Indholdsfortegnelse for August/September 2019 i Fly Fisherman

RUNNING & GUNNING FOR THE NORTHEAST’S PREMIER SALTWATER GAMEFISH ALAN CAOLO THE FALSE ALBACORE RUN IS ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED ANNUAL EVENTS ALONG THE ATLANTIC SEABOARD FROM CAPE COD TO NORTH CAROLINA’S OUTER BANKS. THE ALBIE SEASON IS SOMEWHAT PREDICTABLE, BUT THEIR EXACT ARRIVAL VARIES YEAR TO YEAR, AS DOES THE DURATION OF THE RUN, WHICH IS RELATIVELY BRIEF—TYPICALLY FOUR TO SIX WEEKS AFTER THEY FIRST APPEAR. Compared to other popular gamefish, such as striped bass, this flash-in-the-pan appearance fuels an “albie mania” that disrupts the lives of countless Atlantic coast fly fishers who become consumed with chasing them. Albacore (also known as little tunny) are arguably the most sensational fish you can pursue inshore. They are fast, powerful, sometimes fickle, other times ferocious, often exasperating, and never boring.…

ARTIFISHAL Artifishal directed by Josh “Bones” Murphy. Patagonia Films 2018 with Yvon Chouinard (executive producer), 75 minutes. For a complete list of showings visit patagonia.com/artifishal Early in the new Patagonia film Artifishal, tourists and school kids crowd into a viewing area, eagerly snapping photos of fish. Below them, a guide points out the distinguishing features of salmon species. But this isn’t a nature walk at the local preserve. The visitors stand in a dark building. The fish are clubbed and sliced and beheaded, then shoved down a line as men in orange bibs squeeze eggs and semen out of their bloodied carcasses. It’s as if a factory farm slaughterhouse had opened up for public tours. That somewhat jarring scene sets up a central premise of Artifishal: The hatchery system is…

MINDFULNESS. IT’S A QUALITY THAT HEALTH EXPERTS SAY IS ONE OF THE BIGGEST WELLNESS TRENDS FOR 2019. IT POPS UP AS A BUZZWORD THROUGHOUT SOCIETY. MINDFUL EATING. MINDFUL PARENTING. MINDFUL MARRIAGE. MINDFUL EXERCISE. MINDFUL FLY FISHING. Since I’m a natural poo-pooer of self-help fads and wellness trends, it took a number of incidents and observations during a recent trip to the Patagonia region of Argentina to adopt this concept of becoming truly present. For a guide, mindfulness has always been key. I guide with intention, all synapses firing, always present in an effort to give my clients the best experience possible. But as an angler . . . not so much. A nonwork day on the water typically reveals my carelessness, sloppiness, and lack of discipline, likely the result of…

IN 2014, JOHN O’HEARN AND I WENT INTO THE LAST DAY OF THE MARCH MERKIN WITH A STRONG LEAD. WE CAUGHT TWO LARGE FISH ON THE SECOND DAY OF THE TOURNAMENT, TAKING THE LEAD FROM NED JOHNSON AND DOUG KILPATRICK, WHO HAD POSTED A SINGLE FISH ON THE FIRST DAY. NO ONE ELSE IN THE FIELD HAD CAUGHT ANY FISH EXCEPT US, AND AFTER A FISHLESS DAY THREE, WE RETURNED TO THE CHECK-IN TO SEE HOW WE DID. WITH JUST FIVE MINUTES TO GO, IT LOOKED AS THOUGH WE HAD WON THE TOURNAMENT, BUT SCOTT COLLINS AND GREG SMITH ARRIVED AT THE LAST MOMENT AND SUBMITTED THEIR SCORE OF THREE FISH: THEY HAD BESTED THE FIELD IN DRAMATIC FASHION, CEMENTING THEIR REPUTATION AS ONE OF THE MOST CONSISTENT TEAMS IN…

IN THE GIANT VALLEY OF SOUTH PARK, SURROUNDED BY WHAT SEEMS TO BE AN ENDLESS SKY, THE RESERVOIRS OF ANTERO, SPINNEY MOUNTAIN, AND ELEVENMILE PROVIDE AN ANGLING PARADISE WITHIN EASY STRIKING DISTANCE OF THE FRONT RANGE. THE THREE RESERVOIRS ARE WITHIN A 20-MINUTE DRIVE OF ONE ANOTHER, WITH QUALITY TROUT FEEDING IN LARGE SCHOOLS DURING THE SPRING, SUMMER, AND FALL. For fly anglers, the season starts when the ice begins to melt around the edge of the reservoir or opening day when the ice has disappeared completely. Spring is one of the best times of the year to pursue large trout, with openings of warm water supplying food and triggering the fish into pre-spawn mode. This window of edge-fishing opportunities can vary depending on the weather, sometimes only lasting a…

THE CONTENTIOUS DEBATE OVER LIMITING USE OF MONTANA’S MOST POPULAR RIVER MICHAEL WRIGHT The cliché has come up recently in conversations about the Madison, the child of Yellowstone National Park’s Gibbon and Firehole rivers. The cliché isn’t resurfacing because the river has suddenly become more special, but because a lot of people are worried about proposals for regulating it. In 2018, Montana’s Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) put forward a recreation plan for the river that would have capped the number of outfitters, set up non-commercial days for certain sections, and barred boats from the two wade-only sections, among other things. It came after years of growth in angler numbers, which peaked at 207,000 in 2017, the year of FWP’s most recent survey. The Madison was the first…

Notable fly fishers are often asked: If you could fish with anyone on the planet, who would it be? Pose this to renowned Argentine fly-fishing pioneer Jorge Trucco, and he’ll eagerly answer, “Any of my guides.” This, coming from a man who has fished with industry legends, Hollywood celebrities, and government leaders. “There’s no one more passionate about fly fishing than a good local guide,” says Trucco. “All they want is to share their knowledge and love of the fishery with others. Good guides aren’t in it for themselves—they want the best experience for their clients, and get as excited for their fish as their own. Now, that’s someone I want to fish with, every time.” Trucco formed his perspective over more than four decades pioneering and improving the guided…

HOOK: #2 Mustad Signature Series S71. THREAD: Cream Cascade 210 denier, or Danville’s Flat Waxed Nylon. WEIGHT: X-small Wapsi lead dumbbell eyes, painted with nail polish. CLAW/ARM: Large (4mm) Cascade Ultra Chenille, white, knotted, trimmed, burned to crab claw shape. Color with permanent markers. DUBBING/ UNDERBODY: Scrap sparkle yarn mixed 1 1 with white rabbit fur. COLLAR: White or cream Whiting hen saddle feather, wrapped and then trimmed on the dumbbell side. BODY: Aunt Lydia’s Sparkle Yarn, tied figure-eight style, two bunches at a time, trimmed to shape. LEGS: Three silicone legs, knotted between yarn bunches, clear with orange tip and olive with black flake. GLUE : Thin cyanoacrylate. VISIT FLYFISHERMAN.COM FOR COMPLETE INSTRUCTIONS AND STEP-BY-STEP PHOTOS OF THE STRONG ARM MERKIN.…

1 Start the thread behind the eye and wrap a thread base back to the bend. Cut a strip of tan foam slightly narrower than the hook gap, and clip the corners. Tie in the cut end of the foam at the bend of the hook with the rounded end extending just past the bend. Use three or four tight wraps to anchor the foam in place, and make sure they are one on top of the other. 2 Cut a strip of darker foam that is just about as wide as the hook gap. Rust is shown here, but you can use any color, including purple. Notch the end into a V-shape. Tie the second strip of foam down on top of the first piece in the same manner.…

CHASING TAILS ON THE NUBIAN FLATSOLIVER WHITE Triggers have many of the attributes of their better-loved friends. You catch them only by sight fishing, and they are often tailing in shallow water when they feed. They are challenging to hook, disproportionately hard fighting, and they are notoriously dirty fighters, often sneaking under a rock or coral head and breaking you off. Their goofy smile packs a powerful bite, and their teeth destroy flies. They can cut a 1/0 hook in half, and can take your finger if you’re not careful removing the fly. They spook easily. If they see the fly first and get focused on it, they sometimes follow the fly and eat it at your rod tip. But if they see you or your fly line first, it’s…

YETI LOADOUT GOBOX The biggest problem with Yeti’s new LoadOut GoBox ($250, yeti.com ) is that I’m gonna need three of them. Or maybe four. The indestructible, waterproof cargo box is meant as a tackle organizer, but I instantly saw it as a portable fly-tying carryall. All my necks and saddles will go into the removable, zippered “Pack Attic” secured inside the lid of the box. My Dyna-King vise will sit neatly on the bottom, and the built-in divider will keep the big stuff like bucktails, hare masks, fox tails, and Zonker strips separated from smaller Ziploc baggies of dubbing and short feathers like turkey flats, marabou, and mallard flank feathers. And in the removable caddy—which has three compartments and a carry handle—I’ll store all my thread, fly-tying…

On March 12, President Donald Trump signed into law a wide-ranging public lands package of considerable interest to fly fishers and all who value clean and sustainable watersheds. The success of the 600-plus-page S. 47—otherwise known as the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act—speaks to the political power of sportsmen and conservationists, as well as Congress’s capacity to work in a bipartisan effort to advance widely shared environmental values. In the U.S. Senate, it passed as part of omnibus legislation that included the permanent reauthorization of the fund in a 92-8 vote. In the House of Representatives it passed by a vote of 363-62. In addition to permanently funding the Land and Water Conservation Fund—whose fate lay uncertain after expiring in the fall of 2018—S. 47 also…

THE BRUTE WAS HOLDING IN A BARELY PERCEPTIBLE LIE AMONG THE COBBLES, FINNING OCCASIONALLY FOR BALANCE. WHILE WELL CAMOUFLAGED FROM ABOVE, HE SHOWED THE UNMISTAKABLE PROFILE OF A MATURE SPECIMEN: MASSIVE SHOULDERS, ENLARGED JAW, DEEP CRIMSON BELLY. Holding my breath, I checked my backcast and threw at him from a crouch. He smashed the heavily dressed fly before I was even on top of my drift, and immediately tore off downstream with it, vaulting over two small waterfalls before I caught up and brought him to hand. What sets this scenario apart from a typical storyline is that I was using a 2-weight rod, the water in question was flowing at about 9 cubic feet per second (cfs), and my trophy was a fantastically colored, 12-inch greenback cutthroat trout in…

HOOK: #6-12 TIEMCO 5262 OR 5263. THREAD: BROWN OR TAN 3/0 MONOCORD. UNDERBODY: 2MM TAN FLY FOAM. OVERBODY: 2MM TAN, RUST, OR PURPLE FLY FOAM. LEGS: MEDIUM BROWN ROUND RUBBER LEGS. HACKLE: BROWN ROOSTER NECK OR SADDLE, TRIMMED SHORT. BODY: OLIVE KRYSTAL CHENILLE. UNDERWING: RAINBOW KRYSTAL FLASH. OVERWING: COW OR YEARLING ELK HAIR. THORAX: BRONZE ARIZONA SYNTHETIC PEACOCK DUBBING. FOAMY DRYS SEEM TO HAVE TAKEN OVER AS THE FLIES OF CHOICE FOR DRY/DROPPER RIGS THESE DAYS, AND GUIDES LOVE THEM FOR STRIKE INDICATORS AS WELL AS AN OCCASIONAL, SURPRISING EAT. FOAM BUGS ARE EASILY MAINTAINED, BUOYANT, AND DURABLE, AND IN MOST CASES, ARE PRETTY EASY TO SEE ON THE WATER. WHAT THEY GENERALLY LACK, HOWEVER, IS ACTUALLY GETTING EATEN. MANY OF THESE PSEUDO-INDICATORS ARE SO HEAVILY DRESSED FOR FLOTATION THAT…

THE FIRST TIME I SAW HER SHE WAS ONLY A WEEK OLD, A FIST-SIZE FUR BALL, BLACK, AND BLIND, AND SMOOTH LIKE VELVET. THERE WERE ELEVEN OF THEM IN THAT LITTER, ALL IDENTICAL SIBLINGS, EXCEPT FOR RUNTY WHO WAS JUST AS IDENTICAL, ONLY SMALLER. MOSTLY THEY SLEPT, CUDDLED UP IN A PILE OF BODIES, WHICH BRISTLED WITH BIG STUBBY NOSES AND RATTY TAILS SHAPED LIKE QUESTION MARKS. OR THEY CLUSTERED ON THEIR MOTHER’S BELLY, OVERSIZED TICKS LITERALLY SUCKING THE LIFE OUT OF HER. All in all, it was your average litter of purebreds, impossibly cute and so desirable there was a long waiting list of prospective owners. There was absolutely no indication that, within only a few months, and without any training but for some basic obedience, one of the…