Backing?

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Alaric11	Backing?		Lead	[-]
Posts: 149 11/04/2009 09:27	Tags : None I have a sad admission to make---I've never gotten anywhere near my backing in the trout fishing (all I do for now) I do. Even with some of the larger trout I've caught (decent sized but not the behemoth recently shown in another thread) I don't see HOW I COULD get to the backing. I was trying to keep the fish from getting to cover or fast water. If I had let out enough slack to get to the backing the fish would have been three pools and 50 boulders away. SO---why do we need all of this backing?? Couldn't we get away with smaller sized (cheaper) reels with less backing? Or is there a line memory issue that backing on the reel helps with? Just curious if (1) anyone gets into the backing? (2) if there is some other reason for all that stuff? A, for me, "decent sized" Brown on the Nature Conservancy section of the McCloud in Northern California. I had to struggle to keep him from reaching cover which meant I never got near the backing.
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bobbeegee		#1	[url]	[-]
Posts: 3196 11/04/2009 10:36	Personally, I think there are several reasons to fill your reel with backing. Firstly, you need to fill the spool with backing and line to reduce line memory, as you suggested, and to facilitate a better ratio of line take-up. Secondly, if you do ever have a big trout run you into the backing you'll be most glad you have it. (I've only had one fish take me into the backing, a 25" brown on the Missouri.) A few other reasons........should help in reducing line tangle, better, and easier, to attach dacron to the spool than your fly line, and I suppose there could be some added weight consideration? And, in my opinion, a reel fully loaded with backing and line just looks better. Nice brown by the way! Bob Last Edited By: bobbeegee 11/04/2009 10:45. Edited 1 time.
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mer		#2	[url]	[-]
Posts: 3267 11/04/2009 11:06	If you want to get into your backing more often, use half lines. Take a standard 90foot DT, cut it in half. Put one half away for future use. Put the other half on the reel, use backing to make up the difference. 45 feet of line out of the tip, 10 feet of leader, 8 foot rod, 2 feet of arm gives you a 65 foot fishing distance. You get the benefits of lots more backing, it's easy to save the other half of the line for when you wear out this half, the chances that a fish takes you into the backing has increased, it is much easier to cast into the backing. Don't underestimate the value of the last two items when sitting around the woodstove at the end of the day. There is usually only a limited amount of damage that can be done by dull or stupid people. For creating a truly monumental disaster, you need people with high IQs.
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16 pmd		#3	[url]	[-]
Posts: 774 11/04/2009 18:09	I think the need for backing depends on where you fish. In places where pools are not so well defined that fish can just run without having to leave a pool and where the fish tend to run big, reaching the backing is not unusual. Places like the Missouri, Henry's Fork and certain lakes are like that. Also fish in shallow flats that don't have the alternative of diving deep or darting under a nearby bank tend to fight by running - sometimes into your backing. In my experience rainbows are streakers and more likely to take you into the backing than browns, which are more sluggers. Where you have to cast far to begin with, like in lakes, the fish doesn't have to run as far to make it into your backing - e.g. 30' at the end of a 60' cast. Finally, where light tippets, say 6X, are called for, you don't have the option of using a heavy drag or heavy hand to stop a running fish, so it may end up taking some backing. In general, the big waters of the West probably tend to have more places where backing comes into play. There, the need for backing isn't just a myth or a theory, it's real. I play fish hard, but had fish take me into the backing on the Henry's Fork, Missouri and Hebgen Lake this past summer, with the Missouri being the place where it was most common. Using backing to build up the arbor does make some sense, but so do large arbor reels or plain old string if you really have no need for more than 90' of line.
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adam trahan		#4	[url]	[-]
Posts: 222 11/06/2009 11:32	Alaric11 wrote: SO---why do we need all of this backing?? Couldn't we get away with smaller sized (cheaper) reels with less backing? Or is there a line memory issue that backing on the reel helps with? Just curious if (1) anyone gets into the backing? (2) if there is some other reason for all that stuff? -------------------- Uhh, I don't think you are kidding right? Loop reels and the large arbor movement stole our backing... 1) Yes. 2) The joy of fly fishing. I try to keep my backing on the reel at all times however, when the fish is winning, the backing comes into view. If you ever get a chance to talk with a salt water fly fisher worth his or her salt, backing becomes a design consideration for the system. The smarter fish will show you more backing but then again, there are some pretty dumb fish that will steal your fly line and your backing, wait, nevermind. grassart studio & smallstreams.com
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pmklein	3 times	#5	[url]	[-]
Posts: 6 11/06/2009 18:41	I have seen my backing trout fishing three times in 18 years. I landed two of those, the other one was on Henrys lake and it just kept running. I had about 3 turns (out of 100 yards) of backing left when he stopped in a weed bed. We motored over to him and he stayed there no matter what I did just shaking his head. That fish haunts me to this day. I would feel naked without backing on any water that a fish could actually run somewhere. I routinely fish small streams without backing.
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rlnunleycom	More than once!!!	#6	[url]	[-]
Posts: 569 11/07/2009 01:54	One of our revered forum members, also a good friend of mine, not only got into the backing, but watched the backing disappear, then was spooled, broke off and watched a $70 fly line and the backing take off up river... Lesson... when fishing the White in Arkansas for big browns, be sure that your backing has a higher rating than your leader!!! I've been into the backing a couple of times this year, and was once last year, but, like I said, that's fishing on the White River. Bob RL "Bob" Nunley, Rodmaker Ozark Rodmaking School
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canerodscom		#7	[url]	[-]
Posts: 2319 11/07/2009 09:39 Bamboo preacher	Thanks Bob, but most forum members don't fish places where trout are as big as your leg. :-) And that was 10 years ago, so the fly line probably only cost me $40. Taneycomo in Missouri is a section of the White River that is notorious for hard fighting, fast running fish. One morning I saw my backing 6-7 times on different 16-20 inch rainbows. Harry Harry Boyd maker@canerods.com My website canerods.com My blog -- canerods.blogspot.com Ozark Rod Makers School
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bulldog1935		#8	[url]	[-]
Posts: 7601 11/07/2009 10:18 Bulldog1935	this fish took me into the backing last year - it made a marvelous run it freshwater, stripers will take you deep into your backing, because they always run downriver first until you stop and turn them. Many fish will take you into the backing in the salt - around here, at lest, jacks, king mackerel and black drum the rods are never obsolete - the marketing is.
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PYochim		#9	[url]	[-]
Posts: 940 11/07/2009 10:41	I'll start this by saying that a fish can put up one helluva fight without getting close to the backing. I can only estimate 4-5 times into the backing, but two of those times were by this fish last year on the Bighorn. Last Edited By: PYochim 11/07/2009 10:51. Edited 1 time.
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mmorris236		#10	[url]	[-]
Posts: 345 11/09/2009 09:55	I have never had a trouttake me into the backing, and that includes a bunch of 8 to 10 pound rainbows on the Tongariro in New Zealand. I have had smallmouth rip into the backing and once what I suspect was a landlocked salmon ran into the backing and snapped off. The later was on the Quinipoxet in MA, a relatively small stream (20 feet wide) that empties into the Wachusett reservoir. There is controversy over whether there are any landlocks in the Quinny due to an impassable dam at its mouth and an old fishway that is often dry and whose entrance is 300 yards downstram from the dam. But that day I was fishing a small caddis on a nice deep run 2 miles up from the dam when a really large fish took. Turned out to be a 20 " or a little better landlock. Two casts later to the same run another take, I set the hook and the fish immediately took off straight upstream, through the rapids above the pool. He never even slowed, the reel was screaming, he went deep into the backing and then snapped the 5X tippet. One run and gone. Had I even thought to react I might have loosened the drag and chased him, but it happened in an instant. He literally ran through two pools before he broke off. I guess the lessson there is even on streams where you expect nothing larger than 12 or 14 " the backing may come into play. Smallmouths on lakes can run well, especially if you are on light tippet and in open rocky bottomed water. Largemouth tend to just bulldog. Saltwater is an entirely different subject altogether, a 20 pound Striper or a 10 pound chomper blue will strip you into the backing in a second. Little tuna as well, only faster. But then again the average size of a fish in salt is going to be several pounds, anything smaller is called bait.
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Flyfishbill		#11	[url]	[-]
Posts: 1090 11/10/2009 19:51	I've been in my backing a couple times - fishing for smallmouth on Lake Erie, but not because a fish was on (needed to get the sinking line to the bottom). We did catch smallmouh do this. The other time was fishing for Steelhead with a wollybugger on Elk Creek in Erie PA. I swung the fly in front of a fresh male and boom, he was taking off down stream so fast that he was in my backing in no time. I did loose him. But 99.9% of my fishing, I don't come close to my backing. FFBill Life is short, fish bamboo!
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