But most of the fish that most of us catch can be played and landed on a handful of sizes, so it’s worthwhile to have the right fly rod weight. It makes the fishing that much more fun.

It’s usually while dry-fly fishing or sight nymphing that one bears witness to these annoying recurrences. Getting refusals suggests the drift of the fly is good. Lightening up on tippet size is all ...

You may be able to fish a size-12 green drake tied to 3X on a big freestone river like the Roaring Fork, while you will need to size down to 5X when fishing that same fly on a tailwater like the ...