Fly Fishing - Help a brotha out?

[surfrod]

most trout fly anglers get too complicated for NJ... as Capt Lou states
"Most streams very small in our area casting is limited in scope to lift & drift."

If you have a basic setup, you may have a Weight Forward N Floating line, such as WF5F or you might have a double taper like Capt Lou. Both are fine for everything except the deepest hole/fast current situations where a sink tip would help.

Get some tapered leaders, as Capt Lou said, 7' or so, with a 4x end. 4x is ok for streamers but you will want to go smaller for nymphs or dries, so get some 6x tippet. Around here that should do.

Get an assortment of Caddis, dries, wets, nymphs, some woolly buggers of various types, with and without bead heads. And some basic streamers, like mickey finns, black ghost or other feather streamers in trout sizes.

You'll do fine... get out and fish !

[Ely]

One more thought on the matter just to complicate things a little further. Consider going 1 line weight heavier than your setup. So if you're fishing a 5 wt, go with a no. 6 line. Today's rods tend to be a little stiff and going heavier will help the rod load properly. It's made a tremendous difference for my casting both in distance and accuracy.

[calbo]

I fish a 5-weight double-taper flosting line. I've found this can handle most situations in our area and can fish drys, nympths and streamers/buggers. I'll add a couple of small split-shot when I need some depth - and for winter/colder months fishing if I want to stay deep I use removable sinking tips. Used to carry an extra spool with sinking line or sinking tip line, but found the removable tips more convenient - and a lot cheaper than buying extra spools. You can pick ups sink-tip kits (Effingers or on-line at Ovis or Cabela's) with different sink rates for less than $20 vs. $75-150 for a spare spool.

[Capt. Lou]

Originally Posted by Ely

One more thought on the matter just to complicate things a little further. Consider going 1 line weight heavier than your setup. So if you're fishing a 5 wt, go with a no. 6 line. Today's rods tend to be a little stiff and going heavier will help the rod load properly. It's made a tremendous difference for my casting both in distance and accuracy.

I've found that if you have to upload a light weight fly rod to make it perform better, then the rod you chose might not not be suitable to your use. The faster tapers belong on the upper DE & out west, soft parabloic taperd are the way to go in our region. If the rod is marked a five the action should be semi paraboic & load properly with designated line if it's a five then it should not perform better with a six! Most std fives should cast very easily out to 50' or so with a # 5 line agsin most casts are well under this distance. It's more important that the rod load & cast accurately with ease close in then farther out. If it's not doing this then it's not what your looking for to fish local!