Sunday Classic / High Point
Tim looks like he has swallowed his tongue. He’s pale, eyes dilated, the corners of his mouth twitching. He’s soaked in sea water, eyes burning and red. His fingers digging into his seat bottom, he squints and stiffens like a corpse preparing for the next wave which drops the little skiff hard. It sounds like a car crash and sends another five gallons of water into our faces. Nothing, it appears will stop the next navy blue, six foot wave from hurdling over the bow. It’s a fraction of an inch from doing just that when the bow lifts. The wave seems to ride the bow up, hovering literally an eight of an inch from crashing over into the cockpit for a few seconds. And then the whole thing starts again. Norman Rolle, our guide stands stoic in the back of the boat, a buff bearing the Rio logo pulled up over his face all the way to his Smith wraparound sunglasses. His right hand is on the back of Tim’s seat, his left gently twisting the throttle of the outboard, accelerating up the waves then coasting down, steering us carefully through the cross currents and surf crashing into, and back from the wall of jagged rock that the Bahamians call High Point. High Point is one of the most inhospitable places I’ve ever seen. It juts into the Atlantic like a knife blade for a quarter mile, huge rough hewn boulders guarding it’s coast. It separates the inhabited northeast coast of South Andros Island from the wild and isolated south. It can only be passed on a fairly calm day, and today is not so calm.
Tim leans over to me and says nervously, “Jesus, this is bad”. I’m suddenly aware that I’m grinning and quite possibly looking a bit out of my mind.
Read More »Saturday Shoutout / Tim Romano’s Argentina Cast and Blast
Tim Romano is back from a cast and blast trip to Argentina and he’s showing off the photos over at Fly Talk. Tim is one of the best photographers working in fly fishing and there are some amazing images in this slide show. Sit back, relax and enjoy!
Argentina Cast and Blast
Book Review, “The View From Coal Creek” by Erin Block
I HAVE TO CONFESS I HAVE A WRITER’S CRUSH ON ERIN BLOCK.
I started following her blog, Mysteries Internal, a couple of years ago and the sound of Erin’s voice in my head became as familiar as a favorite song. When she first started posting about taking on the challenge of making her first bamboo rod, my interest was peaked.
Her writing was so vivid and honest, it took me straight back to the days I first set a plane to bamboo. The smells, sounds and feelings all came rushing back. I was sincerely jealous. I was not writing when I learned to make rods. What an opportunity, to document that process. What genius to seize that opportunity.
“The View From Cole Creek,” Erin’s new book, is the result. A day by day account of the birth of a bamboo rod maker. And born they are, not made. Having been through the process, I can attest to the authenticity of Erin’s account. It took me
Read More »G&G April Photo Caption Contest and Giveaway
G&G APRIL PHOTO CAPTION CONTEST & GEAR GIVEAWAY
Yes, that’s me fly fishing in January for musky in my boxers. I know, I’m going to catch all kinds of hell for this one, but it’s a perfect photo for a caption contest and giveaway. Let the smack down begin and submit your best caption for a chance to win the following:
Read More »Sunday’s Classic / Why I Always Carry a Backup Gear Box
Have you ever made it to the river after a two hour drive and realized when you got there, you had forgot to pack one of your crucial pieces of fishing gear? I’ll be the first to admit I’ve been that unfortunate angler plenty of times, and it can ruin a day of fishing. A few years back I was forced to spend a day on Depuy’s Creek in MT wading around in a pair of my Justin cowboy boots. It was really ironic because I spent the morning packing all the gear for my virgin fly fishing buddies, and I was the one that ended up leaving my damn wading boots on the front porch. Those Justin boots were surprisingly comfortable wading around in, but they had zero traction and I looked like a moron. I’ve never forgot my wading boots on a fishing trip since.
Read More »Saturday Shoutout / FlyFishing Oldies but Goodies
This weeks Saturday shoutout I re-shed some light on a few fly fishing articles that are oldies but goodies. All of these were good reads the first time around and they’re still worthy of our time to re-visit and read a second time because of their valuable information and entertainment.
Read More »On The Road to Hollywood
Kent Autographing the Tires Well, it may not be Hollywood exactly but it’s big news for G&G. Kent and I are living the dream! We’re excited and honored to be chosen for a segment in the film “Playground Earth,” sponsored by BFGoodrich. That’s right, we gonna be movie stars! In our own minds anyway. Here’s the scoop. BFGoodrich has flown us to Salt Lake City UT where we, along with three other teams of adventure athletes, are getting our school on at a four day professional off road driving course. Once we are are trained stunt drivers, and general menaces to public safety, we will hit the road as the first leg of an extreme relay race across the American west. The good folks at BFGoodrich are supplying us with a pimp F150 4X4 and some sweet tires and we are headed to Idaho and Oregon to fish the Owyhee river with a film crew from Camp 4. If you are not familiar with their work you need to check out the Camp 4 Vimeo page. These guys are amazing! They might even make ‘us’ look good. The Owyhee is gaining the reputation of being one of the best trophy trout rivers in the country. It’s name is being mentioned along side rivers like The White in AR. It’s apparently home to some big brown trout that are notoriously tough. Kent and I are excited to see the Owyhee and get a first hand look at some of those browns. The river gets a lot of pressure and we plan to put those Goodrich tires to the test and find some prime water that’s off the beaten path. Here’s where things get interesting. After we’ve done our best on the Owyhee, we will tear ass across a couple of states … Continue reading
Read More »Choosing Flies for Tandem Nymph Rigs
Today’s article is intended for beginner and intermediate fly anglers that struggle with choosing what fly patterns to tie on when they’re fishing a tandem nymph rig.
Most of our fly boxes are stocked with dozens of different fly patterns. It can be difficult at times to know where to start. I get the question all the time, “how do I know what flies to tie on?” The answer to that question is I don’t. Sometimes I can get a good idea by doing some bug sampling or observing the conditions on the water, but generally, I have to experiment with fishing different flies just like everyone else does until I figure out what the trout want. However, the key to my consistent success is treating my two-fly rig like it’s a buffet of food choices for the trout, and always fishing flies that imitate different types of food sources that the trout forage on. This increases the chances that the trout will like one of the food imitations in my rig and I’ll catch fish.
To make things easier for me, I categorize my nymphs into four different categories: Big flies, small flies, bright colored flies and natural colored flies. When I start out my day on the water, I begin rigging my two-fly rig with combinations of these.
Read More »Sunday Classic / Tarpon On The 4 Weight
Let me be clear on this…I am not a dumb ass. Well, at least not a big enough dumb ass to try and catch a tarpon on a four weight. But I did buy a new four weight reel the other day and a ten weight line. So I sat down to line up the two reels, which is my cat’s favorite thing in the world, and something occurred to me. I rig my four weight for tarpon. What I mean by that is that I use the same system for attaching my fly line to the backing that I learned when I started saltwater fly fishing. Before I started fishing salt I attached my line to the backing with a nail knot, like I learned to as a kid. Now I spend a lot more time whipping a loop on the back of my fly line with tying thread and superglue. Then I spend even more time tying a double Bimini twist in my backing and connecting loop to loop. But why? Well, it’s clearly a stronger connection but do I need that on a four weight trout rod? It sure doesn’t hurt when you find yourself connected to a ten pound trout on your four weight. You will be seeing that backing, I promise. Still, it’s clearly overkill. It comes back through your guides smoother and that’s nice, but still not a big deal. Here’s my reasoning, and this is why I use this method on all my reels. First, it’s just better. Second, and most importantly, I only change that ten weight line once a year, some times not even that. Why let the knot I trust to hold a tarpon be the first knot of it’s kind I have tied in a year? Knot skills are … Continue reading
Read More »Saturday Shoutout / Carp Fishing in America
THE WEATHER IS STARTING TO WARM UP AND CARP GUYS ARE GETTING RESTLESS. ERIN BLOCK OF MYSTERIES INTERNAL GIVES YOU THE HISTORY AND HYSTERIA OF CARP FISHING IN AMERICA.
Many things seem like great ideas at the time, yet most are only figments of a hopeful imagination or intoxicated faculties. Few actually take off with the vengeance of sprinters after the start gun. Few actually work or have legs to stand on. And although they are there if you look hard and long enough, success stories are few and far between. We cheer them on, those long shots. And I’ve always been partial to the underdog.
So had I been around in the late 1800s, I would have cheered on the carp. Facing pressured fisheries and depletion of native stocks, the U.S. Fish Commission (just as English monks had done in the 1300s) made the decision to import what they thought to be the most economical food source for their country’s growing population, the best return on investment: the carp. Having proved their worth over centuries in Asia and Europe, it seemed the most logical move to make.
However, what was not foreseen was the success of that idea; or rather, success of the carp and failure of the idea.
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