Not Today
“WHEN I SAY I LOVE TO FISH, THAT’S THE KIND OF LOVE I’M TALKING ABOUT. THE KIND OF LOVE THAT COMES WITH PAIN AND STRUGGLE AND DEATH. THE KIND OF LOVE YOU EVENTUALLY WISH YOU HAD NEVER KNOWN.”
The night sky is just opening its eyes. The first bright pin pricks in the cold blue firmament slowly twinkling to life. Like shining snowflakes falling on a glass dome they multiply, forming a blanket of heavenly light over the Wind Range.
There is no moon. The only real light is coming from the last sliver of white along the horizon. The sage brush fades from dusty green to black and the ribbon of pale dirt road that stretches as far as I can see, both ahead and behind, takes on an eerie glow. I feel the first bite of night air and hear the rustlings of nature’s second shift punching the clock. It’s a beautiful Wyoming twilight.
I’m twenty miles, if I have my bearings, from the nearest paved road, a few more to the nearest house. Thirty miles from the nearest cell tower or tandem truck moaning down the highway. Fifty miles from the nearest town. This is what I love, the kind of thing I live for, work for, go way out of my way for. To be alone under the night sky with a trout stream near by and the promise of another day. A perfect ending, to any other day.
Read More »The World’s Best Blood Knot
Chris Fave ties a lot of blood knots. About half a million a year.
You’d expect him to have a trick or two up his sleeve. I saw this video he put on Facebook and immediately asked him if I could share it. Chris uses a toothpick to tie a blood knot perfectly in seconds. It’s a pretty sweet trick.
Chris’s hand tied leaders are available in fly shops or on his site. He has tapers for every ovation. Check them out HERE. Thanks for sharing Chris!
WATCH THIS VIDEO AND LEARN TO TIE THE WORLD’S BEST BLOOD KNOT!
Read More »Bonefishing: Getting Ready To Fish
It’s time to catch a bonefish! Here are some easy steps you can follow to set you up for success.
Effective saltwater fly fishing, for bonefish or any other species, is all about making clean presentations. The more you can control the variables, the more fish you will catch. It’s as simple as that. An angler who is methodical and pays attention to the details always has the odds in their favor.
In this video I share with you the steps I take to insure a clean presentation every time I take the bow. It’s a deeper dive into how I prepare for success and why. I hope it helps you catch more bonefish.
BONEFISHING: GETTING READY TO FISH
Read More »The Bow Clock
If you can’t communicate with your guide, you’re fishing blind.
Communication is the key to successful saltwater fly fishing. Flats fishing with a guide is a team sport, and like all team sports, The team must work together to win. Your guide has a couple of big advantages, when it comes to spotting fish. He has keen eyes, years of experience and an elevated position on the platform. More times that not, he will see fish long before you do.
Once he has found the fish, it’s his job to help you find them. Your odds of making the right presentation go way up when you can see the fish, so the two of you need to be speaking the same language. Poor communication means missed opportunities.
To help you find fish, your guide will use a system called the Bow Clock. He should give you 3 pieces of information. A Bow Clock time, which tells you in what direction to look. A distance, which tells you how far to look. And the direction the fish is moving– left, right, toward or away. These 3 coordinates should tell you everything you need to know to find the fish and make the shot.
Keep in mind that things look very different from the platform than they do from the bow. What looks like 40 feet to you may look like 30 to your guide. Don’t stare a hole in the water where you think the fish is. Scan the surrounding water for movement and color changes. Point your rod so your guide knows where you’re looking, and can direct you. If he skips one of the 3 pieces of information, ask. “Moving which direction?”
When everyone is on the same page the system works great. Watch this video for more information and to see exactly how it works.
Read More »Fly Fishing Tips for Stocked Trout
My first memory of bringing a trout to hand with a fly rod took place back in the spring of 1990, on a seasonal trout stream, located 45 minutes north of Atlanta, GA. It was a far cry from a trophy trout at 10-inches, but that freshly stocked rainbow trout, touched my eleven year old fishing soul to the core. I’ll never forget the excitement I felt watching that stocker chase down and eat my olive woolly bugger at my feet. It felt really good for a change, not relying on that plastic blue can of worms to get the job done. From that day forward, I never looked back, and I’ve moved on to become a respectable trout guide in my area and I’ve fly fished for trout all over the world.
Read More »Save Your Night Eyes With The Right Headlamp
By Justin Pickett
Having the right headlamp makes a world of difference.
Whether you are floating the river at night or find yourself tying knots in the twilight hours of a spinner fall, one piece of gear that you’re likely to have with you is a headlamp. And if you don’t, you should. During the twilight and moonlight hours, a headlamp can be an invaluable tool to make tasks, such as knot tying, navigating, and casting, much easier. Having said that, the most important piece of gear is still your eyes.
Even on the darkest nights, there is usually enough ambient light to find your way around. The human eye is an amazing thing and is designed to react to lighting conditions and optimize your vision. Your eyes are vulnerable, though. At night, just one quick flash of a flashlight or headlamp in the eyes can take you out of the game.
High intensity light (especially white light) bleaches the chemical held inside the rods of our eyes (rhodopsin), which allows us to see at night. Once hit with high intensity light, it can take several minutes for this chemical to regenerate allowing you to see and function, and up to a half hour for your night vision to completely recover.
On the river, losing your vision for only a few seconds can be disastrous, several minutes is not an option. Treading around water after dark can be a risky endeavor. Falling off of a boat or losing your footing and taking a dive into any body of water can certainly put an end to your trip, or worse.
To avoid ruining your night eyes, and crippling your vision when you need it most, make sure to
Read More »Bob Stays Out Late
Bob isn’t a quitter, even when he should be. Maybe there will be a hex hatch…where’s my truck?
See more of Bob and the angling art of Andrea Larko on Etsy.
Read More »How To Make Your Fly Rod Cast Like A Dream
What Fly Line Matches Up Best With Your Fly Rod?
It always amazes me that there’s very little talk in the industry about how important it is to match your fly rod with the appropriate fly line. My recent visit to the ITFD Fly Fishing Show in New Orleans, I witnessed on more than one occasion, fly rod company’s matching their fly rods up with what appeared to be the wrong fly lines. If you spool up the wrong fly line on your reel, that $700 fly rod you just purchased will end up feeling awkward, and won’t perform the way the fly rod designer intended it to. Below are some quick tips on how to match your fly rod with the correct fly line so it ends up casting like a dream.
Fast Action Fly Rods
Stiff, fast action fly rods require fly lines with a more aggressive head design for optimum rod loading and casting. Since fly rods are generally meant to load at 25-30′ of fly line out the end of the rod tip, anglers often find it difficult to load fast action fly rods, particularly at short distances, unless they’ve matched their rod with the appropriate fly line. Both Rio and Scientific Anglers manufacture fly lines specifically for fast action rods.
Fly Fishing for Brown Trout in the Summer and Early Fall
Over the years, I’ve made the mistake many times of walking past trout water that I thought was too shallow to hold trout. Most of the year trout prefer depth transitions where shallow water flows into deeper water. These transitions provide shelter from excessive current and increased safety for trout, and locating them is usually the ticket to finding and consistently catching trout. However, during the summer months, brown trout particularly will often disregard these areas, opting instead to hold tight to the banks in extremely shallow water. They do this to take advantage of terrestrials falling into the water, but I think they also do it because there’s generally shade available and they instinctively know it’s a good spot for them to remain largely undetected.
Read More »A Truck Vault Can Make Your Truck The Bat-Mobile of Fly Fishing
IT’S HUMAN NATURE, I SUPPOSE, TO ADMIRE IN OTHERS WHAT YOU LACK YOURSELF.
As I look at the chaotic pile of fly rods, reels and fly boxes in the corner of my office, I am not at all surprised that one of the things I admire most in others is organization.
Organization is a skill my good friend Michael White takes to a new level. Whitie is a sales rep for Simms which means he pretty much lives in his truck. What’s more, wherever that truck is headed, there is usually some great fishing. That was the case the other day when work, and fate, brought Whitie and me both to the Jackson Hole area. Fortunately, we both had the same day off and were able to get out on the water together.
Whitie’s truck is nothing short of the Bat-mobile of fly fishing. In addition to upgraded off road suspension and the best car audio system I’ve ever heard there is an intense gear organization system. In the back under a huge pile of Simms samples that any angler would kill for there is a weatherproof, fireproof, combination locked Truck Vault.
Pull out the two bed length drawers of the Truck Vault and there, perfectly organized, is every piece of fly fishing gear you could ever need. Rods organized by single and double hand. Reels by line weight. Flies by hatch. Waders, boots, packs, everything you need to fish anywhere there’s a road to get you there. It’s a thing of majestic beauty.
The gear never needs to go in the house. It lives there in the truck, ready for action 24/7. There’s even enough room
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