My Tenkara Fix
By Justin Pickett
We had hardly settled into the lodge in Patagonia and already I’m itching to wet a line.
There is a pond in front of the main lodge, with a small stream meandering through the backside of the property, as well as the Chimehuin River just a hundred yards away, through the trees. To say that I’m dying to float a fly on either of these pieces of water is an understatement.
My clothes are still in my big Simms duffel. All of my gear is strewn about the floor of mine and Louis’s cabin. Dinner is being prepared and most everyone else is drinking wine and relaxing while enjoying the sunset. After all, we’ve been traveling for the past twenty or more hours, making connections and hiking from gate to gate. Apparently the airport in Buenos Aires is going through some “renovations”, requiring what seemed like a ten mile hike from the international terminal to the domestic terminal. Sheesh! Not to mention the long drive through some amazing landscape required to get to the lodge. So needless to say, to those that were relaxing on the porch, I probably seemed like that crazy first-timer who’s just jones-ing to catch his first trout in Patagonia, and I’m not afraid to admit that’s exactly who I was.
I started grabbing fly boxes and getting out my rods while I was explaining to Louis what my intentions were. I could’ve cared less about wine and dinner at this point and time. First off, I’m in freaking Patagonia to fish! Second, I’m a beer guy.
Halfway through rigging up my rod and reel Louis made a great suggestion. “I think that little stream would be a perfect place to use the Tenkara rod.”
What a great idea! The stream
Read More »Shea Gunkel’s Shot Glass Baetis
By Bob Reece
Baetis Mayflies are an integral piece of the food web in many trout inhabited watersheds around the world.
While their physical size is minimal, their population numbers can be immense. These significant numbers frequently draw the attention of feeding trout. These periods of responsiveness can take place during any month of the calendar year, depending on the characteristics and location of the body of water.
The wide spread nature of this insect should be a significant indicator to fly fishers as we make decisions regarding pattern selection for our fly boxes. I believe that it is essential to dedicate at least a portion of our available fly inventory to this small but significant bug. In our current world of fly fishing the market is filled with various Baetis imitations. Through my extensive time on the water, I have found one, year round producing pattern that I believe to be in a class of its own. Shea Gunkel’s Shot Glass Baetis.
When Baetis nymphs reach maturity, they buoy their way to the surface with the help of a small bubble of gas. Gunkel’s pattern takes this key element into account by applying a transparent glass bead in the thorax of the pattern. This transparent component placed in the anatomically correct location, perfectly matches the food profile seen by feeding trout. Additionally, the thin profile of the abdomen, downward tucked tail fibers and clear coat on the fly’s dorsal surface; round out a pristine pattern that satisfies the most selective trout.
Gunkel spent years tweaking and adjusting this pattern before it became available through Umpqua Feather Merchants. The only aspect of the pattern that
Read More »Steelhead, Karma and the Art of Showing Up
I know of no more mystifying fish than the steelhead.
Everything about anadromous steelhead is a mystery. An esoteric exercise in chaos theory beginning with an inexplicable choice to swim to the ocean and ending with an equally mystifying decision to eat a swung fly. The more we as anglers try to impose reason and method on these fish, the more they defy us. This fuels a sort of brain fever in the steelheader which, unchecked, can manifest itself in self loathing, delusions of grander, obsessive behavior, mysticism and other antisocial behaviors. There is an element of psychology to all fishing but none more than steelheading.
Swinging a fly for steelhead is wonderfully technical. The finesse, the attention to detail and the absolute focus required to do it right are staggering. And while all of the technique is absolutely essential to master and crucial to execute, it often has nothing to do with the catching of a fish. That’s where it gets really mind-bending. I’ve seen it time and again. Talented anglers making perfect casts and swings time after time to no avail, while another angler does everything wrong and is rewarded with a fish. I have personally been on both sides of that equation. It’s a real thing.
In the long run I am convinced that good technique prevails, but in the short run it can often seem random. In the end, there is nothing in steelheading more important than being in the presence of a fish who is ready to eat a fly. End of story. For those of us who believe we control our destinies, that’s a bitter pill to swallow. I firmly believe, however painful it is to hear, that the fish chooses us, not the other way around.
So what is the angler hoping to catch a steelhead on the swing to do?
The best thing I can tell you is, show up, stay positive and do the work. That’s what puts fish in the net. This year on the Deschutes Steelhead Camp I saw a classic example from my friend Mark Haffenreffer.
Read More »The Toughest Water in Wyoming
“HOW WAS YOUR DAY?” ASKED THE GUY AT THE FLY SHOP COUNTER.
“WELL,” I ANSWERED, “I FISHED THE TOUGHEST WATER IN WYOMING.”
Everyone rolled their eyes. This was exactly the response I expected. Working at a fly shop in Jackson hole, I imagine, you get to listen to more than a few boastful dumb asses. When I told them where I’d spent the day, they all laughed and agreed, I’d fished the toughest water in Wyoming. See if you can figure out what happened?
Read More »Unhook Thyself! Safe, Painless Hook Removal
IF YOU’VE BEEN THINKING, “I LOVE GINK AND GASOLINE BUT I WISH IT COULD BE MORE LIKE JACKASS”, THEN TODAY IS THE DAY YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE!
There are two kinds of fishermen. The ones who have hooked themselves and the ones who are about to. It’s a bad feeling the first time you put a big streamer hook in yourself past the barb. You feel pretty helpless if you don’t know how to handle it. I’ve done it many times and I’m here to tell you that there is an easy, and even painless, way to get that hook out. As a veteran guide Kent has had to do it plenty and he’s a master. He’s taken hooks out of clients without them even knowing it was done.
We’ve been wanting to do this video for some time. We kept waiting for one of us to get hooked but it hasn’t happened so on a recent float on the South Holston with the guys from Southern Culture on the Fly and Bent Rod Media I decided to take things in hand and hook myself so we could show you how to deal with it. I have to say, it was harder to get that hook in past the barb than I thought. If you listen closely you can hear Dave Grossman of SCOF almost lose his lunch.
So watch and learn and please,
Read More »Build Your Own Fly Rod: DIY Video 4
It’s rod building time with Matt Draft of Proof Fly Fishing.
In this installment, video 4, Matt will cover wrapping the ferrules, stripping guide and hook keeper. In addition to the basics Matt will share some pro tips for the trickier steps in the process. Our DIY rod is really starting to look like something now!
Check out Matt’s site, Proof Fly Fishing. As a special thank you to G&G readers, Matt will be offering free shipping on all of his kits for the next seven weeks. Just use the code G&Gfreeship on his web site.
BUILD YOUR OWN FLY ROD: DIY VIDEO 4: WRAPPING THE FERRULES, STRIPPING GUIDE AND HOOK KEEPER.
Read More »Spey Casting, The Sweep
Tired, lost, in a funk, something amiss about your spey cast?
When my fishing is dissolving into a casting malfunction and in frustration an early start to cocktail hour seems like a good idea; I just tell myself, lift, sweep, set, circle up and pull to the target. Repeating it to myself helps me to regain my focus and calm.
It’s a recipe that when put together in sequence creates a spey cast. Here is my attempt to follow Deneki’s blog post “The Lift” from February 12, 2015.
INTRODUCING THE SWEEP:
A good sweep is an intricate feature to a well performed cast. In the casting sequence it comes after the lift. As pointed out in Deneki’s post “The Lift”, it sets the ground work for an efficient sweep of the fly line, allowing the fly to set at the proper anchor point. The anchor adheres the front end of the fly line and leader to the water’s surface.
With the aide of the anchor the back loop is fully formed during the sweep to the Key position, the position prior to the forward cast. The back loop is formed 180 degrees from the intended target and parallel to the caster. In a spey cast, without an anchor we don’t have a back loop. A good sweep repositions the line from the top of the lift to the anchor. In all spey cast and styles we sweep to the anchor.
FUNDAMENTALS OF A SWEEP:
Start with the rod canted at a 35 degree angle
Read More »Improve Your Casting With A Dog
A good dog can help you catch more fish.
Most anglers never pick up a fly rod, other than to fish, but making time for consistent and effective casting practice makes a huge difference in your performance on the water. Even anglers who understand this, struggle to make it happen. We don’t get the same pleasure from practice as we do from fishing. None of us started fly fishing because we liked hanging out in the yard.
So here’s an idea to make your practice time more enjoyable and more productive. Take a dog. I’ve been doing this lately and discovered something I didn’t expect. Bear, the Great Pyrenees pictured above, has been living with us while his real mon is having cancer treatment. Like all dogs, Bear needs plenty of time outside. There’s a great park just down the street so I take Bear on regular missions.
So immediately I’ve cleared the biggest hurdle on the road to regular practice.
Making the time. Bear makes sure that I make the time. Like most dogs he wants to sniff every blade of grass in the park. I started taking a rod and some targets to pass the time. Bear gets some relaxed play time and I get my practice in. Everybody wins.
Casting to targets is OK practice for some fishing situations. It does give you the chance to focus on the fundamentals of the cast and improve loop control and accuracy. But as I’ve written before, it does not help you develop good target picture, an important skill in any sight fishing scenario. As I was practicing one afternoon, I noticed something about Bear. His sniffing reminded me of something. He’d get on a scent and root around following it, a lot like a bonefish will do when hunting on a flat.
I started making presentations to Bear. He’d
Read More »Chard’s Snapping Shrimp
IT’S TIME TO GO TO THE BAHAMAS AND CATCH BONEFISH!
Seriously, I’m going to the Bahamas tomorrow morning for the first week of the G&G Andros South bonefish trip. I can’t wait. And in the box of flies I’m taking along there is a healthy handful of Bruce Chard’s Snapping Shrimp patterns.
This is one of the first bonefish flies I learned to tie and it’s a s productive now as it was then. It’s a versatile little fly that takes almost no time to tie and catches bonefish on any flat in the Bahamas. And plenty of other places I’m sure.
It may be too late for you to go to South Andros with me tomorrow, but it’s not too late to tie some Snapping Shrimp for your next trip.
Watch the video and learn to tie Chard’s Snapping Shrimp.
Read More »Saltwater Short Shot: Video
A 100 FOOT CAST WILL CATCH YOU SOME FISH, BUT A 30 FOOT CAST WILL CATCH A WHOLE LOT MORE.
There are days on the flats when you never cast to a fish that’s more than 30 feet from the boat. When you don’t have sun, bonefish and other saltwater species can sneak up your skirt in a hurry. Even on clear days a good short shot will serve you well.
It sounds simple but it’s one of the hardest things to do well. If you think casting a fly rod 100 feet is hard, try casting one 10 feet. Especially a fast action saltwater rod. Making a short cast and landing the fly accurately with a straight leader requires a specific set of skills.
THERE ARE FOUR KEY SKILLS THAT MAKE THE SHORT SHOT WORK.
A good ready position
When fish are close to the boat, there’s no time to think. You have to be ready to present your fly immediately. That’s impossible without a good ready position. You need a good leash, nine feet of fly line plus your leader, outside the rod tip. This will allow you to load the rod with no false casting. You also must hold the fly in a way that you can release it cleanly and quickly with out it catching in your clothes, your line or on the boat. (MORE HERE)
A short stroke
You can’t make an effective short cast by lobbing the fly out in front of you. The only way you can land the fly accurately with a tight line is to load the rod. You can’t load the full rod with only 9 feet of fly line so you have to make a short, powerful stroke that loads only the tip. (MORE HERE)
A good target picture
There’s no time for strategy when fish are at your feet. You have to know where the fly goes without thinking. Put it
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