Garners Carp Dancer

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CARP ARE A NOTORIOUSLY PICKY FISH.

Anyone who’s thrown a fly at carp can tell you what a frustrating experience it can be. Fortunately our resident warm water expert Garner Reid has a solution. The Carp Dancer.

The carp dancer is tied on a curved shank hook with dumbbell eyes. This makes the fly present with its tail in the air. So I’m sure you can guess where the name carp dancer came from. When you twitch the fly it rides along the bottom with the marabou tail pulsing in the water. It drives the carp wild.

Watch the video and learn to tie Garners Carp Dancer.

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Keep Your Leash Out of Trouble and Catch More Fish: Video

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By Louis Cahill

Effective saltwater fly fishing is all about maximizing your opportunities to catch fish.

Saltwater fly fishing is usually not about numbers. You spend a lot of time hunting fish and waiting to get a shot. When you get that shot, it’s heartbreaking to miss it over something simple and totally avoidable, like having your fly line snag on a cleat or be trapped under the boat.

Being mindful of the condition of your leash is a full time job. Anyone who fishes with me can tell you that I compulsively check my leash. Often with a simple flick or the rod tip, checking for resistance while my eyes scan the flat. I try to always be aware of the direction of the current and the wind so I know instinctively what my leash id doing, both in the air and in the water. When it’s time to make a shot, I’m ready to make it count.

WATCH THE VIDEO AND I’LL SHOW YOU HOW TOO MANAGE YOUR LEASH.

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Louis Goes Fishing

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By Louis Cahill

IT’S BEEN A WHILE SINCE I POSTED AN UPDATE ON MY CONDITION.

Most of you know that the last year has been a rough one for me as I am in an ongoing struggle with PVR, which has impacted my vision and much more. Things change all the time but I’m hesitant to post updates. Folks would get tired of hearing about it and, frankly, I get tired of talking about it. I’m writing this because I actually do have some news and I honestly don’t have much else to write about, since this has been my life lately.

I expected to be in bed recovering from my seventh eye surgery this week, but I’m not. I saw the doctor a little over a week ago and he says I’m stable (that’s kind of a big deal) and there is no rush, so we rescheduled the surgery for October. That’s a huge relief! Being on my feet for a while is really going to help me recover from some of the unexpected side effects of my condition.

I knew going in that my vision was not going to be great. There was a good stretch there where they thought I might lose both eyes but, knock wood, that concern seems to have passed. My left eye seems to be in ok shape. There are no guarantees but with PVR but my doctor seems pretty confident about it. It’s been a while sine there was any talk of physically losing the right eye, which is awesome, but I am legally blind in that eye. Visually, for now at least, that’s very challenging. If the right eye were gone my vision would be better. The bad signal from the right eye makes a mess of everything. If, however, things were to go badly in the left eye I’d be damned glad to have it. 

I didn’t know going in that this thing would wreck me in so many other ways. Recovering from multiple surgeries, I was in bed for a solid six months. Three months of that I couldn’t even roll over. That caused all sorts of other problems. Muscle atrophy, balance issues and nerve damage being the worst. Long story short, I had to learn to do simple things like walk, sit up and feed myself without a bib all over again.

I’m doing great now. I’m still very weak with some ironic pain but I am driving (which is huge) and doing pretty much whatever I want. I have fished twice in the last month. Ok, I know that doesn’t sound like a big deal but it is. I used to put in over 250 days a year but four hours on Sunday morning wiped me out. This week I’m fishing two days and for the first time I’ll be wading. Again, doesn’t sound like a dig deal, but just a few weeks ago the idea of standing in a stream seemed impossible. I’m incredibly excited. Hopefully next week I won’t be telling you about new cast on my leg!

For the casting geeks.

I was very afraid that I would be learning to cast a fly rod from scratch. Fortunately, some part of me remembers, at least, which end of the rod to hold. Thats not to say I’m

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Using XL Trout Beads As Attractors In Your Tandem Rig

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Back in 2006, I spent a season guiding in Alaska at Mission Creek Lodge.

It was a great experience and a hell of a lot of hard work, but I held my own and ended up representing well for Southeastern fishing guides. That doesn’t make me an expert on Alaska fishing by any means, particularly when compared to bad ass veteran alaskan guides like Andrew Grillos, TJ Zandoli, and Nathan Cornelius. That season in Alaska I was blessed with the opportunity to pick the brains and learn from some of the best bush guides in the area. One lesson I learned right off the bat was using an extra large attractor trout bead as my lead fly in my tandem bead rigs. Point being, matching the hatch and size of the eggs isn’t the only factor that plays into getting big trout to eat. The attraction factor you get by using a 10-12mm trout bead often sparks initial interest from big bows, persuading them to move in for a closer look. In most cases they’ll end up eating the smaller more appropriately sized bead, but it became very obvious to me how important a role, big attractor beads played in creating hookups.

Since then, I’ve experimented using big attractor beads on other trout waters in the United States. I often fish a 10mm trout bead in the top position with

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Laying the Smack Down

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Sometimes you just have to lay the smack down on the water with your terrestrial fly patterns during the summer months to entice fish to eat.

This trophy rainbow trout turned on our flies repeated times only to veer off at the last second. I changed flies and rigs multiple times and then this trout completely shut down on us. It wouldn’t budge even when the fly drifted the perfect line over the fish.

I was about to give up when I told my client to scoot up a few feet closer and smack his dry fly down hard on the water right on the trout’s nose. He did so, and this big hen came up with no hesitation and inhaled his fly. It was a really cool fly fishing experience and my client was thrilled. Next time this summer you spot a trout and a regular drift doesn’t get the job done, try laying the smack down with your fly to imitate a bug flying into the water. Often it’s like ringing the dinner bell for trout.

Check out this video link below of some epic terrestrial fishing on my home water, shot by Bent Rod Media. The giant fish at the end required a “Smack Down” to entice it to eat.

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Fly Fishing: Is Your Fly Swimming Right Side Up?

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A FLY FISHING HERO OF MINE, CAPT. BRUCE CHARD, ONCE TOLD ME, “IT’S NOT HOW PRETTY YOUR FINISHED STREAMER IS AT THE VISE THAT MATTERS, BUT RATHER HOW IT’S GOING TO SWIM IN THE WATER?”

Until about the last ten years, I gave very little thought with regard to how I tied my fly tying materials on the hook for my streamer patterns. Nor did I think about how those materials being tied on the hook would in turn, influence how the streamer would keel in the water during the retrieve. This especially was true with fly patterns of mine that I intended 100% to ride hook point up in the water, for example, many of my saltwater fly patterns. It turns out that I was very ignorant, all of those years, thinking as long as I tied my dumbbell eyes on the correct side of the hook, that the weight of the dumbbell eyes would always flip my fly right side up in the water. For those of you who are veteran fly tiers, you most certainly understand this is not at all a guarantee, and you’d quickly point out that the buoyancy of the materials being used in a fly pattern, should always be carefully tied in on the hook in the correct position. The reason for this, is because the side of the fly that holds the most buoyant materials, will almost always end up on top in the water, regardless of whether or not weighted dumbbell eyes were used.

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The Woman Behind The Feel

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IF SHE WAS A MAN, SHE MIGHT HAVE BEEN A COWBOY.

The kind of quiet, earnest character Gary Cooper played in his old westerns. Raised on a Montana ranch with five brothers, she stands as if she were always ready to get to work. You wouldn’t be the least surprised to see her saddle a horse or mend a fence. She is serious, thoughtful, and when she speaks she gets straight to the point. And you’d better believe people listen.

Soft spoken, humble, completely unassuming and a bit on the quiet side, with short silver hair and perfect posture, Annette McClean doesn’t immediately stand out in a crowd. If you saw her at the grocery store you might think of her as someone’s mom, or grandmom, and you’d be right. She is those things, as well as being a great angler, a good friend and civicly involved neighbor. As it happens, Annette is also one of the most brilliant minds in fly rod design.

There’s no point in writing around it, Annette is unique in that she is the only woman to design fly rods for a major manufacturer. As far as I know, she is the only woman rod designer period. Not that it matters and it certainly doesn’t to Annette. There is a rich history of women in the fly fishing industry and though she is the first to hold this position, I’m sure she will not be the last.

“I never felt devalued at Winston because I was a woman,” she tells me.

Annette was working for a local conservation organization in the 1980s when she walked through the front door of the R.L.Winston Fly Rod Company. She wasn’t looking for a job, or even a fly rod. She was there to ask then owner, Tom Morgan, if he’d sell a piece of land.

“No,” Tom replied, “But I’ve got a job for you if you’re interested.”

The job was polishing reel seat hardware, and she took it. Not a glamorous position but she didn’t care. She enjoyed the work and before long Annette was doing a couple of other jobs around the plant, including working on bamboo rods with Glen Bracket.

Winston is the kind of place where employees take pride in their work and feel an ownership in it. Any employee can, at any time, take any part out of production if they find it to be anything other than perfect. They are expected to do it, and what’s more they are expected to take it back to the person responsible for the imperfection. It’s the kind of place where if you do your job well, you get more responsibility. The kind of place where your work ethic matters more than your resume and before long Annette McClean found herself in charge of operations, and then design.

Winston is one of the oldest and most storied brands in fly fishing, so it’s fitting that when you walk through the front door you find yourself in a museum. Glass cases hold old bamboo rods, many with world records attached to them. Old machinery and hand tools from the company’s early days line the walls. Black and white photos cover the walls. Photos of men who shaped fly fishing as we know it and most recently a photo of Annette McClean. None of them are

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Be Stealthy Like Czech Nymphers

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I’m not afraid to admit I’m not a big fan of Czech nymphing.

I’m not an aficionado of the popular three-fly nymph rig either. It’s not the right rig for fly anglers that lack discipline or are daydreaming fly casters. Furthermore, a freshly tied rig can become a birds nest instantly, simply by a landed fish, rolling in the net. That being said, I’m not saying Czech nymphing doesn’t work, it undoubtedly has it’s place in trout fishing, and can be highly effective at times, it’s just not my first choice.

Here’s what I’ll admit and also highly respect about the die hard Czech nymph fisherman out there. Most are very good at approaching fishing holes with complete stealth so they don’t spook fish. They take the time to think out their approach before casting, making sure they’re positioned perfectly so they can execute the best presentation and drift with their flies. Why do they do this you ask? Because success in czech nymphing demands it. Fly anglers fishing this rig are limited to short distance casts and drifts. This ensures they’ll stay in constant contact with their flies for strike detection and will also be able to maintain proper fly depth during their drifts.

You’ll never see a veteran czech nympher fishing out of his/her boundaries, and that’s why we should be paying more attention and adopting some of their techniques into our everyday fly fishing practices. It doesn’t matter one bit whether you’re a dry fly purist or prefer to nymph fish with an indicator, like I do. Far too often, I see anglers

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Traditional Old-School Nymphs Catch Trout, Don’t Forget It

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Every year, I spend quite a bit of time scouring the interweb and flipping through numerous fly company catalogs, all in the effort to stay up to date with the latest new fly pattern creations.

Many are just variations of already existing fly patterns, but quite often it’s a new fly tying material that’s created, manipulated, or that’s managed to stay under the radar and discovered, that’s used to develop these new fly patterns. I usually spend my time reviewing the new flies and their recipes, and hear my inner-voice chattering over and over, “why didn’t you come up with that fly pattern, dumby”. But even after purchasing and tying several dozen of the new fly patterns, many of them ultimately fall short on the water of producing trout numbers like my traditional old-school standby nymphs do. Why is that?

I think the the fly tying world is very similar to the rod manufacturing world, where a company builds a great fly rod that 90% of fly anglers love, and then a couple years down the road they discontinue the rod line, to make room for the introduction of the next innovative fly rod. Quite often, in my opinion though, that new rod design’s performance falls short of its predecessor. I know this process is called product life cycle, and it will continue to happen again and again, but it sure seems like we’re in way too much of a hurry to move on, and should instead be more content with sticking with a great product longer. It’s the notion that great isn’t great enough, and that we should retire the greats, in the hopes we can find something, for lack of a better word, that’s perfect. The problem is, there’s no such thing. No one product will work perfect for the infinite number of situations it will encounter on the water. My point being, in the target zone and scope of fly patterns at least, it may benefit many of us if we stop getting lost in creating and searching for the next best fly pattern, and instead spend more time just fishing the fly patterns that have proven to catch fish for us consistently for the past century.

Not long ago, I spent a day floating a very popular tailwater in the Southeast. It has an extraordinary trout population, supporting something like 6,000+ trout per mile. Fly fisherman travel from all over the country to fish it, and many of them go-in thinking presentation aside, that success is going to be determined by fishing the latest hot fly patterns that the fish haven’t seen. They run to

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RIO Slick Cast Coating and Technical Trout Fly Line: Video

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By Louis Cahill

Here’s an unboxing and video review of the new RIO Slick Cast Coating and Technical Trout fly line.

When I do product reviews, I generally test a product for months before writing the review. That insures that the review is thorough and thoughtful, but it takes a while and often, by the time it’s done, a lot of folks have just bought the thing, So, today I’m trying something different. I’m testing the RIO Technical Trout fly line with the new Slick Cast coating live on camera. You’ll get to see me take it out of the box and cast it for the first time. You’ll get a frank and spontaneous opinion of it’s performance. Let me know what you think of the format and maybe I’ll do it more often.

WATCH THE VIDEO FOR MY FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE NEW RIO SLICK CAST.

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