Articles

Review: Sage ACCEL Fly Rod

by Mike Sepelak - Thursday, Oct 2nd, 2014

The Sage ACCEL 6 weight.

It’s one of fly fishing’s eternal conundrums and perhaps it’s most hotly debated. Are “premium” fly rods worth the price? Does an $800 stick fish better than one purchased for $100? Does dropping the big bucks insure longer and more accurate casts, better fish-fighting capability, or more angling mojo?

Do you need to be Steve Rajeff to tell the difference?

Well, I’m no Steve Rajeff and the majority of fly rods in my fishing closet didn’t set me back a boatload. With the range of fishing opportunities I have here in North Carolina – the trickles of the Appalachians three hours to my west, the Atlantic seaboard three to my east, and a Piedmont full of farm ponds and warm water rivers in my own backyard - I am loaded from 2wt to 10 in a variety of tapers and lengths. Had each run me $700, I’d be poor as a pauper.

But this past month spent pitching the new Sage Accel has me thinking.

A few early autumn fly fishing tips

For those days that aren't quite summer and aren't quite fall

by Chad Shmukler - Wednesday, Oct 1st, 2014

Photo: Chad Shmukler

There are no shortage of places to find tips on fly fishing in the fall. Most of those tips, including our 5 Tips for Fall Fly Fishing, focus on the latter half of the autumn season when sun angles have dipped, air and water temperatures have begun to take on a wintery feel and trout are fully into spawning mode. The beginning of the fall season, however, offers up excellent fishing opportunities at a time when most other anglers have hung up their waders for the season.

Just as early autumn weather conditions typically waver between summer-like and more traditionally autumn-like, so does trout trout behavior. As a result, a mix of summer and autumn fly fishing tactics can lead to greater success when on the water. Here are some thoughts to consider.

The Importance of Changing Your Game

by Chad Shmukler - Monday, Sep 29th, 2014

A Lehigh River brown trout (photo: Chad Shmukler).

There is a well-heeled saying in fishing that virtually everyone has heard uttered many times, "Never leave fish to find fish." And it's well heeled for a reason. The bulk of the game in fishing is being in the right place at the right time and having the fish reveal themselves to you. Still, I'll often have to remind myself that even if the fish I've found aren't taking flies with abandon, it can often be foolish to head off for greener pastures which I assume lie just around the next bend. In reality, they rarely do. Patience is a valuable tool when on the river.

Strangely, my tendency towards a lack of patience when I'm getting shots and missing them is flipped on its ear when the opportunities aren't there. Often, I'll head to the river with a game plan in mind, and cling to it for far too long.

Recently, a good friend and I headed out for a float on Pennsylvania's Lehigh River. To put it kindly, we're both new to the art of oarsmanship. But, we've been toting around our new FlyCraft Stealth drift boat for the last couple of months and doing our best to find chances to float. Unlike the west, the east coast isn't flush with drift boat water, especially that which doesn't involve long drives and multi-day time investments. So, when we heard that fall weather had brought water temperatures into shape on the Lehigh -- which is just over an hour's drive from home -- we jumped on it, toting visions of long dry fly drifts and rising trout, mixed with judicious nymphing of the Lehigh's plentiful riffles and runs.

Tying the Fatal Attractor

by Aileen Lane - Thursday, Sep 25th, 2014

When one of my fly fishing sisters handed me the Fatal Attractor, I couldn't wait to give it a try. "Browns love this one!" is what she told me. The first time I tied this fly on my line, I threw it right on a smooth pool that stood between rushing waters from the mini waterfalls. On my first cast, a huge brown trout's head came up from the water and took my fly. Since then, I have fished this pattern with great success in different parts of the river when terrestrials were on the trout's menu.

HOOK: #10 dry
THREAD: 6/0 black. 6/0 red (for the head - optional)
TAIL: Red Krystal Flash
BODY: Prism Dubbing in Olive
HAIR: Elk Hair
WING: Calf body or in this case, white floating yarn
HACKLE: Grizzly Saddle

Casting Distance

by Steve Zakur - Wednesday, Sep 24th, 2014

Photo: lenkii.

On one of the less storied stretches of the Housatonic River there's a long riffle that pauses twice creating two very fishy places. I've fished this spot regularly over the past few years. While these spots are no great secret, they attract far less traffic for a variety of reasons. First, they're relatively harder to access than other spots. The well worn paths go upstream and downstream. Second, during most water levels they look relatively featureless with little obvious opportunity for holding water. Finally, the folks who fish it keep mum about it.

On Saturday the water was low. I expected some exposed riffle based upon the gage reading but what greeted me when I got there was a surprising lack of water. I was still thirty feet from damp ground and the main current was on the far bank. A short ways upstream an angler sat high and dry upon a boulder that was normally under water. He was just at the edge of the first good spot so I walked upstream over the dried cobble to the second pool.