I was lucky, I grew up in a family where everybody fished with a fly rod. In retrospect, I didn't really have a choice - I was going to fish, too. Turns out I loved it. But that was me. Some of you who have kids in your life may be wanting them to experience the same thing I did (& maybe you did, too). It brings up a question of when & how to start a kid in fly fishing.
HERE, is an article that address exactly that. I can tell you that, based on my experience, I totally agree with the author, especially the part about not all the time will be spent with line in the water. I can remember as a young kid taking time out from fishing to play around the stream. As a youngster, I knew quite well that I was NOT to disturb other anglers & to take care of my gear.
If you're thinking about taking a kid fishing, I applaud you. I think it's fantastic to see young anglers on the stream. Plus, you're working to create other life-long anglers who will keep the sport going, long after we're gone. Just be prepared. Understand that kids won't be into all the gear, the intricacies of wet & dry flies, or the technical aspects of the sport. That's fine. With teaching a kid to fish, it should be all about having fun.
So if you're trying to pass on fly fishing to the younger generation, I thank you. You're doing something great for the youngsters, the sport, & for yourself.
Try as I may I'm no expert on anything. There are things that I feel I should know that I don't. Not that I have to be the guy who knows everything. I'm okay telling someone "I don't know." However, it's when someone asks me a question I probably should know the answer to but don't, that I realize how ignorant I can be about some things.
If you consider yourself an expert & someone asks you a question you don't know the answer to, you've got three options as I see it.
You can start by overwhelming them. To do this you usually need to know some technical words that are generally associated with the topic they asked you about. If they're sincere & you see confusion on their face as they try to follow along with your answer, the trick is working. You then either have to make a quick exit immediately following your answer or change the topic of conversation away from their question by asking them a question that's related to one of the big, technical words you used: "How about you? Have you ever pondered the salmonidical mindset as it rises for a satiating meal of ephemeroptera?" This should avoid you having to state that there is something that you, in fact, don't know.
You: "This looks like good dry fly water."
Partner: "Which dry fly would you use here today?"
You: "I've noticed that after the first full moon of the month trout feeding activity is less on this stream."
The third option you could take when asked a question you don't know the answer to is to simply say "I don't know." Of course you would then begin to discuss with the questioner where or how the answer might be found. Perhaps you might even suggest that the two of you investigate it together.
Of course the option you choose depends upon your personality, ego, & a bunch of other things that make psychologists money. Just be careful. If you choose one of the three options too often, folks might stop asking you questions. Then what kind of expert would you be?
I always re-post this twice a year, once in the Spring & again in the Fall. I do this because I think it's important to keep your fly rod clean. It's something that's so simple & easy to do, but it's one of the best things you can do to prolong the life of your rod. Keeping the rod clean & waxed will help protect it from the wear & tear of use. You want to protect your investment, right?
Now I know some of you have been fishing all winter (in locations where that was possible). Regardless if your fly rod spent the winter in the closet or on the stream, this is a good time of year to clean it & inspect it.
Swing on over to the Available Rods page of this website to check out a new rod I just listed there.
It's a 6'-6" Classical Series bamboo rod made for a 4 or 5 weight line. This one is unique in that it's a 3 piece rod (with an extra tip) in this shorter length. You don't usually see this very often.
The advantage of being a 3 piece rod is that you can easily strap it to your pack while hiking through the woods to get to the stream. If you're fishing a back-country, or mountain, stream you'll have a rod of the perfect length when you get there. Of course, this rod will work well on medium to larger streams as well. The shorter length of this rod when broke down is also great for any type of traveling, too. The rod tube measures only 29 inches in length!
-Aluminum cap & ring style reel seat with a figured walnut wood spacer. The aluminum looks great with the benefit of reduced weight.
This is a very nice moderate to moderate/fast action rod in a unique 3 piece configuration that I think you're going to enjoy fishing.
One of the other rods listed on the Available Rods page, a beautiful 7'-6" Classical Series bamboo rod, has just been reduced in price. This is a very nice rod that is great to cast & look at. In fact, if I were choosing a 'first bamboo fly rod' for somebody, this would be it. Of course, experienced bamboo anglers will appreciate this rod's feel & aesthetics, too.
For more information & to see more photos of both this rod & the 6'-6" rod, please visit the Available Rods page. If you have any questions at all about anything you see there, please feel free to contact me.
In an attempt to keep everyone stocked up for the up-coming fishing season, I've been trying to add to my stock of available accessories. Right now, & in the coming days, it's going to be the leather fly wallets I offer over on the Accessories page that will be on the work bench.
Now because my supply of leather is always changing - & because leather is a natural product - no two wallets are exactly the same. I try to make wallets from different types of leather to offer you a variety. Some folks like a soft & supple wallet with a velvety feel, while others like a stiff, smooth leather. I try to cover all the bases.
So if you've been thinking about getting one of these wallets, please let me know. If you have a specific color in mind, or want a soft or stiffer leather let me know & I'll make sure to get yours started while I'm working on the building up my stock. That'll get your wallet completed faster.
I still do have a handful of these wallets all made up & ready to go. You can see what's currently in stock over on a special page of this site. Please keep checking back to that page as I'll be adding these new wallets over the next few days as they get completed.
For more information about these leather fly wallets - & a host of other goodies - please visit the Accessories page of this website. As always, feel free to contact me should you have any questions at all.
For those of you who don't know who Theodore Gordon was, it's worth your time to look him up. Basically, he's considered the originator of American dry fly fishing & he was the original 'trout bum'.
"The waters of the Neversink, usually so bright & sparkling, are dark & sullen looking in their frame of ice & snow, but the good time is coming. Some morning we will wake to find the south wind blowing, & the air will be sweet & soft. It is very wintry here at present, but with the advent of March we begin to feel that the season of our discontent is nearly over."
I could - & have - gone on & on about the neat mini fly wallets I offer over on the Accessories page. Made right in my shop, these smaller wallets are a very convenient thing to have. There I go again, rattling on about how cool they are. Well, I'm pretty proud of them.
One of the neatest things about them is that they give you quick & easy access to your most used flies. They can also be used as a fly drying patch. So while I wouldn't store hackled dry flies in them, I would put them on it when i needed a good drying patch.
As you can see in the photo above, these mini wallets are easily attached to your vest, fishing bag, or lanyard. When you leave the wallet open like this it acts like a drying patch. Since each wallet has four pages, you can put a lot more flies on there than you could a regular patch on your vest or bag. This is great when you're using a bunch of different flies.
Of course the wallets snap shut to protect your flies, too. When I'm walking to the next spot on the river, etc I close the wallet & slide it into a pocket. When I get fishing again I open it up & let it hang. If you put your flies in there well they won't fall out.
These mini fly wallets are available in green, brown & red canvas. They're also available in brown or black leather, too.
For more info about these wallets & all the other accessories made in my shop, please visit the Accessories page. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Let me just start out by saying that Gary Borger is the 'real deal'. By that I mean that he is not only an all-around, very knowledgeable & highly skilled fly angler, he's also a fantastic teacher. He has a great way of explaining things that make it very understandable. Many times, when I've been reading something he's written, a light bulb will go off in my head, leaving me to ask "why didn't I think of doing that?" He is very skilled at taking some of the mysteries out of fly fishing.
In addition to about 10 best selling fly fishing books, Gary is also a contributing editor to Fly Fisherman Magazine. I know in the past that he's also penned articles that have appeared in many places. If you've been around fly fishing for a while chances are good that you've read some of his stuff.
Back in 1983 Gary put together a long video series all about fly fishing techniques & skills. It's very educational. Here below is part of that video. It's been chopped up into 6 parts on youtube & you can easily find the other parts to this great video.
So while you're waiting for the streams to thaw out enough to at least see some moving water, take some time to sit back & watch a skilled angler fish. You'll probably pick up a few tricks, too. I know I did.
A lot of attention in fly fishing goes to the mayfly, but it is the Caddis fly that is a large portion of a trout's diet in many places. Along my local streams, Caddis are very important to fly anglers. So with that in mind, it's a good idea to have some decent Caddis patterns in your fly box (or fly wallet).
The larvae of Caddis are an important food source to trout in a lot of places. Fishing a fly to imitate them, at the correct time, is a recipe for success. However, there are a ton of different fly patterns out there all aimed at imitating these bugs. I've come to the opinion that usually the simplest caddis imitation is frequently the best, & you can't get a much simpler fly than this one in the video below. It's a pretty basic caddis larva fly, with a couple of very simple twists.
What I also like about this video is the showing of yet another way to make a dubbing rope. There are different ways of making a dubbing rope. Most of them require a specialized tool. This method requires none of that & shows something you could quickly do (even along the stream) when tying a fly that requires a dubbing rope.
So for more successful days along the stream, add some more Caddis to your trout's menu!! This video shows a good way to do just that.
As anglers we need to know a few good knots to tie various lines together & to secure hooks on those lines. The other day I was casually looking through a book aimed at beginning fly anglers & was a little put off by the knots the author was suggesting. Some of the knots this book wanted the new fly fisher to learn were pretty complicated & hard to tie.
That got me thinking about the knots I use on my own line. After going over them in my head I thought, why change knots that have worked well for me for over 30 years? Now, nothing I'm going to show here is news to a veteran angler, but to somebody relatively new to the sport, listen up: good, effective knots on your line don't need to be complicated or difficult.
This is a strong knot that's easy to tie. Because it's so easy, it will get you back to fishing quickly, which is good because you aren't going to catch any fish if you're tying knots with your fly out of the water.
So there you go. If you're still learning to fly fish, I suggest these two knots. They aren't hard to learn & you don't need any strange tools to tie them (or a third hand). Are these knots as strong as some of the more complicated knots suggested by some? Maybe not, I don't know. What I do know is they are very strong & easy to tie. After all, you didn't go to the stream to tie knots, you went there to fish, & these knots will get your fly back in the water quickly & are strong enough to hold against the tug of some very big fish.