A size 18 fly should not snap a 5X tippet, unless it is something like a tungsten bead head. How old is the tippet? Are you hitting your rod tip by chance?
RE: Arctic Char not in US -- Try Alaska
The Greys have it. Thanks
PS i wish I had your "trouble."
Both are great boats, but I would grab the newer Parker. Easier to maintain, better on fuel, and off-shore capable, not to mention faster. Parkers are not fancy, but they have what you need. A friend takes his smaller Parker thirty miles out in the pacific for Albs, and loves it.
My mother-in-law, who grew up a house (small cabin, now) on the bank of a very fishy river in Idaho on her father's homestead (literally), had a way of cleaning and cooking trout that I find hard to beat. I would head to a small tributary stream in late afternoon, tie on a yellow fur grasshopper fly, and bring her a batch (10) of small brook trout. She would gut them, run them for a few seconds under scalding hot tap water and just pull the skins off like a t-shirt, drop them in a big cast iron skillet, and a few minutes later we were eating some of the best fish I ever ate. I am not a fish lover, but taking the skins off left them with just a wonderful fish taste, and she could do a batch faster than I could wash my hands. Something to be said for growing up in a two room house with five siblings and no indoor plumbing. At harvest time they used to feed 20 or 30 hired hands so I think she cleaned a few fish in her day.
A ROCK BASS AND A WARMOUTH ARE DARNED CLOSE TO THE SAME THING. but . . . . The warmouth is occasionally confused with the rock bass or green sunfish, both of which share its relatively large mouth and heavy body. However, the green sunfish generally has a greenish-blue variegated pattern on its gill flaps, a black spot near the base of the dorsal fin, and its fins are bordered in yellowish-white. The rock bass has 5-7 spines in its anal fin as opposed to the three in the warmouth. The warmouth tends to be a bit larger in size than either of the other two species. From Wikipedia
When I was a kid in Connecticut in the 1950's, opening day on the stocked ponds was the thing. My dad would take us and the bait was garden worms. We would usually get our limits, but it would take several hours. Then I noticed fly fishermen taking one trout after another. So I converted, borrowing one of my dad's old bamboo fly rods with his old silk line. Small (size 10) streamers did the trick, and even with my crude streamers, tied on my home-made wooden vise, with feathers from my grandma's hat worked like magic. Those little streamers (Grey Ghost, Black Ghosts, Mickey Finns, Black Nosed Dace) fished in very short pulls still work today. And the Woolly Worm is a good bet too. Just keep the flies small (10 or 12).
A big blue might be in a class all by itself. On the party boats that fish The Race off the tip of Long Island they used to attach huge hooks to a 8 oz weight with a foot long piece of fairly heavy chain. On the hook they fastened a big whole bunker. Perhaps they still do.
THIS CAME RIGHT FROM THE HORSE'S MOUTH.
Have you ever looked in the mouth of a big bowfin?
Fly fishing is a two handed sport, so try a boat with foot peddles
The one thing that gets most novices into trouble is not moving with your fish. When the fish goes off to the right or left follow it. You don't have to be crazy like some guys who run and push people out of their way, but pay attention to whether your fish goes over or under the lines in the way. If you let your line run across other lines one of you or both will get cut off, and it is usually the line that is not moving, so if somebody crosses your fish and does not follow, just let your fish run (loosen the drag) a little. That may seem cold, but some guys never get it. The advice about letting the mate know you are new to this is the best advice.
Bite the bullet and get a reel that can handle salmon, especially sprinters. No way should you use just fly line unless you use 4/0 hooks and fifty # leader. But then you will be replacing your rod soon.