Kast Gear for 2013 – Extreme Fly Fishing Gear
Louis and I got the opportunity to check out tons of really cool fly fishing products new for 2013 at the IFTD show in Reno this year. This Friday, we showcase Kast Gear and interview Colby Hackbarth about his new additions to the 2013 Kast Gear product line. I think it’s important to bring up how genuine and down to earth these guys are, and also that they’re hardcore fly fisherman designing fly fishing gear from their personal experiences in the field. There innovative and attention to detail really shows in their products. Talk with them for five minutes, and you’re quick to realize their just like us. They’re grounded and have no ego. That’s a breath of fresh air and good incentive to do business and support this company. For more information about Kast Gear please visit their website. Keep it Reel, Kent Klewein Gink & Gasoline www.ginkandgasoline.com hookups@ginkandgasoline.com Sign Up For Our Weekly Newsletter!
Read More »Rookie Mistakes Cost Fish
It’s such a simple thing to check your fly.
It’s 6:45 in the back country of the Florida keys. It’s mid summer and the water is like glass. I can feel the sweat running down my neck and legs. I’m trying to be as quiet as possible as I frantically strip line off of my reel. My buddy Joel Dickey has cut the motor and is on the platform before the prop stops turning. As our wake bends the clouds reflected in the water, we coast silently toward a school of rolling tarpon.
The set up is perfect. I feel a little breeze pick up. It feels wonderful on the sweat soaked back of my shirt. The breeze, the light and the tide are all coming from behind me. Joel puts me in position. A fish rolls at eleven o’clock fifty feet ahead. I drop the fly just in front of him and strip once, twice and the line comes tight.
I strip set hard with my left hand, then lock the line against the grip and stick him again with my right. The light off of the scales is almost blinding when the fish comes up for its first jump. A brief flash and it’s over. A familiar feeling. Tarpon are hard to hook, the juveniles more so.
“Check that hook” Joel tells me. I strip in my fly and test the point, first against my finger nail, and then against my skin. Dull. I vaguely remember the fly hitting the push pole on one of Kent’s casts.
“Fuck me running!” I look at Joel on the platform.
“That was your fish … give me that fly, I’ll change it.”
It’s such a simple thing to check your fly. It takes less than a second to touch the point of that hook. After driving fourteen hours in the car and another thirty minutes in the boat to be fifty feet from rolling tarpon, and not take half a second to
Read More »Sunday Classic / Catch And Release Is It’s Own Reward
It was surreal and wonderful. I spent a week last year at the Penland school for craft, teaching a class on bamboo rod making. I was having dinner in the dining hall one evening with ten or so folks I’d never met. Eating with new folks every night is a sort of tradition at Penland and it’s a lot of fun. Every one was curious about fly fishing so I was answering questions and generally being the ambassador for all things fish related. It came up that I practice pretty strict catch and release. A woman at the table stated, more than asked, “what is it with you fly fishermen? If I’m going to go to all the trouble to catch a fish, I’m gonna eat it! What’s wrong with you?” I am often honest to a fault and with out thinking I answered, “fish are, I think, the most beautiful creatures that live. Every one is unique. I think that’s the real reason I fish. Just to hold them and look at them. If I didn’t fish I’d never get to do that. I like to eat fish but I guess I just don’t have it in me to kill something that beautiful. ” When I stopped talking the table was silent and everyone was looking at the woman. It was uncomfortable at best. “Oh fine”, she exclaimed, “I feel just great now” and left the table. I didn’t mean to come down hard on her. It was a sincere answer and she did ask. Frankly it kind of shocked me that everyone else didn’t see it the same way. Last year I had the pleasure of teaching my oldest friend to fly fish. He was so excited when he caught his first fish, a beautiful little brook trout. … Continue reading
Read More »Saturday Shoutout / Midcurrent Conversations: Paul Bruun
Midcurrent is synonymous with great fly fishing content. This week they started a new feature, Midcurrent Conversation. Candid and insightful interviews with influential people in the sport. This week it’s long-time Snake River guide Paul Bruun who’s under the microscope. Check it out! Louis Cahill Gink & Gasoline www.ginkandgasoline.com hookups@ginkandgasoline.com Sign Up For Our Weekly Newsletter!
Read More »Cool New Stuff From Montana Fly
Kent and I just returned from the International Fly Tackle Dealers Show (IFTD) in Reno NV last week. We got to see new products for 2013 from a range of fly fishing gear manufacturers, large and small. We shot some video and over the next few weeks we will be sharing it with you. We’ll start with some cool new stuff from Montana Fly Company, including the radical new Crabby Patty fly. Enjoy! Louis Cahill Gink & Gasoline www.ginkandgasoline.com hookups@ginkandgasoline.com Sign Up For Our Weekly Newsletter!
Read More »Tipping Good & Bad Fly Fishing Guides Accordingly
Despite all the content put out over the years, and all the communications between fly anglers on this topic, there still seems to be quite a bit of mystery still out there when it comes to tipping fly fishing guides.
I get many clients that tip above and beyond what’s expected of them. Other times, I’m literally crawling back to my truck with every ounce of energy zapped from instructing and putting my clients on fish, and at the end of the day I’m blessed with a cold empty handshake. Sometimes, there seems to be no reasoning at all with gratuity, most clients seem to get it, but no matter what, there’s always going to be those few that feel gratuity isn’t necessary or are uneducated that it’s customary. All I truly care about is that gratuity is determined and provided to the guide based on customer service and professionalism, and that with any service-oriented job, regardless of the industry, gratuity should be on the radar.
A few weeks ago, one of our loyal Gink & Gasoline followers sent us an email that voiced a few concerns about a fly fishing guide they hired on a recent float trip. Apparently, at the end of the day the follower and his partner were in disagreement about the amount of guide gratuity they should leave. Below is the email and question that was sent to us:
“I would like to get your thoughts on tipping guides. I just came back from a trip to Montana and mentioning no names, I spent a week with a very well-known guide. The trip went well and we caught a lot of fish but his equipment sucked. His Driftboat was a small skiff that he did not want you standing up in to cast, and his Skadden style raft frames front seat came off three times, almost pitching my buddy into the river. Any thoughts on amounts or percentages for tipping would be greatly appreciated.”
My Reply:
Here’s my opinion on what you told me, but keep in mind I was not there and did not see the water conditions or his boat equipment.
I’d say your guide passed with flying colors on putting you on fish and that should be a big positive. Depending on your skill level your guide probably had to work extra hard to keep you consistently hooked up with fish. On the other hand,
Read More »F-ing-A Yampa!
IT TAKES A FEW MINUTES TO SET IN, WE ARE ON ONE OF THE GREATEST TROUT RIVERS IN THE WORLD AND THE FISH ARE GOING OFF AND WE ARE TOTALLY ALONE.
Wal-Mart, Frisco, CO, 7:45AM.
I lift a small canister from an end cap display. “Pods, got it.” It feels empty. Kent’s hands are full of Gatorade and dip.
“Get six of those bitches!” he tells me, gesturing towards the display with his chin.
“Dude, they’re like fifteen bucks.”
“OK, four.”
The Personal Oxygen Device, or POD, is designed for flat landers who come to the Rockies skiing and think they’re going to die of a heart attack when they get to the slopes. They are handy when you’re hiking in to a high mountain lake, but that’s not why we’re buying them.
Kent and I have been in Colorado fishing for almost two weeks and we’re pretty well acclimated. We have spent the last couple of nights with my friend Peter in Fair Play, at eleven-thousand feet, while we fished the Platte. Today we’re starting the twenty-four hour drive home. The Pods are for the road.
We’ll wait until we get close to sea level, maybe Saint Louis, and suck them down quick for a legal high. We’ll get our blood-ox way up, put on White Zombie and crank it up until the door panels pop off. It’s what I imagine meth is like and it breaks the drive up nicely.
As I pull on to I-70 Kent is thumbing through the map. It’s just reading material at this point. We both know our way around Colorado pretty well. The Gazetteer is mostly for identifying public land and finding camp sites. “what do you know about the Yampa?” he asks.
“Never fished it, supposed to be awesome.”
“Well, what the fuck, why haven’t we fished it?”
“I don’t know, time I guess. It’s all the way up in Steamboat.”
Our eyes lock for a minute and we both dig into our pockets for cell phones as I exit for highway nine at Dillon. Moments later our wives are both getting the news that we will not be coming home today. I imagine they are used to it.
Kent searches the map for camp sites while I do some last minute
Read More »Sunday’s Classic / Halfback Nymph in High Water
Looking for a great high water nymph pattern that will consistently fool trout? Try tying on a halfback nymph, it’s an oldie but goodie that has produced big fish for me countless times over the years. The buggy profile of the halfback nymph does a great job of imitating a large variety of aquatic insects, and it’s large size is easy for trout to spot quickly in fast water. This nymph pattern screams “I’m a big juicy morsel, Come eat me”, and I always have at least a half dozen of these guys in my fly box. I often use the halfback nymph as my lead fly in my tandem nymph rig, and tie a 16-24″ piece of tippet off the bend of the hook with a smaller dropper nymph. You can also try substituting the standard peacock herl underbody with a more flashy dubbing material when fishing dingy water conditions. It will add more attraction value and make the pattern easier for fish to spot. Hook Size: 8-14 Thread: 6/0 Black Tail: Pheasant-Tail Ribbing: Palmered Brown Saddle Hackle from abdomen to throax Abdomen: Peacock Herl with Pheasant-tail folded over back Thorax: Peacock Herl Kent Klewein Gink & Gasoline www.ginkandgasoline.com hookups@ginkandgasoline.com Sign Up For Our Weekly Newsletter!
Read More »Saturday’s Shoutout / Buster Has Some Beef
This week’s Saturday Shoutout goes to Buster Wants to Fish, for Bruce Smithhammer’s emotionally charged blog letter to the IFTD. Smithhammer vs. IFTD This letter written by Bruce Smithhammer dictates from a retailers perspective why more and more retailers aren’t attending the annual IFTD show. Time of year, new product introductory timing, and demonstrating legitimate ROI are the main points of debate. It’s worth a quick read and makes a lot of sense. I’m hoping there will be a follow up post on Buster Wants to Fish, with IFTD’s reply. Bruce calls them out on multiple levels with powerful uppercuts and constant jabs that hit hard, and it looks like all of them are legitimate points based on smart retail business. Keep it Reel, Kent Klewein Gink & Gasoline www.ginkandgasoline.com hookups@ginkandgasoline.com Sign Up For Our Weekly Newsletter!
Read More »Sunday Classic / The Flies of Our Fathers
I recently visited my home town in Virginia for a funeral. Although the occasion was a sad one it was the largest gathering of my family in some time and as you would expect there was a good deal of nostalgia and sharing of family stories. This got me thinking about my Grandfather. W.S. (Pete) Cahill, “Dad” to his Grandchildren, was the man who taught me to fly fish when I was eight years old. He was an icon in our family. In our community really. He was an inventor. Honest to God, that was his job. He held dozens of patents. He was a skilled machinist and, in spite of limited education, the most brilliant and creative person I have ever known. He passed away a long time ago but his home has remained in the family and my brother moved in there a few months back. I knew that he had found a box of Dad’s flies. I couldn’t resist photographing them and like most encounters with my Grandfather, I learned a few things. I’m not suggesting that Dad was a great tyer. Fishing was a hobby and he was a workaholic. He loved to fish but seldom got the chance. His flies were utilitarian but effective and some great examples of the common wisdom of his time. My guess is that most of these were tied in the 1950s or 1960s. There are some classic wet patterns like the Royal Coachman. There are classical streamers. Maybe most interesting are stone fly nymphs that foreshadow today’s more realistic aesthetic while holding on to the art deco influences of the 1940s with their long sweeping tails and streamline design. Some are so simple you might feel silly fishing them but I feel sure they will still produce. The materials … Continue reading
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