Rigging up start to finish, on your own this time
This is the final lesson in the module, and I have anticipated it with equal parts eagerness and reluctance, because today my role is mostly to stand aside. Up to now I have rigged your rod, or half-rigged it, or quietly corrected it while you weren't looking so we could reach the interesting part sooner. Today you complete the entire procedure yourself, start to finish. I will state the steps aloud once, and then I will be silent, which for me requires genuine discipline.
What "rigging up" actually means
So that we share the same vocabulary: rigging up comprises everything that precedes your first cast:
- Mounting the reel on the rod
- Running the line up through the guides
- Tying on the leader, if it is not already attached
- Tying on the tippet
- Tying on the fly
Five steps in total. The first ten repetitions feel like more, and then one day the sequence becomes something your hands execute automatically, like tying your shoes.
Step by step, at home, no river required
This entire lesson can be completed at your kitchen table, and that is in fact where I would prefer you practice it initially. No one is rushing you, and there is no risk of your backcast catching a neighbor's hat.
1. Reel onto the rod. Align the reel foot with the reel seat, slide it in, and tighten the locking rings. Snug, not white-knuckle tight.
2. Line through the guides. This is the step people most often shortchange by skipping a guide, myself included, and then the cast feels wrong for no apparent reason. Proceed slowly. Count the guides if necessary. I still count them.
3. Leader attached. Most of you already have a leader looped onto your fly line from a previous lesson. If not, join loop to loop and give it a tug to confirm it is seated.
4. Tippet tied on. Here is a claim I will state plainly, because I hold it firmly: the knot matters more than the cast. You can throw the finest loop in Utah County, but a poor knot loses the fish the instant it decides to run. Use the clinch knot we have drilled. Tie it slowly. Wet it before you cinch it down; this is not superstition. Moisture reduces friction and prevents the knot from weakening.
5. Fly on. Select one you trust, from the few we discussed a couple of lessons back. Barbless, pinched down, always, without exception.
Run the full sequence twice. Then run it a third time with your eyes half closed, to demonstrate to yourself that your hands have learned it. They very likely have.
The tangle will happen, and that is acceptable
At some point the line will knot on itself, or the tippet will twist oddly. That is permitted. We addressed it a full lesson ago, and I meant it. Rigging up is not a performance; it is a task, and tasks occasionally go sideways.
This reminds me of my daughter Shaylee. She came out with me once, years ago, a whole afternoon on the Provo, and she never made a single cast. She spent the entire time tangling her line and calmly untangling it again. At the time I felt I had wasted her Saturday. Then on the drive home she said it was the calmest she had felt in weeks; work and school had both been overwhelming, and simply sitting there working a knot loose with her fingers was the first quiet hour she had had in a long while. That was when it registered for me that this class, and this hobby generally, is not only about the fish. Sometimes the untangling is the point. If today you rig up, make a mess of it, and rig up again, that counts as a good day.
A plain caution before you do this alone
Practicing at home is low-risk: no water, and little to worry about beyond possibly stabbing yourself with a barbless hook while threading it (I have done worse; ask me about my ear sometime). But once you take this rig to the river on your own, two hazards demand attention. First, watch your footing on the rocks; they are slicker than they appear, even when they already appear slick. Second, check your backcast before you send it, because no version of hooking a stranger's hat is anything but embarrassing for everyone involved.
Before next time
Rig up a full rod at home at least twice before we meet again, start to finish, no shortcuts. If you get stuck on a step, that is useful information. Bring it, and we will resolve it together.