Hammock Mount, The Ultimate Car Camping Accessory
The Hammock Mount let’s you camp anywhere in seconds flat.
I love sleeping outdoors. I love being on the water early. I love camping in my hammock on the bank of the river. I don’t always love the hassle of making all of that happen. Especially when I’m on the road, moving from place to place and trying to maximize my time on the water. The minute I saw the Hammock Mount, I knew it was the solution.
This clever piece of kit allows me to set camp anywhere I can park the truck, in just a few minutes. Just seconds to have my hammock ready to go. I don’t need a camp site. I don’t need level ground, or even trees. I just plug the Hammock Mount into the two inch receiver on my truck, fold out the support arms and I’m done. I can’t imagine an easier or faster way to camp.
It’s pretty simple to clip a tarp off to the roof rack and run a piece of parachute cord between the support arms for wet weather and an inflatable camping pad is great insulation from the cold. I’ll use one sleeping bag under my pad and another over me for a cozy nights sleep when temps are low.
I still have easy access to gear inside the truck, even with my hammock set up. I can make coffee the night before and leave it in a thermos, waiting for me inside the hatch. It only takes a minute to take down and stow the whole setup before I hit the water. It’s so efficient, I’m tempted to sleep in my waders.
The hammock Mount is made by Mclean Metalworks in Seattle WA. They are a small and super friendly company with innovative ideas and great customer service. They make a
Read More »Sunday Classic / Use Old Plano Boxes For Bulk Fly Storage
Of all the thousands of dollars of bass fishing gear that I’ve accumulated over the years there’s very little of it that I can find a use for in my fly fishing today. Well, I could probably find a way to use some of it, but I’d definitely get bashed for it by my friends. My Plano tackle boxes, however, have proven to be very useful for me in my drift boat and when I’m traveling across the states on my fly fishing trips. I can load up one Plano box for my drift boat and I’m good for the day, and if I’m traveling out west, I often use one to throw all my big dry fly patterns or streamers in, so I don’t have to keep up with several smaller fly boxes during the trip. Every morning I’ll take out what I need and stow them in one or two fly boxes that I can carry easily with me on the water.
Read More »Saturday Shoutout / Every Hour
Every hour an American veteran takes their own life.
This lovely film, featuring Jessica Calihan, honors our veterans and highlights the power of fly fishing to heal. Set in the Low Country of South Carolina and Georgia, “Every Hour” is both beautiful and up-lifting. Take a minute to enjoy the film and share it with a veteran.
Read More »RIO Fly Lines: Video
New fly lines to keep you on fish in the coming year.
RIO has some cool options for trout anglers and more. A whole new lineup of trout spey heads and integrated lines for the two hand crowd. Some very cool new indicators for nymph fishing, and a host of trusted favorite fly lines with updated cores. RIO has something for every angler this season.
Watch the video to get all of the details on new RIO fly lines.
Read More »Faith and Steelhead
by Tim Harris
I just returned from my first real steelhead trip to the Deschutes in a couple of years.
I had to miss out all of last two summer seasons due to illness though I did manage a few days last winter where I actually hooked up several fish and landed one nice hatchery fish.
Now I’ve got the steelhead sickness again, it is time though to break out the floating line and the switch rod and begin to swing Streetwalkers across the currents. I’ll get up before dawn and head to the river in the early morning, rig up and wade out just as it begins to get light. Then begins the methodical, meditative practice of cast, mend, swing, and step until I am at the bottom of the run and I pack up and go to work. The cast is meditative too – strip, lift, swing, create the D loop, and let it rip. Mend once, maybe twice. Swing slowly. Take one to two steps down. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
All the while you are keeping faith.
Read More »Flood Tide Redfish
By Owen Plair
I ALWAYS TELL MY CLIENTS THAT THE FLOOD TIDES ARE A GIFT, TO ANGLERS, FROM MOTHER NATURE.
Targeting tailing redfish on flood tides, from Northern Florida all the way to North Carolina, is one of the most unique opportunities for fly anglers. Something about seeing a tail slowly cut through the top of the water column, surrounded by short spartina grass, on a flat that is only covered by water a few times a month is simply special. Watching these fish casually tail their way through the flat, digging their noses in the mud looking for fiddler crabs is almost as fun as watching them at the end of your fly line.
This is a simple and short explanation of this unique style of redfish and will be the introduction to more articles on flood tide redfishing, which will be more detailed on characteristics of flats, fishing, presentations, fly selection, and equipment.
What is a flood tide?
A flood tide is a larger than normal tide that pushes water onto short spartina grass flats, allowing redfish to feast on the thousands of fiddler crabs that live there. In areas where flood tides occur, there is a lot more tidal flow than most redfisheries in the US. For example, here in Beaufort our average tide is between 6-7 ft, but your flood tides would be 7.5-8.5 ft which pushes enough water on these short grass flats for the redfish to move in.
On average we get around 10-15 of these tides per month, depending on moon phases, and only fish the floods from the middle of March till the end of November, depending on weather patterns. Once the water temp gets below 65 the fiddlers go down and the redfish stop tailing. No food means no tails. Tide charts are your best friend when it comes to flood tides and I seem to find myself always looking forward to the next set of floods!
How do you fish a flood tide?
When fishing the flood you usually want to start around
Read More »RIO INTOUCH SCANDI 3D: Review
The RIO Intouch Scandi 3D is an awesome tool for catching steelhead and other species.
On a recent trip to the Deschutes River for steelhead, we faced some challenging conditions. The weather was unstable, making for some windy afternoons and some cranky fish. Sink tips and tube flies were not producing. The dry line bite was better with small traditional flies, but not when the sun was on the water, and casting light dry lines in the wind was a challenge. It was a puzzle, but things turned around when my buddy Barrett Ames produced a six-weight rod with a RIO Intouch Scandi 3D.
The setup was perfect and proved to be not only a pleasure to cast, but a real producer. The clever design of this head changed a handful of variables, which made fishing easier and more effective. I had heard about these heads, but I didn’t understand how powerful they are until I put one to work.
The Scandi 3D is a triple density shooting head. There are three options. The one I fished was the Hover / Intermediate / Sink 3 or H/I/S3. This means that the 34-foot head is broken down into three main integrated sections. About the first half of the head, the end attached to your running line, is a slow sinking intermediate called hover. It sinks at about 1 inch per second, or 1”ps. It also has sufficient diameter and stiffness to offer excellent line control during casting. The second section is an intermediate line with a sink rate of 2”ps, and the third is sink 3 material with a sink rate of 3”ps. One of the key qualities that makes the line awesome is that it transitions gradually from one density to the next, rather than making an abrupt change. This means there are no hinge points during casting or swinging.
The basic idea behind the Scandi 3D is that it casts like a scandi but fishes deep like a skagit. RIO has very effectively accomplished that goal, but there are some other big advantages to this head that may not be readily apparent. The Scandi 3D has been available, and wildly popular in Europe for some time but has just become available for US anglers. I expect it will catch on here very quickly.
5 Reasons The RIO Intouch Scandi 3D is Awesome.
Read More »Sunday Classic / Fighting The Wader Funk
DO YOUR FRIENDS TWITCH THEIR NOSES LIKE RABBITS WHEN YOU SHOW UP TO FISH?
Do they have to rub camphor under their noses like Quincy just to run shuttle with you? Does your dog roll in cow shit before before he jumps in the truck to go fishing with you?
You might have wader funk.
It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Millions of anglers…well, lots of them anyway, suffer from wader funk. It’s not you making those G-4s reek. It’s bacteria growing in them and it doesn’t just smell. It’s silently killing your waders.
The primary cause of wader funk is storing your waders wet. It happens to me. I travel with waders, sometimes for months at a time, waded up in a plastic bag in my luggage. It’s sometimes tough to get them dry. Before you know it those tiny black spots start to form on the inside and it smells like a badger crawled in there to die.
Fortunately, there’s an answer. I discovered a
Read More »Saturday Shoutout / SCOF On The Moon
This issue of Southern Culture On The Fly goes Lunar.
I’m especially proud to have my photos share the page with a great story by my good friend Jason Tucker, titled “Brook Trout On The Moon.”
“They say there are brook trout on the moon. Neil Armstrong didn’t talk about it, but he fished for them.”
Part fact and part fantasy, this fish out of water story tells the truth behind the truth of Jason’s adaptation to his new environment. Forced here by a glacier, like the brook trout, Jason has made a home for himself among the curious natives and cryptic customs, finding some brook trout along the way.
AS ALWAYS, PLENTY MORE GOOD STUFF IN THIS ISSUE OF S.C.O.F.
Read More »New Fly Rods And Reels From Sage
This year Sage has news that’s really big and really small.
A really big fly reel, that is, an a rod that’s really small. The new Sage Dart is a small stream rod with a difference. This rod, available down to a 7 1/2 foot 0 weight, is a fast action rod designed for making tight loops and and accurate short casts. It’s a technical fly rod for the small stream enthusiast.
The new Spey Reel is a closed frame reel designed for the two hander. There are two sizes to balance short and long rods. The classic look surrounds a modern drag, that has a beautiful click for when you hook a hot fish and want everybody to know.
CHECK OUT THE VIDEO FOR THE SCOOP ON THE NEW SAGE DART FLY ROD AND SPEY REEL.
Read More »