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
Wade to Win
WADE TO WIN, BY BRUCE CHARD
Wading is an exciting way to experience saltwater flats fishing for species like bonefish and permit. It offers the angler a more personal, mano y mano, experience with his quarry. There are a few skills you’ll need to master for a quality wading experience. These tips should make walking the flats a breeze.
The Wading Ready Position
While wading the saltwater flats, it’s important to find a good, comfortable ready position. This position will help you be relaxed as you stroll quietly through the shallows. You’ll be ready to make a saltwater quick cast with ease.
Here are some pointers that make up a good wading ready position.
•Have the fly line, coming from the first stripping guide, pinched to the cork with your index finger. This helps to load the rod quickly on your first false cast.
•Hold the fly at the bend of the hook or cradled comfortably in your cupped hand.
•Do not let the fly touch anything, from the start of the cast until you present it to the fish. Some anglers like to drop the fly in the water and then cast. This motion causes all kinds of issues. They usually hook themselves and miss the shot.
•You can tuck the cork handle of the rod under you arm pit with the rod tip sticking out behind you . This is a nice way to relax a little and stretch your hands
Line Management While Wading
Here are a couple of fly line management tips that will help you when wading.
The Snap-T Cast With 2-Hand Rod: Video
The Snap-T cast is an essential for any 2-hand angler.
You really only need to know a couple of casts to be an effective angler with spey or switch rods. One of the casts you just can’t live without is the Snap-T. This easy and powerful cast lets you launch the fly when the current is off your casting shoulder. It generates the power needed to cast heavy sink tips but works equally as well with light dry lines.
WATCH THIS VIDEO TO LEARN THE SNAP-T CAST FOR 2-HAND RODS.
Read More »Trust Your Guide
Trust your guide they say. Always trust your guide.
There is no more trustworthy bunch than the guides at Bair’s Lodge on Andros Island in the Bahamas. Why you wouldn’t trust them is beyond me. What is not to trust? In a real sense, in the South Andros backcountry, our lives will be in their hands- there is no freshwater, no cell phone signal, and I’ve taken to calling the miles of braided channels and flats with no distinguishing land features The Hall of Mirrors. If your guide cashes in his chips back here and peels off the poling platform, you are going to be royally screwed. If it weren’t for the sat phone in the emergency case, that is.
But it is one thing to carry your gear down to the skiff in the morning, shake your guide’s hand, look him in the eye and decide he’s trustworthy, and quite another to put that trust into practice on a flat with bonefish coming in hot. Perhaps we need to start our morning with those team-building trust drills that corporate consultants loved so much in the recent past. Put your fly rod down before you fall backward.
On one sunny Bahamas morning I found out what trusting your guide really means
Read More »Trout Of Japan
by Daniel Galhardo
“THE SEA-RUN FORM ASCENDS RIVERS OF JAPAN IN MAY WHEN CHERRY TREES ARE IN BLOOM AND THEREFORE IS KNOWN AS THE SAKURA MASU, OR CHERRY SALMON”.
As part of my mission of spreading the tenkara story to anglers outside of Japan, I have made a point to visit Japan every year. I’m currently on my 6th “pilgrimage” to the country, meeting with teachers who share with me their techniques, their insights into tenkara, and of course their favorite fishing spots where we search for trout.
There are two main types of trout that we target in Japan: the amago and yamame. There is also a char, the iwana (side note, most tenkara rods we offer at Tenkara USA are named after Japanese trout/char).
The amago and yamame are virtually identical, except that the amago features red spots thorough its body while the yamame does not. The yamame and amago are also referred outside of Japan as “cherry salmon”. In his book, Trout of the World, James Prosek explains “Among Japan’s many varieties of native salmonids is a beautiful pink and violet salmon that exists in both anadromous and landlocked forms. The sea-run form ascends rivers of Japan in May when cherry treers are in bloom and therefore is known as the sakura mass, or cherry salmon”.
Read More »4 Proven Ways To Effectively Fish A Streamer
Every angler wants to catch a trophy trout and there’s no better way than fishing a streamer.
While it’s fair to say that there is no “wrong way” to fish a streamer, there are some proven techniques which will help make that trophy dream a reality. Presenting big, heavy flies to the largest fish in the river brings with it a whole new set of challenges, including a new way of thinking about presentation. Your presentation is no longer passive, but active, and it is the action of your fly which must excite the predatory instincts of the fish. In the end, you will find your own style of fishing streamers but here are four techniques that have been proven to bring big fish to the net time after time.
Stripping the fly
This is what most anglers think of as streamer fishing. Tossing the fly to the upstream side of a likely lie and ripping it back. It’s exciting and visual and usually productive. It plays on the predatory instinct of large trout by imitating a fleeing baitfish. I favor the jerk-strip retrieve, popularized by Kelly Galloup. A very young Mr. Galloup demonstrates in this video.
https://youtu.be/Pr_SwnIx6bA
The speed of your retrieve is key. Have you ever made an impulsive purchase that you later regretted? Then you have some insight into the mind of the fish who eats a streamer. Like a bargain shopper, fish don’t like to miss an opportunity. Your fly must be a limited time offer. If the fish has too much time to inspect and think his decision through, he’ll decide to pass. On the other hand, no fish wants to engage in the pointless pursuit of a bullet train. Remember to think about the environment where the fish and fly meet. If the water is moving slowly, your fly should scorch off the bank sending the message that it’s now or never. If your fly is in fast moving water, it’s already moving quickly in relation to a holding trout. Slow your retrieve down and give the fly a twitching action like a wounded baitfish. Always remember, a predator takes what he wants. It’s your job to make him want the fly.
Swinging the fly
If we set aside for the moment, the argument over whether steelhead are trout, this is how I have caught my largest trout. If a 42-inch steelhead will grab a swung fly, you’d better believe a big brown trout will, too. I like to employ the swing when fish are following a stripped fly, but not taking it. I’ll size down my streamer and often drop a Soft Hackle 16-24 inches behind it. You will catch more small fish this way but you’ll catch the big ones too.
Swinging the fly is an effective way to reach fish holding in
Read More »The Scream Revisited
By Louis Cahill
There was something going on with Edvard Munch I never really understood, until now.
In art school, we were taught that the dark and often disturbing images created by Munch were born of mental illness and lost love. It wasn’t until decades later that I looked closely enough at the background of his iconic work “The Scream” to realize what was actually happening. I too know the pain of having my ass handed to me on the flats, only to see my buddy hook up with the fish of a lifetime, right at the dock. Who wouldn’t scream?
They might have been right about the mental illness. It’s the only explanation for fly fishing.
Read More »La Maraquita, a Streamer for Golden Dorado
The Maraquita streamer looks like one thing, casts like another.
The name is hilarious, if you speak Spanish. If you don’t, ask someone who does. I’ll give this much of a hint. It’s what they used to call Andy when his favorite fishing shirt was pink. La Maraquita looks like one thing but acts like another.
What makes this fly so effective is it’s bulky profile and it’s ability to shed water when cast. Built almost completely from schlappen, this fly weighs almost nothing. It makes accurate casting a breeze while pushing enough water to get the attention of a hungry dorado.
Pay close attention as Andy ties the fly. The secret is that all of the materials are tied in at the same spot, creating a huge thread dam for the palmered schlappen head to be built on. Look at the photo and you will see how large the head is next to a traditional hair head. It’s a brilliant design and it works.
WATCH THE VIDEO AND LEARN TO TIE LA MARAQUITA
Read More »Cuda Up in My Grill
JUST SO EVERYONE KNOWS I’M SUPER PROUD OF MY NEW SLIM AND TRIM STATUS.
Louis has been on me a while now to drop some serious LB’s. I’ve really been stacking them on from my wife’s fantastic cooking. He says there’s a reason he doesn’t take photos of me anymore, and I really can’t blame him 🙂
Unfortunately, I’ve not lost the weight in reality. I ran across these two photos from four years ago, fishing down in the Florida Keys with Capt. Joel Dickey. He guided me to this behemoth barracuda on the fly. To this date, it’s probably one of my most memorable saltwater moments I’ve experienced on the flats. The take and battle were epic, particularly since my arms were already complete jello from the prior twenty minutes of stripping hand over fist as fast my arms would go.
Numerous barracuda prior had given us promising chases but as they so often do, they let off the gas and lose interest at the last second. About the time I was ready to yell uncle, Joel shouted in his famous southern accent, “DUDE, look at that giant cuda at two 0’clock”. I some how managed to lay out a good cast, and I was about five strips into my retrieve when this guy hammered the fly and took off faster than I’ve ever witnessed a fish swim. That’s when the “shit hit the fan”.
Read More »Don’t Ride the Brakes During Your Fly Casting
Are you finding that you’re lacking distance and falling short of your target with your fly casting?
Is your power and line speed insufficient? If the answer is yes, I bet you’re also getting a fair amount of tailing loops or dreaded wind knots aren’t you? Come on, be honest. There’s absolutely nothing to be ashamed of if you’re periodically falling into this category with your fly casting. Believe me when I say, you’re not at all alone. I see it regularly on the water guiding, and most of the time anglers struggling with these problems usually are only doing one thing wrong with their fly casting. Nine times out of ten, in this scenario, anglers are decelerating their fly rod during their forward cast, back cast, or even both, in some cases. What you need to be doing to fix this problem is smoothly accelerating your fly rod during your casting stroke, making sure you’re stopping the rod at it’s fastest point. This will allow your fly rod to distribute the energy loaded during your cast efficiently, and you’ll have plenty of power (line speed) to reach your targets.
DECELERATION DURING YOUR CASTING STROKE: SHORT STORY & CASE STUDY
This past fall I was fishing big attractor dry flies with a client of mine. There were plenty of big fish willing to rise to our offerings, but to get them to eat, we had to stay far back and make long casts to them. Otherwise they’d spot us and spook. My client, a capable fly fisherman with strengths in short presentations and roll casts, developed a weakness for distance, when a head wind picked up. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get the distance needed to present his dry fly ahead of the fish. Several minutes we worked a prime piece of water that I knew had some eager fish looking up, but we got no takes. My client turned to me and said, “They must not like this fly pattern”. I replied, “You may be right man”, and I handed him the nymph rig and pointed upstream to our next fishing spot. But what I really wanting to say is, “No, the fly pattern is good, you’re just not getting the fly anywhere close to your target”.
There are times when the best thing you can do guiding is to go along with your clients and not voice the complete truth. Now it’s important to understand that I had already explained to him a couple different times, that the problem he was having is that he was slowing down his fly rod to a stop during his casting stroke, and it was sucking his power and distance out of his cast. If I would
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