Sounds of Fly Fishing

It was a busy week and I didn't get a post written on Sunday.  I'm trying to keep writing every week so while this may be "mailing it in," here are some of my favorites from on the Sounds of Fly Fishing section in Peter Kaminsky's "The Fly Fisherman's Guide to the Meaning of Life ."  I hope you can appreciate these sections as much as I do.  I would highly recommend reading the whole book.

Running Water
Burbling brook, running stream, crashing surf, rushing tide - there is music in water.  Each one an overture, a promise (or at least the possibility) of fish on the rise, on the feed, ready to take.  The primal moment for me is walking through the woods and first hearing the low susurrus, the faint whisper of running water in the distance, still so far of that it could be a stream or it could be the wind.  Then - yes! - there is no mistaking the gentle babbling of water flowing over stones, soft as a lullaby, exciting as fireworks.

Barbaric Yawps
A sound arises when the fish are hitting - doesn't matter what kind, could be bluefish, striped bass, albacore, yellowfin, weakfish  Then this happens, when a whole bunch of fish throw cautions to the winds (actually, they throw it to the waves) and pounce on a bait school, sometimes there is a group of anglers ready and waiting.  First one angler connects with a high "Yippee!" then a couple more let fly with joyful unprintables, then every boat and every angler on the shore is screaming, yahooing, giving conflicting shouted directives, whistling, cursing a blue streak.  It all blends in to one happy shout, a group yell of pure pleasure.

"Daddy, What do I do now"
A child not catching fish is a bored child, one not very likely to share Daddy's passion.  Ah, but then a fish hits.  You hear a squeak and a laugh, followed by the realization that "Ohmygod, this thing is for real and it wants to fight me!"  At that point, your child is hooked on fishing and the plea for help and advice confirms this and swells a father's heart.  I would be lying if I said I enjoy it more than catching a fish myself, but almost.

Silence
Yes, there is a sound to silence.  If you don't believe me, listen to the stillness before dawn on a Montana creek, the quiet when the wind dies on  Florida Bay as the sun sinks.  There i the total absence of sound on the lakes of central Finland in the middle of the short Arctic night, the quiet when a wind-driven squall has rushed across a stream followed by the steamy stillness of the return of humid sumer heat.  The world is full of sound over sound.  To experience silence is to appreciate both sound and its absence.  You feel part of the world - like the whole world or perhaps the only person in it.

When Wading Boots Become Necessary

Last weekend the lack of foot wear that you could walk into the water with cost me landing a couple of nice trout.  In one case my dad couldn't get close enough to the fish to get it in the net before he got free.  In the other I couldn't find a spot to get close enough to the water to get the fish in the net.  As I was packing up all my gear I had decided it was time for me to get some wading boots.

It wouldn't have been possible for me to give you a personal review of every available boot on the market.  And even if it had been possible, I'm hardly expert enough for my opinion to be of much weight.  I think the best way for you to get reviews of specific boots will be to visit the reviews of as many online realtors as you have time for.  But here is what some online research found.

If you're looking for wading boots you have a lot more options that when we grabbed an old pair of tennis shoes as kids.  I found $20 synthetic leather boots from RedHead and $200 Korkers with quick-change soles.  Regardless of your price range, the first choice you have to make is whether to get felt or rubber soles.  Felt soles are by far the best choice to avoid slipping on rocks.  But with rock snot creeping in everywhere, even if your state hasn't banned felt soles, more and more fishing areas are forbidding felt soles.  I've only worn wading boots on one fishing trip and they had felt soles.  Given the choice, and the funds, I would buy a pair of felt soles as well as a pair of rubber soles.  Anywhere that felt soles are allowed I would wear them and then wear the rubber soles anywhere else.  But not having the choice, or the funds, rubber soles it is.

The next choice is that of laces.  The latest type of lacing available is the BOA lacing system.  Your "laces" are actually steel wire wrapped through the eyelets and into a twist knob.  Put the boots on and twist the knob until the boots are tight.  Pull the knob out and the laces loosen.  From the reading I did this week, people love using them but are concerned about them breaking when they're miles from their vehicle.  From what I've seen of pricing, you can expect to pay at least $20 more for BOA lacing on equivalent boots.  For me, I'll stick with normal laces.

Price is always an issue.  I wanted a little more quality than $20 RedHead boots.  But I didn't want to spend $200 on boots that I would only be using occasionally.  I found a pretty good compromise.  I don't know how long the sale will last but Cabela's has their Guidewear wading boots on sale for $89.99 from $139.99.   They should be on their way to me now.  I hope to take them out for a spin in a few weeks.  I'll let you know how they work out.

Next on my list of equipment is a new set of waders.  I currently have a set of neoprene bootfoot waders that were given to me when my brother-in-law got a new set for himself.  Now that I have wading boots I need to get some stockingfoot waders to use them with.  If you have any suggestions let me know.

Fly Fishing Exile Ended

This weekend I was able to go fly fishing for the first time in over a year.  It has seemed like even longer since on the most recent fishing trip prior to this weekend all I had caught was a rock.  And to top the trip off, they guys in my family were springing for it for my birthday. The guys took me to Westover Farms in Steeleville, MO.  This was the last place I had had any success fly fishing so I have been really anticipating the trip. I wrote about my last trip to Westover Farms here and have some pictures of the grounds here.  We fished Friday afternoon, spent the night at one of their cabins, and fished again on Saturday morning. It was a great weekend.

Get Tied Up in Knots

My fishing trip is set for next weekend and I almost forgot an important part of getting ready, making sure I know how to tie my knots.  It seems silly, but before every fishing trip I go on I always sit down and give myself a refresher on the knots I'll need to use.  I say it seems silly, but one trip I wasted 45 minutes trying to remember how to tie a perfection loop on a new leader.  You can read about that experience here.  Since that trip I always make sure I remember two basic knots before I go fishing.  

Stalking Trout

Whenever you see fly fishing in movies it usually involves a vast expanse of river and casting great distances with perfect precision.  My experience has not included the vast expanse of river.  I rarely have the ability to cast the great distances and definitely don't have the perfect precision.  Most of my fly fishing has been on small streams and rivers.  And the casting has been mostly short casts and high sticking.  And if you have to get close to the fish when you cast you better not spook it off before you get there.  

Putting It All On the Line (Care)

In getting ready for my first fly fishing trip in over a year I've been trying to refresh my mind on everything I used to know about fly fishing.  I've been thinking about casting.  Which knots should I use.  How should I approach the fish.  And then I thought about my fly fishing gear that's been sitting in it's case waiting patiently for me to bring them out.  You know, it might be a good idea to check out my gear to make sure it's still in good working order.

I grab the case, open it and pull out my rod and reel.  My rod looks OK, at least to my novice eyes.  The reel spins smoothly.  No issues there.  What about the line?  Didn't my brother say something one time about cleaning my line?  Have I ever cleaned my line?  Ummmm.... no.  Time to do some research.

Back to the Basics

So I finally have a fly fishing trip planned.  Mid-July I'll be heading to Westover Farms in Steelville, MO for a couple of days of fishing.  It's been a while since I've held a fly rod so I know I'll be rusty.  But I'm going to try to get in some casting practice before the trip.  Knowing  I need the practice two things have to happen.  I need to get rid of the jungle that's been growing in my back yard and I need to do some studying.  I've got two easy places to start with.  

ORVIS FLY FISHING APP
My first research tool is almost always at hand.  A couple of years ago I downloaded the Orvis Fly Fishing App to my phone (I have a review of the app here).  It has some quick basic instruction that has some good meat to it.  Here is some the quick takes from my review:

Gripping the Rod
With the standard grip your thumb should lie along the top of the rod with your fingers wrapping around the outside.  The thumb on top will help you guide and control the rod like a rudder.  You should let the base of the rod line up with your forearm.  At the beginning of the back cast you should have a straight line from your elbow to the tip of the rod.

Don't Forget Your Back Cast
"80% of your forward cast happens behind you."  Your forward cast begins with the back cast.  Let the line extend fully behind you and start your forward cast just when the line begins to straighten.

False Casting
You'll never catch a fish with your line in the air.  But there are three reason to false cast:
1) Airing out a wet dry fly.  A couple of false casts will get the excess water out of a waterlogged dry fly.
2) Change casting direction.  A few quick false casts as you're turning will allow you to change direction and make a good presentation of your fly.
3) Adding line. By letting in line as you're false casting you can make sure you have the right amount of line for your presentation or for shooting your line.

FLY FISHING 101 - FeatherCraft Fly Fishing
The next place I went for my review was to my post on the Orvis sponsored Fly Fishing 101 class I took a couple of years ago from FeatherCraft Fly Fishing (you can read the review here).  What I need to remember from that class:

Patience
The longer the line you have extending from your rod the longer you have to wait for the tension in the rod to load for the next cast.  Knowing when to start my forward cast has been one of the most difficult things for me to grasp.  I tend to pop my fly by starting my forward cast too early.  99% of the time you should wait just a little bit longer than you think necessary.

Rod Position
I have tendency to drop my rod too close to the ground and my line ends up hitting the water on my forward cast and the ground behind me on my back cast.  With less line your casting should stay between 10:00 and 2:00.  As you let more line out you should rotate this area back and expand it.  Stop your forward cast between 11:00 and 12:00.  Stop your back cast between 3:00 and 4:00.  Play with the angles to see what works best for you.

I've got more reading to do over the next few weeks.  By next week I hope to have gotten some practice casts in and gotten myself reacquainted with the Clinch Knot and the Surgeon's Knot.

Hook Removal - You won't feel a thing... I promise!

It's been a while since I've posted, mainly because it's been even longer since I've been able to go fly fishing.  But the baby is over a year old and summer is on it's way.  It's time to get back to fishing!  I'm likely to be rusty so I'll be reading up on what I've forgotten and getting some practice in.

One thing I've been lucky about is that I've only had one hook catch in my skin past the barb and never had one get absolutely buried.  That being said, it's best to be prepared.  Here are some great information about hooks out of your skin.

Art Of Manliness - How to Remove a Hook From Your Finger 

Fishingnoob.com - Removing a Hook From Yourself and Other Innocent Bystanders 

GINKANDGASOLINE

 JAZZANDFLYFISHING
 

The Thrill Of The Hunt

My first fly fishing experience was high sticking in the rolling streams of The Smoky Mountain National Park. Hiking and climbing the rocks and boulders to find a likely spot to flick your line upstream.  Watching tentatively, not sure if the dip of your indicator was from the bubbling on the surface of the water or from a trophy trout taking your fly.  Honestly, it was not what I was expecting, but from the start I was hooked.

Since then I've waded into and cast acrosse wide streams.  I've tried my hand at fly fishing for bass.  But mostly, I've been sight fishing.  And I have to say, I love walking along stream banks stalking for trout most of all.

Cold Blooded Angler

It's the middle of October.  The weather is starting to turn cold.  We've had temperatures in the 40s and 50s the past few days.  The leaves are finally starting to red, yellow and orange.  It really is starting to feel like Autumn has arrived.  And I... don't... like it!  I am cold-blooded.  I need all the external body heat that I can get.  We had an EXTREME heat wave in Missouri this past summer.  We hit 100 degrees daily for several straight weeks.  And I loved every minute of it.

And now I have taken up a hobby that involves wading into cold water and standing very still.  This is fine when it's in the 90s and the sun is shining down keeping you warm.  Now the weather is getting colder and I'm starting to think about the prospect of going fishing without the  90 degree temp and sun shining down.  And the battle between the desire to fish and the desire to stay warm is already beginning.

What Is A Catch?

I took the past few weeks off of writing any posts.  Work had gotten a little busy and it was easier to let the blog go for a while.  And along with being too busy to write I was also too busy to do any fishing, either.


I did finally get to go fishing a couple of weekends ago.  My brother, Guy, and I went to Westover Farms in Steelville for a few hours on a Saturday morning.  I was nice to get away and spend some time fishing.  It was also nice to hook my biggest trout to date.  My brother claims it was 2 ft long.  I've been trying to be modest and say 20 inches while still saying my brother called it 2 feet.  Either way is was thrilling to see a monster at the end of my line.

Getting Into Fly Fishing

My first memory of fishing is from Fourth Grade.  A friend and I bought some bamboo poles, dug up some worms and went to a pond behind our elementary school.  Maybe there weren't any fishing in the pond, but didn't get a single nibble.  Honestly I think it had to do with the noise we were making and the fact that we pulled our line from the water about every thirty seconds.  The worms probably thought we were just trying to get them clean and the fish probably thought we were teasing them.  But I did go home with some tadpoles...

Thoughts on Fly Fishing

I was out of town most of this week. The only times I'm out of town without my wife I'm either on business or fishing. This week it was business. But I couldn't stop thinking about fly fishing. Where there any good streams nearby? What type of fly is the best for this area of the country? Would anyone really notice if I skipped dinner and went fishing?

Since I wasn't actually able to go fishing this week I've been thinking. What is it about fly fishing that has captured me? Why can I, someone who has trouble sitting on the beach and enjoying looking at the ocean, stand in a stream and wait for a fish to take my lure? How has fly fishing been able to immediately give me a batch of patience with inactivity that I didn't have before?

Learning Something New

After writing about my struggles with trying to fly fish for bass last week, I realized something.  Not only was my casting geared toward trout fishing.  My style of fishing was geared to trout fishing.  Let's make a comparison to hunting.  Do you hunt for deer the same way you hunt for ducks?  No, not at all.  Lake vs Forest.  Moving target vs stationary target.  Rifle vs Shotgun.  There are a lot of differences.

So in that regard, how do you approach fly fishing for bass?

Trying Something New

I went camping last weekend.  One of my friends lives out of the country, and when he and his family are back in town a bunch of guys take him camping.  The past few times have been on some private property on the Meramec River.  A friend of one of my friend's father-in-law has a campground set up on the river with chairs, grills, and even an outhouse.  We headed out midday on Friday for a night with the guys in the middle of nowhere.  Now, it's been a couple of months since I've been able to go fly fishing.  And from having camped out at this spot of the river in the past, I knew that I wasn't going to be catching any trout on this trip.  The water is too warm and there is too much float trip traffic scaring off the fish.  But, maybe I could try catching bass.

I've caught bass with worms real and fake, but I've never gone fly fishing for bass.  I had gotten a gift card for my birthday so I went to Bass Pro on my lunch break and picked up some fly fishing bass lures.  The salesman recommended a 3-Pack of poppers, a red crayfish, and a dark purple snag-less worm.   I had my bass lures and was looking forward to the weekend.  But to be honest, I didn't have any idea what I was getting myself into...

Book Review Pt 3: 1001 Fly Fishing Tips

This is the final installment of tips and advice from 1001 Fly Fishing Tips.  Part 3 of the book review is actually from the last two parts of the book.  Part 3 from the book is Hatches and Seasons.  You'll find tips on determining what fly to use in a situation to advice on weather and competing outdoor sports (Boom! Boom!).  Part 4 is Travel, Destinations and Species Other Than Trout.  Leaving home to go fishing in the vast outdoors has different conditions to consider, such as extra equipment and dangerous wildlife.

I have to be honest in that as a novice, my knowledge of these topics is even less that in the previous two posts about this book.  So if I seem to disagree with a piece of advice, you might be better off going with the advice from the book.

Let's dive in...

Book Review Pt 2: 1001 Fly Fishing Tips

How do you keep your dry flies dry longer?  Do I really need a hook hone?  What's the best way to get your fly unsnagged?  Keeping your equipment safe and functioning properly is vital to catching fish.  No matter how long we've been fishing there is always advice or a tip someone may have that will make our day on the water less frustrating.

This week is part two of the tips and advice from 1001 Fly Fishing Tips, edited by Jay Nichols.  There are enough pieces of great advice that I felt like I needed more than one post to do the book justice.  Part Three of the book has to do with Hatches and Seasons.  We'll talk about that next week.

So here are the tips on equipment with some comments...

Book Review Pt 1: 1001 Fly Fishing Tips

When I received my fly fishing rod & reel for my birthday last year I also received the book "1001 Fly Fishing Tips: Expert Advice, Hints and Shortcuts From the World's Leading Fly Fishers."  I had a month before my first fly fishing trip.  So I started reading.  Great book!  I think I read it three times in that month.  The book is a collection of short tips on a large variety of fly fishing topics from casting to finding fish to picking the right lure to how to care for your equipment.  It's edited by Jay Nichols with wisdom from Lefty Kreh, Dan Blanton, Bob Popovics and more.

There are enough nuggets of wisdom in this book that I'm going to break this into two posts.  Next week I'll post the tips on equipment and more.  For now, here are some of the fishing tips with some comments from the novice...

Rod, Reel & The Kitchen Sink

So you've decided to start fly fishing.  All you need are some flies and a rod and reel, right?  Then you start looking at fly fishing gear.  Yes, you need a rod and reel.  But you also need to get the right fly line, leader and tippet material.  And you'll need a some strike indicators so that you can tell when the fish are taking your fly.  And if you'll be nymphing it might be a good idea to have some weight so the fly gets down in the water more quickly.  You must have a a line/leader straightener.  A tippet holder is essential.  And a Ty-Rite Jr or Clinch Tool Knot Tyer will make knots simple and easy.  And you have to have thermometer otherwise how will you know how cold the water is?  And how will you know how many fish you've caught if you don't have a fish counter?  And the list goes on and on and on...

There is a lot of "stuff" out there for fisherman.  A lot of gear and gadgets that make themselves out to be invaluable to fly fishing.  But what exactly do you need?  Besides your rod, reel and line what do you really need in order to go fly fishing?  So from someone who just started fishing, and is definitely fishing on a budget, here is my list of the basic equipment that will get you fly fishing without having to buy the kitchen sink.

Fly Fishing Etiquette

As a general rule, fly fishers are among the nicest people I have met. I've had complete strangers offer suggestions on casting and presentation. They've shared with me what flies are catching fish on that day. I've even been given the last fly someone had that they knew was catching fish. But I have met some rude fisherman...


I've mentioned a couple of times how another fisherman cut a fly off my line at Bennett Springs last month. He and another fisherman were facing downstream casting toward the dam. I waded out until I was about 20-30 feet upstream and 10-15 feet past them into the stream. Figuring that this was enough space where we wouldn't be hitting each other with our lines I began casting across the water.  For about thirty minutes I was right.  And then on a back cast our lines got tangled.


He gave me a dirty look as our tangled lines landed on the water. The tangle was closer to him so I let him pull it in to separate our lines. And a few seconds after he had pulled the lines in he tossed my line free. I thought to myself, "That was quick," and started to reel in my line.  And then I noticed that I was missing a fly.