Building a strong case for RESULT..

Monday 05-23-16 found Scott and I back on the upstream reaches of our home river. I'd spent a good portion of the day going over and rigging tackle. My long neglected Scott G 803-3 has sat in the corner catching dust since I acquired the little DFR 8' 2wt. I never had a line I was satisfied with on the Scott.. that has changed! Over winter I picked up a Scientific Anglers Mastery VPT WF 3 F. A lot of people seem totally enamored with the old school DT format. I am not one of them. About the only valid point I'll concede in their favor is the fact that they can be reversed and are actually two lines for the price of one. The myth that they have a longer / finer taper is just not true in comparison to modern WF finesse tapers. There are multiple options available with front tapers that notably exceed that of any DT I've ever studied. Enough on that pet peve..

One of the things I like with RIO and some Airflo lines is the factory loop at the rear. Looping a line on a reel is so instant and painless also increasing the efficiency of your reels, spools, and lines. I wish SA would get on board with this plan too. After reverse blind splicing a loop and nail knotting to the running line it was spun on. Now came the next step of the process.. I've been noticing how savage the conventional off the shelf leader (even on a light line) turns over a ultra-fine whispy small dry fly. Not cool.. It reminds me of trying to do finish work with a 20 ounce Estwing hammer.. it's possible but not the best tool for the job. Digging out my recipe book I built a 9' leader blood knotted and tapered down 8 steps to 5X starting with .018 butt material. Much different than the standard .023 ..or .021 if you can find them. A lot of people don't like knots complaining that they catch debris, etc.. I agree ..but where I'm fishing is pretty clean and free of weeds.. plus it's a well known fact that knotted leaders just plain turn over better. Case closed.

The last step in building a strong suit for luck was picking the right hat.. which was apparently the correct one!

The fish came easy on the second cast with biot bodied #14 Spentwing pattern. I was lucky to sight him as he wasn't rising all that regular with scarse bugs available. Had no clue on his size but confident from rise form and more so, the location. My 9 knots all held great (smiling) I love this line! Probably going to add another one or two as resources permit.