DNA Flies

[clouser]

DNA was until very recently not available in this country, but now Austen Goldsmith sells it...he is the only one i know of in the UK.

www.uksaltwaterflies.com/

He is a nice chap who will answer any questions you may have.

If you've got a flyting vice, then have a go!

Dave

[JohnK]

That's pretty much it Fez, if you've got a vice and some hooks then you're off. Sky's the limit.

Incidentally, I've bought a lot of stuff from Austen at Uksaltwaterflies and he's top notch, highly recommend a browse through his site, just keep hold of your wallet

[kastonfly]

Fester

Your leader strength depends on the ground you are fishing if it is very clean ground and you are fishing with a floating line and buoyant fly, 6lb is probably OK. However I would step up to 10lb as the sea is a very hostile place for line and it is soon abraded and weakened. I would suggest a 6 to 9ft leader of 20lb mono and a 2 ft tippet of 10lb Fluorocarbon. When you move up to bigger flies and stiffer rods you may want to consider using tapered leaders to aid turn over.

NB I can echo the other folks Austen at Uksaltwaterflies is a top bloke.

[zulu]

Hey Fester,

I normally fish an eight weight rod off the beach, usually with a sink tip (ghost tip Cortland line) - a 60 “furled leader and about two feet of 8 lb mono. This set up works well for large and small flies. Off the Kayak I step down to a 6 weight rod with the same furled leader (slightly lighter) and 8 lb mono tippet. This type of set up has never let me down irrespective of where I have fished and over what ground.

www.furledleaders.co.uk/home.htm

Regards
Mike

[tobasco]

Fester,

Practise and more practise with the fly vice and you'll be churning out beauties in no time.
Regards leaders those furled leaders are the dogs doolies, but I (as a registered official skin flint) make my own leaders - Sigapore leaders. Takes about 15 minutes to make one mind, but I really like them. Basically take a length of mono (10 lbs- ish), join the two ends together, make a bit of a 'notch' in the line with your fingers/teeth, and start twisting the two sections of line betwen your thumbs i.e. making a small loop at the section that you made the 'notch' and twisting the line together to give it twice the bulk but making sure that you pull the twists (which obviously travel down the line) out of the ends of the line every now and again.
This may all sound a bit technical and clever - its not - it's just hard to explain in words.
Right then, once you've twisted your whole length of mono (I use about 14 -15 ft) you tie a knot(good old granny knot does me) to hold it all in place. Then you organise your already twisted piece of mono (now double the weight of the original) and start all aover again by making a new loop (via the twisting process).
Therefore prior to this stage you should have a nice neat piece of mono that has been twisted together to double the weight/strength. You then have to decide how you want the weight to be distributed; I personally use 2/3 rds of the doubely twisted section (the upper section) to 1/3 rds of the original. Once you've repeated the process (now having 4X of mono in your upper section and 2X in your lower) you tie another knot thereby having a tapered heavier to lighter leader with a loop at either end.
I do appreciate that this all sound very complicated, its so much easier to see it being done.
I havn't checked this post so please forgive any confusing details. I nearly gave up half way.
If all of the above is not decipherable, just go out and buy yourself a tapered leader or as Mike recommends a Furled leader (you want to try and make out the instructions for making one of those things - a proper head F**k).
I hope that you can follow the details above as it is not as complicated as it seems (or as my drunken rabble makes it seem).
If you can't manage it from the text, I'm sure that I'll probably bump into you sometime and I'll show in person (as so to speak).
Cheers for now
Steve