9 Fly Fishing Gear Picks for 2013
Gink & Gasoline sees it as our duty to inform the community when we run across great fly fishing gear. With many of you having such busy work schedules, we know it can be awfully hard to keep up with all the new products being introduced. Below are 9 products we’ve heard great things about from our friends and tested out ourselves on the water. If they made the list you can feel confident they are quality products. Take a minute to check out the products that made the list.
Read More »Echo’s Prime One-Piece Fly Rod for Musky
For a while now, I’ve been noticing a huge increase in fly anglers talking about fishing one piece fly rods. Because I recently had the opportunity to test one, I felt it was only right for me to share the details with the G&G community. Prior to Louis and I hitting the road for West Virginia to chase muskies on the fly, I received a random call from Randy Stetzer at Rajeff Sports. He asked me how guiding had been and what G&G was up to and I filled him in on us fixing to pull the trigger on a musky trip. Talking on, I mentioned I had a bunch great fly rods on hand to use for the trip but what I really thought would be killer was targeting musky with a one piece fly rod. Randy responded, “it’s funny you bring that up Kent, Echo just finished designing a new one-piece series called the “Prime”, and I’d love for you to try it out.” Blown away by the offer, I gave Randy my address and the Echo Prime 10wt 8′ 10″ one-piece fly rod showed up at my front door the following week. Thank you Rajeff Sports for getting this great fly rod in our hands to test out. It’s always super cool when we’re able to spend time product testing during our fishing adventures. Below you’ll find out how the Echo Prime performed targeting musky with heavy sinking lines and 12-inch plus streamers. Casting fatigue is usually a concern for most anglers when heavy sinking lines and foot long streamers are involved. I’ll be the first to admit that I was a little concerned myself. Although I’m plenty comfortable with casting sinking lines, I rarely pair them up with flies of such great proportions. Surprisingly, the musky set up … Continue reading
Read More »Sunday Classic / Conch And Beer For Dinner Again?
By now I’m back from the Bahamas long enough to stop grumbling about the cold but not quite long enough for the line burns to have healed. I’ve done my best to rid the world of Conch and Kalik but if you can find any I suggest you dispose of it as soon as possible. If you need help, shoot me an email.
Here’s the recipe for the worlds best Conch Salad courtesy of the gals at Andros South.
Read More »Saturday Shoutout / The Very Cruelest Thing X 2
THIS WEEK, AN AMAZING STORY AND THE EVEN MORE AMAZING STORY BEHIND THE STORY.
An artful imagining of sweet revenge and the horrifying story that led to its creation, set against the backdrop of a rising Alaska river. Life or death, which is the very cruelest thing?
Thanks to S Banfield of “Go Into The Light” for some great writing and photography.
Read More »Fly Fishing Photo Caption Contest Winner
And the winner is John Gross for…
Read More »12 Tiny Nymphs that Always Seem to Get the Job Done
12 Tiny go-to flies for when trout fishing gets tough.
I used to shy away from fishing tiny nymphs during my rookie years of fly fishing. Particularly those size 20-26 midge patterns. Those intimidated me especially. When I used to look at those flies in the bins at fly shops, I can remember thinking, “how can the fish see these in moving water and is there some special rig you’re supposed to use for fishing them?” I’ve since found out I was nuttier than a fruit cake to assume all of the above about tiny flies, and they’ve become my go-to patterns when fishing gets really tough. Make no mistake, small flies have the ability to catch all trout, trophy fish included. In fact, one of the best times to fish tiny nymphs is when you’re sight fishing on water that holds lots of educated, mature trout. A prime example of this would be the “dream stream” section of the South Platte River in Colorado. I’ve had many days after the sun got up high in the horizon, that sub-twenty size nymph patterns out fished everything else in my fly box. In general, small subsurface
Read More »Sunday’s Classic / Driving with Fly Rods Rigged, Good or Bad?
I don’t know about you but I’m constantly driving from one fishing spot to the next with my fly rods pre-rigged. It’s a routine I adopted early on in my guiding to save time having to rig up my rods so I could get to the best stretches of water first. It wasn’t until I had a couple of my fly rods break at the ferrules on back to back trips that the thought finally dawned upon me driving down the road with my fly rods rigged could be a bad idea. Particularly when I was driving long distances down bumpy gravel rods to my favorite trout water. When a rod breaks at the ferrule it’s usually because that rod section was loose. Here’s where I screwed up and how I could have prevented my fly rods from breaking.
Read More »Saturday’s Shoutout / Urban Lines, Bro Code and Fly Talk Giveaway
This Saturday’s shoutout I showcase the video trailer, Urban Lines – Fish Where You Are, produced by TwoFistedHeart Productions, “Bro Code”, by 111 Degrees West and spread the word about the Fly Talk Rio Fly Line giveaway.
Read More »Fly Fishing Photo Caption Contest – T Shirt Give Away
OUR LAST CAPTION CONTEST WAS SUCH A HIT WE DECIDED NOT TO WAIT SO LONG BEFORE WE RAN ANOTHER.
Come up with a funny caption for this photo and leave it as a comment on the post. (please do not email entries) we will pick our favorite and the winner will get a Gink and Gasoline T shirt. The winner will be announced on Wednesday March 6th.
What is more important, presentation or fly choice?
A few years ago, I was lucky enough to have the honor to participate in a podcast interview for askaboutflyfishing.com. It was an hour long conversation over the phone, with me spending most of that time talking about trout tactics on my home waters. Just as we were wrapping up the interview, the host Roger Maves, hit me with the mother of all fly fishing questions…..
What’s more important Kent, presentation or fly pattern choice?
I pondered for a few moments, before I gave a him a reply to the question that covered my butt. If I remember correctly, it was something along the lines of, “well, you have to get the fly to the fish no matter what to have a chance at catching fish, but there are many times, when I’ve seen fly pattern choice the true deciding factor in whether you find success on the water.”
Since that podcast, I’ve been asked that same question by clients more times than I can remember. It’s kind of a joke to me at this point, and that’s because I feel the question is really a loaded question.
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