08-09-2010, 02:10 AM
Oh, I've been dreading this post, but I must confess my sins. I was wrong. I didn't know what I was talking about.
On a whim, and fueled by FG's earlier season advice, I grabbed a spool of Orvis Mirage 5X florocarbon tippet Tuesday in preparation for 5 days of fishing on a pretty tough little spring creek up near Jackson, WY. A creek with spooky fish that get cast to quite a bit during its short season. Its water is glassy flat.
Anyway, I was in the Orvis shop up there for some other things, and bought the 5X Mirage. I tied about 4 feet of it to my regular 9-foot Super Strong leader as I headed down to the creek. The blood knot actually cinched up easy! Long story short, I fished it Wednesday through Sunday morning. All in all, about 30 hours of creek time with the Mirage. I'll be using it again.
I had tried floro for trout fishing previously when it first became available quite a few years ago. It was stiff, brittle, hard to tie knots in, and sunk my flies. (I don't fish flies that sink very often, and never in summer!)
The Mirage performed fine with perfect dead-drifts in the smoothest of pools. It was not quite as supple as the mono, but supple enough for good drag-free drifts, even in criss-crossed current lines. Clinch knots cinched down securely with little effort. I did not notice any difference in keeping my fly up! [
] Flies stayed dry and were not pulled under on pick-up.
What I did notice is that it is less affected by toothy fish (I caught some really nice cuttys!), and less affected by abrasion from grass caught on casts (inevitable on this creek). The tippet stayed smooth, and did not fray near as easily as regular Super Strong material. I seldom had to re-tie a fly, even after catching a fish or hanging up in the grass repeatedly. Tough stuff, but still supple.
Did I catch more fish than I would have with mono? Probably not. Did I get fewer refusals or more takes than I would have with mono? Probably not. I did not notice that the fish saw it as any less or more visible than mono. In this creek, they are fisherman-shy, shadow-shy, and fly-shy, not leader-shy. However, since it held up longer than the mono, I will still continue to fish with it for the remainder of the season to give it a fair test.
I was wrong in my earlier affirmations, and I liked the florocarbon tippet!
![[Image: dumb.gif]](http://www.bigfishtackle.com/images/gforum/dumb.gif)
(Thanks for the motivation to re-try the "new" stuff FG!)
On a "fish" note, my sportscenter highlight was a 23 inch cutty that I cast to and played games with for about an hour and 45 minutes before he finally took my offering.
I would cast a few times, get refused or ignored with the best drift right on its nose that I could ever make. Then it would stop feeding for a few minutes. I'd cast again a few times, give it to the SOB perfect again, and it would stop feeding and re-position a few feet up or down stream. I'd have to then re-position, and start all over again. Back and forth we went, the fish feeding just an inch off of a very grassy bank across from me, on a stage of PMD I couldn't see or identify. Not easy-to-see duns I could see floating over it, that was for sure.
It just wasn't going to eat any of my mayfly imitations. I finally had to cheat and give it the ant, but I had taken enough of its crap and refusals on hatch-matching bugs, and we could clearly see each other the whole time. It ate the ant on the second cast, and went out if its way to do so. When I landed the fish, it had a down-wing #18 caddis and a very tiny PMD emerger of some sort in its mouth, each with a foot or so of tippet still attached. This fish had left a couple of other people cussing in the past few days, since the creek only opened to fishing August 1st. I won in the end, even if I couldn't match what it was eating! It won't be eating any more ants any time soon!
I got the fish I wanted, and two free flies!
This creek is one of those where rising a few good fish in a morning is victory. They're as spooky as trout come, and most feed within 2 inches of the bank. I caught fish over 20 inches on dries (mostly mayfly bugs in various stages!), from shallow clear water with little current, every morning and early afternoon. The weather and hatches were very favorable every day, making it a bit easier than normal. It was very flat water! I love that tough little creek and the big picky bastards that swim there.
[signature]
On a whim, and fueled by FG's earlier season advice, I grabbed a spool of Orvis Mirage 5X florocarbon tippet Tuesday in preparation for 5 days of fishing on a pretty tough little spring creek up near Jackson, WY. A creek with spooky fish that get cast to quite a bit during its short season. Its water is glassy flat.
Anyway, I was in the Orvis shop up there for some other things, and bought the 5X Mirage. I tied about 4 feet of it to my regular 9-foot Super Strong leader as I headed down to the creek. The blood knot actually cinched up easy! Long story short, I fished it Wednesday through Sunday morning. All in all, about 30 hours of creek time with the Mirage. I'll be using it again.
I had tried floro for trout fishing previously when it first became available quite a few years ago. It was stiff, brittle, hard to tie knots in, and sunk my flies. (I don't fish flies that sink very often, and never in summer!)
The Mirage performed fine with perfect dead-drifts in the smoothest of pools. It was not quite as supple as the mono, but supple enough for good drag-free drifts, even in criss-crossed current lines. Clinch knots cinched down securely with little effort. I did not notice any difference in keeping my fly up! [
] Flies stayed dry and were not pulled under on pick-up. What I did notice is that it is less affected by toothy fish (I caught some really nice cuttys!), and less affected by abrasion from grass caught on casts (inevitable on this creek). The tippet stayed smooth, and did not fray near as easily as regular Super Strong material. I seldom had to re-tie a fly, even after catching a fish or hanging up in the grass repeatedly. Tough stuff, but still supple.
Did I catch more fish than I would have with mono? Probably not. Did I get fewer refusals or more takes than I would have with mono? Probably not. I did not notice that the fish saw it as any less or more visible than mono. In this creek, they are fisherman-shy, shadow-shy, and fly-shy, not leader-shy. However, since it held up longer than the mono, I will still continue to fish with it for the remainder of the season to give it a fair test.
I was wrong in my earlier affirmations, and I liked the florocarbon tippet!
(Thanks for the motivation to re-try the "new" stuff FG!)
On a "fish" note, my sportscenter highlight was a 23 inch cutty that I cast to and played games with for about an hour and 45 minutes before he finally took my offering.
I would cast a few times, get refused or ignored with the best drift right on its nose that I could ever make. Then it would stop feeding for a few minutes. I'd cast again a few times, give it to the SOB perfect again, and it would stop feeding and re-position a few feet up or down stream. I'd have to then re-position, and start all over again. Back and forth we went, the fish feeding just an inch off of a very grassy bank across from me, on a stage of PMD I couldn't see or identify. Not easy-to-see duns I could see floating over it, that was for sure.
It just wasn't going to eat any of my mayfly imitations. I finally had to cheat and give it the ant, but I had taken enough of its crap and refusals on hatch-matching bugs, and we could clearly see each other the whole time. It ate the ant on the second cast, and went out if its way to do so. When I landed the fish, it had a down-wing #18 caddis and a very tiny PMD emerger of some sort in its mouth, each with a foot or so of tippet still attached. This fish had left a couple of other people cussing in the past few days, since the creek only opened to fishing August 1st. I won in the end, even if I couldn't match what it was eating! It won't be eating any more ants any time soon!
I got the fish I wanted, and two free flies!
This creek is one of those where rising a few good fish in a morning is victory. They're as spooky as trout come, and most feed within 2 inches of the bank. I caught fish over 20 inches on dries (mostly mayfly bugs in various stages!), from shallow clear water with little current, every morning and early afternoon. The weather and hatches were very favorable every day, making it a bit easier than normal. It was very flat water! I love that tough little creek and the big picky bastards that swim there.
[signature]
