Rod Hamilton has put together a pretty sweet list of prizes and he’ll be giving a ton of stuff away.
We are talking Redington Rods, Sage Reels, Costa glasses, dozens and dozens of bonefish flies, buffs, hats and books with a grand prize of a free bonefishing trip to the Long Island Bonefishing Lodge.
It is really, really easy to enter. All you have to do is go HERE and that is just about it.
Looks good, me thinks.
Earlier in the week my dad and I went on a second river therapy day, again on the Lower Sacramento River. This time we went with Fred Gordon, guide and artist from Dunsmuir. Fred was the guy who took me out, many, many years ago, where it all clicked and I learned how to nymph, which is to say I learned how to be a California Fly Fisherman.
Dad and Fred and a nice Lower Sac trout
Again, the fishing was fantastic and my dad and I had a really good time.
On a river, or on a flat, the world’s tragedies and sorrows melt away and there is only the fish and the water and the people you are with. That’s the way it was on this day. Jetting up river, floating down and catching fish or talking about caught fish from years and trips gone by.
When we got off the river the sorrow was still there, but at least we had that day, and for a short time, life was about as good as it gets.
I caught my first trout of the year on Saturday. It wasn’t big. It wasn’t more beautiful than most trout. It wasn’t unique, but it was special.
I was up standing in the very cold waters of my home river for one reason… my mother had passed away the day before. She died from pancreatic cancer at the age of 69. She died at home with my brother, his partner and my dad at her side. I wasn’t there, kids tend to make travel more difficult, but I came up the day of her passing to help comfort my dad.
Saturday, the day after, I told my dad I wanted to go down to the river. He wanted to come too. He loves watching me fish this river, picking apart every possible slot and spot a fish might be. The river is only a couple minutes away and it was a good escape.
The weather was beautiful, although starting to turn. Wind from the South was bringing cooler temps and clouds. A few stones were in the air, fluttering impossibly along the banks.
I have fished this stretch many, many times. It is one of my favorite places in the world and, generally, I know it well. This day, I struggled. The water is two feet lower than it should be at this time of year and the fish weren’t where I expected them to be.
Still, I fished and took in the clues and adjusted.
After a couple of changes I had a fish on and in the net. Maybe it was 9″, it certainly wasn’t more, but it was pretty and it was a trout. My dad watched from the bank, sitting on a rock just taking it all in.
This one is for Mom.
That one fish was enough. We went back to the parking lot and sat on a bench and talked a bit.
Wading through this massive river of grief, it was good to step out of the currents of sadness for a few minutes and lose myself in the act of pursuing trout with a fly rod. It really does remove yourself, even when you seem chained and burdened by the weight of the world.
That trout was an important trout. It was a trout for my mom.
Godspeed Mom.
(This starts this weekend, so I’m reporting it)
I got my copy of the Drake on Friday and saw “The Big Year Contest.”I love this.
The idea takes a page out of the idea of “The Big Year” in bird watching (there is a movie of the same name with Steve Martin and Jack Black). The Big Year is all about number of species. It isn’t size or numbers, but species.
The Drake is going to track this on their Facebook page starting on April 26th.
I’ve long enjoyed the many different species one can catch on a fly. I’m apt to throw at any fish that might even consider eating a fly, even if it isn’t considered much of a game fish. Blind casting into cuts in the tropics often yields some really interesting fish, always a bonus on any flats trip.
I look forward to seeing some unusual fish show up.
There is gear up for grabs, as you might expect. Sponsors include Redington, Sage, Yeti, William Joseph, Smith Optics and RIO.
Get your copy of the magazine to see all the details.
One morning as we were getting ready to head out fishing on Long Island we found a little snake coiled up hugging one of the coolers. Doug Jefferies picked the thing up much to Samantha’s surprise.
Anyone know what this is? Here’s the story from Scott Heywood’s Fly Paper.
Our little Bahamian neighbor.
Back when I lived in Redding, CA, I was a part of the fly fishing club there. I was in my late 20’s, but fairly active in the club (which was pretty much full of folks 2x my age, at least). I remember a couple of kids coming to the meetings, brothers, who could outcast me by a fair distance. Turns out these were the Revel brothers.
George Revel recently opened a fly shop (Lost Coast Outfitters) in San Francisco, couched within a clothing company, focused on tailored service. It is an interesting approach and a real positive for a great city that had been without a fly shop.
These guys (and a couple more) also recently put out a video called Liquid Gold about their trip in pursuit of California’s State Fish, the Golden Trout. It is worth a few minutes of your time. Well done.
[vimeo clip_id=”91450076″]
The setting was beautiful. A lone rock far from anything else out on the ocean-side flats of Long Island. The wind was non-existent. To top it all off, there was a school of bonefish that would not be discouraged. The damn things just hung around.
Not a sound.
I finally made my way over to cast to the school (maybe 400-600 fish) and quickly hooked up and just as quickly lost it. Lost a couple more before I finally managed to get one that didn’t slip off. The forces keeping the bonefish schooled up happened to be sharks and cudas. My little bone didn’t make it. It was eaten by a cuda, despite my trying to give it line and give it a chance.
About this time another boat motored up. It was odd to have another boat come all this way out there when they had to be able to see us there from more than a mile away. The boat pulled up 200 feet away and the lone angler and his guide set up shop.
As they eyed the school I was fishing to I managed to get another bonefish on the line. This one I pulled out of the school quickly and the sharks and cudas didn’t see it. I landed the fish, the smallest bonefish of the trip, maybe a pound, and I managed to not get my hand taken off, which felt like victory.
Seeing me otherwise occupied with landing the fish, and making a sarcastic comment about the fish’s lack of girth, the boat moved in on the school.
You sirs, are douchebags.
Yup… they came in and poached my school. They moved right in on the fish and pushed them beyond me.
I just had to stand and stare in amazement. The total lack of class was stunning.
So, let’s just all agree not to do this, OK? Let’s not do it ourselves and let’s not let a guide we are paying do it. Just don’t.
Mkay?
Good. I’m glad we had this talk.
I’ve been up in my home town a bit lately, trying to spend some time with my mom while there is still time to spend.Odd to be up there and NOT be fishing. This last trip I took my daughter to a pond and a lake and a river and I didn’t make a single cast. I didn’t even have my fishing license until Sunday. Maybe the latest I’ve bought a license in a decade.
The Upper Sacramento River looks good. It is in shape now, a little high, but very, very fishable. We saw some of the big stones flying around there river, around downtown, around the house. We saw a big sulpher as well. The bugs are coming out, the river is awakening, things are starting to get moving.
I’ll be back up before long and maybe, just maybe, I’ll put a rod in the car. The little cocoon of peace offered up by the act of casting a fly on an intimate river, it is a welcome refuge.
This in the “When I Grow Up” book from my daughter’s class… I’m feeling pretty awesome right now.
This story came up in my Google alert last week.Bonefishing: Yeah, So, Not That Hard
It is over on Hatch Magazine’s blog. Here’s a taste.
Am I saying that it is untrue that catching some bonefish requires you to be able to drop a 70 or 80 foot cast on a dinner plate? No. I’m saying that catching many a bonefish doesn’t. I’ve caught bonefish at 60 feet while fighting a nasty crosswind but I’ve also caught bonefish with a roll cast at 15 feet.
The point is simple and one I agree with. You don’t need to be an expert to catch a bonefish and you shouldn’t hold off on doing it just because you can’t drop a 70′ cast in a coffee cup in a 20 mph wind.
True.
The piece says you don’t need to perfect your double haul, but then, later, goes on to admit that working on your casting is a pretty good idea. And it is. Don’t travel all the way to catch a bonefish without at least spending a little time on that cast. That just doesn’t make sense.
Can you catch a bonefish with no double haul? Yes. Yes you can. However… the guide will have many, many more shots at fish requiring some form of double haul. You probably don’t want to travel 2,000 miles just to throw into muds all day.
It is OK if you aren’t great with your double haul, but at least try. Sucking at something is the first step in becoming good at it, but you don’t get better without putting in time.
There are certainly some easy bonefish a good guide can find for you. The other side of that is a bad guide might not be able to find you any fish, easy or hard.
Here’s the part of this I really agree with… if you want to catch a bonefish (and you should, it is awesome), go and do it. Book the flight, get the guide, and get after it.
PS – Here’s the thing… a double haul will make you a better trout fisherman, better bass fisherman, better carp fisherman, better angler. You should learn that skill regardless of what you fish for.
Also, while we are at it… learn to spey cast. A spey cast, even a single handed spey cast, will make you a better angler. It isn’t just for steelhead. I’m not saying it is for bonefish, but it is a solid skill to put in your tool box.
