Taming Marabou Tails
By Bob Reece
As we move toward spring, the presentation of streamers increases for many fly fishers.
For those of us that tie our own, the use of some materials is far more common than others. Marabou tends to be one of those materials, particularly in the tails of many bugger style streamers.
The underwater effectiveness of this material cannot be denied. However, for the time invested behind the vise, marabou can be an unruly material to work with. It has the ability to fly, float and crawl its way throughout any available surface. This attribute can often slow down the tying process and impact the efficiency of the tier.
When sitting down to tie any pattern, I try to make the most of my tying time. When creating patterns with marabou tails, I use a simple trick to mass produce them prior to tying. As I cut off the allotted amount of marabou for one tail, I hold the separated material in my left hand. I then moisten my thumb, index and middle finger of the right hand. Using my right hand, I twist the butt ends of the marabou together and set the tail off to the side. This moistened twist hold the fibers together, even after it dries, until I’m ready to tie them in.
Read More »Flats Fishing is not All Sunshine
I was in The Fish Hawk picking up a few things before heading to the Florida Keys for my first ever week of flats fishing.
My friend Gary Mariman asked me where I was going. When I told him he gave me a piece of advice that saved my trip.
“Take a fleece,” were the first words out of his mouth.
“Really?” I thought. It was already warm enough in Atlanta that I wasn’t carrying a fleece. “You’ll freeze your ass off,” he insisted. Gary, the creator of the Tarpon Toad, knows a thing or two about flats fishing so I took his advice and he was right. I’d have died without that fleece.
It’s tempting to think that it never gets cold in the tropics but I have fished in the Bahamas in two layers of fleece. That was highly unusual but I’ll never go down there without one. I’ve fished in the Keys in April when the temperature never made it to seventy. Even if it’s not uncomfortable to fish in shirt sleeves, running in the boat can get chilly.
The big couplet is water. If you get caught in the rain or splashed by spray you can get hypothermic on a chilly run. You never want to be on a flats boat without rain gear no matter what the weatherman says. The spray from the ocean is just as wet as the rain. Carry a good
Read More »Mighty Waters
By Louis Cahill
This film struck a chord with me.
You owe it to yourself to watch it. If you’re interested in my story and what it meant so much to me, read on, but don’t feel like you have to.
I’d like to thank Simms, Costa, The American Museum of Fly Fishing and Cold Water and Cold Water Collaborative for this fine film.
MIGHT WATERS
Read More »Merican Nymphing
By Johnny Spillane
THERE IS A LOT THAT GOES INTO INDICATOR NYMPHING.
There are many different types of nymph fishing, Czech nymphing, French nymphing etc, but I’d like to think that what we do in Colorado and most of the west could be classified as ‘Merican Nymphing. Might as well give it a name. There are many different options and many more opinions on this style of fly fishing but we will keep it simple in this post and address it’s applications.
First off, how do you choose your indicator? They all serve their own purpose, I use Thingamabobber or Fish Pimp products but there is something to be said for old school yarn or pinch on indicators. Whatever product you choose, keep in mind its application because that will play a big role in what will work the best for you. If you’re moving around and changing depth frequently, something that doesn’t destroy your leader and is easy to adjust might be best. If you’re constantly fishing the same depth with minimal weight, a pinch on indicator might be better.
There are many different ways to nymph fish with an indicator, but the number one thing you need to keep in mind is that the goal is to put the fly where the fish are. Setting your depth, in my opinion, is far more important then fly selection. How well does a fly work if it is 2 feet above or below where a fish is feeding? You can change patterns until you are numb but unless you are putting the fly in the fishes feeding column, more often then not you will not get a strike. This holds especially true on
Read More »Is the Fly Fishing Industry Making Us Soft?
By Paul Puckett
I DON’T EVEN KNOW IF THAT IS THE RIGHT WORD OR RIGHT WAY TO DESCRIBE WHAT I MEAN.
Being in this industry for just over 20 years, I have seen a lot of changes. Changes in the people who fish, the way they fish and what they fish with. You don’t have to work hard anymore to do something amazing.
It seems like all the good spots are so exposed, and anglers feel entitled to so much, because they spent $1200 on a blue fly rod, a silver reel with floating tapered fly line. Don’t get me wrong, I am a gear junkie, just like 90% of people who fly fish. But has it gotten out of hand? Has the industry forgotten that fly fishing is about simplicity?
Every high end rod that has come out, in the past ten years, casts great. At least good enough to call it a “good” fly rod. My 5 and 6 weights are still Sage RPL’s from 1995 and I don’t plan on changing anytime soon. I remember when Ross made two reels, the Cimmaron and the Gunnison. That’s all we needed, because they were awesome. Now we have aero this, polymer that, composite those. Remember when Simms had one wader, and it was indestructible? I just retired my Simms guide waders from 1998 this year. That’s 15 years and a lot of fishing, sitting, hiking and seam sealing.
I am not saying we have to go back to the “turntable” record players of fly fishing, but I wish more people would appreciate the foundations of the sport. Cast a fiberglass rod or even bamboo. Hold on to good equipment, keep
Read More »Making the Bobber Better
IF YOU’RE GOING TO FISH A BOBBER, YOU SHOULD MAKE YOUR BOBBER BETTER.
I’ve written a little lately about my growing discontent towards bobber fishing. I’m going to say again, on the record, that there is a time and a place for a big gaudy bobber and when it’s time to fish one, you want it to work at its absolute best. Right?
There are two common problems with the way a bobber functions. They are both a matter of drift. On the one hand, a bobber can negatively impact the drift of your fly, pulling it up in the water column and causing an unnatural drift. On the other hand, there can be too much slack between the bobber and the fly, causing your bobber to react slowly when a fish eats.
I was talking about this with my friend Whitney Gould the other day and she showed me a cool trick that solves both problems. This is ironic because Whitney is a renowned Spey caster who will not fish a bobber under threat of death and openly makes fun of anyone who does, including me. I don’t mind, because I’m not too proud to learn something and this trick is so simple I’m shocked I’ve never seen it before.
Read More »Weather Dictates When and How I Fish My Terrestrials
Every year, I’m asked by clients, when is the best time for them to come up and experience the terrestrial bite? For years, I kept a terrestrial fishing journal to help me better serve my clients. The journal documented the arrival times of specific terrestrials and when I first started catching fish on them. It seemed to help me for a couple seasons, but after that, I started to become too reliant on the data in the journal, and I lost sight of the most important variable of all in timing the terrestrial season–weather. Depending on what the weather is doing for the current year, it can speed up or postpone the arrival of the terrestrial season. Some years it will only sway the start of the terrestrial season a week in either direction, while other years, it can sway the arrival well over a month. Understanding the role weather plays in the lives of terrestrials can help anglers nail down more accurately when the terrestrial season will begin and peak in their area. If you can be one of the lucky few to time and start fishing terrestrials before everyone else does, you can be rewarded with some of the biggest fish of the year.
Read More »A Closer Look / The Large Mouth Bass
I’M GUILTY.
I have called them ugly fish. I have shown a lack of interest in bass largely due to their color palette. Then, just the other day I noticed the fin on this large mouth.
I’m a big enough man to admit when I’m wrong.
Read More »Little Things Matter: Tippet Spools
By Bob Reece
I’m a huge believer in the fact that little things matter.
I believe this holds true in all aspects of life, including the world of fly fishing. In the tackle setups that we as fly fishers use, our tippet is often one of those petite items of importance.
Spools of tippet in various sizes are an essential part of a successful day on the water. Their material allows fly fishers to create the connections needed for effective presentations and bringing fish to our nets. While this is widely understood, we often overlook the small aspects of maintaining and using these supportive spools.
Many tippet spools have built in cutters that are imbedded in their plastic rims. During the bustle of a day on the water, the free end of tippet often works its way free from the metal eyelet and elastic band that hold it in place. If the tippet ends up on the same side of the band as the cutter, it is often nicked when peeled off the spool. These unintended abrasions weaken the tippet material and create the possibility of breaking off larger fish. To avoid this occurrence, check your spools throughout the day and leave a slightly longer than normal tag end when cutting off lengths of new tippet.
The same elastic bands that hold the tippet in place, can also blind us to the amount of material that we have left. I spend a significant amount of time fly fishing waters off the beaten path. It’s more than frustrating to reach for your first round of tippet and realize that there are a few inches left of the size that you needed most. I’ve made a habit of
Read More »The Case For Stoneflies
By Louis Cahill
I watched a video the other day about the most important insects for trout fishing.
The host listed the aquatic insects, we are all familiar with as anglers, in order of importance. I was a little shocked to hear my favorite bug come in last on the list, with very little discussion of his life cycle or how to imitate him.
I DECIDED TO TAKE A FEW MINUTES TO EXPLAIN WHY THE STONEFLY IS MY FAVORITE PATTERN FOR TROUT.
If you are a dry fly purist, I can understand why you might not recognize the importance of the stonefly. The supersize varieties that come to mind are a brief, seasonal hatch and can be hard to predict for casual anglers. You might carry a few flies, in case you’re lucky enough see the huge bugs on the water, or you might drift one along the bank if nothing else is happening. If, however, you’re the kind of angler who likes fishing nymphs or, like me, you live somewhere nymph fishing is the starting point, not plan B, stoneflies are the bomb.
There are many different varieties of stonefly and they come in all sizes. For trout feeding below the surface, which is most trout most of the time, they are an important food source, especially in the cooler months, and the patterns that imitate them offer some tactical advantages to anglers. Understanding these advantages means first knowing a little more about the life of a stonefly.
Stoneflies are one of the oldest forms of life on the planet, predating the dinosaurs. They are a successful species but they still have some rough edges evolution hasn’t polished off. These evolutionary shortcomings are what makes them so interesting to fish and anglers.
Stoneflies are slow to mature. Most varieties have a nymphal cycle lasting two to three years. Over that time they slowly grow from tiny nymphs to big, juicy monsters. That means two important things to anglers. In streams where they are found, stonefly nymphs are present all year round and examples of any species exist at many different sizes. That means a stonefly nymph is a good choice in any season and the selection of an appropriate size fly is pretty forgiving.
• Stoneflies are poor swimmers. The nymphs have hooks on they’re feet to hold on to rocky bottoms in fast water. Once they become dislodged, which happens often, they tumble pretty helplessly in the current. This makes them an easy meal for trout and easy to imitate for anglers.
Many stoneflies are big. That makes them an attractive food source for big trout. This is purely anecdotal, but most of the big trout I’ve caught in my life have eaten streamers or stoneflies. The size of the imitations also lends itself to building in weight, making the flies serve double duty as both weight and bait. This makes them especially useful in tandem with smaller nymphs. There is a school of thought that says lighter patterns move more naturally in the water. While I don’t disagree with that entirely, I think the practicality of getting the fly to the bottom is more important.
Stone flies come in a wide variety of