Variant (again)

Recently acquired some vintage Mustad 3911 C sproat hooks in sizes 12 & 14.

These are 3X short up eye hooks. I bought them with Variants and skaters in mind.

Ausable Wulff

Here are two different videos of Fran Betters tying his Ausable Wulff.

I'm not sure if his tying changed along the years but it looks like in one video (the second video) shows the fly tied much more proportionally nicer than the other. The body looks much more tapered than the first video.

Get rid of the clock!

I’ve wondered for so long why so many casting instructions are so complicated and confusing.

We have also been taught with so many wrong paradigms that make no sense. One of them is the clock to teach casting, to be precise when to stop the rod. Most instructions tell the student to stop at 10 AM at the forward cast and 2 PM at the back cast. This is rubbish! Let's get rid of the clock right away!

I'll use my kid's math tool to show this.

Angle changes with distance

Rather than the clock I'll use a pizza slice to demonstrate the idea. The size of the pizza slice represents the angle the rod makes between the forward and the back cast. And the angle reflects the length of the casting motion you need to make to cast the desired distance. This applies to the forward as well as to the back cast (obviously).

To make things really easy to understand, I’ll define three different casts:

1) short distance cast

2) medium distance cast

3) long distance cast

What numbers these distances represent, is up to you.

So, here's the whole idea:

Shorter the cast, the smaller the pizza slice.

Longer the cast, larger the pizza slice gets.

That's all?... Well, almost. Depending on the distance you cast, also the direction of the fly line (also known as 'trajectory') changes.

On the shortest casts the

1) pizza slice is small

2) trajectory of the forward cast is aimed at a downward angle and the back cast in an upward angle. Why? For better precision.

3) line speed is low

On a medium distance cast the

1) pizza slice is larger

2) trajectory of both forward and back cast is more or less horizontal, basically parallel to the water.

3) line speed is a bit higher

On a long(er) distance cast the

1) pizza slice is the largest

2) the trajectory is angled slightly upwards on your forward cast (and back cast slight angled downwards) to compensate the influence of gravity exposes to the fly line. Remember shooting a cannon to a target far away?

3) line speed is higher even

As you can see depending on the distance of your cast, the size of the pizza slice changes as well as the trajectory. Knowing this makes the '10 AM to 2 PM' analogy to teach casting totally confusing and misleading. So get rid of the clock when (trying to learn) casting!

Need some help on your foundation cast? Check here.

Expert vs real

Ok, I don't want to bash anyone here but how does an expert in fly fishing do such a terrible job?

Are they as good as we think from their stature or is it just all baloney?...

Del Mazza’s Classical & Contemporary Dry Flies

I heard this name 'Del Mazza' many times over the past 5-8 years. He sounded like an Italian pizza restaurant owner who mistakenly opened his restaurant next to a Catskill river 😂.

There wasn't much available on him on the internet, except that he worked at a fly shop called Hunter's Angling Supplies and also raised roosters for his tying.

The fly shop is long gone unfortunately. Also heard that there was this great DVD he once made but couldn't find it anywhere. Until last year it was suddenly available at the web store of the Catskill museum.

I watched this DVD ‘Del Mazza’s Classical & Contemporary Dry Flies’ this wet Sunday afternoon. It's a well made DVD from the mid 90s. The quality of the video is obviously not as high as we see nowadays but perfectly clear to follow.

Mazza’s flies are dressed a bit too heavy for my taste but for anyone looking to learn the steps I can recommend it. The DVD can be ordered at the website of the Catskill Fly Fishing Center & Museum.

Update 17 Jan, 2024:

The DVD seems to be either sold out or no longer available....

The history of the Jackson Hole One Fly

Adams - rooster or hen wings?

Catskill legend Ed van Put's favorite fly to fish is the Adams.

Recently someone said that Ed insists that a correctly tied Adams uses round tipped rooster hackle point wings or it is an incorrectly tied Adams. Ed grows his own grizzly as pretty much round tipped rooster have been bred out these days of genetic hackle.

As historically this is correct, I wanted to see how different a hackle tip of a rooster and a hen turns out side-by-side. Which one do you prefer?

Left rooster cape, right hen cape (from the Darbees, bought somewhere in the early 90s)

Rooster hackle tips

Hen hackle tips

Work in progress

Rooster wing Adams

Hen wing Adams

Adams flies tied by their originator, Leonard Halladay of Mayfield, Michigan. Note the spent-wing tying style

Big Horn

Never fished the Big Horn during my visits to Montana. South eastern part was just way out of my route and you also need a drift boat as it flows through Indian territory and access to the water is very limited. But maybe I ought to fish it next time.

New year's fly

First fly of the new year, Light Cahill

Flies tied by Rube Cross, in the middle a Light Cahill