Fly Fishing: 6 Sight-Fishing Tips for Shallow Water Trout
Fly fishing during the fall and winter months can really open the door to some great sight-fishing opportunities for fly anglers targeting trout. Generally, most of our wadable trout streams run low and clear from the lack of rainfall this time of year. If you keep your eyes peeled for trout and wade with extra stealth, there’s always a good chance to sneak up and sight-fish to the biggest trout of your life. With the brown trout moving up many watersheds in preparation for the spawn, and the rainbows or cutthroats aggressively feeding to put on weight for the cold winter ahead, the fall can provide fly fisherman the best trout fishing of the year. My clients and I catch some of our biggest trout during the fall and winter by wading in close to the big trout we’ve spotted and then making precise presentations to our targets. That being said, just because you can see the trout, doesn’t mean they’re always easy to catch. Some days, the trout will make you want to pull your hair out as you painfully watch your flies ignored over and over, as they drift within inches of the trout you’re sight-fishing to. Below are six tips to help fly anglers catch more shallow water trout while sight-fishing during the fall and winter months.
Read More »Sunday Classic / Keep Your Hands on the Cork
Like so many others out there, I’ve broken my fair share of fly rods over the years.
I’ve slammed them in tailgates, stuck them in ceiling fans and I’ve squashed quite a few trying to get in and out of my cataraft to quickly. It took me awhile to figure it out, but I finally realized I was the problem, and I’ve since learned to slow down and not worry about being the first angler on the river all the time. It’s kinda funny how just slowing down a few steps and taking a couple extra minutes to get organized, keeps those negligible acts of snapping fly rods to a minimum.
One overlooked fly rod handling mistake I see all the time by fly anglers, is taking their hands off the cork during the final stages of the fight, and moving one hand high up on the butt section of the rod in the effort to get extra leverage to land the fish. You never want to do this, because when you do, you change the fulcrum point of the fly rod and eliminate the fly rods
Read More »Saturday Shoutout / Rosenbauer On Dating
How about a little dating advice from Tom Rosenbauer?
In this brilliant interview our buddy Dan Frazier asks Orvis’s Tom Rosenbauer what he looks for in a woman. Let’s be clear, this is a joke. Dan, who is an evil genius, took an interview with Tom on the subject of fly tying and remixed it into the funniest thing I’ve ever heard in my life. It was a private joke that Orvis decided to publish. It’s great to see a company with that sense of humor.
ENJOY, DATING ADVICE FROM TOM ROSENBAUER!
Read More »Simms Warriors & Quiet Waters Waders
Simms is doing their part for those who protect USA.
The Simms G-3 Guide WQW wader is a limited edition wader which honors the men and women who have fought for their country. Of course it’s a badass Simms wader with some new special features and cool camo accents, but it’s more than that. For every pair sold Simms is giving $50 to Warriors & Quiet Waters. WQW is a group who’s mission is reintegrating traumatically combat-wounded veterans into society through fly fishing.
I caught up with Rich Hohne from Simms at IFTD and he walked me through the features of these great waders and the details of how the donation works. Hats off to Simms for this great work.
WATCH THIS VIDEO FOR ALL OF THE DETAIL.
Read More »Fly Fishing: Float N’ Fly Rig for the Fly Rod
This past week I wrote a fly fishing tactics post for targeting bass on reservoirs during the fall. At the tail-end of the post, I touched base on how effective a Float N’ Fly Rig (basically a nymphing rig on my fly rod) can be for catching good numbers of bass during the late fall and winter months. From late fall through winter, when water temperatures begin dipping into the mid-50s and lower, catching bass on deep reservoirs with traditional fly fishing setups can become extremely difficult for two reasons. The first reason is because bass start becoming sluggish as their metabolisms plummet from cooling lake water temperatures. With lower metabolisms, bass feed less frequently and they also move shorter distances to forage on food (in an effort to conserve energy). This is bad news for fly anglers because it drastically shrinks the size of the strike zone (the hot zone around a bass that a fly or lure needs to enter, to consistently trigger bites) and it makes it much harder for fly anglers to find, present, and retrieve fly patterns through these small strike zones. The second reason the bass fishing is tough this time of year is because a good portion of the bass on the lakes will move out of the shallow water feeding grounds of the fall and back out into the main lake deep water areas, where they’ll often suspend in the water column in 10-25′ of water.
Read More »2015 Holiday Gift Guide
IF YOUR LIKE ME YOU HATE MAKING A CHRISTMAS LIST. GOOD THING WE’VE DONE IT FOR YOU!
Whether your looking for ideas for your own list or shopping for that special angler in your family, we’ve got your Holiday gift list covered. Here’s a list of this year’s hottest fly fishing gifts. From stocking stuffers to to flat out mind blowers, there’s something for the fishiest of Santas. We even included links to make it super easy.
A word about those links. Many of them are what’s called affiliate links. That means this if you use them to buy G&G makes a small percentage. It costs you no more. That money helps us produce the content you love. It’s an easy way to support G&G. We know you have a lot of options. We thank you for choosing to use ours.
Abel Zinger- dependable, high quality, and unmatched attention to detail. $50 may seem a bit excessive to some, but is sure to prove cheaper in the long run after continually replacing ‘lesser’ zingers year after year.
G3 Guide Jacket- New design is 25% lighter. Dry Cuff sleeves keep you dry when releasing fish.
Simms WW Layering- Top- Bottom- The importance of proper layering may be one of the most misunderstood areas of fly-fishing. Do yourself a favor and quit wearing jeans under your waders. Step into some quality Simms Wader Wick Layering and get ready to enjoy a much more comfortable day on the water.COR3 technology in the fabric reduces smell.
T&T LPS-II- great medium action that is perfectly at home in a variety of trout fishing situations. While most at home fishing dry flies to rising trout, this rod is going to be just as capable tossing around light nymph rigs and small streamers when the time arises.
Scott Meridian- A high performance saltwater fly rod with a touch that will make you smile. The perfect mix of power and finesse, the Meridian will make a short, soft shot or drop the long bomb.
Orvis Superfine Glass- There’s nothing like the feel of glass and this rod is one of the most versatile glass rods on the market. The perfect rod for the small stream enthusiast.
Read More »Sunday Classic / Line Marking Shorthand
I’m told that Lefty Kreh came up with this, but I learned it from my friend Rick Whorwood.
It’s a great idea, who ever thought of it. As fly lines get unspooled and respooled it easy to lose track of exactly which line is which. This simple short hand system for keeping up with line weights is a life saver.
Mark the line on each end with a sharpie. Heavy blocks represent a value of five and thin lines represent a value of one. Just like “V” and “I” in Roman numerals. So a heavy block and three lines means this is an eight weight line. Couldn’t be simpler. Mark both ends so you can quickly identify a line whether it’s on the spool or on the reel.
I’m sure this will be old news to many of you but if this is the first time you’ve heard of it, you’re going to love it.
Read More »Saturday Shoutout / Stalking The Yeti
“Do you really need a Yeti cooler?” Asks Steven Brutger, of Staling The Seam.
Love them or hate them, the Yeti cooler is one of the biggest success stories in the outdoor industry. With sales, possibly equaled only by GoPro, Yeti coolers have become the new status symbol for the outdoorsman with everything. And like all status symbols, they don’t come cheap.
While a lot of the guys you see driving around with Yeti stickers on their cars don’t need, or often even own a Yeti, there are folks who legitimately need that level of performance out of their cooler. Steven Brutger, of Stalking The Seam, is an avid hunter, angler and ex-NOLS instructor. He has a pretty good grasp on what you need and don’t need in a cooler.
In his article, “Do You Really Need A Yeti, ” he does a great job of separating the facts from the hype. Reading this article could save you $300-$400 or it could just talk you into spending it. Either way, you’ll know if that Yeti on you Christmas list is something you need or just want.
CHECK OUT, “DO YOU REALLY NEED A YETI”
Read More »Airlock, The Better Bobber
With the Bobber Wars Roaring, it’s the perfect time to talk about strike indicators.
We all fish indicators, so why not fish a better indicator. If you like the bobber style indicators, you’ll love Airlock indicators. Their ingenuous post and nut attachment system is fast and easy, will not slide once tightened and won’t put a mark on your leader.
I caught up with Tim Rajeff at IFTD and he showed us the features and how to set up the Airlock strike Indecator. I’m including a clever video on how to set up the Airlock as an adjustable 90 degree indicator.
CHECK OUT THESE VIDEOS FOR THE DETAILS.
Read More »Fly Fishing Tactics for Bass in the Fall
In the fall, however, fly anglers should pay less attention to deep water on the main lake and start focusing their time fly fishing up in the creeks and backwater coves, found in the fingers of the lake. The migration of the forage food into the shallow water areas of the lake is great news, because it’s much easier to target the following bass with fly fishing gear. When the days begin to get shorter and we start getting successive nights with temperatures dropping below 50 degrees, fly anglers should start looking for the fall bass bite to heat up. Below are some 8 tactics I use to help me catch bass with fly fishing gear during the fall months.
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