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 golfer and all around athlete, I remember watching him stand silently at the tee box. In a world of his own, visualizing his swing, reasoning through every detail. When the swing came it was perfection. The ball flying and fading exactly as it was told. I’ve not known
Read More »Chug a Coke, Save a Bleeding Fish.
There’s nothing worse than watching a big beautiful wild fish bleed out from a damaged gill.
I found myself in just that situation with a big brown trout one day. Watching helplessly as the water turned red. Thank God Kent was with me. Thinking fast he said, “hey, did you finish that Coke?” I had not and he showed me a great trick. He opened the fish’s mouth and poured the Coke down her throat. As soon as it hit the injured gill the bleeding stopped. It was like magic. I’m not sure if it’s the carbonation or the acid but something in the Coke cauterized the wound. It saved that fish’s life. I know it for a fact because I saw her in that same pool several weeks later, although she was wise to me by then. I’m certain it was
Read More »Dehumidifiers Keep My Fly Fishing Gear Fresh & Dry
It used to be an ongoing battle all season long to keep my fly fishing gear dry and odor free.
There’s nothing worse than having to slide into a pair of stinky, sweaty waders that are still damp from the day before, struggle to slide your feet into a frozen solid pair of wading boots during the winter, or head out fishing on a rainy day with a rain jacket that’s already soaked to the bone. A couple years ago, I finally got smart and bought a dehumidifier, and now all I have to do is drop my gear on the floor next to the dehumidifier in the evening, and it’s waiting for me the next morning 100% dry and odor free. I’m telling you, it’s like heaven on earth, and I guarantee, you’ll find a whole new appreciation and respect for dehumidifiers when you take the leap of faith and put one to work.
Dehumidifiers are also great for
Read More »Adjusting your rig
By Dan Fraiser
I’M STANDING ON THE BANK WATCHING THE BOTTOM FALL OUT OF THE STREAM AND A DARK ABYSS FORM WHERE THERE ONCE WAS STREAM BOTTOM.
The currents are right and the undercut bank is textbook. I know there are fish in there like I know putting my head under water would make breathing hard. It’s just obvious. I know that I don’t have enough weight on, that my dropper needs a tandem fly, that my hopper needs to go and be replaced with a strike indicator and that I need to dig the shot out of my pack. I know it, but that seems like so much work and the fish are right there. So I spend 10 minutes working the run without a strike. Casting and mending and trying to work the margins where I might be deep enough. Eventually, I give up and tear down my rig, put on all the right stuff and immediately start catching.
This unwillingness to change set-ups is a real problem for me. I’ll try to make do with what’s on, only to eventually cave and do it right. It feels like re-rigging would take up so much of my fishing time. Forget that mistake. I timed it tonight. To go from a bare tippet to a two fly rig, complete with shot and an indicator took me 2 minutes and 22 seconds… and I’m slow. I waste more time fishing a rig that isn’t right, just because it’s on, than it would cost me to just get it right and start catching. And who knows how many fish I spooked or made shy before I made the change.
Ignoring the time wasted fishing wrong, let’s just think about this. If you
Read More »7 Easy Steps To Successful Saltwater Fly-Fishing: Video Round-up
Let’s review some basic skills you need to get started catching fish on the fly in saltwater.
Success in saltwater fly fishing is all about the fundamentals. If you understand and practice the fundamental skills you will catch fish. There is a lifetime of learning but once you have the basic skills it’s a blast learning the rest.
Saltwater fly fishing doesn’t have to be daunting. Any angler can learn and today we’re going to review the skills you need for some great days on the water. Skills simple enough for any angler to understand and put into practice.
7 VIDEOS TO HELP YOU CATCH FISH ON THE FLY IN SALTWATER
Let’s start with the most basic and likely most important aspect of saltwater fly fishing, communicating with your guide. Understanding the
Read More »Handling Trout in Cold Weather
Handling trout in cold weather requires special care.
When temperatures drop below freezing good catch-and-release practices become critical. We think of trout as needing special handling care when water temperatures are high, but fish are just as vulnerable when air temperatures are low. Mishandling fish in cold weather can easily be fatal.
Fish are, of course, cold blooded. They’re bodies do not produce heat like ours do and this leaves them especially vulnerable to frostbite. The fragile tissues of their gils can freeze in an instant when air temps are below freezing. Again, they have no body temperature to stabilize their cells, so it happens quickly.
We adapt very well to cold temperatures. We have evolved to survive wide temperature swings. Fish on the other hand have evolved in a world which never drops below freezing, so taking them out in the cold air is as alien to them as dropping us on the surface of Mars.
The solution is simple.
Read More »Stealth For Trout- Stand Still
By Jason Tucker
I used to spinner fish for trout a lot.
Much of it was done as a scouting tool in preparation to come back and fly fish, and at times I even clipped the hook off and simply took note where the fish were. It was a great scouting tool, one I have long since abandoned.
In several years of this kind of fishing I began to notice a trend. In my haste to cover water, I often kept wading as I cast. At times I was puzzled as to why a particularly good spot did not yield a fish. I would stop and cast some more, and very often come up with a fish.
Over time a pattern emerged. If I was in motion, I came up blank; if I stopped moving, a fish would strike. I even began to experiment and count the fish I caught while moving and standing still. There was no comparison. Oftentimes fish would follow and not strike if I was in motion, and then strike once I stood still.
I later tested this while fly fishing, using a skunk pattern. I often fish up a stretch of river with dries, and then fish skunks back downstream. Skunks work best with a down and across presentation. Again the pattern emerged– if I was in motion I caught nada, if I stood still, even in a pool I had already disturbed, then I at least had a chance at fish.
Sound moves faster and more efficiently through water than air–it’s science.
We as angler’s also tend to
Read More »The Perfect Gamefish
By Justin Pickett
All hype aside, golden dorado may be the perfect gamefish.
Prior to my trip to Parana On The Fly Lodge, I had my own preconceived ideas of what fishing for Golden Dorado might be like. Everyone knows they have teeth. You’ve no doubt seen them in photos, jumping and thrashing in the water. But what you don’t know about them, and what I didn’t know about them, will make them even more badass than you ever thought.
First off, they are some moody little bastards. Chucking hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of casts between fish is common. Not because the fish are scarce. There are plenty of fish living within the Parana’s waters. The Goldens just seem to have a particular set of requirements that must be met before they strike. Even the little guys can get picky and will inspect your fly all the way to the boat before turning away. I remember thinking to myself on the second day that this type of fishing reminded me of fishing for musky. Constantly pounding the banks and structure, over and over, fighting the urge to “zone out” from the repetitive nothingness of empty retrieves. Sometimes the only break in the monotony would be the occasional hang up in the bushes or trees, or maybe the hideous, haunting sound of howler monkeys blasting through the jungle. It took me a day and a half to land my first Golden Dorado. In other words, you have to work for them a little bit. You have to earn your stripes a little, and pay some dues. You’re not just going to step onto a boat, sling some line, and yank one in the boat. It takes a little bit of grit, and I like that.
Another thing that makes these apex river monsters awesome is where and how they hold in the river. Like many of our favorite gamefish here in the states, they are ambush predators. Hiding amongst submerged trees, bushes, rocks, sand banks, and cut-banks, the mean-muggers blend in to the powerful, turbulent waters of the Parana, despite their golden flanks. They hold on the
Read More »Flat Water Nymphing
The past few years, Louis and I have grown very fond of one specific pool tucked up in mountains of the southern appalachia. We visit it regularly because of the bounties of trout that it sustains and nurtures year round. We nicknamed it the “lazy boy pool”, because it constantly has food entering the pool and its slow moving water and deep water cover requires little energy for fish to feed round the clock. It’s loved by lazy trout and they in turn grow big and fat. Despite the large numbers of trout the pool holds, angler won’t find it to be a cake walk for catching them. To have success in this pool you have to bring your A-game. The fish have grown wise to fly anglers and the glass calm and crystal clear water adds further to the overall challenge. Trout here, get to examine your flies for long periods and they regularly dish out more refusals than eats. It’s had Louis and I pulling our hair out on multiple occasions. If we need our ego’s checked, this is the perfect place for us to do that. It never fails to reminds us we are far from having it all figured out. The slightest mistake by an angler will send wakes across the water alerting all the trout in the pool, and when that happens, the fish get lock jaw.
Read More »3 Bad Habits That Lose Big Fish
By Louis Cahill
Tired of hooking big fish just to lose them in the fight?
This came up the other day when I was fishing with a buddy. Like too many anglers, he’d been losing big fish, one after the next, over the same simple mistakes. It was a ‘face-palm’ moment when I pointed it out. In part because he actually knew better than to do any of these three things, and did them any way.
I’m not ragging on my buddy. I’ve seen plenty of anglers make these same mistakes and suffer the consequences. Simple habits you can get away with on the average fish become huge disasters when you hook a trophy. Have a look at this list and make sure you you’re not making the same mistakes.
3 BAD HABITS THAT LEAD TO LOST FISH
Ignoring wind knots
How many times have you felt a wind knot in your leader and thought, I’ll fix it next time? Maybe the fishing was hot and you didn’t want to miss any action. How many times did ignoring that wind knot result in breaking off a nice fish? The only time to fix wind knots is NOW. As soon as you find them, and it’s a good idea to check your leader often. If you find wind knots, chafing, nicks, or anything other than a perfect leader, fix it right away. You never know if the next fish to eat your fly will be a trophy.
A sloppy reel
Ever look down at your reel and see a sloppy mess of fly line poorly stacked on the reel? I know I have. Maybe things got hectic fighting the last fish or you just spooled up a bunch of slack line in a hurry when you saw a fish rising in the next pool. That sloppy reel is an invitation for disaster. Poorly spooled line can easily bind or knot when a strong fish starts ripping it off of the reel. When you see a bird’s nest in the making, stop, strip it all off of the reel and stack it neatly. It’s time well spent.
The statuesque angler
Like Fred McDowell said, “When the lord gets ready, you got to move.”
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