Fly Fishing Techniques: "The Inside Scoop"
Phil Monahan, editor of American Angler, authors this instructive piece on how to best fish inside river bends and avoid spooking fish in the rush to get to traditional holding water.
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June 30, 2004
The Ants of Summer
John Merwin talks in Field & Stream about ants, grasshoppers, crickets, and beetles and their scheduled appearance in late summer trout waters. He notes that if "you watch a trout pool during the late morning and afternoon, you'll often see the occasional gentle dimple of a rising trout. These rises will often be near a pool's center where the main current tongue slows and spreads. Such rises tend to be subtle and irregular, and they usually indicate trout rising to random terrestrials trapped in the current."
June 29, 2004
John Gierach's Trout Bum
Just reread John Gierach's Trout Bum after enough time (almost 20 years) that it came across like the new and brilliant prose it was in the 1980s. Funny how literature does that. It lifted me straight out of a corporate-junket-induced spiritual slump and is guaranteed fuel for the belabored consciousness. If you've somehow missed this book, stop everything you're doing right now and read it immediately.
NPR and National Geographic "Radio Expeditions"
NPR and National Geo have teamed up to produce several audio narratives (unfortunately in Real Media format only) on topics as diverse as live fish harvesting in the Pacific and the Dry Tortugas National Park. (Thanks to reader Dave Dalu for this link.)
June 28, 2004
Night Fly Fishing Tactics
Deborah Weisberg offers this excellent review of the methods and tactics for night fly fishing perfected by George Harvey and Joe Humphries of Pennsylvania. Humphreys has a video -- his fourth on fly-fishing -- called "The Night Game," which won a bronze Telly Award last year. The article includes some excellent advice from Humphries. On tippet sizes: "If it's too light, it will twist to hell. Use the heavy stuff. When you hook a big fish, you don't want it breaking off." On the best conditions: "A bright moon will turn them off. A heavy fog will turn them off. But if you're fishing in the moonlight and a front moves in and clouds cover the moon, the fish will turn on." In the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
June 26, 2004
Fly Fishing Books as Collectibles
I noticed last night that Alibris.com is selling signed copies of Thomas McGuane's "Live Water" (Meadow Run Press, 1996) for prices ranging from $149.95 to $1499.95. There were only 1500 printed. It is certainly one of Mr. McGuane's more personal books. In the introduction, he writes that after his father died he was invited to fish the Content Keys by his father's best friend. The following conversation ensued:
"Uncle Ben, was my father a good fisherman?"
"No, Tommy, he was not. But no one loved it more."
Damselflies and Dragonflies
George Rowe offers excellent insight into the lifecycles of the damselfly and dragonfly and how best to their imitations to catch bass and bluegill. Mr. Rowe points out that "Dragonflies and damselflies are very similar insects and difficult to tell apart, except when they are at rest. When they are still, the difference is obvious - the dragonfly has its wings held horizontally while the damselfly folds its wings vertically." In the Petosky (Michigan) News-Review.
June 25, 2004
Long Island Flats Fishing
Here's an excellent introduction to the fishing opportunities available to sight-casters around Long Island, New York in The New York Times. It includes a list of accomodations and guides in the area. (Registration required.)
Post-Runoff: Stoneflies for Starving Sumo Wrestlers
As runoff ends in southwest Montana, the really big fish find easy pickings -- and so do fly fishers. Nick Gevock writes in the Bozeman Chronicle about the stoneflies coming off right now and the ease of matching them. Montana Troutfitters fly shop owner Josh Stanish suggests "bitch creeks, girdle bugs, yuck bugs, Kauffman's stone fly nymphs, Jackson's ugly bugs, 20 inchers, double bead stones, double headers and cat pukes." (Thanks to reader John DeVault for this link.)
June 24, 2004
Another One for Diana Rudolph
MidCurrent isn't normally feverish about tracking tournament results, but Diana Rudolph qualified as something of a phenom by being the first woman to win the classic Don Hawley Tarpon Tournament last week. Now she has extended her dominance of the Scientific Anglers/Florida Keys Outfitters Women's World Invitational Fly Championship in Islamorada. In a sport with a superabundance of male iconography I'm secretly hoping for heroine status for Ms. Rudolph. (Thanks to reader David Dalu for this link.)
June 23, 2004
The Glories of Fly Fishing for "Panfish"
Ted Leeson worships the "most democratic" of all fish in Field & Stream, noting that he once chose yellow perch over the trophy trout that he and a friend had paid to catch.
Bighole Trout Blog
Al Lefor publishes daily reports on his guiding on the Bighole River in Montana at BigholeTrout.com. This is refreshing, unpretentious stuff -- the kind of thing you don't mind reading every day and something that leaves you feeling you're living next door to the river. I don't know why more guides and outfitters don't take advantage of Weblog technology to do the same.
June 22, 2004
Mike Lawson on Catching Larger Trout
Mike Lawson, proprietor of Henry's Fork Anglers and author of the recent "Spring Creeks" (Stackpole Books, September 1, 2003), talks about timing and presentation in this article about the hunt for large trout. On HenrysForkAnglers.com.
Diana Rudolph
If you didn't catch it last week, Diana Rudolph was the first female to win the prestigious Don Hawley Tarpon Tournament in the Florida Keys. (Don Hawley started the Islamorada Gold Cup Tarpon Tournament in 1964 with Ted Williams, Jimmie Albright and others.) This article by John Geiger talks more about Ms. Rudolph and her accomplishments. (Thanks to reader Dave Dalu for these links.)
June 21, 2004
Morning Chai and Cane Rods in Kashmir
Beginning his expedition with a visit to Minovar Shah Fishing & Tackle, a shop that has served fly fishers in Kashmir since the days of the Indian Raj, Peter Foster goes fishing with a "magical" fishing guide. His narrative finally explains the folkloric roots of 'trouser trout.' In the UK News Telegraph.
June 16, 2004
Unorthodox Strategies for Trout
Philip Monahan, editor of American Angler, contributes an article titled "Whatever It Takes..." to MidCurrent. Mr. Monahan's illustrated piece describes the Drop-and-Drag, the Dead Drift, and S and Pile Casts as he sorts out the situations that might require a departure from classic presentations.
June 15, 2004
Yellowstone Park Mayflies
YellowstoneNationalPark.com hosts a very long article on mayflies, their habits and their appearance on a variety of Park waters. Good background reading if you plan to fish the Park this summer.
June 14, 2004
Fly Fishing Books: The Art of the Trout Fly
Rob Streeter of New York's Times Union suggests both The Art of the Trout Fly by photographer Egmont Van Dyck and writer Judith Dunham ($25, Chronicle Books) and Fly Fishing the Striper Surf by Frank Daignault ($16.95, Burford Books) as Father's Day gifts.
Orvis's Louis L'Amour Streamstalker Mocassins
Well, not really. But Tom Stienstra notes that his brother "Rambob" has always used mocassins to hide his approach to small stream trout, with deadly results. His article in SFGate.com goes on to outline specific strategies for fishing California's mountain streams, including pattern and gear choices.
Flies for Bass & Panfish and Other New Fly Fishing Books
Gene Mueller makes an excellent point in the Washington Times when he notes that outdoors book publishers make a strange choice when they release new titles in the early summer. In this article he gives the thumbs up to several new books, including Flyfishing for Trout A to Z by Mike Faw ($24.95, 195 pages, Stoeger Publishing) and Flies for Bass & Panfish by Dick Stewart and Farrow Allen ($19.95, the Lyons Press).
June 12, 2004
BigSkyFishing.com Fly Reel Reviews
BigSkyFishing.com offers a broad-stroke look at lots of fly fishing equipment. Here they talk about fly reels, what they do, and which are suited for your style of fishing. General info, but lots of it.
June 11, 2004
Wolf Reintroduction Benefits Yellowstone Trout
Zach Matthews posted comments on the Flyfishing Todaya detailed article in Scientific American suggesting that the impact of wolf reintroduction was positive for trout. One reason: their predatory habits have allowed the regrowth of young trees, which shade and cool water.
June 10, 2004
"Adventures of Fletcher Quill"
Dan Fallon has been writing the Fletcher Quill series of online fiction for LandBigFish.com since May of 2002, appealing, as he notes, to "ultra select 300 or so hardcore, eccentric and possessed enough fly fisher on the planet that socialize and fantasize with their resident guru who has one vision. The pursuit of the most unique sports fish caught, filmed and gently released and refooled by flies tied with rare extinct plumage that always fool game fish without fail."
If you're familiar at all with the heady, eccentric self-importance of George Macdonald Fraser's "Flashman" series, "Fletcher Quill" performs as a fly fisher's tribute: stimulating, oddly observant and absorbed in the angling prowess of the author. Fun stuff.
June 5, 2004
Spey Casting Books, Videos
Attention Spey Casters and Spey-Casting Wannabe's:
There's a new book coming out by Simon Gawesworth entitled Spey Casting (Stackpole Books, August 2004) that looks to be a very good one; Thomas McGuane writes the introduction. Mr. Gawesworth is a legendary spey teacher and is the author of RIO's "Basic Spey and Two Handed Fly Rod Casting" pamphlet that is included with every spey line they sell. RIO Products also markets two videos: "Basic Spey and Two Handed Fly Rod Casting" with Jim Vincent, and "International Spey Casting" with Simon Gawesworth, Jim Vincent, and Leif Stavmo.
And Mel Kreiger has a good spey casting video out that you can buy bundled with his Essence of Fly Casting II for $29 on Amazon.com -- pretty good deal, I think.
A Kick in the Pants for Miss Fuchsia Toes
Providence Cicero lands herself in Ovando, Montana, at North Fork Crossing on the Black Foot River, as a thank you for her fly fishing husband. Leaving behind the pedicure for a bout of trout fishing has surprising rewards, she discovers. In The Seattle Times. Please, more of this kind of writing: humorous, erudite, and well-styled.
June 3, 2004
Get Your Mojo On
Dave Hurteau offers a side-splitting narrative of an encounter with the world's most annoying guide in Field & Stream. Surely I've run into this same guide in a least six other places.
June 1, 2004
Remembering Satus Creek
Nick Provenza of the Seattle Times offers this well-written and entertaining reminiscence of fishing Satus Creek in Washington state's lower Yakima Valley. Satus Creek has been closed since the 1980s to help it recover from excess irrigation run-off and low water.
