Month: June 2010

New Fishing Quotes –June 28 2010

For your particularly pleasurable perusal I present another parcel of pithy penmanship – 5 new fishing quotes, sayings and aphorisms – numbers 966 – 970.

Two picks:

“You can’t stand in a river and make casts, and spot fish, and decide which hook to throw, and deal with the wind – and look over your shoulder for bears once in a while – and think about anything else. You can’t think about business.”
– Chuck Jeannes, CEO of Canada’s Goldcorp

Put backing on your line; even if you never use it. It helps you dream.”
– Jimmy D Moore

OK, I tried to resist doing the New Zealand fly-fishing advertisement – but I would not dream of of fishing without at least 100 metres of backing to my fly-line!

Posted by Tony Bishop in fishing quotes

Separating Stuck Rod Joints

There can be a problem that affects all rods with joints, sometimes they just stick and it is the Devil’s own job to separate them.

With the exception of strong surf rods, one of the worst ways to try and unstick the joints is to have a friend grab one side of the joint and you the other side, and pull. It is very hard to keep the rod dead straight and a broken rod at the joint is a common result. Even worse is for you and your friend to try and twist the rod in opposite directions as you pull. Result – same as above. This is especially true of light spinning and fly-fishing rods.

There are two methods that work for me – but I am totally at a loss to know why.

First, put the behind your back, clasp the rod with each hand on either side of the joint and pull apart. I have seen this work, and experienced it myself, on apparently immovable joints.

Second method, and again I do not know why it works, is to pack the joint with a bag of ice or frozen peas for about ten minutes, then pull apart.

Stuck rod joints can be avoided by a couple of quick tips:

  • Before joining the rod give the male joint a good rub down with a cloth to remove dust or fine sand.
  • After cleaning the male spigot rub it a few times up and down the side of your nose. The natural grease imparts a very fine lubricant.

When joining the rod pieces, just seat the two halves firmly together, never force down on the joint. Ramming the two pieces together is a definite ‘no-no’.

And finally, it is a good idea to test that the joint is firm regularly during a fishing session. A loose joint, can lead to a broken rod, because the overlap between the male and female parts becomes too short. This is especially important when fly fishing.

Posted by Tony Bishop in Articles and stories on fishing in general, fly fishing how-to, salt water how-to and tips

A fishy quote follow-up

While I was adding new quotes to the page today, I came across a quote (248) that omitted a very important phrase – that phrase is in bold:

It is strange that dry fly fishermen persist in striving for exact imitation in their fly dressing, while largely ignoring the possibilities of more lifelike presentation of the dry fly … scuttering of the natural insect on the surface has been bringing good trout to the net for many decades past.”
– Frank Sawyer and Oliver Kite

Oliver Kite used large hackles on his dry flies, really large. He felt large hackles allowed the wind and ‘waves’ to move the fly on the surface in a much more natural way.

And just by the way isn’t “scuttering” a beautiful word to describe the movement of a fly, real or imitation, on and over the water’s surface?

Posted by Tony Bishop in fishing quotes

New fishing quotes and sayings – June 14, 2010

Herewith, without further ado 5 new quotes and sayings on fishy things – numbers 961 – 965

Two picks:

“The time must come to all of us who live long, when memory is more than prospect. An angler who has reached this stage and reviews the pleasures of life will be grateful and glad that he has been an angler, for he will look back upon days radiant with happiness, peaks and peaks of enjoyment that are no less bright because they are lit in memory by the light of the setting sun.” number 964
– Lord Grey

I think that stage in my life is starting to loom up large at me, and at a sprint, no longer a slow stroll ?

“A trout angler should always be asking questions, even in reading a book. The mistake of many is to blindly accept the opinions and writings of others. There is a tendency to become too stereo-typed in method and approach. This tendency is encouraged by writers who lay down hard and fast rules. In addition, many writers try to impress by complicating the essential practical points of trout fishing. Complicated theories … serve to confuse rather than impart knowledge.” number 963
– Tony Orman – Trout On A Nymph

I read New Zealand author Tony Orman’s book some years before I wrote my first book, and the quote really stuck in my mind, because it neatly encapsulated just what I had been thinking about fishing. I hope I lived up to the objective of keeping it simple in my writing, because fishing really is.

Posted by Tony Bishop in fishing quotes