Rigging up start to finish, on your own this time
Okay. This is the last lesson in the module and I've been looking forward to it and dreading it a little, because today I'm mostly just going to stand here with my hands in my pockets.
Here's the thing. Every lesson so far I've been rigging your rod, or half rigging it, or fixing it while you weren't looking so we could get to the good part faster. Today we're doing the whole thing, start to finish, and you're doing it. I'm going to say the steps out loud once, and then I'm going to be quiet, which for me is a real act of self control.
What "rigging up" actually means
Just so we're all using the same words. Rigging up is everything that happens before you make a single cast:
- Putting the reel on the rod
- Running the line up through the guides
- Tying on your leader if it's not already attached
- Tying on your tippet
- Tying on your fly
That's it. Five steps. It feels like more the first ten times you do it and then one day it's just a thing your hands know how to do, like tying your shoes.
Step by step, at home, no river required
You can do this whole lesson at your kitchen table. That's actually where I'd rather you practice it the first few times, because nobody's rushing you and you're not worried about your backcast catching your neighbor's hat.
1. Reel onto the rod. Line up the reel foot with the reel seat, slide it in, tighten the locking rings. Snug, not white-knuckle tight.
2. Line through the guides. This is the step people skip a guide on, every single time, myself included, and then wonder why the cast feels wrong. Go slow. Count the guides if you have to. I still count them.
3. Leader attached. Most of you have a leader already looped onto your fly line from a previous lesson. If not, loop to loop, and give it a tug to make sure it's seated.
4. Tippet tied on. Here's my opinion, and I'll say it plain because I believe it: the knot matters more than the cast. You can throw the prettiest loop in Utah County and if your knot's bad you lose the fish the second it decides to run. Clinch knot, the one we've drilled. Tie it slow. Wet it before you cinch it down, that's not superstition, it actually reduces friction and keeps the knot from weakening.
5. Fly on. Pick one you trust, we talked about a few of those a couple lessons back. Barbless, pinched down, always, no argument from me on that one.
Do the whole sequence twice. Then do it a third time with your eyes half closed just to prove to yourself your hands know it. They probably do.
The tangle will happen and that's fine
Somewhere in there your line is going to knot up on itself or the tippet's going to twist funny. That's allowed. We covered that a whole lesson ago and I meant it. Rigging up isn't a performance, it's just a task, and tasks go sideways sometimes.
That reminds me of my daughter Shaylee. She came out with me once, years back, whole afternoon on the Provo, and she never once made a cast. She spent the entire time tangling her line and calmly unTangling it again. I felt bad about it at the time, honestly, thought I'd wasted her whole Saturday. Then on the drive home she said it was the calmest she'd felt in weeks, work was slammed, school was slammed, and just sitting there working a knot loose with her fingers was the first quiet hour she'd had in a long time. That's when it really landed for me that this class, and honestly this whole hobby, isn't only about the fish. Sometimes the untangling is the point. If today all you do is rig up, mess it up, and rig up again, that counts as a good day.
A plain caution before you go do this alone
If you're practicing at home, fine, no water around, nothing to worry about beyond maybe stabbing yourself with a barbless hook trying to thread it (I've done worse, ask me about my ear sometime). But once you take this rig to the river on your own: watch your footing on the rocks, they're slicker than they look even when they look slick, and check your backcast before you send it, there's no version of hooking a stranger's hat that isn't embarrassing for everybody.
Before next time
Rig up a full rod at home at least twice before we meet again, start to finish, no shortcuts, and if you get stuck on a step, that's useful information, bring it and we'll sort it out together.