The Toughest Water in Wyoming
“HOW WAS YOUR DAY?” ASKED THE GUY AT THE FLY SHOP COUNTER.
“WELL,” I ANSWERED, “I FISHED THE TOUGHEST WATER IN WYOMING.”
Everyone rolled their eyes. This was exactly the response I expected. Working at a fly shop in Jackson hole, I imagine, you get to listen to more than a few boastful dumb asses. When I told them where I’d spent the day, they all laughed and agreed, I’d fished the toughest water in Wyoming. See if you can figure out what happened?
Read More »Unhook Thyself! Safe, Painless Hook Removal
IF YOU’VE BEEN THINKING, “I LOVE GINK AND GASOLINE BUT I WISH IT COULD BE MORE LIKE JACKASS”, THEN TODAY IS THE DAY YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE!
There are two kinds of fishermen. The ones who have hooked themselves and the ones who are about to. It’s a bad feeling the first time you put a big streamer hook in yourself past the barb. You feel pretty helpless if you don’t know how to handle it. I’ve done it many times and I’m here to tell you that there is an easy, and even painless, way to get that hook out. As a veteran guide Kent has had to do it plenty and he’s a master. He’s taken hooks out of clients without them even knowing it was done.
We’ve been wanting to do this video for some time. We kept waiting for one of us to get hooked but it hasn’t happened so on a recent float on the South Holston with the guys from Southern Culture on the Fly and Bent Rod Media I decided to take things in hand and hook myself so we could show you how to deal with it. I have to say, it was harder to get that hook in past the barb than I thought. If you listen closely you can hear Dave Grossman of SCOF almost lose his lunch.
So watch and learn and please,
Read More »Check Your Fly Rig!
By Justin Pickett
The sun is only a faint glow below the horizon as it prepares to make its ascent into the sky.
I launch my chunky, articulated offering into the twilight.
Slicing through the fog, it lands mere inches from the bank.
Soon, will come the moment of truth.
That split second when man and fish will come to learn their fate.
Strip, strip, strip.
A menacing silhouette emerges from the darkness.
Strip, strip. Flash! Strip, strip. Bam! Big hit!
The hook set is on point. The rod bends abruptly.
The surly Brown shakes his head angrily at the unpleasant sensation of resistance.
It is the moment that I have anticipated all morning. All week.
It is this moment that will haunt me for some time, for my net is empty and my fly is lost.
It happens. Trout, among the many other species of fish, will get the best of us sometimes. No matter what we do right, there are always those fish that just seem to be living right and never make it to our nets. The scenario described above, however, may not have ended the way that it did had I just checked my rig thoroughly before hitting the water.
It was still dark as I gathered all of my gear and transferred it into the Adipose. I didn’t rig my rod before leaving the house like I had planned so, when I got to the parking lot, I rushed through my normal routine of checking through my gear. Instead, I just threw everything together so I could get on the water ASAP. However, of course, hurrying through things tends to bite you in the ass later on, as it did on this particular morning. The bite in the ass being the humiliating loss of a very large brown trout.
That big brown slab shook his head hard after a short sprint downstream. Suddenly, just as he began a second drag-stealing run, my line went slack
Read More »Build Your Own Fly Rod: DIY Video 4
It’s rod building time with Matt Draft of Proof Fly Fishing.
In this installment, video 4, Matt will cover wrapping the ferrules, stripping guide and hook keeper. In addition to the basics Matt will share some pro tips for the trickier steps in the process. Our DIY rod is really starting to look like something now!
Check out Matt’s site, Proof Fly Fishing. As a special thank you to G&G readers, Matt will be offering free shipping on all of his kits for the next seven weeks. Just use the code G&Gfreeship on his web site.
BUILD YOUR OWN FLY ROD: DIY VIDEO 4: WRAPPING THE FERRULES, STRIPPING GUIDE AND HOOK KEEPER.
Read More »Spey Casting, The Sweep
Tired, lost, in a funk, something amiss about your spey cast?
When my fishing is dissolving into a casting malfunction and in frustration an early start to cocktail hour seems like a good idea; I just tell myself, lift, sweep, set, circle up and pull to the target. Repeating it to myself helps me to regain my focus and calm.
It’s a recipe that when put together in sequence creates a spey cast. Here is my attempt to follow Deneki’s blog post “The Lift” from February 12, 2015.
INTRODUCING THE SWEEP:
A good sweep is an intricate feature to a well performed cast. In the casting sequence it comes after the lift. As pointed out in Deneki’s post “The Lift”, it sets the ground work for an efficient sweep of the fly line, allowing the fly to set at the proper anchor point. The anchor adheres the front end of the fly line and leader to the water’s surface.
With the aide of the anchor the back loop is fully formed during the sweep to the Key position, the position prior to the forward cast. The back loop is formed 180 degrees from the intended target and parallel to the caster. In a spey cast, without an anchor we don’t have a back loop. A good sweep repositions the line from the top of the lift to the anchor. In all spey cast and styles we sweep to the anchor.
FUNDAMENTALS OF A SWEEP:
Start with the rod canted at a 35 degree angle
Read More »Stop Dropping Your Rod Tip Once And For All: Video
If you’ve ever been told that you are dropping your rod tip, waving your rod, or that you need to shorten your stroke, congratulations, you have the most common casting problem in fly-fishing.
Most fly casters struggle to keep their rod tip traveling in a straight line. Usually a bad habit we picked up casting gear rods as kids. If you can’t make a tight loop or your leader piles up when your line hits the water, this is probably the problem you’re having. It’s extremely common. Don’t beat yourself up over it, just fix it.
Tim Rajeff showed me how to make this simple practice setup, that fixes this problem once and for all. It’s a brilliant solution because it doesn’t involve talking about it. It just trains your muscles to make the right stroke. It’s one of the best things you can do for your fly casting. I use it all the time, when I teach casting and I see the difference.
WATCH THE VIDEO AND STOP DROPPING YOUR ROD TIP ONCE AND FOR ALL.
Read More »Improve Your Casting With A Dog
A good dog can help you catch more fish.
Most anglers never pick up a fly rod, other than to fish, but making time for consistent and effective casting practice makes a huge difference in your performance on the water. Even anglers who understand this, struggle to make it happen. We don’t get the same pleasure from practice as we do from fishing. None of us started fly fishing because we liked hanging out in the yard.
So here’s an idea to make your practice time more enjoyable and more productive. Take a dog. I’ve been doing this lately and discovered something I didn’t expect. Bear, the Great Pyrenees pictured above, has been living with us while his real mon is having cancer treatment. Like all dogs, Bear needs plenty of time outside. There’s a great park just down the street so I take Bear on regular missions.
So immediately I’ve cleared the biggest hurdle on the road to regular practice.
Making the time. Bear makes sure that I make the time. Like most dogs he wants to sniff every blade of grass in the park. I started taking a rod and some targets to pass the time. Bear gets some relaxed play time and I get my practice in. Everybody wins.
Casting to targets is OK practice for some fishing situations. It does give you the chance to focus on the fundamentals of the cast and improve loop control and accuracy. But as I’ve written before, it does not help you develop good target picture, an important skill in any sight fishing scenario. As I was practicing one afternoon, I noticed something about Bear. His sniffing reminded me of something. He’d get on a scent and root around following it, a lot like a bonefish will do when hunting on a flat.
I started making presentations to Bear. He’d
Read More »Chard’s Snapping Shrimp
IT’S TIME TO GO TO THE BAHAMAS AND CATCH BONEFISH!
Seriously, I’m going to the Bahamas tomorrow morning for the first week of the G&G Andros South bonefish trip. I can’t wait. And in the box of flies I’m taking along there is a healthy handful of Bruce Chard’s Snapping Shrimp patterns.
This is one of the first bonefish flies I learned to tie and it’s a s productive now as it was then. It’s a versatile little fly that takes almost no time to tie and catches bonefish on any flat in the Bahamas. And plenty of other places I’m sure.
It may be too late for you to go to South Andros with me tomorrow, but it’s not too late to tie some Snapping Shrimp for your next trip.
Watch the video and learn to tie Chard’s Snapping Shrimp.
Read More »Saltwater Short Shot: Video
A 100 FOOT CAST WILL CATCH YOU SOME FISH, BUT A 30 FOOT CAST WILL CATCH A WHOLE LOT MORE.
There are days on the flats when you never cast to a fish that’s more than 30 feet from the boat. When you don’t have sun, bonefish and other saltwater species can sneak up your skirt in a hurry. Even on clear days a good short shot will serve you well.
It sounds simple but it’s one of the hardest things to do well. If you think casting a fly rod 100 feet is hard, try casting one 10 feet. Especially a fast action saltwater rod. Making a short cast and landing the fly accurately with a straight leader requires a specific set of skills.
THERE ARE FOUR KEY SKILLS THAT MAKE THE SHORT SHOT WORK.
A good ready position
When fish are close to the boat, there’s no time to think. You have to be ready to present your fly immediately. That’s impossible without a good ready position. You need a good leash, nine feet of fly line plus your leader, outside the rod tip. This will allow you to load the rod with no false casting. You also must hold the fly in a way that you can release it cleanly and quickly with out it catching in your clothes, your line or on the boat. (MORE HERE)
A short stroke
You can’t make an effective short cast by lobbing the fly out in front of you. The only way you can land the fly accurately with a tight line is to load the rod. You can’t load the full rod with only 9 feet of fly line so you have to make a short, powerful stroke that loads only the tip. (MORE HERE)
A good target picture
There’s no time for strategy when fish are at your feet. You have to know where the fly goes without thinking. Put it
Read More »5 Tips for Beating Out the Winter Cold on the Water
I’ll be the first to tell you that I’m past the days of heading out into Arctic conditions to fly fish unless I’m outfitted properly. Call me a wuss or nancy, that’s fine with me, I don’t care how big the fish are, you can catch them. I’ve been miserable too many times over the years and I refuse to put myself in that position anymore. If I’m unable to enjoy myself wetting a line, there’s absolutely no reason for me to be out there. Furthermore I’ve had some really close calls with frostbite in the past, and frostbite is scary stuff folks.
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