Articles

Stacked Up Like Cordwood

by Mike Sepelak - Monday, Jan 27th, 2014

Carolina Redfish

We slept in. Alarms set for 6:30. Not because we were slugs, mind you, but because we needed the sun to melt the ice glaze from the Ankona’s decks and to begin to warm the frigid salt marsh waters. It seemed to make sense, hanging in the trailer a bit longer, and had nothing to do with the jumble of dead soldiers sitting on the kitchen table.

Despite our delay, it still felt early when we arrived at the launch, the sun not yet separated from the eastern horizon. Early, that is, until we found that the duck hunters were already taking out, stout johnboats draped in camouflage and full of dark decoys, their sporting day already done. A different breed, duck hunters. Hardy or crazy, I’m not quite sure which.

Tough morning, the men said. More bird watching than hunting. They hoped that the fishing would be better.

“You after drum?” asked a close-cropped lad as he pulled off his gloves and shook himself out of his thick camo coat. “Saw a ton over on Boar, maybe a half mile down. Stacked up like cordwood. If I’d had a dip net I could have filled the boat.” We’d intended on hitting King’s, thinking they’d be where we’d found them a couple of weeks earlier, but fishing plans change when the intel is fresh. We pointed the skiff east, instead of west, out of the launch.

Tributaries Fly Fishing Film Released

by Chad Shmukler - Thursday, Jan 23rd, 2014

One of the film's awe-inspiring scenes from Iceland. Here, Siggi Haugur walks into his favorite pool on the Hofsa River in Eastern Iceland.

RC Cone, the filmmaker that brought us Breathe -- a film that, through the lens of a month on some of Montana's greatest waters, reminds us why we go fishing -- has recently announced the release of his newest film, Tributaries. Tributaries travels the globe to some of fly fishing's greatest paradises: to the Bahamas in search of bonefish, to Argentina for big, beautiful Patagonian trout and to Iceland to chase elusive Atlantic salmon.

Like Breathe, Tributaries is about more than just fishing. Tributaries follows three guides as they make their way through their local waters and their local cultures and seeks to explore the commonalities shared by fly fishermen throughout the world. According to Cone, Tributaries is a continuation of the journey that started with Breathe, in which Cone explored what fly fishing meant to himself and anglers he met along the way in Montana. In Tributaries, Cone's goal was to look at the bigger picture.

"I wanted to explore the wider implications of fly fishing. How does our sport fit into the world? What is this worldwide community like? What are the differences and similarities on a global scale? Instead of a personal journey, I wanted to explore the world’s waters and the cultures that inhabit them," Cone said.

The Anything Fly: Tying the Beadhead RS2

by Aileen Lane - Wednesday, Jan 22nd, 2014

The wonderfully versatile RS2.

The RS2, a very effective pattern and a favorite of many an angler. It can be fished as a nymph, makes an excellent emerger pattern and can even be fished like a dry. It was created over forty years ago by Rim Chung. The RS2 stands for “Rim's Semblance 2” and will imitate a midge or mayfly. Since the original creation, which was tied with beaver fur for dubbing and saddle hackle for the wings, there has been many variations of this pattern.

Vary the pattern by changing the color, using different materials for the tail / wing, forgoing the bead, etc. But, despite the variations, what all RS2 flies have in common is their profile.

A few thoughts on fishing emergers

Why you should be fishing emergers, when and where

by Chad Shmukler - Monday, Jan 20th, 2014

This pretty-spotted brown fell prey to my favorite emerger pattern, the Parachute Adams.

Emergers are one of my favorite kinds of flies to fish. This is most likely because, on many an occasion, they've rescued me from a seemingly endless run of failed attempts to match the hatch. It's possible I had indeed failed to properly discern which bug the fish were taking, instead selecting the wrong pattern. Perhaps I had misjudged the size. More likely, my attempts to select the correct dry fly failed because because the fish I was targeting weren't taking duns in the first place. They were taking emergers.

Major Victory for Oregon Wild Steelhead and Salmon

by Ben Kryzinski - Saturday, Jan 18th, 2014

Ed Hepp and Tom Larimer of Oregon's Larimer Outfitters with a Sandy River steelhead.

Wild fish advocates all over the country and world have, for many years, been arguing that stocking hatchery fish in waters where wild fish populations exist poses a threat to those wild fish. As of yesterday, it appears as though the courts in the state of Oregon agree.

Via a ruling by District Court Judge Ancer Haggerty, the court sided with the the Native Fish Society and the McKenzie Flyfishers which claimed that hatchery operations on Oregon's Sandy River were harmful to the Sandy's wild steelhead and salmon, resulting in the defendants -- the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the National Marine Fisheries Service -- being in violation of both the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.

Mike Moody, director of the Native Fish Society, noted in a statement released yesterday that "the science is irrefutable. The law is irrefutable. And, Judge Haggerty affirmed this. This is the most significant decision benefiting wild fish in Oregon in over a decade." Moody quoted Haggerty's ruling, which stated that "it is undisputed that hatchery operations can pose a host of risks to wild fish… it is clear that the Sandy River Basin is of particular importance to the recovery of the four [Endangered Species Act] listed species and is an ecologically critical area.”