Podcast — Ep. 5: Fly Fishing the Mono Rig — Versatility and the Tight Line Advantage Taken Further

by | Oct 19, 2021 | 10 comments

 The Troutbitten Podcast, Episode 5 is now available everywhere that you find and listen to your podcasts.

** Note **  The Podcast Player and links to your favorite providers appear below

After hundreds of Troutbitten articles featuring the versatility of the Mono Rig, now there’s a podcast. My friends Josh, Austin, Trevor and Bill join me to discuss how each of us fishes this hybrid rig as a complete fly fishing system, detailing the ultimate flexibility of this amazing tool.

The Troutbitten Mono Rig is a hybrid system for fishing all types of flies: nymphs (both tight line and indicator styles), streamers, dry-dropper, wets, and small dry flies. With twenty pound monofilament as a fly line substitute, better contact, control and strike detection are gained with the Mono Rig versus a traditional fly line approach. And yet, the casting here is still a fly line style cast. Ironically, it takes excellent fly casting skills to efficiently throw a Mono Rig.

The Mono Rig is similar to tight line and Euro Nymphing styles, however . . . it’s a full system for fishing all fly types, with and without indicators — with and without split shot. The Mono Rig is a very versatile tool. And that’s the focus of this podcast. We all fish similar mono rigs with some variation. And we all use it in different ways, too. Some are slight. Some are major. This discussion provides a full picture of what the Mono Rig really is and what you can do with it — all the options — and all the versatility.

We Discuss the Following:

  • Mono Rig Butt Sections and Diameters
  • Tight Line Nymphing
  • Euro Nymphing
  • Tight Line to the Indicator
  • Tight Line Dry Dropper
  • Streamers on the Mono Rig
  • Dry Flies on a Mono Rig
  • Fly Rod Selection for the Mono Rig
Resources

READ: Troutbitten | Category | The Mono Rig
READ: Troutbitten | Design and Function of the Troutbitten Standard Mono Rig
READ: Troutbitten | The Mono Rig and Why Fly Line Sucks
READ: Troutbitten | The Full Mono Rig System — All the variations, with formulas and adjustments
READ: Troutbitten | Euro Nymphing and the Mono Rig
READ: Troutbitten | Beyond Euro Nymphing

Listen with the player above, or . . .

Find the Troutbitten podcast on any of these services:

— Apple Podcasts
— Spotify
— Google Podcasts
— Amazon Music
— iHeartRadio
— Stitcher
— Pocketcast
— Podcast Addict
— Castro
— Podchaser
— Deezer
— Castbox
— Podfriend
— Player FM
— Podcast Index
— Listen Notes
— Overcast

Also, find the dedicated Troutbitten Podcast page at . . .

podcast.troutbitten.com

Thank You!

The Troutbitten Podcast continues to grow quickly. I sincerely appreciate the support. Your downloads, subscriptions to the podcast and five star reviews are the key metrics in the podcast world. These kinds of stats help garner financial support from the industry and keep these podcasts coming. So thank you for being part of it all.

Fish hard, friends.

 

** Donate ** If you enjoy this podcast, please consider a donation. Your support is what keeps this Troutbitten project funded. Scroll below to find the Donate Button. And thank you.

 

Enjoy the day.
Domenick Swentosky
T R O U T B I T T E N
domenick@troutbitten.com

 

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Domenick Swentosky

Central Pennsylvania

Hi. I’m a father of two young boys, a husband, author, fly fishing guide and a musician. I fish for wild brown trout in the cool limestone waters of Central Pennsylvania year round. This is my home, and I love it. Friends. Family. And the river.

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10 Comments

  1. Absolutely fantastic podcast. Great refresher and great to hear different techniques and approaches from everyone. I found it interesting how each of you took a different approach with tippet size. Also, it made me realize that I’ve been tight lining dry flies for years and didn’t realize it. Lol. My fishing mentor always emphasized to me about “less line on the water the better.” I plan on listening to this one again. John

    Reply
    • For sure, John.

      Nothing all that new about tight line concepts. I think the sighter is the biggest addition to the game.

      Dom

      Reply
  2. Great podcast I enjoyed it

    Reply
  3. G’Day Dom and Friends,
    I enjoyed your podcast very much. Hearing the different techniques and approaches shows how versatile the mono-rig is.
    I’ve been experimenting with a number of reels loaded with standard fly line, long Euro leader and the mono rig, just to see how they compare. The mono rig wins hands down. Extremely versatile and , as many of you said, the rig needs very little tweeking to fish different styles.
    I’m not chucking out my standard fly lines but for most of my creek and small river fishing, the mono-rig does everything I ask of it.
    Cheers,
    Steve.

    Reply
    • Nice. Glad you’re having fun out there. I love testing stuff too. It’s much better than taking anyone else’s opinion as gospel. Finding what you like best and meets your goals is the key.

      Cheers.
      Dom

      Reply
  4. This is a superior podcast. Period.

    It does raise a question, at least for me: if you were just going to nymph (i.e., you were not going to use a streamer or dry fly), what rig/tackle would you choose?

    Reply
    • Hi Alex,

      Thanks for the compliment. Superior is pretty good! Ha. Cheers.

      Regarding your question:

      The simple answer is that I would (and do) choose the Standard rig most often, because it provides the power for more efficiently fishing suspenders (indys and dry dropper) than a thinner option. And I fish a suspender about 40 percent of the time out there. It also gives me tuck casting options in a much wider range. That’s a huge factor for me. Even if I knew that all I would do is tight line nymph, the answer is still nuanced. How heavy am I fishing? How close can I get? Do I have room to water load? (I despise water loading, by the way.)

      I’m aware that the trend is to go longer and lighter these days. I simply don’t agree that it’s the best option for most anglers who are not under competition rules and who also want to be versatile. Here’s the thing, too — I fish thinner leaders a lot. I have for a long time, just to test and understand the options. And I almost never have a day where I walk away saying, “hey going thinner on that leader changed things and got me into more fish.”

      I’m glad that the Mono Rig tactics have come so far that a 5 lb butt section is widely accepted. But Standard, French or “old school” leaders are largely misunderstood now. Most anglers don’t cast to use the power in these leaders — or the versatility. But that’s where I try to help with many of the articles here and now the podcasts. Knowledge is everything.

      Thanks, Alex.

      Dom

      Reply
  5. Thanks to Dom and this stellar crew of rigging nerds! Going to listen to this one more than once as it is so informative and dense with ideas. Love the round robin concept. Feels like the crew has really settled in.

    Reply

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Domenick Swentosky

Central Pennsylvania

Hi. I’m a father of two young boys, a husband, author, fly fishing guide and a musician. I fish for wild brown trout in the cool limestone waters of Central Pennsylvania year round. This is my home, and I love it. Friends. Family. And the river.

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