Indholdsfortegnelse for June/July 2019 i Fly Fisherman

It was a historic look back at how Fly Fisherman magazine and its cast of writers and photographers shaped the sport as we know it today. This issue is something totally different, not a look back at the past but a step forward into the next 50 years. Most noticeably, if you’re reading this column you’ll see that we’ve redesigned the table of contents and all our departments. This is mostly the creative vision of our new art director Dennis Pastucha, who started with Fly Fisherman in January of this year. He’s been an avid fly fisher and a Fly Fisherman reader for about 15 years. If you fish Pennsylvania streams or the steel-head and brown trout tributaries of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, you may have shared the water…

21ST CENTURY APPROACHES TO PRESERVING QUALITY EXPERIENCES ON THE WATER BOOTS ALLEN Data from numerous blue ribbon trout streams across the West suggests that fish are no smaller or less plentiful than they were several decades ago. In some cases, there are more trout and the size ratio is healthier. Fish may have been easier to catch back then, but our tackle and techniques have improved. Fly fishers who have similarly evolved can hook into just as many as anglers did several decades ago. But less crowded streams? That’s another issue. Tales of angler-driven congestion abound these days: 80 driftboat launches in three hours on Section A of the Green River; 120 boat trailers parked at Three Dollar Bridge on the Madison; two or more rods to a riffle on…

In August 2018, an international team of scientists and fly fishers set off on the first-ever descent from the uppermost headwaters of the Selenga River all the way to Russia’s Lake Baikal. The 1,000-mile journey ended at the oldest and deepest lake in the world, estimated to hold one-fifth of the planet’s fresh, unfrozen water. The Selenga provides more than half of the lake’s inflow, and is best known as the largest intact taimen ecosystem in the world. The river is also the site of 19 proposed dams and diversions. The team comprised of Lanie Gal-land of the University of Nevada, Reno; Mikhail Skopets of the Wild Salmon Center; and longtime taimen guide Peter Fong planned the first ever continuous journey to systematically sample the Selenga’s non-gamefish, and its populations…

THROUGH THE TINKERINGS OF MAN, THE VAST MAJORITY OF CALIFORNIA’S RIVERS HAVE BECOME A HIGHLY ALTERED ECOSYSTEMS. SINCE THE ERA OF THE CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH IN THE MID-1800S, ALMOST EVERY ONE OF CALIFORNIA’S MAJOR RIVERS HAS BEEN DAMMED, DIVERTED, LEVEED, OR OTHERWISE ALTERED IN SOME WAY. ONCE A RIVER IS DAMMED, ITS NATURAL DYNAMICS ARE COMPLETELY AND PERMANENTLY CHANGED. YET THERE ARE A FEW DRAINAGES THAT ARE STILL PRISTINE IN THEIR HEADWATERS. I CALL THESE WATERSHEDS THE “LAST CALIFORNIA.” THESE ARE THE RIVERS ABOVE THE DAMS, THE RIVERS THAT WERE NEVER DREDGED FOR GOLD, AND STILL FLOW OUT OF INTACT OLD-GROWTH FORESTS OR HEALTHY HIGH SIERRA MEADOWS. THEY HAVEN’T BEEN OVERRUN BY NONNATIVE VEGETATION OR CHOKED OUT BY POOR WATER QUALITY AND THE RESULTING UNNATURAL ALGAE BLOOMS. IN THESE PLACES,…

HOOK: #4 TIEMCO 5263. DUMBBELLS: LARGE RED PSEUDO EYES. THREAD: GRAY 3/0 MONOCORD OR 6/0 UNI-THREAD. FLASH: PEARL ANGEL HAIR. TAIL/WING: BLACK-BARRED RABBIT STRIP. BELLY: SILVER MINNOW ARIZONA SIMI SEAL DUBBING. COLLAR: NATURAL MALLARD FLANK. HEAD: RABBIT FUR DUBBING LOOP. WITH ALL THE NEW TYING MATERIALS THESE DAYS, IT HAS BECOME REALLY EASY TO COMPLICATE THINGS. IT’S HARD TO LOOK AT A DELICIOUS PILE OF FLUFF AND FEATHERS AND LIMIT YOURSELF TO USING ONLY WHAT’S NEEDED, WITHOUT PILING EVERYTHING ONTO THE HOOK. THIS AFFLICTION SEEMS MOST PREVALENT IN MODERN STREAMERS. DESIGNING A FLY USING A MINIMUM OF COMMONLY AVAILABLE MATERIALS, AND THOUGHTFULLY APPLYING THEM, IS A CHALLENGE WE ALL FACE. Matt Winkler has obviously got a pretty good handle on this skill set. His Kamikaze Sculpin is a simple fly…

MIRAMICHI MIRACLE I am writing, with a degree of consternation, about the so-called “Miracle on the Miramichi” in the April-May 2019 issue. As I digested the message, written with unconcealed glee by John Field, I couldn’t help but wonder why on earth the resurgence of stripers in the Miramichi could be joyously called a “miracle” and “one of the most successful gamefish recovery stories ever recorded.” I also wondered how anyone could be happy or proud to write about such an event, when in fact the striper invasion could spell the demise of one of the finest Atlantic salmon fisheries still left on this continent—and one that is already in dire straits I have been subscribing to Fly Fisherman for years. However, I have to say that you really dropped…

A CATCH-AND-RELEASE CAPTAIN BALANCING HER LIFE THROUGH YOGA HILARY HUTCHESON They might affirm they are trying to eat healthier, drink more water, get ample sleep and exercise. But more than a few are quickly betrayed by the weathered jowls of dehydration, tired eyes, creaking joints, a bum back, and frustrated family members. Their bank accounts yo-yo like a 1980s fad diet, as their moods follow suit. They take the “work hard, play hard” mantra to heart, giving their all in all they do. In some ways, Capt. Abbie Schuster fits the bill. She admittedly works too hard as owner/operator of Kismet Outfitters. Schuster’s successful fly-fishing operation on Martha’s Vineyard demands her bell-to-bell attention as its head guide, reservationist, bookkeeper, marketer, and IT tech support. Growing up in a New England…

More than 80 volunteers and donors gathered at the Ralph A. MacMullan Conference Center near Grayling, Michigan on Jan. 5 to celebrate the accomplishments of Fly Fisherman’s 2019 Conservationist of the Year Joe Hemming. As president of nonprofit Anglers of the Au Sable, Hemming played a critical leadership role in a lawsuit against a fish farm that obtained a permit from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to raise up to 300,000 trout per year at the Grayling Fish Hatchery. The permit allowed the farm to pollute the Au Sable River with 160,000 pounds of suspended solids (fish food and excrement) annually upstream of the famed Holy Waters catch-and-release section. Hemming’s volunteer legal efforts on behalf of Anglers of the Au Sable appealed the DEQ permit on the grounds…

LIKE MOST ANGLERS, I LEARNED TO FLY FISH ON THE WATERS CLOSEST TO MY HOME. BUT I WAS LUCKY. I WAS RAISED IN CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA, AND REVERED LIMESTONE-INFLUENCED SPRING CREEKS LIKE THE LITTLE JUNIATA RIVER, SPRUCE CREEK, PENNS CREEK, AND THE APTLY NAMED SPRING CREEK WERE MY CLASSROOMS. When my wife and I moved to Paradise Valley five years ago to fulfill a dream of living in Montana, the Yellowstone River was a huge influencer, but there are spring creeks here too—DePuy, Armstrong, Nelson’s—and fishing them often reminds me of my formative days in Pennsylvania, especially during the small yellowish mayfly hatches that Western anglers call Pale Morning Duns (PMDs). Many Western spring creek aficionados place PMDs at the apex of summer mayfly hatches, the same way Eastern anglers envision…

1 Dress the front of the shank with thread and attach the eyes to the underside about two eye lengths back from the hook eye. Wrap the thread back to the bend. Tie in a clump of pearl Angel Hair at its center, just above the hook point. Fold the front ends of the clump back and wrap back over it to the bend. 2 Separate the fur on a black-barred rabbit strip, leaving about a shank length of hide beyond the division. Tie the division point down at the bend of the hook with five or six firmly stacked thread wraps. 3 Fold the remaining rabbit strip back over the bend so it’s out of the way. Move the thread forward to just in front of the hook point…

SIGHT FISHING IN THE TINY KINGDOM OF LESOTHO OLIVER WHITE My first trip to Africa was a tigerfish trip with Tourette Fishing in 2013. That resulted in my first column in Fly Fisherman, a cover story in the Feb.-Mar. 2015 issue titled “The Day It Happened.” It was arguably my best fishing adventure to date, spectacular fishing wrapped up in an amazing landscape and cultural experience. It left me longing to return time and time again, and I’ve been able to make a handful of trips to Africa now and I still find myself in awe. As with many trips, you often check one thing off your list to catch or do, and add several new ones to the list. The Kingdom of Lesotho, one of the world’s smallest countries,…

Nile perch are some of the world’s largest freshwater fish, and can reach weights exceeding 400 pounds. Because they often live in wild, dangerous habitats occupied by crocodiles and hippos, and because the bigger fish feed mostly at night, few people have caught them on fly tackle. African outfitter Tourette Fishing guided fly fisher Keith Rose-Innes to his first Nile perch in January 2019, on an unnamed river in Cameroon. The fish measured 111 centimeters (about 44 inches) and likely weighed 60 pounds or more. Rose-Innes, who owns Alphonse Fishing Company and has caught more than 5,500 giant trevally over the course of a 20-year guiding career, said he was using a fly called a Peanut on a 8/0 Gamakatsu hook, using an erratic retrieve when the fly “hit a…

Anglers and guides have suspicions about how fish move and migrate, but how do we really know for sure? How do we address issues about “carrying capacity”—how much angling can a population withstand before changes in fish behavior influence the quality of the fishery? Rather than relying on anecdotes to direct conservation and management efforts, a multi-year research project was launched in 2018 to track the movements of giant trevally ( Caranx ignobilis ) within a group of atolls in the Seychelles. This project was instigated by the Alphonse Fishing Company to make sure that their current level of angling pressure is not altering the behavior and movement patterns of GTs, and if it is, then use data from the research to inform changes in fishing practices. This research is…

THINK STEPHEN STILLS SUMMED UP MY FEELINGS ON POND FISHING BEST WHEN HE WROTE THE IMMORTAL LYRICS “IF YOU CAN’T BE WITH THE ONE YOU LOVE . . . LOVE THE ONE YOU’RE WITH.” WHEN I DAYDREAM OF AN UPCOMING FLY-FISHING EXCURSION, IT USUALLY INVOLVES MY ANNUAL TRIP OUT WEST. I FANTASIZE ABOUT PODS OF GULPERS BREAKING THE GLASSY WATER ON HEBGEN LAKE, FEEDING ON CALLIBAETIS SPINNERS. I THINK ABOUT LARGE CUTTHROAT SIPPING GREEN DRAKES FROM THE SURFACE OF THE UPPER YELLOW-STONE RIVER. MOST OF ALL, MY WIFE AND I ENJOY SHARING THE SCENERY AND NATURAL BEAUTY OF THE AMERICAN WEST WITH OUR TWO CHILDREN. THEN REALITY SETS IN, AND I REALIZE THERE’S ANOTHER 11 MONTHS OF THE YEAR, AND I NEED TO FIND CLOSER LOCATIONS TO FISH. BUT THIS…