Will Always Be...

 I rigged up my TMF fly rod during a couple of days of fishing recently. It had been a while since I fished it. This rod likes a period correct reel, and I didn't lock just any old reel into its seat. Nope. A Winston Perfect 3 1/8" fly reel had the assigned duty.

I had an extra spool for this reel, sitting empty on the book shelf, so I spooled up a brand new Rio LightLine DT4F for some fun days under a monsoon sky. I've always found this fly line is a great fit with my TMF fly rod. And those two days on the home streams proved it to be so, again.

On my first cast I said to myself, "The Winston WT TMF will always be my favorite fly rod." It casts a line so smoothly! I tied on a Black Beetle dry fly, and the trout went for it both days, before storm clouds sent me packing, that is. The brown trout I landed were relentless fighters considering they were ten to twelve-inch Leetle Fellers. Yup, I was impressed with how strong they were, and it took conscious effort to keep them out of the undercut of the grass-filled banks.

Note: don't put too much relevance into that DT4F Rio LightLine I loaded onto the reel. It's not that I favor a DT over a WF line. A WF4F Rio LightLine works just as well on my TMF. Why? Because on these particular streams, I never cast beyond 40 feet, which keeps the two lines essentially the same in personality and performance.