All the other stuff — 7 comments
15
Nov 10

The Math of Sucking

I too, read Alex C‘s bit on why you suck at fly fishing, and then I read Pete’s counter and MG‘s announcement… and it got me to thinking… how do I feel about sucking? (A Perfect Fish got in on the discussion too)

I like Pete’s “Don’t be an asshole” rule.  I think I can pretty much live by that one.  I’ve had a few things said about me over the years and I’ll generally admit to being a bit naive, but certainly well intentioned.  I’m maybe a bit too quick to get defensive and a little slow to let an insult go, but I’m working on both of those things.  Don’t say I’m not, damnit!  Well… more work to do, I guess.

There are a lot of really good anglers out there and there are a lot of really sucky anglers out there and I’d bet the a-hole split is fairly even between the two groups.  However, there is something particularly egregious about the guy who is an a-hole about being a good angler.  I kind of hate those guys.  There seems to be something about this sport/hobby/pastime that generates the “I’ve been there, done that, and probably better than you did/will/can.”

These guys are first against the wall when the revolution comes. Just say’n.

We all start somewhere and usually, almost always, suck at the beginning.  Some kids get lucky and fish from birth.  I took up fly fishing when I was 20 or 21 despite living in trout country and gear fishing from an early age.  Others come to it later…. sometimes not until middle age or retirement.  When you start and how much time you put into it determines a lot.  For most folks, sucking isn’t a way of life, it is merely the scenic route to becoming a better angler.

I’m not good at math, but I think you could nearly come up with an equation to determine flyfishing suckiness… I’ll call it the Fly Fishing Suckiness Index (FFSI).

TW (Time on the Water – 1-10) x HLP (Amount and quality of help you have received – 1-8) x A (Athleticism – 1-2) x AG (Age you picked up fly fishing – 1 older, 2 young man, 3 birth) x FND (How fishy your group of friends is – 3-very, 1-not at all) x AW (Awareness – 1-2) x FS (Quality of your local fly shop – 1-2) x FT (Fly Tier 1 = no, 1.5 = yes) x JOB (Job, is it your job? 1 = no, 3 = yes) = FFSI

Nowhere in the equation is there mention of how expensive your gear is or how many miles you’ve traveled after fish.  Those things don’t make the angler, really.  One key factor is the help your receive along the way.  Guides, friends, parents… there is a world of advice and knowledge and if you ask, you will generally receive… if you do, remember to give it back to some other sucky angler at some point down the road.

There are exceptions… there are people born to fish, just like there are people born to paint or sculpt.  The engineers I know seem fairly unable/unwilling/uninterested to do anything else.  I heard one computer/electrical engineer explaining how a quantum computer would work (which blew my mind) and it was not lost on me that this same person has sever phobias involving toothpicks, needles, contractors, ticks and many, many other things that makes it nearly impossible to operate in the world.  He was born with numbers in his head and some people are born with fish floating in theirs.

There are probably also people who cannot overcome their own ineptness, but who love it anyway.  If it doesn’t bother them, I ask that it not bother you either and we should all get along famously.

PS – I’m still, pretty much, a sucky saltwater angler… but I’m working on it.

All the other stuff — Leave a comment
14
Nov 10

So… if you have a yacht…

If you find yourself with a yacht and you are going to be cruising around the Bahamas and you, ya know, want to go bonefishing, you can get a Skate from Hell’s Bay and just toss it up on deck (carefully, and if there are two of you).

Now… I doubt I’m going to find myself in this particular scenario, but if I did (and I mean in real life, not my very active fantasy life), I very well might get a Skate and pole around some no-name bit of Bahamian goodness.  Doesn’t that sound more awesome than you really have a right to expect?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjUQavWEo7U?fs=1&hl=en_US

Gear — 2 comments
13
Nov 10

Dark Blue Beauties

The Fed Ex guy kept it late, which made it interesting.  In the end, he made it here about 6:45 PM.  Sure, I don’t leave for Belize for another 6 days, but I really wanted the weekend to do a little casting and it looks like that is going to happen.  The box that arrived this evening was from Bainbridge Island, WA and if you are a fly fisherman that means Sage.  Two brand new Xi3‘s were in the box, a 7 and a 10.  I was a little surprised that the rods were brand new.  These are loaners, after all… I have to send the things back after the trip, so I figured I’d get a rod that had been loaned in the past.  Not so… these were spanking new with that new-rod smell… well… there really wasn’t a smell, but ya know what I mean.

Two beautiful sage sticks

In other news, I’ll actually be bringing along a third rod to demo… this rod will be the Orvis Helios in an 8 weight.  I just did an interview with Steve Hemkens at Orvis for the Blog and he offered to loan me some gear.  Having the 7 and 10 slots filled, I figured it would be better to go with an 8, instead of putting the Helios and Xi3 into some contrived duel.  I am looking forward to doing some test driving in the coming days and putting them through the paces in Belize.

I’m just about done tying flies for the trip… I added another 8 or so flies today to the two crammed bonefish/permit boxes and am at about 148 flies now.  My guess would be I’d use 10.  So… over provisioned a tad, both on the fly front and probably on rods.  Both are good problems to have.

Conservation — 2 comments
12
Nov 10

I am a poetry fan

It worked wonders on the ladies… up until my wife found all the old poems I had kept from years past… then they went up in smoke in a mysterious fire.

Now, poetry about fish and rivers and lessons learned in pursuit in beautiful places… that’s some good stuff and largely safe from fire.

The Fishing Poet is rocking some new shirts and, classy guy that he is, Matt is using proceeds from those shirts to support a local nonprofit, The Shenandoah Riverkeeper.


Nice threads.

So, get a shirt, support the cause.

Fish Tails — 4 comments
12
Nov 10

Bones in the Bahamas – YouTube

A little YouTube bonefishing hunt turned up this little video, newly added to interwebs.  This is in the Bahamas somewhere.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtUhxXqi5Io?fs=1&hl=en_US

All the other stuff / Locations — 2 comments
11
Nov 10

How to get your first bonefish

If you are looking to get into your first bonefish, I have a way you can do it for not much scratch (ya know, relatively speaking).

Step 1. Go to Cheap Caribbean and look at either Nassau or Grand Bahama.

Why?  Well, you can get package deals, including air fare for as low as $300 a person.  Figure it usually costs $350 for air, and you can see the value here.  You might not get the most super awesome hotel, but you’ll get to the Bahamas cheap.  Sure, you can get to Miami pretty cheap too, but the fishing there is tougher and if you are starting out, it is good to have some success on your first outing… ya know… encouragement.

Step 2. Get one day with a guide.

Why?  If you are starting out, it can be really hard to find your own fish.  Bonefish have their own rhythms and their own environment, so, get a guide to smooth out the learning curve a bit.

  • In Grand Bahama, I recommend Captain Perry (although his website is down as I write this, he is still booking trips and you can call him at (242) 353-3301) who I used and who was just a great guide and a good person.
  • In Nassau, which is overall a bit less bonefishy than Grand Bahama, there are still options where the guide can put you in a skiff and get you to some fish.  Aaron Bain with Secret Soul gets some good reviews.

Now,  a day of guiding is going to set you back a pretty penny… about $400, plus tip, but really, you want to catch some fish when you go all that way, so you really should look into it.  It isn’t like fishing the Madison where you know the place is lousy with fish.  If you have DIY inclinations, you can go out on your own for the rest of your trip, like I’ve done a couple times.

Nassau and Grand Bahama are family friendly locations and you could make it a family trip, making it even more doable for the family-bound angler.

There… that’s the recipe.  If you fish for steelhead or large trout, you probably have something serviceable in terms of gear.  A 7 weight will work for bonefish and you can even get away with a 6 (ask Rich French).  You may need a new line and you might… might need a new reel, but you can get a reel that will work for under $200.

As I read in This is Fly long ago, and I’m paraphrasing here, “bonefishing shows up on a lot more wish lists than obituaries,” so go out there and get after them.

My first bonefish - go get at 'em

Flies — 6 comments
10
Nov 10

Bouncer Flies, the Avalon and something new.

I was looking around for some different flies to tie and came across the Avalon Fly, named after one of the big boys of Cuban fishing.  It had a mono loop on the underside of the fly with beads hanging loosely on the loop.  This was something I hadn’t seen before, so I tied a couple up and asked around about the theory behind the fly.  I was directed to the Bouncer  Flies website, which sheds some light on the topic.

A new construction method that can make exciting new patterns, and will improve many old favorite flies.

via BOUNCER FLIES.

While I didn’t have all the colors that I saw on the Avalon, I did try to tie some up to see how it might all come together.  The Avalon is supposed to be primarily a permit fly, but it might be fishable for bones and maybe even tarpon… we’ll see if it even gets broken out of the  fly box in Belize.  Something new at the vice, which is always interesting.

A first go at the Avalon.

Fish Tails — Leave a comment
09
Nov 10

Angling Destinations on a DX Trip in the Bahamas

A nice write up by Scott Heywood from Angling Destinations about one of the DX trips in the Bahamas in 2010.  Good stuff.

Going on a fishing trip is more than packing gear and making airline reservations… it is also a process of getting your mind right and managing expectations. I’ve noticed over the years that the anglers that do the best job of this also have the most fun and strangely enough, also catch the most fish. The toughest thing for anglers to accept is that no matter how much you spend on a fishing trip or how grandiose your expectations are, you are not purchasing fish. You’re only buying a seat at the poker table.

via Fly Fishing Montana Brazil Alaska | Bonefishing Bahamas | Angling Destinations.

Cheers

Conservation — Leave a comment
08
Nov 10

Fall Bonefish Census… not awesome

Well, the numbers are in from the Fall bonefish census and the picture is not rosy.  Numbers are way down.  The Miami Herald (America’s most bonefishy newspaper) break the story.

About 60 guides and anglers who poled across the flats from Biscayne Bay to the Marquesas Keys west of Key West on Oct. 23 counted about 200,000 bonefish — way down from the mean estimate of 339,595 over the past eight years. Ault said the past three fall censuses have been below that mean but not nearly as low as the latest count.

Nice to see Joe Gonzalez getting recognized for the effort he’s put in to helping out…

Some South Florida flats guides — especially Miami captain Joe Gonzalez — have taken up the cause of bonefish research.

Gonzalez, 50, has tagged more bones than any other captain — about 1,700 during the past seven years.

Here are the folks doing the work.

Joe G with a tagged bone. (photo from Sam Root)

All the other stuff — Leave a comment
07
Nov 10

Shout out to the California Fly Shop

Today (actually, yesterday as you read this), my wife broke me off a little free time.  I could have grabbed a rod and gone in search of bass or carp, but instead, I headed up 101 to the California Fly Shop in San Carlos.  I’d never been there before, although I had seen some announcements from them over the years and I may be on their email list.

I needed help and I needed a full fledged fly shop to get that help.  We have an Orvis about 10 minutes away, but, ya know… the retail experience at Orvis is very uneven.  The fly fishing side of the store is often left in the hands of folks that don’t know a sink tip from a lead sinker.  Every once in a while you find some real quality folks there, but if they aren’t working that day you are SOL if you actually need some advice or something unique.  I have heard from a couple people that their actual gear has come leaps and bounds, but sometimes you just need a real fly shop.

The California Fly Shop is about a half-hour drive away and is tucked away in an industrial park, although it is next door to an REI.  I finally found the shop and the lack of cars out front made me wonder if they were open… which they were.  I walked in and found it to be a pretty nice shop… well stocked with gear, rods, flies and fly tying materials.  I picked up a few things and when Steve asked if I needed any help, I confessed to him my frustration with the Bimini Knot.  Fifteen minutes later I had learned the knot, gotten pretty sorted on what my tarpon leader needed to look like and I was out in the parking lot test driving the G. Loomis NRX in a 9 wt. and chatting with Steve about Baja.

Thanks Steve.  I appreciate the time you spend helping me out.  You guys have a great shop and I’ll certainly be back. My first and second Tarpon Leaders are now done.

The NRX 9 wt. was LIGHT but powerful.  It really felt like casting a 7 wt.  I was casting with a Rio Outbound floating line, which makes it pretty easy to cast, but I have to say, first impressions were very positive.  I still won’t be buying one unless they knock about $500 off the price tag, but if I found one in the Orphanage for Abandoned Rods, I’d probably rush through the adoption papers.

A nice shop with helpful people

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →