Articles

25 and Windy

by Steve Zakur - Thursday, Jan 15th, 2015

For the past few years I've fished Black Friday with a bunch of friends. It was one of those traditions that was easy. No one wanted to be anywhere near a shopping mall so the only real alternative was to be on a river, right? Most years the weather cooperated but the fishing was always a crap shoot. But we were there for something else. At least that's what we told ourselves. This year the trip didn't come together. I'm not sure why other than that maybe the ritual had run it's course.

Around that time, a fellow Trout Unlimited member suggested the chapter get together to fish on New Year's Day. It seemed slightly absurd. First, the morning of the first day of the year is one for nursing a hangover and contemplating the coming season. Second, I doubted anyone would want to join us on the first frigid morning of the coming year. I was assured it was done and that it was something that "we" should do. It might even become a "thing".

Crisp and clear is the best way to describe the dawn of the New Year, though I was still a bit foggy when we got to the water. "We" included myself and two other anglers bundled deep in layers and facing out of the wind. While the water was more than ten degrees warmer than the air, it still froze rapidly once it was stripped up the fly line onto the waiting guides. Five casts was about all you'd get before you started to feel the line vibrate against constricted guides. I long ago gave up on pastes and other additives for keeping guides ice free, they don't seem to buy you all that much time, so at ten casts I either cleared my guides or risked having to fish Tenkara style.

What's My Line?: The Evolution of Tenkara Lines

by Tom Sadler - Wednesday, Jan 14th, 2015

Winter small stream tenkara fishing (photo: Daniel Galhardo).

As the popularity of tenkara grows, tweaks and innovation are becoming the rule rather the exception. One area that has seen a good deal of change is the type of line being used.

If you are new to tenkara, the line is a key component in the setup. Like other forms of fly-fishing the line both loads the rod and delivers the fly but is not stored on a reel. It is a fixed length attached to the rod tip.

When I started with tenkara the line choices were pretty basic. You had a choice of furled lines or level lines. Today there are a variety of line options with more on the horizon. For example small diameter fly lines have recently become popular.
All are readily available and have their proponents, as you will see below.

January Thaw

by Chris Hunt - Tuesday, Jan 13th, 2015

Photo: Chris Hunt

When I first moved to eastern Idaho some 16 years ago, it was near the end of summer, and the guys at the fly shop were all atwitter about “Hopper Season.” A month later, the fly shop crowd splintered into two camps -- one was all worked up about steelhead on the Salmon River about four hours northwest and the other was dialing in on the fall brown trout runs on the South Fork and the Henry’s Fork.

As the year moved on, I heard about the blue-winged olive hatch on the South Fork during dark, unsettled days in November, and a second olive hatch sometime in the spring. Then the skwalas hatched on the Bitterroot and Rock Creek in March and April, and that was a drive worth taking.

I heard about an explosion of midge hatches on the Snake near Jackson that coincided with the cutthroat run up the river from the canyon, and if you could time it just right, it was the best time of the year to hook into a fat cutty on the river.

Skagit heads explained

Making sense of Skagit heads

by Tom Larimer - Monday, Jan 12th, 2015

Photo: Tom Larimer

In the modern world of Spey fishing, anglers have a multitude of choices when it comes to selecting a fly line. In addition to a variety of lengths, the market offers lines built for specific fishing situations. Below, we'll put the microscope on the Skagit family of lines in an effort to help you make an informed product decision.

Skagit History

Skagit lines were born out of necessity. In the late 90’s, a few elite Northwest anglers realized the effectiveness of presenting very large flies on heavy sink-tips for steelhead. At the time, the average commercially produced lines were 50’ to 60’ long and lacked the ability to turn over such setups. Knowing that mass equates to turn over, these anglers spawned equipment that allowed them to fish these gargantuan offerings. A short, fat line gave them the required firepower. As an added benefit, a shorter line also gave anglers the ability to make a cast with very little back cast room. These first homemade lines were actually shooting heads looped to a mono running line.

The Tycoon Tackle Legacy Reborn

by Matthew Reilly - Friday, Jan 9th, 2015

Rewind 82 years. It’s 1932.

Ernest Hemingway, with A Farewell to Arms looming as suppressed musings in his mind’s periphery, is perched on a barstool in Sloppy Joe’s Bar sipping a whiskey and coke, conversing with his fishing-minded acquaintances, the salty, blue Atlantic sky beaming in through the open doors. Outside, crystalline saltwater kisses the sandy beaches of Key West; and like so, rumors of elusive, uncatchable, finned, marine beasts filter west from the Bahaman Islands. There is a catalyst in the air, a catalyst for the outbreak of the gilded age of big-game sport fishing, and for a self-made, inventive, American success story.

Frank O’Brien, an industrious man doing his best to make money to support his family during the height of the Great Depression, is selling cutlery on the streets. A fisherman at heart, O’Brien makes the acquaintance of Jack Reynolds, local and owner of Florida Fishing Tackle, a company invested in the sale of small hardware items — hooks, lines, and sinkers. O’Brien partners with Reynolds as a salesman — his trade and talent — and becomes imbued in the saltwater fishing industry.