Saturday’s Shoutout / Troutsource & BeTheFly
This week’s Saturday shout I showcase Troutsource for its weekly fishing reports that focuses on several of the top trout waters across the country, and Chris Parsons blog, that provides very informative fly fishing advice from a veteran fly fishing guide. TroutSource Troutsource is a great website that provides fly fishermen weekly fishing reports for over thirty popular trout waters across the country. Anglers will find accurate information on the water conditions and hatches in real time, which is perfect for all us trout bums trying to plan a fishing trip abroad. BeTheFly – Chris Parsons Chris Parsons has been a full-time fly fishing guide for almost a decade now. He currently guides out of The Fly Shop in Redding, CA. His blog, BeTheFly, is one of the best for anglers wanting to plan a fishing trip to Northern California, and he also provides tons of informative blog posts from fly fishing technique to fly pattern selection. He’s currently writing a blog series named the “Magnificent 7”, which showcases the top seven fly patterns all fly anglers should stock in their fly box to make sure they catch trout anywhere they step foot in water. Keep it Reel, Kent Klewein Gink & Gasoline www.ginkandgasoline.com hookups@ginkandgasoline.com Sign Up For Our Weekly Newsletter!
Read More »Caption Contest
Back by popular demand, and because we enjoy it, it’s the Gink and Gasoline Caption Contest. Just leave a comment with you wittiest caption for this photo and next week we will pick a winner. The winner will receive a 14″ X 17″ giclée print of this image on archival art canvas. We’re sure you have some great ideas so let ’em rip! (I couldn’t resist) Louis Cahill Gink & Gasoline www.ginkandgasoline.com hookups@ginkandgasoline.com Sign Up For Our Weekly Newsletter!
Read More »4 Tips for Making Better Backhand Presentations
Most of the anglers that I run into on the river, that are beginners or of intermediate skill level, seem to always have a bad taste in their mouths when it comes to presenting their flies during their backcast.
For whatever reason, anglers that fall into this category, find it to be an awkward cast for them to make. Here’s what I find so ironic about backhand presentations.There’s really no difference between making a regular presentation with your forward cast and a presentation on your backcast. All you do differently is stop your rod and present your fly on your backcast instead of your forward cast, everything else should remain exactly the same. So why is it that so many anglers find backhand presentations so painful and unpleasant to deal with? Most of the time it all boils down to executing four simple steps during your false casting and presentation to pull off an easy and accurate backhand cast presentation.
1. Keep your confidence
The first thing I tell my clients that find backhand presentations difficult is to keep their confidence and imagine their casting down river. Just about everyone is comfortable making a cast on their dominant side (casting arm side). I then tell them to work out fly line with some false casts and instead of stoping their rod on their forward cast to present their fly, they’ll stop it on their backcast. The key is getting them to look at the backhand presentation as just stopping their backcast in the normal position like they do when their false casting. It’s really nothing more.
2. Pivot your body in the right position
If you have your body facing in the wrong direction relative to your target, you’re not going to have a good casting angle to pull off an easy cast. Try pivoting (turning) your body to the left or right before you begin casting. Turn left if you’re a righty and turn right if your a lefty.
3. Draw a straight line between your intended target and your forward cast.
The closer you can get to a 180 degree angle with your target and your forward cast while your casting, the easier and more accurate you’re going to find the backhand presentation to be. All too often I see anglers false casting down the middle of the stream trying to change direction during their final cast to the target. This takes your fly rod
Sunday Classic / Hold That Fish
Here are a few tips on holding a fish for a photo. First and most important, always respect the fish. They are a precious resource and we want to release them in good condition. Hold the fish gently under the peck fins and by the tail. If you squeeze him he will panic and struggle. A gentle grip will make your fish and angler more relaxed for the photo. Keep him close to the water and drop his head under for a few breathes every 10 seconds or so. Fish start to fade when they are out of the water and this will keep his colors bright. Be sure all of his fins are nicely displayed and not held back against his body or under a hand. Lastly, most anglers will instinctively tail a fish with an overhand grip but an underhand grip covers less of the fish and looks better in a photo. Louis Cahill Gink & Gasoline www.ginkandgasoline.com hookups@ginkandgasoline.com Sign Up For Our Weekly Newsletter!
Read More »Saturday Shoutout / Fat Guy Fly Fishing
Fat Guy Fly Fishing I Wouldn’t Lie To These Guys About Steelhead, or Cake. “Her last words rang in my mind over and over. Like a mystic chant. Like the answer to a prayer as their car sped away.” Funny, talented and completely out of their minds. You’ll love Fat Guy Fly Fishing. Louis Cahill Gink & Gasoline www.ginkandgasoline.com hookups@ginkandgasoline.com Sign Up For Our Weekly Newsletter!
Read More »Sunday’s Classic / The First Ten Seconds
Chaos and panic are good words to describe what goes through many anglers heads during the first ten seconds following a big fish hookup. The decisions you make during those first seconds of the fight will often determine whether you or the fish wins the battle. There’s lots of ways to lose a big fish and sometimes it’s completely out of your control. But one of the worst decisions you can make, specifically when a fish is making a screaming run upstream or downstream of you, is deciding to stay put and not follow. When this happens you better be ready to kick it into high gear and move your ass fast in pursuit. Otherwise, you’ll quickly find yourself with no leverage to apply adequate power to fight and steer the fish. It’s like trying to drive a car on a curvy road without a steering wheel, it’s just not going to work. Big trout usually only have a couple really long hard runs. If you can stick with them during the blitzing runs and keep good tension, you’ll often find the hardest part of the fight is over with. After that it’s all about being patient and smart until you can bring the fish into the net. Most big fish are lost within the first ten seconds of the fight. Be smart and make the right decisions during those critical moments. That way you can claim victorious in the end. Keep it Reel, Kent Klewein Gink & Gasoline www.ginkandgasoline.com hookups@ginkandgasoline.com Sign Up For Our Weekly Newsletter!
Read More »Saturday Shoutout / Keep an Eye on These Fly Tying Sites
For this week’s Saturday shoutout I showcase a few fly tying sites that I think you should be keeping and eye on. Don Bastian For those of you who don’t know Don Bastian, he’s a exceptional fly tier with a deep love for wet flies. He wrote the book Tying Classic Wet Flies and also contributed to the infamous Forgotten Flies book. I stubbled upon his Blog the other day and I liked hearing that he’s began a long journey to showcase some of his favorite fly patterns with photos and tying recipes on his blog. You also will get to see a glimpse of what he’s up to when he’s on the water fly fishing. Don spends a considerable amount of time teaching the art of fly tying. Fly Tying Bug The Fly Tying Bug, is a community made up of world class fly tiers; commercial tiers, pro tiers, semi-pro tiers, and the novice who want to learn form the best this hobby can offer. This is a great place for anglers wanting to find good deals on fly tying materials, search fly pattern recipes, or communicate with professional fly tiers. Trout Nut The Trout Nut isn’t a website that offers photos and recipes for fly patterns. However, it happens to be the #1 website in my opinion for aquatic entomology. If you’re wanting to research specific species of aquatic insects and see tons of macro photos of the naturals to use in tying up realistic fly imitations, this is the place to go. Jason Neuswanger is the brain child behind the site but he has lots of help from friends and other contributors. Bookmark this site if you haven’t already. It’s a real keeper. Keep it Reel, Kent Klewein Gink & Gasoline www.ginkandgasoline.com hookups@ginkandgasoline.com Sign Up For Our Weekly Newsletter! … Continue reading
Read More »Better Bonefish Retrieve
So you’ve found yourself a bonefish and you’ve made that big cast into the wind, now what? The propped retrieve is key to success. There are several things keep in mind. The speed and length of the strip, keeping slack out of the system. And what if the fish follows but doesn’t eat? Bruce Chard is back to help you get it all right and hook that fish! Louis Cahill Gink & Gasoline www.ginkandgasoline.com hookups@ginkandgasoline.com Sign Up For Our Weekly Newsletter!
Read More »Anchor Placement When Space Is Tight
You could write a book about anchor placement in Spey casting. In fact, I feel sure several have been written. Rightfully so, since anchor placement is the foundation on which a good Spey cast is built. For those who are not aware, the anchor is where the fly is placed in the water as the Spey cast begins. The rule of thumb is this. Your anchor should be placed a rod length away and forty-five degrees to one side or the other of the direction you intend to cast. Simple enough but that’s a little like the ten and two rule. It’s not quite the whole story. First off, the forty-five degree mark is where your anchor should be when you hit your forward stroke. This means that you have to take current speed and direction into account when you place the fly. There are other real world factors that come into play as well. One of them is frequently brush or rocks that interfere with your D-loop. There are some simple ways around this but rather than try to explain it in text, I’m going to let my buddy Jeff Hickman show you how to get the cast off when space is tight, in this video. Louis Cahill Gink & Gasoline www.ginkandgasoline.com hookups@ginkandgasoline.com Sign Up For Our Weekly Newsletter!
Read More »Sunday Classic / Georgia Man Catches Trout On Car Key, But Why?
Why in the hell would you fish that? I’m glad you asked. To prove a point. For some reason this year I have run into more anglers with attitude than usual. Ranging from the dry fly purest who think they walk on the water rather than fish it, to the Bonos of fly fishing who keep a sharpie handy for a quick autograph. Here’s an example. I was on a photo shoot a while back on the Henry’s Fork. I had a few minutes to fish and frankly, I needed a fish to photograph, so I asked the guide for a rod. He gave me a set up with a Chernobyl Ant, the fly everyone else was using to NOT catch fish. I didn’t have my gear so I ask if he had any streamers. The reply I got brought steam out of my ears. “This is the Henry’s Fork and we don’t do that here”. Rather than launch into a diatribe on what horse shit that is, I explained that this was my job and I needed a fish and may I please have a streamer. Within a few casts I had my fish. The guide was clearly irritated and insisted that it meant nothing. I was talking, ok bitching, about this narrow view of fishing to Kent, over a few beers, when he challenged me to come up with the most f¥€ked up thing I could catch a fish on. After a few ideas we decided on a car key. I liked this because I cary a key chain with way too many keys. So I picked out a key and tied on a hook with a marabou tail. To further infuriate the purest I chose to fish it on 30 lb cuda wire. We were floating the … Continue reading
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