All the other stuff

All the other stuff — 8 Comments
21
May 13

Zip line fishing, or how Top Hooker got it all wrong

I remember the email last year about Top Hooker, the poorly named “reality TV” show which was to be put out by Animal Planet. The idea was to get a bunch of really good anglers together and let them compete to see who could take home the prize of being America’s… ummm… “top hooker.”

I see this… and… facepalm.

Ah… a pun. Those are timeless, no?

Well, the first trailer is out for the new show. Yes, it is as bad as you’d expect it to be. There is bow hunting for fish (because archery is a key part of fishing, as everyone knows), I’d be shocked if there wasn’t noodling in there somewhere, and even zip line fishing, another key skill of the well-rounded angler.

I expect to see lots of dead fish and lots of poor handling and lots of bravado.

I’d love to see a show with real fisherman trying to figure out real situations.

Here’s the show I’d like to see.

Gather nominated anglers. No one should be able to put their own name in. The best anglers don’t need to tell anyone they are the best. Other people talk about them, knowing they are the best.
Put them in different situations and see how creative they are, how flexible they are, how well they understand their prey, judge the level of their tactical skill, asses their conservation ethic.

I’d like to see them fish a bait ball, cast a midge on a spring creek, high-stick some pocket water, strip-set a bonefish, chase down a rooster and pop for a LMB. In the end, there has to be some subjectivity to really determine who did better. I know that I could do a crappy job of landing a fish while someone else did much better losing one.

I’d like to watch that.

I’d even bet, if you had the real McCoy’s, that these anglers would help each other, talk though situations, share knowledge and would generally be enjoyable to be around.

I’d like to see that show, but they’d never make it. There is no money to be made on TV when people behave themselves and when failure is more spectacular than skill.

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03
May 13

I’ve never seen the rope

The Florida crew got a little bit of a feeling for how I get a bit obsessed about fishing.

There is a place I love called the McCloud River. The Nature Conservancy has a great property there with well maintained trails and very fishy water. The property is a few miles long and at the end of their property there is some private property and, from what I understand, there is a rope across the river there to denote where the private land starts.

The McCloud.

I’ve never seen that rope, despite frequent statements like “Let’s hike down to the rope and fish back up.” See, I never get that far. I start off with the best of intentions and then I see the water… the beautiful runs, the conifer green water. I can’t make it down the trail any more than 20 minutes before I have to fish.

For this Florida trip we were all on the phone talking about the day we all arrive. Two of us get in at 6:45 AM, and two of us get in at 10 and noon. Now, if I were patient person I might say “yeah, we can wait around and then we’ll all go fishing… ya know, whenever you guys get in we’ll get going.”

That isn’t what I said.

Instead I figured it would make more sense for the first two of us to head out fishing and for the guys getting in a little bit later to head out together, fish and then we’d meet up at the end of the fishing.

I couldn’t make it to the rope, and the trip is still three+ weeks away.

Davin said “boy, you really get to learn things about people.”

Florida is coming.

Coming to see the #skinnywaterculture

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02
May 13

Orvis + Ross + SA

Well, I didn’t see this coming. It was announced that Orvis has bought Ross and Scientific Angler from 3M.

My first reaction was “Didn’t 3M just buy Ross? Why would they then turn around and sell it?”

Hearing that the Ross and SA lines would not be absorbed into the Orivis brand made me think that this might actually be a pretty savvy move by Orvis.

Orvis has a perception problem. For reasons probably related to there being such things as Orvis pleated khaki’s, Orvis has an image in the fly fishing world as being stodgy and elitist. Now, personally I think the reputation is off-base here and I think they have some really fantastic gear at price points equal to, or even less than, some of the other top brands in the business.

Ross, on the other hand, is a working man’s brand. It has none of the brand baggage that Orvis seems to carry. If you combine the brands, you lose the cool factor of the Ross brand… that Made in the USA, solid-at-a-solid-price perception.

While you don’t see many Orvis stickers on the Yeti coolers, you do see Ross stickers, and that’s why the deal, as it stands, makse sense to me.

The Trout Underground has some theories of his own.

The F1 by Ross

All the other stuff — 6 Comments
01
May 13

Teachers

When I think back on who taught me to fish, it is easy. It was my dad. He didn’t teach me to fly fish, that came later. He did teach me to fish though. I have many, many fond memories of fishing with my dad as a kid. We fished for shad on the Lower Sacramento on Memorial Day. We fished for steelhead on the Klamath on Labor day. We fished for Steelhead on the Elk and other Southern Oregon rivers in the winter (along with the Klamath).

I’d imagine your dad taught you. Odds are fair to good on that regard.

When I look back at my awkward childhood, through the good and the bad, the fishing stands out as solidly in the “good” column. In the arc from there to adulthood fishing has remained a central part of my life and an easy, free-flowing source of conversation between my father and I.

So, thanks dad.

I’m headed up to my home town today to go see my dad, who is in the hospital right now awaiting surgery. No, it’s not those butt implants he always wanted, this is a little more serious and if everything goes well, he’ll be off the water for a long time.

If you still have your teacher, make sure to tell them thanks.

I’m the good looking one.

My dad pulled out the cast of his lifetime to get this pretty fantastic mutton snapper.

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26
Apr 13

My new theory on permit

I saw that Joe Gonzalez (Joe did an interview here a while back) recently caught a permit in Biscayne Bay that had been caught two times already.

Third time for this fish… that we know of.

On yesterday’s outing, to our surprise ,we caught the same previously tagged permit we had caught 6 days earlier about a mile away. Bonefish Tarpon Trust Costa Del Mar Project Permit reward tag # 07019. So we know this guy has been caught 3 times already. Looks like program is on its way acquiring relevant knowledge. Please continue to support BTT on their efforts to protect & enhance our fisheries.

From this data* I have come to an earth shattering conclusion about permit.

Here it is. The small number permit caught each year are actually the SAME permit over and over again.

Permit are picky way beyond a fault. The damn things are nearly impossible to catch and they have driven plenty of anglers out of their minds as they empty their bank accounts and shun work and family obligations in search of the permit pull. Permit are notorious for their fickle moods and ability to ruin your day and/or life.

Still, every once in a while someone actually catches one. That gives us all hope it can be done and so we go out and look for the damn things buoyed by the knowledge that someone else has done it, therefore it must be do-able.

However, what you don’t know is there are only a small number of permit dumb enough to be fooled and only those specific permit eat flies. There is just a small sliver of the overall permit population who are so gullible they eat flies no other self-respecting permit would even follow.

In my estimation** there are only about 20 permit in the world eating flies and they fall victim time and time again.

So, the next time you cast a fly at a permit and it doesn’t eat… no worries, that must not have been one of the permit that actually eats flies. See… it isn’t your fault at all.

This little guy is one of the dumb ones. It surely has been caught dozens more times in Belize since 2010.

***

—

* – OK, my “data” is just the fact that Joe posted the picture of a tagged fish that had been caught twice before. I don’t have any other solid “numbers” or “proof” or “anything” to back that up. Sometimes you have to go with your gut.

** – I should tell you that in college I only had to take one math class and it was “Studies in Modern Mathematics.” We read books and kept journals and talked about math, but we didn’t have to DO any math. It was awesome and I got an A.

*** – I wish I didn’t have to say this, but I do. No… I’m not serious about the theory.

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22
Apr 13

The Lower Sacramento – land of rainbows

On Saturday morning I was headed up to my folks place and I decided to stop in at The Fly Shop in Redding on my way. As I walked in I saw my friend Shane on the phone. His clients for the next two days were on the line and they were canceling.

That worked out in my favor (although not Shane’s).

Sunday morning I left my folks and headed South, with a stop off at the Lower Sacramento River to fish with Shane and his brother-in-law, who had never been fishing before.

The day was good a good one. On Monday it is supposed to blow 30 mph, but Sunday… it was lovely. I probably should have reapplied the sunscreen one or two more times, that’s how nice the weather was.

We pushed off and were soon into fish. Shane’s brother-in-law caught fish. I caught fish. We had a double and missed another two by seconds. A good, fine day on the water with a good friend.

A decent Lower Sac rainbow.

The double. Very nice. (mine is on the right)

Shane with another fish.

It is always nice to be on a piece of water with someone who knows it really well, who can find the fish and knows what they want. Shane is that guy on the Lower Sac. He’s shown me that time and time again.

We were drifting down and Shane told his brother-in-law to cast on a light patch of bottom. He told him to mend upstream and he told him to get ready. Two second later the indicator went down a a nice fish was on.

He knows these waters so well. The fish don’t stand a chance.

Great to be on his water again with him.

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21
Apr 13

I’ll take it

The river is low… lower than I’ve ever seen it at this time of year. It could be that the snows have not started melting just yet, or it could be the record dry winter. I’m afraid it is the latter.

Low, cold, clear water. Somehow that combination never works for me. Not just that, but I don’t know this river like I used to. I don’t have much of a Plan B.

I made it out for about 2 hours yesterday and I felt exactly one fish. I hooked that fish and landed that fish.

It was not big, but it was pretty and it certainly was a trout. I’ll take it.

The rod finds the river.

Low and Clear, Upper Sacramento Style.

Pretty, if small.

the walk back to the car

All the other stuff / Locations — 2 Comments
04
Apr 13

Grand Bahama Sightseeing

Woke up this morning to the sound of wind. A quick check of the weather told me it was going to blow about 18 mph. My morning clearly would not involve looking for wagging tails on the glassy flat out front. Still, I was determined to have an adventure today and I got my girl ready and we hit the road armed with the knowledge that low tide would be at 9:45.

We headed East to some places I’ve come to know a little bit and love a lot. A little pocket flat was first with plenty of the lime-stone tide pools along the way. We got to the flat and, low and behold, there were a few bonefish. Said bonefish were super spooky though and they weren’t too interested in what I was doing. Every time I’ve come here I have found fish. Every time I have found fish I have failed to hook one. Today was no exception. We threw jigs on the spinner in the creek on the way out and we headed off to the next flat.

A favorite flat, even if I’ve never hooked a fish there.

The next flat, a big, broad, expansive flat of white, hard sand wasn’t screwed up by the wind when we got there and soon after setting out I found a bonefish… who was not interested. The girl, though, found a ton of shells and a good time was had.

A girl with her shells.

We also stopped in Pelican Point at the Shell Lady. Got a pretty fantastic shell for the girl. It was $20, but I figure this lady doesn’t get too many visitors, so I felt it was money well spent.

The Shell Lady. My second time getting a shell for my girl here.

We got back to the condo (rental, VRBO) and found a place called Pier One Restaurant. They feed sharks nightly. Now, you may have negative feelings about the feeding of wildlife, and I can understand that. However, my daughter loves sharks and this was a highlight… not just of the trip, but of her life to this point.

We saw many, many sharks and some real giants. We saw the largest lemon shark I have ever seen and the first bull shark I’ve ever seen. There were some massive cobia in there too. It was fantastic.

SHARKS! There are two (at least) in this pic. A big lemon and a bull.

It was, as you might expect, a good day. I’m in the Bahamas, a place I love, and I’m with people I love. I also got to blow a couple shots at bonefish. Not too shabby.

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29
Mar 13

Empire of Blue Water

I love Audible. I drive a lot, about 2K miles a month, and I spend almost all of that time in mind-numbing traffic. In prep for the upcoming Bahamas trip I figured I’d do a little listening about Pirates.

I’m listening to Empire of Blue Water, a book about the famed Capt. Morgan (yeah, he’s more than just a spiced rum). Pretty interesting to hear about sailors plying the Caribbean in the 1600’s and 1700’s. Port Royal, Hispaniola, Nassau, the Spanish Main… pretty interesting to learn a little more about the history of these places.

Captain Morgan, the Pirate

Other favorites on my drives as of late have been the works of Carl Hiaasen. His books are rooted in Florida, the Everglades a common character, and while they are not “fishing” books, they usually have fishing in the background somewhere, a part of the landscape. His messages are about pollution and corruption and salvation and hope. Really good stuff and I’m amazed it took me so long to find him. I mean… he was Angler of the Year in 2012.

You reading anything remotely fly fishing or bonefish related?

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14
Mar 13

Fly Shop Catch 22

I went to my local today on my way home from work. I use the term “local” lightly… it is across the bay and a $5 bridge toll from where I actually live. I haven’t been there many times, as it is not real convenient and the trip there involves being on a highway I detest, usually at a time in the commute that makes me want to slam my head into the steering wheel.

Still… I wanted to support the shop, so I went.

I needed fly tying materials. Specifically I was looking for some 1/0 tarpon hooks (thinking of that Florida trip a lot these days).

The shop looks great. Very clean, very well organized. Hell, they have a drift boat IN the fly shop.

“I’m just looking for tying materials.” I said.

“Well, we are a bit low on stock at the moment.” was the reply.

And it was true. There were no 1/0 tarpon hooks. There were no EP fibers in the colors I wanted. They didn’t have the style of silicon leg I was looking for. I was looking for a few specific things and I went 0-fer. I came ready to spend some money and left empty handed.

Just a few days ago I put in an order on Amazon for some materials. It was easy to do as I had just sat down at the vice and knew what I was needing (wanting is maybe the better word here). With Amazon you don’t get to hold the stuff in your hand and turn it over and make sure it is right, but you sure do have a selection… and it is that kind of immediacy and selection that likely means my local is taking it in the shorts and doesn’t have the business to actually keep things stocked… which in turn, makes me more likely to need to turn to the web to get what I am looking for… which means even less business for the shop… and it goes on and on and on.

Death by a thousand Amazon orders.

Part of it may be that I’m looking for materials usually used for flats flies in a place that is more trout and stripers. They did have 3/0 tarpon hooks though and EP fibers in other colors, just not what I was looking for.

When I got home, waiting in the mailbox were two packages of hooks… one was size 1/0, although not specifically for tarpon. I’m kind of thinking they might do the trick though (especially given a recent conversation with Davin about smaller diameter hooks maybe being a good call for tarpon).

Do you have a local shop and if so, how is it doing? What makes a shop successful or what makes it struggle?

Bonefish on the Brain Bonefish and all that relates (maybe a bit about tarpon too).