fishing with flies!

[bulldog]

I ditched the spin rod last year and purchased a pfluger 8wt fly rod and okuma 7/8 reel last year. I must admit that before i started reading all the great info on the board i was a lifter, simply because that is what i was taught by my dad and his friend. my first trip up to sr was the last year of snagging. basically i didn't know any better because it was always said to me the salmon won't bite. my question is do you have to have fly line on to fish fly's or not. my reel has 12 lb t line on now. i would really like to learn the presentation and acctually fish for the salmon. any info would be great.

[flyguy]

You need fly line to make a fly cast...but not to fish with flies.

[metalslayer]

You don't need fly line to fish flies.You don't need a ton of weight to get a drift either.I do foul hook fish on occasion but rarely hook one on the underside due to the weight I put(or don't) on;)

[JStreamside]

Dog...Slayer is right on the money, you don't need fly line to fish flies on the SR and sometimes it's better to do the mono thing when you're fishing in tight quarters.

As for fly lines, the several options are straight level running line for chuck & duck, a sink-tip and traditional weight forward sinking or floating. I prefer the running line over mono as my hands don't get "chewed-up" like they did when I ran mono a long time ago. It shoots / roll casts smoothly with very little weight.

The other lines I prefer are fast sink-tips...we use those made by Jim Teeny and have had great results this year with his mini-tip series in the 7 to 9 weight range. There is a heavier version of this line called Chuck-n-Duck which will eliminate the use of almost all (if not all) split shot on the line, but can be a bit tough to use in slower water due to the extreme sink rate.

If you want more info on the use of the sink-tip or running line from a beginner's perspective, get in touch with TOPGUN or Salmonfan as I've been working with them recently and have had good results. Hope this helps.