8 Common Fly Line Mending Mistakes
I spend the majority of my time teaching fly casting when guiding my clients, but the art of mending fly line is a close second.
A perfect cast can quickly become obsolete if you don’t understand the concept of mending fly line. When mending is timed correctly and executed properly it allows fly anglers to maintain a drag-free presentation, keep their fly in the target zone, and prolong the length of their drift. Developing good mending technique my friends, translates into more fish being hooked and landed. If you’re lucky enough to already have the basics of fly casting down, I highly encourage you to next focus your time on understanding and mastering the mechanics of mending fly line.
Throughout this post I’m going to try to touch base on the most popular mending mistakes I see on the river, but before I do so, here’s an intriguing question for everyone. Why is it, that fly anglers seem to always get their left and right mixed up when mending fly line? It happens to me guiding all the time. I’ll instruct my client to mend to the left and they’ll do the opposite, by mending to the right. One of the most common four word phrases out of my mouth is, “no, your other left”. This will probably hit home with more guides than anglers but I had to bring it up, since we all do it. I’ve tried using upstream and downstream for instructing mending direction, but that seems to be even more confusing. That being said, here are the most common mending mistakes I see on the river.
1. Anglers Wait Too Long to Mend
Everyone deserves props when a perfect cast is made, but don’t make the mistake of admiring it, and forget to follow it up with a good mend. Most often, but not always, a fly angler should make their first mend within a second or two of the fly landing on the water. Why you ask? Because it’s the most critical mend of your drift. It sets up your entire drift, and will eliminate the need for extra mending.
2. Anglers rod tip does not travel high enough in the air during the mend
The majority of the time when mending you’re trying to mend as much of your fly line and leader without moving your flies. The longer the cast or more fly line you have on the water, the higher you’ll need to move your rod tip in an oval shape path. “Give me a superman mend”, I say to my clients, when their mending a bunch of fly line. What I’m meaning by this is giving me the biggest mend you can.
3. Anglers mend their line by moving their fly rod in a sideways motion instead of upside down u-shape or n-shape
When your mending, your trying to pick up fly line and leader off the water and reposition it (placing it back down upstream or downstream of your fly). I see a lot of anglers moving their rod sideways in a straight line when mending. All this does is require you to mend again seconds later.
4. Some drifts require multiple mends
Even a perfect first mend isn’t always enough to get you through the entire drift drag-free. Sometimes fly anglers will
Tacky Fly Boxes From Fishpond: Video
Most anglers are familiar with Tacky Fly Boxes.
The brand made big waves when they came on the market a few years ago, and for good reason. These simple fly boxes are hard to beat for performance. Tacky dabbled a bit in partnerships with companies like Orvis before finally becoming one with Fishpond this year. Fishpond, known for style and outstanding design and construction, are dead set to take Tacky Boxes to the next level.
GET ALL THE DETAILS ON NEW TACKY FLY BOXES FROM FISHPOND IN THIS VIDEO.
Read More »The Double Figure 8 Loop knot
Loop knots give your fly superior action in the water.
There are several good options for creating a loop knot but tied in heavy salt water tippet, like you use for tarpon, most get quite bulky. In the first of three videos on better salt water knots, Capt. Joel Dickey shows us how to tie the Double Figure 8 Loop Knot. An excellent choice for strength, size and action.
WATCH THE VIDEO AND LEARN TO TIE THE DOUBLE FIGURE 8 LOOP KNOT!
Read More »Who’s Your Buddy?
What makes a good angler a great angler?
Fly fishing is a life long pursuit. That may be what I love the most about it. No matter how good you become, there is always a next level. Around every bend some new revelation. A lifetime of learning. For me, that’s the secret to happiness. Learn something new every day.
I always consider my fishing a work in progress. I never think of it in terms of what I have achieved, rather what’s next. This is in no way false modesty. Life has taught me that I have plenty to learn, whatever the subject. I clearly remember being, what I call, an adolescent angler. Knowing enough to be dangerous and too little to be content. Desperately seeking the next level. But how do you get there? I did it by getting lost.
I was excited about my new Toyota 4 Runner. It had been a while since I’d had four wheel drive and I knew it was going to open up some new water for me. On a crisp winter morning my wife and I hit the road to do some exploring. We followed one Forest Service road after another farther and farther into the North Georgia mountains, snow covering our tire tracks.
In my enthusiasm, I failed to keep up with a few of our turns and at some point had to stop and give the map a good study. Just as I was thinking it would have been smart to have brought food, a green pickup pulled up along side. A friendly fellow in a ball cap bearing the Fish Hawk logo asked if he could help. Dan Flynn would become one of my best friends and we fished together almost every week for years.
Dan is a fly fishing machine. His knowledge of Georgia and North Carolina trout water is endless. Especially the native brook trout streams. I learned more that first year crawling through mountain laurel with Dan than I’d learned in a lifetime of fishing on my own. It was with Dan I caught my first real trophy trout. Twenty-five inches. A great fish for a small Georgia stream. I remember him saying, “fish of a lifetime.”
I owe Dan a great many debts. Not only for what I learned from him and for his friendship but for so many great friends who would follow. It was through him that I met Kent, who continues to school me on a regular basis. And through Kent I met Joel Dickey and Bruce Chard, the guys that taught me the salt. And through Bruce I have met, well, just about everyone in the business. I wouldn’t be where I am without these guys.
So here’s my point. We spend a lot of time selecting our gear, choosing the water, tying the flies, setting up the boat. There’s endless talk about waders and boots and reels and lines. Don’t forget that the most important piece of the puzzle is the guy standing next to you. Choose your fishing buddies
Read More »Hellgrammite, The King Kong of Aquatic Insects
I was on the water trout fishing the other day, when my buddy Erik Ashlin said, “it was just about this time last year, when all the hellgrammites began crawling into the shallows to begin their pupation.
Let me flip over a rock and see if I can find one real quick, these guys are wicked looking”. No joke, the first rock Erik turned over, this freaking giant 3″ Hellgrammite was laying there with its jaws of life (mandibles) snapping. It was very clear it was gesturing, “come on, get closer…, let me get a piece of you”!
If you ever get the opportunity to examine a big Hellgrammite up close, there will be no doubt in your mind that the Hellgrammite is the King Kong of all aquatic insects. Be careful handling them because they can pack one hell of a painful pinch capable of breaking the skin. Hellgrammites are like a five course meal in terms of food value to trout. I’d lay a bet they pack every bit as much caloric worth as sculpins and crayfish do. Great times to fish hellgrammite imitations are during high flows after heavy rains. During these conditions, they often get dislodged from under rocks and swept down stream. Hellgrammites are also very vulnerable during behavioral drifts, when the larva are searching out new feeding grounds or better water conditions.
If you’re trying to tempt a trophy brown trout, rainbow trout, or smallmouth bass into eating, you can’t go wrong with a hellgrammite imitation. That being said, Hellgrammites shouldn’t be used as your everyday searching pattern. Somedays you’ll find
Read More »Orvis Pro Waders: Video
The new Orvis Pro Wader are both tough and feature rich.
The new Pro Wader from Orvis makes some big claims. Test show it to be the most puncture resistant wader o the market. New materials and cut make it a great choice for the athletic angler. Cool new features, like built in knee pads, make it innovative and practical. If you’re in the market for waders, the new Orvis Pro is worth a look,
GET ALL THE DETAILS ON THE ORVIS PRO WADER IN THIS VIDEO.
Read More »Bonefish Toe
By John Byron
Huh? Bonefish toe? Yup, it’s a thing.
Fishing last month at Beyond The Blue, South Caicos. Four companions/new friends from Connecticut, all experienced on bonefish. One-hundred percent wading all day long.
Fifth day one of us, Mark, came up lame mid-day, his big toe bothering him a lot. Swollen. Puffy. A color somewhere between beet red and puce. Toenail gray and iffy. Day six he stayed in port, barely able to hobble around.
Bonefish toe.
If you wade fish and wear most any wading boot, the danger is the toenail on your big toe catching the top inside of the boot and pushing it backwards into your toe. Five of us fishing —
Read More »“The Embarrassing State of Modern Fly Fishing” is an embarrassing take on modern fly fishing.
By Aaron Stiny
Recently my Facebook feed was flooded with folks sharing the aforementioned blog post, each post receiving a flood of comments.
Against my better judgement I browsed what folks had to say before reading it and saw nothing but Amen’s, Spot on’s etc so I gave it a click. I was surprised so many friends, especially industry employees, were adamantly in agreeance with it and I couldn’t help but feel like the article and the ensuing responses were hypocritical and ironic. Let’s dive in…
The Myth that fly fishing was a “quiet man’s” sport…Foremost, thankfully fly fishing isn’t a total Man’s sport anymore. Fly fishing has never been a quiet person’s sport. I grew up working in fly shops and forever worked for Bill Kiene, who had some of the loosest lips in Nor Cal when it came to promoting fishing. Many fly shop owners were the same way. Pre-social media Bill gained notoriety by pioneering one of the original fly fishing message boards and pushed fishing reports, however dated, to increase people getting after it, and in turn business. He didn’t do this simply to look after his bottom line, in his heart he wanted people on the water.
Lest we forget the massive consumer fly fishing shows of yesteryear which are currently experiencing a resurgence. The old ISE San Mateo show, Somerset, etc. Denver has been packed with consumers over the last few years, including many of the folks this blogger despises. Lefty Kreh, Chico Fernandez, Bob Clouser, they weren’t/aren’t exactly quiet men when it came to travelling around to shows, fly clubs etc. promoting hosted travel, selling gear, and collecting large speaking fees. Plain and simple, they were influencers before there were influencers, and it greatly benefitted their bottom line. In turn, they introduced how many generations to our sport who in turn spawned how many kids who are anglers in the social media generation.
Are most of the premier trout rivers really loved to death? The Mo, South Fork and other premiere trout rivers are counting fish by the thousand per mile. Many rivers are seeing more conscience flows by water administrators to protect fish during vulnerable times of year and enhance angler experience due to popularity. Let’s talk about former premiere Steelhead rivers: There is a passionate army of anglers advocating for the removal of the Snake River Dams to improve and in some cases just reopen steelhead fishing in Idaho. The Skagit/Sauk saga has more folks than ever before advocating for them. Steelhead popularity in CA has exploded in (thanks Kiene) and we have the largest Dam removal project in history about to happen on the Klamath. I get it, it sucks that your favorite WY river has a few more skiffs than it used to, but the number of passionate anglers, guides, shops and businesses bettering our fisheries is far greater than this blog will admit.
The cool factor and zero to hero guides. Where to begin,
Read More »Bonefish The Hard Way, Deep In The Mangroves
WHEN YOU ARE PLANNING A DIY BONEFISH TRIP, IT’S IMPORTANT TO CHECK THE TIDES.
If you are wading or using kayaks to navigate the flats your mobility may be limited and timing the tides becomes crucial. Bonefish will be most accessible on low tides. Late in a falling tide when they are forced out of the mangroves to early rising tide when they work the edges. It’s important that these tides fall during the time of day when the light is good for catching fish.
That said, I did the exact opposite on a recent trip to Cat Island, Bahamas. It was a vacation, not a fishing trip. The distinction is important to my wife. It means I don’t fish all day, every day. You can read my recommendations on how to make that work, (HERE). On this particular week, low tide came very early in the morning and after dark. Most mornings were compromised by rain. It was a tough set up, but I was determined to catch some bonefish, so I tried something crazy. And it worked!
At high tide the bonefish were feeding deep in the mangroves. In some spots, a hundred yards or more from the edge of the flats. So, I went in after them. It wasn’t long before I was catching bonefish and learning a lot about this new way of fishing. It’s not ideal. In fact it’s damned hard to do, but surprisingly fun.
HERE’S WHAT I LEARNED.
Read More »The New G. Loomis NRX Plus: Video
It’s been 11 years since G. Loomis introduced the NRX.
In all of that time it has remained one of the most beloved fly rods on the market. Clearly it was not a design that Loomis, or most anglers, felt needed improving. Well, 2020 is the year that changed. I think it’s fair to say that this is one of the most anticipated rod launches in recent memory. What’s all the fuss about?
FIND OUT IN THIS VIDEO.
Read More »