Recent comments

Casting

I was 8 when my dad handed me a fly rod for the first time! I'm not sure what age I was when he first brought me with him fishing but he used to cast a worm out on a spinning rod and told me to watch for a fish taking it! When one took it he never once took the rod off me to show me how to land it, he just told me what to do and god only knows how many I lost before I caught on! I know now that if I had have actually listened to his instructions and done what I was told I would have learned how to do it a lot more quickly! He has since told me that when he gave me the fly rod he was filled with both dread and delightment! Delightment at the thought of me learning to love what he loves but dread at how hard it was going to be to help me learn! Lol! That was 35 years ago and it was all river fishing back then and I picked up his passion for it!

My favorite rod is the first brand new rod he gave me! It's a fibreglass shakespeare 8'6ft 7#. I have a fair few rods in my armoury now of various lengths and weights and I fish mostly these days on lakes! I have a lovely greys 10'6ft 7/8# that I thought I could cast the most distance with until one day I thought I'd bring out my wee shakey just to see the how far I could cast with it compared to my big rod and was very surprised to find that there is very little difference with regard to how far I can cast with them! About 60 ft with the greys and a bit less with the shakey! After throwing the greys for a while it felt like I was casting in slow motion to keep the line in the air with the shakey lol! Much more relaxing and enjoyable! (I brought the slack after the cast back onto the reel then once I retrieved the fly I walked the line along the bank to measure it) sorry about the long post but hopefully its helpful!

Sounds like exciting fishing

Sounds like exciting fishing waiting for the shoals of fish to come in. Do they fight hard on the fly gear?

Good to hear!

Nemo,

Good to hear that the setup works! And yes, the spey casting or underhand casting requires practice like all other fly casts. I find it fairly easy to get into the rhythm and get it to work - and if I can do it, so can you!

On of the keys - as with most casting - is not to force it, but work the rod and let the weight of the line do the work, so to say. On a two hand rod I find that keeping the bottom of the rod fairly still, and simply moving the lower hand (left in my case) while the top hand on the handle is more static, works well. I'm not quite as used to casting this way with a one hand rod, but when using a shooting head, the way the line is lifted off the water is kind of an underhand cast.

Martin

Martin

I used a lighter fly

I've downsized the fly to a size 6 Ahrex NS 122 Light Stinger hook and a transparent plastic head (Fish-Mask), and used composite material for the body; it works like a charm - when I manage to get the cast right ;) - on a 5 foot fluoro leader. No need for the weighted head , the S3 tip brings the fly to the right depth in my neck of the woods.
Now, this single handed speycasting can be quite tricky to perform. Definitely not as easy as it seems in the vids; you really must get every step right and smoothly too. But when you get it right it flies :) I'll need a lot of practice for sure, but it's well worth the effort as I'll be able to fish lots of new stretches of water where an overhead cast would be near to impossible.

Old bad rods

Martin,
A lovely post. My favourite rod is a cheap fibreglass 8ft 6/7 weight that I bought as part of a combo for £50 a few years ago when starting out. I’ve tried newer and ‘better’ rods but keep returning to my old favourite. It’s very forgiving; I use a 4 wf on it for trout, a 7 wf for saltwater and an 8 for pike on the local canal and it seems to suit all three lines.
I love it .
Ben

Thank you Martin!!!

Thank you Martin!!!

It's gone

Bob,

Jim has simply removed the video from YouTube and it's nowhere to be found... I have replaced it with an almost similar video of his, but the original is gone and I can't get it back unless Jim publishes it again.

Martin

Black Nose Dace Video by Jim Misiura won’t play.

Jim’s Black Nose Dace video is “Not available.” Please restore this excellent video, so it can be viewed. I left a note about it for Jim on his YouTube site in the replies to one of his videos but don’t know if he will see it there or be able to fix it here. -Bob

Respect the fish

It's really about the the fish! Anyone fishing partner who couples the "rod balance" with the "fish thrust" (pushing the fish much closer to the camera for size distortion) for the sake of self-enhancement or Instagram gets dunked at my hand :) .

It's simple; if you're not proud of, and appreciate the beauty of, your catch, don't take a picture.

Thanks. I'll try and tie some

Thanks. I'll try and tie some :)

A trout is a trout

Nemo,

You can experiment with the fly size and weight, but do give the larger and heavier flies a try. It might not be as bad as you think.

Regarding the sea trout flies, I know for sure that a lot of them will work for brown trout. Anywhere where you might consider fishing a Wooly Bugger or a streamer, I'm sure a lot of the Baltic sea trout flies will do fine. I have used quite a few of them in a classic wet fly swing down and across on streams, and have had success. Quite a few of them are actually inspired by classic wet flies, various streamers and Woolly Bugger style flies, originally tied for brown trout.

Martin

Thanks Martin. The rod is a

Thanks Martin. The rod is a Guideline Elevation 9' 5wt (rated for 11 grams to 13 grams heads, so obviously more a 6wt and some)
I think I'll downsize a little to size 8 to 6 hook with a plastic head and composite material instead of rabbit pelt.
I've found this very interesting video: https://youtu.be/1ovxdURdcP8
It should be both light and big enough. If I need to go deeper I'll switch to another sinking head combination...
The sea trout fly patterns on GlobalFlyFisher are really nice too, but I don't know if they would work for river brown trout...?

Give it a try

Nemo,

It's a heavy fly, but doing an underhand cast with a heavy fly shouldn't be a problem. You can't really do any harm to your equipment, and the only problem can be that it's difficult to lift the fly out of the water and propel it out. Heavy flies on a 5/6 weight can be a challenge. But a lot of people cast very heavy flies on fairly light gear - like those using the Skagit style of lines and casting techniques. It's not necessarily elegant, but it works.

You may find that the fly is too heavy for comfort, and of course a rod in a higher class and a line that follows in weight might then be a solution.

Martin

February Red

Hi Pasi:

Great looking pattern. I've seen dozens of these coming off my home waters. Thanks for the article and photos. I'll be tying up some of these for February

Thanks again

Linc Haverstraw NY USA

im his daughter

Hi, I am Lainey Rachelle and I am 12 years old now.

Long casts

Great article.., Is it that most fish are caught 50ft and less because most don't cast that far anyway so it's obvious that this happens! If you cast 75ft the you only have 35ft to catch the fish and 50ft left to catch a fish. So the law of averages comes into play. So the statement can be quite misleading. Never the less most of my fish have been caught within 30ft and I believe they have followed the fly in.
Thanks everyone for your really interesting comments.
Regards
Chris

The origin

Jim,

You can read a bit about the origin of the pattern here:
https://globalflyfisher.com/streamers365/73-2013-magog-smelt-variant

Martin

smelt

Is this where the famous "Magog" smelt pattern originated? I am curious seeing I love tying streamer and bucktail patterns. Please let me know if you can shed some light on this subject, greatly appreciated. Thanks, Jim.

Tying a sedge/caddis

Thank you Martin
Thank you Andrea
Well done. Very well done
Thanks again
Linc

Fly Rod

I have a Harris Redditch-91/2 ft-10 ft.
Doesn't look like it has ever been used.
Would like any information you can give me.

Old rods and historie

I prefer the Old rods. Like a Old Song they have memories of
Great days on the water. With both Old and modern flylines they Can be a lot more enjoyable to fish.
Tight Lines
Niels

As you may know

Noé,

As you may know I have been using a small raft for my fishing the last many years because of my inability to walk and keep my balance due to MS. Like you I have focused on inflatable boats that can pack down small enough to fit a trunk. My choice has been smaller pontoon style boats, and they have done the job and been very practical and easy to handle. My main problem has been rust since I fish mainly saltwater.

I have no specific experience with the craft in your link, but judging from the price, I'd guess that it's a quality product. Even for a boat this size, it's not cheap, even though the price is of course significantly lower than many "real" boats. My experience with larger inflatable boats is that size matters, in particular if you are two or three people in the boat. It doesn't take much movement or commotion to create instability, and a larger boat usually feels a lot safer than a smaller one.

The boat in your link seems quite narrow, but it's obvious from the images that they are three people onboard, and two are even standing, so it must be quite stable.

I would recommend trying one out if at all possible before buying. This will allow you to judge quality and stability and maybe trying to unpack and inflate and deflate and packing it down afterwards, which can be quite a job, even with a smaller boat.

I hope this helps.

Martin

I can see why

Noe,

I can see why you're confused. Zandri Terenzio's technique and tools are pretty exotic, but the result is quite amazing.

I watched the video too, and looked at the pictures in your link, and all I can see from this is that there are three "core threads" - two which form the base on which things are tied ("standing threads"), and one which is used to secure the various materials, and also brilliantly forms the segments in the abdomen of the fly.

Judging from the speed and the hand movements, it seems that the tier is using simple half hitches around a single or both of the standing threads depending on the step. This seems to be the case in all steps involving the third thread or the yarn for the abdomen, but it's hard to see on the fuzzy video.
In the images in the article showing the tying of the abdomen, you can see that the yarn is tied around one, then the other thread using half hitches and a weaving technique not unlike crocheting. After each two knots have been tied, the third thread is used to secure the segment with a couple of similar knots that will hide in the gap between the segments. In the video it seems that the third thread is dark, and this accents the light body yarn nicely to form a clear segmentation. The final wraps holding the tail are simple overhand wraps, finished with a whip finish, but done with a loop tool drawing the tag under the wraps.

It's a very fascinating technique, and one I will look into. Maybe it would be worth doing an article on it, and perhaps a clearer video. I'll see.

Martin

Tip for hair trimming

If you steam the untrimmed bug over a small pot of boiling water, or the spout of a teapot, the deer hair will stand up erect. This makes the trimming a bit easier and delivers a tidier result.