New Fly Guy

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

It is amazing how much energy we put into trying to outsmart a creature with a 1 ounce brain.  Recognizing the accurate calculus embedded in Jimmy Moore’s humorous article titled, “How Smart is a Trout?” led me to conclude that, on a pound for pound basis, a trout has the angler beat.  Since I can’t

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

Contributing Author – Patrick Taylor Moormans – North Fork, July 5th 2009 I fished the North Fork of the Moormans today (July 5th) and had success. The water levels are dropping but it is still fishable (well maybe not after today’s constant rain!). The lower section is highly pressured due to easy access, so you have to

I can’t tell you how much money I spent on the leaders in my first year of fly fishing. Over the winter, I read an article somewhere that shared the following trick with me. It’s simple and addresses the problem of “using up” your leader. As a  New Fly Guy, I knew that I had

To be successful, the first thing a new fly guy needs to understand is that patience is everything.  There are so many ways your gear can get totally screwed up with tangles, it’s just not funny.  But, patience does have its limits.  When my line gets all tangled, up, I make an instant judgment call

After losing two boxes of flies, I had to come up with a solution.  The problem is me.  When changing flies, I’ll take out the box and put it on the bank; forgetting to return it to my pocket when ready to move.  Alternatively, I’ll just leave the vest pocket open and the dang thing

I never knew that tippet had to be matched to the hook size until I happened to read the stuff on the back of a packet of leader.  I had always assumed that you just used the smallest tippet you possibly could given the size of fish you anticipated catching. Note the comment on the

As a new guy, you get excited and assume you need everything that is sold.  Here are two items that you can live without. The first one is a tool to stretch your leader to heat it up just a bit and take the curls out.  According to the LL Bean book, it is easy

Who is more likely to trash a fly rod?  An expert or a new fly guy? I recently fell and squished one of the stripping guides on my rod.  I pulled it back out and reshaped it, but it eventually broke.  I remembered that the guy at Bass Pro Shops where I bought the rod (this

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

About eight years ago, I had an epiphany as I wandered the aisles of Bass Pro Shop. Up to that point, I had pretty much been a fisherman who relied on spinners, top water plugs, and crank baits. But on this day, as I looked up and down the aisles in the fishing section, the