LE VIEUX MOUCHEUR 

4 - The fly line

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FLY-FISHING FOR PIKE  by Paul Le Gall, translated by Claude BELLOIR

4 - THE FLY LINE. 

A suitable fly fine should be able to cast the bulky pike flies efficiently but also to make them fish at the right depth. 

One could be at a loss when choosing such a line. And few tackle dealers, if any, are sufficiently aware of this type of fishing to advise the would-be buyer properly. I think I have tested just about every type of fly line: DT, WF, BBT, floating, intermediate, floating with sink tip, slow-sinking, fast-sinking, shooting heads, lead core, etc... I must have acquired many lines, just as useless as they were expensive, before realizing that sophistication and touching up weren't suitable. ln fact, practice proves that the fishing could almost always be done with only one line and that all requirements were covered with two, or at the most three types of WF lines.

The first one (Teeny T 400 mini tip), 25-metre long, has a brown 1.1/5 metre sink tip prolonged by a yellow floating line. I use it 95% of the time. The second one ( Wet Cel WF 10/S4), a grey 25-metre long line is what's known as a fast sinker. And the third one (Cortland 444 SL Pike WF 10 F) is a red markedly weight-forward and long floater (32 metres). With such an array, all needs can be suitably covered. 

The important thing is for the fly to reach quickly the right distance and depth. Nothing is more annoying than to have to wait patiently until a lure, cast out on a slow-sinking line and dropped precisely in a tiny spot between rushes lining the bank, goes down without deviating away to open water. ln that case, one almost always tends to retrieve the lure too early and so, when reaching the proper depth, it is too far from the pike to entice it to leave its holding place if it isn't in a taking mood.

The association of a sink-tip floating line, leader and lures (of which more later)  allows the ­angler to sink the lure right in front of bulrushes or down a sheer drop or again at the foot of a clump of water lilies. It also allows fishing at all depths according to how fast one retrieves the line. Finally it allows lifting off the line from far away if necessary or, on the contrary, stripping it in right down to the angler's feet. 

The fast sinker is the easiest to cast out. As it is thinner, it allows long shoots, sinking the lure along cracks in the bottom, combing pools or again inching the lure at the proper depth among clumps of weeds in open water. Before discovering the Teeny line, this used to be my most useful line. 

The above floater, specially designed for pike, is really worth fishing only with a fIoating lure in very shallow water or on a carpet of water lilies.

To summarise, it’s quite possible to make do with only one line: the Teeny. An S4 fast sinker and/or a floater on a spare spool or another rod represents an interesting, but not essential asset. We’ll see further how to attach them to the backing and the leader.

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