Wading through Books: Study Habits for Fly Fishing

February 15, 2017

There are plenty of off-season activities for fly fishers to engage in. Tying flies, cleaning gear, and attending various conservation banquets can all go a long way in helping spring come quickly. All those things are important and keep you busy, but there is another way to spend time that can really benefit you once the ice breaks.

Devoting hours to a passive activity, like studying, can payoff enormously.

Studying has a negative connotation. If the last exposure that you had to sitting down with a book and a highlighter was college or grad school, the association is probably something like a pragmatic exercise in grueling endurance. Yet there is so much more. So many other ways to study. Ultimately, I think you’ll find that engaging in a discipline like this, under circumstances where the payoff is more fish, leads to more than “means to an end” drudgery.

Here are three ways to think about studying fly fishing:

To Seek Out Small Trout

February 13, 2017

To the average person, the idea of catching small fish probably doesn’t hold much appeal. There is a cultural meme, for what has surely been centuries, that involves the besmirching of anglers that can only catch little fish. Not to demean conventional anglers, but even most fly fishers don’t get excited over the prospect of netting trout that hardly span the length of the hand.

But there are some out there that do. And there are several reasons why smaller fish are indeed exciting. For some, small fish are even the exact quarry that they are after.

The first type of angler that champions smallish fish are those who love smaller bodies of water. By and large, little creeks and little ponds produce little fish. The tradeoff, however, is usually native trout that are willing to take a fly. These gems from mountain creeks or spring-fed streams are a direct connection to the last truly wild places in a paved-over and plugged-in world. Size isn’t an issue. Knowing that the fish are there is half of the victory, and then touching or seeing them provides that tangible success.

Rusty Flybox: Fly Fishing Isn’t Funny

February 10, 2017

Fly fishing is serious business.

You have to be buttoned-up, orderly, and kinda/sorta stuffy. If not, any fish you catch isn’t legitimate. Trout, as you are quite aware, are dignified creatures that wouldn’t condescend to consume the fly of some ragamuffin angler.

Every once in a while, some johnny come lately writer thinks he can demean and debase the noble craft of Dame Juliana and Izaak Walton. Fly fishing is a sport meant for prose, for eloquence, for the height of human expression.

Honestly, what arrogance befalls a man such that he compose an article on nymphing in the form of satire? How crass must you be to tarnish the reputation of the fly shop patron? Is not the sanctity of marketing genius above reproach?

For shame.

Consequently the following articles are not for serious fly fishers. Click on the title or the photo for the full articles.

Fly Fishing Stinks: A List

February 8, 2017

They say that smell is the sense with the closest connection to the brain. Olfactory stimulation can trigger responses, even memories, more than even sight or sound. It is remarkable, if you think about it. An infinitesimal quotient of particulate in the air can stimulate thoughts, emotions, or recollections. A smell, can quite literally, take you back.

Today, as I opened my car after a day of work, I was taken aback. Because my wet, muddy waders had been baking in the sun and stunk up my Subaru.

Yesterday I went fishing in the warm outflow of a local water treatment plan. The science is simple: warmer water draws fish in during the winter. The science is even simpler than that when it comes to the funk that occupied my hatchback: cleaned and processed poopy water is still going to have some poopy notes. And all the residual microscopic nasties lacing my waders and boots had been broiling away in my sealed-up car throughout an unseasonably warm Virginia day. Now my car was quite literally privy to the odor of someone’s privy.

Fly fishing, like any outdoor sport, is full of these smells. Sure, you can wax poetic about the crispness of cool water dashing across sweet streamside vegetation. But there is also the stink of fly shop mothballs, decomposing spring creek mud, or the incredibly foul stench of shad. And it is those smells, more than warm pipe smoke or a fine leather fly wallet, that you can probably recall with quickness. Right now… shad…

As I drove home (windows down, believe you me) I thought about four of the less celebrated scents that accompany the culture of fly fishing.

Sunfish Woodworks: Carving Out a Place for Fish Art

February 6, 2017

There is a certain aesthetic that comes to mind when you think “fishing lodge.” Rough-hewn wood, wildlife-silhouette lampshades, and fish mounts. In fact, taxidermy might be the epitome of this look such that any large fish immediately makes a room, regardless if it is in a cabin or suburban den, feel “woodsy.”

For generations, this has been the case. Fading, aged skin mounts that remind anglers of proud conquests frighten spouses and small children. Shiny fiberglass replicas, while more environmentally conscientious, aren’t much better. How is the fly fisher supposed to display their passion while maintaining marital bliss and adhering to some manner of style?

Just north of Detroit, Michigan, Bob Batchik is creating fishing art. Sunfish Woodworks meets the angler’s need while at the same time being visually pleasing to wider audience. For over 25 years, he has been crafting wooden fish by hand and selling them across the continent. “And every day I wake up excited to go to work,” Batchik says.

After some time as a woodworking hobbyist, Batchik began to receive interest from local fly fishers after one of his pieces was auctioned off at a Trout Unlimited fundraiser. “Fly fishers are a group that really appreciate the aesthetics of the outdoors experience,” Batchik says. “Everything from the rod, the places we fish, a fine cigar and a good bourbon; and then its great if you get to catch a fish. It is a perfect fit for artwork that captures that experience.”

The Fly Fishing Show: A Quick Look at 3 Great Products

February 3, 2017

If you haven’t ever been to the Fly Fishing Show in Somerset, you’re missing out. As the world’s largest fly fishing expo, there is so much to see, hear, and do. The sheer volume of tying materials, rods, and other outdoor miscellany can overwhelm the senses (and, if you’re not careful, the wallet).

In Somerset, all of the industry mainstays are present when it comes to gear. Orvis, Simms, Thomas & Thomas, Patagonia, Ross, Cortland… the list could go on and on. Additionally, some of the hottest brands from the last decade show up in NJ: Hatch, Vedavoo, TenkaraUSA, Rep Your Water, Blue Halo, and a handful of others.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be featuring some stories from a number of companies that were at the Fly Fishing Show. Today, I wanted to showcase three products that intrigued me. On their own, the items from Brook Fishing Equipment, RexFly, and Waterworks Lamson are impressive. However, the presentations made by the respective owners/reps really did a great job explaining the usefulness and niche of each product.

Read my two cents, then follow the links to check out these great fly fishing products for yourself.

What $70 Will Buy You in Fly Fishing

February 1, 2017

For $70, you can buy a lot of things in this world. A month’s worth of cell phone service, a nice oxford dress shirt, or two tanks of gas for your sedan. Take the whole gang out for burgers and ice cream. If you’re shopping shrewdly, you can get a week’s worth of groceries for a small family.

Or, if you are a fly fisher, you can get a piece of dead chicken.

Or a fancy pair of nail clippers.

Or a shirt that looks like that $70 oxford, only with vent holes all over it and extra pockets. (Lots of extra pockets.)

For $70, there are plenty of things that you can buy in a fly shop.

You can buy thirty yards of fine, coiled PVC.

You can buy nearly two dozen fake bugs.

You can buy three trendy, stainless steel cups.

$70 is not that much money, especially when there are so many things that you need.

The 3 Things You Need To Do To Buy The Right Fly Rod

January 30, 2017

If there is one article online on “how to choose a fly rod,” there are a hundred. Generally, the information contained therein is pretty solid. As long as someone isn’t shilling for a particular company, communicating the basics is a straightforward task for an angler that has been around fly rods for a while. Experts, or those who quote experts, can guide you through tapers, modulus counts, and enough technological jargon to make you wonder what exactly you’re getting yourself into.

This article is not that. Finish reading this, then go Google “fly rod buying guide” – I insist. There are other websites that excel at such things. Within the industry there are guys and girls that literally cast fly rods for a living. They can break down every 5-weight on the market with the nuanced verbiage of a master sommelier. That stuff is important, but, as I’ll attempt to convince you, it shouldn’t be top priority.

From buying fly rods for nearly twenty years, and selling them in one capacity or another for a good chunk of that, I think there are three truly essential things to consider as you shop for your next fly rod:

Road Trip: Somerset Fly Fishing Show

January 27, 2017

The median hawk: patron bird of all those stuck in highway traffic.

The time has come. I’m heading up the Mid Atlantic coast for two days at the Fly Fishing Show in Somerset, New Jersey. By the way, New Jersey blows old Jersey out of the water as it relates to angling expos.

What’s on the docket for today?

Lunch: Fast food. Preferably something local and/or sketchy enough I should take advantage of being by myself.
Stereo: Bluegrass, and an assortment of podcasts related to history, theology, and fly fishing.
Dinner: Whatever I can inhale between the show ending and the International Fly Fishing Film Festival kicking off at 6:30.
The time in between: Browsing, talking, booking a trip, shopping, interviewing, taking pictures, etc.

And then tomorrow, I get to do it all over again.

If you are going to be at the show, seek me out! I’ve got a beard, a black Timberland backpack, and I’m much shorter than I sound from the website. I have nothing free to give you, except a firm handshake and gratitude that you read Casting Across.

If you aren’t going to be at the show, check back here next week for some sort of commentary. And, for some practically live coverage, you should be following Casting Across on Instagram, Twitter, and the Facebooks. I swear that I’ll keep the selfies to a minimum.