Sunday Classic / The CDC Blood Midge
MIDGE PATTERNS CAN BE REMARKABLY EFFECTIVE FOR TROUT.
Depending on how you count them there could be over a thousand species of midge. That’s a lot of choices for the discerning trout. There are almost as many choices for the angler and a midge obsession can easily get out of hand.
I find that more times than not a Blood Midge will do the trick. I spent a morning on the Colorado River one April and caught twenty-four brown trout on a blood midge without moving my feet. Trout are naturally attracted to these red patterns even when they are not an exact match for the naturals. I’ve tied many different Blood Midge patterns but my current favorite is the CDC Blood Midge. The power of CDC can not be overestimated. This is a great pattern and very easy to tie.
Watch the video and learn hoe to tie The CDC Blood Midge.
Read More »Saturday Shoutout / Huge and Hungry
Golden dorado are without doubt the most aggressive fish on the planet.
I can hardly believe that in just two months Justin and I will be chasing these monster fish in the same water where this video was filmed. Excited doesn’t begin to cover it. I don’t know of anything more exciting than the explosive force of a golden dorado eating your fly. I can feel the line burns already.
This video features our friends at Andes Drifters putting the hurt on some golden slabs. Although this year’s trip is sold out, we are booking dates for Feb 2019. If you think you might like to tangle with one of these monster yourself, drop me a line. hookups@ginkandgasoline.com
ENJOY, “HUGE AND HUNGRY”
Read More »How to Fly Fish Straight Sections of Trout Water
By Kent Klewein
We all love to fish the bends of a river but what do we do in the straightaways?
It’s your lucky day. You’ve somehow managed to get away from your busy work schedule and find time to spend a few days fly fishing for some beautiful trout. You’ve brought several trout to hand fishing a series of S-bends, and you feel like a hero. Life is good, right? Unfortunately, the hot fishing is about to slow significantly as you round the bend in the river and notice the river flows straight as an arrow for the next several hundred yards. There’s very little mid-stream obstructions and no well defined current seams. Furthermore, the water depth is consistent bank to bank. You fish for a while, working your way upstream blind casting, but you’re not having any luck. You find yourself getting frustrated because you can’t figure out where the trout should be holding, and there’s no rising fish. What should you do?
When I find myself in this situation, I focus on presenting my flies against the banks. When there’s no obvious current seams or in-stream structure providing depth change or current buffers, cutthroat trout will generally prefer holding close to the banks. The water current running along the banks causes friction, and this friction slows down the current speed making it a much more efficient place hold and feed. Because all trout prefer to feed in areas where they can consume more energy than their expending, they instinctively search out these slower current areas. So remember
Read More »G&G “Christmas On The Fly” Tying Contest
Alright all you fly freaks, it’s time to get festive!
Christmas is just days away and we’ll all be decking the halls with tinsel, garland, and all sorts of shiny, colorful décor, making this the perfect opportunity to take advantage of these gaudy materials to manufacture new masterpieces of majestic splendor!
We want you to show us your yuletide tying talents by sending us a photo of your best creation using holiday decorations and materials. Of course your efforts will not go unrewarded. In this winner-takes-all material mash up, there is a nice grab bag of swag to be won by the tier with the most Christmas creativity, including gear from Rising, Simms, Cortland, Sight Line Provisions, Plan D Fishing, Whiskey Leatherworks, Appalachian Leader Co., and more!
Please see the contest rules below! We look forward to seeing all of your fantastical creations! Winner will be announced on the site Christmas morning!
Contest Rules
Read More »Sunday Classic / Elevate Yourself to Increase the Distance You Can High-Stick
Most of the time when your fly fishing for trout, the last thing you want to do is elevate yourself. In most scenarios, that will usually do more harm than good, by increasing the chances of trout spotting you and spooking. Notice I said “most scenarios”, every once in a while, an angler is forced to go against traditional principles to find success. The other day, I found myself trying to fish an eddy and slow water seam on the far bank. Making the cast wasn’t the problem, it was getting a long enough drag-free drift to get my fly to the fish. Even with my best high-sticking efforts, every cast the super fast water between me and my target water would grab my fly line and suck my flies out prematurely. After a couple minutes of struggling with my drifts and failing to get any bites, I decided to climb up on a boulder next to me. This elevated me three feet, and allowed me to keep 100% of my fly line off the water and get that long drag-free drift. I caught three trout after
Read More »Saturday Shoutout / The Drakecast Goes Social
One of the best discussions I’ve heard about social media.
Social Media is a hot button topic in the fly fishing community. Love it or hate it, social media is here to stay and it is changing fly fishing. This podcast by Elliot Adler is the most considered conversation you’re likely to hear on the subject. You’ll hear from anglers like Tom Bie and Kelly Galloup on the subject and some of what you hear may surprise you. No matter how you feel about social media, this podcast will challenge you to think.
ENJOY, CROSSROADS: SOCIAL MEDIA AND FLY-FISHING
Read More »5 Tips To Stop Breaking Off Bonefish
By Louis Cahill
If you’re breaking off bonefish, there’s probably and easy fix.
Someone asked me not long ago about losing bonefish due to tippet breaking. It happens to the best of us but there are only a couple of ways for it to happen and each has a pretty simple fix. If you follow a few simple guidelines you can cut way down on the number of bonefish you lose.
It’s fair to say that several of the potential problems I’m going to talk about apply to almost any species of fish. Some are much more common in the environment where we find bonefish and others just happen more frequently because of the speed with which things happen in bonefishing. It is a demanding game but breaking fish off should not be a problem.
Keep in mind that tippet strength is always a concern and in no way a constant. The weight of your tippet has everything to do with where you’re fishing. In locations where bonefish see a lot of pressure, you will need to fish lighter tippet and you will have to be much more diligent. Regardless of the strength of your tippet, there is no reason not to fish to the best of your ability and each of these tips is relevant.
How bonefish break off and how to stop them.
THE HOOK SET
One of the most common ways anglers break fish off is on the hook set. Bonefish behave unpredictably. Often a fish will eat your fly and make an immediate turn away from you. Sometimes even before you strip set. This is most common when a fish charges the fly while it is still high in the water column. Even small bonefish are powerful and failing to give them line when they need it will result in a familiar popping sound. You need to
Read More »Traditional Old-School Nymphs Catch Trout, Don’t Forget It
By Kent Klewein
Are you fishing the hot new fly?
Every year, I spend quite a bit of time scouring the interweb and flipping through numerous fly company catalogs, all in the effort to stay up to date with the latest new fly pattern creations. Many are just variations of already existing fly patterns, but quite often it’s a new fly tying material that’s created, manipulated, or that’s managed to stay under the radar and discovered, that’s used to develop these new fly patterns. I usually spend my time reviewing the new flies and their recipes, and hear my inner-voice chattering over and over, “why didn’t you come up with that fly pattern, dumby”. But even after purchasing and tying several dozen of the new fly patterns, many of them ultimately fall short on the water of producing trout numbers like my traditional old-school standby nymphs do. Why is that?
I think the the fly tying world is very similar to the rod manufacturing world, where a company builds a great fly rod that 90% of fly anglers love, and then a couple years down the road they discontinue the rod line, to make room for the introduction of the next innovative fly rod. Quite often, in my opinion though, that new rod design’s performance falls short of its predecessor. I know this process is called product life cycle, and it will continue to happen again and again, but it sure seems like we’re in way too much of a hurry to move on, and should instead be more content with sticking with a great product longer.
It’s the notion that great isn’t great enough, and that we should retire the greats, in the hopes we can find something, for lack of a better word, that’s perfect. The problem is
Read More »Gink And Gasoline’s 2017 Holiday Gift Guide
By Justin Pickett Here are some great Christmas gift ideas for the fly fishing enthusiast on your list. The tree is up, the elf is on the shelf and the Holiday shopping panic is in full swing. If you’re like me, you need a little help with your Santa duties this time of year. We are lucky to get the chance to try out tons of cool fly fishing gear each season. Here’s a list of stuff we love and are sure the anglers on your list will love as well. Umpqua LT Fly Boxes The new fly boxes from Umpqua use an injection molded TPE interface to house your flies. Not only is this TPE material lighter than silicone, but the low memory of the material allows for better grip of your flies. The LT boxes are slim and come in a variety of styles! Fishpond Quick Shot Holder If we’re being honest, the Quickshot Holder from Fishpond was designed predominantly for flats fishing where a different species might present itself and require a lightning fast rod change. Made to attach to Fishpond’s waterproof packs, the Quickshot is also perfect for the angler who can’t decide whether to throw dries, nymphs, or streamers on a trout stream. We’ve lugged extra rods around on trout streams and it usually results in frustration and sometimes a broken rod. Never again! Orvis Nippers In the increasingly more populated nipper world, Orvis dropped in from the top rope with the hardest blade steel in the business. Machined and assembled in the United States and not quite as expensive as others on the market, these new Orvis Nippers are one of our favorite fly fishing accessories for 2017/2018. Sightline Provisions Trout 2.0 Bracelet Looking for a unique, hand-crafted way to show off your passion … Continue reading
Read More »Sunday Classic / Dreaming of Steelhead
I WOKE THREE TIMES LAST NIGHT DREAMING THAT I WAS FISHING FOR STEELHEAD.
Not epic, fish hoisting, hero shoting, steelhead fishing but, ass backwards, pointless, penitent steelhead fishing. Swinging tiny flies on floating lines in the turbid, chocolate waters of spring run off (and this is my favorite part) in Colorado’s Black Canyon. If you’re not a steelheader, I’ll break this down for you C.G. Jung style.
The steelhead is, in freshwater at least, the iconic challenging fish. The “fish of a thousand casts.” If you were forced to fish for them in high, stained water, and I have been, you would use big flies and heavy sink tips or better yet a steelhead bullet and an egg pattern and it would still be very, very tough. Lastly, the Gunnison river which flows through The Black Canyon does not contain steelhead. So, in my dream I am fishing for the hardest fish I know of, using tactics and gear that I know are wrong, in a river where this fish does not exist. Clearly I need professional help. A psychiatrist or a guide at least.
This dream was so vivid and persistent that I couldn’t help but wonder what it meant.
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