a few basic questions

[UraFish]

I just got my rod and reel on ebay.

Its a redington crosswater 4/5/6 reel.... a few questions about it.. How can i change the retrieve to the other hand? I will be fishing mostly in SW part of PA, so what lb test backing do i need? and how many yards of backing? what size fly line should I get? and how many yds of that? I hope to get the rod set up and spend the weekend beginning FF.....!

 

[gfen]

Change retrive? No clue. Email Redington, Google, or learn to wind goofystance like the old schoolers.

You'll never see the backing except from through the little holes on the side of the reel, buy whatever's cheapest or has the colour that matches your eyes.

You put as much on that lets you then spool the line onto the reel about a pencil's thickness from the pillars.

Buy the line that matches the rod. If its a 5wt rod, buy a 5wt line. If its a 5/6 line, buy a 5DT or a 6WF to match appropriate.

There will be grumblings of a religious war from the next sentence, but you should just buy a DT line anyways. Two years after you've beat the snot out of it and its cracked and failing, you just flip it around and use the other end. Twice the life.

 

[jdaddy]

Screw off the cap and switch the direction of the one way clutch. Should be self explanatory when you take the spool and cap off.

5 wt line, DT just to make gfen happy. Smallest shot of backing you can get, say 50 yards or whatever. 20lb is pretty much freshwater standard, not that you need it. It's just that it seems to come in 20 and 30 lb.

 

[jreichel]

Check the reel company website it should have the specs for your reel model including what lb test backing and how much for the fly line wt you choose. Other wise guess... Not really. Worst thing you can do is put to much backing on and have to peal all the fly line off and remove some backing to fit the fly line.

The website should also have instructions for switching the reel retreve.

Hope this helps.

Jeff

 

[ryguyfi]

Good stuff so far. I'll give you a few tricks of the trade.

When putting on your line, put it on backwards first so you know how much will fit. So floating line first, then backing. Take it all off and then put it on the right way.

Fly line comes in a package, so you don't need a specific length. My suggestion is a 5wt either WF or DT.

20lb backing is what is on almost all trout reels.

If you reverse the clutch as said above, you should just be able to mount the reel the opposite way and your drag should be set accordingly.

arbor knot from reel to backing, nail or albright knot from backing to fly line, and also from fly line to leader. Blood knot from leader section to leader section (or tippet), and improved clinch from leader to fly. LEARN THOSE KNOTS! You do that and you'll be set. I can't count how many new fly fisherman get so hung up on the knots that they're standing stream side for 30 minutes trying to tie a blood knot. Practice at home with rope, or thick line, then move down to the thinner stuff.


Ryan

 

[UraFish]

okay so hows this.... I got 20 lb backing.... i did what you said except i used albright knot for backing to fly line..... nail knot fly line to leader, and surgeon knots for the tippet???? is that okay?

 

[gfen]

Absolutely. Go out and enjoy it.

If I were offering up any more advise, its get used to cutting and retying. Blow through tippet, its cheap and it helps. Realize the further you cut that leader down, the thicker it gets. At a certain point, tying more 5x (or whatever) to the end results in a huge drop of sizes, casting and presentation issues, and knot compromising.

Either get used to re-nailknotting a new leader, or tie a loop at the end of the leader where the 5x (or whatever) more-or-less ends, then looping or tying your tippet to that.

Alternately, and perhaps smarter, is when you reach a point where the leader is done and you don't feel like knotting more tippet to get it back to where you want, you can just cut down to the butt, the last few inches, loop that and then loop a new leader to it.

To read that is to be confused, I guess. Those tapered leaders start at, say, 20# test line then slowly taper down over length to, ie, 4.8# (or 5x tippet). You will whittle down the 2' of 4.8# stuff to nuttin, then tie on another, fresh, 2' of 5x.

After you've retied new 5x on the end a few times, you've blown through the part of tapered leader that was 6# (4x) sized. This ruins the advantage of a tapered leader. You could just tie on a new hunk of 4x (say 1') then tie the 2' of 5x to that.

Or loop the 4x end of tapered leader, and tie the 5x to that (loop-to-loop or whatever). Or you could lop the entire ~6' of tapered leader down to 5" of that thick, 20#, butt and loop that part. Then every new leader you tie on you could loop-to-loop to that, dig?

The alternative is cutting the whole mess, and then nailknotting a new leader to fly line every time. This means losing an inch or two of fly line with every knot. That's perfectly acceptable, too, but it kills me to do it and I hate nailknots.

 

[UraFish]

I didnt put a tapered leader on???? I started with 0x,,,, and worked smaller.... that way i can change accordingly no?

 

[gfen]

That works even better, because you'll know what point you've cut back to. Go fishing.