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
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
Read More »Beating the Winter Blues
By Kevin Howell
AS I TRAVEL AROUND TO FISHING SHOWS I OFTEN HEAR PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT WANTING TO GET ON THE STREAM AND GO FISHING ONCE IT WARMS UP.
In reality, some of the best fishing of the year, here in the Southern Appalachians, takes place in the winter. Here are some ideas to help you get through the winter blues.
Fish in the winter. Winter fishing in our part of the country is fabulous. I agree, on days when it is 22 degrees and blowing blue snow, you probably do not want to go fishing. However, we have plenty of days when the air temps will hit the high 40’s to low 50’s and it makes a nice day to get out of the house. Remember a trout has to eat to survive, and you can not catch him if you are sitting on the couch.
Tie Flies. Another great way to pass the time is to tie flies. If you are new to tying or want to learn how to tie, then hang out at your local shop and take some tying classes. A lot of stores like Davidson River Outfitters even offer free or low cost classes or nights you can just come into the shop and hang out and tell fish stories.
Build a rod. Again if your local shop or fly fishing club offers a rod building class you can build your own rod and customize it in any manner you like, except for Tarheel Blue (sorry, I went to NC State).
Take a Trip. If you can afford it, take a trip. It does not have to be a $10,000 around-the-world trip. You could go to south Florida or Louisiana for a day or two and go Redfishing. You could go to south Texas and fly fish for bass. You could go to North Georgia and fish the Toccoa tailwater and camp overnight in a public campground for $2. If you want to go to Argentina or New Zealand, or the tropics like the Bahamas or Christmas Island, you can find a lot of good deals at the moment due to
Fly Fishing Tip: Mend Your Strike Indicator to Increase Your Drag-Free Drift
IS THERE EVER A TIME, WHEN NYMPHING, THAT IT CAN BE BENEFICIAL TO LIFT THE STRIKE INDICATOR OUT OF THE WATER DURING A MEND?
When I first started learning the art of mending fly line, I constantly struggled with keeping my striking indicator and dry fly from moving across the surface of the water. Quite often, I not only moved them during my mends, I even lifted them completely out of the water in the process. Most of the time that wasn’t a good thing, because it usually caused my flies to be pulled off my intended drift line, and that greatly hindered my ability to catch fish, no matter how accurate my initial presentation cast happened to be. I learned quickly, that poor mending, and sloppy line management, were the two main factors in keeping me from getting my rod bent with trout. There was no doubt that my problem with mending fly line laid in the fact that my technique was awful. I thought I was a whole lot maturer than I really was as a fly fisher, failing to realize that I had just begun to skim the surface of learning the intricacies of fly line mending. Such as, determining when or when not a mend was called for during a drift, mend timing and form.
Read More »Making a Living on the Flats
By Owen Plair
Lately it seems that everyone thinks guiding is the dream job.
Every day someone who likes to fish buys a brand new boat, pays for a website, posts fish pictures on Instagram, and calls themselves one of the top guides in the area. They usually have a full time job doing something else. From Internet videos and social media, people think guiding is all glory, easy, and something anyone can do. You have to start somewhere but you cannot create a career with a fancy boat, a website and some good photos on Instagram. You make a career with experience on the water and by sharing with anglers your passion, experience, and knowledge of your fishery. Many people soon find that guiding is not for them, which is why guides are a select few.
“You are living the dream.” I hear that all the time, or “You have the best job in the world,” or even better, “You have the easiest job!”
There are so many people who think that being a fishing guide is the easiest way to make money and the dream job. Some people even have the audacity to say its not a real job… That’s like saying being a doctor isn’t a real job. Yes, it’s an amazing feeling creating a career in something you are passionate about, but it is far from easy, and always work. Imagine poling a skiff or rowing a drift boat 8 hours a day, 200 days a year. That physical labor is the easiest part of the business. That should give you a taste of just how much is involved with being a full time guide.
If you really like fishing and own a boat you could be a guide, right?
Not even close to true.
Read More »Learning to Spey Cast
By Owen Plair
In the world of Fly Fishing there was always one style of casting that I never quite understood.
It was some sort of foreign language. An art of casting I’d only seen in videos and photos, but it always seemed so magical. Not to mention how far they could throw a fly line. Why do you use two hands? Why are the rods so long? Whats with these crazy motions on the waters surface to make this giant roll cast? Spey Casting was always a mystery to me, because I never found myself in a fishery where it was needed. Still, I was always curios about it.
That all changed very fast when I stepped off of a helicopter in the middle of the Russian Tundra, in May of 2013. I pursued a once in a lifetime opportunity guiding on the World Renowned Ponoi River, in the Kola Peninsula of Russia. The Ponoi is one of the best Atlantic Salmon Rivers in the entire world and can only be reached via helicopter from the city of Murmansk. What got my attention about the Ponoi was not just the world class fishing but the desire to experience a completely new style of fly fishing. The best way of targeting these Atlantic Salmon on fly is, of course, swinging flies with a two handed rod or Spey Rod. Spey Casting has been very popular in Europe for hundreds of years and has slowly made its way over to the united states, with steel head and salmon anglers using switch rods and spey rods. The rods, lines, leaders, flies, and even reels were all so different than what I was used to. I was stepping into an entirely new world. Thats why I decided to go to Russia.
Before I left for Russia a friend let me borrow his spey rod to get a feel for spey casting and man was I blown away when I put together his 15’ 9wt. The thing felt like a flag pole in my hand! Waving it around on my pond, false casting, roll casting, and having no Idea what to do with a spey rod made me realize I had a lot to learn. I watched youtube videos, read articles, and even talked to some of my clients about spey casting. It was so much harder than I thought it would be and way more technical. One thing I did learn through fly casting, instructing clients, and teaching the National Orvis Fly Fishing School was that fly casting has so much to do with muscle memory and that if you don’t learn correctly from the beginning you are setting yourself up for failure in the end. So after attempting to teach myself I decided to wait until I got to Russia to really perfect the different spey casting techniques and man was that the right move.
The first thing I learned was that moving water is key and truly helped set up your line for the cast. My first instruction came from Matt Brewer who was the camp manager at the time and a long time guide. Matt could throw a spey rod beautifully. He made it look effortless shooting 70 to 80ft casts. The sound of the fly line ripping through the water as Matt threw the first cast was something I will never forget. Matt taught me the double spey and man was it a humbling feeling, learning how to fly cast from scratch again. That awkward feeling when your muscles and mind are asked to do something they have never done and you feel almost hopeless. Matt was very patient with me and in between the laughs, and sarcasm, I started from the beginning with how to hold the rod, how much line to start with, and most importantly understanding the D loop. Crossing my arms, folding over the line, and swinging back. It all felt odd compared to what I was used to but it also felt pretty awesome learning something completely new in fly fishing. Matt was a true professional and had me casting in no time which led to my first Atlantic Salmon on fly soon after.
The D loop is the most important part of the spey cast, because that is how
Read More »A Guideline To Accuracy in Fly Tying
By Bob Reece
Good fly tying is all about accuracy.
One aspect of fly tying that often creates frustration is tying in materials in the desired location. As hook size decreases, this task can becomes even more difficult. While time spent tying helps to conquer this issue, there is a technique that expedites the process.
From a young age, I’ve had larger than average hands. While this is great in many aspects of life, it’s not always beneficial in fly tying. As a young tier I often struggled to secure many materials to the hook in the location where I knew they should be. My hands either blocked my field of vision or were simply too large to work with the smaller sizes of the hook range.
One day I wandered into a fly shop on a cold snowy spring day. There was a man at a tall table tying streamers. As I watched him tie, he did something that I had never seen before. He folded several of the materials over or under the thread, to some degree. Then he simply slid the materials down the thread, using it as a guideline to the exact location of the tie in point.
While I’m sure that this man did not invent this technique and that it’s undoubtedly been used by tiers the world over, it had a huge impact on my development as a tier. By using the thread as a guideline to the hook shank, the tier eliminates the possibility of lateral movement by the materials. This system ensures that the material lands exactly at the base of thread strand. The location of the bobbin in the three hundred and sixty degrees of one wrap determines which side, top or bottom of the shank the material ends up on.
Read More »