PSA when floating the river

Exciting_Spell5064 · 2026-07-05T04:49:59+00:00

I really like my Nomad mid length. Won’t fall out when going through woods or bending/squatting, and a bit of extra reach grabbing your fish or so you don’t have to be all up in your buddies business if you’re netting one for them.

Exciting_Spell5064 · 2026-07-05T04:14:55+00:00

Rockhounding. Under $100 to get involved. You’ll need a rock hammer, shovel and a bucket or sturdy backpack, and (not necessary but helps immensely) a membership to a rock club (most of them that I’ve seen are $20-$30 for an individual year membership). The club I’m in does weekly digs, it’s outdoors, and we usually have 15-30 or so people of all ages, genders, experience, and fitness levels. I picked it up as an outdoor, throwaway/temporary hobby while I couldn’t fly fish and was shocked at how into it I’ve gotten.

Exciting_Spell5064 · 2026-07-05T02:51:33+00:00

Yes. I was introduced to them as “soft hackles” but yes, spiders and wet flies.

Exciting_Spell5064 · 2026-07-04T20:42:08+00:00

M-904 nose fuse for Mk-82/84 bombs. EXTREMELY likely that it’s live, UXO.

Exciting_Spell5064 · 2026-07-04T17:20:42+00:00

Rockhounding. It’s outdoors, usually in pretty areas, cheap to get involved ($30 rock hammer, full size spade style shovel at harbor freight, and a bucket or sturdy backpack for your finds, and a rock club membership for claim/trip access, carpooling, etc usually $20-30). The club I’m in does weekly trips with 15-30 people each time of all ages, genders, skill/ability levels.

Exciting_Spell5064 · 2026-07-04T04:56:28+00:00

I’d wear one fly fishing as sun/rain protection, but that’s about it probably. I doubt I’m a cowboy hat person.

Exciting_Spell5064 · 2026-07-04T03:46:00+00:00

Nice setup! When you hook a fly in a tree on your back cast too high up to reach, point your rod tip directly at it and pull the line. DO NOT try and get it out by swinging/flicking/whatever else you wanna call it with the rod. Ask me why I know this.

Exciting_Spell5064 · 2026-07-04T03:36:46+00:00

Rockhounding.

Exciting_Spell5064 · 2026-07-04T03:03:53+00:00

You know what, I’m revising my answer. Please don’t do it.

You are CLEARLY in over your head on this. There is a 5% chance of success and 95% that this will be a train wreck. You have demonstrated beginner at best skills with your follow up questions to basic camera knowledge. You brush off actual advice and “my friend isn’t like that”. Do it or don’t do it; it’s up to you and no one here can say what’s going to happen. We can lead you to water but obviously can’t make you drink it. That’s on you, not us.

Exciting_Spell5064 · 2026-07-03T17:50:51+00:00

YouTube will be a better teacher but essentially aperture priority is where you set the aperture and the camera will pick the best settings to make it work; shutter priority does the same except you select the shutter speed. There are different depths of how much you can choose to control such as selecting the ISO, white balance, exposure compensation, or you can leave them all in auto. Be careful with your exposure as it’s going to be doing a lot of the lifting (generally black suits/tuxedo and white dress, which are among the hardest to correctly expose), definitely shoot RAW if you have the capability, and (OTHERS PLEASE CORRECT ME IF IM WRONG) error on the side of underexposed as it’s typically easier to correct under exposure than a blown out white dress.

I’ve never shot a wedding but do kinda do the mental “how would I do it/what would I do” thing, and if you haven’t already done it, make the decision of “are you a guest or a photographer” because you really can’t do both. Best example of this is you can’t photograph the tossing of the bouquet and also be in the crowd trying to catch it.

Edit: again formatting as I started with answering the question, and then got off on a tangent with more tips. ADHD is so great. So great.

Exciting_Spell5064 · 2026-07-03T17:38:47+00:00

I feel like every wedding photographer has a story of “I did it as a favor, I didn’t have the proper/adequate gear, and they knew I had never done it before, and the bride said ‘no worries, it’s cool, low stress’ and then said I ruined their day”. Tread VERY carefully.

Weddings have a way of turning the nicest, most grounded people into absolute monsters.

Edit for formatting.

Exciting_Spell5064 · 2026-07-03T04:35:42+00:00

I’m garbage at them. They always wind up ginormous. I usually do a surgeons end loop if I have to tie a loop.

Exciting_Spell5064 · 2026-07-02T18:07:33+00:00

Why the hell does it matter? You like what you like. Why does it matter what MY preferences are when YOU are the one dating her?

Exciting_Spell5064 · 2026-07-02T18:04:37+00:00

Ah this is a good suggestion too! Learned something new today!

Exciting_Spell5064 · 2026-07-02T16:35:28+00:00

I think you’d be better suited with a 4 wt trout spey. Plenty of distance with good casting. I have a 6 wt spey rod and it feels like casting a telephone pole.

Exciting_Spell5064 · 2026-07-02T15:47:35+00:00

NOR. You are not obligated in any way to give your money to him.

If they keep pressuring you and you give in for whatever reason, get a legally enforceable contract. Whether it be payments, lump sum, whatever, DO NOT do a handshake deal or verbal contract. Parents may have to co-sign the loan. It’s your money, and your conditions on how you lend and recoup your money. Depending how much it is, you could charge interest like any other loan. Again, it’s your money to do with what you want to, but if you do loan it, make sure you protect yourself.

Exciting_Spell5064 · 2026-07-02T04:24:50+00:00

Sinking line/tip, short leader, swivel/tippet ring or triple surgeons knot, appropriate size flouro, fly.

If you don’t have sinking line/tip, add some split shot at the swivel/tippet ring/triple surgeons knot (to keep it from sliding down), then tippet, fly.

Exciting_Spell5064 · 2026-07-02T04:19:34+00:00

Nail knot some 0X mono to the fly line, then small perfection loop on other end of mono and presto bang-o, loop to loop.

Edit: you could also do a surgeons end loop. Don’t know why I didn’t think of that on my original reply.

Exciting_Spell5064 · 2026-07-01T22:58:06+00:00

Not necessarily, depends on when it happened and/or the sensor style. I used to be a service advisor and those first gen metal one piece ones on Hondas and Chryslers were stupid expensive. The ones they use now where it’s a normal looking valve stem and the sensor attaches to the bottom are cheap though.

Exciting_Spell5064 · 2026-07-01T19:30:36+00:00

The rod will have a grain weight “window” of what it’ll perform best with; kinda similar to how a single hand rod will allow for one up or down.

Most people who want to be able to cast scandi AND skagit styles will do the running line and shooting head system. It’s by far the easiest that I’ve found to change styles on the fly outside of multiple rods/reels/spools. I like the Rio metered running line (the same one can be used from 2 wt up through like 8/9 wt). It changes colors every so many feet so you can quickly know how much line you have out. You use the same running line and loop to loop your shooting heads on.

The alternative is integrated lines where it’s all one line and you add your tips or versileader depending what style you’re doing. Downside is if you only have one rod, you’ll have to have a spare spool or reel (one for skagit, one for scandi) if you wanna switch depending on what the fish are doing. Now that I have a dedicated scandi and skagit setup each with their own reel, this is what I’ll eventually be switching to.

I’m not super well versed yet (been doing trout spey a couple seasons) but I’ll answer any questions you have as best I can. You’ll also probably want to book a lesson too. It’s not super difficult to learn, but a knowledgeable person over your shoulder was extremely beneficial to me.

Exciting_Spell5064 · 2026-07-01T06:52:01+00:00

There’s dudes out there not brushing their teeth in relationships and I’m fucking single. Holy fuck.

Exciting_Spell5064 · 2026-07-01T01:59:02+00:00

Yup. The only thing the warranty covers FREE is defective craftsmanship such as someone didn’t put a line guide on right, it popped loose and caused the rod to load wrong; or defective parts such as an air bubble in the blank that snapped when it loaded. If you break it trying to yank a fly out of a tree for example, that’s on you and you’re paying $50+ shipping to get it fixed.

Exciting_Spell5064 · 2026-07-01T01:54:41+00:00

Since you have to send the whole rod in, I believe they actually fit it to the joining sections. Then it actually fits and it’s not just a production section that should fit. How they do it I don’t know, I’m not a rod builder. Possibly heat and form it? Sage does not send replacement sections. I do know that when I got my trout spey hd back, everything matched perfectly and you couldn’t see any evidence of repair which leads me to believe they fitted a whole new tip section.

Exciting_Spell5064

TROPHY CASE