Tailing Loops

Wet Flies

2010-01-29T07:42:00.011-05:00

Hey everyone! I know it's been a reeeeaaaaaally long time since I've updated, but the real reason is that I really just haven't been doing a whole lot of fishing over the winter.

I have, however, been tying a good bit, and will possibly have patterns to share if they're proven effective in the coming months. I have some pics of other flies I've been tying, though.

One of my new year's resolutions for my fly fishing is to gain proficiency tying and fishing the classic wet flies. To that end, my selection of floss has tripled (from the essential red for royal coachmen/wulff/trude/etc, and olive & orange for soft-hackles), my tinsel variety has exploded, and I'm checking out websites for things like duck skins, goose shoulders, and silk floss.

Tying these wets interests me for two reasons: first, its a style that isn't very forgiving of imperfections in your technique. Uneven underbody or bad proportion will make an otherwise perfect fly look very bad. Secondly, it's an aspect of fly fishing steeped in history and tradition that, with the advent of more popular flies and tactics (nymphs, emergers, etc), has has taken a backseat in terms of popularity with fishermen.

While I'm a long way from proficient, you can see some of my efforts below. More reading and more practice will, I'm sure, improve my skills, but this is where I am for now:

Ibis & White, Size 10, on Tiemco 5263

Green & Black Wet Fly on Mustad 3399A, Size 12

Wet Fly tied on Mustad 36890, Size 8

Blae & Black, tied on Tiemco 5263, Size 10

Fly Tying Tutorial: Partridge & Olive Soft Hackle Wet Fly

2009-11-05T14:42:00.001-05:00

The soft hackle is a great example of how a simple fly can be made with an infinite number of variations. It's also a fly that you can ask 5 people to tie it, and see 5 different methods of tying what is essentially the same fly. Here's how I tie the Partridge & Olive, one of the quintessential soft hackle wet flies...

Partridge & Olive

Materials:
Hook: Tiemco 3769, Size 10. Any standard length, or short, straight-shanked nymph hook will work, in any size.
Thread: 8/0 Uni-thread, black
Body: Olive Uni-floss
Rib: Silver Ultra Wire, X-Small
Dubbing: SLF Squirrel
Hackle: Partridge

Instructions:

1. Place hook in vise. Start thread about 1.5 eye lengths behind eye. Advance thread to bend and tie in ribbing wire extending out over the back of the hook.

2. Advance thread to thread tie-in point. Tie in floss, trim tag.

3. Maintaining tension on the floss, wind onto the hook, advancing floss to the bend (where the wire is tied in). Keep the body as flat and smooth as possible, and not overlapping. Basically, you want as thin of a body as possible without having bare spots.

4. While keeping tension on the floss with your left hand, grab the ribbing wire with your right and start to wind it forward, locking the floss in place with your first wrap, which should be made tight. Though you've wrapped both the floss and the wire in the normal direction (away from you, on top of the shank), you'll still be creating a counter-wrap, because the floss was wrapped toward the bend and the rib was wrapped toward the eye.

5. Trim tag ends of both floss and wire, as close to the body as is possible.

6. Prepare a tiny amount of dubbing, and twist tightly onto the thread.

7. Dub a tiny ball of the squirrel dubbing near the head of the fly, about 1 eye length back.

8. Select a speckled partridge feather, from the front of one of the wings.

9. Prepare the feather by stripping away fibers and stroking the rest (save for the tip) back against the grain as shown.

10. Tie in feather by the tip, curvature down, at the front of the hook, just a bit behind the eye.

11. Wind the hackle 1-2 turns tie off and trim feather.

12. Whip finish. Cement if desired.

Fish this fly, really, any way you like. Drift it, weight it, grease it, swing it, strip it...there isnt a wrong way to present a soft hackle, though most agree that some combination of drifting and tight-line swinging will entice the most fish. These elegant, impressionistic flies can imitate everything from emerging mayflies to caddis pupae, to terrestrials.

Fly Tying Tutorial: Laser Fly

2009-10-15T11:13:00.006-04:00

This is a fly that always seems to get a little extra attention when you show someone your fly box. I've even had far more experienced fly fishers and tyers look at a box with a few laser flies in it and make a comment specifically about this fly. I think its so eye catching because its simple but also unique, blurring the lines between an egg and a streamer in some sizes and colors...an impressive feat.

I'm sure there are many variations, but this is the method that was taught to me by a guy who was a good friend of the originator of the pattern (and the material). The laser yarn is now kind of hard to find, and several people have suggested more common synthetics to replace it. For my part, I've always just used the real stuff, so I cant say whether there are any materials out there that would serve as good. Some have suggested glo-bug yarn, and this, I feel pretty certain, would not work. Its just a completely different texture. While I am a tyer that likes to suggest alternatives, this may be one pattern where you really do just have to have the right stuff. One exception to this rule might be the tail, where, due to its simple function, you could probably substitute any synthetic or natural tailing material of your choice.

Sorry about the truly horrendous image quality. I took roughly triple the amount of shots seen here and the force wasn't strong with me. Maybe I'll try again soon and replace the shots, but for now, they give you a decent visual aid as to what's going on. Just pretend that Monet does my visuals.

Anyway, here it is:

Laser Fly

Materials:

Hook: Mustad 36890, Size 8
Thread: 8/o Uni-thread, black
Tail: Laser Tail
Body: Laser yarn, usually 2 colors

Instructions:

1. Place hook in vise, start thread, and move to roughly the midpoint of the shank.

2. Tie in laser tail, then untwist fibers. You can rub the fibers between your fingers to “fluff them out”.

3. Start tying in small pinches of laser yarn at the midpoint of the shank. The key here is to keep the bulk at the shank to a minimum. Use only two wraps per pinch of thread tied down. Try to minimize the amount of laser yarn in front of your tie down point. Basically, get a little bit of laser yarn, do two wraps, then pull the laser yarn away from the fly. The fibers that were tied down will become part of the body, and the loose fibers will be pulled free.

4. Continue tying in small clumps of laser yarn immediately in front of the previous one, forming a body as you progress toward the eye. Smaller clumps will actually make for a fuller body, as tying in a large clump will greatly increase bulk, as well as the wraps needed to secure it. Keep the amounts tied in small, and tie in as many small clumps as you can by moving forward slowly. Each tie-in should be only two wraps of thread, on top of one another, and not take up much space.

5. When you are almost close enough to the eye to finish the fly, switch colors, to a contrasting color, and tie in 2-5 pinches of that color using the same method as before. At this point, if there are unruly fibers projecting out over the eye, trim them as close to your thread wraps as you can. Whip finish, cement if desired, and stroke back the fibers.

The finished fly.

This one is actually a bit fuller than I normally like to tie them, preferring a body more like the size of just the gold portion, but with the red stripe incorporated. The fly's creator felt that the second color was a necessary part of the fly. I agree, noting how much the contrast enhances the appearance. With a good selection of laser yarn, the color combinations are nearly endless. Also, there is a great deal of customization that may take place from this basic platform. As I mentioned before, changing the tailing material would be a common variation. In addition, you could add a set of hourglass eyes, a hackle or marabou collar, egg veil, a floss or tinsel tail wrap, wire or tinsel rib, herl overwing, etc.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, and, if you can find some Laser yarn, I hope you'll give this pattern a try!

As always, please feel free to leave your questions and comments about this fly and the tutorial itself.

Update: Vibram FiveFingers KSO

2009-09-18T11:32:00.003-04:00

This is just an update in my review of the Vibram FiveFingers KSO shoes that I posted yesterday.

I finally got a few hours to spare in this unbelievably busy week, so I hit the stream to see what the trout were up to. I'd originally planned to just put on a pair of hip boots that I keep in my car at all times for just such an occasion, but then decided that it'd be a great opportunity to try out my KSOs (that I had on), in the water.

So, once I got to the stream (in this case, the Loyalhanna), I simply strung up my rod (Diamondglass 7'-0" 4wt), rolled up my jeans, and headed for the water.

The first thing I noticed was that the water was cold!

The second thing I noticed was the unbelievable amount of feeling the FiveFingers offered as I walked around the freestone streambed. Far better than the Teva sandals I normally use to wet wade, and obviously leaps and bounds better than hip boots or wading boots, I could feel each and every pebble underfoot.

Whether because of the individual toe pockets, the flexible sole, the zigzag siping, or, more likely, a combination of the three, I found myself walking around in the water far more naturally. While wading in hip boots is normally a cause for abandoning all fishing and worrying about secure placement of each step, the FiveFingers seemed to find solid purchase anywhere my foot fell on the slick, rounded stones in the Loyalhanna, freeing up my concentration, and allowing me to fish as I moved.

The Loyalhanna, like most freestone streams, has few, if any, jagged stones in the streambottom, so I didnt have to worry about sharp portrusions jabbing me underfoot, and the seperate pockets allowed my toes to flare a bit, increasing my footing in the silty sand that covers slower portions of the stream.

When I was ready to head home (or rather, when I had to tear myself away from fishing and head back to the busy schedule), it was nice to have such good traction for navigating up the bank in wet shoes. This, however, proved to be the only drawback of the FiveFingers that I've encountered so far: several times, I picked up stems of weeds and blades of grass between my toes. While it wasn't a huge issue, you definitely cant just bust through the weeds like you're used to doing with rubber hip boots.

When I got back to the car, I took off the shoes to see if the KSOs really kept stuff out, and was pleasantly surprised. While there were a very few tiny bits of sand and leaf litter in each shoe, the total amount was insignificant. In each shoe, I could count the individual bits of 'stuff' that got in. There was about 10 grains of sand in each shoe. Not hardly enough to notice. Overally, I was highly impressed, as I thought the elastic around the ankle would keep largers bits out, but allow silt to get all through the inside of the shoe. Nice job there, Vibram.

Back at the car, I took off my KSOs, dried my feet, and put on a pair of regular shoes, tossing the Vibrams behind my seat to dry. This was at about 6:30pm. Now, in the mean time, they were in my car, not in a normal airflow situation, but this morning they were still a little bit damp, something to consider if you plan on wearing them as an everyday shoe, or in extremely wet surroundings. I'm sure while being worn they'd dry much quicker.

By the way...I had one take on a #22 snowshoe caddis that I didn't get a good hookset on, and caught a nice healthy brown male on a #12 olive wulff. I saw alot of caddis fluttering around, in the #16-#20 neighborhood, but didn't see any trout eating any caddis. My guess is that standard caddis patterns will become effective very soon, and will remain effective until the first good frost.

...this IS a fishing blog, after all.

Fly Tying Tutorial: Woven Body Woolly Bugger

2009-09-18T07:52:00.002-04:00

While the woolly bugger is a simple, highly effective fly that nearly every beginning tyer learns, this variation incorporates a woven body, to challenge intermediate tyers to learn a new technique that makes very realistic bodies, and a wide range of body color choices for nymphs, streamers, wet flies, and buggers.

I was asked to create this tutorial for the Fly Tying section on the FishUSA forums, so I thought I'd post it here as well.

Woven Body Woolly Bugger Tutorial

Materials:

Hook: Mustad 36890 Up-Eye Salmon Hook

Thread: 8/0 Uni (Black)

Weight: .020 Lead Wire

Tail: Marabou Blood Quill

Body: Embroidery Floss, 2 colors, woven

Hackle: Rear: Short barb streamer saddle hackle

Front: Long, webby, strung neck hackle

Instructions:

1. Place hook in vise and wrap lead onto shank, leaving plenty of room in front of the bend to tie marabou tail. Wind up to the point where the wire from the hook eye ends. Press wraps up against the end of the hook wire and ensure that the lead underbody is smooth & even.

2. Select a piece of marabou in your chosen color for the tail. In this case, i'll be using hot pink. I prefer to use the "blood quill" marabou for bugger tails.

3. Tie in marabou tail in a length about equal to the hook shank. Trim the butt of the quill and tie down ends.

4. Select a saddle hackle in an appropriate color. This is a good place to use the hackle on a dry saddle with barbs to long or soft to be of any use in a dry fly. I have a few cheap saddles from Keough that I like to use on my buggers, but any saddle with shorter barbs will work. A size #6 salmon hook is shown for scale.

5. Prepare the hackle by trimming away the "fluff" at the base...

6. ...and sweeping the fibers of the feather 'against the grain', leaving a portion of the fibers at the tip in their natural position.

7. Tie in the hackle over the top of the shank, protruding off of the rear end of the hook over the bend (sorry about the slightly blurry image, but you get the idea). Be sure to leave a bit of space between the tie-in point and where your swept back fibers start. This will give you room to start wrapping your hackle later, and will make for a neater looking fly.

8. Select two contrasting colors of embroidery floss. This can be purchased at nearly any craft store, and, unless you get special neon, metallic, or other specialty flosses, the standard colors are quite cheap and available in a wide array of colors. I got three colors of this floss for just over $1 today.

9. Cut a 6-12" strand of each color. 6" will be just about right for a single fly, with enough of a tag leftover to hold comfortably. 12" will be long for the first few flies, but will tie as many as 3-5 flies or more, thus there's far less waste if you tie multiples. Even so, at 35-40 cents per mini-skein, you dont have to feel too awful bad about wasting a few inches.

10. Tie both strands down the length of the shank, extending out over the rear of the hook. Tie in the top color (top of the hook shank after weaving) on the side closest to you, and tie the bottom color on the side opposite you. After both strands of floss are secure, try to smooth out any lumps in the existing body with thread, then whip finish and trim the thread off, otherwise, the bobbin will interfere with the weaving process. Alternately, you can tie a half-hitch to secure the thread, then hang the bobbin straight back off of the rear of the hook somehow, and weave over the standing thread. Then, when you finish the weave and tie off, you'll have a small piece of thread running the length of your body that will need to be cut off with scissors. Either method will work.

Beginning the Weave

11. Start the weaving process by first orienting your vise so that the hook shank is pointing directly toward you. This will make weaving much easier, and will enable you to weave the entire body without having to let go of the floss, and it will also allow you to weave tightly, without tying knots, until you tie things off at the front end of the body. Once the hook is facing you, bring the top color, in this case, the white floss, over the top of the hook shank.

12. Pass the top thread beneath the bottom thread, passing under from the bend toward the eye. Grasp the end of the top thread with your left hand and the end of the bottom thread with your right. From this point on, you should not have to let go of the floss threads until you are ready to finish up the weave.

13. Pass the top (white) thread back up over the top of the hook shank to the other side. From this point on, the top thread should never get lower than halfway down the side of the shank, and the bottom thread should never pass higher than halfway up the shank.

14. Bring the bottom thread down, underneath the shank, to the left side of the hook (the top thread is already over here). In the picture, the 'knot' formed where the top and bottom threads hook each other is not in the correct position. Ideally, you should keep these hooked knots in line with one another, on opposite sides of the shank, halfway up/down the side. Dont worry, though, the knot is easy to adjust by pulling on the ends of the threads. Just get it where you want it and keep some tension until you complete the next hook-weave, which will lock the previous one in place.

15. Now bring the top thread under the bottom thread to once again 'hook' it, then pass it back up over the top of the body. This will have the effect of crossing your hands, and will seem awkward, but it's the correct method. The picture is taken after passing the top thread under the bottom one, but before carrying it over the shank. In the picture, I'm holding both strands of floss in one hand, but only so I can take the picture. While weaving, the ends of the threads should never leave your grasp.

16. Now bring the bottom thread back under the hook shank to the right side of the hook. This completes one set of the hook weave, and uncrosses your arms. To continue the weave, just repeat these steps, with the threads hooking one another on opposite sides of the shank.

17. Finish the weave off. This can be a little tricky, because you need to maintain tension on the floss strands and restart your thread at the same time. For me, the easiest way to do this is to weave until both colors of floss are on the left side of the shank (still looking down from above), then wrap the top color up over one last time, then pull both strands down. The hook shank will be supporting the top thread and the top thread in turn will support the bottom thread. With both threads being pulled down, transfer the tips of both threads into your right hand. This is a good time to swing the vise back around to the normal tying position.

18. Then pick up your bobbin with your left hand and grasp the free end of the thread along with the floss in your right hand and pass your bobbin up and over the hook shank.

19. Make a few tight wraps, dropping the bobbin on the far side of the shank (because your right hand will prevent standard wrapping). After 2-3 good tight wraps, binding the tag ends of the floss down, you can let go with your right hand.

20. Trim the tag ends of both strands of floss and your recently restarted thread, and build a smooth thread taper. If you didnt trim your thread, but rather had it hanging off the back of the vise, steps 17-19 would change by having you lift the thread over the back of the body, pinching it with the strands of floss, and making your wraps. Then once you had the floss tied off, not only would you have the tag ends to trim, but also the short length of black thread between the tail and the front of your body.

21. Palmer your saddle hackle forward over the body. As you wind the hackle, it should rest in the notches in the sides of your woven body made by the points where the floss threads hooked each other on the sides.

22. Select a webby piece of strung neck hackle, with long fibers, in an appropriate color. A #6 hook is shown for scale.

23. Pull the fibers back, against the grain, except for a small bit at the tip, to give you a place to tie in. I like to leave the fluffly base of the feather on this hackle to make it easier to grip, which, for me, eliminates the need to use hackle pliers.

24. Tie in the piece of strung neck hackle by the tip, along the thread taper you just made on your fly.

25. Trim the hackle tip, advance your thread to the eye, and wind up the entire hackle (the webby portion only, do not wind up the fluffy feather base). Be sure to gently sweep your fingers back from the eye of the hook toward the bend prior to making each wrap, to avoid binding down any hackle fibers pointing forward. At this point, its not critical to keep your fibers angled in any direction, as long as they're not getting bound down by your hackle stem in a position out over the eye of the hook. If this happens, just back up, sweep your fingers back along the fly, and place another hackle wrap immediately in front of the last one. Tie off the hackle and trim.

26. Build a thread head that extends back to just over the front edge of the hackle. This will give your hackle collar a swept-back effect that, in my opinion, makes for a much better looking fly. Try to make this head small, neat, and smooth. If it turns out a little bulky, though, don't worry. The fish dont mind. Whip finish, trim your thread, and apply a coat of Sally Hansens' Hard-as-nails if you desire.

The Finished Fly:

In the Loop Gear Review: Vibram FiveFingers KSO

2009-09-17T10:17:00.004-04:00

Well, its been quite some time since I've posted anything here at Tailing Loops, longer still since I posted a review, so here goes.

While this isn't a review of a piece of fly fishing equipment, a book, or some other directly-related item, I feel its worth talking about.

The Vibram FiveFingers line of shoes are a radical departure from typical shoe design. Made for a wide range of activities from walking to yoga, running, trekking, and even boating, these shoes are designed to allow your foot to do what it was designed to do: support your body.

The FiveFingers line consists of four specific models of shoe: Classic, Sprint, KSO, and Flow. The Classic is the baseline model, while the Spring incorporates a strap across the open top, the KSO provides a closed-top that fits against the underside of the ankle made of light synthetic fabric, and the Flow replaces the light material with neoprene, for water and cold-weather activity. For my purposes, I picked up a pair of the KSOs (short for keep-stuff-out), and that's the specific shoe I'm dealing with in this review.

Taking a minimalist approach, Vibram's goal with this shoe is to provide all the sensations and benefits of walking barefoot, with the protection of their TC-1 rubber to eliminate the dangers posed by sun-baked asphalt, bees, and bits of glass and metal that normally make going barefoot a bad idea, especially in urban areas. Vibram approached the design of this shoe based on the idea of letting feet do what they were meant to do.

The design of the human foot is superb for walking, running, and jumping. While many animals are capable of impressive sprints, the human body, specifically the feet, are made for long-distance running, and some tribal people in Africa actually participate in persistence hunting, where they will literally chase antelopes and other animals to exhaustion. Wearing rigid, inflexible shoes prevents your feet from flexing and adapting properly to conditions. Many common foot problems today are caused or aggravated by shoes that impede the function of the foot, or provide too much rigidity and support, allowing the joints and muscles to weaken. In fact, it is believed that many high-end running shoes do more harm than good! To the contrary, the FiveFingers provide basic protection and cushioning for the foot without interfering with the natural motions of the foot and toes while walking. It is also believed that walking barefoot may improve posture, strengthen feet, ankles, and calves, and reduce back pain. With these shoes, your feet will be able to function properly again.

Description

The first things you notice when looking at any of the FiveFingers shoes are the toes. These minimalist shoes feature individual pockets for every toe on your foot, literally fitting like a glove. This design keeps your toes spaced out, which allows them to settle individually onto the ground with each step, improving balance and footing. It also means that these shoes wont keep all your toes crowded together, basically acting as an extension of your foot, rather than the individual elements they really are. While the feeling of the fabric between the toes is unusual, and at first, maybe even uncomfortable for some, once you get past that, the freedom your toes have while wearing these shoes is great. When out on a trail, the increased footing and stability is subtle but definitely noticeable, as your toes each settle independently of the rest.

The second most striking feature of the shoe is the sole. The soles are thin, and flex to conform to the ground you're walking on and carry the feeling through to your foot. As you walk, you can easily tell the difference between the difference surfaces you're walking on, from grass, to weeds, to dirt, gravel, pavement, brick, etc. The rubber also does a good job of protecting your foot from pointy objects, and while a large (baseball-sized) pointy rock under your arch will still be uncomfortable, you can run across gravel, even big, rough gravel, without worry.

First Impressions

As advertised, the KSO, with its full upper, does indeed keep stuff out. I took my puppy, Taka for a walk in my KSOs and we covered gravel, concrete pavement, grass (freshly cut), and sand. When we got home and I took my shoes off, there wasn't even one blade of grass or grain of sand inside. The mesh upper is elastic enough to remain form-fitting around the base of the ankle, throughout its range of motion, and the strap keeps the shoe from working loose as you walk, even up and down steep grades.

The tread on the sole is not very aggressive, as you can see from the picture, incorporating some low-relief scalloping in the high-wear areas, and siping (tiny zig-zag patterns that spread open as you step to form treads) everywhere except the arch and toes. This fairly tame tread design, combines with the Vibram rubber to give surprisingly good traction, even on wet grass. I was also surprised by how much "grip" I was able to get on wet or loose surfaces just from my toes being able to make individual contact with the ground.

The shoe is unmistakable unique in appearance, and although nobody has said anything, I've already gotten a few curious looks in stores and on sidewalks. They're the type of shoes one might call "dorky", and I'd imagine its one of those things that you either love it or hate it. Its definitely not for everyone, but if you don't mind standing out a little and getting some quizzical stares, the FiveFingers is a great shoe for exercise as well as everyday wear. I wear my KSOs without socks, though I may get a pair of the Injinji toe socks to wear with them once the weather cools off, as the thin mesh upper is very breatheable, and will allow feet to get quite cold.

Fit

Out of the box, these shoes can be a challenge to don properly. Try as I might the first day I had them, I couldn't convince the toes beside my big toes to go in the right pockets of the shoes. It's best to start with the big toe and work your way out, though, at first, it will take you a bit longer to put on these shoes than your normal sneakers. Once they're on though, these KSOs do a good job of staying secure to your foot, combining the form fitting fabric of the top of the shoe with an adjustable velcro strap that wraps around the heel, then over the top of the foot. I've read some reviews and blogs that made it seem impossible to do, but within 2-3 days, the FiveFingers are not at all difficult to put on. Yes, they do take a few seconds more attention than most shoes, but it really isn't a big ordeal. Like Vibram suggests, just start with the big toe and fit each toe in one at a time, and usually, you'll get the shoe on within a few moments. If not, just wiggle your toes and guide them into the proper places with your hands. When you get them in place, it's all worth it.

Once I got the shoes on my feet, they fit great and stayed secure on my foot, almost like a second skin. The entire FiveFingers line is light, and my KSO model weighs in at 5.7 oz per shoe. This lightness really helps enhance the experience of "barefooting". My toes at first didn't seems to want to wort themselves into the proper pockets of the shoes, but once they're in, they really stay put quite well, and the mesh upper stretches across the top of my foot without any feeling of being pulled tight.

One of my biggest issues when buying shoes is that while I'm not flat-footed, my arches are fairly low and wide. This pretty much rules out any true running shoe for the most part. With their high, cushioned arches for increased support, just walking in most of them is a painful experience for me. Normally, I just end up getting a vaguely defined "Casual" shoe, or I spend quite a long time trying on various athletic shoes until I find one with an arch to suit me. Though I don't skateboard, I've found that "skate shoes", like Vans are typically a good choice for me as well. Still, finding anything between a walking shoe and a boot has been challenging. These shoes presented no arch challenge at all, and in fact, feel great on my feet, conforming to the shape of my arch with every step.

One of the first things I noticed when taking my first few steps in the FiveFingers was that, without the thick sole of a conventional shoe, my stride was a little bit off. Each time I wear them, it gets more natural, but I did notice that just wearing these shoes has changed both my posture and stride, hopefully for the better.

The Verdict

Overall, in the short time I've had my Vibram FiveFingers KSO shoes, I've been very pleased with them. The separate toe pockets and thin sole feel unlike any shoe I've ever worn before, and the difference feels great. They offer an improved level of balance and allow the toes to move independently, improving posture, stride, and, in the long term, making your foot stronger.

Though I have yet to do so, I plan to wear my FiveFingers while fishing a few times, to see how they do in a flowing stream, on silty and sandy bottoms and slippery, moss-covered rocks. The Vibram website indicates that the KSOs are recommended for flats fishing, so I'd imagine that they'd hold up fairly well in a trout stream too!

For anyone who does any amount of hiking, you know what a difference lighter footwear can make in terms of fatigue and hiking enjoyment. These shoes are quite light and even short walks are a noticeable pleasant activity. The 'barefoot' feel of these shoes makes a walk in a pair of FiveFingers unlike a walk in any other shoe. Just feeling the textures, temperatures, and subtle details of the ground beneath you makes any walk a very interesting experience, and you'll be strengthening your foot and ankle muscles in the process! Long story short: if you like walking in the woods, walking barefoot, or walking in general, try on a pair of FiveFingers.

An Update

2009-08-19T13:58:00.002-04:00

Hey there to all my readers!

I just wanted to post an update to let you know that Tailing Loops is not 'dead' by any meaning of the word. Its just that I haven't been fishing much over the past month or so, mostly due to a new addition to the family in the form of an energetic young chocolate lab pup, Taka.

Got on a trout stream for the first time in weeks last night, and while I didnt catch anything but trees and rocks, it felt good. Hopefully, as Taka matures, I'll get more chances to fish...and post! I have a new rod to put through the paces and I owe you, the reader, a few reviews! Also, my sophomore steelhead season is just a few weeks away, and I hope to put up some pictures of some streamers I've been tying as well as an assortment of laser eggs. I've also got plans bouncing around the mind for a pattern that might be very effective both drifted and swung, but none of those ideas have come close to a bare hook shank...yet!

Just wanted to thank people for their comments and their continued interest in the blog, and to encourage you to keep checking back!

Maybe I'll have to put up a few pictures of Taka too, to prove I'm not just making up excuses!

Fly Fishing Doesn't Have to Be Expensive...

2009-07-13T09:50:00.003-04:00

While I was at wal-mart over the weekend to get a hunting license, standing in the loooong line (courtesy of the new, faster system), I couldnt help but spot a new crop of fishing rods sprouting from the display. Specifically catching my eye were the bright yellow eagle claws. I'd picked up one of the spinning models a few months ago, and thought about converting it to a fly rod (there werent any fly-models available at the store), but decided it'd be more trouble than it was worth. Now though, mixed in with the spinning rods, I saw what appeared to be fly rod handles and reel seats. Sure enough, after getting my license, I was pleased to see a few of the 7' 5-6wt rods. Mass-produced and cheaply made, general consensus on the rods still seems to be that, for $20, they're still a heck of a buy and a fun rod inside, say, 40 feet. With the totally pointless, but totally necessary ritual "test shake" complete (kind of like the tire kick when buying a car), I took one home.

Saturday looked like rain, so I postponed the planned trip to a bass & gill pond, but Sunday was beautiful, so I decided to take it out for trout instead. Attaching the only spare reel I've got, the battered graphite reel that came with my starter kit spooled up with some SA AirCel 2 line, I headed out for Indian creek. Once I got to the water, I remembered why I'd retired the reel. It's never quite been the same ever since it tangled with a fresh fall run steelie, and it basically free-spools in both directions. After adjusting for that, I was throwing some nice loops and really found the slooooow rod to my liking. No, it wasnt about to throw a tight loop 60' into a wind gust, but the little cheap rod was, as I'd heard, reliable inside 40' and could roll cast surprisingly well.

I decided to start simple, and found a pool holing some nice trout and threw a few different colors of woolly bugger. Most of these fish were fairly spooky in the slow, clear water, but one was a consistent chaser, and eventually, I got him to take the fly. For a brief moment, I felt the pull of a nice fish on the full-flex rod then, almost as if he knew the game, the trout did a quick loop around a submerged stick, pulled himself tight, and gave a quick head shake, easily snapping the 4X tippet and freeing himself. It was all over within 5 seconds. Disappointed, but encouraged, I got back on the trail and hiked upstream to a few other pools that had held trout last summer. One was devoid of anything larger than a 3" chub this year, but the next one was home to about a half dozen fish, one of which was actually a smallish tiger. Trying the buggers again, I got very little interest so I decided to go smaller, especially after seeing a few of the trout taking something underwater, near the streambed. I switched to a #14 cream caddis larva and tried a drift & swing approach. I was hesitant to drift it through the group, as they were lying fairly close together, and there was a real risk of bumping them with my leader and spooking them or worse, getting my leader across one of them and snagging it when it felt the line and bolted.

Luckily, the drift & swing worked. My first cast saw three trout following, and within ten minutes or so, a cast that had a few chasers saw one of the bigger fish, a slightly battle-scarred brown, move up and take the fly.

As my friend Jerry might have described it, the rod danced to match the trout's fight, flexing from the tip, most of the way to the (surprisingly nice) cork grip. I was pleased to note that while the top half of the rod was soft and supple, the lower half showed a surprising amount of backbone, allowing me to play the fish out and direct it into more open water.

Before long, the trout came to net, and after a quick snapshot, was released, still full of fight, taking off out of my grip as soon as it felt the water.

The Fish Are Always Right

2009-06-16T07:19:00.004-04:00

I just read a short write-up about the World Fly Fishing Championships over at PAFlyFish.com, and was interested to note that for a tournament held in Scotland, the native Scots, fishing their home waters, were bested by both the Brits and the French. It got me to thinking about the whole notion of "home waters" and how it might or might not matter in the taking of fish on any given day. Sure, you get to know the subtlelities of each riffle and pool, as well as how the fish tend to respond in certain circumstances. If you're really into it, you may know of specific insects that hatch there and the little things you can do at the tying bench to better match them. But on any single day (or series of days, as evinced by the Championships here), what determines whether this day will be a learning experience, or a day to reap the benefits of past learning days (of few fish)?

Also, it makes me realize just how much a "good day" is a relative thing, even in terms of catching, with all notions of "getting out of the office" and "reconnecting with nature" as side benefits. When I go to one of the two trout streams I hit most often (I feel I'm still too new into fly fishing to have true "home waters"), a true good day in terms of catching usually sees me land at least 2-3 trout, depending onhow long I stay out. For me, its not about catching huge numbers of trout, but catching, for me, certainly is a part of it.

Now that I'm starting to use dries, I'm missing a lot more strikes...or maybe I'm missing the same amount of strikes, but now I just notice it. Either way, each refusal and missed strike, at this point, is as encouraging as it is frustrating. On one hand, yes, I've failed to connect with yet another fish, failed to put it all together with a good cast, drag free drift, line mends, slack management, hookset, etc. Somewhere along the line, I failed to get things just right and the result was a fish that didn't come to the net. On the other hand, each refusal and missed take is an encouragement to me, because it shows me I've at least got something right. A refusal usually means that presentation, the approach, cast, and drift, were satisfactory, acceptable if not great, but the fly itself was objectionable to the fish in some way. A missed take means, usually, that either I was allowing too much slack, or wasn't paying attention. Either way, it shows I'm slowly but surely learning.

But getting back to the tournament...why is it that the fish have a knack for putting us in our place? (Apparently, for the Scots, that place is third place.) I've heard it said, simply, that, "The fish are always right." And I believe that describes the tournament situation better than any analysis anyone could give. For whatever reason, the fish liked the offerings of the other fishermen better than those of the Scots. Its the same reason a fish will ignore, or even dodge away from, the lovingly rendered flawless imitation of the most prolific nymph in the stream, only to rise to a #12 royal wulff or clamp onto a hot pink wooly bugger. Its why fish consistently confound scientist and anglers alike who preach that each time a trout feeds, its a careful calculation, balancing calorie intake versus calorie burn...until they start ignoring the plentiful nymphs and charging across the stream and leaping into the air for emergers. It's why, on any given day, the rank amateur has a truly plausible chance at showing up the seasoned vet. Why, although we can get damn good at this, noone's yet mastered it. And ultimately, the quest to hook a few more is what hooks us in return, and keeps us coming back for more.

Though a bottle of fine scotch whisky and those two ladies in the plaid skirts make a pretty good incentive too..

High and Dry

2009-06-04T09:32:00.006-04:00

For a fly fisherman...that's a good thing!

Like I said earlier, I've been getting into fishing dries. After Jerry and I fished the Little Mahoning on Saturday, we met up again on the Loyalhanna, the closest thing I have to a "home water". No the fishing isnt always spectacular, but unless the trout are getting overpressured by the flocks of weekend anglers, I can usually manage to pull one or two in a full evening of fishing. Sunday was a nice day, and the fish were surfacing all around us...unfortunately, it was to something small and difficult to imitate.

Jerry was getting some attention with beetles and nymphs, while I was only getting limited glances at my dry and wet offerings. It was one of those afternoons where you burn through more tippet by switching flies than tangles, fish, or wear and tear. Finally, I managed to convince a fish, a 14" rainbow, on a #18 Griffith's gnat. I was pleased to have caught a fish on such a small fly, especially aftercutting my teeth in fly fishing on #8 buggers. At the same time, Jerry pulled in a fish lower in the pool, for a double hookup on an otherwise slow, but beautiful day.

We fished for a few hours with little further success...a few bites and rises, but no major activity...and after a while, Jerry headed up to his van and returned with his 3 wt. Diamondglass rod. I'd asked about the Diamondglass line before, so he made sure to bring it along for me to try out with the Cortland Sylk line he's got it rigged with. As we traded rods, me accepting the Diamondglass in return for my 3 wt Avid, Jerry advised me to take my time and slow it down, as the rod was considerably slower than most. He had a very light 7X tippet on, so I decided to stick with my MO of the afternoon and tied on another #18 Griffith's Gnat. I worked some of the mustard colored Sylk line out of the tip top then threw it into my first loop on the rod.

As was to be expected, I was a little quick on the draw, and the first loop collapsed ineffectively, running out of 'oomph' well short of turnover. Lifting the line again, I false cast a few times to get the hang of the action, finding it was definitely slower than my Avid, though not by a vast margin. Within a few more practice casts, I was throwing tight, delicate loops in the thin line, across the modest distance to the rising trout in the feeding lane.

Jerry seemed to discover this at about the same time, remarking that the "Moderate-Fast" descriptor didnt really describe the Avid exactly, and that he felt it was closer to a Moderate. For his part, Jerry had tied on one of his beetles, which seemed to excite the trout in front of him, as he had several risers come to the beetle as I got to know the Diamondglass.

As I fished with it, I found it to be a pleasant little rod that forced you to slow your cast down before you could appreciate its exceptional smoothness. My Avid is certainly more crisp, and seems to communicate better what it's doing during the cast, while the Diamondglass is seamlessly smooth and delicate, loading and unloading with an unmistakeable feel that manages to be definite and tangible but also silky smooth and inseperable at the same time, with load transitioning into unload without any distinct point at which it hapens. In short: while I like my St. Croix for its precision, versatility, and the way it "talks to me in plain language", I like the Diamondglass for its delicacy, smoothness, and the way it almost seemed to cast itself. The Avid is certainly the more useful rod for me, but, with enough space to cast and maneuver, that Diamondglass was a true delight to cast, and if I ever see one at a price my budget can justify, it'll be near-impossible to pass it up. I was casting Jerry's 3 wt. 7'-0", but I'd probably go for the 8'-0" 4 wt. to better round out my quiver.

As we fished, Jerry remarked a few times that he really wanted me to catch one on the glass rod, just as I wanted him to get a fish on the end of the Avid. While he eventually got a few bites on his beetle, I drifted that Griffiths gnat again and again, with only casual interest from the otherwise active, feeding trout.

Suddenly, though, with little flash, one trout decided it was time, and firmly attached himself to the fly with a quick rise and sip and the fight was on! The first thing I noticed was that the soft rod made a good hookset a whole new issue, as a flick of the wrist was just as likely to simply flex the rod as it was to actually drive the hook home. Lucky for me, the trout had taken care of that, lodging the #18 hook firmly in the corner of its jaw. As the healthy 12" brown ran and leapt, I was grinning from ear to ear, enjoying the grace with which the rod came alive with a fish on the line. Just as Jerry had described it, the rod "danced" as I fought the fish, eventually pulling it within range of my net. A quick scoop, and the fight was over. I freed the brown and was back to fishing quickly, but the memory of the fish on the line will be one that will make it hard for me to pass up a deal on a nice, light glass rod.

Eventually, it was time for Jerry to head out, so we bot made the walk back to the parking area, where we traded rods back and Jerry changed out of waders. For my part, I slipped my Avid into the passenger seat of my car, and, waders still on, I headed for Mill Creek. Fishing had been slow here on the 'hanna, and I didn't expect much out of the smaller creek to the north, but I wasn't done fishing, and I figured that Mill creek would be less crowded, even if it was slow.

Little did I know, that while I would indeed have my chosen section of mill creek all to myself, the fishing would be anything but slow...

Big Success on the Little Mahoning

2009-05-30T22:11:00.007-04:00

This morning I made the drive up, farther than I normally go for trout, to the Little Mahoning creek in northern Indiana County. I was meeting J, a friend from both a previous fishing adventure in Erie as well as the vast melting pot we call the internet. He's both an extremely knowledgeable trout fisherman and an extremely talented writer who shares many of his adventures with anyone who cares to read his blog.

Recently, I've become interested in tackling dry fly fishing, and, along with several others on the FishUSA boards, J has stepped up and offered all sorts of valuable tips and suggestions. His offer to join him on the Little M was eagerly accepted. As I made my way up Rte. 119 my excitement grew, until i reached the stream, where I noticed J's motorcycle parked in the gravel between the road and the stream. Quickly, I parked, got out, and started donning my gear, thankful that I had my 3 wt. already strung up, riding VIP-style in the passenger seat for the trip this morning.

After i had my waders and vest situated, I got back in the front of the car for the pair of #18 para-sulphurs I'd tied the night before. (Which, by the way, looked damn fine for a first attempt at a #18 parachute tie, if I do say so myself...). I checked the passenger seat, the cupholder, the center console...even the glove compartment. Rats! No sulphurs! Suddenly, in my mind's eye, I could see the otherwise empty Dai-riki hook box, sitting all alone on my tying desk. With a sigh and a mental shrug, I abandoned the thought of using the little yellow flies today. Retrieving my rod from the car, I noted that in my excitement, I'd totally neglected to even open the lid of the coffee I'd brought along, a rarity indeed for this caffeine junky.

As I finished donning the armor of a fly angler, the man across the stream (who I'd already seen bringing a trout to hand) called out, "You wouldn't happen to be Mark, would you?"

"That's me", I replied, figuring that this was probably J, who I'd only ever met once before.

A pause, then, "Cold, right?", a nickname I have gone by on websites across the internet for years.

"Yup."

"Get down here, man! They're all over the place, and they're rising!"

Even more excited, I made my way over, and after a brief, no-nonsense greeting, we got to the task at hand. The fish were active, and more "stacked up" that I was used to seeing. Feeding, but managing to be choosy just the same. I got several tips and suggestions and a few flies (which I tucked away to use as patterns), and managed to raise a few fish, but missed the few that actually took. After some time, J headed off downstream. I fished the tail of the pool to let him get a good lead on me, then slowly followed, taking a drift through any water that looked promising. At one point, something rose to my parachute adams, just enough to disturb its downstream voyage and make a few ripples. It didnt sink the fly, but it was definitely a fish. A few drifts later, the fly went under and I set the hook. All at once, I felt the weight of a fish...barely. The tiny 2" minnow came out of the water behind line, leader, and fly as I set the hook...landing at my feet. With a little disappointment, I freed the little guy and continued on, eventually meeting back up with J at a nice, deep little pool.

"There's two real nice ones in there.", came the greeting of a true fisherman, as he crouched beside the pool, throwing some sort of light colored nymph into the head of the pool, "Here."

J offered his polarized glasses which helped me realize that the two dark-colored "rocks" in the back of the pool were actually large trout. At first I thought they were motionless, but little by little, I noticed them working the bottom, though not nearly as active as the mess of trout sharing the pool with them, feeding higher in the water.

After a few moments, he instructed me to cover the lower half of the pool, showing me the albino nymph he was using and giving me one of my own to try. I seemed to be getting more attention by swinging my albino nymph rather than drifting, so I went with it, and soon had 3-4 energetic browns nipping at my offering as it crossed in front of them.

Finally, one, braver than the rest, darted forward and bit hard.

"All right!", I exclaimed, letting J know I had one on. Soon after, I brought a 14" brown to the net.

We continued to fish that hole for some time, J hooking up with several fish, before finally, he had to head out. He gave me a second albino nymph, just in case, and headed back toward his bike.

As for me, I felt certain I could persuade at least one more fish in this pool, so I stuck around, continuing to work the albino nymph, with a small piece of shot a few inches up the line. Every few swings through the pool would attract a crowd of interested, but hesitant trout.

Finally I decided to drift it straight into them rather than swinging past. Just before it got there, however, a large dark form rose and intercepted the nymph purposefully and without flair. CHOMP! In disbelief, I set the hook and the battle was on!

The big fish gave me the obligiatory head shake then pulled me purposefully into deeper water. He was headed upstream, so I just maintained constant pressure and let him fight the current. At the top of the pool, he gave another head shake, then tried to nose into slower water on the opposite shore. With a fish like this on a light rod, I used a few bits of wisdom learned from steelhead fishing, where you want to make the fish fight you AND the current, and not give him a rest to regain energy, otherwise he'll fight all day. Using what backbone my 3 weight offered against such a large fish, I got his nose into the faster water, which got him once again swimming hard, this time toward me.

I stripped in line as he got to my side, but then he saw me moving and then he showed me a whole new set of gears. He als showed me a good side view, and it was then that I saw some markings that made this a special fish indeed: the worm-like pattern of a tiger trout.

Before I could dwell on it too much, though, he darted downstream fast as a fish half his size, and it was then that I realized that from stripping, I had a pile of slack! Bad move, Mark!

With the best approximation of drag I could muster with my hands, I gave the fish line, and even took half a step at following him downstream. Just then, he turned back into the pool and dove deep and I raised my rod tip accordingly. While he was down, I took the change to furiously reel in the slack at my arms and finally get this fish "on the reel". After another moment of thought, I tightened my drag down a touch. Still, plenty light to protect my 5X tippet, but with enough stubbornness to keep him occupied should he decide to run again.

Back more or less to where he started, the big tiger tried to lay low and catch his breath. He seemed stuck fast to the bottom, and for a moment, I feared he'd looped me around a rock or log. Then the sensitive tip of my St. Croix felt a slight headshake, and with a grin, I applied some sideways pressure, which aggrivated him into another run, swooping in a wide curve, up and out of the hole, this time, the drag on my Tioga reel clicking at a good pace.

Again at the top of the pool, the tiger and I both realized that he had run out of tricks...and space...and he became content to make like a smallmouth, and make quick, powerful pulls into the deepest water he could find, his bright orange belly occasionally betraying his position in brief flickering reflections. It was all I could do to hang on at this point and enjoy the fight, as my Avid rod did most of the work, "dancing", as J likes to describe it, as it matched the tiger's fight move for move. I was grateful for the softer action of the Avid rod as the big trout darted around, attached to the light tippet.

For the first time, the brute showed some signs of fatigue, allowing himself to be lifted to the surface. Just as fast, though, he'd nose back down, as if to show me he was still the boss. Each time he came close, I'd get the net ready, and each time, just as I was about to scoop him up, he'd charge off, back to the deeper water, and it was all I could do to stay connected.

Finally, the runs became shorter, and I was able to keep the net with him, and just like that, the battle was over.

After posing for a few shots, the stubborn old fish was gently lowered back into his stream, and held there gently until he'd caught his breath enough to hold position in the faster current. After release he sat motionless in the side of the pool, getting his bearings for a few minutes, then gracefully drifted back to the same position he started in, looking much like the rock he appeared to be, before he saw my albino nymph...

Learning How to Fish for Bass Part 1: Selecting a Rod

2009-05-21T09:13:00.011-04:00

While I continue to give my 3 wt. more "field testing" before I give it a full write up, I've also been preparing for this year's bass fishing with more...conventional...fishing gear. While I've certainly caught my share of bass in the past, it wasn't until last year that I started to specifically target them with fairly species-specific tackle, baits, techniques, and presentations. A big part of this was making a new friend, who's been fishing as long as I have, with just as much passion for the sport, but while I spent my time on the water throwing light spinners on 2# test to trout, he was out throwing stickbaits nearly the size of the trout I was catching, to hungry bass and pike. Now that we've been fishing buddies for a while, he's gotten me interested in bass fishing, and he's been hitting the trout streams with me a few times, fly rod in hand.

While my friend has certainly been a great help to me, I've also done my share of reading about bass and the ways people catch them. One thing I've found is that there's a huge gap between the weekend fisherman (no matter how avid) and the tournament anglers, and part of the secret of translating what you read in articles to what you catch on the water is the ability to sift from the pro articles the parts that are relevant to you, as well as the ability to figure out the "why" as opposed to the "what" of both the advice from the weekend warrior and the sales-pitch article from the tackle company.

One of my favorite things about bass is that they're consistent. That's not to say they're always biting, or even that they aren't selective, but rather, it seems that in similar conditions, similar tactics will just about always produce. You've still got to figure this out, however, and identify what the conditions are, as well as what worked last time in those conditions, but while trout are known (and sometimes, even loved) for their finnicky nature, I've never seen a day when bass are crushing silver original rapala F-9s with a green dot on the nose, but are totally ignoring the ones without the dot, as well as any other color than silver, or any other size but F-9. That might get you the most action, but if that's what your friend is driving them nuts with, and all you've got is a silver F-7, you'll still catch fish. Perhaps Pat Smith conveys my reasons for loving bass better than I could ever hope to:

"But if the salmon and trout must be classified as elite in this mythical social structure then let the black bass be given permanent status as the working class of American gamefish. He's tough and he knows it. . . . He's a bass sax grumbling get-down blues in the bayou. He's a factory worker, truck driver, wild catter, lumberjack, barroom bouncer, dock wolloper, migrant farmhand and a bear wrassler. If it's a fight you're looking for, he'll oblige anytime, anywhere. Whether it's a backwater at noon, a swamp at midnight, or dockside at dawn, he'll be there waiting.He's a fierce-eyed, foul-mouthed tobacco-chewing redneck who has traveled to every corner of the nation, paying his way and giving no quarter."

Bottom-line: bass are fun!

Still, when I decided to specifically target bass, all of the sudden, several aisles and an entire wall of my local sporting goods store became suddenly relevant to me, though it was still largely a mystery. Racks of ridiculously huge hooks (especially compared to #14 trout hooks), soft plastic worms, longer than many trout I've caught, spinnerbaits with enough blades to mow the lawn, and crankbaits that looked so realistic that I thought they might still be flopping...all claiming to be the ultimate bass-catching device known to modern man. But how to know what to spend my already-scarce currency on? When I asked my buddy, his simple answer came, "Get a few big Rapalas and a couple Jitterbugs."

Okay, but how, where, and when should I use each of these? And what if neither worked? What colors should I look for and what patterns work? I knew that trout, even of similar size, would hit drastically different lures in different bodies of water and weather conditions, and I was sure bass would follow suit. Thus I turned to the collective wisdom of bass fishing sites on the internet. This turned out to be a rather alarming experience, as everyone had a different idea on the best bass tactics. The only things they seemed to agree on was that I needed a bass boat (not happening), and that I needed to spend gazillions on my setup (also not happening). So I took what I could from the pros and combined it with what I got from the locals, added a healthy dose of my own thoughts on fishing, and tempered it all with a shot of realism and came up with the following as the core of my arsenal for pursuing bass:

Bass Fishing Rods

Trout fly rods aside, I'd have to venture a guess that there are probably more different bass rods on the market than any other species-focused fishing rods. This is probably due to the near-omnipresence of bass in America's lakes, ponds, and rivers mostly, but also because of the wide variety of philosophies of bass fishermen. From among the thousands of bass rods out there, however, we can classify them through three main descriptors: power, length, and action.

Power

What's the main difference between an ultralight trout rod and the stick the catfish angler takes to the water? Immediately, the answer comes back "weight". But while the thick cat rod certainly will get a higher number on the scale, the difference isn't strictly one of weight alone. To change things up, get a graphite bass rod and stack it up against a fiberglass trout rod. In this case, the "lighter" trout rod may actually weigh more than the more modern bass rod made of graphite. So we see that "weight" in the traditional sense, is really not what makes the difference.

A more appropriate way to describe these rods of different "weights" would be to say "the amount of weight that the rod is designed to cast effectively". This would explain why the ultralight trout rod is the tool for casting 1/64 ounce jigs, while the cat rod can toss a quarter-pound of lead out into the middle of a major river. A more appropriate way of saying this would be to say that a given rod has "the power to cast baits of a certain weight", which is known simply as a rod's "power".

Fishing rods range in power from Ultralight, to Light, to Medium-Light, Medium, Medium-Heavy, then on to Heavy and above. I have little to no experience with any rods above Medium-Heavy, so I can't really say what rods lurk at the heavy end of this spectrum. For most bass fishing applications, however, you need only be concerned with the middle range of rod powers: Medium-Light, Medium, and Medium-Heavy.

Many people regard the rod's power as a guide to the weight or size of fish it was designed to catch. In many cases, this actually is applicable, though this is more of an indirect oversimplification. True, with a Medium-Heavy rod, you'll be better able to guide and turn a fighting fish, but with enough space, a properly set drag, and a cool head under pressure, you can land a 4-5 pound bass with an ultralight rod...spooled with 2 pound test line. I've done it.

The bottom-line is, you should choose a rod power suited to the types of lures you plan to use the most. While one ounce football jigs might be fairly unruly on the Medium Light rod you got for drop-shot, if you primarily rely on drop-shot and finesse presentations, you want the advantages that that ML rod provides more than the backbone that would be ideal for flipping jigs.

For a beginning bass angler, my (most certainly non-expert) opinion is that a standard, medium power rod is the best option. A good medium rod will give you the best combination of delicacy and sensitivity to effectively use just about any of the standard bass presentations. With this one rod, you'll be able to determine what your favorite methods are, and what changes would make a second rod more ideal for those methods. Also, medium rods tend to be a good choice for many of the more standard, simple tactics, such as crankbaits and Texas-rigged soft plastics, so the medium rod won't get phased out as you add other rods to your lineup.

Length

While length may not be the most important consideration when buying a new bass rod, it should be considered nonetheless. Length tends to become more of a relative quantity among fishing rods, a situation where "shorter" and "longer" are probably more useful guidelines than 6'-3" or 7'-0". In my experience, length comes into play in three main areas: steering fish in tight quarters where the rod allows you more precise control in what direction pressure is applied to the fish, as an extension of the casting arm, and as a less obvious, though, for me, more practical sense, in transportation.

The first area, steering fish, certainly comes into play, however, with the nature of most spinning and casting rods, I've used, most rods of a given power are similar in length to within 12-18 inches, with a 6'-0" rod being about the shortest bass rod and anything over 7'-6" being a specialized, technique-specific rod. Furthermore, I'd say a 6'-0" to 7'-0" rod will be able to do anything you want or need it to do. This fairly narrow range of lengths, to me, means that as far as steering fish, there isnt much difference from length to length.

In terms of casting, its a matter of personal taste. I happen to like using a slightly longer rod, anywhere from 6'-6" to 7'-0", as I feel it gives me more leverage and improved accuracy in my casting. My buddy, on the other hand, feels a shorter rod (between 6'-0" and 6'-6") is more manageable. Either way, the only way to determine your style is to try a few on the water. Still, many, like myself, enjoy the advantages (and are prepared to deal with the disadvantages) of a somewhat longer rod. For me, my desire for increased leverage and accuracy was tempered by my desire for a rod that would comply with the third aspect of choosing a length: transportability.

This is a factor many people dont really think about, but once they have to deal with it, it certainly becomes a major issue. I know from experience, that without rearranging the backseat of my small car (and even then), my 6'-6" bass rod is a tight fit. That isn't to say that its a pain, just that, when my 6'-6" bass rod fits and my 7'-9" fly rod definitely won't, that means that somewhere between those two lengths I go from a very tight fit indeed, to a point where I'd be bending a rod dangerously to get it inside the car. Recently, I got a new bass rod, and at 6'-9" it still fits about as easily as my other one, so the magic length that just wont go is somewhere in that foot between 6'-9" and 7'-9".

Naturally, there often exists the option of buying a 2-piece rod, which really makes the transportation concerns a non-issue. You'll especially see breakdown options in rods in excess of 7 feet long, when rod transportation becomes and issue for most average anglers. In terms of fishing performance, the debate still continues as to whether a rod constructed of a single piece performs better than its multi-piece brothers. While you'll hear arguments both ways, I feel that any quality rod maker knows how to account for the challenges presented by a multi-piece rod, and thus, a multi-piece rod from a good name in fishing rods should not, in any way, be deficient in its performance. Whether its fishing characteristics will be identical to a one-piece rod of the same product line, power, length, and action isnot assured however, and many have found that identical rods, one single and one multi-piece, will be very similar, but with the multi-piece rod having a decidedly "stiffer" feel, possibly due to the increased bulk and lack of flex in the ferrule (where the two pieces join).

To cut to the chase, for the beginner, I'd recommend a rod length of about 6'-6". This length provides for the widest variety of fishing tactics and while you may find you prefer a longer or shorter stick, you'll still find that 6'-6" medium rod at the core of your bass fishing equipment loadout.

Action

This final aspect of a fishing rod's performance may be the most important, and also the most poorly understood, of the three. A rod's action, simply enough, describes how deeply a rod will flex along its length while under load. While this may seem simple, you'd be surprised how many people misunderstand the term "action". Whether due to a somewhat misleading name (action), even more misleading descriptors (fast, moderate, slow), or due to the profound effect it has on the rods performance for such a simple thing, you'll find all sorts of answers as to what "Fast Action" actually means. In fact, its entirely possible that I've missed a key point of an action's impact, or added something to it that may not hold true for everyone. More than power or length, I feel that a rod's action is very much a matter of personal taste, and that, over time, you'll learn to prefer a specific action over others, when technique allows for it.

Rod action is described as being anywhere from slow (deepest flex) to extra-fast (only the tip flexes) with moderate (or medium) and moderate-fast in between. This amount of flex affects everything from casting, to the retrieve, to the action of the lure or bait, to fighting the fish and while any action rod can be used for the majority of bass fishing styles, certain actions truly excel at certain techniques.

Due to the nature of most bass fishing techniques, the preferred habitat of bass, and the behavior of a bass once hooked, youll find very few bass rods with an action much slower than moderate. Slower actions help to accurately cast light offerings and to detect the lightest bites. Bass normally prefer rather large, bulky baits and lures and a bass's strike usually falls somewhere between the intensity of a sharp tug and a freight train. True, certain techniques, such as a Carolina rig, put you in contact more with your weight (and by extension, the bottom of the lake or river) than your bait itself (and by extension, the fish), so a slower action might seem necessary to detect a light, or muted bite, however, these sorts of weighted rigs tend to be heavy, making a faster action necessary to cast it effectively. Furthermore, many technique-specific rods designed for these methods incorporate extremely soft, sensitive tips with fast, heavy butts, in an attempt to get the best of both worlds. For this reason, when I talk about "slower" rods, I mean moderate action to moderate-fast, and when I say "faster", I'm talking fast to extra-fast.

Action is the area where you are most likely to find your first rod less than ideal for a new tactic you want to try. It is also the area where a technique-specific rod might prevent you from effectively fishing a different style.

When you cast a slower rod (medium for bass rods), it will feel more "whippy" and flexible than average. It will do more to "let you know" when to release the line on a cast, and for me, at least, a slower rod seems to be perfect for short to medium length, non-precision casting. Tossing crankbaits to cover alot of water with a medium action rod is a great way to locate bass. Slower rods also seem to require less effort for casting lighter lures, allowing you to spend hours on the water without straining your arms or wrists. Additionally, a slower rod will allow baits with built in swimming action, like most crankbaits, and hard swimbaits, more freedom to do their thing.

When fishing a faster rod, it'll feel more like a "stick". Accordingly, it'll be better suited for casting heavier offerings that will be able to transmit more "feel" through the non-flexing portion of the rod. In my experience, faster rods also tend to be a bit more "touchy", demanding superior timing and casting skills from their users where a slower rod will communicate better through it's "feel", allowing for some angler error with little loss of performance. Fast rods tend to be a good chioce for presentations where you, the angler, must provide the action to a lure, like drop-shot and finesse rigs.

Casting a 1/16 ounce spinner with a fast rod will make it feel like you're trying to cast with a "broom handle", likewise, throwing 1 ounce football jigs on a medium rod will feel like you're trying to cast a brick with a slinky. Most of your bass tactics will have you casting anywhere from 3/16 to 3/4 of an ounce, all told. You may get into heavier (or lighter) styles, but by then, you'll be more in tune with what you need and can plan a rod purchase accordingly.

For a beginner, I'd recommend a moderate action rod, moderate-fast at the fastest. Fast action rods are more specialized tools that won't give you the versatility or forgiveness you might need as a beginner. A moderate action rod might get a bit noodly when fishing especially heavy rigs, but for crankbaits, spinnerbaits, and lighter plastics rigs, a moderate action rod will shine. Once you get used to a rod like that, you still may not know if a fast rod is for you, but that's one thing where you just need to try a fast rod and see how you like it. If it's for you, you'll know.

Wrap-up

So, to summarize, I recommend a Medium, 6'-6", moderate action rod for a beginning bass angler. That certainly isnt to say that something else might not work better for you, but that rod will cover a wide variety of tactics and situations admirably.

When choosing a rod, the first thing to determine is just how much you're willing to spend on a rod, then look only at rods in your price range. If you start playing the game of "for just another twenty bucks, I can get this...", the next thing you know, you'll be looking at $300 rods when youre just getting started.

For good value in entry levle rods, look to names like Shakespeare, Pflueger, Eagle Claw, and Berkley. Also, the "house brand" of many major outdoor retailers tends to be a great workhorse line. I'd recommend buying a rod at an outdoor shop rather than a department store, simply because they'll have far fewer "cheapies", and sometimes, more knowledgable staff. If you can, visit a place like Bass Pro Shops (duh) or Cabelas, where you're more likely to find knowledgable staff.

Expect to pay a minimum of $30-40 on a bass rod made with a good graphite blank, quality components, and a sturdy reel seat. Check the wrappings of threads on the eyes for evenness and the cork of the handle for smoothness and a lack of pits and voids. For the next notch up from entry level, you'll be looking at names like Shimano, Diawa, Okuma, and St. Croix. These companies will be selling thier introductory (not bargain) rods at prices from $45-$65, and are all quality names that stand behind their products with some sort of guarantee.

Regardless of what you choose, though, remember to treat your rod with care, and it will last you a long time, providing many a fun, relaxing day on the water.

Next Time: Reels!

Rainy Evening of Pond Fishing

2009-05-06T21:24:00.003-04:00

Unexpected company and uncertain plans for the evening prevented me from carrying out my original plan of heading to Twin Lakes to hear the talk that was given there this evening. Still, once I got freed up, I decided to salvage what i could of the day and put in some time in my favorite little bass pond. By the time I left the house, a steady rain had been dumping on the area for several hours and, even now, shows little sign of giving up anytime soon.

So, in my green rainjacket and my fishing hat I made the short drive out to the pond, strung up my 5 weight St. Croix Reign, and began to fish, using the red/yellow/purple marabou streamer I'd been using the last time I had it out. The end of that day saw me hook into a large, fiesty bass that was well-hooked and nearly played out....only to have the hook come loose just before landing the thing. This is a problem I've had since day one with my 5 weight, so, while frustrating, it wasn't terribly surprising. To that end, since I got my 3 weight, I rarely use the 5 around here for anything other than throwing bigger flies and streamers. If and when I get a heavier rod, possibly a 7 weight for steelhead, bass, and pike, I may even consider selling the Reign, and possibly looking into a softer, slower, lighter 5.

In any event, the rod performed well today, hooking into about fifteen bass and bluegill in about an hour, landing every one. In fact, my first two casts in a row both landed respectable bass. The first cast, in particular, was satisfying. The marabou streamer, still dry, was still trying to float on, or in the surface of the rain-dimpled pond. As I slowly stripped the fly back in, hoping it'd eventually submerge, I saw a second wake forming just behind it, and moments later a hungry bass helped me wet the fly, striking in a splashy take then diving deep.

From the time I got there, until darkness, action was regular, both with the marabou streamer and also with a modified double bunny in chartreuse and fluorescent orange, with some black crosscut wound at the nose (Triple Bunny?) that I hope will pass for a perch among some Conemaugh river pike in a few short weeks.

Before I knew it, though, night had fallen all around me, and I headed back for the car, grateful to note that the rain must have dampened the egos of the pair of geese that are raising a clutch of peeps on the north-east shore of the pond; as I walked by, they simply kept their distance anc cluck-honked softly among themselves. A year ago, in that circumstance, they would have wanted to rip me to shreds for being on the same half of the pond as them.

Well, that's it for now, see you later!

Wrap-up of the Orvis Wonderline Review

2009-05-06T12:29:00.005-04:00

In two previous entries, I've written first about my general impressions of the Orvis Wonderline, then about the feedback I got from the company, so its only right that I should post this third installment: the end result.

After being encouraged by the Orvis customer service reps to seek an exchange for my line, I finally got some time to run out to Ligonier to see what they had to say. I didnt think to print out my email from Orvis and was worried that they'd ask for some kind of proof. It turns out my worries were unfounded.

As soon as I went in and explained the problem, the shop owner nodded knowingly, and only had two questions for me: "Weight-forward?" and "Which weight...5?". After confirming that it was indeed WF5F, he simply grabbed a new spool off the rack and asked for my reel so he could spool it up for me. Ten minutes later I was headed home with a brand new flyline.

Its rare these days to find such simple, thorough customer service, especially at all levels of a major corporation like Orvis. That they were helpful above and beyond my expectations says alot. While some people knock them for any number of reasons, I'll continue to consider them as a viable option for nearly any fly fishing need.

A Short Trip to Twin Lakes

2009-04-28T20:17:00.003-04:00

I decided to fish Twin Lakes for a little bit today before the rains blew in, and I'm very glad I did.

Twin Lakes is a local county park with two lakes (surprise, surprise!) that are both part of the "Approved Trout Waters" program that the PFBC (Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission) stocks with trout. It's in an easily accessible location, near several residential areas, just a few minutes off of Rte. 30, there's plenty of parking, and 95% of the upper lake and about 85% of the lower lake's shoreline is fishable, either by standing on a brick walking path that circles them, or with a short (literally, less than 10 yards) walk from said path. All of this combined makes Twin Lakes one of the most heavily fished locales in the area. The lakes are more or less dominated by your typical lake fishermen: guys who bring out a pair of medium weight rods with an ounce of lead and two hooks on each. They put some combination of live bait, paste, marshmallows, cheese, etc. on their hooks, throw them as far out into the lake as possible, and sit and wait. Occasionally, they'll talk to the people nearby. For me, that's not fishing, its an exercise in tedium.

Still, one of the things I love about Twin Lakes is that, if you're willing to break the mold a little, the fish are willing to cooperate...usually. I cant tell you how many days I've spent 3-5 hours fishing and was the only person I saw catch anything (because I was the only person NOT fishing bait on the bottom). Sometimes it takes a little bit of experimentation to figure out just what they want, but when you find it, the fishing can be great, especially for a heavily pressured pair of lakes.

Today was no different. On my way, I decided it was entirely too windy for fly fishing. I had my 3 wt setup on hand, but dark storm clouds were coming in fast, and leaves and branches could be seen swirling around on the roadside: conditions that the elegant, but delicate fly rod wasn't designed for. Thus spinning became the order of the day. Since my bass rod was at home, I had the choice of my noodle rod or my ultralight, and the fact that my noodle rod already had the reel attached made it my choice. Noodle rod meant light lures: jigs. Jigs meant crappie. And so I pulled into a lot at the park that would give me the best shore access to the deeper areas of the lower lake.

I parked, assembled my rod, and swapped out my boxes of nymphs and dries for a bos of lures, hooks, and jigheads and a ziplock bag full of smaller bags of little crappie tubes. Starting off with a little pink and white tube, I headed out.

I didnt stop to take pictures, but in less than 2 hours, I caught 3 or 4 bluegill, 3 largemouth, and a half dozen of my intended quarry: crappie. It felt good to be able to put my knowledge of a fish's habits to work and actually have it work after months of unsuccessful attempts at analyzing trout. The little papermouths were cautious but forgiving, and after a missed strike, a few casts through the same water would often incite an encore from these fiesty panfish.

I caught fish from every spot I tried fishing, but soon the storm was upon Twin Lakes and, not wanting to get totally drenched, I made my way back to the car. Next time: I'm bringing the stringer!

Fly Tying Humor

2009-04-22T11:30:00.003-04:00

Stopped by Gander Mtn. yesterday and saw this amusing site in the tying section...a new use for an age old material, that might be the most effective fly tying material breakthrough since genetic hackle:

Incredibly careless customer, snarky anti-fly guy, or sublime understated satirical piece? You decide! :D

Second Day of Trout Season at Mill Creek

2009-04-19T21:10:00.008-04:00

After intentionally avoiding the heavy crowds of Pennsylvania's trout season opening day yesterday, I decided to venture out in search of uncrowded streams and salmonids today. I decided to head to Mill Creek: after being confined to the Loyalhanna DHALO for weeks, the crowded project water was the last place I wanted to throw loops. Driving past the several access points for the DHALO only confirmed my decision: every single access had at least one car (even the tiny pull off at the bottom of it), and the more popular parking areas each had several vehicles parked in them.

From what I could see, the stream itself didnt look overcrowded, like, say, the Walnut project water in Erie, but I knew that all of the best spots would have at least two guys fishing them. Not my style.

So I continued up to the back road that I normally have to myself to park and fish Mill Creek. As I rolled around the last bend of the unpaved road, my heart sank: no fewer than 8 cars, trucks, and SUVs were positioned anywhere they could get off the road, and people were milling about like it was a flea market. Adding to the flea market image were the two ridiculously large tents and a lean-to made from a tarp, all set up on the gravel bank on the other side of the stream. From the looks of it, these people had been here all weekend, and didnt look likely to pack up and leave. While it was possible (likely even), that the entire group was right there, and the restof the area was deserted, the best spots in that area are a good hike and wade away, and I'd have been disappointed to find them occupied. So, I decided to scout out new water, and check out a few access points I'd found over the winter to see if any of those might provide the solitude I was looking for.

The first place I stopped by looked promising, so I parked the car and strung up my 3 wt. There were two guys fishing a hole near the access so I walked down the trail past them and maneuvered into position at a hole down a few bends from them. I was using a white latex caddis that I'd had on from the last time I went fishing, but after a few minutes at the hole, I decided that something a bit bigger and flashier might be in order.

So, I clipped off the #14 latex caddis and tied on a bigger, flashier, heavier fly...a nymph/streamer/bugger abomination I dreamed up months ago at the vise. Based loosely on a woven bitch creek nymph, this fly sports fluorescent green in the underbody, a flashback, cone head, and flash & glow in the dark mateial for a short tail. After i completed it, I showed it to a friend along with several regular bitch creeks I'd tied for a swap. When he asked what it was, I replied, "Idunno...a psychotic bitch?"...a few jokes and wisecracks later, and the fly became affectionately known as "The Angela", after a girl I used to date.

So I tied on this #8 Angela nymph with some shot and some indicator putty and went back to work on the pool. Nothing...nothing...nothing...snag. As I went to lift out of the snag, the "snag" pulled hard and shot to the other side of the creek! The fish was hugging bottom and running for all it was worth. As it was at the bottom of over 3 feet of water, I wasnt sure how big or even what species it was, but on the 3 wt, it felt like a shark. Slowly but surely the fish tired, and when it decided to turn, it went all out, shooting to the surface and crossing a good 4 or 5 feet of stream while airborne! At this point I knew I had a lean, but healthy brown on the line, apparently well hooked too. A few moments later I felt the half-hearted head shake of a tired trout and knew he was ready for the net. I coaxed him across the pool and into my new Measure Net (a Christmas gift that has seen precious few trout since December 25th), and saw that he was just a mite over 12", with a color to him that indicated he'd been eating well since escaping from the stock truck. I was going to take a picture, but he seemed pretty exhausted, so I just got him back in the water as fast as I could after getting that Angela out of the corner of his mouth.

Not long after that, the two gentlemen from up above caught up to me, moving on down the stream, past the next good hole and down around the bend. When I got down to the next hole, I managed to get my fly hung up in some branches and, not willing to disturb the water, I broke off and tied a new fly on, this time a standard woven bitch creek nymph. I'd heard from a friend/mentor of mine that Mill Creek was home to a population of truly enormous stoneflies (in the #6 or larger neighborhood), and from the way that brown had attacked my angela nymph, I figured a #8 stonefly imitation would be a safe bet.

Well, I fished that hole for a while with no results, and from the way the guys below me were acting, I didnt think they really wanted to have to leap frog all afternoon, so I turned around and headed back upstream, past the car and into more uncharted water. I worked my way upstream, fishing a few holes unsuccessfully, but really, more interested in exploration.

Finally I came upon a hole that just looked "fishy". Its one of those things that need not be explained to a fisherman and can not be explained to a non-fisherman. There was just something about that hole that had me convinced there was a trout in there somewhere. Its the type of certainty that will take a nicely moving fisherman and stop him in his tracks in that spot, trying different drifts, casts, flies, sizes, angles...until it's too dark to fish. If he's got a flashlight, he may never leave. I'd even guess that a large percentage of fisherman even believe that this profound belief that they'll catch a fish in that hole might actually help in the process of inducing that fish to bite. Its all part of the totally nonsensical but equally serious set of superstitions that all fishermen carry with them, but few share with others.

In any event, I tried long cast, short casts, angled casts, two different positions, different weights...all without a bite. Finally, I settled into a kind of routine, casting into a current that swept my fly down under the tangled roots of a tree. Finally, i cast out and immediately saw a yellow-silver flash. A twitch of the rod and my second brown was on the line. This one was smaller, but just as pretty, and came to hand with plenty of energy to let me feel justified taking a snapshot before sending her back to her hiding spot.

After releasing this fish, I continued exploring upstream, walking more than fishing, until I hit a row of yellow posters, ending my upstream exploration. After this, I headed back to the car, noting that the other guys had left. So I headed back down, recovered my angela nymph from its branch and checked out about a quarter mile of the creek below where I'd parked. Eventually, I went as far as I cared to, and layed my rod against a tree. Then I sat on a log and opened up the bottle of Newcastle I'd packed in while I listened to the stream and watched a few squirrels, ducks, and other birds going about their business. Some time later, I got up, got my rod and headed back toward the car.

Along the way, I glanced down and saw an interesting sight. Too long to be a big or a crawfish and too thin to be a sculpin, I saw a little gray worm-like creature wriggling around in the stony streambed. Once it settled a bit, I saw what it was and grinned, scooping it up for a brief photo shoot.

I knew I was holding a freshwater lamprey, and that the little guy wasnt going to hurt me in the least, being a non-parasitic lamprey. In fact, the adults actually do not feed at all. After coming home, I did a little research and identified him specifically as a Least Brook Lamprey, which is actually a candidate rare species in Pennsylvania. You can read more about Least Brook Lampreys here, here, and here. At first, the one I found (in blue-black spawning colors) was wriggling around energetically, and wouldnt sit still for a picture. So I got him back in the water and lost my grip on him and he squirmed down and attached himself to my wading boot, of all things. Carefully, I got him off of there and he immediately got a grip on my fingertip. Once there, he was content to go wherever, in or out of the water, as long as I didnt disturb his suction grip. I got several pictures, then, of course, released the little guy unharmed.

All in all, a pretty good day on the water!

Angela Nymph

Hook: Mustad C53S (80050) or equivalent

Tail: Pearl Krystal flash and pink glow-in-the-dark flashabou

Body: Micro ultra chenille, woven, black on top, flo. green on underside

Thorax: Black micro ultra chenille

Hackle: Black, palmered over thorax

Case: Flash back, scud back, krystal flash...anything flashy

Head: Black Conehead

Picture to be attached later.

First Outing with the New 3 Weight St. Croix Avid

2009-04-06T23:48:00.006-04:00

As some of you (primarily readers that are also active on the FishUSA Forums) may know, I recently put together a new, lighter fly setup, for fishing for panfish, as well as trout in small streams.

My new fly rod is a 7' 9" St. Croix rod in the Avid line. Stumbling upon a recent sale on the Bass Pro Shops website, I got the rod for about half price. Once it arrived in the mail, I took it to my friendly local fly shop and paired it with a Teton Tioga 2 reel. Onto this, I spooled up a WF3F Tactical Trout Ridge Line from AirFlo. Unfortunately, weather kept me off the water for two long days, and it wasnt until Sunday that I was able to try it out.

Sunday afternoon, I headed out to the Loyalhanna. I pulled into an access area to find 5 cars parked and empty with a sixth car surrounded by a trio of fishermen geting ready to fish. So I turned around and headed farther upstream. Up top, I had the parking area to myself, but a quick check of the water revealed that it was just as crowded as down below.

At that point my adventurous spirit kicked in and I made the drive to the Indian Creek DHALO. I was surprised to see two other cars in the lot, but once I got on the water, I didnt even see another soul until I got back to the parking area.

Indian creek was beautiful. It's crystal clear, with good depth and flow, and Sunday, it was the scene of a fairly steady scene of stonefly traffic

Indian Creek DHALO

In fact, the only thing the creek WAS missing was trout. In a few hours of fishing there, not only did I not catch anything, but I didnt even SEE any fish. So after a pleasant walk back to the car and headed for a local farm pond.

Action here was much better, as the warm weather had turned the bluegills on! I caught 2 or three bass and more gills than I could possibly count. I was catching a few here and there till I discovered a nymph they liked (flatteringly enough, a personal design) and proceeded to catch bluegills steadily for the next several hours. Here's a picture of one particularly large hog:

Update on the Orvis Wonderline and Customer Service

2009-04-02T07:25:00.005-04:00

Well I got home last night and saw I had an email from Orvis:

Dear Orvis Customer,

Thank you for the review you recently submitted for the Trout Wonderline, item number 94GK. Customer service and your satisfaction are very important to us and we do greatly appreciate your feedback as it does help us continue in ensuring that we meet your expectations.

I am very sorry that the welded loop did not hold up well. I do want to assure you that we will pass all of your comments on to our buyer so they are aware of the problem and will be able to take the appropriate action as soon as possible.

I do want to make sure that you are aware that we completely stand behind our products and have a 100% satisfaction guarantee to ensure that you can always buy from us with confidence. You are more than welcome to return this to us for a refund or exchange. If you wish to return this to us, please reply with your full name and billing address and I will gladly provide you with further instructions and can even mail you a pre-paid UPS return label if you would like.

If it would be more convenient for you to return the line to a local Orvis Retail store, you would also be welcome to do that and would only need to present the item and a proof of purchase (such as your order confirmation or packing slip).

If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to let me know. Have a wonderful day!

Thank you,
Megan Sanders
Orvis Customer Service

I'm pleasantly surprised by this response to the review I left on the Orvis website. It's been suggested to me (by other fishermen) that I take my flyline back to try and get a replacement, and while I feel the line eye did wear out prematurely, I haven't been dissatisfied enough with the product, in my opinion, to warrant going back to the dealer and seeking compensation. When the company itself sends me an encouragement to go back and take advantage of the service they pride themselves on, well that bumps them up a notch in my opinion.

Its only fair that if I'm going to review a piece of gear, that I also give you updates on anything that might change my feelings on doing business with a company, so I wanted to share this. If you have problems like mine with the Wonderline, clearly Orvis will do what it takes to make you happy.

...maybe I can get my replacement in olive...

Pennsylvania Youth Fishing License?

2009-04-01T18:15:00.008-04:00

It's been talked about for well over a year, so it wouldn't surprise me if we saw Pennsylvania's kids forced to pay a licensing fee to go fishing. Its an old link, I know, but it does a good job of succintly stating what's being proposed. For those of you into specifics of the deal, I've got the bill submitted to the Pennsylvania House, and here's a newer article discussing license fee increases as well as the proposed youth license.

Basically, the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission (hereafter, PFBC) wants to require children ages 12-16 to purchase a youth fishing license at $5 (historically, fishing has been free in Pennsylvania to all children up to, but not including, age 16). The revenue generated by these fees (as well as federal funds that are to be somehow received as a result of the youth licenses) will be used to institute youth fishing programs and activities.

My first reaction upon hearing this news was what the hell are they thinking?! After a little thought, I realized that some good may come out of it. Still, I've been mulling the idea over for a few weeks now, and I still find something about charging kids a new fee where none existed before to be...well...just wrong.

The issue has caused quite a stir in several threads over on the FishUSA forums.

http://forums.fishusa.com/m_72372/mpage_1/key_/tm.htm

http://forums.fishusa.com/m_148978/mpage_1/key_/tm.htm

http://forums.fishusa.com/m_181223/mpage_1/key_/tm.htm

http://forums.fishusa.com/m_182907/mpage_1/key_/tm.htm

Mixed in with all the semi-intelligible ramblings, contention, and internet muscles common to any internet message board, there's a great pros vs. cons debate if you can filter out the nonsense.

As far as I'm concerned, its just bad business to charge anyone, especially children, for something that's been free to them since time immemorial. I dont care what the money is going to or how little it may cost, The Man shouldn't be holding his hand out, waiting for payment from a 12 year old.

Here's the PFBC's page addressing youth licenses.

They want to increase youth programs and find ways to increase youth interest in fishing, and turn around the recent downturn in youth participation in the sport. All of this is a very noble goal...but to pay for it...they're charging the kids?!

Alot of people argue that they're really charging the parents, and in the majority of cases it probably will be the parents that will foot the bill, but even at that, I dont like the situation (especially coupled with the license fee increase for everyone, included in the PFBC's proposition). So if dad's picking up the tab for junior, now dad's licensing fees have jumped by more than 25% in one year. Way to encourage guys to take their kids fishing.

Still, I'm sure most serious fishermen that are passionate about the sport will get the kids license and take the kids, but what about the kids that would love to fish, but their dads (or moms) just aren't into it. While my dad loves to fish (slowly but surely, I'm getting him back into it), my mom isn't a fan. Before I could drive myself (the targetted 12-16 year old demographic), she'd drop me off at a local lake and either go for a walk, or run errands or meet friends, while I enjoyed a long summer afternoon/evening of fishing. If I hadn't been so interested in fishing, it would have been just as easy for her to leave me at home to play video games, and now, not only will it be easier, it'll be cheaper.

On a more objective note, the PFBC really needs to hire a few more economic analysts, because if they'd bother to look at trends, they'd see that any time they've increased license prices, sales have dropped accordingly. So if you start charging for something that's free, what do you think is going to happen? I think they'll turn lots of kids away from fishing. If they were really, truly serious about getting more youth involved in fishing, they'd make fishing as accessible as possible to children of all ages and income levels ($5 isnt much, but its more than free).

If they want to run youth fishing programs, either charge a small entry fee for the program, or cut back in another area (like stocking trout at keystone power dam?). Better still, get a few sections of stream designated as youth-harvest-only (who doesnt want to fish WITH Dad?), and maybe a week or two in early to mid-April designated as a youth trout season, when the kids can rock the "uneducated" stocked fish, before they're traumatized by the general season opener later in the month. In fact, I think that'd be an awesome idea. It wouldnt cost the PFBC alot more than a few more hours laber to have WCOs at the lakes on those days on the minimum side (to make sure adults arent coming down fishing and ruining the experience), and on the other end of the spectrum, they could have the two preceding Saturdays as "Youth Fishing Days" complete with a pre-fishing seminar about the fish, how to use their gear to catch them, conservation, and maybe even recipes for cooking their catch. At the end of the talk, they'd get a patch, button, license, or whatever, and then they could spend the rest of the day fishing.

Sound like an idea?

As always, I'd be delighted to hear from any reader with an opinion on the subject. Feel free to leave your comments, I'll read them all!

In the Loop Gear Review: Orvis Wonderline Generation 3 Trout Fly Line

2009-03-26T21:51:00.002-04:00

When I made my first major purchase in fly fishing, it was a new reel. It came naturally, that my second major purchase would be a new fly line for that reel. Well, that reel was a Battenkill Mid-Arbor, and that line, as luck would have it, was a Wonderline Generation 3 line in WF5F.

The line hit water before I ever took it home. Immediately after I made the reel and flyline purchase, I headed for the water, where I spooled up backing and the new line. A few casts later, I was glad I'd spent the extra money for the better line.

In the 6 months or so of "rigorous field testing" that I've given the line, it's still as smooth casting as the day I took it out of the store. The line is high floating and shoots through the guides easily.

It has performed well throughout three seasons of Pennsylvania fishing, throwing tight, round loops through fall and into the frozen winter months, and then out of the winter until just today, the opening weeks of spring. Even with chunks of ice flowing down the creek, this line still remained surprisingly supple. While it showed some serious memory after spending a few nights in the car, ten to fifteen minutes of casting had the memory loops worked out of the line and it was casting great. One thing to note, however: in the winter, tiny driplets of water will freeze to this fly line, greatly reducing its ability to shoot and giving it a sandpapery feel. This water on the line also means that your guides will freeze on a regular basis, no matter your best efforts to avoid it. When drifting, it usually picks up off the water with a minimum of fuss, though many times a loud rrrrRRIIIP!!! upon pulling the line off the water's surface is more indicative of operator error than a shortcoming of the equipment.

My main gripe with this line is the "welded loop" built into the tip for attaching leaders. Let's just say that if my vehicle were "welded" in this manner, i'd take the bus. While it worked beautifully for a few months, the loop just couldnt take a Pennsylvania winter with a non-expert caster. Just a few poorly timed casts in sub-freezing temperatures had the end of the loop (where it binds back into the line) beginning to lift and separate. This allowed water to get into the now-exposed core and from there it was a few short weeks until the entire loop came undone, forcing me to cut off the tip of the line and install a braided leader loop. This works just fine, but the loop was a really nice feature of the line and it's unfortunate that it couldnt stand the test of time.

Overall, I think that the Orvis Wonderline was a good choice for me. Any less experienced and I wouldnt have been able to really appreciate the benefits of a quality line, but now that I'm more experienced, the fishing I've done with it has let me know what to look for in future line purchases. Its shown me the difference a good line can make, and most importantly, I feel it has made me a better caster, by better translatinting my casting into how it behaved, helping me to develop good casting habits. Its certainly not the greatest line ever, but it does everything it sets out to do as a line.

I suppose I'll have to try out at least one or two more higher quality lines before I can make an accurate comparison, but from the experience i've had with the Wonderline, I'd feel confident recommending it to another learning fly fisherman.

In the Loop Book Review: Art Flick's New Streamside Guide to Naturals and Their Imitations

2009-02-22T17:54:00.007-05:00

In this entry, I'll be reviewing the New Streamside Guide to Naturals and Their Imitations, by Art Flick, with contributions by David Klaustmeyer and Raymond R. Camp (Globe Pequot, 2007).

The first thing I noticed about this book when I spotted it on the shelves of my local Barnes & Noble was the surprisingly stark, featureless cover. Since entering the madness of fly fishing, I've noticed that the vast, vast majority of books about fly fishing feature beautiful covers, depicting fish, flies, fishermen, and rustic landscapes. In contrast, however, while this cover did feature a single photograph of a fisherman, streamside, he was holding a book, not a flyrod, and, excepting the photograph, the rest of the cover is a monotone gray. While this lack of flair may lose a few would-be readers, it actually was the very thing that caught my attention.

The book is fairly small and thin, due to its intention of being carried streamside. For me, the book will probably stay at home, as I have all the streamside grace of an intoxicated giraffe, and the book would probably end up as so much watery pulp, on its way to the gulf of Mexico. On longer trips I may take it along, stored safely in a ziplock bag, in the large back pouch of my vest, but for afternoon/evening trips, I'll keep it safely at home.

Between the covers, the book's 174 pages are divided into 20 chapters and change, in the form of a smattering of forewords, introductions, appendices, afterwords, and an index. The first few chapters are about the nature of dry fly fishing, and a pretty good explanation of the mayfly life cycle. There are also several chapters about other insect life, but the real meat and potatoes of this tome are the 9 chapters about individual species of mayfly.

Flick covers 9 major species of mayfly in great detail: the Quill Gordon, the Hendrickson/Red Quill, the March Brown, the Grey Fox, the Light Cahill, the Green Drake, the Dun Variant (Isonychia), the Blue-winged Olive, and the Cream Variant (Potamanthus). He explains how each of these carries out its life processes and explains habits, appearances, emergences, and peculiar tendencies of each. He even goes as far as to estimate the time of year, and even time of day, when anglers can expect to see the various hatches.

Flick also shares the patterns he uses to imitate these mayflies, and includes tips on how they are best fished. In a separate chapter, he discusses the proper care and storage of dry flies as well.

For me, this book was exactly the sort I'd been looking for. While the information contained between its gray covers may be old news to experienced anglers, I'm really starting to explore the entomology aspect of fly fishing, and this book does a great job of helping to break down the general classification of 'mayfly' into the individual types that are commonly encountered streamside, a subject that many seem hesitant to take on. Conversely, this book may be a little bit too involved for truly novice fly anglers. The guy that doesn't know the difference between a terrestrial and a sculpin isn't really concerned with the reasons why a Hendrickson and a Red Quill both imitate the same species, but in time, I think many novice fly fishermen will become interested enough in entomology to make this a worthwhile read. Even guys that pretty much know all of this may still benefit from having the key points condensed into one small, portable volume, not to mention the little tips and tricks, as well as the peculiar tone of Flick's that make it read more like a letter and less like a text.

In summary, Art Flick's New Streamside Guide to Naturals and Their Imitations is a practical, approachable, and plainly-worded offering that will help any angler unlock the mysteries of the flies that fish feed on.

_

A Bad Day Fishing the Loyalhanna

2009-02-21T18:17:00.005-05:00

Managed to get out to the Loyalhanna today for a few hours (from about 1:30 to a little after 5) more to remind myself that yes, there is water in there, and theoretically, at least, there are fish in there, and that yes, in theory they can be caught...though not necessarily by me.

Fished from the swinging bridge down past the blocks through the next set of riffles first. Met a guy fishing nymphs just above the bridge who said he'd just gotten there and already caught one. After we returned to our respective cars (he, for gloves, and I to get my rod strung up), he got back to the water much sooner, and by the time I got there, he said he'd just released another.

"Great", I thought, "at least they're here and feeding. That's all I can ask for. The rest is up to me."

So, morale at the high point for the day (I didnt know that at the time, else I'd have made the most of it), I waded out a good distance downstream of my new friend and proceeded to work a laser egg across the rocky ledges on the opposite bank. Funny how the guy couldnt keep fish off the hook when I was in the parking lot...but now the creek was deader than fried chicken for both of us for quite some time.

Eventually, I got a tangle, as I knew I would. There are certain things that I was never meant to do in this life, among them dancing, singing, playing basketball, bowling, and flycasting a weighted rig with an indicator. When I try I get every last centimeter of leader wrapped around my rod, usually in opposing directions. Today was no different. After an embarassing few minutes, I got myself untwisted, and ready to fish once again. As I tried to get my line ready for another cast, it lurched erratically, and just like that, I was thoroughly re-entangled.

After a little muttered french, I set to work on my new tangle. Eventually, this one proved too heinous, and I just cut the line, snipped the fly and started from scratch. Seeing I had about 6" of tippet left, I snipped that too and tied on a new length of 5X. (My hunt for a good brand of tippet continues to this day, but right now the only ones in my vest are two spools, both 5X, one of Rio PowerFlex and one of Orvis Super Strong, this time, I'd opted for the Orvis).

So after re-rigging, I took extra care to avoid a threepeat tangle and executed an admittedly ugly lob out into the main current. That drift went smooth enough, though pitifully briefly, before drag set in and I had to flip upstream. When I did, you can probably guess what happened. Yep, three hideous tangles for one short drift.

This was all my bruised ego could take, and with a little louder muttering, I said, "You know what? F*** this." and chopped off the whole rig in favor of a weighted bugger that I started casting like a champ.

The rest of the day wasnt much better either. Lost close to a dozen flies with not even a bite to show for it. Got at least a dozen more tangles once I switched back to eggs, including one that claimed my leader in the name of chaos. Finally, after a backcast that tore my fly from the tippet, I gave the star-crossed day the final 'F- this' and headed for the car.

I guess its days like this that let us really appreciate the days where we're head back to the car in complete darkness, with the same leader and fly we left with, having caught 10 or 20 fish in the mean time.

I'm determined to salvage the day though: in a little while I'll be haded out to a little place with the best selection of imports and microbrews in the area.

Tune in...soon...for a review of a book I just finished reading this week!

Mill Creek and Farm Pond

2009-02-11T19:22:00.012-05:00

Today was such a beautiful day, I was determined to beat the prevailing conditions (lots of runoff plus a few good soaking rains), and find fishable water after work. Of course, knowing that there was fishing to be done, the clock on the wall went into slow motion, but by the time 3:30 rolled around, I was off like a shot.

After stopping at home to change and get my gear, I headed out to check the Loyalhanna. Luckily, Rte. 30 pretty much follows the course of the creek from about a quater mile east of Kingston dam all the way to Ligonier and beyond. Though you rarely get close enough to the water to determine depth, I've fished it enough to tell at a glance what its like (based on color, reference points, and choppiness of the water among other things). From Kingston, things weren't looking good. The color had calmed down a bit, from "YooHoo Brown" a day or two ago to "Watery Coffee". Not that beautiful teal green everyone loves, but the color would work well for fishing. Unfortunately, the water, regardless of color was still very much high and fast. Though I could have found somewhere to cast from shore, I wouldnt have many options anywhere on the creek. Thus I extended my journey, and swung north at Ligonier to check out a favorite stretch of Mill Creek.

A short time later, I pulled off into some soupy mud to see Mill Creek, also high...but maybe...just maybe...manageable in hip boots. Taking a walk a few hundred feet upstream didnt reveal much encouragement, but the same walk downstream led to a few fruitless drifts. While I would have liked to catch some fish, I still was just happy to be fishing, so I headed on downstream, only to find that most of the promising water was inaccessible, thanks to the high water. In contrast to the Loyalhanna, however, Mill Creek actually did have that perfect semi-opaque teal green cast to it, at least in the pocket water and deeper holes. I'd venture a guess that without major rainfall, fishing conditions on Mill Creek might be near perfect by the weekend. Unfortunately, major rainfall is in the forecast. So, unsuccessful but encouraged, I snapped a few pictures, broke down my rod, and headed for more reliable water.

Mill Creek

After leaving Mill Creek, I headed back toward Latrobe. The family of a girl I used to date owns a small (less than 1 acre) pond that they've been gracious enough to allow me to fish for several years. The pond is fairly deep for such a small body of water (I'd estimate at least 12, probably more like 18-20 feet of water, with a fairly steep grade from the bank), and it is home to a healthy population of fat, fiesty bluegill and 12-18" bass. I think the bass may be a bit overcrowded, since 85% of them are between 14 and 15 inches, but there must be enough food to go around, because over the past 6 years, I have only caught one fish that wasn't healthy as a horse here, and that one was injured by scrapping with another fish, not from some disease.

The pond is well maintained, and gets a treatment to knock down the rampant weed growth two or three times a year, but the vegetation still manages to claim the pond in the name of plant-kind from mid-July to late September.

Today marked the first day that the pond was totally ice free. I caught a smallish bass a few days earlier through a large oval opening in the ice, but now the whole thing was open for business. Darkness was coming in fast tonight, thanks to incoming clouds (remember the major rainfall I talked about?), so I had to work fast. A sloppy cast relieved me of the purple woolly bugger I'd been using, so I tied on a white #8, weighted, and moved to the downwind bank.

Several unproductive casts later and I said to myself, "Self, it's getting pretty ugly out, lets make this the last cast."

So I made a great cast (for me), stripped in a few feet in short, erratic jerks, then tended to spooling up my slack line neatly on my reel. With the slack in, I went to reel the bugger in, when I felt resistance on the other end of the line. Without a moment of hesitation, I executed a soft-but-swift hookset and felt the familiar head shake of a largemouth bass connected to my bugger. A short, but well-appreciated battle, and I brought my first post-thaw fish to hand:

This 14" largemouth really made my day. As I released him and headed back for the car, I couldn't help but smile. For the first time in months: It's Fishing Season!

_

In the Loop Gear Review: Orvis Battenkill Mid-Arbor III Fly Reel

2009-02-09T18:26:00.010-05:00

In this gear review, I'll be taking a look at the Battenkill Mid-Arbor III fly reel, made by Orvis. In the future I plan to provide several similar reviews, in order to provide you, the reader, with an unbiased, objective, third-party look at some of the gear I've had experience with and that you may be considering for purchase.

With this, and all subsequent reviews, you can be sure that I am not being sponsored by any sort of company, and I do not receive any sort of compensation for these reviews. At the same time, I dont mean to imply that my review is the only one you should read before making a purchase, I am simply informing you, the reader, of my experiences with the equipment in question.

As with all of my posts, I encourage any and all of my readers to respond with their questions and feedback by making a comment via the link attached to the bottom of every post.

Now, lets get on with the review:

Orvis Battenkill Mid-Arbor III Fly Reel

I knew I was in the market for a new reel as soon as I hooked my first great lakes steelhead.

The fresh-from-the-lake male grabbed the black woolly bugger I'd swung in front of his nose and proceeded to take off across Elk Creek, turning, running, and leaping at will. Though I knew that managing to hook a steelhead was only half the battle, I didnt realize until that moment just how evenly these fish are matched with the anglers who fish for them. Time after time, the fish would come within feet of me, only to race off again, seemingly tireless. Each time he ran, the drag on my starter-kit rod would sing, each time sounding a bit more hoarse.

By the time I'd landed the fish, the lump at th end of my flyrod had been demoted from "reel" to "line holder". The spool spun with equal ease in either direction, and made the same unpleasant scraping noise in either direction as well.

Thus, my hunt for a new reel began, to end, a month or so later, with an Orvis Battenkill Mid-Arbor III snug in my reel seat.

The BMA3 is a middle-of-the-road type of reel. While it's not the best money can buy, it's a far better reel than you'll get with any starter kit, or entry-level set up. If properly maintained, theres no reason to doubt that this reel will last decades, if not outlast the original purchaser.

The Orvis Battenkill Mid-Arbor III

Orvis markets the BMA3 as "the ideal preparation if unexpected big fish are a possibility", and in that, I believe their marketers are correct. For me, the budget-minded angler, this translated into "a reel that will be suitable for both steelhead in the Lake Erie tribs and trout, bass, and panfish in local streams and lakes". It retails for anywhere from $119 to $139 off-the rack and for me, it was worth it, as opposed to getting two reels, one for trout and one for steelhead, both for more than half the price of the BMA3. In addition, the reel comes with Orvis' excellent customer service, meaning the reel is guaranteed against defects for life. In addition, Orvis offers to clean, service, and lubricate their reels for $10. If well-maintained, it really might not be necessary, but it's nice to know I have that option. For saltwater anglers, this might be an appreciated perk.

Both the spool and housing are machined from 6061 bar stock aluminum, a grade of aluminum which is preferable for its properties of machinability as well as corrosion resistance. The handle is made of plastic, though it seems rugged, and in my opinion, preferable to wood in this application. It is also oblong, with textured gripping surfaces, making it easy to reel even with wet or fish-slimed hands.

The spool itself is removable and interchangeable, enabling the angler to switch from line to line while out on the water, and the mechanism for doing so is simple to operate. Just slide the lever to the side and pull the spool free. To attach a new spool, simply press it into place over the center pin until it clicks and youre good to go. The spool fits perfectly into the rim of the housing, and, when assembled, has no wobble or play to it.

At the base of this pin, mounted to the side of the main housing, is the drag, featuring "glass composite drag surfaces" according to Orvis. I wont claim to know all the ins and outs of what exactly is involved in a "glass composite drag surface" or how it compares to the myriad other drag systems available. All I can do is tell you about my experience with it, and as far as that goes, it has been a smooth reliable drag, whether set light to protect a light tippet in local streams, or tightened down a bit to wear out an energetic steelhead in the Lake Erie tributaries.

The drag is adjusted by turning a circular knob with a triangular grip, found in the center of the housing, opposite the spool and pin.

View of the back of the Battenkill Mid-Arbor III showing drag adjustment knob

As you turn the drag adjustment knob (also made of machined 6061 Aluminum), the drag knob "clicks" into preset notches, incrementally increasing or decreasing the amount of "pull" it takes to strip line off the spool. This is probably where I am least impressed by this reel. While it is truly "infinitely adjustable", I find that when setting the drag in the ideal range that most fly anglers would prefer, the drag passes through this range rather quickly, going from "too loose" to "too tight" in a matter of 5-10 clicks. Its not a deal breaker, however, as its simple to find the setting you want and leave it there, but I'd hoped for a little more fine-tuning in this department.

Last but not least, the reel is touted as being "easily switched from right to left hand retreive". While it is certainly possible to accomplish this feat in under 5 minutes, I wouldnt recommend trying it on the water (not that you would), or even in tall grass...or without at least a screwdriver. No, it isnt brain surgery (converting it is as simple as inverting the one-way bearing found just inside the center of the spool), but you'll need to pop out the small keeper ring that holds the bearing securely in the spool. Without a screwdriver, dental tool, pair of fine-tip needle nose pliers, or similar implement of destruction, you may be out of luck. For me, this wasnt a big deal. Though I do reel my fly rod in the traditional manner (with my right hand), I had no problems making the conversion myself, the night I brought it home. Furthermore, when I purchased it (from the ever-helpful Jim at Ligonier Outfitters), Jim offered to make the conversion for me, right there at the store, free of charge. I declined, being familiar with the procedure and liking to do things like that myself; but anyone who purchases this reel from an Orvis dealer could certainly request that the salesperson take care of this minor task for you.

The BMA3, disassembled, showing the one-way bearing and keeper ring inside the spool

So that's the technical end, now on to the good stuff: how did it fish?!

I will say that for a short time, the new reel messed up my casting. I'd become accustomed to the lightweight plastic reel that had come with my kit, and the aluminum reel, light as it was, still added sufficient weight to the butt of the rod to throw off the balance. Soon, however, I learned to cast even better than before, with the new reel attached. So if you're getting a new reel, balance is something you definitely need to consider, especially on lighter rods.

In its first round of field testing, the Mid Arbor, outfitted with a proper amount of backing and a new Orvis Generation 3 Wonderline in WF5F (reviewed in a future installment) on the spool performed admirably. Reeling and stripping smoothly, with the advertised feature of reeling line in quicker than a standard arbor and reducing line curl. Most trout around here dont require the angler to 'get them on the reel', but a few did surprise me, and I welcomed the chance to try it out. With my drag set light, to protect my tippet, the reel gave the fish line only on the strongest runs, and enabled me to quickly and confidently bring many trout to net.

A few months later, I finally got the chance to give the drag a real workout, when I once again went toe-to-fin with a few great lakes steelhead. Once again, the reel was top-notch, giving the fish only the line required to preserve my tippet. Even at that, several of the powerful fish took off as if there was no drag at all, but unlike other times, they were quite tired after only a few runs.

I finally managed to push the reel to its limits in late December this year, taking it out in the snow and ice while fishing the Laurel Hill creek in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. Eventually, I took a bad step, and the reel took a quick dunking. Moments later, the water remaining in the reel froze in the single-digit temperatures. This rendered the drag more or less useless, and the ice that formed in the precisely machined rim of the spool prevented the reel from operating in either direction.

A bit worried, I popped off the spool and brushed the ice out with my fingers, then wiped the spool and housing with a clean, dry cloth. While there was still ice in it, the reel was back in action. A few hours later, I got back to the car. A 20 minute ride with the reel sitting disassembled on the passenger seat had it dry and operating at peak performance by the time I got to Indian Creek.

Well, that's my review of the Orvis Battenkill Mid-Arbor III fly reel. I'm not going to resort to any arbitraty stars or numeric scale to try to quantify what I've just written. I suppose, in summary, I'll say this:

The Orvis Battenkill Mid-Arbor is a true workhorse reel. It is rugged and versitaile, and offers superior performance for a fair price. If not abused, and given routine maintenance, it should last a long time.

Fishing the Loyalhanna During the Warm Spell

2009-02-08T12:04:00.014-05:00

We're having quite a heat wave here in southwestern Pennsylvania (temps in the 50s this weekend), so, like any good fisherman, I ventured out yesterday, searching for areas that the warm weather had opened up along some of my favorite creeks.

My first thought was that Mill Creek, being narrower, shallower, and generally faster running, would clear up faster than the Loyalhanna, so I headed out to Mill Creek. Unfortunately, when I got there, there was no open water at all where I normally access the stream. So, a little discouraged, I got back in the car and headed for the Loyalhanna. Luckily, I found some fishable water there.

After parking the car at the eastern end of the delayed-harvest-artificial-lures-only (hereafter abbreviated DHALO) section of the stream, I decided to scout around before donning hip boots, vest, and net; as well as assembling and stringing up my rod; only to find out that it too was unfishable.

So I walked down along the upper 100 yards of the DHALO, and what I saw wasn't encouraging: while free flowing mid-stream, ice clinging to both banks prevented safe access to the water:

Since the best looking stretch of open water was just downstream of the Rte. 711 bridge, I decided to check upstream from the bridge, and was rewarded to this wonderful sight:

So I headed back to the car and traded shoes for hip boots, slipped into the vest, and rigged up my 5 weight, and headed down to the stream.

I didnt catch any fish with the white woolly bugger (sz. 8) I was using, but it felt good to be casting again. I found that my casting skills hadn't suffered much in the off-season, and perhaps even improved a tiny bit by some inexplicable means. Though It could have been my imagination, it seemed as though I was casting farther and throwing tighter loops than I was at the end of last year.

In any event, I fished the 75 yards or so of ice free water above the bridge, then jumped back in the car and headed downstream to check the downstream boundary of the DHALO.

When I arrived at the bridge where SR2045 crosses the Loyalhanna, I once again took a walk before stringin up my rod. In this case, I was glad I did. The ice down here still made safe access totally impossible:

View from the SR2045 bridge, facing east (upstream)

View from the SR2045 bridge, facing west (downstream)

After heading back to the car, I drove down to the causeway, to check out the ice jam that had been forming there for the past several weeks. It had been a topic of discussion on the FishUSA Forums in a thread complete with pictures, so I figured I'd take a look for myself. When I arrived, however, I saw that apparently someone had come and cleared out the majority of the ice, and the causeway was now actually driveable:

As you can see, there's still some ice piled up, but its nowhere near the amount that was there even a week ago. There was no fishing to be done here, due to the rushing water, but I decided to snap a few more photos before I left:

View from the center of the causeway facing east (upstream)
View from the center of the causeway, facing west (downstream)

With my pictures snapped, I got back in the car and headed down to Kingston dam, where I fished a little more. Most of the best fishing here is compromised by ice and/or fast flowing water, but just before I left, I started heading downstream, where there looks to be more open water. Along the way, while driving alongside the slackwater above the dam, I could see where all the ice from the causeway had gone. For about a half-mile above the dam, the entire creek looks like a glacier, with huge chunks of ice packed tight against one another, bank to bank. I didnt take any pictures, though, as I was driving, and there werent any pull-offs with a view of the ice jam.

Well, that's all for now. I'm going to be headed out fishing again this afternoon, and I'll make another post for this outing. No fly pattern for this entry (I only used a white bugger, a simple tie by any tyer's standards), but maybe I'll include one next time.

Feel free to comment or ask questions.

Dont Scrap Those Mistake Flies!

2009-02-06T23:08:00.007-05:00

I guess that's not always true. Some flies really do just go horribly wrong and you have no recourse but to get out your X-acto, strip the hook and start over. I usually like to toss the non-hook wreckage into the trash with a satisfying flourish and a few choice words.

But if the fly is still structurally sound, and its more of an attractor than an imitator, I'm of the camp that says you might as well keep it and try it...you may have just created the next big thing.

As you may have guessed, I'm posting this because I just did this same thing a few nights ago while trying to teach myself to spin hair. I'd scrapped 3 flies that night by overcrowding the eye, and each time, I'd do it again. Finally, in frustration, I tried spinning the hair first, mid-shank, just to see how it'd work.

Well it worked great and once I saw how nice it looked, I decided to build a ridiculous, brightly colored streamer around it. The resultant fly looked cool, like it would catch fish, so I plan to fish it the next time I think its appropriate. It may already be a standard pattern I'm not familiar with too, so if this turns out to be your original pattern, let me know.

Trip Minnow

Hook: 4x long streamer hook, Mustad 79580 or equivalent

Thread: Black 3/0

Tail: Fl. Orange Marabou

Body: Gold mylar tinsel

Head: Spun Deer Hair, dyed Fl. Chartreuse

Wing: Black bucktail w/ 4-10 strands of krystal flash.

Beard: Red bucktail

This may catch nothing, or it might be the next big thing. I encourage anyone to give it a try! I'll be using it in murky water.

Tiger Trout on a Baby Trout

2009-02-04T21:28:00.018-05:00

I figure as a good way to start talking about my fishing experiences, I'll tell you about what was probably the most rewarding fish I caught all of last year. It wasn't the biggest fish, on the best day, or even in a new location. What made this fish rewarding was two things: one, it was the first fish that I caught on a fly that I had tied; and two, it was my first and only (to date) tiger trout.

I was fishing Mill Creek that day, as I'd heard rumors of guys catching some trout there despite the heat that had been keeping the trout in the Loyalhanna down deep and totally uninterested in eating. I was working downstream, only bothering to fish deeper pools and pocket water, as the shallow areas were too warm to be attractive to trout, but even at that, it was shaping up to be a typical day for a new fly fisherman: no runs, no hits, and about a million errors.

I was just choosing flies at random, tying a new one on whenever I lost the one before that up until that day. The evening before, however, I was talking to Rich in his fly shop, and he suggested sticking to ants, beetles, hoppers, and buggers for these hot summer days. So I bought a few of his ants and beetles along with a griffith's gnat that appealed to my fancy, and headed home to tie some buggers. By the time I put my boot in the water the next morning, I was armed with a box consisting of the flies I'd purchased from Rich and about 15 wooly buggers, in varying styles (all showing the sloppy roughness of a beginner tyer), in black, white, and olive.

By the time I got to my first really nice pool, I'd lost about a half dozen flies and was now tossing a modified olive wooly bugger with a front body made of a series of purplish glass beads. A friend and fellow fly fisherman named Mark had shown me this tie, and said that the guy who showed him claimed it imitated a baby trout. While that may be so, I wasnt sure if a hatchery fish would even connect the thought "baby trout" with the thought "food". Still, it was neat looking and easy to tie, so I did a few of them up that still managed to look like crap due to my being a beginner.

So I took my baby trout and tossed it to the tail of this pool, and as I stripped it back to me, around a submerged stump, a dark shape darted out, almost too fast to realize what it was, and disappeared again, with my fly! A good strong battle and a few tense, long, moments later, and I brought my first tiger to shore:
After posing for its photo shoot (just this one picture), this fish was released to fight another day.

For anyone curious, the Tiger Trout is a sterile hybrid of a male brook trout and a female brown trout. You can read more about them here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_trout
http://tigertroutfishing.com/
http://ezinearticles.com/?Fly-Fishing-For-the-Elusive-Tiger-Trout&id=1668954

Finally, that baby trout bugger:

Hook: Mustad 79580 or equivalent, sz. 6-10

Thread: 6/0 (140 Denier) in Black or Olive

Head: 3-5 glass beads, pearlescent purple

Body: olive medium chenille

Tail: Olive Grizzly Marabou (4-8 strands of gray krystal flash optional)

Hackle: Olive or black streamer hackle, wound either from the head, or from the beginning of the chenille.

Not a difficult tie by any means, but that's what caught the tiger!

Introduction

2009-02-04T14:22:00.003-05:00

Hello blogosphere!

My name's Mark, I'm a 20-somethings fisherman living in southwestern Pennsylvania. In Tailing Loops, my first blog, I plan to write about the time I spend on the water, in pursuit of trout, bass, perch, pike, steelhead, and any other fish the area has to offer. Along the way, I may (hell, I plan to) stray well off the beaten path, after all, that's where most of the best fishing is! There will be posts about everything from fish to music, sports, friends, beer, and day-to-day life, but I'll do my best to keep the focus primarily on fishing.

Well, that's it for the moment. With the streams frozen, I haven't been fishing in almost a month, but I have been doing some fly tying, so my first few entries will probably be about that.