Sunday’s Classic / 4 Tips to Get You Roll Casting Like a Pro
You’ve just spotted a big head break the surface on the far bank, gulping down a struggling mayfly drifting in the foam. The excitement of discovering the trophy trout feeding triggers your body’s adrenaline glands, and almost instantly, you feel your heart begin to pound, thump thump….thump thump. With the confined quarters and lacking room for a back cast, you realize your only viable option to reach the fish is going to be with an accurate roll cast. As you quickly try to present your mayfly imitation in the feeding lane, hoping that the big fish will mistake it for a natural, your fly shoots left of your intended target and lands in an overhanging branch above the fish’s lie, immediately putting down the big fish. With the fishing opportunity blown and the disappointment setting in, you find yourself asking, “What did I do wrong?”
As an avid small stream trout fisherman, I’ve lived out this exact situation many times, and felt the disappointment followed by a poorly executed roll cast. It wasn’t until I took the time to understand and learn the mechanics of proper roll casting, that I began finding myself capitalizing on fishing situations that called for precise roll casting. Looking back now on my past roll casting insufficiency, it’s clear I wasn’t at all, alone. There’s many anglers that struggle with roll casting, and that’s why I’ve decided to provide a short list of tips that’s intended to get anglers roll casting like pros.
Read More »Saturday Shoutout / Anglers Tonic, Unity in the Universe
This week for our Saturday Shoutouts we showcase Anglers Tonic with an informative piece from Greg Thomas about his recent fly fishing trip to the Gaspe Peninsula for Atlantic Salmon. Our second read, is an emotional, yet inspiring series of essays written by Wright Thompson about the famous fly rod builder Tom Morgan, who continues to fulfill orders for his high end fly rods with the help of Gerri Carlson, despite battling Lou Gehrig’s disease. Check them out and have a great weekend everyone.
Read More »Scott Radian Fly Rod
Scott Fly Rods had a great showing this year at the IFTD show in Las Vegas with the unveiling of their new Radian Series fly rods. The series not only took home the award for Best New Fly Rod but it also won Best New Product for 2013. In all honesty, I was really happy for Scott Fly Rods, because I felt like in a long while for a change, a fly rod that should have won an award, actually did. Furthermore, Scott Fly Rods marketing slogan for the Radian Series “Fast Meets Feel” is an accurate and meaningful description that’s truthful. If you don’t believe me, go out and cast one and see for yourself.
The first thought that popped into my head after I cast the Radian, was harmony. It’s an unbelievably crisp casting (fast action) fly rod. The taper design is spot on. When you cast the rod you can feel the butt, mid and tip sections of the rod working flawlessly together. It provided me with a deep feeling of connection to the rod, and gave me the confidence I could hit any target I wanted to with it. A lot anglers claim that a good fly rod should feel like an extension of your arm and hand. Not all rods provide that feeling, but in all seriousness, that’s exactly how the Radian made me feel. It casts well at long and short distances, and unlike most fast action rods, it roll casts pretty damn good. The aesthetics and components of the Radian series fly rods are top notch, providing everything you would expect to see in a high end fly rod, with some added extras. Below is a video with Jim Bartschi who talks in detail about the Radian Series fly rods.
Read More »3 Things I Learned By Not Catching A Permit
I AM NOT A MASTER PERMIT FISHERMAN. I THINK THAT’S EXACTLY THE THING I ENJOY ABOUT IT.
I like the challenge and if you’re looking for a challenge, permit have one for you. While I don’t consider myself an expert on the subject, I am learning and that puts me in a great position to share what I learn. Even if I am learning from my mistakes.
I had a great shot at a permit the other day and I totally screwed it up. Here’s what happened.
I was fishing with friends Joel Dickey and Rob Kramarz, both experienced flats guides. I was on the bow and we were fishing the early part of a falling tide. At twelve o’clock to the boat there was a cut in a small key and we anticipated that permit might be coming out with the tide.
As we poled slowly toward the mouth of the cut, I caught movement in my peripheral vision and turned to find a fish coming straight for the boat at two o’clock. It was an odd looking fish. Too light in color to be a permit and too dark to be a bonefish. As I struggled to identify it, the fish
Read More »RIO Fly Line Cleaning Towelette Wipes
Routine fly line maintenance and cleaning is something all fly anglers should get in the habit of practicing. Taking the time to clean a fly line after every 2 to 3 uses will greatly increase the life of the fly line, and it will also keep it performing at its best on the water. Remember, it’s not just the dirt and grime that builds up on fly lines while fishing that degrades the performance and life of fly lines. It’s also the harmful chemical residues that we often involuntarily bring our fly lines into contact with, such as sunscreen and bug repellent that cause the real damage.
Read More »Sunday Classic / The Albright Knot
The Albright Knot is a great knot for attaching a metal bite tippet to your leader. It can also be used to attach the leader to the fly line or any time you are attaching materials of very different size or stiffness. Here’s Capt. Joel Dickey, in the last of his three part series on better salt water knots, to teach you the Albright Knot.
Read More »Saturday Shoutout / Weird, The Secret Lives of Fish
I AM NOT EVEN GOING TO OFFER UP AN EXPLANATION,
rationalization or even a critique for these wonderful and twisted works of art. I’ll just say that I love them. Especially the ones I ‘kind of’ understand. And I call myself a fishing photographer?
So for today, suspend your catch-and-release ethic and enjoy,
WEIRD THE SECRET LIVES OF FISH.
There are 22 in all.
Read More »New Spey Products From RIO
FOR 2014 RIO HAS TAKEN ON REINVENTING THEIR SPEY CATEGORY OF LINES.
With new offerings in Scandi and Skagit heads as well as a couple of new running lines it’s an impressive undertaking.
The driving goal for RIO’s redesign is to simplify Spey lines and make them accessible to the angler who’s new to Spey. Selections have been streamlined with the goal of combining the best characteristics of some of RIO’s best lines. All of the new products feature a color coding system that make swapping heads simple and fast. Several of the new offerings use RIO’s new Connect Core technology for lines that have very little stretch.
My favorite of the new products is Grip Shooter. It’s an updated version of the hard nylon running line Slick Shooter. It has the same oval profile and shoots like a bandit but the first fifteen feet are coated with a positive grip coating, making it easier to handle when casting. Especially with cold wet hands. I got the chance to fish it recently and I really like it.
In this video Simon Gawesworth walks you through the new line of RIO Spey products.
Read More »Tenkara, the new Bamboo
A GUEST POST BY TIM HARRIS OF NORTHWEST-TENKARA.COM
Fly fishing began in both the west and east with a long supple rod, a fixed line, a leader and a fly.
This is how Dame Juliana Berners, Issac Walton and Japanese commercial fisherman fished. Time went by and man created the reel and split bamboo rods which were shorter and lighter than the old greenheart long rods. Fiberglass and then graphite replaced split bamboo and modern fly fishing as we know it came into being.
Then a backlash started, a move toward the vintage. Many fly fishers, myself included, began embracing the bamboo rod again and waxing poetic about the lovely reed, its natural beauty and soft feel. I fished bamboo rods for years on small streams and rivers and figured that this would never change.
Then came a real move back to the past, back to days before the reel was invented and people fished with a long rod and a fixed line. I discovered tenkara. Tenkara is a traditional form of fly fishing that began in the mountain streams of Japan. It was used by commercial fishermen to catch their daily load of trout, char and salmon found in these streams. Now tenkara is catching on in the west and seems to be the hottest thing since the bamboo renaissance.
Tenkara is fly fishing in its most minimal form. A modern tenkara rod is
Read More »Sunday’s Classic / Strike Indicators, What Matters to Me
DO STRIKE INDICATORS SPOOK FISH?
There is a lot of debate over whether strike indicators spook fish. I’m not going to beat around the bush on this one folks, because I truly believe that most of the time they don’t. Especially if you rule out flat slow moving water. Only when I’m dealing with really spooky fish, do I downsize and dull down the color of my strike indicators. The other 80% of the time, I think the fish pretty much just find them interesting, possibly a tasty morsel, or just another piece of trash floating over their heads.
What I really think we should be doing is looking at the flip side of the coin. In my opinion, we should worry less about spooking fish with our indicators, and worry more about matching the correct size strike indicator to the type of water and rig we’re fishing. In my opinon, that makes much more sense. Now I know there’s lots of you probably saying “this is obvious rookie stuff, Kent.” I hear you all loud and clear, but bare with me a minute, because I still find myself having to explain to anglers why it’s a good idea to carry different sizes and colors of strike indicators on the water. And as long as I’m doing that, there’s a need for this information to be out there for people to read.
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