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New on MidCurrent: How many times have you found yourself surrounded by fish and a torrent of insects but unable to discern whether the fish are feeding in the surface film, below it, or even on top? If you're like me, it's happened more times than you care to remember. Rick Hafele is one of trout fishing's foremost entomologists, and this week he gives us a look at hatch behaviors for different species of insects.
"I used an 8-weight XST prototype while in Florida for redfish and speckled trout last fall. It was a stiff, fast-action rod with a strong butt section. Casting into the wind was almost a pleasure, and the rod had the right combination of backbone and touch to handle redfish up to 4 pounds and speckled trout in the 24-inch range." Gary Girth in the Louisville, Kentucky Courier Journal reviews the new XST series rods and reels.
Ken Allen talks about the boom and bust cycle of the forest, tiny rodents and why fly fishing is so much more than fishing. "Many of us with fishing rods or firearms are looking at the whole outdoors experience, which often puts us in close proximity with flora and fauna that have nothing to do with the fish and game we seek. A black-throated green warbler with its delightful zoo-zee-zoo-zoo-zee call offers a perfect example." On MaineToday.com.
Tarpon angler and tournament champion Andy Mill uses a pulley system and a bucket of sand to practice putting maximum pressure on his tippets. "When you’re pumping on a fish, you reel down to zero degrees and pull back to 30 degrees. If the rod passes 90 degrees, you’re resting the fish, and you’re in the high-sticking zone where the rod is most liable to break." Terry Gibson in Florida Sportsman. (Thanks to reader David Dalu for this link.)
A new print-on-demand book by Robert W. Callaway includes this joke about the "Fly Fishing Priest:"
"There was a priest that loved to stream fish. One year there was a problem every time he had a chance to go fishing. The weather was bad or it was on Sunday, when he had to work. All year he was unable to go. Finally it was the last week before the streams closed. The weather was bad all week until Sunday, when the weather was great. The priest could not resist; he called a fellow priest, claimed to be very sick, and asked if he could take over his sermon. The fly fishing priest drove 200 miles, not wishing to see anyone he knew. An angel seeing the priest playing hooky went to God and said, 'You're not going to let him get away with this, are you?' God agreed he should do something. The first cast the priest made was perfect. The fly floated past a log and a huge mouth gulped the fly down. For 45 minutes the priest ran up and down the stream fighting the mighty fish. At the end he held a 50" world record rainbow trout. Confused, the angel asked God, 'What are you doing?' God replied, 'Think about it: Who's he going to tell?'"
"Daucourt believes distilling and fly-fishing have similarities. Both demand a mastery of science and art. Even then, patience and luck are needed to achieve optimum results. Daucourt, 45, has studied fly-fishing since childhood and is still mystified by his nemesis, the walleye. In the case of Jean-Marc XO Vodka, he spent seven years seeking the perfect combination of wheat varieties that would give Jean-Marc XO Vodka the ideal flavor." Kerry J. Byrne writes about French distiller and angler Jean-Marc Daucourt, who plies his trades on both sides of the Atlantic. In the Boston Herald.
Wonder if Aelius or his progenitors got the idea of fly fishing by watching herons use insects to lure an unsuspecting fish? Turns out there are records of herons doing just this, as reported by Dr. Louis Lefebvre at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington DC. Stephen White in the Scottish Daily Herald.
Field & Stream offers a synopsis of fly fishing Michigan's Muskegon River for steelhead and chinook salmon. "The hot zone is the tailwater stretch from Croton Dam down to Newaygo. This is big water, as much as 300 feet or more across in some areas, and best fished by boat, which will also help get you away from the crowds."
Time to admit the truth: caffeine -- sometimes imbibed via overcooked coffee from earlier in the morning -- fuels the custom rodmaking industry. Perhaps an overstatement. But if we can have beers named 'Trout Slayer' and 'Lake Monster,' surely there is room for a custom coffee blend called 'Rod Shop Roast.' The folks at Golden Witch Technologies, bamboo rod builders out of Hopeland, Pennsylvania, offer their specially roasted beans on the new RodShopRoast.com Web site.
Author Norm Zeigler, a Sanibel, Florida resident, writes about what is probably his favorite place to fish. "The key to Ding’s superb angling is its rich variety of environments. An intricate maze of creeks, bayous, impoundments, grassflats, oyster bars and mangrove thickets provides niches for virtually every species of salt-and brackish-water fish found in South Florida’s inshore waters. The thing about Ding is that it is full of fish." In Florida Sportsman.
If you've ever enjoyed the piscatorial frenzy of a salmonfly hatch, you're likely thinking about it already, even though the first bugs don't appear for another couple of months. Keith McCafferty writes about 6 U.S. rivers where salmonflies appear in abundance from late May until late July. "No hatch in North America incites as much frenzy as the emergence of Pteronarcys californicus, the giant stonefly (a.k.a. salmonfly, a nickname that comes from the orange color on the thorax), in the rivers of the Rockies. It’s a season of gluttony that stretches from late spring to midsummer, with exceedingly bad table manners exhibited on one end of the fly line, and ecstasy or despair on the other." In Field & Stream.
Steve Kantner is an expert when it comes to finding and catching peacock bass in south Florida's myriad canals. He offers an extensive review of techniques and locations in Florida Sportsman -- good reading if you've even thought about going after these colorful fish. "Fly fishermen don't need specialized gear to fish for peacocks, provided they can control a runaway fly reel handle. I prefer to use a standard bass rig with a No. 5 or 6 weight-forward floating line and a 7-foot leader tapering to a 10-pound-test tippet. Some anglers may prefer to go heavier, not so much for the fish but for the heavy flies they occasionally use."
New on MidCurrent: Steelhead expert and author Doug Rose reveals some of the best strategies for identifying a river's holding water. "Winter steelheaders who focus on a few individual pools rather than a long stretch of river usually catch more fish. Here's how to identify the sweet spots."
Vic Dunaway offers this comprehensive look at the origins and development of fly fishing for billfish, which demanded outsized creativity from its pioneers. The most interesting parts of the story have to do with Helen and Webster Robinson, who almost single-handedly gave the sport its momentum. "The caster's impulse would be to throw his fly ahead of the fish, but trial and error proved to Robinson that this wasn't the thing to do. A billfish which follows the fly is less likely to hit it, and if he does take it, the straight-on strike seldom results in a good hookup. [Webster] Robinson would throw his fly behind the irritated fish and pop it noisily. His aim was to make the fish wheel suddenly and crash the fly at a right angle. Almost invariably, when this was accomplished, the hook locked up tight." In Florida Sportsman.
On Field & Stream this month, John Merwin reports on his three days at the Bahamas' Andros Island Bonefish Club last May. "When the guide says long strip, he usually means that he’s read the bonefish’s body language, knows the fish has taken your fly, and wants you to make a long strip to set the hook. While you don’t know any of this, at least not at first, you do know that by following his instructions you’ve hooked something that’s peeling line from your reel like a foul-hooked Ferrari, and you are grinning like a happy idiot."
Bob Krumm is mildly irked that about half the fishing gear he owns -- perfectly functional and in fact touted as "the ultimate" just a few years ago -- is now discontinued. "Major fly rod manufacturers constantly amaze me. It seems that they come out with a new high performance line of rods each year and at the same time drop a line of rods that they ballyhooed as the 'ultimate' 10 or more years ago. No doubt the new line of rods does cast better than the older, but does the new one perform so well that the old rod line should be discontinued?" In the Billings (Montana) Gazette.
Galen Garner describes being turned on to fly fishing on Wyoming's Shoshone river by the ranch boss in the Tuscaloosa (Alabama) News. The article includes a great John Steinbeck quote: "All Americans believe they are born fishermen. For a man to admit to a distaste in fishing would be like denouncing mother-love or hating moonlight."
Mike Hellyer ponders the humble wooden bead and discovers that it becomes quite useful in creating saltwater streamer heads. Article and recipe in Florida Sportsman.
Paul Guernsey notes that Darrel Martin is one the great quiet seducers of trout. Evidence includes his preparation for trip to the English chalk streams. "Prior to traveling, not only did Darrel build every piece of his fishing equipment from scratch, but he handicapped himself by restricting himself to the technology of Izaak Walton's time. He constructed a loop-rod of spruce and a fly line of horsehair; he forged his own hooks-and of course, he tied his own flies on them." Mr. Martin is a contributing editor of Fly Rod & Reel and the author of Micropatterns: Tying and Fishing the Small Fly (The Lyons Press, 352 pages, 1999) and the excellent The Fly Fisher's Illustrated Dictionary (The Lyons Press, 292 pages, 2000).
"Adkins, a retired sheet-metal worker from Barboursville, has revived the old-fashioned practice of making 'furled' or 'twined' leaders. The originals, which were standard-issue angling equipment in the 1800s, were made of horsehair or silk. Adkins makes his from modern polyester and nylon threads." This Barboursville, West Virginia fly fisher has discovered that furled leaders have all the best characteristics of other well-tied leaders -- plus they seem to last forever. John McCoy in the West Virginia Gazette-Mail.
For a take on tying saltwater furled leaders, don't miss Bob Brown's MidCurrent article.
"Fly fishing advice from a three-quarters, no, make that seven-eighths, naked blond bombshell soaking up sun in a plastic boat. Yet, somewhere deep in my subconsciousness I admired her. She obviously knew something about fly fishing." Back in the 70s in Montana's Paradise Valley, Larry Myhre finds himself getting fly-selection tips from a surprising source. In Iowa's Sioux City Journal.
Various strains of the carp, which originated in China, are considered prime targets for fly fishers all around the world. But in the U.S. doubts about its status as a game fish seem as prevalent as ever. Chris Hunt offers his rather typical experience in the Pocatello (Idaho) State Journal, where he also lists some interesting facts about the fish. "According to Peter Dawson, who maintains the 'frequently asked questions' section of www.carp.net, common carp (the cheap variety - sort of a shantytown cousin to the high-brow koi) were brought to the United States by the country's Carp Commission, which was created by President U.S. Grant. At the time - the late 1800s - other traditional food fish in the United States (salmon, trout, etc.) were becoming quite rare due to overharvesting. Carp, which reproduce quickly and can adapt to just about any kind of water, represented an excellent alternative."
"'A jaguar has eaten all my chickens, sir. However, I can sell you the head from a young squirrel monkey I had for breakfast this morning. It is quite fresh, I assure you.'" Breakfast fare for the giant catfish paraiba, found in the southern Amazonas region of Brazil. It's quite an informative article, in a twisted way, about catfish and human ingenuity in catching them. Can anyone tie a french fry fly? Keith "Catfish" Sutton on ESPN.com.
Here's a piece on grayling by Brian Clark in the London Times Online that leads to an interesting biography of Francis Maximilian Walbran of Leeds. "Walbran’s writings brought him into contact with the most famous southern anglers, including Frederic Halford, William Senior, Major Anthony Carlisle and the enigmatic George Selwyn Marryat, collaborator in the researches for Halford’s greatest books, Floating Flies and how to Dress Them (1886), and the monumentally important Dry Fly Fishing in Theory and Practice (1889)."
Nice title for this new documentary about the start of the Federation of Fly Fishers, which was formed in Eugene in 1965 to promote fly fishing and to preserve game fish habitat. The film was produced and directed by Michael Montgomery Wilson and can be ordered here.
"Whether I’m flying out of the country to fish, or just hitching up my skiff for a short drive to Biscayne Bay or the Keys, it’s usually for bonefish, so I pack every kind of bonefish fly for every bonefish situation I might encounter. But I’ve also learned to pack flies and gear for the 'alternative' fish that have saved my trip when the bonefishing was a bit off." Jody Moore talks about the joys of "making do" with alternative species, on ShallowWaterAngler.com.
A poorly designed weir -- or "fish pass" -- on Ireland's River Nore has stopped salmon on their upriver journey except at high water levels. Locals are not pleased. "Local salmon fly-fisherman Jim Brown - who moved from Scotland to Kilkenny almost 20 years ago because the fishing on the Nore was even better than home - said he would never forget the sight of the fish leaping in futile desperation at the pass. 'I was sick to see those beautiful creatures that swim 3,000 miles down past the west cost of Scotland all the way round to Ireland to come up our river, stuck at a man-made dam, bashing their heads against the rocks.'" Diarmaid Fleming on the BBC News.
Funny how while tying flies in the dark cold of winter it is much easier to convince ourselves that we are at work on "lethal" concoctions. "It is now, having removed the fly from the vise and placed it gently on the table, that a name must be issued so as to give the fly identity and purpose, attitude and everything else. Flies without names are just flies, lost and soon forgotten. However, flies named appropriately are instantly bound for potential legend in the years to come regardless of their success on the water." From the Bozeman Chronicle.
Fly fishing Lake Erie tributaries for salmon kept research partners Chester Mathis and Dr. William Klunk on an even keel while they worked on developing an important dye for diagnosing Alzheimer's disease. "'In fishing, you don't get a lot of strikes. You have to cast a lot to be successful,' Mathis explained. Research also requires trying a lot of things that don't work to find the one thing that does. PIB is one of those things that works." Byron Spice in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
"Pay no attention to trout that are 'nailed to the bottom of the river.' Those fish are zoned, spaced out, shut down. Their metabolisms barely are chugging along in winter's frigid currents." Ed Dentry takes Pat Dorsey's advice to concentrate on sight fishing to fish that are higher in the water column and forget about the bottom-huggers. In the Rocky Mountain News.
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