Level Line?

[bigjohn58]

I just watched Joe Humphreys video A Casting Approach to Nymphing Tactics for like the 100th time. He mentions "level line" several times instead of using a conventional WF or DT line. What does he mean by a level line?

 

[FrequentTyer]

I had the same question a while back: Here
From what I could gather, he is using a flat mono as a very long extension to the flyline. Basically a very long leader butt. It does not look like you can buy the stuff anymore.

 

[bigjohn58]

Thanks for the quick reply...so I wonder if just using a longer heavy section of mono would accomplish about the same thing?

 

[pcray1231]

I don't use a level line, but I do use a level leader for deep nymphing and find that it helps a lot. From the butt, I attach 2x or 3x and run about 7 ft of that. Then a blood knot attaches about a 2 ft piece of 4x or 5x to the point fly. If I have a dropper, it goes off the blood knot tag end on the 2/3x.

Harder to cast, you have to open up the stroke and do more of a "lob".

But the fly sinks better because it cuts water better. And more importantly, you can keep a tighter line when high sticking. The reason is the more constant diameter, and thus more constant drag factor throughout the leader.

 

[tobewan77]

Basically a fly line with no taper. It's an old school thing, they were much cheaper lines and if you didn't cast long distances it worked well. Much like a DT line you could also turn them around because it was even throughout.

A quick search on google's shopping engine shows this:
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=level+fly+line&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=11215543019103959756&sa=X&ei=qUyET_XrNsHL0QH298C3Bw&ved=0CF4Q8wIwAQ

 

[bigjohn58]

I'm half tempted to try a longer leader off my fly line with a loop in it to connect different lines. I believe George Daniels does this to make quicker fly switches for certain conditions.

 

[tobewan77]

guys did that with snelled wet flies a lot as well.

http://donbastianwetflies.wordpress.com/2011/12/31/wet-fly-frame-snelled-flies-on-antique-hooks/

 

[dano]

I watched him fish once where it looked as if he was using a thin running line and doing the chuck-n-duck method to get the fly out.
I didn't stop to ask him what (the hell) he was doing.
Part of my love for fly fishing has to do with the cast. His casting/fishing approach may be effective, but not for me. The guy sure can catch fish. I'll give him that.

 

[FrequentTyer]

dano wrote:
I watched him fish once where it looked as if he was using a thin running line and doing the chuck-n-duck method to get the fly out.
I didn't stop to ask him what (the hell) he was doing.
Part of my love for fly fishing has to do with the cast. His casting/fishing approach may be effective, but not for me. The guy sure can catch fish. I'll give him that.

I think his casting/fishing approach can be summed up as get the fly to the fish with a natural presentation under the circumstance that you are fishing. His level line approach looks a lot like an early form of euronymphing to me. It would not be my first approach, but it never hurts to have another arrow in your quiver.

 

[bigjohn58]

I used his technique when fishing at the top of some swift deep riffles on Saturday. Lots of weight...pushed my flies right to the bottom at the very beginning of the riffles where it was deep and I was successful with picking up 2 nice browns. Both right up in the swifter deep water at the beginning of the riffle where I know my usual tastics wouldn't have gotten my nymphs down quick enough. I am giong to try to use it more often in certain areas. My biggest problem was keeping the split shots from sliding down to my bottom nymph.

 

[lestrout]

I sometimes use running lines, which are level and in the 1-4 weights, depending on diameter. You do have to play around to adjust the leader butt to get a good rollout. When ffishing short lines, I wear out the first few feet, but you can snip the end off and have an almost fresh line end. I have several lines I figure I can put a few thousand hours on, vs. several hundred on a regular tapered line.

The running portion of WF lines can function the same way.

tl
les

 

[shakey]

i use level lines all the time.i only use a WF or DT when i have to,as in the case of extreme distance or extremely delicate presentation.level lines roll cast much better ,i love them.

i often get level lines for about six dollars.

i also use straight mono for leaders often.

 

[spod]

Hello from Australia,

I traded some Australian pattern flies for a couple of L6F lines from a fly fisher in the USA as I wanted to give them a try. Cant buy level fly lines in this country. So far, I've been pretty happy with them. I've put one on my Southbend automatic reel with about 10 yards of backing--more than enough for trout fishing in small creeks and ponds, where I usually fish. I like the level lines alot. For short casts the level line loads the rod quicker and I can belt out a decent long cast with only a couple of false casts when I'm pond fishing. Even using a level leader with it, well, about 6ft of 8lb mono and 2 to 3ft of 3or4lb tippet. I'm not chucking out my DT andWF lines but the level lines will get used pretty often.

Cheers,
Steve.