Nantucket Reds Meatloaf (the singer) Flies bought at Wal-Mart. Species Dissing Trolling (flies only. Trolling smokers for pelagics is good. Real good.) Scent Fishing in car commercials. Fishing in beer commercials. Fishing in enlarged prostate medication commercials. Keeping score out loud. Using “fishing” and “zen” in the same sentence. Chain link fences.
Tagged: complaining is healthy, moral arguments
Today’s theme is secondary albums from great players who passed away well before their time.
My buddy Ovi saw a guy from Atlantic Outfitters tying saltwater patterns at a Fishing Expo and curing the heads with a UV light. Ovi told me about it. All my flies have brown heads. This acrylic head gunk supposedly cures clear. I found a thread from 2006 started by Bob Popovics on Stripers Online, where the master tyer said this: As far as the cost goes, it probably is more expensive than epoxy but not that much. There is no waste since no mixing is involved. No excess on the mixing paper after the fly has been made. I apply the stuff directly from the syringe onto the fly, when I am satisfied with the shape and coverage, I light it up and…
I missed the Fly Fishing Film Tour in NYC, read that in Indiana it was quite lame, and thought until now that the place to catch it had to be Austin, TX. But I may have to reconsider. On Thursday, June 4th the Tour is rolling through Portland, ME. Flies and Fins is hosting it, with striper guide Eric Wallace as the point man, helped in no small part by Alex the Wildman. College Kid Ben, The Roughfisher, I’m sure Marshall DeMott, and all the cool kids will be there. I’d drive up myself if it wasn’t six hours away and I wasn’t leaving to go tarpon fishing the next day. The Portland crowd has less than a month to work it out and…
The Hamilton Eat-Me is my favorite fly. The Florida guide Scott Hamilton introduced me to his pattern 10 years ago on a trip where we used the same fly to catch baby tarpon, dolphin (mahi), and false albacore. He gave me one and the next day I used it freshwater fishing and caught largemouth and peacock bass. Since then I’ve caught 21 different salt and freshwater species with an eat-me. Hamilton says the species count is well over 100. (Like Alex said today on 40 Rivers, a good streamer/baitfish pattern will work for just about anything.) It’s a simple, durable, deadly baitfish pattern. I like simple. I like durable. Deadly, too. When I started epoxying my fingers together tying a few years ago, I…
Tagged: eat me flies, fly tying, mono thread, Scott Hamilton, simplicity, super hair
A lot has already been said about this title, so I’ll just add this: The Alaska Chronicles is the best fly fishing book I’ve read in a long time. Miles Nolte’s efficiency of prose is top notch. He has a good story to tell and doesn’t let useless words, thoughts, exclamatory hyperbole, or cliche bog it down. The result is a book that’s hard to set aside, one of those reads that make chunks of time–like the morning train commute or the fly time between take-off and touchdown–disappear. If you don’t know the story, Nolte spent two-plus seasons guiding at a remote lodge in Alaska, and documented his second on The Drake message board. His daily journal provided a gateway into the guiding life and…
Every angler sets goals. It could be numbers, poundage, or a species life list. I like to focus on days. The goal is always 100. A reasonable number for a non-guide in a northern climate. It breaks down to this; get out at least twice a week for 50 weeks. Rips of five or six days in a row even out any winter hibernation. There’s no substitute for days and when they’re gone they don’t come back. Check the calendar and it’s the fourth month and the days not fished are mounting. Forces beyond my control are stacking them up like cord wood. This has got to change. Time to start bringing the lumber.
Tagged: lost days, regressions from adulthood
“Dime store cowboy, you look so good, with your red boots, hat, and buckle from Hollywood.” –Split Lip Rayfield Fat Guy Fly Fishing had a series of posts titled Do You Know These People? Part One Part Two He forgot to add one crucial persona, the Dime Store Cowboy. Let me introduce by paraphrasing the words of this guide I know: So the guy gets on my boat dressed head to toe in REDACTED, and he’s got his rods that cost more than my boat and he gets up there and starts telling me what do do and the fucker can’t cast 10 feet! Fish are busting right in front of him and he’s blaming me and telling me CLOSER! CLOSER! And I try…
And not the german trouty kind, either. Roughfisher weighs in on fly fishing’s real frontier, where all the so-called trash fish become the treasure.
