Chris Helm passing away

Yesterday Chris Helm passed away. He will be missed.

I've known Chris for more than 20 years. We met at several fly fishing shows during the early 1990's like the Dutch Fly Fair and Danish Fly Fair where we both tied flies.

Chris helped me a lot during my first ventures tying with deer hair as I was struggling with getting good deer hair. Good deer hair was not easy to come by here. Chris owned a fly shop called Whitetail Fly Tieing (yes, this is how Chris spelled 'tying') Supplies with the largest selection of deer and elk hair in the world. Or any fly tying material for that matter.

Early this year he sold the fly shop so he could travel more and enjoy his retirement. My most recent contact with Chris was earlier this spring.

Just about 6 months prior to this sad moment, Chris gave me the scissors he personally used. He said they are the best he had used.

Thank you Chris!

Here is an interview with Chris.

Chris Barclay fiberglass rod

I've got more rods than I can ever fish during my lifetime (and longer). But recently I have been talking with Chris Barclay about building a rod.

Chris, although building rods for some years, has become a highly acclaimed rod builder. Chris improved his work quite dramatically the past few years and got really noticed when he released his own line of fiberglass rods, starting with the 7.2 ft 3 weight later followed by a 7.8 ft 4 weight and 7.10 ft 5 weight, as recently as late 2013. The blanks for his rods are made in Japan to his specifications and his rods has received lots of praise.

Earlier this summer I sent my 3 weight Orvis Superfine Glass back to Orvis. Since I still wanted a 3 weight fiberglass rod, I decided to go for the Barclay 3 weight.

I love light rods with dual reel rings, so I was looking for finish that is a mix of Chris' own mini wells grip and bright dual reel rings like the Bob Summers' Deluxe version of the 275 model. Along the way Chris told me he was expecting a new batch of brass hardware but now with his name stamped. After seeing a picture, I chose to stay with his signature finish. I also asked Chris to make a slightly shorter 5.5 inch grip.

Any small reel would fit the rod fine, but a lightweight vintage reel like Hardy Featherweight or the Orvis CFO 123 will look stunning on this rod. This rod will do great on any stream or small river, but I'd say it's made for fishing gin clear small streams like the one I fished several years ago in the hills of the Austrian alps. I just can't wait to sight cast a small nymph to a holding trout in the slower edge of a bend of the stream.

Bobbin holders, just holding bobbins?

A few items are as non controversial as a bobbin holder. Yet there is more to know about this essential tool for fly tiers. I've been using Frank Matarelli bobbin holders for ages. Unfortuntaely these are harder to get as Frank's age gets in the game. If you can get one, buy one! And yes they are worth the price.

Martin from Global Flyfisher decided to get into the subject and wrote the ultimate guide to bobbin holders. It will take a while to read it, but anyone who is serious about his fly tying should read it.

At last: the end of the fluorocarbon myth...

You've probably heard and read the raves about fluorocarbon tippet being the magic wand. It's invisible to the fish, it sinks like a rock and it's much more abrasive resistant than regular nylon tippet.

I must admit I have been carrying a couple of fluorocarbon tippet spools in my vest for the past few years. The few times I used them I couldn't see any difference in catch rate nor any noticeable higher strength.

My tippet of choice for almost 10 years has been Rio's Powerflex and they have served me well. I love their Guide spools (100 meter) as I change a lot of tippet when fishing.

However recently I have been curious about René Harrop's Trouthunter brand tippet. Unfortunately the Trouthunter tippet comes in 50 meter spools and they are about 40% more expensive than Rio Powerflex. The fluorocarbon version being about 15% more expensive. Both compared in 100 meter lengths.

But to really give it a test, I have been thinking about switching over to 100% fluorocarbon for a whole season to see for myself how much more fish I would catch. But the price of these buggers! Roughly at least 3 times as expensive than regular nylon tippet. Three tippet sizes (4x - 6x) and one extra for the most used size (5x), would set me back at least $160!

Well anyway, the experiment never materialized. The proverbial if-it-ain't-broke-don't-fix-it probably kept me from this. Here's a posting at Swift about the same subject. I'm glad Carl doesn't own a fly shop...

Feature film for RISE 2015: Backcountry

Gin-Clear Media's new feature film for 2015 is Backcountry - North Island.

And it's looking very promising. As usual Nick shot some spectacular air views of New Zealand's mountain range, forests untouched by man and endless streams which probably has never been fished before.

Everyone loves New Zealand fishing and this 'bush whacking' feature film is typical of what New Zealand has to offer: solitude, amazing scenery and gin clear streams with huge browns and rainbows. The lord must be a fly fisherman…

Keep posted for RISE 2015 schedules in Europe early next year.

Brown trout as a project

Dave and Amelia Jensen eat, breath, sleep and probably dream fly fishing. To narrow it down even more, brown trout fishing. They also let others enjoy their fly fishing adventures with their very engaging, almost intimate, way of capturing videos, like about hopper fishing and a short promo on the Orvis glass rods. I ordered their DVD Sight Fishing trout rivers a while ago. Very entertaining as well giving some good pointers on (dry fly) sight fishing for trout.

Then all the sudden Stripped Down - The Brown Trout Project arrived and this project is their largest video publication so far. It's a compilation of the past 13 years chasing brown trouts in Alberta, Montana and New Zealand classified in 8 chapters. Thanks to modern video-on-demand technology you can download ($6 per chapter or $40 for the whole lot) the video chapters in glorious HD. A double DVD (which is only SD by the way…) can be ordered soon.

Just check out the trailer to see what's all about.



Update June 16, 2014:
Just shipped half a dozen Alien Bugs to Dave and Amelia to feed the hungry browns in Alberta this summer.

Review: Graywolf Epic 480 ('So Blue')

I just received the Epic 480 (8ft for a 4 weight) finished by Shane Gray of Graywolf Rods. And the final product is just superb. The Epic blanks by a New Zealand company called Swift (Carl McNeil of the fantastic DVDs Once in a blue moon and Casts that catch fish fame) are making quite a splash in the fiberglass community.

These blanks are designed by Carl and his team and made in New Zealand by CTS. Carl calls these blanks high performance S2 FastGlass, the Epic 480 casts super smooth indeed.

One can order a blank from Swift and build a rod as desired. You can also order a kit with all the needed components and finish it yourself or buy a finished rod from Swift directly. Finally you can ask one of the many talented Epic certified rod builders like Shane from Graywolf or George from Tightloop to finish the blank. I can recommend these two builders without any hesitation.

The current line up of Epic fiberglass blanks are typical for fiberglass blanks and rods available ranging from a 7.5ft for a 3 weight to a 8.6ft for a 6 weight. There is one blank aimed for saltwater use (9ft for a 9 weight). All blanks are 3 piece except the saltwater blank.

What's really unique is that the blanks can be bought in no less than six different colors. Colors common to fiberglass blanks as seen mostly are amber or brown, but Epic blanks are also available in blue (poetically called 'So blue'), red, olive and white.

My rod is built in a utilitarian style with cork reel seat, up lock screw and a mini wells grip. The matching blue agate stripping guide is from Joe Arguello (also a famous bamboo rod maker). Check out Shane's amazing workmanship and you'll agree that this rod is a looker.




Update Aug 27, 2014:
Swift just started delivering new blanks for double handed rods. Probably more models to come but the first model comes with the name DH11 (11'6" 320-540 grains 4pc).

Update Aug 29, 2014:

I cast the rod with a 5 weight line and I was amazed how well the rod casts! The feedback I get with just 4-5 meters of line was amazing.

7th Open German fly tying championship

Well, I've been getting alerts that it was true but I had to wait for the official news and here it is.

Recently I shipped two flies I really love tying: the Humpy and the classic Adams (Catskill style). My flies have been on shows (many eons ago…), in magazines and (most of them) given to friends and now it seems it is rated top ranking by a team of capable judges.

One of the judges is my old friend and one of the best fly tiers I know: Chris Helm. Chris is a true master on tying with deer hair. Be it western dry flies like the Humpy or hair bugs.

Chris mailed me a few days ago that he wondered whether the flies he was looking at were maybe mine?... His comment was that he gave my Humpy a perfect score except… the tail should have been tied with moose (body) hair.

In fact, I really considered tying that way (I tie my humpies usually with moose tails), but since the reference fly was shown with a deer (or yearling elk) hair tail I decided not to take any chances. Germans are known to be very strict with regulations… I also tied the bleached deer hair tail slightly shorter to prevent the tail flaring too much (see reference fly).

I don't know if I tied my humpy with the moose hair tail, it would have been rated lower for not tying the fly as mentioned in the regulations. Well anyway, it's great honor to win the Open German championship!

…and I really should start with my Catskill dry fly project.

The news in Dutch.

Update 8 May 2014:
Picture of flies of the 2nd place winner.
Picture of flies of the 3rd place winner.

Salmon fly hatch

I've always wanted to be there when the salmon flies started to hatch in Montana. These big stone flies (Pteronarcys californica) crawl out along the streamside vegetation and rocks after a 3 year nymphal period around late May to early July. The hatch continues for about 3 weeks.

Now here's the problem: how to predict when the hatch begins? Especially how to plan a trip with the salmon hatch as your main goal? Pretty impossible since it's usually when the run off is just coming down from full swing. If you arrive too soon, your fishing is limited to small tributaries or spring creeks. If you arrive too late, well… you're too late.

Bye bye belly boat, hello stand up paddle board ?

I've never owned a belly boat. Yes, I've tried it several times in the past. I just don't see myself fishing lakes that much to justify getting one. And maybe it's the static sitting position I don't like?

You've probably heard or seen this recent hype on stand up paddling. Originally a tropical sight like somewhere in Hawaii, these days it's also a leisure activity you can see in the canals of Amsterdam.

The link with fly fishing is made pretty easily. Unfortunately these boards are pretty massive in size no matter how light they actually are. And the next solution would be an inflatable stand up board: easy to carry and basically the same possibilities as the regular boards. Just send $1000 to the guys at Bote and the inflatable paddle board is yours!

How wolves changed the rivers in Yellowstone park

It must have been about 12-13 years since my last visit to the Yellowstone National Park. My first visit to the park in 1992 has been a memorable trip. Not only because of the great fishing but especially the awe inspiring surroundings. My amazement of the diversity of the scenery and wildlife has never been more profound as the day I drove into the park. Watch this video for an amazing tour of the park from above.

Here's an interesting yet very intriguing little documentary on how the re-introduction of wolves in the Yellowstone National Park changed the entire ecosystem and even the rivers as well.

We all know what happens when man introduces an unknown spices (like rabbits in Australia) in to an ecosystem. The wolves have been absent in the park for more than 70 years. Just shortly after the reintroduction of the wolves in the park, the effects were remarkable.

Italy - an unknown jewel?

I've been to Italy several times. Never travelled with a fly rod, but that might change next time.

Flies shipped

Destination: Germany

Mouse order

It has been a while I did some serious deer hair work. Here's a mouse I just tied this afternoon for a friend.

I think it turned out okay. I'll probably burn the eye area to get the eye sink a little bit deeper. Just need to look for some glue to keep the doll eye in place.

Usually I'll use natural grey deer hair for my mice, this time I used bleached hair for the top with some brown hair stacked. The underbelly is white.

Click on the picture to get a larger view.
Enjoy!

Update:
Shipped!

Orvis Superfine Glass (II)

The new Orvis Glass rods are making quite a dimple in the fly fishing scene.

Magic fingers

I rarely fish after dusk. Why? I think the main reason that I don't fish after dusk is I don't have this 'home river' which I know every inch of the banks, tree or rock in the water. And that's actually a pity because I've often heard how good the fishing can get after dark. Not sure if fishing after sunset is permitted in the rivers and streams I fish, so it might even be forbidden.

Probably everyone has this fear of slipping or stumbling over a rock in the dark. With a home river, one can focus on the fishing rather than wondering where you are and whether you are about to end up in a nasty current.

I remember this one evening with my buddy Dave during a moon lit night, a few miles away form his house on the Bow River in Calgary. Big browns were cruising along the banks sipping spinners. I can say it was something new to me yet very exciting. Minus those nasty mosquitoes which bugged me the whole evening...

Fishing in the dark means one needs a light to change a fly or even untangle a messed up leader.

Here's an unusual little LED light that I ran into. It's a LED light that is used to make light shows in the dark (probably on the dancing floor in night clubs) while wearing them on several fingers. It has a rubber band around it so you can tighten it around your finger. It comes in several colors including white, but the red one seems to be pretty useful since red light doesn't destroy the night sight as much as white light does.

I don't know when I'm going to end up in an evening rise, but I'll keep one in the back of my vest just in case.

Melody on bamboo

Here's a nice video made by a bunch of young Swedish guys who built some bamboo rods together and decided it would be nice to capture their efforts on video.

Too bad the video quality isn't fullHD (1080P)…

RISE Fly Fishing Film Festival 2014

The RISE Fly Fishing Film Festival 2014 is planned for 21 April 2014. This year is the fourth edition in The Netherlands since 2010. This year we're back to only one venue in Rotterdam at Cinerama.




The feature film for 2014 is Leviathan.

Tickets (€16 per seat) is only available here.


Program of the venue:
Tributaries 
Blood Knot 
Blackwater – Devil’s Gold 
Alaska - La Frontera Norte 
LEVIATHAN (feature film) 

Teaser of Leviathan:

The South African innovation: the Palm grip

South Africa is not the most obvious destination for most fly fishermen from Europe or the American continent. It was the book called 'The South African Fly Fishing Handbook' which showed me some truly unique streams in South Africa. No trophy fishing, but fishing in a very rural and amazing background that looks like a mix of New Zealand and the Montana.

For severals years I have been getting the marvelous newsletters by Tom Sutcliffe, a South African author of fly fishing books. Over the years, I noticed something in Tom's writings and pictures which caught my eye: the 'palm grip'.

Especially the articles in Tom's newsletter in November 2010 and more recently in June 2013 turns out to be epic reading. This quite unusual grip form evolved from the search for the ultimate small stream rod by Tom's friends Ed Herbst and Steve Boshoff.

The Palm grip was developed to keep the weight of the reel close to the hand while eliminating the gap between the end of the grip and the reel. Early versions of the palm grip looked a bit odd at first, but the more recent versions look unusually handsome. Sage made a few models of the SPL rod series using a very similar idea: the Center Axis rods.

South African rod builder Koos Eckard has been building rods with his interpretation of the palm grip and one of his recent rod built using the Orvis Superfine Touch blank looks pretty awesome. Yes, it does take a while to really appreciate the grip form, but the more you look at it, the more the grip form starts to settle in.

I'd like to see how the proportions of the grip changes if the grip was made a bit slimmer around the mid and lower section of the grip as well as bit less pronounced like the Orvis Superfine grip. Koos also finished a Sage Circa blank with the palm grip which looks a slightly more slender. According to Koos the palm grip is tremendously comfortable. Maybe I should try one of his rods with the grip in the future!

Update: Feb 6, 2014:
Koos says the Circa grip is the same as the one he made on the Orvis blank. Probably the angle of the photo. Well anyway, I think the grip looks very nice.

Just add some money… (II)

Looks like the Patagonia region is filled with amazing fisheries run by exclusive lodges. Here's another one in patagonian Chile with mouth watering fishing, food and scenery.

Got money? Book your trip here.

Just add some money...

… and book a week in paradise? I've never had the urge to book a fishing lodge, but this footage sure look tempting. The blue sky, the clear water and amazing scenery are definitely doing the magic together.

Got money? Book your trip here.

Yellowstone Angler's 2014 shootout 8 weight rods

Yes, here we go again: Yellowstone Angler's yearly shootout. This time they are looking at 8 weight rods.

The usual suspects are in the top rankings.
The winner is the G. Loomis' butt ugly NRX again. Surprisingly the Orvis Helios 2 did very well and ended second.

What did surprise me is that the Sage Method didn't do as good as I expected. Probably what I was afraid of: too damn stiff. Another surprise was the Hardy rod. As George says “it sucks!..”

American made Orvis CFO reels

The Orvis CFO reel is a modern classic. Introduced just over 40 years ago, no other reel is more considered as the Orvis reel as the CFO. The last couple of years Orvis changed the design of the CFO as well as having them manufactured in the far east. It just doesn't look right and I'm not the only one…

Recently Orvis decided to go back to its original looks but this time the reel is built in the USA rather than in England as they used to be. It is rumored that Abel builds the current CFO reels for Orvis. The most striking difference with the older Hardy (around up to late 1980's) and BRF built CFO reels is the shinny anodized finish.

The new reels doesn't resemble with the older numbering. The original CFO was available in a lot of sizes (II, III, IV, V and for a brief period the 123 and I). The new CFO is now only available in three sizes. The smallest version being slightly larger than the original II, which was impossibly small. The new II is the same diameter as the less known 123. The largest version is the same as the most popular sized CFO III. Maybe Orvis will introduce larger sizes soon.

The capacity seems the same and probably the spools are interchangeable, but this is yet to be confirmed. The new CFO reels are still very lightweight reels but slightly heavier than the original CFO's.

The new CFO reels are $325 to $345, which is surprisingly 'affordable'. I have yet to take a look myself, but I'm very curious. I won't be ditching my original CFO's anytime, but these new CFO's could be a big seller. A CFO with Abel quality sure sounds very solid. One thing I notice on these reels I don't 'like' is the wooden handle.

To make things even more complicated, Orvis also sells a real Hardy made CFO III as a limited edition version. It's a beauty obviously, but priced at almost $700 it's probably only interesting as a collectible rather than a fishing reel. There were several limited edition versions of the CFO reels in the past, so probably this won't be the last one...