Indholdsfortegnelse for April/May 2018 i Fly Fisherman

MY THUMB WAS already suffering from tendinitis and my shoulder ached when I peered into my fly box the morning of my third day on Brazil’s Rio Marié. I had brought with me all the latest flies—Double Barrel Poppers, Pole Dancers, Game Changers, and Peacock Cruisers—and I was catching some beastly peacocks, but my body was paying a price. I wasn’t sure I could keep casting giant flies like these all day long for six days straight. It wasn’t like flats fishing where you take turns on the casting platform and get regular rest breaks. On the Rio Marié, you and your fishing partner are casting all day. Big flies, 10-weight rods, and heavy lines. I was looking for something easier to cast when I saw about a half dozen…

WHEN CAPTAIN NICK Bowles’s girlfriend (now wife) left their farming community in South Africa to take a job with Emirates airlines in Dubai, the sportsman decided to follow her, not certain he would be able fish or hunt the way he could in the wilds of Africa. To his delight, what he found in the shadow of the city’s sleek skyline was a premier saltwater fishery that had seldom seen a fly rod. Despite the desert setting, the Arabian Gulf lapping Dubai’s shore teems with queenfish, Spanish mackerel, and golden trevally “When I arrived in Dubai in 2002, there was not much in the way of fishing, guiding, or even information,” Bowles said. “I started an informational website called Ocean Active as a hobby, and then started receiving a lot…

Simms Names New CEO K.C. Walsh, who purchased Simms in 1993 and subsequently introduced the world’s first breathable waders, named Casey Sheahan as the new CEO of Simms in November. Walsh, a longtime majority owner and president, became the executive chairman. Sheahan has previously been president of Keen Footwear and Kelty, and for nine years was CEO of Patagonia. During his tenure there, Patagonia experienced massive growth and launched its Common Threads Program, an industry-leading recycling program. “Simms is a very special company in the sport-fishing industry, and I feel that my entire career has prepared me to lead this brand to new heights,” said Sheahan, a lifelong fly fisher. “We have a world-class team, a talented board, and a strong capital partner. I’ll work with K.C. and the Simms…

MANY FLY FISHERS DON’T REALIZE THAT THE MAJORITY OF FLY LINES ON THE MARKET TODAY NO LONGER CONFORM TO INDUSTRY LINE WEIGHT STANDARDS. Check the front 30' of ten different 6-weights, and you may find them running from 160 grains (the standard) up to 235; that’s actually a 9-weight according to the standard. I found 8- and 9-weight lines that tipped the scales as 11-weights. Many fly fishers are shocked to learn that some 5-weight lines are heavier than standard 7-weights. If you’re a beginner, you should still probably buy a 5-weight line to go with your first 5-weight rod—it’s a reasonable starting point. But if you want to become a proficient fly fisher, you should understand how variable line weights can actually be, and how that affects your results.…

A DEEP SEATED ANTI CARP BIAS WAS INSTILLED IN ME AT AN EARLY AGE. I was nine years old at a family reunion picnic when I caught my first carp using kernels of corn on a Zebco. Somewhere, there’s a faded photo of me hugging a golden, mustachioed fish a third my size. I can still remember the pride I felt, as a crowd of cousins gathered around to admire my catch. I can also remember the words of my uncle: “It’s just a carp A garbage fish.” The onlookers shuffled back to the picnic shelter and the 6 foot Italian sub. As the pride drained out of me, something else drained out of the carp. Looking back it was probably eggs venting. But to nine year-old me, a “garbage…

❱ THE MAGIC OF MONGOLIA It took me a while, but I finally read Ross Purnell’s Mongolia story [Feb.-Mar. 2017]. I found it last night while going through a stack of unread magazines, and I absolutely loved it. I previously thought I had no special interest in traveling that far for any fish, but the author reminded me that, as Henry David Thoreau wrote, “Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.” While I see little chance of getting there in the short term, Mongolia is now emphatically on my life list. Thanks for the great read! TOM MONTGOMERY JACKSON, WYOMING ❱ BIG FISH, TRUE STORY “Bow River Reboot” by Sean F. Britt in the previous issue [Feb.-Mar. 2018] was…

IF YOU LOVE THE HUNT FOR NATIVE FISH HIGH IN THE ROCKIES, YOU TIE FLIES ALL WINTER IN ANTICIPATION OF LATE JUNE ICE-OUT, AND YOU’RE WILLING TO HIKE FOR MILES TO HAVE A PRISTINE LAKE ALL TO YOURSELF, YOU MIGHT BE SUFFERING FROM ALTITUDE SICKNESS. You’re not ill, but you’ve caught the raw passion and motivation that pushes fly fishers to climb thousands of feet in one day by foot or horseback to catch native trout. I think the band Disturbed describes it best when they sing “Get up, come on, get down with the sickness.” This kind of madness is contagious, and I promise after trying it you may also feel a bit mentally warped. It brings to mind the time I was running down the side of a…

CENTURIES AGO, AMAZONIA NATIVES LEARNED TO CATCH THEIR MOST REVERED AND DESIRED FISH WITHOUT USING BAIT. They may well be the “original” purveyors of artificial lures. Using techniques similar to the way they made their thin, high-tensile-strength bowstrings, they braided and twisted sinewy plant fibers together to make fishing lines. They attached the lines to the ends of straight, limber poles. They shaped their hooks from fire-hardened, V-shaped branches, but instead of using bait, they used more of what the jungle offered—the mobile inner bark fibers of plant called peacock beard, lashed to the hook in the shape of a broom. Bait of any kind attracts mostly piranhas, but piranhas are bony and piranha teeth sever valuable fishing lines. High in the headwaters of the Amazon in what today is…

GREG SENYO SEEMS to be everywhere these days. He runs a guide service called Steelhead Alley Outfitters out of Holland, Ohio, and when he’s not fishing, he’s coming up with some genuinely fresh new ideas at the vise. It’s not just that Senyo is a good fly tier; he’s a thinker, and the ideas and notions floating around in his head have given us a whole new batch of materials to play with, as well as some innovative new ways of looking at fly design. One of the most impressive techniques I’ve seen from Senyo is highlighted by his stunningly beautiful steel-head fly called the Predator Scandi. My point in writing this entire article is to show how Senyo makes a fly with a broad, wide profile without using excessively…

WE ALL NEED a “Lefty” . . . even if he spends his adult life doing things right-handed. We need a Lefty for myriad, personal reasons. He’s needed to set the bar, to show us the way, to point out what’s possible, to mentor us, and to make us laugh. He’s there to teach us how to make the tough decisions, to be humble, gracious, get rid of our coats and ties, to eat right (just kidding), and to form tight loops! Dropping Jaws In the fall of 1965, Bernard “Lefty” Kreh was the newly appointed director of the Metropolitan Miami Fishing Tournament, and he was scheduled to speak at a regular meeting of my fishing club. He was new to the job, unknown to the local fishing community, and…

Due to the efforts of Untamed Angling in conjunction with the Brazilian government and 13 indigenous tribes, the Rio Marié is the largest catch-and-release fishing preserve on the planet, with 600 miles of river under an exclusive treaty that preserves the rainforest ecosystem and mandates catch-and-release sport fishing only for Cichla temensis. The treaty signed in 2014 by all parties is valid for 20 years. In that time, Untamed Angling along with native guides are conducting a study to monitor the effects of catch-and-release angling on the fishery. At the start of the treaty, Brazilian government biologists proclaimed the Rio Marié had the highest numbers of large temensis (over 20 pounds) in the Amazon basin. Time will tell whether catch-and-release will improve these numbers. Each temensis catch is weighed and…

1 Dress the shank and lock in a loop of trailer wire by folding the tag ends back just behind the return wire. Wrap with a tight layer of thread and apply Zap-A-Gap. Tie in a length of Diamond Braid, make three or four wraps to form a short tag, tie off, and clip the excess. 2 Clip 30 strands of Fluoro Fibre and measure them so they extend about half the length of the shank beyond the hook. Tie it in and wrap back over it to the silver tag. Apply a drop of Solarez Bone Dry to the base of the Fluoro Fibre, hold it at a 45-degree angle, and cure it with your UV lamp. The resin stiffens the base of the Fluoro to prevent it from…

NORTHERN NEVADA IS on fire. It is night, and I am inside my tent listening to fire reports on the radio. The announcer’s voice crackles with static, and in a slow deadpan he reads a list detailing the location and description of each fire. I hold the radio up to my ear, adjust the dial, and turn up the volume. There are three new fires to the west in Humboldt County. I put the radio down, check my maps by flashlight, and draw a circle around each location. Later, two of the smaller circles north of the City of Elko become a single larger circle. The fires have been burning across northern Nevada for days now, started by lightning strikes, fueled by years of drought and the intense summer heat.…