Out with the Boys

Andrew & David were up here for the first time and we made it up to the Catskills for some camping , fishing, hiking and a roaring blaze of a marshmallow melter. The weather was mint day highs were in the 70's and a low-mid 40's at night .

The rivers were so low that we really were not able to fish but practiced a few casts and even wet a line... At one point we walked over a 18" brown, a monster for the size of the water we were on. If we paid attention i think a hopper dropped on his head and he would have been ours. Next time...

Knot Sense

How strong can a knot be?

Generally 5 years for Nylon is beyond any manufacturer's (but not a cheep guys) limit for the life of nylon. It is true that you certainly don't want to loose a big fish over $3.20. But recently when trying to snap out the "old" 5 x tippet, after a day of fishing and catching 4 local native Brownies 7-9" each, i gave the tip a good jerk vs the slow playful stretch and it popped as it does. Only this time when i closely examined the fly i could not see the eye??? I thought perhaps the fly was unraveling and just covering it, but it was not???

When i looked in my other hand i found the tippet and the eye still attached

How strong can a knot be, when the metal fatigues before the nylon???