- You were my first love. When I came to fly fishing, it was trout I encountered, pursued and caught. They changed my life.
- Wading a river. I love getting in a river, walking around, getting to know it. I call these kinds of rivers intimate rivers. I’d rather fish an intimate river than any other kind.
The McCloud… Upstate California, from a trip in 2011.
- Fly Shops. I’m talking about the good ones. A shop where you are greeted when you walk in, if you are a stranger or a regular. You can always get some good advice and a bit of conversation. They have what you need and don’t try to sell you anything you don’t. I love those places and try to give them business whenever I can.
An institution in Dunsmuir.
- Small trout. Small trout are simply beautiful creatures, so finely painted and adorned. They are one of Nature’s masterpieces.
Tiny and wonderful.
- Bad weather. When the rain rolls in the fishing doesn’t stop. In fact, it is one of my favorite times to be out there. It feels like you earn it more when you are out in the soup and everyone else is off the water.
- The ritual of it. Cast. Drift. Step. Cast. Drift. Step. It is a wonderful cadence and it pushes everything else from your mind.
- Dry flies. Watching a fish gently rise off the bottom of a river and sip your dry fly off the surface is just a fantastic sight.
- That one fish. Trout fishing gives you a chance to work on one fish for an hour and to finally catch it. That’s a pretty satisfying thing when it all comes together.
- The Puzzle. You can catch a trout with a dry fly, a nymph, a swinging wet fly or a streamer. Should you fish dry/dropper or nymph and if you nymph how deep, how many split shot and what set up? There are so many variables and in trout fishing you get to put them all into your mental matrix and try and figure out the right answer. Every day on a trout stream is trying to solve a puzzle.
That should do the trick…
- Getting geared up. I love all the gear. I love my 5 different boots in the garage, my chest pack, my wading staff, my waders. I love the fly boxes and nippers and all the bits and pieces that fill up the back of your car. I love the 5 different rods I have in the garage which I could use to pursue trout. I love the simplicity of the gear too… how I can head out to wet wade with only a few flies and split shot too. There is so much gear around and everyone had an opinion on it, strong feelings and everyone can be right for what works best for them, for how they fish, for how they move in, on or through a river.
All the other stuff
25
Aug 13
Ten things I love about you, Trout Edition
24
Aug 13
Five things I hate about you, Trout Edition
Just to keep up the theme…
- Tiny flies. I hate tiny flies. If it is going to take a #24, I don’t want to catch it. I don’t want to play that game.
- Light tippets. Now, I pretty much do most of my trout fishing with 3x (5x for dries), but there are times I know I should be fishing lighter. I refuse to fish 7x and 6x is even a stretch for me. I want to set the hook and not pop off the fly.
- Poison Oak. I. Hate. Poison. Oak.
Take that.
- Fishing behind people. So many times I’ve turned a corner to find someone there… meaning I’ve been fishing in their shadow for the past x minutes/hours. Usually that explains the poor fishing.
- That one fly shop I don’t shop at. You know the one… the one where there is just an air of condescension pouring out of the early 20 something fly shop guy who is working at the shop as a break from his snow boarding career. I love fly shops, but not the ones like that. I hate those places. As you pull into a new town to fish some new river you don’t know if it is going to be one of those or the other kind, the kind I love… which I bet we’ll get to tomorrow.
23
Aug 13
Five things I hate about you, Bonefish Edition
Yeah… it isn’t all love and hugs and kittens. Still, I couldn’t think of 10 things to hate about bonefish.
- You are SO FAR AWAY. I’d like for bonefish to live in the SF Bay… and also for the SF Bay to be just like Andros.
- The rash. If you’ve walked the flats in some wet pants… you may be familiar with that rash.
Trip Saver.
- Sunburn. There are a lot of ways to protect yourself from the sun, but if you are as fair skinned as I am it is hard to come out 100% unburned.
- The mythology of the 80′ cast. Your shots are about 500% more likely to come at 40′ than 80′ and this sort of “you have to be perfect” myth keeps people from experiencing the beauty of the flats.
- Too awesome. Bonefish and bonefishing are too awesome and will ruin you for many types of fishing in many places, places you may have loved, but are much lessened after you visit the flats.
Nice bone, tagged and ready to go. Photo by Cameron Miller.
21
Aug 13
Blogiversary
The blog is 4 years old today. What a ride. Here’s to “Four More Years!”
Right now that is 1,537 posts. That’s a whole lot of bonefish right there.
Do you have a favorite post? Do you even remember individual posts?
It would be great to have a conversation here in the comments (which you do at the top of the post, not at the bottom) about what you like, what you don’t like, what you’d like to see more of, etc..
Thanks for reading.
Cheers.
20
Aug 13
The temptation of running away
So, my Monday was probably worse than yours. I’d wager some money on it.
You see… Monday I got laid off. Money is tight, the next round of funding hasn’t come through and blah, blah, blah you don’t work here anymore.
Now, when the feces hits the fan I think a lot of us anglers have a tenancy to grab a rod and run away to some bit of water somewhere. Those of us with bonefish on the brain may be pulled to grab a rod and a plane ticket to find a bit of water far, far away.
I’m not doing that.
Although, it’s tempting.
not that kind of pink slip
For some of life’s problems, this approach works. A lot of issues which seem like huge burdens or obstacles simply lose their scariness with a little distance and time.
Not having a job is not one of those things. If I went fishing right now I’d still not have a job when I came back home. So, I’m not going fishing. I’m not going to escape. I’m going to get some options on the table and move on it as quickly as possible.
It does sound good though… really, really good.
The Slack Tide Bar… one of my most favorite places on this planet.
I’ll save the trip for after I line up a new gig and can take a trip full of confidence. That sounds way, way better to me.
05
Aug 13
Funny thing about slow fishing
I’ve noticed those days where the fish don’t seem to be biting I seem to always be late getting back. I am very hesitant to leave the water without tasting success and the fewer fish the more determined I tend to get.
There are usually things you can do to change your luck, but how much you can improve your luck depends on many factors.
The better you know a place, the better you can take the steps needed to change your luck. You know what the possibilities are. You know where the limits are. You can pull from a variety of options. My home waters are places I know well and if the fishing isn’t happening I know I need to get on the tracks and hike a bit, I need to put on another split shot (or three) or I need to look at different types of water (move from runs to pockets or pools to runs). Something kicks loose.
If you don’t know the place, but you know a bit about your target species, you can make some adjustments. I don’t know bonefish like I know trout and I never know a place I’m bonefishing like I know my home waters, but I know enough about bones to make some adjustments. I can try to find the depth I think the bones will be at, I can look for transit routes on or off flats or I can try to change my position relative to the sun to see into the water better. Some of that will change your luck a bit, but if the fish aren’t there, the fish aren’t there. In a stream if you aren’t catching a fish you are doing something wrong. If you aren’t seeing fish on a flat there is always the possibility the fish simply aren’t there.
So, pier fishing with my daughter yesterday we fished and fished and fished. I’ve caught fish on that pier at those tides with that wind with that bait with those same rods, same weights cast at those same distances. Hour after hour passed and we were fishless all the while. I don’t know how to change my luck there yet and I don’t know if it is even possible. I don’t know enough to even come up with possible explanations for the bad luck beyond “the fish don’t appear to be here now.” But we stuck it out and about 4.5 hours in there was a tug, albeit a light one, and one small brown smooth hound shark was brought in. Glad I have a girl who would like nothing more than to sit with her old man on the pier for six hours trying to intercept a shark. I know it will likely stop at some point, but in this, I’m lucky and I’ll take what luck I can get.
We’ll take it.
26
Jul 13
A cool thing about trout fishing
While up at my folks’ place last weekend I got out for a couple hours on my home water. One thing struck me which I really like about trout fishing and you don’t get on a bonefish flat… seeing a trout come up and take a dry fly from 8 feet away. Seeing the fish slide up and pick your fly off the surface of the water and then submerge… that’s just cool.
This fish at a dry.
Trout fishing, for me, is done largely within a ring of 15 feet or so. Most fish are actually caught within 8. You are right there, right next to the fish, even if you can’t see it.
Some folks catch bonefish that close in, but it is a rarity. For me, it is a rarity to catch a trout at anything like the normal distance I routinely catch a bonefish at. Trout are up close and personal.
The slightly ironic part is that while the trout is so close, I can’t see them in the water, while the bonefish is at 50′ and I can see the even out at 10X the distance.
I do like high sticking a dry fly in a pocket and seeing the fish take the fly. It reminds me, ever so gently, why I started to really love fly fishing in the first place.
18
Jul 13
If I had to choose
I’m sitting here talking to my father-in-law about the steelhead pictures on the walls here at house. We got to talking about the Babine River, the family connection there, the hole named after my grandfather, my one trip there to fish that hole, my daughter’s middle name being Babine, my dad’s 25 pound steelhead caught there and the high likelihood I won’t return.
Steelhead are awesome fish and the Babine is spectacular. They are amazing. So strong. So beautiful.
Not a bad fish.
But… the salt is in my skin. I can’t rinse it out with all the steelhead water in the world.
There is just something about the salt, the shallow, clear water… the stalking of the fish, the raw power of the bones… that’s what I think of now. That’s what’s on my mind.
Maybe I’ll come back around to the steelhead. Maybe I’ll feel the pull in the years to come.
This is what I’m thinking of now. This is my paradise.
17
Jul 13
Bone Fishing
Clearly, we know who the true believers are. One of the easiest ways to tell is when you see “bone fishing” and not “bonefishing.”
We know… we, the folks who care about those fish… we know.
By the way… I really, really, really miss the flats right about now.
Nice bone, tagged and ready to go. Photo by Cameron Miller.
10
Jul 13
Not at the Show
The big fishing show is in Vegas and I’m not there. I’m not there for several reasons:
- I was on the “babymoon” with my pregnant wife up in Mendocino where there was no fishing whatsoever.
- I don’t actually work in the fly fishing industry, although I love it dearly.
- The show is in Vegas. I hate Vegas.
Beyond that, I would have liked to have gone. It is great to get to meet some of the folks I write about or talk to through the blog. The show is one fishy collection of folks. This year they combined the fly fishing show with iCast, the larger general fishing show. I’ll be curious to hear how that marriage went.
One thing I missed… cool doughnuts.
Doughnuts by Redington
