New Fly Guy
New Fly Guy – Pin Trick
Anyone else out there bugged by hooks with plugged holes from sloppy tying? I am. Over the last several years, I was frustrated trying to clean these up using the available tools – clipper end and even the Orvis forceps. I finally hit on sewing needles and pins as an easier to use alternative. Not
New Fly Guy – The Davy Knot
The Davy Knot (created by Dave Wotton) is amazingly simple to tie. Follow this link to the instructions. It is much easier to tie than a clinch or improved clinch I normally tie using my forceps. Now…. the website with the instructions claims that the knot retains almost 100% of breaking strength based on the fact that
New Fly Guy – Easy Droppers
As I rapidly approach 60 years old, I have to put pride aside and admit my eyeballs are not as precise as they used to be. The immediate problem this presents for fly fishing is the ability to thread a barely visible tippet through the invisible hole that exists on teeny tiny size 20 and
New Fly Guy – Painful Rod Transport Lesson
Last weekend, I was fishing my way from place to place on the Rappahannock to collect pictures for my upcoming book (Wade Fishing the Rappahannock – will publish in December), and took the lazy man’s approach to stowing my rod. I opened the back window on the truck and slid the rod through to rest it
New Fly Guy – Casting – don’t try as hard
Just a quick comment as we head into the serious smallmouth bass season. A bad habit I tend to fall into in my excitement to hook up with big smallies is to both overweight my line and overpower my cast. It’s a pretty well-known fact that to catch big fish, you need to use big
Equipment – Knot Strength
You should get this months issue of Field & Stream if the only thing you read is the article by John Merwin titled, “The Ultimate Line Experiment.” John discusses the best knots to use for different situations and completed a thorough regimen of strength testing that reveals some surprising results. The article includes a discussion
Review – Quigley Furled Leaders
Capt John Quigley is an accomplished guide in the San Francisco Bay area whose specialty is targeting striped bass using fly gear. In addition to that primary business, he applied his experience both as a guide and a fly fisherman in creating some of the best furled leaders on the market. I started to use furled leaders
A Frog’s Fanny Surrogate
Lon put me onto this. Apparently, the main ingredient of Frog’s Fanny is hydrophobic fumed silica. I’m sure they have some other secret sauce mixed in there as well, but the fumed silica looks like it will do the job just as well. I tried it on some dry flies and did not detect any
Trout Camoflage
You do not have to read many books to understand that when fishing mountain streams, you have to be sneaky. In addition to not kicking rocks and stepping on branches and doing other things and make a lot of noise, you have to pay attention to how you are dressed and present yourself. Not that
New Fly Guy – The Newfoundland/Portland/Riffle hitch knot
Occasional contributor, Patrick Taylor, sent me a good tip that I wanted to share with you so you can see how it works this weekend right along with me. The hitch knot goes by a number of different names — “Newfoundland hitch”, “Riffling hitch” or “Portland hitch” and was invented for salmon fishing. The purpose
New Fly Guy – Don’t bother with hip waders
Up until 2006, if I had to wade, I’d just jump in and wet wade. I guess getting older, that has become more challenging in the colder waters. Based on the advice of some friends, I purchased a pair of Simms Chest Waders in 2006. They have given me great service and I have certainly
New Fly Guy – Casting and Stream Orientation
This is a quick one that came to me as I fought with the trees behind me. I’m a new fly guy. No doubt about it. Even after more than 40 fishing trips last year armed with a long rod, I am far from being even an intermediate beginner. So, I have casting “issues”. One
My books have hundreds of pictures, GPS coordinates, fishing-focused content and are available in both print and Kindle formats.
Note! If you use the Kindle Reader APP on a phone or tablet, the pictures are in color.
My books have hundreds of pictures, GPS coordinates, fishing-focused content and are available in both print and Kindle formats.
Note! If you use the Kindle Reader APP on a phone or tablet, the pictures are in color.
My books have hundreds of pictures, GPS coordinates, fishing-focused content and are available in both print and Kindle formats.
Note! If you use the Kindle Reader APP on a phone or tablet, the pictures are in color.