These Boots
By Justin Pickett
Tossed in the back of my truck for the ride home, they find their place amongst my gear.
Purchased for future fishy adventures, these boots will see their share of waterborne excursions.
They are made of synthetics; rubber, nylon, plastic, metal.
These boots wait for duty, standing out against the grimy gear strewn about.
Streamside. Strapped. Solid. Secure. My steps are confident.
These boots’ first strides along my home water’s banks are welcomed.
Lugging my heavy, clumsy feet without complaint, they do their damnedest to keep the rubber side down.
These boots have tread along the banks of waters big and small. The Piedmont. The Rockies. The Appalachians. Patagonia.
Freestone streams. Tailwaters. Wild. Not so wild. An impromptu, low country flood tide.
These boots have scaled waterfalls, hiked paths less traveled, and blazed a few of their own.
They have been there for the highest of highs, and my biggest of falls.
Read More »My Tenkara Fix
By Justin Pickett
We had hardly settled into the lodge in Patagonia and already I’m itching to wet a line.
There is a pond in front of the main lodge, with a small stream meandering through the backside of the property, as well as the Chimehuin River just a hundred yards away, through the trees. To say that I’m dying to float a fly on either of these pieces of water is an understatement.
My clothes are still in my big Simms duffel. All of my gear is strewn about the floor of mine and Louis’s cabin. Dinner is being prepared and most everyone else is drinking wine and relaxing while enjoying the sunset. After all, we’ve been traveling for the past twenty or more hours, making connections and hiking from gate to gate. Apparently the airport in Buenos Aires is going through some “renovations”, requiring what seemed like a ten mile hike from the international terminal to the domestic terminal. Sheesh! Not to mention the long drive through some amazing landscape required to get to the lodge. So needless to say, to those that were relaxing on the porch, I probably seemed like that crazy first-timer who’s just jones-ing to catch his first trout in Patagonia, and I’m not afraid to admit that’s exactly who I was.
I started grabbing fly boxes and getting out my rods while I was explaining to Louis what my intentions were. I could’ve cared less about wine and dinner at this point and time. First off, I’m in freaking Patagonia to fish! Second, I’m a beer guy.
Halfway through rigging up my rod and reel Louis made a great suggestion. “I think that little stream would be a perfect place to use the Tenkara rod.”
What a great idea! The stream
Read More »Shea Gunkel’s Shot Glass Baetis
By Bob Reece
Baetis Mayflies are an integral piece of the food web in many trout inhabited watersheds around the world.
While their physical size is minimal, their population numbers can be immense. These significant numbers frequently draw the attention of feeding trout. These periods of responsiveness can take place during any month of the calendar year, depending on the characteristics and location of the body of water.
The wide spread nature of this insect should be a significant indicator to fly fishers as we make decisions regarding pattern selection for our fly boxes. I believe that it is essential to dedicate at least a portion of our available fly inventory to this small but significant bug. In our current world of fly fishing the market is filled with various Baetis imitations. Through my extensive time on the water, I have found one, year round producing pattern that I believe to be in a class of its own. Shea Gunkel’s Shot Glass Baetis.
When Baetis nymphs reach maturity, they buoy their way to the surface with the help of a small bubble of gas. Gunkel’s pattern takes this key element into account by applying a transparent glass bead in the thorax of the pattern. This transparent component placed in the anatomically correct location, perfectly matches the food profile seen by feeding trout. Additionally, the thin profile of the abdomen, downward tucked tail fibers and clear coat on the fly’s dorsal surface; round out a pristine pattern that satisfies the most selective trout.
Gunkel spent years tweaking and adjusting this pattern before it became available through Umpqua Feather Merchants. The only aspect of the pattern that
Read More »Steelhead, Karma and the Art of Showing Up
I know of no more mystifying fish than the steelhead.
Everything about anadromous steelhead is a mystery. An esoteric exercise in chaos theory beginning with an inexplicable choice to swim to the ocean and ending with an equally mystifying decision to eat a swung fly. The more we as anglers try to impose reason and method on these fish, the more they defy us. This fuels a sort of brain fever in the steelheader which, unchecked, can manifest itself in self loathing, delusions of grander, obsessive behavior, mysticism and other antisocial behaviors. There is an element of psychology to all fishing but none more than steelheading.
Swinging a fly for steelhead is wonderfully technical. The finesse, the attention to detail and the absolute focus required to do it right are staggering. And while all of the technique is absolutely essential to master and crucial to execute, it often has nothing to do with the catching of a fish. That’s where it gets really mind-bending. I’ve seen it time and again. Talented anglers making perfect casts and swings time after time to no avail, while another angler does everything wrong and is rewarded with a fish. I have personally been on both sides of that equation. It’s a real thing.
In the long run I am convinced that good technique prevails, but in the short run it can often seem random. In the end, there is nothing in steelheading more important than being in the presence of a fish who is ready to eat a fly. End of story. For those of us who believe we control our destinies, that’s a bitter pill to swallow. I firmly believe, however painful it is to hear, that the fish chooses us, not the other way around.
So what is the angler hoping to catch a steelhead on the swing to do?
The best thing I can tell you is, show up, stay positive and do the work. That’s what puts fish in the net. This year on the Deschutes Steelhead Camp I saw a classic example from my friend Mark Haffenreffer.
Read More »The Toughest Water in Wyoming
“HOW WAS YOUR DAY?” ASKED THE GUY AT THE FLY SHOP COUNTER.
“WELL,” I ANSWERED, “I FISHED THE TOUGHEST WATER IN WYOMING.”
Everyone rolled their eyes. This was exactly the response I expected. Working at a fly shop in Jackson hole, I imagine, you get to listen to more than a few boastful dumb asses. When I told them where I’d spent the day, they all laughed and agreed, I’d fished the toughest water in Wyoming. See if you can figure out what happened?
Read More »Spey Casting, The Sweep
Tired, lost, in a funk, something amiss about your spey cast?
When my fishing is dissolving into a casting malfunction and in frustration an early start to cocktail hour seems like a good idea; I just tell myself, lift, sweep, set, circle up and pull to the target. Repeating it to myself helps me to regain my focus and calm.
It’s a recipe that when put together in sequence creates a spey cast. Here is my attempt to follow Deneki’s blog post “The Lift” from February 12, 2015.
INTRODUCING THE SWEEP:
A good sweep is an intricate feature to a well performed cast. In the casting sequence it comes after the lift. As pointed out in Deneki’s post “The Lift”, it sets the ground work for an efficient sweep of the fly line, allowing the fly to set at the proper anchor point. The anchor adheres the front end of the fly line and leader to the water’s surface.
With the aide of the anchor the back loop is fully formed during the sweep to the Key position, the position prior to the forward cast. The back loop is formed 180 degrees from the intended target and parallel to the caster. In a spey cast, without an anchor we don’t have a back loop. A good sweep repositions the line from the top of the lift to the anchor. In all spey cast and styles we sweep to the anchor.
FUNDAMENTALS OF A SWEEP:
Start with the rod canted at a 35 degree angle
Read More »Improve Your Casting With A Dog
A good dog can help you catch more fish.
Most anglers never pick up a fly rod, other than to fish, but making time for consistent and effective casting practice makes a huge difference in your performance on the water. Even anglers who understand this, struggle to make it happen. We don’t get the same pleasure from practice as we do from fishing. None of us started fly fishing because we liked hanging out in the yard.
So here’s an idea to make your practice time more enjoyable and more productive. Take a dog. I’ve been doing this lately and discovered something I didn’t expect. Bear, the Great Pyrenees pictured above, has been living with us while his real mon is having cancer treatment. Like all dogs, Bear needs plenty of time outside. There’s a great park just down the street so I take Bear on regular missions.
So immediately I’ve cleared the biggest hurdle on the road to regular practice.
Making the time. Bear makes sure that I make the time. Like most dogs he wants to sniff every blade of grass in the park. I started taking a rod and some targets to pass the time. Bear gets some relaxed play time and I get my practice in. Everybody wins.
Casting to targets is OK practice for some fishing situations. It does give you the chance to focus on the fundamentals of the cast and improve loop control and accuracy. But as I’ve written before, it does not help you develop good target picture, an important skill in any sight fishing scenario. As I was practicing one afternoon, I noticed something about Bear. His sniffing reminded me of something. He’d get on a scent and root around following it, a lot like a bonefish will do when hunting on a flat.
I started making presentations to Bear. He’d
Read More »Chard’s Snapping Shrimp
IT’S TIME TO GO TO THE BAHAMAS AND CATCH BONEFISH!
Seriously, I’m going to the Bahamas tomorrow morning for the first week of the G&G Andros South bonefish trip. I can’t wait. And in the box of flies I’m taking along there is a healthy handful of Bruce Chard’s Snapping Shrimp patterns.
This is one of the first bonefish flies I learned to tie and it’s a s productive now as it was then. It’s a versatile little fly that takes almost no time to tie and catches bonefish on any flat in the Bahamas. And plenty of other places I’m sure.
It may be too late for you to go to South Andros with me tomorrow, but it’s not too late to tie some Snapping Shrimp for your next trip.
Watch the video and learn to tie Chard’s Snapping Shrimp.
Read More »5 Tips for Beating Out the Winter Cold on the Water
I’ll be the first to tell you that I’m past the days of heading out into Arctic conditions to fly fish unless I’m outfitted properly. Call me a wuss or nancy, that’s fine with me, I don’t care how big the fish are, you can catch them. I’ve been miserable too many times over the years and I refuse to put myself in that position anymore. If I’m unable to enjoy myself wetting a line, there’s absolutely no reason for me to be out there. Furthermore I’ve had some really close calls with frostbite in the past, and frostbite is scary stuff folks.
Read More »Prolong the Life of Your Leaders with Tippet Rings
Leaders have got quite expensive over the past couple decades.
Recently, I saw a pack of two fluorocarbon leaders retail for $20.00 in a fly shop. That’s a pretty good hit to the wallet if you get out on the water to fly fish regularly. One way you can prolong the life of your leaders is to use tippet rings. The tippet ring takes the leader out of the equation by providing the angler a reusable anchor point to tie on tippet and attach flies. Climax manufactures and sells tippet rings and although I don’t like using them for my dry fly fishing because they can create micro-drag, they work very well for nymph fishing.
Tippet Ring Rigging Instructions
What I like to do is take a 7 1/2′ tapered 2X or 3X leader and tie the end directly to the loop ring. I then tie 24-30″ of 4X-6x tippet to the other side of the loop rig and tie on my tandem nymph rig. This keeps me from having to cut into my leader when I’m changing out flies or if I break off on a snag fishing. The tippet rings are also very nice for anglers that struggle with their eye sight up close, and makes it very easy