Daily Cast Archive

For my last FP, I wrote about adjusting overall cast trajectory via the Trajector-cize. I even included a drawing showing how *not* to use trajectory (it’s possible that I was only one in on that joke, too). I figure that not everyone necessarily knows an easy way to adjust trajectory to a large degree on the fly. So, that’s this FP, which is more-or-less sliced right from the text of “Single-Handed Fly Casting.”

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Last weekend I gave a talk on fly fishing for Toman/Snakehead and Giant Goirami. The first question I asked was why fly? After all it is much harder to catch Toman on fly rather than spinners and plugs. Just the casting alone makes the challenge a great one. And of course that's one of the things that makes them one of the ultimate flyrod fish. So actually the answer is easy, we don't chose the easiest way to catch Toman, even with conventional gear - after all nets and dynamite are more productive, but instead we fish with rods because it's more fun, and fishing the fly is the most fun!

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A useful video from Tim this week!

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Duffer's Fortnight is, or maybe more was, a common name for these two-three weeks, where the E. danica hacthes. Duffer's Fortnight because apparantly the fish are easy pickings and even a duffer can score. Well, although the danica-hatch does bring out the big ones to the surface, it's certainly not easy fishing as such.

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No SFTS today, or mayb yes - it´s related anyways. Fly-fishing and tying fluff to a hook one does not only catch fish, it makes good friends. Through my fly tying I met Norwegian, actor, author and director - and of course flyfisher, Stein Hiller Elvestad. He lives in Mo i Rana, a town close to the arctic circle. The climate there is astonishingly mild, even though it is so far north. Stein Hiller Elvestad is an actor, play-writer, director and set designer. He was born in Tromsø and is permanently employed actor at "Nordland Teater". On top of all that he is a real trout-nut and one of the kindest and most open people one can meet. The specific northern Norwegian humor adds a nice edge to his personality. Yesterday, on May 25th 2016 his play “The art of resurrecting flies.” (Kunsten å vekke døde fluer til live.) head it´s first ever performance. The world premiere was staged at the Stamsund internasjonale teaterfestival (SIT) in Norway. The play is a unique autobiographical solo performance, written and performed by the Norwegian, actor, author and director - and of course flyfisher - Stein Hiller Elvestad.

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Love them or hate them indicators are mainstream fly fishing now, from those situations that people argue they are nothing more than floats to those true ‘indicator’ situations.

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"The more time your fly will spent in the water, the more fish you will catch." This is maybe the most common fly fishing tactic, which fly fishermen from all over the world have told me. In my own experience it's the most wrong strategy either!

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Terrible name, I know, but I doubt you’ll forget it. The Trajector-cize is my preferred exercise for tuning “whole cast” trajectory. By “whole cast” I mean adjusting both backstroke and forward stroke up or down as a unit while simultaneously adjusting for range. The Trajector-cize takes the casting concepts of inclination, short/long, and high/low, and combines them to make an all-in-one adjustment.

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This has the potential to be a very short FP, because I'm fishing with Chuan until Tuesday and we're going camping in the jungle chasing Snakehead and Gourami. This is Chuan's second trip which means that he'll hook fish and then probably lose them and/or break one or more of my rods. Cleverly while Chuan has actually bought a Hot Toorpedo 8, he hasn't actually brought it with him!

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Today’s discussion arises directly from my recent experiences in the Lakes District of Argentina. This is likely applicable to many angling areas – certainly New Zealand, and a few places I can think of in the USA. In the Sexyloops tradition, I’m going to present angling problems and questions but only suggest possible solutions. Maybe we can go to the board and jam on the topic a bit. I’d love to hear more experiences and possible solutions. To set the stage, I need to describe the fishing conditions. Autumn. Late season. Drought had left the area with extremely low and clear water conditions. Many of the fish had clearly retreated from the rivers and streams back into the large lakes throughout the region. A few big fish were still hovering around the Bocas (river mouths and lake outlets) and in the fishy backwater areas of rivers. Those that had not retreated to the depths are wary, but will feed very aggressively if provoked properly. For once, in Patagonia, there was almost no wind. Of course, we were trying to catch the big fish, which in that area means rainbow and brown trout from say 22 inches on up, with the distinct possibility of a fish over 10 pounds in some locations.

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Last Sunday, I joined Henrik Leth for a drift down the middel part of Denmark's largest river in our pontoon boats. I was a awesome trip, really fantastic to just drift slowly in the pontoon boat and fish the banks and good looking spots.

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I`m on tour in Sweden or somewhere ... lot´s a sheepgirls and maybe even fish. So here is an overview of what has happened in the last several month on the SFTS - the sexyloops fly tying school. Would be nice if you share your flies and stories on the board.

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If you’re a dry fly ‘purist’ in the sense of tradition you might balk at the thought of fishing terrestrial imitations or even worse those creations born from the cartoon image of a beetle that’s met nuclear radiation to undergo a few mutations. The thing is though, fishing such flies can provide wondrous entertainment not to mention they can also be deadly effective when used at the right time.

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Last year I caught lots of small to medium sized asp in the large German river Elbe. This year I aimed to catch some bigger ones as well. In order to succeed I checked what the smaller ones were feeding on by looking into their mouth. Surprisingly they were feeding on flat fish babies. So I had to find out where exactly flat fish are spawning in the Elbe and where best feeding grounds for eating these small flat fish then would be.

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Wind in fly casting often gets framed in the context of headwind or tailwind, but crossing winds are a part of the game, too. It can be with such scenarios that some of the most frustrating angling moments can occur. A wind blowing from the side will move your line in whichever direction the wind is blowing. This means you need to compensate by aiming upwind with the cast as well as adjusting up/down, and perhaps utilizing an aerial Reach Mend to further compensate. It pays to practice “windage” skills (like the Across-the-Head Cast) *before* you find yourself in a tough spot. Failure to properly adjust can have painful consequences. Here’s a little (but painful) story about that very issue:

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I thought I'd give an overview of presentation casts and how to use them, possibly with a importance and difficultly rating.

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The Danish salmon season is well underway, and most rivers have opened well. As usual, River Storaa (which literally means The Big River) has done best, topping the scales with two +18kg salmon. The fishing has been good in the other westerns rivers as well.

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I believe that understanding the lifecycle of water insects makes you a better fly-fisher ... and it is fun ... I really feel much more "in the zone" when understanding what is going on and why I can observe certain feeding behaviour of the fish. There is not shortage of information. All is available via books, museums (kids love good museums by the way), videos, the "net" and so on. Try to soak in as much as possible and make small sketches on paper to grasp the essentials of the various stages of a water insect.

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The truth is I’ve done next to no fishing recently and as such I’m heavily reliant on everyone else’s great writing and willingness to share their stories as well as recall my own memories to keep me sane.

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Endless discussions about fly fishing equipment are available on the internet today. Being a teacher for fly fishing I am very often asked about which fly rod, fly reel or fly line to be the best choice!?

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A follow-up from last week’s FP on micro-indicators for trout fishing. An age-old approach to holding small flies at depth, as well as tracking drift and seeing takes by the fish. Not for everywhere, but it can do the deed in certain waters.

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I'm trying to upload a video I made yesterday on the Sexyloops Hot Torpedo fly rods, with a nice casting sequence shot from a drone. Which was awesome. However trying to upload the bloody thing is a problem. I'm currently sitting in laundrette using their Wifi and at the current rate I'll still be here next week. So that's something exciting to look forward to. Unfortunately the video is, or was going to be, my front page!

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Flashback. Exactly 12 years from today. May 8, 2004. It was my graduation day in Bozeman, Montana. There would be a ceremony for those who had earned master's degrees in engineering. But I wasn't in Bozeman that day. I was in Argentina for the first time, after deciding to trade the pomp and circumstance of a commencement ceremony for a chance to visit northern Patagonia with some of my best friends in the entire world. It would still turn out to be a day to remember.

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Tying realistic flies is another world really. It is taking fly tying to the extreme. It´s becoming art at a mad scientist level. I am fascinated by it and like to look at these creations, but never felt the urge to sit down and work on one fly for sever days or even weeks. However, the fishing flies such masters tie are quite interesting too. A such in between the disciplines pattern is the stonefly nymph by Swedish master tier Leif Ortenholm. Try it yourself and impress your peers ;-) Leif Örtenholm has tied flies since he was a kid - maybe he still is a kid like we all ;-) - sure is that he is one of the most influential fly tiers in Sweden. Leif is a very versatile and shrewd fly tier. He portfolio reaches from realistic spiders and the occasional dragon to particularly amazing fish flies.

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Many anglers like to share pictures presenting their catches on the internet today. Pretty often other anglers then pointing fingers on those having caught the fish. It seems like there is a need to always find a reason for pointing the finger!?

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Here’s a short fishing-focused piece that looks at indicators in a smaller way. These are all fairly basic approaches to indicator fishing, and much of it has origins further back than many anglers might assume (in other words, indicators aren't really all that modern).

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The shot goes in and wakes them up. To get the reaction you basically have to spoon feed him. Too far away and you get a follow. It's often difficult to get these fish to take. Better to put it in the right place first go! There are no second goes by the way, not unless you abort the shot. One cast. One second to do it. You've got to be damn good! This fishing is raising my game.

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The last two days have been tough. I've been chasing trophy free-rising Snakehead in my old haunts. I don't know yet if the haunts change yearly, or just seasonally, but I do know that my favourite places are not yet firing. Some other locations that haven't held Snakehead for me in the past do so now. I probably won't know the answer to this puzzle for a few years to come. Certainly some of the good haunts have Snakehead on the outside of the bays, so I figure that these will be good later in the season (and hopefully next week!). I've got a Snakehead article in the wings for tomorrow and am covering for Tim today!

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