Fly Fishing Gear

With Rod lenths, Weights and Action all different what do they mean and how can it make a difference to your fishing trip?

Help is at hand with the Redington Fly Rod Basics guide.

ArcticSilver, well known in Scandinavia where they originate from. These rods have changed the way rods are designed completely. Rather than a fixed cork handle which restricts the action of the rod, stopping the carbon fibre moving, ArcticSilver rods have a hollow composite handle which allows the entire blank to be used right down to its base. This is called Free Flex...... find out more here

Heads - Skagit, Scandi, AFS, Traditional?

Weight - Line size #5-11 grams or grains?

Length - Short, Regular or Long?

So much to ask, how on Earth do you choose? For the Joy of Spey you need to understand lines before you can go fishing. Here we aim to help you to gain a wider knowledge of Spey lines and hopefully help to improve your fishing by doing so.

How do you know what Rio line is right for you?

Choosing a Rio fly line is important for your fishing success, our Rio friends can help you out with these simple tools for scuccess!

What does the technology inside the Rio lines mean to your fishing?

A guide to the Core and Coating Techonologies from Rio Products

We had a great day fishing at Mulberry Whin on Monday testing the 8 foot 4 weight Vision Onki Rod with the new 2Tone Triangle Taper Wulff Fly line and using the Umpqua waist pack. What a super day catching natural brownies from this lovels chalk stream. Mulberry Whin is the most northerly chalk stream in the UK and in August cost £60 for a days fishing, very different to southern chalk streams.

Using a 4 weight Vision Onki rod paired with the Triangle Taper fly line were a delight. The colour and action of the Visikon Onki were superb and with just 10 feet of fly line our I was able to roll cast and naturally cast 30 feet of fly line 30 feet in very tight circumstances surrounded by trees. The Triangle Taper fly line was superb floating high in the water and it made casting a delight.

Bite identification is critical to fly fishermen, often we have watched and realised that people have not even noticed bites because of either poor eyesight of poor bite indicators being used. So here is a top tip for bite identification and it will cost you very little!

So you may have spent £20 or you may have spend £75 or more on a fly line, please don’t worry this technique will improve your catch ratios and hook-ups. All you need is a dark coloured permanent marker pen (or light coloured pen if the fly line is dark coloured).

• 4 to 7 weight lines (195 to 265 grains) are designed for trout fly fishermen
• 7 to 10 weight (265 to 400 grains)  are designed for switch, scandi and skagit on single handed rods (see notes below on Switch and Scandi usage)
• 11 to 14 weight (450 to 600 grains) are intended for double handed fly rods

find out more in this blog post

So why have cassette fly reels become so popular over the last few years? To answer that question we have to look at the design of reels and think about the way in which we use fly reels. Traditionally reels were machined from solid steel or aluminium blocks or cast in iron. The seperate parts including drag, spool and reel would then be assembled. The spool having been cast or machined often cost half that of the traditional fly reel! If we look at the way fishermen use their reels it shows why manufacturers have moved to casette fly reels and shows their benefits.

An essential guide.

For General Salmon fly fishing there are a few things to look for in a good reel, here is our recommended checklist of features. Also check out our top tops for salmon fly reel protection.

Today we’ll touch on a number of topics, focusing on Upstream Nymphing, whilst also considering how a pair of polarized sunglasses can make all the difference to your fishing trip, and how getting “that sinking feeling” will make you appear psychic to those less experienced.

We had an opportunity to test the new Wychwood RS Rod in July 2016. Newly released and now readily available we thought we would do a full test of this new range of Wychwood Rods. The flagship RS series are classy, high-end fly rods which offer exceptional performance combined with a super lightweight design and stunning good looks.

One of the most important lessons for us was leader preparation at the river or lakeside. Today you will never find us without a tub of Dick Walker's Ledasink or similar material which removes the surface tension on monofilament to allow them to sink but most importantly to reduce flash and glint off the leader. Before we cast you will find us running the entire length of the leader through the tub of Degreasant or mud at least twice, then we run the line through our handkerchief or cloth. The result is that the chemicals always present on line is removed. If you cannot afford it then use some mud from the banks with water

As with every hobby there are specialist terms to describe the hobby and the items used. Fly fishing has lots of specialist terms that are used to describe it, check our full glossary of fly fishing terms here or see the terms specifically used in relation to flylines here.

Are you thinking of taking up fly fishing? You'll need to make sure you invest in the right fly fishing clothing, rods and materials to have the best chance of success.