs of inviting international tiers the show has been closed down for more than a decade. Mid 2010 the show slowly made its comeback. Now it's basically focused on Scandinavian fly fishermen. This year's fly tiers line up, except two, were all from Sweden and Norway.

The show itself is of a much smaller scale than the other shows I've attended, giving it a very cosy atmosphere. I met many new friends and saw a few old friends at the show. The BBQ after the first day was very enjoyable with great food and friends.

Over the whole weekend an estimated 800 people visited the show. Many families enjoyed a day out, probably combining the show and a visit to the museum. I tied Humpies, Alien Bugs and some mice. Always love the look on the faces once they see the mouse (check out his finger! 😀).

The weather during the weekend was amazing. The locals said it felt like summer so I eagerly took many opportunities to go outside to try some rods (love the new Orvis Helios 3 9ft #4, the softer 'F' version) at the casting pond as well as simply having a chat with fellow tiers.

I also managed to haul in Zpey, that had a booth outside, as a sponsor for the coming RISE Fly Fishing Film Festival. Their new single hand rods, called the Dreamcatcher, are quite nice. I liked their 9ft #4 (how surprising?). Zpey's new fly line called Precision also surprised me as a smooth casting fly line. Several walks in the museum itself were quite interesting too. I wonder if anyone else thought there were nice fly tying material scattered all over the museum? 😀

The hospitality of Roger's family really made the whole trip one to remember. I would also like to thank the people of the Forestry museum for their hospitality as well. And thank you my fellow tiers for a great weekend! And thank you David Stenström for the photo of me making a mess!


Next stop: the 5th edition of the RISE Fly Fishing Film Festival in Rotterdam!

Tips for tying with deer hair

Here are some great tips on tying with deer hair from my late friend Chris Helm.

Birthday present

My birthday present arrived today from South Africa.
It's my Humpy painted by the talented artist Gavin Erwin.
Love it! 😀

My other Humpy paintings by:

Ryan Keane

Cindy Day

Marcel Terblanche

Books from South Africa

The African continent has, due to the British heritage, a surprising long tradition of fly fishing. Like Kenya that started with introducing brown trout in the local waters from Loch Leven in 1909. The Kenya's Fly Fishers Club goes back to 1919! CNN made a great documentary about the fly fishing history in Kenya.

My first introductory of South Africa as a fly fishing destination was by book  'The South African Fly Fishing Handbook' which I bought in the early 2000. Reading this book I encountered the typical fly fishing & tying culture of SA. Truth to be told, the reason I bought the book while browsing in a book store in the first place were the nice pictures where the fishermen caught their fish using the Orvis Superfine rods in gin clear small streams. Back in the 1980's as a school kid I marvelled at the Orvis rods in the various catalogs 😀

Recently Peter Brigg and Ed Herbst wrote a new book about the typical fly patterns that originated from South Africa. This book gives a very nice overview of the development of patterns that started with old English patterns from the early 1900's. The first shipment of the book got lost but the second shipment arrived after a long journey. I love the Humpy drawing by Peter! Thanks guys!

Busy year

It's going to be quite a busy year. At least till fall.

During spring we got the Dutch Fly Fair and the Nordic Fly Fair where I will be tying at both shows.
On May 15th I'll be hosting the 5th edition of the RISE Fly Fishing Film Festival in Rotterdam.

During the summer I'll be visiting some friends (and fish) in Alberta, Montana and Idaho. Going back to the places that started this blog back in September 2005. I'm happy I finally get to fish the Henry's Fork after all these years.

Probably also doing some fishing in June as well. Destination will probably be Austria again.

Keep posted for many news to come!

Update April 24, 2018:
The Dutch Fly Fair was wonderful.
Amazing weather, great setting and catching up with old friends.






















Next stop: Nordic Fly Fair in Elverum, Norway!

Finding Fontinalis

Wow what a documentary!
It starts as an exciting quest to beat the 100 year old world record for brook trout and ends as a conservation initiative to save the home of the brook trout in Patagonia.

Great story, amazing cinematography and mind-blowing scenery. This documentary can be seen with a VOD (Video on Demand) option in Vimeo for $7.99.

Italian bamboo maker Edoardo Scapin

I've seen many (short) videos on bamboo fly rod making. It's still amazing how a natural material like bamboo gets transformed to a beautiful fly rod.

This short video shows the very talented Italian maker Edoardo Scapin in his workshop and on the beautiful river where he enjoys fishing with his fly rods.

My dear Humpy

Doing a deer hair workshop at a FF club next week.
Haven't tied any Humpy's for ages. Love these little critters! 😀

Christian Hörgren

Here's a short video on the Swedish rod builder Christian Hörgren. Christian's style is typically clean and functional. Probably equals to what we call 'Scandinavian style'. Christian builds custom rods, mostly fiberglass rods using blanks from contemporary and vintage manufacturers. He is working on a series of own designed fiberglass blanks.

The elusive Rooster fish

There are some fisheries I doubt I'll ever do it myself. Golden Dorado of the Amazon, Dolphin fish (Mahi Mahi) and the Rooster fish. The fishing itself sounds amazing, but the amount of time, money and effort that goes with it to become even modestly successful just sounds too much. Or am I just too lazy?...

The video called 'In search of Grande' shows how frustrating it can be to catch a trophy Rooster fish. Keeping one's sanity in this video by just enduring the endless effort needed to catch the 'Grande' is quite entertaining.



Here are 5 tips if you do decide to go Rooster hunting. 😀

Kamchatka, the end of the last wilderness

Kamchatka is probably the last wilderness on earth from a fly fisher's viewpoint. This video shows how an amazing place is slowly but surely losing the battle against exploitation by man. Sad but it's reality...



I wrote about a DVD on Kamchatka's amazing fishing almost 10 years ago here.

The DT versus WF myth (and why fly line companies hates DTs)

The numbers of fly lines available these days are astounding. If you look carefully the majority of fly lines on the market are variations on the (Weight Forward) WF form factor.

The main reason the WF form factor being predominate, one has to look from the manufacturers point of view. Fly line companies are developing many different variations on the WF form factor. More variation on the WF theme is more sales!

The name weight forward is misleading too. A WF is basically a DT chopped in half and integrated with a thin coated running line. There is no weight put forward than there is on a DT (unless it is designed to be as such, see the section about fly line design).


Let's start with the origins
The Double Taper (DT) line as profile (or form factor) comes from the days we used silk fly lines as our every day lines. The reason the DT form factor was developed was to prolong the day's fishing. Once one part of the fly line got water logged and didn't float well (despite being greased) you turned over the fly line and you got to fish the dry part for another couple of hours. Pretty smart!

Cortland invented the modern PVC fly line in 1953. The modern fly lines with a plastic (PVC or Polyurethane) coating eliminates the problem of the old silk fly lines getting water logged as the outer coating protects the inner braided core from getting wet.


Fly line, the 'money maker'
Until around 2000 fly lines were just a 'necessity'. Check out the line section in the Orvis 1984 catalog. Just two floating line models, one economy line and a high end line in a DT and WF. The niche lines here was a line with a fluorescent coating for fishing in low light situations and a shooting head. That's it!

Things started to change some 20 years ago. Fly line companies, especially Rio which was acquired by Far Bank Enterprises (investment company that also owns Sage and Redington) in 2005 from the original founder Jim Vincent, started to experiment with different fly line designs for both single hand and double hand rods to try to help fly fishermen use the right fly line for the type of application or condition. So nowadays fly line companies like Rio, Scientific Anglers and Airflo have specialized fly lines for virtually every situation (wind, delicate, distance, dry fly, nymph, streamer, etc.) and every type of fishing (trout, bass, redfish, bonefish, etc.) imaginable.

Now from a business standpoint this development is pure genius as fly line companies get to sell a lot more fly lines than they used to! Fly line companies are developing many different variations on the WF form factor as the DT form factor has less possibilities to make variations as well as being more costly to manufacture.

One of the biggest changes in recent fly line history is caused by the ever increasing stiffer rods of the last 15 years. Fly line companies started to make lines to get these fast rods load a bit easier. This is done by making them much heavier then they used to be. Lines like Rio's Gold and SA's MPX are about 1.4x to 1.5x line weight heavier. Some lines are even a full line weight heavier! One could question why don't the rod companies just make rods that casts fine with the fly lines within the regular mass specifications by the AFTTA?... 🤔


Now lets talk about a few myths about the DT!

Myth 1: DT presents more delicately than WF

One of the most persistent myth of the DT is the idea that a DT allows a more delicate presentation than a WF.  If you pick up a fly line brand that has both WF and DT versions of the same model (e.g. Cortland 444, check the picture) the profile of both lines are identical up to around the first 30 - 35 ft.

So far there has been only one exception with a fly line model that was available as a DT and WF: the (now out of production) Rio LT from the late 2010's where DT and WF had a deliberately slightly different design.

Unfortunately these days there aren't many companies that sells a fly line both as a WF and DT with the same taper design. 

Update: As per early 2022 Cortland sells two line models both in DT and WF (444 Peach and Sylk) and Orvis (Hydros DT and Hydros WF). Rio sells the Mainstream both in DT and WF but I'm not sure whether they have the same taper design.

Myth 2: WF casts further than DT
The typical WF is in fact not the best choice for distance casting! A WF's belly usually ends around 35 ft. Once you're casting past the belly and into the thin running line, you're 'out of gas' as the thin running line won't turn over the thicker and heavier belly portion of the line very well. Yes, you can shoot the fly line once the belly is out of the rod tip, but the distance gained is a lot less than expected.


So what should I use for distance casting?
For distance casting you try to get maximum loading of the rod to use the energy stored in the rod to 'kick out' the fly line as far as possible. The DT with it's longer belly is actually ideal since the additional mass in the longer belly is what you need to bend (or load) the rod deeper. With your casting stroke you are pulling (the mass of) the fly line (like in tug-of-war) against the tip of the fly rod resulting in loading the rod. As long as the rod can release the stored energy to pull the fly line in the direction of the cast, the fly line will follow.

But trying to achieve distance with a DT, there is a penalty compared to the WF with the thinner running line. The remaining thicker & heavier belly portion of the DT slides out the guides less easier (more friction) and cause more drag (wind resistance) in the air during its flight. You will need a rod with a strong butt section to cope with handling the fly line with all that mass (it's a DT remember?) in the air.

The so called Long Belly fly line (a bit of a crossbreeding between a DT and WF) is what you want for casting controlled long distances. The longer belly (some are up to 60ft) will load the rod deeper similar to what a DT does and on the final delivery cast the thin running line runs through the guides easily. The thin and light running line also doesn't drag during the flight as much as with the DT's thick belly.

Scientific Angler's Expert Distance and Royal Wulff Long Belly are good Long Belly lines. There are variations on the long belly theme. Some lines have a long rear taper that gets smaller in diameter very gradually, almost like a Long Belly. SA's Trout is such a line.

Some recent WF lines are indeed designed as weight forward as in the front belly portion the weight is much more concentrated. These short belly lines have a much shorter belly compared to a regular WF lines. This design allows fast rods to load easier on shorter distances.


So why should we still bother using a DT?
The saying that with a DT you get 'two fly lines for the price of one' is kinda true. As one part gets worn out (coating cracked, stepped on, etc.), you still have the other end you can use that hasn't been exposed to the elements & wear. So far it's true. In real world people turn over the fly line way too late, as in years. After years of storage on the reel the other part is probably all messed up under pressure of layers of line coiled tightly against the smaller arbor of the reel. This part of the fly line will have major memory problems and probably have problems with the tip staying afloat as the tiny air bubbles in the coating that makes the fly line float have been 'squeezed' out.

The solution is to turn over the line regularly, like every 2-3 months. And don't store the line on the reel longer than necessary. Take the fly line off the reel and store it on the plastic container that came with it. This way you will get a longer use of the fly line, like twice as long! And now comes the clue: fly line companies don't like this! They want to sell lines. Once your fly line is worn out they want to sell you another $80+ spanking new WF rather than you turning over your DT and extending the life of your fly line. 😀

So when is a DT 'better'?

+ If you just don't want to buy a new line every (one or two) season.
+ If your rod (and your casting abilities) can handle it, casting longer distances is more accurate.
+ If you make roll casts regularly beyond 30 ft.

+ You can pick up the fly line off the water and immediately cast away rather than first needing to retrieve all the thin running line of a WF line to get into the belly portion before casting.
+ If you mend a long fly line beyond 30 ft (stack mending is the only mending technique at such a distance by the way. See below at one of the updates for more info).

So what are the downsides of a DT?
 Some thoughts to be taken in consideration with a DT:
- You can't have as much backing on your fly reel as with a WF as a DT fills up your reel really fast. Solution: use a larger reel.
- There isn't much choice in DTs these days. Fly line companies usually have only one (if at all!) DT model in their range.
- A DT might not be the best choice for certain conditions (for instance windy) or type of fishing (like fishing with very bulky or heavy flies).
- As mentioned earlier you need to turn over a DT regularly (like every 2-3 months) to take advantage of extending the life of the fly line.

Fly line design

Three major innovations in fly line design

When looking for a fly line for predominantly dry fly fishing, look for a fly line with a long gradual front taper as opposed to one that has a short and abrupt (or blunt) front taper. The first 15-20ft of these 'dry fly' lines are, because of the line design, very 'light' (less mass). Due to its design these type of fly lines don't load a fast rod well when casting short distances. Choose a medium action rod or go one weight up with the fly line if you still want to use a fast rod when fishing close.

Delicate presentation depends on more aspects besides merely fly line design. The most important part being ones casting abilities to make a delicate (applying just the right amount of speed to the fly line on the) delivery cast and some other issues like the leader used (length, leader formula etc.).

Did you know that there are only four fly line manufacturers in the world? That's Scientific Anglers (used to be owned by 3M, now owned by Orvis), Cortland, Rio and Airflo. These four manufacturers produce 95% of the fly lines for different brands like Orvis, Sage (although Sage no longer offers own brand fly lines), Winston, Royal Wulff, Loop, Vision, Guideline, Epic, 406 fly lines, Cabela's, etc. A small amount of fly lines are made in China using less advanced technology. But that could change in the future?...

If you're a rocket scientist and want to get even deeper into the math and physics of fly line, check out this article.

Hope this helps!


Update Dec 10, 2019:
Stack mending is a mending technique that's very effective when nymphing in deep and/or fast moving water where a regular mend won't get the job done. After the delivery cast (overhead or roll cast) is made, cast small roll casts aimed at the tip of the fly line to add lots of slack line. I saw this technique for the first time in the 1980's Doug Swisher's (VHS!) video, "Advanced Strategies for Selective Trout".

Since that video is copy righted, here's a video I found that shows it:



Update July 1, 2019:
I was driving to a business appointment today and decided to listen to a podcast and ended up with one April Vokey did with Carl McNeil, the owner of Swift Fly Fishing. Besides an enjoyable podcast about the history behind the man, Carl also talks about fly lines.

Listen around the 51:00 mark about the benefits of Long Belly fly lines (or even a DT) for distance casting. A more elaborate but very interesting is around the 52:00 mark about how fly rod manufacturers (or designers) rate their fly rod and how arbitrary this is.


Update Sept 3, 2017:
There is one more line manufacturer in the UK: Northern Sport Fishing. This is probably the manufacturer of lines like the Shakespeare Worcestershire lines and Barrio fly lines.
Thanks for the update Thomas!


Update Aug 28, 2017:
Tom from 406 Fly Lines commented on this post.

'Hi Jay,

Very interesting article. I have a couple of comments. 406 Fly Lines does use different profiles between the WF and DT - the reasoning being that we wanted to the lines to have a similar feel from the 2 weight through the 8 weight. Also as a company who deals directly with the Manufacturer I can tell you the cost of manufacturing between a WF and DT is minimal. I believe the real reason companies don't make more DTs is that it's a simple design and the WF can be configured in a multitude of different designs hence more sales. With the rise in popularity of fiberglass rods and the steady sale of cane rods the DT will be around for quite awhile. As an aside our DTs outsell our WFs by at least 4 to 1.'

Thanks Tom for your comment!

1st internet bass bug swap

A piece of fly tying history, way before forums, Facebook or even websites about fly fishing!
A list server with fly tying enthousiasts decided to do a, probably the first ever, bass bug swap in 1996.

Mark Devino was the swap master. The St. Louis Sports magazine published Mark's article (Jan 1997) on this swap.

I was probably inspired by Joe Messinger's frog and Chris Helm's deer hair mouse. Sounds like centuries ago! 😀

Review: Douglas Outdoors Upstream Plus

Big thanks to Maarten Bruinenberg, the owner of QFlyshop, for allowing me to review the two rods!

Douglas Outdoors' rod series called the Upstream was a big surprise for me and many others. I really love the smooth medium action of the Upstream. Loads of feedback on even the shortest casts. So much the opposite of all the fast rods that has been flooding the market the past years. After this success Douglas Outdoors decided to launch the Upstream Plus, a beefed up version of the original series. QFlyshop sent the first two rods (9ft #4 and #5) it received directly to me to take a look at them.

The Upstream Plus has the same 'natural tonkin' colored blank as the original Upstream. It's certainly not a 'sexy' color but after the initial look, it doesn't bother either. The grip and the reel seat has been altered to a nice comfortable snub nose-like grip and an unlocking seat with a cork spacer. The upper and lower 1/8" part of the grip has a varnished composite cork section similar to the Scott G2's grip.  I couldn't really feel the cork of the grip as I left the plastic wrapping on the cork but it looked pretty familiar to my regular Upstream. Not the quality of a custom built rod, but certainly a quality cork grip.

It also has the same spigot ferrules as the original Upstream with alinement dots so setting up the rod is a breeze. The rods come in a handsome grey colored aluminum tube. The tubes are very roomy, so traveling with two rods in one tube is no problem. The overall finish might not be up to par with rods by Sage, Winston and Thomas and Thomas but certainly comparable to, and maybe slightly better than, rods from Vision and Guideline.

All rods in the Upstream Plus series being 9ft (all 4 piece), makes them 'all purpose' and more familiar to the general fly fishermen looking for a rod in the most popular line sizes (#4 to #6). Since I'm a 4 weight junkie the first rod I grabbed was the 4 weight rod. For both rods I matched with a true weight fly line (not overweighted like the SA MPX or Rio Gold): the Orvis Hydros WF #4 and a SA Expert Distance #5. Although the Expert Distance is a long belly fly line, both fly lines are true to it's weight (median of the AAFTA fly line specification) in the first 30 ft. 

Both rods feel extremely light in hand: the 4 weight is an astounding 2.5 oz / 72 grams while the 5 weight is equally impressive at 2.7 oz / 77 grams. The Upstream Plus being beefed up is quite an understatement. It's much faster than I expected. Especially the mid and butt section has been strengthend quite a bit giving the rod a very powerful action. The tip section isn't as flexible as the original Upstream so casting very short distances won't feel as delicate.

The remarkable conclusion is that the 4 weight version is a much stronger rod than the 5 weight rod. Relative to the line weight that is. The 4 weight rod felt too stiff lacking in good feedback on shorter (15 to 25 ft) distances. Even the longer casts I didn't quite feel the right feedback I wanted. The 5 weight version felt like a different rod, its action giving a much more balanced feed back on all distances. Obviously casting nice tight loops with both rods is a no brainer.

Both rods being quite powerful they had no problem casting up to 60-70 ft. I did try to cast 80+ ft on the 5 weight since the fly line used is a distance casting line. I didn't remove the plastic grip wrappings so getting a good hold of the grip when casting long distances was a bit awkward. Fishing a dry fly at 80ft is of course madness so the fast action should be translated to a fishing application. I'd like to see how the rod handles a heavy nymph rig or a large hopper-dropper combo 25 to 40 ft.

A bit bothered by the initial casting of the 4 weight rod I decided to swap reels. The 4 weight rod came alive with a 5 weight line! The stiffness was gone and smoothness appeared. In fact I loved this combination. Great feedback at shorter distances and it handled casting up to 50-60 ft superbly. The 4 weight rod being significantly lighter than the 5 weight rod, the rod felt amazing. The 5 weight rod seems to have a more balanced action altogether and handled the 4 weight line remarkably well. Obviously the rod felt a tad faster than with a 5 weight line, it still gave good feed back except for the very shortest distances.

The next afternoon I tried the 4 weight rod with an overweighted line (an older Airflo Ridge, about a half line size heavier). The rod immediately felt much livelier. Better feedback on shorter distances and it handled longer casts without a hitch. In fact I really enjoyed casting this rod. For the final insight of the rods would be fishing them, but for now it's certainly clear that the Upstream Plus series is complementary to the original Upstreams series. For most fishing conditions I think the 4 weight rod is too stiff. Use it with a heavily overweighted fly line like the SA MPX or go one line weight up. The 5 weight rod is a great 5 weight rod probably capable of doing almost everything a 5 weight rod should.

Priced at $495 the Upstream Plus series isn't a steal as the original Upstream series ($350), but it's certainly priced in the range of entry to mid range series from brands like Sage and Winston. The biggest challenge for Douglas Outdoors is the unfamiliarity of the general public with the brand as well as limited availability at fly shops. Both Sage's entry level as well as the new Winston Kairos are priced at the same price range but are built in USA as opposed to the Douglas rods built in Korea. This alone will surely become a challenge to convince someone looking for a mid priced rod...

Casting instructions by Joan Wulff

Winston has a nice series of casting instructions by Joan Wulff, the grand lady of fly fishing.
Here are all the episodes stitched together.

These are basic casting instructions, yet always good to see if you're still on track.
I'll post an article about fly casting with my thoughts about casting soon.