8 Tips On Photographing Fish Without Harming Them
You can take better photos of the fish you catch and still practice good Catch-and-Release.
Is the fly fishing media turning anglers off to catch-and-release? I received a pretty agitated email form a reader the other day. Thankfully, he was not responding to anything written here on G&G but from this excerpt you can see he was pretty fired up and honestly, so am I.
“All of the blogs and articles I am beginning to see pop up everywhere telling me that catch and release is harmful to the fish, and I’m doing it wrong, and I’m killing all the poor fragile little
fishies, and I should never take the fish out of the water, and blah, Bah, BLAH!!!! AAARRRGGGGHHH!!! Are you kidding me? Now I can’t even take a quick cheesy grip and grin photo with a fish without being ‘that guy?’ ”
Our friend suggested that he releases 99% of the fish he catches and I gather from his email that his heart is in the right place. I have no way of knowing how good his actual catch-and-release practices are but he’s clearly trying to do the right thing. It’s also clear that he’s feeling a little harassed.
Catch-and-release is a topic that’s dear to my heart and it’s been a while since I have written about it. I thought I’d take this opportunity to try and put a friendlier face on what the fly fishing media is trying to accomplish.
THIS IS NOT A SERMON!
So what’s going on in the fly fishing media?
I imagine that a lot of writers in the field feel the same way I do. We spend a lot of time as ambassadors of the sport and we introduce a lot of new folks to the water we love, and share. While I firmly believe in that mission, I do feel morally obliged to do everything in power to not screw it up for everyone. It’s a topic I lose sleep over. If I have a hand in creating more, and more effective, anglers then I am duty bound to make them more responsible anglers.
So the result is that you, the reader, get preached to a whole bunch about how you handle fish. Recently a lot of that preaching has been aimed at demonizing the photographing of fish. That’s not really fair. Do a lot fish get injured in the process of saying cheese? You bet they do, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
If you are not going to photograph a fish, and every fish does not need to be photographed, then it’s always best to release it without taking it from the water or even handling it. I use the Rising Crocodile toll for just this purpose. But it’s not realistic to expect anglers to release every fish without a photo. That’s the bargain that makes C&R work.
Rather than take the, currently popular, stance that you can’t photograph fish without killing them, I’m going to give you some pointers that will not only help you protect fish but take better photos.
8 TIPS FOR TAKING GREAT PHOTOS WHILE PRACTICING GOOD CATCH-AND-RELEASE
Read More »10 Tips to Keep You Catching Fish During Your Fly Fishing Travels
It’s easy to get out of your game when you’re traveling and fly fishing a new piece of water.
It has happened to me plenty of times, where I find myself fly fishing and going against all my fishing catching principles. Stick to what works for you on your home water and keep your confidence, and you’ll be landing beautiful fish in no time. Below are ten principles that I always make sure I live by when I’m fly fishing abroad on unfamiliar waters.
1. Spend your time fishing productive water, don’t waist your time fishing subpar water.
2. Look for the 3 C’s (Cover, Current, Cusine) to locate the hotspots.
3. Always position yourself where you can get your best presentation and drift.
4. Have your fly rig setup correctly for the water you’re fishing (nymph rig set correctly, long enough leader for spooky risers, correct tippet size, ect).
5. Take the time to figure out the food source the fish are keying in on. Take regular bug samplings throughout the day and keep an eye out for aquatic insects on the water.
6. Always fish with confidence and fish hard. Persistence usually pays off.
7. Don’t be afraid to move on if the water your fishing is slow. Even pack up and
Read More »Why Gink And Gasoline?
I get that question all the time, it’s time I answered it.
When my buddy Kent and I started Gink and Gasoline we were driving all over the country chasing fish on the fly. Things were simpler then and a hell of a lot of fun. We were living out of my Subaru Forester, packed to the gils with camping and fishing gear. and about 200 CDs. One of those CDs was “Dirt Track Date” by the band Southern Culture on the Skids, who come from Chapel Hill, NC. Just down the road from where I grew up. They just sound like home to me and I wore that CD out.
One of my favorite songs on that record is “Fried Chicken and Gasoline.” It’s about being on the road for so long everything smells like fried chicken and gasoline. That song really captured what were doing, except the fundamental components of our enterprise were Gink and Gasoline. The name stuck.
We didn’t know it at the time but
Read More »Checking Your Attitude
IF YOU READ THE COMMENTS ON OUR POSTS YOU’LL OCCASIONALLY SEE THE NAME TOM CAHILL. THAT’S MY BIG BROTHER.
Tom lives in Virginia. Too far away for us to fish together often but too close to have a good excuse.
He is an avid fisherman and a talented photographer. He and I have much in common. Our conversations may start off on motorcycles or politics but they usually end on fishing. I have often said that we are brothers, separated by a common hobby. Like brothers who marry sisters, Tom fell in love with bass and I with trout. I walked off up some mountain stream and he sped off at seventy mph across the lake.
The other day Tom left this comment to a post on G&G. It left me wondering why I’m the one with the fishing blog.
***
“Of all the cash we spend to catch a fish the biggest element is free. Years ago on one of those frustrating days my friend Rodney put it quite simply. Just as I was about to cast he asked ‘Are you going to catch one this cast?’ I responded with ‘Probably not!’ Rodney: ‘Then why don’t you just stand there until you are.”
“Now if you see me on the deck of my bass boat you may see me checking my line, checking my knot or checking my drag, but if I look like I’m just standing there staring a hole in the water, I’m checking my attitude.”
***
That’s Tom all over. Contemplative in the face of adversity. A talented
The Basics of Dubbing
By Bob Reece
What the beginning tyer needs to know about dubbing.
Creating beautiful, well proportioned flies is a skill which takes time and practice to master. One of the least intuitive steps in the process is working with dubbing. The thousands of dubbing choices on the market today only help confuse the beginning tyer.
Here are some basics to get you started dubbing beautiful flies.
Less is More
The most common mistake that new tyers make when applying dubbing is simply using too much of the product at one time. In general, less is more. Smaller amounts of fibers are easier to apply and lead to the creation of more anatomically accurate insect imitations. The one exception to this lies in the world of streamers where bulky dubbing loops and brushes can be used to create the large silhouettes of beefier food items.
Dubbing Types
There is an increasingly wide spectrum of dubbing varieties on the market. This can be overwhelming for new tyers. These materials are categorized based on their construction and uses. While these “boundaries” are often crossed, a few basic principles can be followed to help get you started.
Read More »Tandem Fly Rigs The Easy Way: Video
Fishing two flies is almost always better than one, here’s the easy way to set up a team of flies.
I almost never trout fish with a single fly. Whether I’m using a dry-dropper, a pair of nymphs, a streamer and nymph, or even two dry flies, I like to double my odds. There are several ways to set up a team of flies. The simplest solution to tie and fish is to tie your dropper to the bend of the hook on the lead fly. It’s fast and easy to tie and less likely to tangle than more complex setups.
If you are not accustomed to fishing tandem rigs, you should give it a try. It’s highly effective. Don’t be intimidated by the rigging or by casting teams of flies. With a little practice it becomes second nature.
WATCH THIS VIDEO TO LEARN THE EASY WAY TO TIE ON A TEAM OF FLIES.
Read More »5 Reasons Why Pocket Water Is Suited For Beginners
IF YOU’RE NEW TO FLY FISHING OR YOU CONSIDER YOUR SKILL LEVEL TO BE AT THE NOVICE LEVEL, HERE ARE FIVE REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD BE TARGETING POCKET WATER TO INCREASE YOUR FLY FISHING KNOWLEDGE AND TROUT CATCH RATES.
1. Pocket water provides more trout habitat than any other type of trout water.
The easiest way to define pocket water is that it’s an entire trout stream in itself. Pocket water encompasses all water types: riffles, runs, pools, and tails just on a miniature scale. The multiple current seams, eddies, and structure found in pocket water creates an abundance of habitat for trout to position themselves and feed. Quite often it provides anglers the opportunity to catch trout from one side of the stream all the way across to the other side. This is rarely found on other water types in a trout stream, and it provides fishermen much more opportunity and should increase his/her confidence that their fishing where there’s a high volume of trout living.
2. It doesn’t require anglers to make long casts and drifts.
You don’t have to be able to make long casts or sustain super long drag-free drifts to catch trout in pocket water. Because everything is on a smaller scale, anglers can get away with making shorter casts and drifts. Both mending and line management aren’t as crucial, and anglers often have the luxury of choosing which casts and techniques their most comfortable fishing with to catch trout.
3. Trout are generally opportunistic feeders in pocket water.
Pocket water is usually found on sections of river with steeper gradients and descending elevations. Water moves faster in most cases on pocket water and since trout usually don’t have as much time to inspect the food moving downstream, they often have to
Swinging Steelhead Flies for Trout
WANT TO GO STEELHEADING BUT THERE ARE NO STEELHEAD WHERE YOU LIVE?
Think about scaling down. The same flies and techniques that we use for steelhead will catch plenty of trout. And why not? Steelhead are just big sea-run trout and they have the same common instinct as their land-locked cousins.
I find myself fishing light switch rods for trout a lot these days. They are great versatile rods and I use them, not just because they’re effective, but because I enjoy it. One day, when I was swinging a small streamer with my 11′ 3″ three weight it struck me that was doing all the same things I did when steelheading. I went home and tied some of Hickman’s fish tacos in olive, size eight.
_DSC6030I caught a lot of fish on those flies but I thought I could take it further. I was tying flies for an upcoming trip to the Deschutes and I threw a couple of them in my trout box. My buddy Dan and I went fishing and devoted the whole afternoon to swinging steelhead flies. The results were awesome!
We caught a bunch of really nice fish but that’s not all.
Read More »Hardy Averon Fly Reel, Performance Meets Legacy
I don’t see a lot of anglers in the US fishing Hardy gear, and, the more of it I fish, the more I wonder why. I recently got my hands on a Hardy Ultralite X in a 7wt and an Averon 7000 reel. Both are stellar and you will be seeing a review for the rod before long. In this review I’m going to talk about the reel. Just about everyone who fly fishes knows of Hardy reels but here in the states lots of anglers, including myself, have little experience with them. Hardy is an English company founded in 1874, which means they’ve been around about as long as fly fishing itself. My experience with Hardy reels has been with the beautiful vintage reels a couple of my steelhead buddies own. A classic Hardy, whether new or vintage, is considered a pretty classy choice among hard core steelhead addicts and I’ve landed a few hot steelhead on Hardy reels that are over a hundred years old. I guess the first thing I have to say about Hardy reels is, I’ve never seen a hundred year old reel, still in service, made by anyone else. Frankly, I don’t know how much more I need to say but there is plenty to talk about. The Averon bears little physical resemblance to those classic reels. It’s a modern, high performance, large arbor, disk drag reel that’s right at home with the most advanced models of this century but its DNA is all Hardy. The Averon is a fresh water reel that feels much like it belongs in saltwater. The drag is smooth and powerful, boasting a max setting of ten pounds in the larger models. The drag itself is easily converted from left to right hand retrieve and removing or swapping the … Continue reading
Read More »More Than Just A Cast
By Owen Plair
WHEN THROWING FLIES AT REDFISH, MANY PIECES OF THE PUZZLE HAVE TO COME TOGETHER TO MAKE A SUCCESSFUL DAY.
You may be able to throw a fly line 100 feet, but that doesn’t always mean you’re gonna have a killer day on the water. The most important thing when hunting redfish in the shallows is communicating with the guy on the platform. He’s not only poling you around on the skiff, but also spotting, and putting you on fish. The chemistry between the guy on the poling platform and the angler on the bow is the most important part of the day because you have to work together for the best results.
Communication is key and that’s why the bow clock was invented. If you are not familiar with the bow clock, it’s a simple idea. Picture the deck of the boat from above. Now overlay the face of a clock with noon at the very point of the bow. Nine o’clock will be ninety degrees to the left and three o’clock ninety degrees to the right. A fish located at twelve o’clock will be straight ahead of the boat and a fish at nine o’clock will be directly to the left.
If you’re new to saltwater, then you should always go over the bow clock with your guide or fishing partner before fishing. Make sure you both have the same understanding from 9 o’clock all the way to 3 o’clock and can adjust quickly while sight casting to fish.
This clock is not only good for casting direction but can also be very important for situations when spotting moving fish on the flats. I like to have my angler point his rod when I call out a clock direction. It helps us stay together and helps him see the fish. Getting the hang of the bow clock isn’t hard and will help dramatically in sight casting to fish from the skiff.
The next key factor is gauging distance. If the angler cannot see the fish, accurately judging distance is key to a good presentation. It can be hard, at first, to judge a forty foot cast compared to a sixty foot cast. When getting used to sight casting, there are visual guides that can help.
One of the best ways to judge distance is to use
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