Scott Radian Fly Rod
Scott Fly Rods had a great showing this year at the IFTD show in Las Vegas with the unveiling of their new Radian Series fly rods. The series not only took home the award for Best New Fly Rod but it also won Best New Product for 2013. In all honesty, I was really happy for Scott Fly Rods, because I felt like in a long while for a change, a fly rod that should have won an award, actually did. Furthermore, Scott Fly Rods marketing slogan for the Radian Series “Fast Meets Feel” is an accurate and meaningful description that’s truthful. If you don’t believe me, go out and cast one and see for yourself.
The first thought that popped into my head after I cast the Radian, was harmony. It’s an unbelievably crisp casting (fast action) fly rod. The taper design is spot on. When you cast the rod you can feel the butt, mid and tip sections of the rod working flawlessly together. It provided me with a deep feeling of connection to the rod, and gave me the confidence I could hit any target I wanted to with it. A lot anglers claim that a good fly rod should feel like an extension of your arm and hand. Not all rods provide that feeling, but in all seriousness, that’s exactly how the Radian made me feel. It casts well at long and short distances, and unlike most fast action rods, it roll casts pretty damn good. The aesthetics and components of the Radian series fly rods are top notch, providing everything you would expect to see in a high end fly rod, with some added extras. Below is a video with Jim Bartschi who talks in detail about the Radian Series fly rods.
Read More »RIO Fly Line Cleaning Towelette Wipes
Routine fly line maintenance and cleaning is something all fly anglers should get in the habit of practicing. Taking the time to clean a fly line after every 2 to 3 uses will greatly increase the life of the fly line, and it will also keep it performing at its best on the water. Remember, it’s not just the dirt and grime that builds up on fly lines while fishing that degrades the performance and life of fly lines. It’s also the harmful chemical residues that we often involuntarily bring our fly lines into contact with, such as sunscreen and bug repellent that cause the real damage.
Read More »Sunday Classic / The Albright Knot
The Albright Knot is a great knot for attaching a metal bite tippet to your leader. It can also be used to attach the leader to the fly line or any time you are attaching materials of very different size or stiffness. Here’s Capt. Joel Dickey, in the last of his three part series on better salt water knots, to teach you the Albright Knot.
Read More »Saturday Shoutout / Weird, The Secret Lives of Fish
I AM NOT EVEN GOING TO OFFER UP AN EXPLANATION,
rationalization or even a critique for these wonderful and twisted works of art. I’ll just say that I love them. Especially the ones I ‘kind of’ understand. And I call myself a fishing photographer?
So for today, suspend your catch-and-release ethic and enjoy,
WEIRD THE SECRET LIVES OF FISH.
There are 22 in all.
Read More »New Spey Products From RIO
FOR 2014 RIO HAS TAKEN ON REINVENTING THEIR SPEY CATEGORY OF LINES.
With new offerings in Scandi and Skagit heads as well as a couple of new running lines it’s an impressive undertaking.
The driving goal for RIO’s redesign is to simplify Spey lines and make them accessible to the angler who’s new to Spey. Selections have been streamlined with the goal of combining the best characteristics of some of RIO’s best lines. All of the new products feature a color coding system that make swapping heads simple and fast. Several of the new offerings use RIO’s new Connect Core technology for lines that have very little stretch.
My favorite of the new products is Grip Shooter. It’s an updated version of the hard nylon running line Slick Shooter. It has the same oval profile and shoots like a bandit but the first fifteen feet are coated with a positive grip coating, making it easier to handle when casting. Especially with cold wet hands. I got the chance to fish it recently and I really like it.
In this video Simon Gawesworth walks you through the new line of RIO Spey products.
Read More »Tenkara, the new Bamboo
A GUEST POST BY TIM HARRIS OF NORTHWEST-TENKARA.COM
Fly fishing began in both the west and east with a long supple rod, a fixed line, a leader and a fly.
This is how Dame Juliana Berners, Issac Walton and Japanese commercial fisherman fished. Time went by and man created the reel and split bamboo rods which were shorter and lighter than the old greenheart long rods. Fiberglass and then graphite replaced split bamboo and modern fly fishing as we know it came into being.
Then a backlash started, a move toward the vintage. Many fly fishers, myself included, began embracing the bamboo rod again and waxing poetic about the lovely reed, its natural beauty and soft feel. I fished bamboo rods for years on small streams and rivers and figured that this would never change.
Then came a real move back to the past, back to days before the reel was invented and people fished with a long rod and a fixed line. I discovered tenkara. Tenkara is a traditional form of fly fishing that began in the mountain streams of Japan. It was used by commercial fishermen to catch their daily load of trout, char and salmon found in these streams. Now tenkara is catching on in the west and seems to be the hottest thing since the bamboo renaissance.
Tenkara is fly fishing in its most minimal form. A modern tenkara rod is
Read More »Sunday’s Classic / Strike Indicators, What Matters to Me
DO STRIKE INDICATORS SPOOK FISH?
There is a lot of debate over whether strike indicators spook fish. I’m not going to beat around the bush on this one folks, because I truly believe that most of the time they don’t. Especially if you rule out flat slow moving water. Only when I’m dealing with really spooky fish, do I downsize and dull down the color of my strike indicators. The other 80% of the time, I think the fish pretty much just find them interesting, possibly a tasty morsel, or just another piece of trash floating over their heads.
What I really think we should be doing is looking at the flip side of the coin. In my opinion, we should worry less about spooking fish with our indicators, and worry more about matching the correct size strike indicator to the type of water and rig we’re fishing. In my opinon, that makes much more sense. Now I know there’s lots of you probably saying “this is obvious rookie stuff, Kent.” I hear you all loud and clear, but bare with me a minute, because I still find myself having to explain to anglers why it’s a good idea to carry different sizes and colors of strike indicators on the water. And as long as I’m doing that, there’s a need for this information to be out there for people to read.
Read More »Saturday’s Shoutout / MidCurrent Talks Musky & Towee Rivermaster SRO
This week’s Saturday Shoutout we bring you two great reads from MidCurrent. One’s a fly fishing musky primer and the other is a really cool Q&A piece with Captain Todd Gregory (Towee Boats master builder). It talks about the ins and outs of the boat company and talks in great detail about the Towee Rivermaster SRO (this boat I totally dig). I enjoyed reading both the articles written by Dave Karczynski. He does a standup job on the content he writes for MidCurrent. Thanks for supporting Gink & Gasoline with your readership we hope everyone has a grand weekend.
Read More »RIO Perception Fly Line Review and Product Video
RIO has made a big splash for itself this year with its new RIO Perception fly line. It was awarded Best New Fly Fishing Line for 2014 at the European Fishing Tackle Trade Exhibition (EFTTEX) and it also took home the award for Best New Freshwater Fly Line at the International Fly Tackle Dealers show (IFTD) in Las Vegas.
For the last few months I’ve fished it a good bit and I’ve guided with it as well. So far, I’ve been really pleased with the performance of the Perception fly line. Some of the new features have even made my guiding easier. For example, the SureFire tri-color system has made it quicker and easier for me to explain to my novice clients about the anatomy of the fly line (front taper, belly, rear taper, running line). Furthermore, I like that the SureFire system allows my beginners to look down at their fly line and quickly know whether they have too much line out to begin their cast or need to strip in. And I’ve taught my more advanced clients to use the color change in the fly line as distance markers. Doing so, it’s much easier for them to make the same distance cast over and over again, whether they’re pounding the bank with a streamer or trying to hit the tiny feeding lane of a lone riser on the far bank.
Read More »Fly Fishing for Carp – Kirk Deeter Book Reveiw
With technology moving forward at a pace that’s constantly increasing, it’s having a huge impact on the way readers acquire and digest information. Some argue that hardcopy books are soon going to be a thing of the past, and electronic book purchasing and the internet will be the future for readers. Although I won’t argue against this notion, for me personally, I’ll never give up on hardcopy books unless they disappear completely. I take pride in my book case located next to my fly tying table that’s crammed full of all kinds of fly fishing and fly tying books. Those hard and soft bound books are my trophies. They’ve done wonders for teaching and guiding me to fishing success on the water, and I hold a personal attachment to many of them. I like that I can highlight important gold nuggets of fishing information in the hardcopy books and I love the freedom of scribbling notes in the side margins when I feel the need (example: try this tactic in december on the tailwater or use this tactic on points 4 and 5 on the lake in the spring). You can’t do that kind of stuff when you’re reading a book on a tablet. For those reasons, and for the simple fact that you can’t easily pass on electronic copies of books to your kids with your added touch, I’ll always support authors that make a point to publish their writings in hardcopies when I have the option.
I recently picked up a copy of Kirk Deeter’s book, The Orvis Guide to Fly Fishing for Carp. If any of you are familiar with the author Kirk Deeter, it should be of no surprise to you that I read this book cover to cover in one sitting. For a guy that struggles with a serious case of A.D.D., that’s an accomplishment that happens very rarely for me, and also a huge compliment to Kirk’s writing. I know it’s probably going to sound like a horrible cliche, but The Orvis Guide to Fly Fishing for Carp in my eyes, is a book that’s written by a fisherman, for a fisherman. There’s a fishing story here and there, but for the most part, it’s packed full of the how to’s of chasing carp on the fly. Its well organized, carries an inviting writing style cover to cover and it has tons of detailed illustrations throughout the book to help paint a clear picture of the author’s explanations.
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