Saturday Shoutout / Smoke on the Water
Fire, Water and Steel on the Deschutes River.
I just returned from the G&G Steelhead Camp on the Deschutes River in Oregon. You may already know that the river was at the heart of a huge wild fire just a month ago. That didn’t stop my buddy Curtis Ciszek from heading out for some cold beer, hot ground and sick steelheading.
ENJOY, “SMOKE ON THE WATER”
Read More »New Orvis Flow Nippers, They Nip! : Video
The new Orvis Flow Nippers combine quality and price.
I own a pair of high end Orvis nippers. They are awesome, but they are also $80. While there is certainly a market out there for expensive, deluxe nippers, most of us want something that will last for a whole lot less. Orvis knows that too.
This year, as part of a whole new line of tools, they are introducing the Flow Nippers. Quality, stainless steel nippers for $30. Still not the cheapest nippers you can buy, but they work great and will take a beating.
WATCH THE VIDEO TO SEE TOM ROSENBAUER TELL YOU, “THEY NIP!”
Read More »Wood is Good
“Wood is good”, shouted Sam Cornelius manning the oars, as I concentrated on drifting my flesh pattern against the never ending medley of wood snags along the Togiak River banks in Alaska, back in 2006. “When ever you see wood, drift your flies as close to it as you can, because fish are usually close by.
Read More »That’s Going To Leave A Mark
Nobody want’s a hook in their face.
(If you’re paying attention, you notice I ended yesterdays article with this same words. Not a coincidence. )
By far, the most popular video I have ever shot for G&G is the one where I stick a hook in my arm so we can show how to use “the mono trick” to get it out. Well, I got to take my brother Tom fishing the other day and I guess he isn’t going to be outdone by his little brother. Half way through the float he hooked himself in the face with a 2/0 Gamakatsu B10s.
The hook was in his cheek all the way to the bend. About as bad a hooking as I’ve ever seen. I’ve snatched hooks out of people before, but not one this bad, and not my brother. It was not textbook on the first attempt. Of course tom shot selfi-video.
I’m sharing this video as a cautionary tale…and also because it’s darkly hysterical. Let this be a lesson to you kids. Practice your casting.
Read More »Sunday Classic / Bruce Chard’s A.M. Express, A Great Fly For Baby Tarpon
CATCHING BABY TARPON IS ABOUT AS FUN AS THE LAW ALLOWS.
Even a baby tarpon is a hell of a fish. These little guys are all fight and haven’t learned all the tricks of the grown ups. A thirty pound tarpon offers all the excitement of a hundred pounder with a good bit less humility.
On calm mornings you’ll find them cruising the edges of islands or nosing around rafts of floating grass or rolling in the glass calm water. If your going to catch them you’ll need the right fly. Our buddy Captain Bruce Chard is here to help.
Watch the video and learn to tie Bruce’s A.M. Express.
Read More »Saturday Shoutout / Hang Tight
Is it possible your taking fly-fishing too seriously?
If you find yourself pursuing marble trout in Slovenia, and things don’t go your way…well.
Don’t let this happen to you.
“HANG TIGHT”
Read More »New Fly Rods And Reels From Waterworks Lamson: Video
Waterworks Lamson is expanding two of their most interesting product lines for 2018. The Center Axis systems and Cobalt reels.
If you haven’t cast the Center Axis rod/reel system, you should. It’s one of the most interesting new products in fly fishing. It’s hotly debated but I really like it. You may too. The cool news this year is the introduction of the Center Axis for saltwater. Not just supersized, there are some meaningful engineering changes to bring these rods up to saltwater standards.
Lawson is also introducing new sizes in their Cobalt reel lineup. Smaller reels for light saltwater setups that are just as at home on a trout rover. These reels are absolute tanks.
Watch the video for all of the details on cool new Lamson Fly-fishing gear for 2018.
Read More »Streamer Fishing – Hands on the Line at All Times
Streamer fishing is a great way to catch both numbers and trophy class fish, but it doesn’t come without some negatives. One of the biggest negatives with streamer fishing is you don’t always get solid hookups every time a fish eats your streamer. One of the biggest contributors to this is when a fish slams your streamer in between strikes and you’re caught off guard. Sometimes, the timing is so bad there’s nothing you can do about it, while other times, it’s 100% the anglers fault due to lolly-gagging around with their stripping hand.
Read More »Streamers, Fish ‘Em Deep Enough
By Louis Cahill
How deep should you be fishing your streamers?
I had the chance to fish with my brother Tom the other day. It’s a shame we can’t do it more. I always enjoy talking about fishing with him. Tom is a very technical bass angler. He does the vast majority of his fishing with conventional tackle, a sparkly boat and plenty of electronics. It blows my mind how technical that game is. If I had a lifetime I’d never understand it as well as Tom.
We were throwing streamers for striped bass in the river, my favorite summer fly fishing. Tom does most of his fishing in still water so he had lots of questions.
“How deep do you want that fly?” he asked me.
That’s often the $64,000 question, and remember, it’s coming from a guy who’s used to marking fish on a graph and knowing exactly how deep to fish, in feet. As a fly angler, used to targeting fish in moving water, my approach is very different. I figured out years ago how I like to address the problem and it’s worked pretty well for me.
When fishing streamers, there are a handful of variables that come into play when deciding the depth you should be fishing. Water depth, speed and clarity, lighting, water and air temperature, and species just to name a few. Of course, some of those variables are constantly changing so you need a strategy that will work consistently as that happens. A simple answer like, five feet, doesn’t work.
Read More »Sunday Classic / Fly Fishing: 3 Great Times to Fish Streamers
I fell in love with streamer fishing the very first time I cast one. All it took was me bringing one trout to the net on a size 6 white Zonker, and I was hooked. I’ll never forget that beautiful 15″ wild rainbow trout, that I caught and released on a ten foot wide Southern Appalachian blue liner up in North Georgia back in the 90s. I remember the tiny stream being too overgrown and tight for me to make traditional fly casts so I crawled down on a flat boulder, stripped out some fly line and dead drifted the streamer downstream into a pool. Nothing happened at first but I didn’t give up. Instead of retrieving the fly all the way in, like most anglers regularly do, I instead made a few strips in and then let the streamer drift back down into the pool. On my third attempt, that gorgeous wild rainbow trout hammered my streamer and I brought it into my net. I still use that downstream stripping and drift back technique quite a bit when it’s called for. It works equally well with nymphs and dries.
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