4 Tips for Getting a Better Picture of Your Trophy
WAY BACK BEFORE WE HAD DIGITAL CAMERAS, I CAN REMEMBER HOW EXCITED I WOULD BE RACING TO THE CLOSEST ONE-HOUR PHOTO STORE TO GET MY FILM DEVELOPED.
The anticipation of waiting to review my big fish photos was almost as fun for me as catching the trophy. I wish I could say all those developed photos came out perfect but that’s far from the truth. Some came out great but the majority were blurry, had my head cut off, or I was holding the fish like a rookie. Nowadays we have the luxury of instant feedback with digital cameras, so we don’t have any excuse to not get good photo when the fish cooperates. Below are four tips for capturing better photographs of your trophies with examples of the right and wrong way to hold your fish. Keep in mind there is a learning curve for handling big fish. The more you do it the better you get.
1. Hold the fish with the tips of your fingers not your palms
Read More »RS2 – One of My Favorite Picky Trout Fly Patterns
There’s days when trout fishing is so slow, it seems like conditions couldn’t possibly get any worse.
You may find yourself questioning if any trout in the stream are willing to feed at all. At other times, you’ll have no problem locating pods of steady risers, but everything you throw at them is rejected. My buddy Brad in this situation usually volunteers to row the boat, opting for cold beer within arms distance and gazing at picturesque landscapes. The dude always has a Plan B ready to be put into action, ensuring he always has a good time on the water whether he catches fish or just a buzz, and I respect that.
The RS2 fly pattern time and time again never fails to produce for me during tough fishing situations. And it really has the ability to catch fish just about any way you fish it. Fish it solo on fine tippet to wary sippers and you’ll fool a couple guaranteed. Drop it off the back of a larger and more visible dry fly if you’re having problems seeing it, and it will ride in the film, usually fooling fish on even the most technical trout water. I even have great luck fishing an RS2 as my dropper fly in a
Read More »Garner’s White Trash Bass Fly
WANT TO CATCH BIG BASS?
How about really big bass? Striper fishing rivers in the south during the summer can be off the hook but it can also be challenging. Those big bruisers can get pretty damned selective and you a pattern that will get them moving.
Nobody knows this game better than Garner Reed. Today Garner is going to share a pattern he developed for catching big striped bass and spotted bass on the Etowah River. He calls it Garners White Trash and it gets the job done.
Watch the video and learn to tie this great bass fly.
Read More »The Hydropsyche With Peacock Quills
By Herman deGala
Here’s some advanced technique for tying flies with peacock quills.
Fly tying has always been the art of linking a series of techniques to achieve an overall design. Innovative techniques are often a result of problem solving.
I have always enjoyed the look of wrapped peacock quills and the beautiful segmented bodies they create with simple turns. I also enjoy the iridescence of peacock barbules and their fish catching attributes. I have come up with a simple way to combine both of these attributes.
I DEMONSTRATE IT HERE WITH A SIMPLE HYDROPSYCHE. I AM SURE YOU CAN THINK OF MANY MORE APPLICATIONS WITH YOUR OWN TYING.
Read More »Don’t Get Bold Feet!
By Justin Pickett
A few weeks ago I was sitting on the back of my jeep, getting ready to hit the water.
Just like any other day, I grabbed my rods and rigged them up first and laid them across the roof. I tossed my fly boxes in my chest pack and made sure I had all the tools and tippet that I needed. I jumped into my waders and buckled myself in for the day. Grabbed my left wading boot and slipped it on and tightened it up. Reached down for the right one and began to slide my foot into the boot. Before I could get my foot settled into the boot I felt quite the bulge in the toe of my boot. Not knowing exactly what it was, and knowing what it could be, I quickly kicked the boot from my foot. My wading boot landed on the grass, just a few feet in front of me. I waited a few seconds to see if anything crawled, hopped, or slithered out from it.
Nothing.
Cautiously, I picked up the boot and held it upside down, and, immediately, something fell from the boot
Read More »Thank You God for the Terrestrial Season
bout this time every year, when I’m starting to get run down from guiding, the terrestrial season arrives, and I’m blessed with a second wind. I’m always astonished at how the presence of terrestrials can make my familiar trout waters seem so fresh and new to me. Even after I’ve already spent hundreds of hours during the season drifting flies through the same riffles, runs and pools. Every day, I find myself more excited about fishing than the last, despite it being one of my busiest times of the year guiding. Thank God for the terrestrial season. I tip my hat to the creator, for he sure did a fine job of planning out the life cycle and timing of the terrestrial season. Yep, life is grand for the fly fisherman when the terrestrials are out. The water and air temperatures (at least where I live) are usually warm enough to leave those stinky waders at home, and the longer days allow us the luxury of staying on the water for a few extra hours.
Is it just me, or do trout seem to have the same look in their eyes as we do during the terrestrial season, pure addiction. I love the fact that it’s not the end of the world if we forget our strike indicators or split shot when the terrestrials are out. The trout often rise
Read More »Quality Flies
By Brian Kozminski
—SlluurpAH– “Set the Hook!”-exerts the guide.
“Ewp~ #$^@%!! Damn, I missed again!” casually disclaimers client.
“That’s the third trout you’ve missed today.” arm chair QB fishing buddy retorts from stern of the drift boat.
“Lemme check that fly, I know it’s your favorite ‘Lucky’ Adams, –BUT it is missing a hook.”
Never happened to you? Kudos, keep up the great work and spread your practices to all those who you may come in contact with. We need more vigilance like yours. Anglers who routinely check their fly and keep the hook sharp are a dying breed. Seems there is a trend in the fly market to buy volume ‘less expensive flys” from not so reputable sources. These days, I find it very hard to believe one would allow themselves to purchase a $600 reel, pair it with $800 rod and then continue to outfit and accessorize themselves in outrageous Monkey Logo’d shirts and fancy rubber pants, only to skimp on the single & most important partof the equation that actually connects them to the fish-> The FLY.
This passed summer, while waiting for clients, eating a delectable reuben sandwich, counting the number of Pine Grosbeaks, Siskins, and Purple Finches along side one of our more famous waterways, I overheard guys at a table next to me complaining about the price of flies. It was not the haughty Cherry Run Orvis store, but it was the height of big bug season, drakes were predicted tonight certainly on the North branch, possibly sections of the South, and inter-mitten log jams in between.
“$30 bucks a dozen! Thats a damn outrage!!” befuddled one guest.
Rightfully so, but when you hook a monster brown tonight, you must know a few facts about what goes into your $30/dozen flies versus the .80 per fly from Discount Fly Guy. The fly shop has a reputation to uphold, and it cannot be cut short at the terminal end of your line. The shop guys who tie flies all winter to pay the bills when rooms are not rented and few anglers make their way north for respite, only use quality hooks and materials provided by the shop owner. They in turn are paid on piece orders and quickly learn to tie a well proportioned Borchers Drake while not wasting materials nor thread wraps. I would bet my time on the water is going to be better spent using that fly versus a fifty cent knock of from Sri Lanka.
There was a guide, probably long gone now or working in Alaska, but he kept two distinct fly boxes in his boat.
Read More »Hyperfocal Focus
Sometimes to get it all in focus, it has to all be out of focus.
Shooting photos you often find yourself wanting an object in the foreground and an object in the background both in focus. This can be a frustrating situation. Inevitably, focusing on either the foreground or the background leaves the other out of focus. There is a way to make it happen but it requires putting on your thinking cap.
It’s called hyperfocal focus and yes there’s going to be math, sort of. You may have noticed that on the barrel of your DSLR lens there is a scale that shows how far from the camera your point of focus falls. That tool is handier than you might think. Here’s how you use it to get the shot.
First focus on the foreground object that you want sharp. At this point it doesn’t matter whether you use auto of manual focus. Take a look at the scale. Let’s say your foreground focus is at three feet. Now focus on the background object that you want sharp. Let’s say it’s at nine feet. We now know we need to carry six feet of focus.
That six feet of sharpness is called depth of field or DOF. Literally the depth of our field of focus. We control the DOF with our aperture. Smaller apertures like F16 or F22 carry a wider DOF. Larger apertures like F2.8 or F4 have narrow DOF. If you’re confused don’t panic. Stay with me. The higher the F# the smaller the aperture. It’s a mathematic formula and I could explain it but it’s not important for this exercise and it’s frankly too much information.
So what we need is an F# that will carry six feet of DOF. Now it’s time to set your camera to manual focus! if you spent a whole lot of money on your lens it may have a scale that shows you the DOF for each F#. If so, that’s great. Choose an F# and set your focus so that three feet and nine feet fall between the brackets. If you don’t have the scale, don’t panic, just set your lens for the highest F#. If you want to get really technical, consult this nifty DOF calculator.
OK, I promised math so here it is. The thing about DOF is it’s a geometric progression. That means that as you increase your DOF by stopping down your aperture, you get twice
Read More »Fish Floating Nymphs for Selective Trout
TELL ME IF THIS SOUNDS FAMILIAR.
You’re kneeling at the edge of a slow glassy pool watching several big trout inspect what floats above them. You change flies, again, and make yet another perfect presentation, only to watch the fish move three feet out of the way as your fly passes by.
It’s a common scene on heavily pressured, catch-and-release trout streams. Big educated fish who have seen a lot of flies don’t come to hand easily. Kent and I were in exactly this scenario just the other day and were able to turn it around using a simple but often overlooked technique. A floating nymph.
Fish see dry flies in a very different way than we see them. Before the fish inspects your thread color or how many turns of hackle you’ve used it sees the impression of the fly on the water. These slight dimples in the surface film are incredibly powerful triggers for feeding fish. The curved surface of the water, which supports the fly, focuses the light creating a bright spot that get the fish’s attention like a flashing light. This is why fish commonly eat Thingamabobbers.
Fish who live under constant pressure from anglers become very savvy at reading these impressions on the surface film. They eat only those items that make subtle, life-like impressions. The kind of impressions made by emerging insects struggling in the film. Nothing I know of is a better imitation than a floating nymph.
Start with the right nymph. It must be unweighted. A nymph tied with
Read More »Bruce Chard’s Key Lime Pie Tarpon Fly
SPOOKY TARPON? NO PROBLEM.
Feeding tarpon a fly on bluebird days when the sun is high and the water is clear can be quite a challenge. It’s always a little mind blowing to see a six foot long monster run from a three inch fly bit it happens more times than not when conditions are tough.
When it comes to fooling tarpon, I don’t know anyone with a better track record than Bruce Chard. Today Bruce is going to share with us a simple fly that turns those tough days into hero shots. He calls it the Key Lime Pie, because it’s just that hard to resist.
Watch the video and learn to tie Chard’s Key Lime Pie.
Read More »