Fly Fishing: Is Guide Competition Good or Bad?
A few weeks ago, I chose to do something I never would have done, when I first started guiding. I made a point to accept an invitation from one of my local competitors to go fly fishing together. In the past, I would have passed the invitation up, thinking the competitor was trying to learn secrets of mine, or worse, had a hidden agenda aimed at harming my business, but that wasn’t the case at all. For a welcome change, we set aside all the nonsense of us worrying about being competitors, and for the first time, we genuinely got to know one another. We spent the day working our way up a beautiful section of wild trout water, and we took turns fly fishing, while the other watched and told memorable guide trip stories. It turned out to be a really fun day on the water. One I’m confident I won’t forget for a very long time.
In the end, ten years of insecurities and false perceptions had been put to rest after just four hours on the water fly fishing together. We both realized that we’d done nothing positive for our businesses by black balling and avoiding each other. In fact, we agreed that we probably ended up doing more harm, since there had been plenty of times over the years when we could have helped each other out in a pinch. During my 45-minute drive back home, I reflected on the day’s events and it made me think about how much stress I could have avoided over the years guiding, if I wouldn’t have spent so much time worrying about my competitors. It’s ok every now and again to keep track of what your competitors are up to, but you should never lose sight of the most important element of your business, which is the services you’re providing to your customers.
Read More »The Magic of Soft Hackles
SOFT HACKLES ARE THE SHARKS OF THE FLY BOX.
Like the shark, the soft hackle is one of the oldest of its ilk, and like those ancient predators, it has evolved very little from its inception. Like the shark, it is a deadly design that could not be improved upon. Take, for example, the Kebari flies used by tenkara anglers for hundreds of years. Basically Soft Hackles with a reverse hackle. So effective, that traditional tenkara anglers only fish one pattern. Many modern fly anglers overlook traditional Soft Hackle patterns that are as effective today as ever.
There are two primary reasons for the effectiveness of the soft hackle. For starters, it’s the ultimate impressionistic pattern. It looks like almost everything on the aquatic menu. A fish who is looking for something specific is very likely to see it in a soft hackle. The second reason is, there’s just no wrong way to fish one. If you struggle with getting a drag free drift, a soft hackle is a very forgiving pattern. As long as it is in the water, it will produce fish.
FISHING SOFT HACKLES
As I said, there is no wrong way to fish these flies, but there are some proven tactics you can employ. For starters, dead drifting the fly as a nymph is never a bad plan. The Soft Hackle is as effective in this role as any pattern. That said, the dead drift does not take advantage of some of the pattern’s unique properties.
Perhaps the most common and most productive presentation for a Soft Hackle is the swing. The hackle has a tendency to trap an air bubble making the fly a natural emerger pattern. There are tying techniques, which I will go into, that enhance this effect. When fished deep and swung to the surface, the glowing air bubble inside the hackle is more than any trout can resist. One of my favorite ways to rig this pattern is to drop it about sixteen inches behind a Wooly Bugger with some weight in front of the Bugger. Drift the team deep through a run then lift them to the surface or quarter them down and across and let then swing and hold on.
When fishing from a boat, it’s very effective to cast a Soft Hackle straight across the current and retrieve it slowly, about four inches at strip. A hand-twist retrieve works well. This is also effective when teamed with a Bugger. Even more fun,
Read More »Fly Fishing in Gloves Gets Better with Time
DO YOU EVER FLY FISH IN GLOVES?
If you answered no, don’t make the mistake of thinking just because you tried fly fishing in gloves a couple times and couldn’t stand them, that you’ll always feel that way. Believe me, I been there, I used to be one of the haters myself. I’d rather have my fingers ice cold all day long than try to fly fish in gloves and feel awkward, clumsy and terrified I’m going to lose the fish of a lifetime. These things kept me from learning to fly fish comfortably in gloves for a very long time. It wasn’t until the last couple years that I’ve finally become comfortable fly fishing in gloves. In fact, it was my first steelhead trip to New York
Read More »When Rigging For Bonefish On The Fly, Less Can Be More
WHAT’S ALL THAT LINE REALLY DOING FOR YOU?
I got the chance recently to fish with my buddy Kristen Mustad from Nautilus Reels. I’m not sure Kristen ever fishes the same reel twice. And can you blame him? There’s always a new prototype to test and it is his job to never be satisfied with a reel. When Kristen lined up his new CCFX2 I noticed him doing something odd. He cut off about thirty feel of the back end of a brand new fly line. I had to ask way, and the answer made me rethink how I rig for bonefish.
“How often do you make a hundred and twenty foot cast?” Kristen asked me. “So the rest of the time, what’s that line doing? It’s creating drag in water when the fish cuts.” He makes a brisk gesture to the right with his hand to illustrate his point.
Bonefish are notorious for that. They will make a blistering run, putting you deep into your backing then make a ninety-degree turn. That’s often when they break off or straighten the hook. As they run at thirty-five mph, at ninety degrees to your line, all of that line is ripped through the water and the resulting pressure is far greater than the drag of your reel. It’s happened to me and it’s a bad feeling.
The pressure which the line puts on the fish is directly related to the diameter of the line. The thicker the line, the more pressure it puts on the fish and the greater the risk you will lose him. Fly line creates more drag than backing and that’s why Kristen cuts off the part of the line he’s not casting. Less fly line, less drag.
He takes it a step further though. Instead of using
Read More »Two Anglers Are Often Better Than One
You can’t enjoy camaraderie on the water by yourself.
There’s no high-fives, no passing the victory flask around, and worst of all, it’s awfully hard to snap a quality photograph of you and a prized catch. Wait a minute, I take the latter back. It is possible to get a good photo by yourself if you’ve figured out a way to strap a tri-pod to your back and you’re also willing to lug it around all day. That being said, the main reason I think two anglers are often better than one, is because it allows you to work as a team, and that generally makes it much easier to find success on the water.
Louis and I have had pretty consistent success fishing together over the years. Even during really tough fishing conditions we generally find a way to put enough fish in the net during the day to call it a win. The biggest reason for this is because we’re always working together to decipher the fish code. Fishing as a team, we figure out what the fish are feeding on, where they’re primarily located, and what are the hot fly patterns. We make a point to never tie on the same patterns first thing in the morning, and quite often,
Read More »The Economy of Wraps in Fly Tying
THE HALLMARK OF WELL-TIED FLIES IS NATURAL PROPORTION.
This is never more true than when tying tiny trout flies. Trout are visual feeders and there are three primary criteria that a fly must meet to elicit a positive response. It must match the natural in size, color and profile. Of these three, the hardest to match in tiny flies is profile.
There are several elements to a fly’s profile. It must have the appropriate style of wing and the right size hackle, for example, but where most of us miss the mark is in the proportion of the body. Primarily because most tiers, often including myself, use too many wraps of thread.
Using too much thread builds bodies that are too thick and often lumpy and awkward. It always matters but when tying patterns smaller than size 16 every wrap is critical. Using too many wraps to secure a material will cause awkward lumps in the tiny profile which make the fly look unnatural. That can cost you a discerning fish.
HERE ARE SOME TECHNIQUES THAT WILL HELP YOU TIE MORE NATURAL FLIES BY SPARING THE THREAD.
Make a plan
It’s easy to become task oriented when tying. When you focus only on the material you are tying in, you end up doing repetitive tasks. Plan ahead. Think of the fly as a whole and take a minute to think it through before you tie. You can often catch in several materials with a single wrap each, then secure them together as you wrap up the hook shank.
Catch materials in early
Materials like ribbing wire can be caught in as you first wrap your thread down the hook shank. This conserves an entire layer of thread. There’s no need for a thread base to tie the wire into, because once it’s wrapped around the body, it can not be put under enough pressure to be pulled free.
Lock materials with alternating wraps
Once you’ve wrapped a hackle or body material it’s common to use too many wraps to secure it. The most effective way to lock material in is
Getting In Bed With Bass, Part 1
Spring is here, which brings around something that gets me on the verge of a fish-gasm at the sight of it…
No, it’s not the first hatch of the season. Yea, there are caddis and mayflies popping off of trout waters across the country, which is awesome too, but that’s not why I’m excited. Nope.
Largemouth Bass are moving onto beds and the spawn is on!
Something fairly unique to the bass fishing world is fishing for spawning fish. While considered extremely taboo in the trout world, as well as other species, fishing for spawning fish on beds is commonplace, as well as one of my favorite times of the year. In many lakes and ponds, it’s the best chance at finding and catching the big females that prowl the waters. Fishing to big bass on beds can be incredibly rewarding, and also incredibly frustrating. Taking your biggest bass is just within reach, but you need a flexible game plan to be successful and here are some quick points to help you develop that plan.
When
Spring time (usually mid-March into April) is the prime time for spawning Largemouths. With the warmer days, the water temps reach that magic 55-65 degrees that begins pushing the males towards the shallows to begin prepping beds in anticipation for the females. The exact timing will vary based on your latitude, but
Read More »5 Tips For Technical Tailwaters
By Johnny Spillane
A QUICK RESPONSE TO LOUIS’S ARTICLE “TROUT ARE NOT SMARTER THAN PEOPLE, BUT THEY MAY BE SMARTER THAN ME.”
Trout have a brain that is smaller then a pea. No offense to Louis, but I’m positive that you can out-think a trout in a technical tailwater situation.
HERE ARE FIVE TIPS TO HELP YOU CATCH INCREDIBLY “SMART” FISH.
1. Go light and go small.
Fish are creatures of their environment. If they see small bugs all the time then you have to fish accordingly. 7X tippet and size 24 or 26 bugs are what the fish are looking for. Go down in tippet size before you switch fly patterns.
2. Match the sky
If you are fishing with an indictor, go with something that matches the color of the sky. If it’s overcast, use gray yarn, if it’s clear use a small clear or white Thingamabobber or yarn. You can also use a Slinky indicator. They are deadly with picky fish.
3. Use stealthy weight
If you are using split shot, make sure they are not flashy at all. Anything painted in a moss green is better then silver lead.
Understanding Fly Line Tapers and Diagrams
Buying a fly line doesn’t have to be a leap of faith.
For many anglers, fly lines and their characteristics are a huge mystery. They know that different fly lines cast differently and that some suit their needs or casting styles better than others but they have no idea why. What’s worse, when it’s time to buy a new line they aren’t able to make an informed choice. They just go to the fly shop and ask for the best line. Thank God for knowledgable fly shop guys, but do you really want to rely on someone else’s guess at what you will like?
If this sounds like you, I have good news. There is an easy way to get a sense of how a fly line will cast before you ever take it out of the package, and with a little experience you can quickly choose the line that’s right for the way you fish.
Fly lines have become really complicated in the last five years or so. Specialty lines have multiplied like rabbits and line companies have created lines to match every species, water condition and casting style. If you’re confused, you’re not alone. Fortunately, almost every manufacturer publishes line diagrams which show you, in detail, the taper of each line. If you know how to read the diagram, you’ll know how the line will cast.
BASICS
There are three basic types of line tapers. Weight forward, double taper and triangle taper. Looking at the diagram, it’s pretty clear how they get their names. The double taper line is a very traditional style of line which has a long level belly and a symmetrical taper on each end. Weight forward lines shift the weight to the front of the line and were developed to match modern fast action carbon fiber rods. Triangle tapers are a kind of hybrid of the two.
Think of the diagram as a picture of the fly line in profile with the thickness of the line exaggerated. The thickness of the line indicates two things. Where the weight is and the relative stiffness of the line. Where the line is thicker, it will be heavier. Different line materials have different stiffness, but within a given fly line, the line will be stiffer where it is thicker. Knowing where the weight is in the line will tell you how it loads the rod and the stiffness, as well as the weight, will tell you how it presents the fly.
ANATOMY OF A FLY LINE
To understand the information the diagram gives you, first you have to understand the different parts of the fly line and how they affect the line’s performance. Most modern fly lines have five parts. From front to back they are the tip, front taper, belly, rear taper and running line. Each one performs a specific function and its weight and length determine how the line casts.
THE TIP
The tip is the final word in fly presentation. The longer and lighter the tip, the more delicate the presentation. A long light tip will work to your advantage when
Read More »Shrimp Part 2: Cannula Shrimp
By Herman deGala This fly came about because I was changing out my cannula for my oxygen when I noticed that it looked like a shrimp. At the time I was also working out a grass shrimp pattern that a friend had asked me to take a look at for those double digit o’io(bonefish) from my home in Hawai’i. I adapted my technique for crimping the abdomen with a heated pair of hemostats from my mysis shrimp and just increase its scale. You can purchase cannulas off of the web get them from a friend who is on oxygen. As for me I’ll have a lifetime supply. Watch the video and learn to tie deGala’s Cannula Shrimp. Mahalo, Herman deGala Signature Fly Designer for Umpqua Feather Merchants. / http://flytyingclips.com Gink & Gasoline www.ginkandgasoline.com hookups@ginkandgasoline.com Sign Up For Our Weekly Newsletter!
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