Indholdsfortegnelse for June/July 2022 i Fly Fisherman

WE CHOSE A BEAUTIFUL UNDERWATER PHOTO FROM BRIAN O’KEEFE FOR THE COVER OF THIS ISSUE BECAUSE THE WATER IS STRIKINGLY CLEAR, THE CHILEAN TROUT IS SHARPLY IN FOCUS, AND ITS EYE SEEMS TO BE STARING BACK INTO OUR WORLD. THOSE ARE MAJOR THEMES OF THIS ISSUE: HOW DO WE SPOT TROUT IN THEIR ELEMENT, AND HOW DO THEY PERCEIVE US AND (MOST IMPORTANTLY) OUR FLIES? In “Hide & Seek: How to Spot Trout in Light and Shadows” (page 54), I explain some strategies and tools to help make you more successful at sight fishing. I’ve been hunting trout this way for 35 years, and while I wasn’t blessed with a natural ability to spot trout like an osprey, I’ve been fortunate enough to spend weeks on the water with some…

My friend and mentor Frank Moore was a lot of things to a lot of people. He was a world-renowned fly fisherman, World War II veteran and hero, husband, father, conservationist, and all-around amazing human being. But it was Frank’s empathy and deep love of people that made him one of the greatest role models of the past century. The lives of thousands of people from all around the world were made better through the simple good fortune of having met Frank. His lifelong love affair with his bride Jeanne taught us what it really meant to be a devoted, loving husband. When U.S. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon was preparing legislation in Congress to protect more than 100,000 acres of Steamboat Creek in the upper North Umpqua watershed to…

Gurgling its way through Sproul State Forest, Twomile Run sure looks the part of a trout-choked Appalachian brookie stream. But until not too long ago, parts of it ran a putrid orange color—poisoned by acidic mine drainage from abandoned coal mines. Its waters were among the roughly 13,000 stream miles rendered lifeless throughout Appalachian coal country. But thanks to the impact of multiple passive systems engineered to treat the runoff, Twomile Run has made a dramatic comeback. In 2014, after the final passive treatment system had been given some time to work, a team of Trout Unlimited (TU) stream restoration specialists showed up at Twomile Run with electrofishing gear and cautious optimism. “Forty brook trout were observed that day,” recalled Amy Wolfe, who oversees TU’s Northeast Coldwater Habitat Program. “That…

Light waves are electromagnetic waves, and like all transverse waves, they vibrate in all directions. So even as a light wave is traveling from the sun to your eye, the wave is vibrating in all directions, even directions perpendicular to the direction the wave is traveling in. Light waves that are vibrating in all directions are called unpolarized light, and can come from a candle, a light fixture, or the sun. Polarization eliminates these multi-directional vibrations, and creates a type of light wave where the vibrations occur in only one plane. When you’re fishing with polarized glasses, this means all those vibrating light waves coming from the surface of the water—the light we call “glare”—is reduced and we see mostly the light waves coming relatively straight into our retinas. There…

WHEN PEOPLE HEAR THE WORD ADVENTURE, THEY OFTEN BEGIN TO ILLUSTRATE IN THEIR MINDS PLACES THAT ARE BEYOND THE REACH OF MOST MORTALS—BUT IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PLANET. A KAYAK CAN GET YOU INTO PLACES THAT MOST PEOPLE ONLY DREAM OF KAYAK FLY FISHING IS 100 PERCENT ADVENTURE, AND YOU ARE THE CAPTAIN, FIRST MATE, AND THE AUTHOR OF YOUR OWN STORY. AS SOON AS YOU PUSH AWAY FROM SHORE WITH YOUR FLY ROD ON BOARD, ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN. KAYAK FLY FISHING IS AN INEXPENSIVE WAY TO GET STARTED SALTWATER FLATS FISHING, BUT IT CAN ALSO BE AS INTENSIVE AND INTRICATE AS YOU WANT IT TO BE AS YOU BUILD AND FORTIFY YOUR ABILITIES. Kayak fly fishing in Florida has brought me to…

DANNY LANE IS A 34-YEAR-OLD FISHING GUIDE AND COMMERCIAL FLY TIER. HE WAS BORN AND RAISED IN IDAHO AND HAS TWO BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTERS, A LOVELY, BADASS WIFE, AND AN UGLY BUT LOVABLE TEAL GREEN ADIPOSE DRIFT BOAT. I FIRST MET LANE ONLINE, THEN LATER IN PERSON, WHEN MY WIFE LISA AND I WENT OVER TO FISH WITH HIM FOR A FEW DAYS ON THE SOUTH FORK OF THE SNAKE. WE ALL IMMEDIATELY HIT IT OFF AND SETTLED INTO THAT COMFORTABLE FAMILIARITY THAT MAKES FISHING FUN. Lane has been guiding for eight years and spends most of his time on the South Fork, Teton, and Henry’s Fork rivers. Eastern Idaho is home to an awful lot of water, and the size of the Snake is simply breathtaking on first viewing. The…

EAST BRANCH ACCESS The Beau Beasley article “Public or Private?” in the April-May 2022 issue raised important issues, many of which merit greater attention. Here in Montana we enjoy expansive rights to float and wade our streams, and our public rights have prevailed in our courts over repeated attempts by wealthy, often absentee, landowners in their efforts to restrict public access. But of course our laws here in Montana are quite different from those Beasley exposed in New York, and different also from Wyoming, which adheres to private ownership, “middle-of-the-streambed” exclusions similar to what the New York landowners are claiming. The challenges we face include an increase in the numbers of anglers, and with them the amount of trash and other items some people leave behind. As more people move…

THE NAME “KETTLE CREEK” IS ONE OFTEN DISCUSSED IN ADMIRATION AMONG NORTHEAST ANGLERS, AND IT’S FOR A LIST OF GREAT REASONS. IT’S NO WONDER THAT THE STREAM—WITH ITS ABUNDANCE OF INSECT HATCHES, HEALTHY TROUT POPULATIONS, MILES OF WATER, AND BEAUTIFUL MOUNTAINS—HAS DRAWN ANGLERS FROM AFAR AND BEEN WRITTEN ABOUT EXTENSIVELY BY FAMOUS AUTHORS, INCLUDING JOE BROOKS, ERNEST SCHWIEBERT, AND CHARLES WETZEL, AMONG OTHERS. Kettle Creek is one of north-central Pennsylvania’s crown jewels, and flows through a beautiful region of steep mountains, thick forests, and expansive designated wild areas. Its cool currents and tight valleys have brought me here many times since my first trip as a young boy. I caught my first native brook trout on a fly here many years ago, and still remember it with clarity. In the…

YOU CAST ACCURATELY WITH JUST ENOUGH SLACK TO DEFEAT DRAG, AND YOUR FLY DRIFTS PERFECTLY OVER THE BIG TROUT. THE FISH’S PECTORAL FINS FLICK OUT, A SURE SIGN THAT IT’S SEEN YOUR FLY, AND THE TROUT RISES UP TOWARD YOUR IMITATION. SUCCESS APPEARS CERTAIN UNTIL, 3 INCHES SHORT OF YOUR FLY, THE FISH STOPS AND DRIFTS A SHORT DISTANCE DOWNSTREAM BEFORE SINKING BACK TO ITS LIE. A REFUSAL. What went wrong? Your fly and drift were obviously good enough to cause the fish to rise from its lie and approach to within a short distance of the fly. But once it got close, something caused it to reject your fly. It could have been the fly’s behavior, slight micro-drag, or something about the tippet might have put the fish off.…

FLY FISHING’S WORST-KEPT SECRET—THE STORIED DESCHUTES RIVER—HAS AN UGLY STEPSISTER. MAYBE YOU’RE WEARY OF THE NOTORIOUS “RUBBER HATCH” OF RAFTING SPLASH-AND-GIGGLERS SHOUTING “ARE YA CATCHIN’ ANY?” OR YOU’VE ENDURED YOUR LAST LINEUP AT THE BOAT RAMP. DON’T FRET. A SHORT DRIVE COULD PUT YOU ON A MINIATURE VERSION OF THE LEGENDARY RIVER, SANS MOST OF THE ANNOYANCES. NOT SURPRISINGLY, IT’S A TRIBUTARY OF THE MIGHTY DESCHUTES. IT’S THE CROOKED RIVER. Outward appearances are off-putting on first glance. I shrugged in disappointment on my first visit, wondering why anyone was wasting their time on this inferior trickle. As early as the 1850s, fur trapper Peter Skene Ogden called the area “a most dreary barren country.” But I soon learned the Crooked has redeeming qualities, and if you plumb its cloudy depths,…

ON JANUARY 23, 2022, THE ANGLING AND CONSERVATION WORLD LOST A GIANT. JUST ONE WEEK SHY OF HIS 99TH BIRTHDAY, FRANK MOORE PASSED AWAY PEACEFULLY, SURROUNDED BY JEANNE, THE LOVE OF HIS LIFE, AND THE REST OF HIS FAMILY. FRANK SURVIVED D-DAY IN NORMANDY AND THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE BEFORE COMING BACK TO OREGON TO MARRY JEANNE. HE EMBODIED THE SPIRIT OF THE GREATEST GENERATION, AND INSPIRED ALL WHO KNEW HIM TO DO AND BE BETTER. I am just one of many people privileged to call Frank a friend. I could never adequately express the countless lives Frank touched and the relationships he built throughout his life as an angler, conservationist, and founder of the famous Steamboat Inn on Oregon’s North Umpqua River. So I invited a few friends…

ON A CRISP SEPTEMBER MORNING, EMILY BASTIAN CAST HER MIDGE INTO RIFFLES ALONG THE ZEALAND RIVER IN NEW HAMPSHIRE. DOWNSTREAM WAS A JUNKYARD OF UPENDED STUMPS AND TREES. THE RIVER’S COURSE WOUND AWKWARDLY, LYING BRAIDED, UNCOMMON FOR EASTERN FLOWS. EVIDENCE OF EXCAVATION WAS OBVIOUS, AS DEMONSTRATED BY WEBBING-BOUND BLOCKS OF BOULDERS, ALL SECURED IN PLACE BY THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE IN AN ATTEMPT TO REROUTE THE RIVER TO AVOID A WASHOUT ON A ROAD THAT ACCESSES MULTIPLE TRAILHEADS AND CAMPSITES. “This is frustrating,” she expounded. “All we want to do is preserve native trout and their habitat. This isn’t the way.” Her attestation is a statement of her life mission: to protect wild native trout and their habitat. She’s proved her mettle through years of advocacy, most recently as…

I HAVE A FISHING BUDDY NAMED GREG. HE’S NOT JUST ANY FISHING BUDDY—WE SORT OF GREW UP FLY FISHING TOGETHER, AND THE THINGS I DIDN’T LEARN FROM HIM, I LEARNED WITH HIM. Decades ago, we both lived in Colorado and we frequently fished the Fryingpan River below Ruedi Reservoir. The first mile below the dam was loaded with big trout, and Greg caught a lot of them. I caught a few. Greg and I grew up in the same hometown, and we had almost identical fishing experience and skills, with one exception. Greg was naturally good at spotting trout, and I wasn’t. He walked the river slowly or stood stock still. To the uninitiated, he looked as though he was staring at the river, but he wasn’t. He was scanning…

As discussed previously in regard to polarization, light is an electromagnetic wave. The wavelengths of the light waves we can see range from 380 to 740 nanometers (nm). This is the visible light spectrum. For instance, a wavelength of 450 nm is blue, 550 nm is green, 650 nm is red, and so on. Every visible wavelength translates as a color to us. We can’t see most light waves. For instance, most ultraviolet light falls below 380 nm, light above 700 nm is called infrared, and there are x-rays and gamma rays—all are nonvisible electromagnetic waves. Short wavelengths carry a high amount of energy and can be damaging, while long wavelengths have low energy. That’s why ultraviolet radiation can burn your skin, and infrared radiation is harmless. Polarization helps us…

Personal responsibility and safety should remain priorities at all times, plus it’s equally important to adhere to local navigation and safety requirements. While some states may not mandate navigation lights on boats below a certain size, lights are both safe and smart. There are plenty of kayak navigation lights available on Amazon and at other kayak dealers—a simple search will return countless options. It’s also wise to inform loved ones where you’ll be and when you expect to be back. Keep a cell phone handy and easily accessible, and don’t forget to wear a Coast Guard-approved PFD. MUSTANG SURVIVAL MIT 100 MANUAL INFLATABLE Kayak fishing is a compact sport. There isn’t a lot of extra room to allow for movement and action, but a PFD isn’t optional. The MIT 100…