Twelve O’clock, Forty Feet
By Jason Tucker
I STAND IN WHITE-SNOW SAND AND WATER, THE SUN SHINING WEAKLY DOWN FROM A BLUE SKY MUTED BY HAZE HIGH IN ANOTHER ATMOSPHERE REMOVED FROM THE ONE I BREATHE, SCANNING BELOW ME AN ATMOSPHERE LIKEWISE FOREIGN, SEARCHING FOR SHADOWS WHICH THEMSELVES SEARCH FOR THE SCUTTLING, TWITCHING OBJECTS OF THEIR OWN DESIRE, OBLIVIOUS TO MY INTEREST IN THEM. BONEFISH.
Ronnie Bain, proud native Bahamian and guide, is trying to put my friend Brad onto bonefish while I hang back in search of my own. They are focused on a small pod of fish that continues away from them when suddenly Ronnie turns to me and says “Jason, give me a cast, thirty feet.” As he says this a lone bonefish slides into view, a ghostly apparition floating over the pale sand. It approaches to within twenty-five feet before I land my cast. On the second strip my line comes tight, and then my drag sings a merry tune as the fish peels off two hundred fifty feet of line in seconds. The fight doesn’t last too long, but is fought hard and well. Ronnie tells me to look around for sharks. We’ve seen a lot of sharks.
It has been a difficult week of fishing, with high winds and heavy rains frustrating our efforts. We have worked for every fish this week. A moment like this is pure bliss, in which a fish, despite our best efforts at searching, magically appears above the sun-blasted sand bottom and presents an easy shot. There is serendipity in bonefishing after all.
Standing on the bow rod in hand, the sound of rain pelting my raincoat has drowned out all other noises, until even my inner dialogue recedes into the background. Leslie is poling us west- or is it South, or even east? I’ve lost track, the sun is not there to guide us, and I suspect the wind of changing directions to throw us off.
It is strange how difficult bonefish are to spot, and how obvious they are once you do. Here they come, two torpedoes approaching at speed, collision inevitable. I call them out to Leslie, who has yet to spot them. “Two fish, twelve o’clock, coming in fast. Big fish.” I say as I wind up my cast. As my fly hits the water they juke hard to my left, already aware of the boat. I cast to them again, but as I do I spot movement ahead. It is a large lemon shark, eight feet long, in hot pursuit of the bonefish; these bonefish, huge specimens pushing perhaps fifteen pounds, and probably feeling squeezed between the boat and the shark, shoot off to the east (?) and the shark surges fruitlessly after them. In a week of seeing big bones these are the biggest I have seen.
Read More »Quiet Fly Line Pickup, 2 ways: Video
By Louis Cahill
Here are two ways to pick up your fly line and make a cast without spooking fish.
Quiet line pickup is an important skill for fly anglers after any species, but it’s never more important than when bonefishing. Their spooky nature may be the bonefish’s defining characteristic. Ad to that the excitement of the moment and it’s easy to spook fish that might otherwise be caught.
One of the best ways to spook a bonefish is by ripping your line off the water with a loud sizzle. That’ll send them to Cuba. There are two main reasons this happens. Slack in the line when you pick it up off the water, and too much speed too early. It’s easy to do, especially when you’re excited.
WATCH THIS VIDEO AND LEARN TWO WAYS TO PICK YOUR FLY LINE UP OFF THE WATER QUIETLY AND MAKE AN EFFECTIVE CAST.
Read More »Treat your sunglasses as though your vision depends upon them
YOUR ROD, REEL AND LINE MAY BE THE ONLY PIECES OF GEAR MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOUR SUNGLASSES.
On most days I’d rather have the wrong fly than the wrong glasses. They are not only crucial for sight fishing and reading water but make wading safer and the whole fishing experience more pleasant.
A good pair of polarized sunglasses are not only essential but expensive, too. Their effectiveness can be seriously compromised by scratches, delamination, and unnecessary wear or damage. It makes sense to take good care of them.
Still, not everything about caring for your sunglasses is intuitive. I’ve worn glasses my whole life and recently found that I was damaging my sunglasses by washing them with soap and water, a practice I assumed was the best way to clean them. Reached out to my buddy Peter Crow at Smith Optics for some advice, and he provided me with some good common sense information to share with you.
Read More »Putting Your Rod Tip In The Water Can Be A Game Changer
EVERYONE WANTS TO CATCH BIG FISH BUT LEARNING TO OUTSMART THEM TAKES SOME DOING.
Big fish often hold a PhD in fly selection and presentation, but any experienced angler can tell you that getting them to eat your fly is only half the battle. Getting them to the net is another thing. Most anglers do not land the first really big fish they hook. Often they don’t land the first several. Much is written about feeding big fish and far too little about what comes next. Generally speaking anglers learn to land big, strong fish the way I did, by losing a few.
Fighting a tough fish is not just a show of force. It’s a game of strategy, but also of tactics. It’s problem solving. The fish creates problems and you have to solve them. There are two such fish problems that can be solved by the simple tactic of putting your rod tip in the water.
The big downstream run
When a strong fish runs hard downstream too quickly for you to follow, you find yourself at a disadvantage. With the fish directly downstream, the angle of the hook in the fish’s mouth is perilous. Any thrashing or head shaking on the part of the fish can easily result in a long distance release. If you are unable to get downstream and establish a better angle to the fish you are left with only one choice, bring the fish to you. But how?
Leader 911
When leader emergencies happen, will you be ready?
I know a lot of anglers who only carry enough tippet to change out flies. That’s a great way to get caught with your pants down. I saw it happen just the other day. I was bonefishing with my friend Bob and a nice bonefish took him around some corral. Not only did Bob lose his whole leader but the end of his fly line along with the welded loop.
That’s a great way to ruin a day of fishing, even if you have extra leaders. But not if you’re prepared. I use hand tied leaders and I make a habit of having everything I need to rebuild my leader completely. I usually have a couple of fresh leaders as well but the obsessive-compulsive side of me insists on carrying the spools.
HERE’S HOW YOU HANDLE THIS KIND OF TOTAL FAILURE
To start you need a good solid connection to your fly line. I prefer to whip a loop in the end of my fly line. You can get the details on how to do that HERE. That a little tricky on the boat or stream so I’ll usually go with a temporary solution and whip a loop that evening.
You can tie in a short butt section of heavy leader material and tie a loop for attaching your leader or for a quick fix you tie the leader directly to the fly line. If you are trout fishing on light tackle, you can use a nail knot for this. Personally I don’t like a nail knot connection. I prefer an Albright knot. Here’s a video.
If you don’t have a fresh leader
Read More »Fingers Crossed
By Steven Brutger
FOR MONTHS WE HAD OUR FINGERS CROSSED.
Eying snow reports and talking to the few who had been in the mountains, we were cautiously optimistic. Despite a big snow year we had a shot at hitting it right.
A few days too early and ice would cover the high alpine lakes we hoped to fish. Or worse snow levels might make travel too arduous to reach them in the first place. Just right and we might be lucky enough to fish as the ice moved out, being the first to show our flies to hungry golden trout.
Now, miles into the Wilderness, we would soon have our answer.
Huddled under a tarp, a few hundred feet below tree line, we put our backs toward horizontally falling rain and snow. Spindrift was visibly blowing over the ridge tops. Conditions were deteriorating. After a restless night in our bags the only option was to continue up and test our luck.
The lake was half covered in ice. Peering through graupel a hundred feet above the water we spotted a
Read More »Review: Orvis Helios 8’5” 7wt
By Justin Pickett Designed to make fast, accurate shots into tight quarters, and pull beasties from their hidden lairs. The new generation Orvis Helios has been out in the wild for a while now and we’ve had our hands on a few of them over the past several months. Looking back, the Helios 3 was, and still is, a great rod with a focus on quantifying accuracy, and was considered by many as a benchmark in the industry for six years, which is a longer tenure than most generations of rods are on the market. With this ground-up redesign, the team at the Orvis Rod Shop aimed to improve upon the performance and durability of the H3 with the new Helios, bringing new materials and new manufacturing processes to the table. The Helios sports increased recovery (vertical deflection), improved tracking (lateral deflection), and significantly increased hoop strength of the blank. We’ve been fortunate to see and feel what these new Helios rods bring to the water and we like it! Right out of the box, the new-generation Helios is sheltered in an aluminum rod tube that’s been given a coat of light gray paint to match the updated branding on the rod blank, and is topped off by a black, knurled cap where the rod model is laser etched for quick identification. The rod sock offers up a simple and pleasant new design. There are no strings to tie. A simple clasp sewn into a small strap wraps around the sock and snaps to keep it neatly rolled. There are no loose strings and this snap-strap just simplifies storing your rod. The branding of the new Helios is similar to the previous H3. A little less Nascar this go-round, but the white label remains with a touch of grey and … Continue reading
Read More »The Two-Rod Bonefish Solution
By Louis Cahill
Saltwater fly-fishing is condition dependent, and conditions often change without warning. That’s why I carry two fly rods.
Your strategy for presenting a fly to bonefish can change radically depending on conditions. Bonefishing is always challenging, but not always for the same reasons. That’s what keeps it fun. Having the right setup for the conditions really helps you overcome the challenges, so let’s look at those challenges and how to be prepared for whatever mother nature throws at you.
The most decisive factor in any flats fishing is wind. Most anglers dread fishing on a windy day, but they miss that wind when it’s gone. Making a good cast and turning your leader over in wind can be a real challenge, but the wind gives you an advantage, too. Wind disturbs the surface of the water, making it less likely that your presentation will spook the fish. This allows you to drive a powerful cast into the wind, if you have a fly rod and line that are up to the task.
On days when there is no wind, bonefish can be unbelievably spooky, leaving anglers frustrated as fish run for cover at their false casting. On days like that, your ultra-fast fly rod and front loaded line are a liability, not an asset. So what is the bonefish angler to do? Well, my answer is carry two rods.
My common quiver consists of two 8-weights. One for windy conditions and one for calm. Each of these rods is paired with a fly line which will perform in these given conditions. That way, no mater what happens, I’m ready. These two rods look very similar under casual observation but they perform very differently.
Windy day setups
Your windy day rod needs to be firm and fast. It’s totally ok for this rod to be a little heavier. We aren’t looking for the kind of recovery rate that comes
Read More »Two Streamers Alaskan Guides Always Carry
No Alaska angler should be without these two fly patterns.
If you ever plan on visiting one of those famous Alaskan fishing operations like Alaska West or if you’re more the angler who rather prefers to do it yourself, I highly recommend tying up several of these two articulated streamer patterns before your trip. These guys never failed me on the Bristol Bay watersheds of Alaska, and you’ll be set no matter what time of the season you fish. We called the black and chartreuse head streamer the “The Green Headed Monster” and it would knock them dead early to mid-season. When you found the fish it would produce every cast with a steady swing downstream and across. What a big fish magnet this guy was.
The second fly is a Flesh/Attractor streamer we dead drifted most of the time under a indicator but also we would swing it at the end of our drifts. It would produce big fish damn near anywhere mid-season on. There are lots of variations of this fly out there, this pattern was shown to me by retired alaskan guide, Sam Cornelius of Mission Creek Lodge. I nicknamed it the “Cornelius Special” out of respect. Sam was an exceptional guide and fly fisherman.
Both of these flies are very easy to tie as long as you
Read More »Yellowhammers and Specks
“I thought you might like these,” my brother Tom holds out an old yellowed envelope. “I found them going through some of Pete’s things.”
William Starling Cahill, who preferred to be called Pete, was my Grandfather and the man who taught me to fly fish. He’s been gone for many years now but from time to time little gems that he left behind will turn up. My brother now lives in Pete’s old house which puts him in a good position to uncover relics.
I open the envelope and into my hand spill two feathers, dark down one edge and bright yellow along the other. “Ooooohh,” I exclaim and catch Tom’s eye, “Unobtainium.”
Yellowhammer is what we call them here in the south. The Yellow Shafted Flicker, a delicate little woodpecker who’s hammering used to echo off the hills of the Southern Appalachians. He’s almost completely silent now, shotgunned to the brink of extinction. Just having those two little feathers now could land me in jail. The Yellowhammer is heavily protected, now that it’s pretty much too late.
Yellowhammer is what we call the fly too. The one that’s tied from those feathers. It’s a wild, buggy looking thing. You wouldn’t expect a trout to eat it, but they do, like there’s no tomorrow. It’s a pattern as old as the little abandoned country church I pass on the gravel mountain road that leads to the stream I don’t tell anyone about. It’s as old as the graves there in the church yard and just as forgotten, but I still fish it.
It’s the perfect fly to catch Southern Appalachian Brook Trout. The Brookie, or Speck as they used to call them, is our only native trout. Forced south from New England by the ice age long before there was an England, new or old. When the ice retreated, like lots of folks who visit the south, the brookies stayed. They evolved, adapted to their new home and, like the Scotts and Irishmen who came to these mountains, they ended up just a little different from their northern cousins.
They are as scarce as the yellowhammer now, but with none
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