Daily Cast Archive

I just arrived home from spending the last 24 hours in a tiny little town called Indianola, just south of Port Lavaca Texas. Jackson and I spent the day fishing a large estuary that borders Indianola called Powderhorn Lake. I could (and probably will) write multiple front pages detailing why Powderhorn holds such a deep and important place in my life. Today's Front Page will NOT be one of those.

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I had busy last week and I missed two important things. First my FP on Friday and more important miss was ephemera vulgata hatch. Begin of week I was gathering and herding reindeer for marking and on Wednesday we were able to gather all and got them in fence, so we were able to mark calves which were born this summer. On Thursday I was guiding (originally plan was on Wednesday but luckily it was client behind years so he understood importancy of marking). During guiding we saw first signs of hatching to come but it was not time yet. On Friday I was rafting and hatching started. I saw some good rises and boat was full of ephemera vulgata and their skins. We went fishing on Saturday but hatching was gone, we had nice outdoor meal by the fire with family and it was more like piknik day. Hatches are short and furious in here. Sometimes just one or two days depending about river.

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This weekend we held a casting Meeting in Oswestry. It was well attended by casters who wanted to compete and those who wanted tuition, kindly provided by three of our top instructors. As always we started the day with the accuracy event, however we all had some difficulty in seeing the fluff land in the targets due to the long grass, as the field hadn’t been mown (again). It meant that each ring had to be marked very closely as you could only see the fluff landing if standing literally above the targets. This resulted in quite a few queries on the scores from the casters, including myself who on a few occasions queried the mark shouted out. I also had to ask for guidance as to whether the shot was long or short on the far rings as I couldn’t see the fluff land at all. Regardless of this, there were some good scores as Kei extended his record, George Clarke took the junior under 13 record and Mike H took the S60 record.

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We love to present pictures of insects - of course in best possible quality - in our social media. Don't we? BUT that's not what the fish sees from his underwater perspective!

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Last weekend’s trip provided a few surprises that were unexpected, which I guess is sort of implied in the definition of surprises. A buddy and I took his canoe out with minor expectations. It is a transition period for the Everglades coast right now and fishing can be tough, at least when fishing inside and from a canoe. A deluge of rain like we experienced over the last weeks has a strong effect in the backcountry. Not unlike what I understand a trout stream might experience after a heavy rain event upstream, the mangrove creeks get “blown out” from the sudden surge of outflow. The salinity plummets, the tannin levels skyrocket, and the water color turns to dark amber reminiscent of a sweet top-shelf rum. Unlike the trout stream, however, the water clarity actually improves. In strong sunlight over the sand bottom, the water appearance is spectacular. The problem is, the fish do not care for the change at all, and the majority of them move “outside”.

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I have two months to go before my next triathlon. So that’s focussing my attention! I wouldn’t say I am triathlon fit right now but I hope to be quite a lot fitter, come the starting gun. And so I’m taking this opportunity to spend a little bit less time on the water, a bit more time in it, and a lot more time on Sexyloops. We have a bunch of great things happening, not least of which will be the flyline database I talked about a few weeks ago. This should be up and running later this week.

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Sometimes seemingly random, unrelated things come together in such a manner that you can't just chalk it up to chance. Take today for example; my old mentor in the anthropology program at The University of Texas at San Antonio, Dr. Dan Gelo and I finally got to fish together for the first time in 20 years. Although the fishing wasn't what I would classify as epic, the serendipitous, peripheral experiences we shared today were about as epic as they come.

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I’m sorry - I’m going to be talking a little bit about old flies again. This time a spey fly. Not as old as the “really” old ones. This one appears in Pryce-Tannat’s book, “How To Dress Salmon Flies” from 1914, where many of the older spey-patterns are from the first half of the 19th century. I’m not sure exactly how old The Gold Sylph is, but it’s pre-1914.

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Normally I don't get particularly stressed about things, but this week got to me a bit. Last Sunday I decided it was time to tidy up the tying room. The most onerous of tasks made all the worse by knowing it would be a a chaotic mass of feather and fur about 37 seconds into the first fly tied after the cleaning. As awful as it already sounds, that's not the worst of it! Starting on the job I picked up a chicken wing, or tried to at least, it disintegrated in my hands. That's right, I'm under attack from dermestid beetles.. Panic!

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This will be a brief FP as I am writing it as James is driving us up to North Wales to prepare our house for friends who will be staying with us to support this weekend’s BFCC Meeting. The car is fully packed with all the BFCC gear needed to run a Meeting, even down to a portable table that we use to help run the competition – and no, we don’t use it to stand on for one of James’ experiments!

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That's what fly fishing in Norway is all about!

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We are about a week into this year’s monsoon season, which (likely only to me) is in a strange way comforting. Despite the soggy fishing equipment that never seems to dry out, and the uncomfortable dampness added to every-day chores, the incessant rain feels normal or regular, as in how things always used to be growing up here. If things remain acting like an average beginning of summer it should dry out sometime before July 4th.

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I’ve had a few weeks of Sexyloops work, Board discussions and have started triathlon training. I figure that we have a choice as we get older. We can either get old, slow and have our bits fall off... or we can stay fit. Lately I’ve been enjoying the bike - it’s much less impact on the knees than running and I’ve covered a lot of miles in my life in running shoes.

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Once a month or so, I have lunch with an old friend that I have known since the second grade. During the course of the conversation, he always asks about my family, and more specifically how my father is doing. Not long ago he confided in me how thankful he was that my father always included him in many of our fishing trips when we were young. His father wasn't much of an outdoors man, and he expressed how grateful he was to have been introduced to the sport by my dad, as it had quite a profound effect on him, and is still something he loves to do, even to this day.

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I think most readers here know that I'm deeply fascinated by the old, English North Country wetflies. Their simplicity, their age, their history just appeals to me. As does old salmonflies, particularly those from the Dee and Spey. Mainly I think, because they're equally (in salmonfly-terms) simple, and many are also quite old. These flies are the result of the flyfisherman live lived on a by the rivers, producing effective patterns with the materials they had available to them, and that's another part of the history i like.

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Long waited guiding day was on Tuesday. Shemeikan kalakerho is again around. This time there was four of them. When I say long waited, I think it is both sides. For me it is always great day to guide them. They are great company and I can fish also little bit. We are always checking new waters with them. For them I think it is kind of start of their week in Kuusamo and real beginning of the ”competition”. Longest fish will win and winner will buy dinner in restaurant to other members of club.

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This weekend we were hoping to fish the river Dee in North Wales, however due to the substantial recent rainfall, it will probably be too coloured. This made me think about our last fishing trip to the Dee, the river was the lowest I had seen with areas that were normally under water covered in thick foliage, indicating that they’d been dry for some time. I compared the photos I took on that trip to those in the same spots from last summer. It’s amazing how different an area can look throughout the seasons.

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That's when I can learn the most!

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I took a canoe out again last weekend. The weather gods must have been listening since right after my previous trip, when I noted that the usual summer-welcoming monsoon had not appeared yet, the skies blossomed grey and our life-giving rains began to fall. It is likely that fishing in the rain, here in south Florida, just might be the most comfortable someone can be while fishing in the rain. Yes, of course you get wet, but when the ambient temperature is hovering around 80 degrees F it really is not so bad. In fact, it can be rather pleasant. I have found that as long as I keep my head and glasses dry I really do not mind it at all. Keeping in mind how it will feel around a month from now, when the rains subside and the sun will beat on you relentlessly, makes you realize what a pleasant outing it really is. The fact that the little tarpon get very active with the rain might be another positive thing too?

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It's getting to be rainy season here in Tokyo, which means overcast to cloudy days, warm stable weather and plenty of water to keep the rivers nicely topped up. I love this time of year in Japan because the freshwater fishing is excellent.

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A few weeks ago when I booked a charter with my good friend Captain Freddy Lynch, I didn't really have high hopes that the trip would even take place. The weather here in South Texas has been REALLY volatile this year, which has made getting on the flats a tough proposition. With winds pushing 40mph for the last several months, and almost weekly torrential thunderstorms the idea of chasing Redfish with a fly rod seemed like nothing more than a fairy tale.

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It's June 8th, and that means that the hatch of E. danicas is full on. The big insects attract the attention of even the biggest of trout and grayling in the stream, fish you'll likely never see on the surface the rest of the season. That alone is of course the big attraction for the flyfisher - a personal best on the dry, in the danica-season is a real opportunity.

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Short review about first fishing week for this summer. It had some highlights despite difficult weather. This one will be short one and this time I have good excuse. I’m writing this on Thursday 6.6. which is our wedding day and we are having our 5th anniversary. So I’ll spent time with my lovely wife. My day went with consultation about fishing. We have some plans to built lake trout fishing place. It is long run but you need to start with something. But back to fishing….

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Short rewiev about first fishing week for this summer. It had some highlights despite difficult weather. This one will be short one and this time I have good excuse. I’m writing this on Thursday 6.6. which is our wedding day and we are having our 5th anniversary. So I’ll spent time with my lovely wife. My day went with consultation about fishing. We have some plans to built lake trout fishing place. It is long run but you need to start with something. But back to fishing….

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I’m writing this just before I go out to do some distance casting practice. At the present moment I’m extremely frustrated with how I’m casting in competitions, last weekend’s BFCC meeting saw me confined to the ‘also rans’, when I’m much more used to podium places in most, if not all, of the events.

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Lots of teaching fly casting and then fly fishing all over in between the lessons. Perfect week for me!

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In the wake of my less than rewarding tarpon trip I felt like I needed some assurance, so I loaded up my canoe and usual tackle and took off for familiar waters. I was less than excited. I had a strong suspicion that I knew what I would find, not that it would be all bad, just that most parts would be as expected. There was only a slight chance that something would surprise me, but with that slight chance in mind I readied for a trip.

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I have just returned form a trip to Florida fishing for the elusive tarpon. I was fishing at Carrabelle in Florida. Keyed up with excitement is an understatement.

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Fishing has been the genesis for many other interests in my life. Not only has it led to ongoing passions directly related to the sport like rod building, lure making and fly tying, it has also been the foundation for other, not so obvious interests as well.

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I like tying flies, I like seeing nice flies tied by other people which social media is great for. However I am not so enamoured about the number of people who proudly declare that their flies catch fish, not fishermen. It's an attitude that worries me and I'm sure that it's not isolated to flytying - what percentage of fly anglers actually practise casting?

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