Revised 4wt Tackle for All-round
It was back in 2010 when I bought my first 4wt tackle, which was sort of missing link between 3wt for small river and 5/6wt for wetfly/lake fishing, thinking about carrying just one set up to cover stream/lake trout, bass & panfish, and ultra light saltwater fly fishing thinking about Izu Peninsula where you can do all of them in just one day. Outfit was built with a fly rod: TFO Jim Teeny 904-4 that is a 4wt rod built with 6wt butt strength with fighting butt (very rare back in 2010) with double-lock reel seat and with a fly reel: Nautilus FW5 which was supposed to give strong drag to stop the fish when 4wt rod doesn't do awfully much.
Since then this outfit and I met many fishes both small and proper. Random seaports in Izu Peninsula, jungle river in Okinawa, stock fisheries, etc etc.. In terms of recruiting new species into my project "100 Species on Fly Rod", it contributed to 8 new species from Tille Trevally in the hotel beach of Phuket to Poisonous Goby in the mangrove flat in Iriomote.
All relatively small fish who are shy to big flies, however, that is not always the case when strong fish doesn't care how small or light your fly rod is.
Rogue Wary Fish Love Small Flies
That common carp of 60cm size in River Tama who ate slowly falling size 14 hares ear nymph. This giant trevally of 40cm size in River Nakama who I didn't see until the last moment blasting through a school of seabreams snatching size 18 nano shrimp. At least in 4 other cases, unexpected size rogue fish came out of blue blasting through other fishes in his way and really took such tiny fly hard.
I had similar cases when I was using 6wt where 8wt is commonly used to see the similar result, so it is a fact that experienced fish, who for some reasons, go solo to find food blending in with background or inside a school of other fish go for the lowest hanging fruit while his relatively larger body to neighbor fish will give him absolute advantage: let small fishes find me food that's mine to claim. Much like old lion steal the kill by hyenas. Or concept of corporate politics...ah...let's not elaborate on that.
Less Distraction by Light Line
Another factor why wary rogue fish go for small flies are when fly line doesn't get in between your fly and the fish. Impact created by fly line doesn't necessarily spook the fish, but it can distract fish away for much smaller object - fly. The whole point about doing fly fishing is to present fly as life-like as possible. In this manner, eliminating unwanted factors is proven to improve the effectiveness of fly. And by the way, all my tippet are Seaguar fluoro carbon. Proven best line that doesn't easily break... but that doesn't mean the bend of hook can always hold against the strength of fish or fly reel you thought would do fine job cease to do so when going under special cases.
What Matters the Most in Braking Fish
Back to "that carp and this giant trevally". They both got away by ripping away the bend of hook or the knot at the eye of hook. But that has nothing to do with the strength of 4wt rod or tippet. As a matter of fact, I have landed much bigger fish using the exact same tippet only that I was using ready reel designed to survive the most important problem when strong drag is applied: heat.
In view of dynamics, the state change of molecular motion of high polymer is called laxation. When the temperature rises, on one hand, the thermal movement ability of moving units could be improved, and on the other hand, because of thermal expansion, the space between molecules is increased so the free volume within the high polymer becomes larger which speed up the molecular movement and shorten the duration for laxation. Long story short, if heat mounts fast in limited space of disc drag, it will lose a force of friction therefore drag cease to work in control originally intended when released.
I have experienced this in 10-12wt situation when both concealed disc drag and cork disc drag went out of control in the middle of reel fight against non-stopping fish: tuna. Same situation was demanding too much work for my Nautilus FW 5 whose concelaed drag over heating in the special situation. But I loved this reel so much for the durability and it's just so light weight. But attachment over 7 seasons came to an end when my son wanted better reel on his 4wt outfit. OK. So be it.
I was using Bauer McKenzie-SuperLite on my single-hand 3wt that provided amazing drag performance to hard fighting trout and salmon in lake. Cork disc brake is designed in a way to let go heat through ventilation slit cut away from the cork. Cork is naturally spongey material that let go heat through its holes when pressed against another side - which is also very well thought in Bauer McKenzie made of polymer stable against rising heat. Therefore, I recently made one improvement in my 4wt side kick: Bauer MXP. Let's see how this wheel spins with next good challenge.
What Line System Worked the Best
Being lazy or traveling leaving one fly line to go all day, I was using RIO MainStream Intermediate. Not punchy enough to turn over bass/saltwater flies, so I snipped off the entire tip section and use Airflo Polyleader to help turn over or self-knotted extended butt taper leader to kill the line speed to soften up presentation to minimize the splash.
In wavy reef and jetties, I use Type 2. In boat fishing using streamer, I use Type 6.
Now having bad right shoulder cannot do overhead cast on 4wt all day, I'm thinking of getting rid of all these lines and change the system to OPST Skagit Commando Head (after seeing how things go with 6wt),
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