Titanium To The Rescue!

by Clyde Olson
(Savannah, GA)

Spent last week fishing the Trophy Section of the Ravensfork River in Cherokee, NC. The river can vary from 30-150' in width and flows last week were in the 250 cuftsec area.

Started off with my Shimotsuke(Starter Kit)3.6 rod, 10' of #4 FL line, 4'6X mono tippet and a #16 tungstenBH Pheasant Tail variant---and was being blown all over the place by about a 10-12 mph downstream wind. Well, I could have turned around and fished downstream, but this seemed like a good time to see what 9' of Titantium line would do---after all this has been the main reason for touting this line material.

Won't bore you with my trial and error adjustments, suffice it to say that I settled on this rig: 9'of titanium, 1'3X mono, 4' 6X mono, a #16 TuBH Pheasant tail variant, AND, AND a 1/2" white (to blend with the bubble line)Thingamabobber attched to the foot long piece of 3X. The rig punched through the downwind breeze as though it were non-existent; no problem not seeing (you can't!) the Ti line with the white indicator plainly visible at all times; no apparent problems with indicator-wind-resistance-induced casting. The Ti simply took the wind out of play! Caught several fish in the 14-16"(fat, stocked RBT) range. The Thingamabobber solved the visability problem with the Ti leader and also aided keeping the rig under control in the riffly, 1-4' of water being fished.

There actually was very little difference in the 'feel' of the Ti rig compared with the #4 FL leader I usually use with this rod---which is to say you could fish this rig (for this type of water) all the time, regardless of the wind conditions.

'What do you have in your (leader) wallet?'---it should include some Titanium!

“The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten” - Benjamin Franklin

"Be sure in casting, that your fly fall first into the water, for if the line fall first, it scares or frightens the fish..." -
Col. Robert Venables 1662

As age slows my pace, I will become more like the heron.