fly fishing how-to

Charlie Craven’s Basic Fly Tying (hardcover)

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Charlie Craven is one of the best tutors of fly tying I have come across. I first came across his marvellous work in John Barr’s book ‘Barr Flies’ – Charlie did the tutorials in that book backed up by superb step by step photos. I think they set a new standard in fly tying tutoring.

Now Charlie has his own book out , ‘Charlie Craven’s Basic Fly Tying’.

Basic fly tying? I guess it is if you look at the flies he has chosen to present, but on every page are tips and tricks that I guarantee will have you smacking yourself on the forehead, and thinking “why didn’t I think of that.”

Anyone working through this book will have covered most of the ground needed to tie almost any fly. If anything Charlie’s photos and words have exceeded the standard he set in the Barr book.

I have been fly-tying for over 40 years, and I still learned heaps. If you are starting out fly-tying get this book, do not delay – so you do not learn the bad habits we old tyers have picked up. If you have a friend or family member just starting tying, buy it as  a present, they will continue to thank you for it for years to come, every time they sit at the fly-tying desk.

Cannot recommend it highly enough.

Posted by Tony Bishop in fly fishing how-to, fly tying

Joan Wulff: Advanced Casting Techniques

Midcurrent has the next video from Joan Wulff video casting series up on their site.

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In this next chapter from "Joan Wulff’s Dynamics of Fly Casting" DVD, Joan demonstrates several casting techniques for dealing with the challenges of positioning and presentation on a trout stream.

These "advanced" lessons — including changing direction, curve casts, and casts for weighted nymphs — are easily absorbed by even novice fly casters, but they’re a great refresher for experts.

If you don’t learn anything from Joan you must be watching with your eyes closed ?

Posted by Tony Bishop in Fishing Videos, fly fishing how-to

New Video: Joan Wulff’s Distance Casting Techniques

Midcurrent has just released the next instalment in Joan Wulff’s casting videos. This one is on distance casting.

“What techniques contribute to better timing and higher line speed? As Joan Wulff shows us this week in "Distance Casting," modifying shoulder and elbow position, shooting line on the back cast, and adding single hauls can easily help further your reach. At the end of the video she also demonstrates a handy trick for creating loops that will not tangle when shooting line while wading.”

You will also learn, as I did, that a ‘single haul’ is not half a ‘double haul’.

Posted by Tony Bishop in Fishing Videos, fly fishing how-to

The Reach Cast Demonstrated

The Midcurrent site has another of Joan Wulff’s great fly casting videos up. This time on the “Reach Cast”.

From the video – “A dry fly fisherman has to be aware of what we call ‘drag.’ Drag is that motion that makes the fly look as if it is a water-skier instead of a free-floating insect, and it’s caused by the currents that work on the line and leader. So we need affect that by doing what we call a ‘Reach Cast,’ which will put the arm and the upper part of the rod upstream of the fly, so that the fly drifts down first.”

It is as well to remember that the reach cast has a strong place when using nymphs – a drag free drift is just as important in this style of fishing. When nymphing it can be a great help throw in a reach cast, giving you that extra little bit of time to throw in an early up-stream mend which sets up a long drift.

Posted by Tony Bishop in Fishing Videos, fly fishing how-to

The Roll Cast Made Easy, Because it Really Is

The roll cast is an absolute necessity to learn.

I can remember when I first started learning to cast a fly rod, I had all sorts of problems trying to position the line for a cast. Learning the roll cast makes it easy. Now when I am teaching someone new to fly fishing I always start with the roll cast. It is the easiest way to reposition the line for another type of cast. It is the easiest way to lift a sinking line, or weighted nymphs, up and onto the surface to cast. It is the easiest way to cast when there is no room for a back cast.

For a wonderful demonstration and tutorial of the roll cast see this video made by the Grand Dame of casting Joan Wulffe, now up on the excellent MidCurrent site. It is the best explanation and demonstration of the roll cast I have ever seen. As a footnote, if you still think power and strength are effective when casting, watch Joan probably in her mid-sixties, showing just how wrong that notion is.

Posted by Tony Bishop in fly fishing how-to

Seek and You Will Find Fish

In my book ‘Fishing Smarter for Trout’, (now on my site and free to read), I wrote under a chapter on finding trout…

Ask Questions on The River

A “I wonder if you could help, I am visiting the area and having trouble choosing the right fly,” question usually gains a positive and helpful response. I could not begin to count how many times that question has gained me a ‘guide’ for the day from locals only too willing to share the secrets of their river. Many times I have been able to return the favour when those fishermen visited my water. Some of these encounters have lead to long friendships.”

Well a couple of weeks ago I was fishing on the Tongariro and was experiencing a hard morning, I had caught nothing, hooked nothing. Then I started fishing below a lad of around 17 fishing the top end of a long pool. I watched as he hooked five fish and and landed three.

My feet were getting cold so I wandered up the bank, heading to the next pool, but as I passed the lad he also came out of the water to warm up.

We started chatting and he recognised me, and became keenly interested in the flies I was using. I quickly made it clear that I was much more interested in finding out what he was using, because whatever it was it was at least five times better than anything I had tied on.

Once I looked at his flies I quickly realised that it was not so much ‘what’ fly, as “what size’ fly. He was using size 14 and 16 nymphs, no gold bead, un-weighted, behind a thumping great heavily weighted ball of lead disguised as a nymph.

Now normally in a big river like the Tongariro I would not go below a size 12 nymph, usually weighted and always sporting a shining gold bead. They get to the bottom alright, but I guess they move pretty unnaturally once they get there. The little un-weighted nymphs, I surmise would really move about as the big currents moved them, much more naturally.

What ever the reason, they worked. So my new fishing companion and I moved on up the river catching a heap of fish, all on the little beasties. Fish I guess I would not have caught that day if I had not asked a question.

So, with a simple question I shattered my myth, ‘big water, big flies’, – a myth I had obviously been carrying around too long.

Posted by Tony Bishop in fly fishing how-to

Wading Woes Overcome

It was not a big river, but bigger than a stream. The water was around mid-thigh deep, pouring downstream at a fair clip, over a solid rock bottom, strewn with smallish boulders.

A strong wader would take about five or six strong, surging steps to cross the deep bit with little or no trouble. My fit, 30 something, son went first and made it look easy, so off I went, but not with Jason’s confidence, unfortunately.

About 3 years ago a got a bionic hip and a marvelous piece of engineering it is too – I now have much more flexibility, and no pain – a wonderful piece of machinery. The only side affect is a slight but occasionally noticeable decline in balance when all my weight is on the titanium equipped leg.

I allowed this small factor to become a big factor over several months and my wading prowess had declined rapidly, to the point where I stuttered and fumbled my way, tentatively feeling for good footing while trying to balance on the leg not shuffling. It was of course odds-on that my lack of aggression in tackling the water would lead to my downfall – and fall down I did.

There I was doing my impression of a tightrope walker, sliding my forward leg ahead tentatively ahead, when my anchored leg slid and I sank down on my bum into the water. The river moved me a metre or so downstream, before my feet reconnected with the riverbed, and I lurched to my feet, spraying water hither and thither.

A couple of steps and I was home – and dry!? Jason was preparing to help me back across the river, back to the car and back into dry clothes, but his concern and help was not needed. I was wearing a rain jacket over my waders, and as I fell with my back facing into the current, the water pressure must have pressed on the jacket effectively shutting out the river. So we fished on, and the crossing back over the river proceeded without incident.

On the drive back to our accommodation, Jason gave me a few well-meant observations on my deteriorating wading ability with strong emphasis on my feeble, foot-fumbling. “Wade like you used to, full head of steam and keep going”, he admonished. I made some excuses about age, my tin hip and so on – but with only a little conviction.

The incident and conversation was not forgotten. So, last week I took off by myself for a couple of days of river thrashing, and a really good fishing it was too – spectacular in fact.

But the really good thing about the trip was the fact that I made many river crossings in fast flowing, and deep water, and sometimes both. The excellent thing was I took my son’s advice and strode out with firm resolve, and kept my legs moving at all times. If my feet caught briefly on unseen traps my momentum kept me balanced and moving ahead.

I read somewhere that walking is the process of thrusting your legs forward to stop yourself from falling forward. By maintaining motion and momentum, we maintain our balance. If like me you are pushing your body through the barriers that ageing is imposing seemingly on a daily basis, don’t give in to temerity, meekly doddering about will almost certainly get you wet and cold, and in a worst case scenario, dead. Stride out with purpose and stay dry, and alive.

But, and it is a big but, the chances of you tipping over as you get older does increase almost exponentially. Investing in an unobtrusive, and activated only when you need it, flotation device such as the SoSpender, is a wise and safe move. A wading staff helps enormously too, and should be a must-use device. This is especially true given the less secure footing non-felt soles provide.

One thing that getting older tends to teach us is that being wise before the event is a proven method of avoiding trouble.This knowledge put into practice is even more effective.

Posted by Tony Bishop in fly fishing how-to

Loop to Loop Line Connections

The MidCurrent site has a very good video and step by step photos on tying the Perfection Loop, a must for loop to loop connections.

Once you have tied the loop the diagram nearby will show how to make a loop to loop join that will result in a perfect ‘figure 8’ connection every time.

Learn this way of making a loop to loop connection and you will never suffer from a break-off at the loop. Take the fly-line a few centimetres behind the loop lightly held between your forefinger and thumb. Take the leader just behind the loop in the same way. Then push the fly-line loop through the leader loop until the leader loop touches your fly-line thumb and forefinger and pinch them together. With your other hand take the end of the leader and thread it through the fly-line loop and pull it all the way through until just like magic the two loops form a perfect figure-eight loop-to-loop connection.

This method avoids the possibility of the end of the leader-loop flipping over the end of the fly-line loop, and effectively acting as a guillotine on itself, when the join comes under load.

Posted by Tony Bishop in fly fishing how-to

Sneaky Buggers Catch More Trout

“Trout aren’t stupid. They might be brainless and lack creativity (a lot like the creators of Gilligan’s Island), but they’re survivors. And they didn’t get that way by offering themselves up as a meal for every predator that wanders by. Which – if you stop to watch most fly fishers on the water – begs the obvious question. Why don’t more fly fishers act like predators?”

This piece on the Trout Underground offers good advice on getting close to a trout, in a fly-fishing way of course.

Posted by Tony Bishop in fly fishing how-to

Dry Flies in Winter?

I have just spent a couple of weeks fishing in the Taupo region. Well fishing is stretching it a bit. The first week the weather was atrocious, snow, rain persisting down, and gale force winds – and that was the good bits!

But it cleared up; I stopped swearing at the weather, which I have noticed in the past seems to have absolutely no effect on it what-so-ever, and went fishing. I had already decided that I was not not going to fish elephant-gun tactics – chucking and ducking nymphs the size and weight of a 9mm bullet, or heaving out fast sinking shooting-heads, in the big water of the Tongariro; this has well and truly lost its charm.

So I wandered up the smaller rivers. But I had forgotten that it was school holidays – what clown decided to give kids holidays in the middle of winter? So I attempted to fish the pools away from the teeming, water-thrashing hordes. This proved to be frustrating; regular floods have filled these unpopular pools with trees and the bits of same. Every drift it seemed would hook up on some bit of drowned timber or other. But there were fish there, deep in the jungle. Smart fish these Kiwi trout.

Help was at hand though, and I yet again grateful for a life-time habit of reading extensively. I had a month or two before read a book, ‘Tying Flies with Foam Fur and Feather‘ by Harrison Steeves. I had even got round to tying a few of these monstrous creations. Hidden away somewhere in that book was Harrison’s observation that he uses his foam flies in winter. That piece of information, hopped out from the dark depths of my mind, and demanded action.

So rather than lose more nymphs, I tied on one of the foam flies I had made ugly, tied a little gold-beaded thingy fly about 10cm away from the bend of the foam fly. Then I launched this combination out over the subterranean forest, with absolutely no confidence at all.

First drift, and the foam fly was monstered by a hen rainbow of 3kg (6lb). She and another four fish of around the same weight hit the fly, realised too late their mistake, but finally swam away once I removed the hook.

Three more pools, pretty much the same result, give or take a few fish up or down. Next day, more of the same, and the next, and the next.

The most surprising thing to me (after finally trying using a dry fly in winter) was the number of anglers who walked past, saw what I was doing, shook their head at the antics of the ‘old duffer’, and carried on to fish the crowded pools. Hope they never read this!

So they say that if you don’t learn something new every day, you had better pinch yourself, because you might be dead. It just seems to me a great shame that learning about foam flies in winter has come so late in my fishing career.

 

Posted by Tony Bishop in fly fishing how-to