FF on the cheap (TR, first part)

I'm in Jolly old England again, ready to finish my Master's program and
back among my classmates of the past two summers. Since I'm travelling
without SWMBO for the summer, I decided to finally do it the old
fashioned way, and travel as lightly as I always insist that we should.
Which means one suitcase, carry on, no check in luggage, no extra stuff
hanging off me in the airport. Which also meant that all my computer
gear displaced all my fishing gear, which normally would be a
horrendous thing, but since this is year 3 of a tech program, and in
previous years I never had a chance to use that gear during the
program, I figured it would be the same this year too.

Wrong. Turns out that the instructor this year is another avid fly
fisherman, and unfortunately he only brought one set of gear for
himself. Since I know the local spots, and he has the car, we decided
that I should get myself outfitted and we could make the most of the
next two weekends (this weekend is already booked for other things for
both of us).

So I got to try something I have always wondered about. I went to the
local gear shop, and since they don't rent out ff gear, I decided to
purchase the _absolute cheapest_ set of 4 or 5 wt gear they had. I'll
only use it 3 or 4 times, and I already have all the gear in that
rating that I want so upgrading was not an option. So I just looked at
rock bottom stuff, and set myself up. Here's what I got.

Rod: Shakespeare Odyssey 4/5 wt, 2.10 meter rod. It feels like a medium
action rod, comes with a slip case. 22GBP (the exchange rate is 1.8GBP
per $US).

Reel: Fladen Basis 089. Although its actually for an 8/9 wt rod, it was
the cheapest one in the store. Its no bigger than my other 5wt reels,
and is some el cheapo Korean stamped tin thing. However, it has a nicer
drag setup than my expensive South African reels, but when I'm
stripping line, it has a tiny wobble from being offbalanced, but what
do you expect for 10GBP?

Backing: I don't have the box it came in, but its just some bottom of
the line backing. 1.50 GBP

Line: Worcestershire Hi-Vis yellow DTWF 5wt. 14GBP

Leader: two Cortland 333+ 9ft 6x tapered leaders. 2.25 GBP each.

Tippet: There was just no way to buy a small enough amount of tippet
for my uses, so I had to go overkill and get two regular spools in two
sizes. However, in Britian, they do not use the x-system, so I had to
guess what the rating was of these from their breaking strengths. The
only conversion table I could find in the shop gave the X rating based
in the diameters in inches, but the spools were measured in mm. If
anyone can tell me what these roughly convert to, I'd appreciate it. As
it was, I got the smallest one in the store, and another that was about
two steps up the size chart.

--1 spool (100 m) Bayer Perlon 4.4 lb test mono, 0.20mm diameter. 2.95
GBP.
--1 spool (100 m) Shakespeare Omni 2.5 lb test mono, 0.15mm diameter.
1.99 GBP.

Flies: this was the tricky part. I considered doing the 'one fly only'
routine, but figure that if I snagged a tree, all the other expenses
were a waste. I also considered that I did not know what was hatching,
or if I would be fishing on the top or down beneath. Lastly, I realized
that of all the stuff I was buying, the flies were something I'd want
to keep and add to my stash, so I splurged a bit here. I went for three
nymphs, three streamers, and three dries, with a few variations. I got
two of each fly, to cover the size range. A fascinating question would
be to ask what someone else would have done in this situation: if you
had to buy 'as few flies as possible' to cover three or four outings in
various conditions (small stream, stocked pond, natural lake, coastal
casting), what flies would you get and in what sizes?

I got the following:
#8 and #10 Black Wolly Bugger
#8 and #10 Olive Wolly Bugger
#10 and #12 beadhead dragonfly nymph
#8 and #10 natural Muddler minnow
#12 and #14 Copper John
#12 and #14 PT (brown tail)
#14 and #16 PT (black tail)
#12 and #14 Yellow Sulfur
#14 and #16 PT brown hackle dry
#14 and #16 Adams
#14 and #16 Turkey sedge.
two #8 SeaTrout specials

Strange that they didn't stock some that I really would have preferred,
like a couple of EHCs or a parachute adams, but I find that local fly
shops often have an eclectic mix of flies on hand.

Total for the flies (this was the biggie): 18 GBP.

The total for the entire setup was 75 GBP ($136 US), which is not bad
if you consider that it is everything you need, from scratch. Of
course, there are a dozen other things I should have considered, like
floatant, nippers, a drying patch, strike indicator, etc. But the idea
was to get equipped with the core basics as cheaply as possible, and
now I can finally test myself with that old adage that its not the
quality of the gear that catches the fish. I tried drycasting and am
suprised to report that this setup seems to cast as well as my
expensive stuff at home. I'll see how it performs on the water.

More later, after I go fishing next weekend.

--riverman

riverman wrote:



Tippet: There was just no way to buy a small enough amount of tippet
for my uses, so I had to go overkill and get two regular spools in two
sizes. However, in Britian, they do not use the x-system, so I had to
guess what the rating was of these from their breaking strengths. The
only conversion table I could find in the shop gave the X rating based
in the diameters in inches, but the spools were measured in mm. If
anyone can tell me what these roughly convert to, I'd appreciate it. As
it was, I got the smallest one in the store, and another that was about
two steps up the size chart.

--1 spool (100 m) Bayer Perlon 4.4 lb test mono, 0.20mm diameter. 2.95
GBP.
--1 spool (100 m) Shakespeare Omni 2.5 lb test mono, 0.15mm diameter.
1.99 GBP.

Converts to 3X/4X and 5X/6X Should work well for you.



Flies: this was the tricky part. I considered doing the 'one fly only'
routine, but figure that if I snagged a tree, all the other expenses
were a waste. I also considered that I did not know what was hatching,
or if I would be fishing on the top or down beneath. Lastly, I realized
that of all the stuff I was buying, the flies were something I'd want
to keep and add to my stash, so I splurged a bit here. I went for three
nymphs, three streamers, and three dries, with a few variations. I got
two of each fly, to cover the size range. A fascinating question would
be to ask what someone else would have done in this situation: if you
had to buy 'as few flies as possible' to cover three or four outings in
various conditions (small stream, stocked pond, natural lake, coastal
casting), what flies would you get and in what sizes?

I got the following:
#8 and #10 Black Wolly Bugger
#8 and #10 Olive Wolly Bugger
#10 and #12 beadhead dragonfly nymph
#8 and #10 natural Muddler minnow
#12 and #14 Copper John
#12 and #14 PT (brown tail)
#14 and #16 PT (black tail)
#12 and #14 Yellow Sulfur
#14 and #16 PT brown hackle dry
#14 and #16 Adams
#14 and #16 Turkey sedge.
two #8 SeaTrout specials

Good choices. I would have added (if they had them) GRHE nymph in sizes
14 and 16, and some kind of caddis larva like a green rock worm.

Good luck, and be sure to send a TR.