Sunday Classic / Six Cutties in a Hot Tub
Are you fixing to head out west for an exciting trout fishing trip? If yes, and you plan to do some wade fishing, pay close attention to water levels before you decide on where to start your days fishing. Recently, Louis and I visited the Grey’s River in Wyoming for the opportunity to enjoy catching beautiful Snake River cutthroats on dries. Water levels were very high on the Grey’s and the lower sections of the river were too high to wade safely or fish effectively. We found out very quickly if we were going to get into some good fishing we’d have to focus our efforts on the upper sections of the watershed. That meant targeting the water above most of the tributaries dumping into the Grey’s, and driving 25 miles further up the forest service access road.
Read More »Saturday Shoutout / Don’t Loose That Fish
Some stunning video of tenkara fishing across Europe.
This video follows the guys from Tenkara Rod Company on a european fishing tour through Switzerland, Italy and Slovenia with the Tenkara rod. They visit some beautiful places and catch some amazing fish, including some larger than you might expect. Even if you don’t fish tenkara rods, you’ll love this video.
IF IT’S A MARBLE, DON’T LOOSE THAT FISH
Read More »New Orvis Pro Boots: Video
A new wading boot from Orvis offers performance features to athletic anglers.
“We are starting to look at some anglers as athletes,” Tom Rosenbauer tells me.
That’s reflected in design and materials in the new Orvis Pro Boot. The rubber sole, developed in cooperation with Michelin, have a self cleaning tread that’s 40% stickier than the competition, and the insole is borrowed from cross-fit technology. The upper is a bombproof, cast panel and proprietary hardware is designed to take a beating.
The new Pro Boot from Orvis is built to take some punishment, but also to give the angler a stable wading experience that doesn’t involve thinking about their feet. Comfort, durability and performance for the serious angler.
WATCH THE VIDEO TO LEARN ALL ABOUT THE ORVIS PRO WADING BOOT.
Read More »Trout Deformities
Some creepy trout for Halloween.
I spotted this little guy in a hatchery supported stream in North Carolina and fished to him until I caught him so I could get a photo. While not common exactly, deformities like this are not unusual in either hatcheries or in the wild but you seldom see a ‘special’ fish like this in a wild stream. Nature deals with this sort of thing in short order. In a hatchery, however, a fish like this will do fine and grow to maturity.
This brook trout would have been a solid 16 inches if he were normal. A buddy suggested I bank him. There was no need. This kind of deformity stems from injury to the fish’s spine early in life. There are no defective genes or disease to pass along so I released him. After all, he plays an important role in the ecosystem, at least from the otter’s perspective.
There can certainly be problems with hatchery raised fish. Disease and poor genetics can wreak havoc on wild populations. On the whole, I think North Carolina does a good job and it’s important to remember that this is a regional issue that is best evaluated by region. What’s right for a trout stream in North Carolina is not right for a steelhead river in Oregon. That’s another topic worth some considerable ink, but not just now.
It did get me thinking about some more troubling fish deformities. Specifically Idaho’s two-headed trout. There was a little bit of excitement about it when the New York Times published photos, in February of 2012, of the deformed fish which were spawned in a laboratory from fish caught wild in streams surrounding the Simplot Smokey Canyon mine.
The photos were from a report Simplot filed with the government for the purpose of asking the EPA to raise the allowed levels of selenium caused in local streams by phosphate mining. I’m going to repeat that for the sake of clarity.
Simplot raised two-headed trout spawned from wild fish poisoned with selenium run off from their mine, showed the results to the government and said, “see, nothing wrong here, I think we can safely say a dramatic increase in poisoning is in order.”
If this seems surreal to you, you are not alone. What is even more insane is that the EPA seems to be buying it. This made my head hurt so badly that I picked up the phone and started calling friends in Idaho. After talking to several folks who are active in TU and other groups in Idaho, I was referred to some folks with the local fisheries department. The answers I got were, again, surreal. They amounted to this:
“Yeah, it’s pretty bad…it’s getting worse…there’s not really anything we can do about it…Simplot owns Idaho.”
Read More »SUNDAY CLASSIC / Bonefish The Hard Way, Deep In The Mangroves
WHEN YOU ARE PLANNING A DIY BONEFISH TRIP, IT’S IMPORTANT TO CHECK THE TIDES.
If you are wading or using kayaks to navigate the flats your mobility may be limited and timing the tides becomes crucial. Bonefish will be most accessible on low tides. Late in a falling tide when they are forced out of the mangroves to early rising tide when they work the edges. It’s important that these tides fall during the time of day when the light is good for catching fish.
That said, I did the exact opposite on a recent trip to Cat Island, Bahamas. It was a vacation, not a fishing trip. The distinction is important to my wife. It means I don’t fish all day, every day. You can read my recommendations on how to make that work, (HERE). On this particular week, low tide came very early in the morning and after dark. Most mornings were compromised by rain. It was a tough set up, but I was determined to catch some bonefish, so I tried something crazy. And it worked!
At high tide the bonefish were feeding deep in the mangroves. In some spots, a hundred yards or more from the edge of the flats. So, I went in after them. It wasn’t long before I was catching bonefish and learning a lot about this new way of fishing. It’s not ideal. In fact it’s damned hard to do, but surprisingly fun.
HERE’S WHAT I LEARNED.
Read More »Saturday Shoutout / Lefty Kreh Auction
Today and tomorrow you have the chance to own a piece of fly-fishing history and help Lefty Kreh’s family.
Lang’s Auction house is selling almost 2000 lots from the personal collection of Lefty Kreh. The proceeds benefit Lefty’s family. If you’d like to own a piece of gear fished by Lefty, you’ll have to act fast. The auction is today and tomorrow only. Click the link below to visit the auction.
VISIT THE LEFTY KREH AUCTION
Read More »New Boots from Simms: Video
Simms has something new for your feet.
Simms has expanded their boot offering this year with three cool new options. Each of these new boots serves a specific type of angler’s need. From the G3 Guide Pull On, which offers warmth and connivance in any winter setting, down to forty below, to the Flyweight Boot that let’s you sail up the trail past the crowd, and even the Tributary Boot, which puts you in a Simms boot for $99.
There’s something here for every anglers feet. If you’re in the market for boots, Simms has you covered.
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR ALL THE DETAILS ON NEW SIMMS BOOTS.
Read More »Just The Tip
I’LL BET YOU THAT JUST ABOUT EVERY ONE OF US HAS DONE IT… HEARD THE “SNAP-CRACKLE-POP” OF A FLY ROD ECHO UPSTREAM AS YOUR HOPES AND DREAMS SHATTER BEFORE YOU, CRUSHING YOUR SOUL ALONG WITH ANY HOPES OF A FISH-FILLED DAY ON THE WATER.
It sucks.
The good news is that fly rods can be repaired. The bad news…. It often takes weeks to get your mended stick back from the shop. At no fault of the repair shops, they do amazing work as fast as they can, and take an amazing amount of pride in their craft. However, it’s hard to compete with the present world of immediate feedback and the “I want it now” mentality.
Orvis took this into consideration and developed a new, streamlined system that would allow for quicker turnaround times for repairs. With the H3’s new ferrule design and consistency of the build process, Orvis is able to replace the broken section (with the exception of the butt section) of your Helios 3, leaving you, the angler, with nothing more than a few days of down time that you can use to refill your fly boxes, or fish some of your other rods.
Let’s say…. Oh I dunno… you smack your H3’s tip on a tree limb while attempting a hookset on a big angry fish you’ve been chasing all summer. You. Are. Pissed. Not only did you miss your Unicorn, but you also broke your rod. Your fishing is done for the day, and the thought of being without it for up to six weeks is looming in the back of your expletive-riddled mind. You’ll have to go home and stuff the shattered shards of your once lively wand of majesty back into its rod tube and spend your hard-earned coin to ship it cross country, which only buries the dagger deeper, penetrating your once-optimistic spirit. Oh, the sorrow.
Hark! What’s that? I can get a tip section mailed to my doorstep in just a couple days? Take my money!
Read More »Choose Fly Color Based on the Flat You’re Fishing
I’ve always thought in the broad scope of things that trout fishing calls for more complex decision making over saltwater fly fishing in terms of what goes into choosing the fly patterns we fish. I think a lot of that comes from the simple fact that conditions can change on an hourly basis on our trout streams and also that there’s hundreds of species of aquatic insects found on many of the trout waters we fly fish. However, the more I fly fish in the saltwater, the more I’ve come to understand how inaccurate this past notion of mine is. In many cases, fly pattern choice is just as important in saltwater fishing as it is in freshwater fishing. And If you want to maximize your success fly fishing in saltwater, you need to pay close attention to your surroundings and the ecosystem your fishing, just like you do on your trout water.
Read More »Don’t Touch That Drag
By Louis Cahill
There’s nothing quite like the feeling of getting spooled by a big fish.
Deep inside we all kind of want to have that problem, but when it happens you may feel some unexpected panic. I remember a time on the Dean River when I hooked a hot steelhead in heavy current. The fish ate my fly as soon as it began to swing and made a big run downstream. Before I knew it I was looking at the arbor of my reel through a few scant wraps of backing.
When you find yourself in this situation, it’s easy to screw it up. Your first instinct, really every instinct, tells you to stop that fish. To grab the spool or tighten the drag. That’s really about the worst thing you can do. It usually ends in a straightened hook or broken line. Sometimes even broken backing and a missing fly line.
What most anglers don’t realize is, when you’re getting spooled, your drag is already increased. The resistance of the water against all of that line puts a lot of extra pressure on the fish. If you have set a reasonable drag pressure on your reel, it is now being compounded by the weight of the water on the line. The effect is barely noticeable with just your fly line out, but when you are deep into your backing, it’s huge.
So what can you do when you’re getting spooled?
Read More »