Six Cutties in a Hot Tub
Are you fixing to head out west for an exciting trout fishing trip?
If yes, and you plan to do some wade fishing, pay close attention to water levels before you decide on where to start your days fishing. Recently, Louis and I visited the Grey’s River in Wyoming for the opportunity to enjoy catching beautiful Snake River cutthroats on dries. Water levels were very high on the Grey’s and the lower sections of the river were too high to wade safely or fish effectively. We found out very quickly if we were going to get into some good fishing we’d have to focus our efforts on the upper sections of the watershed. That meant targeting the water above most of the tributaries dumping into the Grey’s, and driving 25 miles further up the forest service access road.
Read More »Sunday Classic / Snow Day
Ice in my beard, fingers burning, I haven’t felt my feet for hours. I
know from experience that it will be sometime around midnight,
standing in my shower with the hot water running out, before I feel
them again. My fingers are killing me, so I tuck my rod under my arm
and work them into the fleece gator pulled up around my face. I’m a
firm believer in global warming, but it’s a hard sell today. I have
fished on some truly brutal days. Alaska in the fall, Maine at ice out
in the spring. I fished in Colorado one day when it was ten below and
I could watch the ice form around my boot freeze when I lifted it out of the
water, but this day on the Nantahala river in the mountains of North
Carolina may be the worst. You may scoff at this if you live
somewhere like Wyoming or Michigan but if you’ve been here and seen it
you know, when cold comes south, it comes holding a grudge. It’s about
fifteen degrees at the truck. It feels colder on the water. The wind
is howling and the snow has tapered off to flurries but what cuts right
through the seven or eight layers I’m wearing is the humidity. It’s so
humid that icicles form, right out of the air, on every surface that
doesn’t have a constant source of heat. They hang grimly off of rods,
and tree limbs, forceps and drying patches.
I like days like this. I know that sounds crazy but any of the guys I
fish with will tell you, the more miserable it is, the more I want to
get at it. One reason is nobody else wants too. On a day like today
you can have the most popular water to yourself. By being outside
when no sane person will go, you experience things that those warm
sane people don’t. Another reason is that I find these cold days of
slow fishing can be punctuated by big fish. It’s that idea that gets me out of
bed in the middle of the night to creep up snowy mountain roads to the
top of Standing Indian, the third highest mountain in North Carolina.
Today, I’ve talked my buddy Kent Klewein into coming along. Kent and
I share a lust for big fish. I know it’s supposed to be about the
experience and all, and some days it is, but not today. You have to
work for big fish. For big wild fish in small streams, you work hard.
All of the really big trout I’ve caught I’ve had to stalk. It may take
me a year to catch a specific fish, once I’ve found him. One twenty-
seven inch rainbow I landed in a stream twenty feet wide and overgrown
with mountain laurel took over a year. I hooked the big hen three
times in that year before I landed her. With a fish like that you have
to do everything right and still be lucky. That’s the mission Kent’s on
today. He’s been stalking a big male bow in this stretch
Saturday Shoutout / SCOF and Pulp Fly
TWO COOL, NEW BLIPS ON THE FLY FISHING HORIZON THIS WEEK.
Southern Culture on the Fly is back with their unique brand of wit and wisdom, cool art and anglers. The boys at SCOF never disappoint. Best of all, it’s still free!
SCOF SUMMER 2013
Pulp Fly is back with Pulp Fly Volume Two. Pulp fiction for the fly angler from the best creative minds in the business. All the fun the law allows for $6.95
PULP FLY VOLUME TWO
There’s your summer reading list. Grab a beer and get busy!
Read More »Sunday’s Classic / 3 C’s of Trout Fishing
Here’s the Million Dollar Trout Fishing Question…. Are you putting enough emphasis on the 3 C’s in your trout fishing? The availability of Current, Cover and Cuisine most often dictate where trout decide to set up shop. Being able to consistently pick them out will ultimately determine how much success you have on the water. Furthermore, if you can find a spot that has all three C’s, you’re probably staring at a honey hole that holds the trophy of your dreams. Back when I was a rookie fly fisher and lacked knowledge, I can recall early on how I’d start out my day selecting a section of water, and go about mindlessly fishing its entirety from point A to point B. I had no understanding of the needs and survival instincts of trout and how it influenced their whereabouts. All the water looked good to my untrained eyes, and I’d spend equal time fishing the entire stretch of water, regardless of the depth, where the current and food were located, or if the spot had any elements of cover. Back then, I was completely clueless that there was a reason 20% of the water held 80% of the fish, and in turn, I spent way too much time fishing in all the wrong places. It was amazing how long it took me to figure out why I wasn’t catching very many trout. Don’t make this common rookie mistake, you’re better than that. Instead spend your time eliminating unproductive water, and locating and fishing productive water that has all three C’s. Doing so, you’ll find your catch numbers and the size of your catches increase dramatically. Below are basic descriptions of current, cover, and cuisine, and why all three are equally important to trout. Current Trout have a love hate relationship with … Continue reading
Read More »Saturday’s Shoutout / FinPusher & Trout Twinkies, Tim Romano Early Summer Slide Show
Today’s Saturday shoutout we bring you a cool read from Collin Carlson at Finpusher.com that talks about the fishing highs we all get fly fishing when we’ve got multiple species of bugs flying in the air and trout eating our dries like candy. The second is a photography slide show by Tim Romano from Fly Talk that showcases some of his latest shots on the water. Thanks for tuning into Gink & Gasoline and may all of you have a great weekend.
Read More »The Sugar Foot
I SPEND AS MUCH TIME AS POSSIBLE WATCHING BONEFISH CHASE FLIES.
If you do it long enough you’re bound to learn something. In the average presentation you want to lead and cross a fish. Therefore, when the bonefish first sees your fly, he sees its profile. If he likes what he sees, he generally follows the fly for a while before he decides whether or not to eat it.
I wanted to create a fly that gave the bonefish an incentive to eat. I wanted a fly the would change its appearance as the fish pulled in behind it to follow. I wanted to give the fish a visual trigger to eat. The result of that effort (and a fair amount of rum) was the Sugar Foot.
This fly has a light flashy shrimp profile and great action. The body of the fly conceals a bright orange egg sack that becomes visible as the fish comes around from behind. Does it work? So well that I call it by the same name I call my wife.
Watch the video and learn to tie the Sugar Foot.
Read More »Playground Earth All-Terrain Relay – BFGoodrich Segment #1
Three months ago, Louis and I traveled to the Miller Motorsports Park in Utah to take part in a three-day extreme off-road driving school sponsored by BFGoodrich. This was our first stop before we started the Playground Earth All-Terrain Relay, which was five different week-long adventures that took place over thousands of miles, all on one tough set of BFGoodrich All-Terrain tires. The professional instructors coached us in great detail on the specifications and capabilities of the BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO tires, and they spent significant time training us on advanced off-road driving techniques designed for conquering many different kinds of rugged terrains. We even learned how to manage the 450+ horsepower under the hood of the Ford Raptor with spurts of adrenaline pumping through our veins. Above all, we learned good driving technique and quality tires were the two most important elements when it comes to safe and successful off-roading.
Read More »The Smithfly Switch Belt and Digi pouch, Fly Fishing Gear That I Can’t Live Without
EVERY NOW AND THEN A PRODUCT COMES ALONG THAT CHANGES YOUR LIFE.
An innovation that suits your needs so exactly that you wonder if you’ve been talking in your sleep. Some gadget, like your iPhone, that leaves you wondering how you lived without it.
Well, I have been talking. For some time and not in my sleep, to every manufacturer of fishing packs I know about making a truly waterproof pack that I can trust and is large enough to carry my camera. No one listened.
As it turned out though, I was not the only one thinking about this problem. While I was talking to the big guys, a clever fellow in Ohio by the name of Ethan Smith was solving my problem. There in the shop at Smithfly, Ethan was changing my life.
As you might guess I carry an insane amount of gear when I’m on the water. Along side my fishing pack with its six fly boxes, eight spools of tippet, split shot, line dressing, water bottle, net, and so on, there are two Nikon DSLRs, an array of lenses, a flash, batteries, data cards, lens cloth and the kitchen sink.
This all started out in a backpack containing a waterproof Pelican case that weighed forty pounds. Try hiking, wading and fishing with that for a day. Not only was it killing me but it took forever to get to my camera and I missed too many shots. I eventually discovered small dry bags made for kayakers and they were an improvement but I had to carry four of them and they were so small that I couldn’t carry the camera with the lenses I wanted on it. I had to assemble the camera, in the river, every time I took it out of the bag.
Then I discovered the Smithfly Digi Pouch. The Digi Pouch is a super heavy duty dry bag that offers not only safety for your gear but amazing versatility. It works as part of the Smithfly modular system and attaches securely to the Smithfly Switch Belt. The system is brilliant in its simplicity.
Ethan figured out that there are guys
Read More »Sunday Classic / The White Tiger
It was a windy day in November on the west side of South Andros. My buddy Bruce Chard had tied up a fly he called the White Tiger. It was big and gaudy and orange and every time it hit the water the bonefish went crazy. We stuck so many big bones that day it was silly so when we got back to the lodge I asked Bruce to tie the White Tiger for a video. If your going bone fishing don’t go without a White Tiger. Check it out.
Read More »Saturday Shoutout / Skiff Republic, Orvis and TU on Teaching Kids to Fly Fish
My friend Marshall Cutchin spent a little time on the flats with his kids recently and wrote a really thoughtful essay about it. It got me thinking. Teaching kids is important. It’s important to them and important to the sport but possibly even more important to ourselves.
Almost everyone has a kid they can teach to fish but not all of us feel prepared. Teaching is a skill and like any other skill, teaching involves some learning. Fortunately, Marshall and a few other smart folks have given the issue some thought.
Here are three great pieces on the subject of teaching kids to fly fish.
Skiff Republic – Learning
Tom Rosenbauer – Teaching a Child to Fish
Phil Genova – First Cast, Teaching Kids to Fly Fish
Read More »