The Trifecta For Fishing Solitude
It seems like every year it gets harder and harder for me to find complete solitude on the river.
Solitude is not a necessity for me by any means, but when I’m blessed with it, I find it does wonders for purifying my soul and improving my fishing game. Time seems to stand still when I’m in complete solitude on the water. Every fish I land with no one there to confirm it but me, seems to add further reward and satisfaction. There’s no competition from other anglers, it’s just me and the fish. This allows me to open my mind, think clearly, and get in a zone to fish at my best ability. I don’t care what pace I’m fishing or how much water I cover while I’m out. I just take one fish at a time, like I’m challenging each of them to a game of chess. But to be frank, it’s not even about winning or losing. It’s more about taking in the big picture and understanding why I’m out there in the first place; I love to fly fish.
Over the years I’ve developed a betting strategy I call the “Trifecta for Fishing Solitude”. Although gambling never offers us sure win bets, searching out and placing these three bets in order when possible, usually pays out plenty of solitude on the water.
Bet #1. Fish off the beatin path
Being lazy and choosing to fish water that’s easily accessible generally will bring you company instead of solitude in your fishing. Hiking into difficult terrain is great but you don’t always have to go that far. Sometimes all you have to do is
Reach, Don’t Rip!
One of the most common areas of needed improvement that I see with many anglers is line management.
In fly fishing, line management is a big piece of the puzzle, and to be consistently successful you must improve upon these skills and develop good habits. One particularly bad habit that I see more than any other when I’m on the water with clients and other anglers is having an unnecessary amount of line stripped off the reel. This is problematic for numerous reasons.
One obvious reason is that your fly line could become entangled while fighting a fish and cause you to lose a fish. Laying a ton of line on the ground invites a host of gremlins to grab on and ruin your efforts. Most trout lines are also very supple and thin, making them even more prone to tangle and knot up when being taken from the ground quickly, whether it be a fish on the run or from the act of shooting line. Fly line left on the ground, or even in the water, also lends itself to damage. You can easily shred a fly line and even cut through a line by stepping on it. I’ve had one of my lines severed in half when a client of mine wearing aluminum barred boots stepped on it, leaving that rig useless until we stopped to grab another reel. Dirt and grime also loves to stick to fly lines, especially textured lines, which will greatly hinder your fly line’s ability to float effectively on the water’s surface. Problems, problems, problems.
Often, a situation doesn’t call for more fly line, but rather for the angler to get out of their “box”.
For example, there was a morning I was setting up a client to make the first presentation of the day, which required about a thirty-foot cast. Nothing crazy. As he set his feet and prepared for his cast, I turned to pull my net from my pack in an act of optimism. As I did this all I could hear was the sound of the intermittent outgoing clicks of the drag on his reel. A lot of them. When I turned back to him,
Read More »Fly Fishing Provides Great Health Benefits
I tell my clients, all the time, that I’m grateful for all the benefits fly fishing provides anglers.
It provides us with one of the funnest ways to exercise, and it has the ability to completely wash away the stress of everyday life, from its therapeutic entertainment. We really should be thankful that this passion of ours provides us with so much more than just the reward of catching fish. Each and everyday we fly fish, we should take a minute to sit back and reflect on this fact. What other exercise activity can you think of that allows you to burn tons of calories during the day, and not have the faintest clue your even working out? Most of us aren’t extreme athletes, and even if we were back in the day, many of us have gotten older and are no longer. The great thing about fly fishing is you can tailor it to your own abilities and needs. It’s a great activity for maintaining your long term balance, dexterity and muscle strength, and it does a very good job of keeping your brain sharp.
I really think we could boost the growth of the fly fishing industry if more people were writing about all the great health benefits it provides, both mentally and physically? I’d love to see Yahoo, or one of those other giant headline news websites (that most of us visit daily) post on its home page, a fly fishing picture with the headline, “Lose 15 pounds and have a blast doing it.” We need to start thinking outside the box to promote and attract newcomers to fly fishing, and I think this could be one area most of us have been overlooking.
What is Recovery Rate and How Does It Affect Fly-Rod Action?
When we refer to a fly-rod as being fast or slow, what we are talking about is recovery rate.
Recovery rate simply means how quickly does the bent rod return to its natural, straight position. This recovery rate is inherent to the rod and can be observed whether the rod is under a load, as in casting a fly line, or just getting a good wiggle at the fly shop. The wiggle, however, is not a good test of recovery rate and even casting a rod it can be hard to judge the recovery against another rod without being pretty thorough about it.
So how do you quantify the recovery rate of a fly rod?
One method which is informal but better than the wiggle, is to grip the rod in your hand and punch that hand into the palm of your other hand. This gives the rod a very positive stop and if you pay attention you can judge how long it takes for the rod to flex down and back up. It works but is still pretty unscientific.
Steve Greist of Sage showed me a very cool trick for judging recovery rate and I asked him to share it. Steve has a pretty unique job at Sage. He is a materials designer and a pretty impressive dude. His job is to create new ways of combining carbon fiber and resins to create new materials, and those materials, more than anything else, determine recovery rate. When you hear about Sage’s Konnetic technology, thats what they are talking about, Steve’s material. He works directly with the companies who produce the fibers and his lab produces materials which sometimes go on to be used by companies like Boeing.
So to judge the recovery rate of his material, Steve does something interesting. He drops it. He makes untapered blanks and drops them on a hard surface. The impact sets off a vibration in the blank. This vibration is transferred into the air as sound waves, just like a guitar string or wind chime. The higher the pitch, the faster the recovery rate. Simply brilliant.
So if you want to judge the recovery rate of a fly rod, try dropping a mid section on the counter top at the fly shop. I’m not suggesting you simply buy the rod that sounds best but you will gather some good information to help you decide.
Here’s a question for you to think about. What was I doing in the Materials Lab at Sage? You will be finding out soon.
WATCH, AND LISTEN, TO THIS VIDEO TO SEE STEVE GREIST PERFORM A RESONANCE TEST IN THE SAGE MATERIALS LAB.
Read More »Fly Selection- as explained though a bag of Doritos
By Kyle Wilkinson
What’s more important, fly choice or presentation?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, when it comes to trout fishing (in my opinion) most fish are going to care WAY more about a perfect drift than the exact ‘perfect’ fly- and this is coming from someone who makes a living on the pressured waters of Colorado’s Front Range. The analogy I use for this is with a Doritos chip. See if you can follow me on this one.
You’re hungry and thinking some chinese food sounds pretty good. While waiting on the chinese food to get delivered, someone shows up at your house with a bag of Doritos, opens them up and sets them on the table in front of you. Are you going to eat a few?
I’d say the answer is probably yes.
Even though Doritos might have been the last thing in the world you were thinking about eating, the fact that they were presented in such a way that you: A) had to essentially expend zero effort to eat a few; B) ‘make sense’ as a food source to us; and C) based off of memory taste darn good; the decision to dig in becomes an easy one.
So how does this relate to fly selection, you ask? Simple.
On the waters I fish, throughout the year we see all the standard Western hatches- BWO’s, PMD’s, Caddis, Stoneflies, Tricos, etc. With the wealth of information available online these days, figuring out what bugs are hatching during a certain time of the year has been made pretty simple. What I encourage you all to do – particularly the newer anglers reading this – is to turn down the dial on fly selection and turn up the dial on learning how to fish your flies perfectly.
Right now in Colorado, it is basically a midge and BWO game from a hatch standpoint. Read any local fishing report and you’re going to see many of the same flies being recommended – jujubaetis, Barr’s BWO emerger, Stalcup’s Baetis, Rainbow Warrior, Two-Bit Hooker, Pheasant Tail, etc. (There will also be a bunch of midge recommendations, but for now we’ll focus on the mayfly side of things.) So which one do you use? My answer:
Read More »Guiding Tip: Set Your Client Free to Build Confidence
THIS POST IS FOR ALL THE PROFESSIONAL GUIDES OUT THERE WHO GIVE THEIR CLIENTS EVERY THING THEY’VE GOT EACH AND EVERY DAY. IT’S FOR THE PERFECTIONISTS, WHO TRULY BELIEVE FLY FISHING CAN NEVER BE 100% MASTERED AND ALWAYS SEE ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT IN THEIR OWN PROFESSIONAL TEACHING SKILLS.
I’ve taken great pride over the years with my hands on style of trout guiding. When you take the time to explain the little details to your clients, and freely share what’s going on in your head, it really makes a big difference in them understanding the big picture. I’ve always believed catching fish should take a back seat to learning the how-tos of fly fishing. I’ve never seen much value in a client catching fish during a guide trip, if they can’t go out and replicate it on their own without me. It wasn’t until a few months ago, in fact, that I strayed away from my familiar guiding routine of holding onto the reigns.
Read More »3 Tips For Netting Trophy Trout From a Drift Boat
So you’re floating the river in a drift boat and your buddy just hooked into a trophy trout. What should you do next to ensure you land that trophy? Below are three tips for increasing your chances at netting that fish of a lifetime.
1. WHEN THE OPPORTUNITY PRESENTS ITSELF GET ALL YOUR FLY LINE ON THE REEL.
After you’ve set the hook, made a few strips to keep tension, and your jaw has dropped to the ground after seeing the giant beast at the end of your line, your next objective will be to find a good time to get all that excess fly line onto the reel. The last thing you want is the trophy fish making a blistering run, and your excess fly line catching on your boot, thigh brace, or rod butt resulting in a break off. When the trophy settles down and holds in a stationary position during the fight, this is when you should take the opportunity to reel in and get all of your fly line on the reel. Doing so you can let that $300 fly reel with a butter smooth drag to do its job.
2. USE YOUR DRIFT BOAT TO BLOCK DANGER ZONES DURING THE FIGHT.
Don’t keep your boat anchored up during a battle with a trophy fish expecting the angler to do all the work. Often the trophy will make a big run downstream or upstream, which will drastically lower the ability of the angler to control the fish. If you’re on the oars
Read More »How’s your double haul?
Whether in saltwater or fresh, most experienced casters employ the double haul.
It’s possibly the best technique for creating line speed and generally energizing your line during the cast. It’s also a great way to create casting problems when done incorrectly.
One of the fundamentals of the double haul that commonly causes problems is the ratio of the haul to the line being carried by the caster. On a short cast where you may only carry thirty or forty feet of line, the length of your haul, that is the amount of line you pull through the guides with your line hand, may only be a couple of feet. On a cast of seventy or eighty feet be prepared to spread your wings.
Tall casters with long arm spans hold a decided advantage here. When it comes to casting the whole line it’s good to be well over six feet but the truth is that most of us don’t take advantage of the reach we have. If a picture is truly worth a thousand words, this photo should make my point.
My friend Joel Dickey has a powerful and athletic double haul. Better than
Read More »Die With a Human Heart by Jon Tobey
Today, we are pleased and honored to bring you an amazing work of fly fishing fiction by Jon Tobey of Gointothelight. Jon is an accomplished writer and his story “The Very Cruelest Thing” was a huge hit as a Saturday Shoutout. We knew you wanted more.
Die With a Human Heart
I
Nathaniel hated re-entry. It was the same endless elevator free-fall feeling he had when they pulled him off the bottom. It was the last thing he remembered before he died, lungs crushed to the size of fists. He longed for the clean pure air of a high meadow won after a long hike. The trees lit up with alpenglow as soft and bright as an artist’s brush. The patient, patient trout waiting through the decades to rise to a well-presented fly. For one moment to be bound together – these living things in a bouyant dance, and to hold one in his hand as hydraulically perfect and functionally timeless as the monstrosity in his chest.
The red rocket came down fins first, lowering itself on a pillar of flame. It was the most stupendous thing Izaak had ever seen. Rockets left every day, but only a few came back every year. He held his mother’s hand and looked out the window. “Grandfather is here!” Mother looked down at him and smiled her worried smile. It seemed the rocket had barely hit the ground when a ramp opened and a group of rough-looking men tumbled down the ramp. A few went off alone or with other men, but most looked around expectantly. Izaak let go of his mother’s hand and raced out the door. “Be careful, no running!”
Nathaniel recognized his grandson from the ever-rarer vid chats, but was flummoxed when the boy ran up and threw himself at him, not having touched another human in what, thirty years? When he saw Clare across the apron, shimmering in the heat, a vision of her mother, he wrapped his arms around the boy and lifted him off the ground, dropping his bag.
“You look so much like your mother,” he said when she walked up.
“Space will do that to you,” she replied. They looked at each other and he smiled. He knew what it was like to be bursting to say the right thing and say the wrong. It conveyed so much more information.
He held out his hand to the man to her left, “Daniel.” Of course he’d “met” him on chat, but this was the first he’d personally met the man who married his girl, the father of his grandchild.
“Nathaniel.” Nathaniel found Daniel’s grip offensively limp. “It’s so good to meet you.”
“Do you want to go fishing? I’ve been practicing, I have just the spot. I know everything: how to pick a fly and tie it on and cast and spot the fish and everything.” Izaak seemed to speak without breathing.
“Aren’t you tired, Nathaniel?” asked Clare. He would have preferred “dad,” or even “father.”
“Hell, no.” His eyes were still on Clare’s. “I’ve been sleeping for three months, and dreaming about fishing the whole time. You coming, Daniel?”
Daniel looked a little lost. “Um, well, not much of a fisherman, and besides,
Hard Driving
By Jason Tucker
“A little humor folks”
It’s Friday at last.
You have worked hard, saved up, finagled the time off from job and family obligations for this trip and now it’s here. The bite is on, the vehicle is loaded and you are making the long trek to trout country.
When you start out everything is ok. Spirits are high, the radio blares and the adrenaline flows. But after a few hours reality sets in. This is going to be a long drive. You are tired out from a long week of work, packing, and March Madness. Three hours into the drive is when your eyelids first start to drift south. You are barely halfway there. You turn up the radio and hope for the best, but in the monotonous white noise of the road you can see it all clearly in your minds eye- you slumped over the wheel, your SUV slowly arcing in a barrel roll, followed slowly by your drift boat, your eyes opening as a Slim Jim hits you in the face, followed by a ton of wreckage.
Such tragedy, and it doesn’t have to be this way. Here’s some tips for staying awake on those long drives to hot fishing, late at night.
Music: Radio, CD’s (as if), your iDevice, or satellite radio, all can be a good source of good road energy, but when the rubber really hits the late night road and the eyelids are drooping it can fall short.
Suggestion: Comedy channels on satellite radio- the ever changing comedy keeps you engaged, and it’s hard to nod off during a belly laugh.
Drinks: not alcohol, we’re talking cold energy. You could go old school- Coke, Mountain Dew, or my favorite, Dr. Pepper. New school is the vast array of energy drinks. Red Bull is the Cadillac of these judging by the price. Monster is more authentic for the majority of us fly guys- less expensive, lots of choices, and a good zip for the dollar. Are you really pushing the night driving envelope? Top off with a 5-Hour Energy or Fish On.
Snacks: crunchy snacks can keep you engaged and your mind alert, at least for a while. I’ve heard of everything from mint gum to sour candy to Doritos. The ultimate however are sunflower seeds, which are appearing in a growing variety of flavors. The combination of flavor, the work it takes to hull a seed in your mouth, spit the hull, and the ultimate but tiny reward work together to engage the taste buds and mind, keeping you awake.
Talk Radio: That’s right. It takes two forms. Don’t go for your comfort zone, unless sleep at 70 mph is your thing. I’ll break this down into two forms.
Jesus Radio: There is no shortage of religious programming in America. It encompasses everything from prosperity gospel types like Joel Osteen, to your basic bible pounding, to the most vehement hellfire-breathing screed- pick your poison, examine your soul, and stay awake. Whether you totally agree, or are a philosophy student who likes to argue, Jesus radio can keep you awake for at least a hundred miles. More if you’re in the South. Caution:
Read More »