Fishing Articles
6 money saving tips for fly-fishers
Unless your pockets are very deep, fly fishing in the UK means visiting the many excellent 'put and take' facilities that are available around the country. These are usually lakes and reservoirs run specifically to attract fishermen by offering first rate facilities and stocking the water with quality farmed fish. The lucky few able to afford the Hampshire chalk streams - as Thelwell put it 'where the water is a clear as gin and twice as expensive' - or a Scottish beat, fish for 'real' fish - wild salmon, sea trout and brown trout.
Thus the UK fly fisher will be happy to save a few bob here and there if it means he can afford the ticket and the travel to a superior local fishery. This article aims to help him on his cost-saving way.
1) DIY sinkant/degreaser - whether impregnated with tungsten or some other magical element to help them sink, sinkant/degreasers can be quite expensive to buy. You can make your own by mixing fullers earth with glycerine both available really cheaply from your local chemists in quantities which will make enough degreaser to last you a lifetime. They are totally 'green' products - odourless, tasteless and 100% biodegradable and, more importantly work really well. Mix sufficient glycerine into the fullers earth to make a thick paste and use on the nylon leader and tippet to make the fly sink. I keep mine in an old plastic film can so it can easily be carried in a vest pocket.
2) Line cleaner - maintenance of the fly-lines is paramount to casting efficiency and life of your fly-lines. You may think that the water where you've just been fishing is perfectly clean, but run the line through a clean white cloth and you will be surprised how much dirt comes off it. By a pack of interior wipes from your local auto store and run the fly-line through it. Not only are they very effective cleaners, but they contain silicon which helps the line runs smoothly through the rod rings and therefore improves your casting distance and helps your expensive-fly line last longer. One pack is very cheap to buy and will last you all season - you can even use them to clean the car!
3) Strike indicators - modern fluorescent orange and lurid 'flo green' fly-lines make the best indicators of a taking fish, but if your fly-line is white, grey, natural or buff, you might like to add a bit of colour to the tip of the fly-line to help you hit those gentle takes. The insulation from 1mm electrical cable - either the live (a nice bright red) or the earth (yellow/green stripes) can provide a 10mm length of insulation that can be slipped over the end of the fly-line and stays where it is by friction alone. It won't alter the buoyancy of the fly-line and passes easily through the rod rings and can be seen for miles. You'll never miss another take again.
4) Fish local - an obvious one really. My car sips diesel at an alarming rate even though it's considered one of the more economical. A tank of diesel costs about £70 ($110) and takes me about 400 miles. So the less miles you have to do to get to a decent water the better. If you want to venture further afield, consider taking a fishing buddy so that you can share the fuel cost. Better still go with 4 friends and split the cost between you all.
5) Avoid tackle shops - an enormous proportion of the items on the fishing market are designed to catch - catch anglers that is not fish. Magazines are full of tests about the amazing new gizmos and gadgets that are designed to help you catch more fish - don't believe them they don't work - if they did you would be using one already. Once inside a tackle shop I just cannot help myself lusting over the shiny reels and the new fangled rods made from compound X - it's an illness - avoid tackle shops at all costs.
6) Learn to cast better - this tip should really be entitled 'Learn to cast more accurately and stop losing flies to the tree gods'. I have lost count of the number of flies that have caught in trees on the back cast and snapped the tippet. We help trim the trees at my local water in the winter and we never come across these lost flies. What happens to them, where do they go? Nobody knows. So best avoid snagging the trees in the first place. Master the Roll cast (no back cast at all) and the Steeple cast (where the back cast goes vertically up behind you) and, for really thick vegetation the Bow and Arrow cast and you'll lose far less flies to the tree gods.
