Articles

The Long Road to Marleyville

by Todd Tanner - Wednesday, Oct 8th, 2014

I’m pretty sure my fishing guide was stoned. His bloodshot eyes had that vacant, “You can knock on the door all you want, but nobody’s home.” look, and he smelled, in fact he reeked, of marijuana. Yeah, ol’ Homer Jones, who I’d known for less than an hour, seemed to have started off the morning with a good buzz on.

“Shit.” I thought to myself. “Just what I need. A one man party rowing the boat.”

My buddy Mack, who was responsible for booking the trip, looked over, caught my troubled expression, and said, “Relax, amigo. Mellow out. He’ll have his act together by the time we’re out on the water.”

Little Things

by Steve Zakur - Sunday, Oct 5th, 2014

Articulated streamers designed to imitate large meals are all the rage lately especially with the crowd that likes large fish. I suppose that includes most of us, though once you try casting those beasts you might reconsider. That is, until a large trout slams the thing, then it's all worthwhile.

The reality is that most of us spend a lot of time casting more modest flies to trout of the more common variety. This time of year the game gets smaller and smaller as we move into midge and olive season. A buddy recently wrote me about a pending fishing trip. The advice was that we'd start at size #18 flies and work our way down until we found the sweet spot probably around #22 or less.

Since we're only seeing small flies hatching, it's not a big leap to assume that's all that's in the water column. And while it might be true that these smaller bugs are the majority of the fauna all those bugs that hatch in warmer months have to be live somewhere off peak. It's no surprise that they're living underfoot.

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.