Sunday’s Classic / Soft-Hackle Hares Ear
This Week’s Sunday Classic post showcases the Soft-Hackle Hares Ear. Don’t just load up on soft-hackle pheasant-tails, do the same with soft-hackle hares ears. Photo By: Louis Cahill Guiding has allowed me the opportunity to examine lots of my clients fly boxes over the years. Quite often I open a fly box and just find a bunch of bream poppers and traditional old school attractor wet flies. I know it sounds crazy but it’s the reality in my region of work. I pause for a few seconds scanning their box intently, and try to give the impression they didn’t waist their money trying to stock their fly box at the local Walmart. I then quickly reply, “No worries, I’ve got plenty of flies that will work today for you”. Seriously though, even when I actually get an angler with a decent selection of usable fly patterns in his/her fly box, I consistently notice one fly pattern that’s absent time and time again. The soft-hackle hares ear is the missing fly I’m referring to here, and although it’s just as deadly at catching fish as its cousin the soft-hackle pheasant-tail, for some reason rookie and intermediate level fly fishermen aren’t being told to stock them. Try fishing a tandem nymph rig with a soft-hackle pheasant-tail trailed behind by a soft-hackle hares ear next time you’re on the water. Day in and day out one of these patterns will be on the trout menu because of their impressionistic buggy features. Once you find out which pattern the fish prefer you can then fine tune your nymph rig further. Keep it Reel, Kent Klewein Gink & Gasoline www.ginkandgasoline.com hookups@ginkandgasoline.com Sign Up For Our Weekly Newsletter!
Read More »Saturday Shoutout / Buster Wants To Fish & Trout Underground
This week’s Saturday Shoutout goes to two blogs we follow religiously. Both Buster Wants to Fish and Trout Underground weigh in on Hatchery Steelhead in their own ways. Buster’s friendly reminder – Hatchery Steelhead are Tasty We give mad props to Buster Wants to Fish contributor G_Smolt, for his creative photo and interesting read about hatchery steelhead. It was by far one of the most unique reads for me of the week. More Proof: Hatchery Salmon & Steelhead actually damaging wild fish populations Tom Chandler of Trout Underground never disappoints with his superhuman ability to find the latest news and intriguing fly fishing reads. This post really gets you thinking about fisheries as a whole and what’s the best option. After-all, some rivers just aren’t suitable for wild reproduction and can only provide recreational fishing through stocking programs. Others seem they would be much better off if we would drop the stocking efforts all together and give the wild fish a chance to reproduce and increase populations on their own without us interfering. Keep it Reel, Kent Klewein Gink & Gasoline www.ginkandgasoline.com hookups@ginkandgasoline.com Sign Up For Our Weekly Newsletter!
Read More »Hungry, Hungry Bonefish
One of the things that makes bonefish so much fun is their generous nature.
When bonefish are feeding they are some motivated little dudes. If you can get a fly in front of them the odds are good that it will get eaten without a lot of scrutiny. This is not to say that’s always easy. Often the conditions make it nearly impossible. Making a sixty foot backhand cast, into thirty mile per hour wind, to a fish that’s booking across a flat, and changing direction unpredictably is plenty challenging. All I’m saying is that once you pull it off, the bonefish will likely reward you for your trouble.
I was at the World Wide Sportsman in Islamorada the other day to pick up a few essentials. They have a big saltwater aquarium with all of the popular Keys sport fish represented. I arrived about five minutes before feeding time and the natives were getting restless. This little bonefish had himself whipped into a frenzy. Watch this video and you’ll see what I mean. Remember there is no food yet, he just knows it’s time and he’s losing his cool. All the other species of fish are chill but Mr. Bone is literally trying to get out of the tank and chase down some grub.
http://youtu.be/PfFX337lU_M
Ok, that’s fun but it also tells you a lot about this fish and his eating habits. He’s ready to stick his face anywhere there’s food and he wants to be there first. A good lesson here, for example, is how to fish to a school of bonefish. The lead fish in a school will always be the biggest. He’s the one you want to catch, right? When you drop a fly in front of that school, this is the attitude your going to see when they come after it. If you want to catch that lead fish you had better
Read More »The Steelhead Bullet
The Steelhead bullet is a controversial fly. Some people don’t even think it’s a fly at all because it’s tied on a jig head. You may be able to argue it’s pedigree, but you can’t argue with the results. On a recent steelhead trip we were faced with tough conditions. The water was high and stained and the temperatures were low and numbing. I spoke to my friend Rick Whorwood who had just fished out target water and he described the trip as a waist of time. This had me worried. Rick is a much better Spey fisherman than me and if it was tough for him, it was tough. I knew I’d need to be creative, so I decided to tie up some steelhead bullets. This fly gets down quick thanks to the 1/16 oz jig head and will produce fish nymphed under an indicator or on the swing. The bright color and great action are hard for a fish to resist. This 31″ steelhead couldn’t and she made my trip. Watch the video to learn how to tie this simple but effective pattern. It just might save your next trip. Louis Cahill Gink & Gasoline www.ginkandgasoline.com hookups@ginkandgasoline.com Sign Up For Our Weekly Newsletter!
Read More »A Gift for the Fly Tying Enthusiast Who has Everything
I’m always looking for ways to make my fly tying more efficient so I can whip out a few more flies when I sit down at the tying bench. Sometimes the best ideas come from my friends and family who don’t even fly fish. I was completely surprised these holidays when my wonderful Mother-in-law handed me this magnetic parts tray to open up Christmas morning. What a brilliant idea on her part to find a way to help me keep track of my terminal tying materials and finished flies. God knows I spend a fair amount of time on my hands and knees searching for items falling off my tying bench. No more will I be constantly dropping my hooks, beads and other materials on the floor when I’m tying flies. For any fly shop owners out there that happen to see this, I recommend you pick some of these guys up and stack them next to the cash register. Keep it Reel, Kent Klewein Gink & Gasoline www.ginkandgasoline.com hookups@ginkandgasoline.com Sign Up For Our Weekly Newsletter!
Read More »Sunday Classic / The Holy Moses
That day on the White River in AR Kent and I saw the biggest trout either of us had ever seen. I’m not gonna say how big because you won’t believe me, but this is the fly Kent tied that night and that should give you and idea. Authors Note: That bottle of Stranahan’s Whiskey was better than half full when we started tying. Louis Cahill Gink & Gasoline www.ginkandgasoline.com hookups@ginkandgasoline.com Sign Up For Our Weekly Newsletter!
Read More »Saturday Shoutout / The Best of Deneki
Our Friends at Deneki Outdoors have put together their most popular bonefish posts for the last year. Now that’s worth a read! Deneki’s Top Bonefishing Posts of 2011 Louis Cahill Gink & Gasoline www.ginkandgasoline.com hookups@ginkandgasoline.com Sign Up For Our Weekly Newsletter!
Read More »Tying the Chronic Egg Pattern
Sometimes in fly tying it’s the little things that really make a difference in the quality of your finished fly patterns. When I first started fly tying I always hated the look of my egg patterns because I could always see my thread down the center of my finished eggs or they wouldn’t end up symetrical. They caught fish but they weren’t as pretty as the egg patterns in the fly shops and it used to drive me crazy. Since then I’ve adopted using a really cool fly tying tool called an Egg Yarn Dispenser . It allows me to tie my egg patterns super quick and I get true consistency from one fly to the next. Watch this quick fly tying video of me tying my chronic egg pattern. Hopefully you’ll pick up a couple tips to improve your own egg patterns. Keep it Reel, Kent Klewein Gink & Gasoline www.ginkandgasoline.com hookups@ginkandgasoline.com Sign Up For Our Weekly Newsletter!
Read More »Rudolph The Red Nosed Key Deer
This photo was captured early this morning after a flying Key Deer made an unscheduled landing in Big Spanish Channel. It has been widely rumored that the little buck was aiming for Big Pine Key but missed due to too many holiday eggnogs. The deer was last seen swimming across the channel to Big Pine. We have no further information as the Big Pine Police Department will not return our calls. Louis Cahill Gink & Gasoline www.ginkandgasoline.com hookups@ginkandgasoline.com Sign Up For Our Weekly Newsletter!
Read More »Sunday Classic / At What Point Does a Fly Become A Lure
Here’s our Sunday Classic for the week in case you missed it a couple months ago. This fly/lure is a complete joke. Seriously though, at what point does a fly become a lure? Are you carrying a streamer box full of lures? Every year new fly patterns burst onto the scene far from the norm, pushing the boundaries and raising the question, are these true fly patterns or just camouflaged lures? First off, let me get something straight right out of the gates, I”m not one of those traditionalist haters, trying to point the finger. As Rodney Dangerfield quoted in the comedy classic movie, Back to School, “I’m not a fighter, I’m a lover”. I thoroughly enjoy experimenting with materials traditionally only used in conventional tackle to come up with new innovative fly patterns. There’s no doubt conventional lures are amazing fish catchers, and the way I look at this topic is very simple. If I can figure out a way to mimic the action or appeal that conventional lures have in my fly pattern designs, I’m going to gain a significant edge over fooling big educated fish. However, I do understand whether I like it or not, we’re going to have to draw the line at some point and define what classifies and distinguishes a fly from a lure. Thankfully for me, constantly evolving technology continues to open previously locked doors, and in turn, categorizes most of my creations as legitimate flies. Take spinner and propeller blades for instance. Henry Cowen’s Coyote striper fly uses a conventional blade in it’s design. It’s been accepted in the industry as a fly, and has also become one of the most popular searching patterns for striped bass and other warm water species. Montana Fly Company sells a streamer pattern called the Kingfisher’s … Continue reading
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