The captain’s day off. Striper pulled out of the weeds on Long Island Sound flats near Greenport, NY. Photo courtesy of Capt. Andrew Derr.
Weed guards ‘don’t get no respect’
By Skip Clement
With weed guards, the fly sometimes will dictate which one to use, and you’ll learn there are several ways to tie a particular in the hook, and that there are different weed guards – lots of them. There are weed guards for saltwater flies in 1/0 and up range of that in with wire as a choice. There are also different specs within the boundaries of one each material – monofilament and all of its different chemistry and diameters, fluorocarbon and it’s options, and wire.
So, after combing YouTube, having Googled “weed guards,” I had to watch an hour’s worth of Freedom of Video-ing [it’s in the Bill of Rights according to some politicians], and it was sometimes painful to watch.
There’s an Ancient 21st Century Chinese Saying, “One Video is Worth a 1,000 Words” — Jumbo Fong, San Francisco, CA
Some videos show guys using video equipment borrowed from The Smithsonian. Viewers get to watch a Charlie Chaplin-like character get run over by automobiles while doing something on a table with feathers, and as you listen to audio crackling it’s like those heard in black and white WWII movies.
In a particular scene, a hero reports bombing coordinates from France to headquarters in London while guiding the village idiot, or Nazi having the rank of SS-Staffelführer who gets pushed into the water by a small herd of Resistance cows and dies.
Most of those videos seem to have evolved from an angler’s basement where small children and pets make in and out ghost appearances and stare at the videographer as if a looney relative come months too early for Thanksgiving.
To lessen your pain, and increase your enjoyment and learning, I’ve selected a few better videos for you that deliver new ways to tie in weed guards using the various materials along with some, possible, new techniques.
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Featured Image: Catching a St. Paul’s trophy Atlantic salmon on the famed Miramichi River in Canada. Photo credit by Fly Life Magazine.com Contributor, Brooks Paternott.
Copy the URL and repaste to open in YouTube. Use fast forward to avoid the BS.
[https://youtu.be/WOBWUrPs57E]
[https://youtu.be/2dtj4zLvfig]
[https://youtu.be/PRYW1rIgUrA]
[https://youtu.be/E2g6v7q1cd8]
