Vol. 13 No. 41

READY TO ROLL(ALMOST)!

Well the season was looking off to a weird start. Because I changed day jobs, I was worried that I would miss some time on my Home waters. As contracts and projects seem to be rumbling along pretty well, Liliane and I are setting our sights on a few weekends of fishing.

I remember that I rambled on a few months ago about tying up flies for the 2010 season. All that got done. The Bombers and big streamers are all lines up and ready for the big water we come up against the first few weeks of the season.

A BASIC APPROACH TO FLY FISHING STILLWATERS

Most anglers that plan a trip to a specific area to fish will take a careful look at the opportunities that await them and will carefully consider their options before finalizing their plans. Right?!!

Well, not exactly. Let me explain. I talk to many anglers each year who are planning trips to the legendary waters of Paradise Valley in Montana. The waters they want to talk about are the three spring creeks that are just south of Livingston or the Yellowstone River which flows through the valley. There is also a great deal of interest in the fabled streams of Yellowstone National Park like the Firehole, Slough Creek or the Gibbon.

TIME

Have you ever stopped to think about the importance of time? Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, and decades; they come and go before you have ‘time’ to recognize their passing. Solomon, the wisest man of his time wrote, “To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the heavens:”Ecclesiastes 3:1. He went on to conclude that time is the essential component of all the events in our lives. There is a time for us to be born, a time for us to laugh, weep, love, hate, mourn, plant, harvest, speak, get, lose, war, peace, and finally a time to die. [Ecclesiastes 3:1-8] He concluded that “He [God] has made everything beautiful in His time,” Ecclesiastes 3:11.

ALL FISH - ALL WATER

We were visiting with a fly fishing friend the other evening and the phrase trout snob came up. In fact, the person accused my husband Trav of being a trout snob. The truth is he is. He has no interest in fishing for salmon, for blue gills, walleye or anything else. (Now if we end up spending some winter time in Florida he’ll probably find fishing for redfish and snook can be great fun too, but he hasn’t tried it yet.)

SHORELINE FISH

I headed off to a pond to get rid of the itch, as if that will ever happen. It was still too wet in the low spots to get the canoe out. That is just the way things are.

I hiked into a pond. There are about 6 places around the pond where I can cast, but the rest of the places have trees that just love to eat my flies. The way that I cast I can’t really be near a tree without managing to hook it. That is one great advantage of being in the canoe.

THE THEORY AND TECHNIQUE OF FRESHWATER ANGLING By John Alden Knight

Last week, in a local thrift store, I stumbled across a copy of The Theory and Technique of Fresh Water Angling by John Alden Knight. That may have been the best $1.99 investment I have ever made. I confess I had never heard of Mr. Knight. This was just the luck of being in the right place at the right time.

THINGS YOU'LL NEVER REGRET

Let’s visit Boudreaux and Thibodeaux in their pickup.

But first, a trip into the dictionary - Lamentation – a term meaning an extreme expression of sorrow, most frequently seen in the Bible. Leave it to the Bible to have vocabulary that’s practically unusable in a pickup truck. Grief – is generally considered to be a good psychological release, but it is unpleasant, so it is not much sought after. Yes, doctors say grief is good, but unwanted, and too cerebral for the pickup. And then there is Regret, which is something no one wants to have, but it is constantly hanging around – and that’s where fly fishing comes in.

CLOUSER FLOATING MINNOW VARIATION

This is a variation of a fly I first saw in Bob Clouser’s book on tying and fishing the fly patterns of his. I used an Eagle Claw weed less   449WA – 1/0 hook. This for when bait fish are hiding in the grass along shore and bass are trying to eat them. It can also be used when fish are chasing bait fish in open water. The weed guard is not necessary in open water. The head is two white foam bug bodies glued together. When fishing with a fly rod with this type of weed guard, the guard must be adjusted. You want the hook point to penetrate, on the hook set, and the guard to keep it off the grass.

RATTAN WRAPPED GRIPS

I have had a couple of the folks here on Fly Anglers Online ask how I do my rattan wrapped grips. There are other tutorials, but I like to do them just a wee bit differently. I find this a great way to take an inexpensive cork grip and dress it up. It can also be a good way to make a grip just a tad larger for folks that might have larger hands.