Soft Presentation With Tim Rajeff
Tim Rajeff shows you two effective styles of soft presentation casts.
Whether you’re offering a #20 spinner to a sipping trout or tossing a toad to a lunker tarpon, a soft presentation is key to success. Too many anglers struggle with making an accurate cast that lands softly.
No one knows fly casting like Tim Rajeff, so I asked him to take a minute to show us how he presents the fly when the pressure is on. He shared two types of casts he uses, depending on the conditions. Master these two casts and you’ll catch a lot more fish when things get technical.
WATCH THE VIDEO TO LEARN TIM RAJEFF’S SOFT PRESENTATION CASTS.
Read More »Standing in the River Carrying a Torch
Standing in the River Carrying a Torch
A different kind of love story.
Men and fish parted ways a long time ago. You couldn’t call it an amiable divorce. The fish got everything. The mountain streams, the lazy winding rivers, the deep blue sea, everything. Men had to pack their bags and crawl, with their heads hanging, out onto the land and they were not happy about it. They learned to breathe air and walk on two legs but they never stopped dreaming of swimming in the dark oceans, nor of the long and lovely fish that had sent them packing. They thought about fish all the time. They made their homes near the water and lurked around the shore, peering into the depths. Men wondered if the fish ever thought about them. Probably not. They saw fish from time to time, sliding gracefully through a pool or leaping a waterfall. They seemed happy. They seemed to have moved on, forgotten about men altogether. Men knew they should be happy for the fish, but they weren’t. They were bitter and moody and often cried at night. Men invented alcohol and that helped. It didn’t take their mind off of fish but liquor is a good listener and it doesn’t judge or mind if you cry.
“Who needs fish, Fuck ’em”, men decided. They turned their back on the water and went to the woods and found animals and for a while it took their mind off of things. They stalked and chased and laid in wait and for a while the pretty little deer were fun, but in time those big black eyes just seemed empty. Men had nothing to talk to deer about. Try to explain to deer about the ocean, about gliding through the waves, your body taut and glistening, one with the current. Deer don’t understand what it feels like to rocket up from the depths and break the surface, breaching in defiance of all things that would have you, only to disappear back into the depths. Deer don’t know anything. Eventually these encounters became bitter and joyless. There was no more stalking and chasing, no more lying in wait, just that vapid look in the headlights and the thud, thud under the wheels. Again, men found themselves staring at the water.
Men decided that if they couldn’t swim, they would fly! “Let’s see fish do that” they thought. They made airplanes and took to the sky. They soared and swooped. They glided through the clouds but when they looked down, there was always water. They built better planes. Planes that would take them higher and farther, high enough that they didn’t have to see the water anymore. Men flew to the moon. They played golf there and drove dune buggies and it was fun, but when they got back someone noticed that all the photos they had taken were of the Earth. There it was in every photo. That beautiful blue ball with those deep seductive oceans. Men went back to the moon a few times but got bored with it and stopped going. Golf just wasn’t man’s game.
Read More »Sunday Classic / Fly Fishing Stillwater by Gareth Jones
THE OTHER HENRY’S
Mention to any flyfisher that you’re heading for Island Park, Idaho and they’ll immediately think you’ll be packing a selection of CDC and biot creations intended to deceive the wonderfully selective leviathans of the Henry’s Fork.
However, my latest visit to see Rene Harrop and the boys at the TroutHunter, was all about fly fishing the incredible Stillwater’s of the region, and more specifically, Henry’s Lake. The plan was to see how fishing UK flies and techniques would work on the great Cutthroat and Hybrids that inhabit the lake. This wasn’t the first time I fished the lake. I’d visited it ten years earlier, and I remembered enjoying some wonderful sport-fishing from a float tube, fishing damsels through the gaps in the summer weeds. Needless to say, I was fairly confident that some of my own fly patterns and techniques would produce on this trip, and I was excited to hit the water.
Read More »Saturday Shoutout / Rosenbauer On The Vise
Tom Rosenbauer is a “go big, or go home” kind of guy.
Aside from being a walking encyclopedia of fly fishing, one of the most endearing things about Tom is his witty and self effacing sense of humor. When asked to come up with a video to support the Orvis Giant Fly Sale, Tom took the brunt of the joke.
The first video here is just for fun, but check out some of Tom’s more serious contributions to the art of fly tying below.
Read More »Go Barbless For Big Pike
By Jason Tucker
“One sunny afternoon in Labrador.” I love saying that phrase.
One sunny afternoon in Labrador, the dry fly bite for land-locked salmon and brook trout had trailed off to nothing and we were looking for a distraction. We decided to fish for pike.
One of those things you almost never hear about in Labrador is the tremendous pike fishing. The waters are absolutely full of big pike, and when we weren’t targeting them we had to be careful not to toss a streamer into still water, lest it be instantly engulfed by a pike. Every now and then we got surprised in fast water when a pike would dash in from the still water to grab a streamer meant for a big brook trout.
We targeted pike several times during our trip when the fishing got slow. The pike were always willing to entertain, and there were plenty of bays and sloughs in which pike in the six- to fifteen-pound range were stacked up. You could fish for an hour at a time and have a hit or a fish, if not a melee, on every cast without moving location. It was some of the most exciting and memorable fishing of the trip.
We started fishing our streamers on floating lines because the takes were amazing to watch. The fish would zoom out of the depths and crash our streamers on the surface, often coming out of the water in a vicious predatory strike. So on the afternoon in question, we got this brainstorm of doing a photo shoot with mouse flies with the hooks cut off. All we wanted was to get shots of the top-water action and the vicious strikes and aerial maneuvers of the fish, without having to mess around with fighting and unhooking them.
The problem was that it didn’t work.
Read More »3 Tips for Fishing High and Dirty Water for Trout
By Kent Klewein
Have you ever pulled up to a stream after a heavy rain, ready to fish, but canceled your fishing plans because the water looked too high and dirty?
I’ll be the first to admit there are times when this is the case, but very often anglers scratch their fishing plans when they should instead, have Fished-ON. The fact is, trout can see a whole lot better than we think, and if you fish the right kinds of fly patterns, and target the right water, in many cases you can do pretty darn good fishing in these water conditions. Even better, your odds at catching a trophy fish are increased, because the dingy water will both mask your approach and keep big educated trout from being able to scrutinize your fly patterns. So go ahead, call those anglers you despise and tell them the waters blown out, and you’ll have a good chance of having the water to yourself and wailing on fish all day long.
Tip 1. Target the Right Kinds of Water
So you’ve decided to take my advice and fish on, good for you. The first thing you need to do when fishing high and dirty water is target high percentage water. I search out the slower moving seams close to the banks, long stretches of fast shallow water that are followed by buckets or deep water where the fish will stack up, and eddies behind boulders or lay downs. These are all safe havens that trout search out refuge in during high water. They all allow trout to save energy by staying out of the excessive current, while capitalizing on the large influx of food sources drifting. Increased flows and rising water increases the amount of food available for trout. Many aquatic insects get flushed off the bottom of the stream, while others emerge from the freshly submerged stream banks. Examples of this are big stoneflies that are normally found hiding away in clumps of debris and under rocks, and cranefly larva that get washed in from the high water flowing along the banks.
Tip 2. Choose Larger and Brighter Fly Patterns
The second thing an angler needs to do to increase their success rate while fishing high and dirty water is choose the right kinds of fly patterns to fish. This is the one time when I feel I don’t have to carry my entire arsenal of gear. I’ll gladly leave my fly boxes with all my tiny fly patterns and light tippet spools at the vehicle. I’ll rig up a 9′-12′ 3x-4x fluorocarbon leader and carry only my fly boxes with large nymphs, bright attractors (eggs and san juan worms), and streamers. What ever you do, don’t be afraid to go big with your fly selection. For instance, larger than average egg patterns work really well in dirty water. The larger profile and bright colors allow the fish to pick them up quickly in the low water clarity. I also like to use
Wild Steelhead on the Menu?
By Alex Lovett-Woodsum
The latest assault on our fisheries? Seafood Watch recommends eating wild OP steelhead.
In the latest of a series of truly baffling assaults on our country’s precious natural resources, Seafood Watch—a program initiated by the Monterey Bay Aquarium to encourage responsible consumer seafood choices—just placed tribally harvested wild Olympic Peninsula steelhead on its list of “good alternative” seafood choices. The decision is being widely condemned by conservation organizations like The Conservation Angler (TCA), an organization working to protect and conserve wild salmon and steelhead across the Pacific Rim, as well as anglers around the country. With current wild steelhead populations representing just 15-20% of recent (1960s) abundance, and OP wild steelhead meeting zero of Seafood Watch’s ten specific criteria for inclusion on the list, the decision has left conservationists and anglers shaking their heads in dismay. The precedent this decision sets is also alarming.
Concerned consumers trust organizations like Seafood Watch to recommend responsible seafood choices based on their supposedly very stringent standards and criteria. In a world where fisheries are under constant threat, people need reliable resources to help them make informed choices. Most want to do the right thing, but sustainable seafood can be a confusing realm to navigate. Seafood Watch’s decision is particularly alarming because so many listen to their advice unquestioningly. And while they claim to base decisions on rigorous criteria and sound science, there is absolutely no legitimate scientific basis for their decision to make OP wild steelhead a “good choice”, and an overwhelming pile of evidence as to why it’s such an appallingly bad idea.
Seafood Watch has seriously undermined
Read More »Sunday Classic / Trout Deformities
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
Read More »Saturday Shoutout / A Little Humility
Is it possible we are all a little hypocritical from time to time.
I couldn’t resist sharing this article, because it kind of struck home. Honestly, I thought it may have been written for my benefit. Enough so that I offered an apology for something I’d said to a friend with the best of intentions. Turns out my fears were ungrounded, but it made me think.
My friend Jason Tucker has a way of stepping back from a situation, which I sometimes lack. In this instance he turned my own philosophy upside down. I have strong feelings on catch-and-release, and I stand by them, but this made me think. You should give it a look.
A LITTLE HUMILITY
Read More »Stacking Running Line For Better Spey Casting: Video
How do you shoot a hundred feet of running line without a tangle?
It’s easier than it sounds. There’s a very specific technique for stacking running line when spey casting. When it’s done right, everything comes off without a hitch. If you are learning to cast two-hand rods, it’s a skill you’ll need to learn pretty quickly. It’s challenging to write about, so here’s a video, which should make it pretty clear.
WATCH THE VIDEO AND LEARN TO STACK LINE FOR BETTER SPEY CASTING.
Read More »