Articles

RIO Introduces Two New Lines for Stillwater Anglers

by Ben Kryzinski - Thursday, Apr 3rd, 2014

The RIO InTouch Midge Tip Long fly line.

Anglers who ply the still waters of lakes and the like in search of trout or warm water species such as largemouth bass don't always get the most attention from gear manufacturers. In 2012, RIO introduced its InTouch series of fly lines made specially for stillwater angling, which were awarded with EFFTEX's "Best New Fly Line" award that year. Yesterday, RIO announced two new lines in the InTouch Lake series, the InTouch Camolux and the InTouch Midge Tip Long.

The InTouch CamoLux features a sink rate of 1.5-2.0 inches per second, an ultra-low stretch core and a built-in “hang marker” (at the 13 foot mark) to help anglers gauge when to recast or "fish the hang", a commonly used stillwater tactic that involves pausing or very slowly moving the fly with a rod lift at the end of the retrieve.

First Boots

by Steve Zakur - Wednesday, Apr 2nd, 2014

The Housatonic River in western Connecticut.

As a parent, you want your kids to grow up to the best people they can be. You hope to provide them with enough of what they need to be happy and successful however one defines that term. The trouble is, there's no scorecard. You never really know how things are going and you just trust that they'll sort themselves out in a fashion. It's terribly nerve wracking stuff.

One of the things you try to resist is turning them into copies of yourself. It's tough. While it seems you share enough genetic material to preordain a path, you quickly find that the little buggers are infected by free will. Regardless of your desires, it all conspires to foil any efforts at duplication.

Sam and I have been fly fishing together for a few years. We started with guides, him in the front seat getting instruction, me in the back proudly watching, casting, smoking a cigar, snoozing. A few times a year we'd hit a small stream near the house. It was close enough that if the fishing was slow or we were inclined to do something else we hadn't wasted a whole lot of time in the car. Last year, the first of his teenage years, it could have been a moment when he zigged away from the water. Instead, he zagged. Our trips to small streams were replaced by more frequent trips to bigger water.

Review: Fishpond Westwater Guide Lumbar Pack

by Chad Shmukler - Tuesday, Apr 1st, 2014

Sporting the Fishpond Westwater Guide Lumbar pack with Patagonia's Stormfront backpack. (photo: Chris Hunt)

Despite the vast array of hip/lumbar packs that have been on the market over the last handful of years, it is surprising how few actually end meeting expectations. Well, my expectations at least. And I've owned my share, from some of the best names in the business. Yet, even some of the packs I've owned from manufacturers that typically turn out well made, smartly functioning gear have fallen victim to many of the same pitfalls: inadequate construction quality, over-complicated design or poor wearability and/or on-the-stream usability (packs that seem great on the rack at the fly shop, but fail to deliver once they're on your hip and on the stream). So, when hip packs come along that do their job and do it well, they're worth talking about. Fishpond's Westwater Guide Lumbar pack is one of those.

The Westwater Guide Lumbar pack is part of Fishpond's Westwater collection of packs and bags, which all share the same aesthetics and design philosophy that revolves around the collection's heavy-duty construction, meant to take a beating and keep your gear dry. The construction of the Westwater collection is primarily 1680d TPU waterproof fabric, with water-resistant zippers securing all access points. It is important to note that the Guide Lumbar pack and the other bags in the Westwater collection are not waterproof, despite often being referred to as such. While the 1680d nylon the bags are almost wholly built out of is entirely waterproof, the zippers are not. The zippers are YKK #10 water-resistant zippers, not the YKK #5 Aquaseal or TZIP waterproof zippers found elsewhere. That said, you can expect a great deal of water resistance from these bags. I've fished in moderately heavy rain without concern, don't panic if the occasional dunking happens and my smartphone is inside and don't think twice about letting the bag get splashed, tossed down on boat floors and so on. It takes a bit of doing to get water into this bag, so it is going to keep things dry virtually all of the time, but please take care to understand these bags are not submersible.

Review: Fishpond Yampa Guide Pack

by Mike Sepelak - Monday, Mar 31st, 2014

Fishpond Yampa Guide Pack

It’s a small statement. The only kind that I make these days. I’ve tilted my fair share of windmills over the years; pushed long enough that I now do my protesting quietly, personally, with my actions or with my wallet. So you might not recognize it, but, as I wade these tidal basins with my Fishpond® Yampa Guide Pack on my back, I’m speaking my mind.

For a start, I’m talking recycling. The Yampa is part of Fishpond’s Cyclepond line, constructed from nylon that has been recycled and reclaimed from commercial fishing net. 27% less consumption of natural resources than virgin nylon. 28% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Less going to the landfill. We should be building everything with these kinds of goals in mind. There’s a planet to save.

And, as a North Carolina-based angler, I see the repurposing of commercial nets as a good end to a bad business. Despite the more progressive stances taken by its neighbors to both the north and the south, the state remains a battleground on the issue of gamefish protection for striped bass, redfish, and speckled trout as well as a back alley for the fistfight between commercial fisherman and sportsman/conservationists over the by-catch abuses of estuary gill netting. The application of spent net to support my catch-and-release endeavors whispers a certain ironic symmetry. Swords into plowshares.

Nymphing: Get Even More Hookups

by Chad Shmukler - Thursday, Mar 27th, 2014

This early spring brown trout took a pheasant tail swung at the end of the drift. (photo: Chad Shmukler)

Last spring, we published a short piece titled Nymphing: Get More Hookups, which focused on increasing encounters with fish by knowing when to set the hook while nymphing. By leveraging the tip provided here, the hope is you can even further add to the number of hookups you're producing not by modifying the strategy but simply by changing what you do once your drift is done, or so you thought.

Traditional nymphing focuses on dead drifting. Casting, mending and so on to insure that your fly is floating downstream just as it would if it wasn't tied to your leader. The reason is simple: this is what real nymphs do, so that's what we want our nymph flies to do if we expect them to fool fish.

But nymphs do more than that. They swim. Some nymphs are good swimmers, while others are lousy at it. Some swim to seek shelter after becoming dislodged from rocks, while others may swim to burrow in sand or silt. The most common reason that nymphs swim, however, is to ascend to the surface for emergence.