Nervous May - part I

Just back form our May trip.

The weather prior to this week wasn't looking fabulous. Pretty much a rainy week with a dry period in between. It turned out to be much better than expected. However the river condition was only about 80% of the usual level. We still managed to have a great week with some nice fish.

I'll be back with a more detailed report as well as more nice pictures.
In the mean time enjoy these two pictures.
By the way, the tasty looking dish is Rolf's new love: the grilled Tinten fisch (German for squid).

Getting some fresh air

The river Kyll always has been the first introduction to fly fishing for trout for many Dutch fly fishermen. I think I spent 10 years fishing the several stretches of this river before heading for more exotic places.

My friend John and I decided to do a one-day-trip to get some fresh air. The river Kyll was the logical choice since it's only a 3.5 hours drive.

We got a day ticket and headed for this 1 km long private stretch near the town of Mürlenbach, just below the town of Birresborn. The Kyll stretch near Birresborn is probably the most visited stretch of the Kyll. At weekends this stretch can be really crowded.

I had to recall when I fished the Kyll for the last time. It must be around 12 years ago. I heard about the near extinction of the once so abundant grayling. I remember those trips where we caught around 100 fish a day on the stretch above Birresborn, most of them being grayling.

Well, no grayling to be found today... In fact, the river looked pretty deserted. Just a dozen of tiny brown trouts were all we saw. The rain of several days before kept the water a bit murky. Ah well.... we got a smell of fresh air under a bright sunny sky!



So this trip marks the start of a new season.
Next stop: mid May.
Destination: southern Germany!

Spring casting

What a nice and warm easter spring day it was today.

Martin Hengelsport, a local fly shop organized a demo day where one could try out a nice selection of rods made by Guideline. Guideline is a Swedish manufacturer of fly rods, reels and lines. Similar to Loop and Vision.

It wasn't a big happening and that's probably why I liked it so much. We got to talk to our fly fishing friends, cast a rod or two and basically enjoy the warmth of the spring sun. They even made a little water basin to demonstrate the various spey-casting techniques.

I'm not into two handed atlantic salmon fishing, Skagit-style casting or even switch rods, but the experts say Guideline's two handed fly rods are among the best, if not the best. Can't comment on that, but their one handed fly rods appear to me as nothing special, if not a bit stiff and kinda 'lifeless' if you ask me... The price range is just below the premium brands like Sage and Winston.

It's remarkable how these Scandinavian brands have been working their way up the fly fishing industry the past 10 years. I remember Loop started the large abor reel craze with their Traditional reels in the mid 1980's. In the early 1990's Sage had their 700 reel-series made by Loop, which in turn commissioned Danielsson to build the reels under the Loop brand.

Nowadays the original large arbor reels from Loop are built and marketed by Danielsson as an independent reel manufacturer. It took a while these large abor reels really took off. I think it was Jon Bauer with his award winning MacKenzie reel series in the late 1990's really kick started the large abor hype as we know today.

I think these Scandinavian brands are giving the premium brands a run for their money in terms of value-for-money, no-questions-asked service as well as innovation on fishing for sea run brown trouts and atlantic salmons. The Scandinavian fly fishermen are considered the true experts on the sea run brown trout fishing along the endless coastal shores of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

Our first trip to the trout streams is just about a month away. However, I managed to squeeze a one-day-trip with my friend John within 2 weeks from now to the river Kyll in the German Eifel region, just over the southern Dutch border.

Ah...memories! My first steps in the trout streams were made on this river, now some 20 years ago. Stay tuned for a little trip report on this one-day event!

Reminiscing - part IV

This is a picture of the mighty Missouri river in Montana, near the town of Craig, I took in the fall of 2005. The Missouri river, below the Holter dam, is considered the largest spring creek on earth. This is because of the steady water flow and water temperature released from the Holter lake.

I first visited the Missouri river in the summer of 1992. The sheer size and charisma of the Missouri just blew me away.

Powerfibers II

Here are two interesting pictures of bamboo culms. The left culm is the bamboo which rod makers use, the so called Tonkin bamboo. The other (right culm) is a regular bamboo, probably used for making fences and/or as decoration in gardens etc.

As you can see, the Tonkin has a much higher density of the so called power fibers at the outer part near the surface. Tonkin is one of the many spieces of bamboo and only grows in a small area in the Guangdong province of China. It seems that LESS than 1% of the Tonkin harvested is suitable for rod making. Check out this posting for more information on Tonkin.

The two most well known companies specialized in importing Tonkin cane for rod building are probably Charles H. Demarest (since the 1930's!) and more recently Andy Royer.

It's Xmas!

Merry Xmas! The past couple of months haven't been much in terms of fishing or tying. Next fishing trip is being planned for mid May. Maybe a winter fishing day for pike soon.

Basics of Spey rods

Ever wondered why the Spey rods are getting more popular, even for trout fishing conditions? Much easier to get real long distances as well as fun to experiment with different spey casting techniques. Check out this excellent clip by Steve Rajeff on the three different Spey rods with their specific use. 

Hardy Perfect - new pictures

These new Hardy Perfects are really handsome reels. However the prices of these reels are huge. Around $900 for the reel alone and about $260 for the spools these Perfects are only for the high end addicts. Maybe Santa will consider getting one for you? Hmm.. with the current economic situation...

Pike fishing with the Dahlberg Diver

Well I finally found the video I talked about in one of my previous postings about tying Dahlberg divers. It's released in DVD format by the In-Fisherman. Man, after watching the video again I was looking for my 8 weight rod, grab a bunch of divers and head for the water in my back yard! Wait a minute... it's almost 11 PM...

This video is a true classic in terms on innovative fly tying, using flies in conditions (shallow water) that is not suitable for traditional spinning tackle as well as pure entertainment. The strike of the pike on a jumping diver on the surface is nothing short of excitement.

I'll be getting my gear ready for this autumn/winter season to do some pike fishing using large pike streamers as well as Dahlberg Divers. Stay tuned!

Mel Krieger passes away

This morning Mel Krieger passed away after several months of illness. He suffered from brain lymphoma.

I met Mel and his wife Fanny at the Fly Fair of 1994. Mel certified my examination for my FFF fly casting instructor certificate. What a personality he was and his way of sharing his joy for fly casting was really contagious.

Everyone who passed the exam Mel handed over this little polished brown colored pebble. This little pebble he said was for good lucks. Recently I watched his video about Patagonia. This video is a documentary about and around Mel's passion for Patagonia for the past 40 years. Half way in this video (around 28:10) you see Mel going to the market in a small town in Patagonia and buying these brown polished pebbles for his friends.

Update May 22, 2022:

Here's the part where in the video you see Mel going to the market in a small town in Patagonia and buying these brown polished pebbles ('talisman') for his friends.…

Update April 2015:
Guess what? The whole DVD can be watched on Youtube!
Here it is (again!). Not sure whether the video will be taken off eventually because of copyright. So either watch it or better yet, download the movie!


Update 21 Sep 2019:
Here's a nice video by Todd Moen (of CatchMagazine) on the fishing for sea run browns at the Rio Grande river in Tierra del Fuego. Mel probably knows this river well.

New gear for 2009

Every year there's this huge Fly Fishing Retail Show in Denver where the major manufacturers of the fly fishing industry show their newest stuff for the coming year. I don't know about you but even though I already got every gear I need for my fishing, I always have to keep myself from looking for a reason to say "Hey, I need that!"...

Since most of us are not working in the fly fishing retailer business, we will rarely get to see all the newest and nicest stuff ourself. Thanks to the modern video streaming technology and American Angler magazine we get to see some of the gear from our comfy home.

Phew... that's a LOT of stuff coming our way the next season.

2009 Hardy Perfect

Hardy is re-introducing a new 2009 version of their Perfect reel which originated in 1891. I haven't seen the new reel yet at Hardy's, but here are some pictures of the new reel.

I'm not sure whether the new Perfect is manufactured in England or overseas. The rumors are that these Perfects are made in Korea. The sizes which will be available are supposed to be 2 5/8 inch, 2 7/8 inch and 3 1/8 inch. So basically for line weights #2 up to #6. There will be both RHW and LHW versions.

Update: the new 2009 Perfects are made in England. These reels are not cast but made from bar stock aluminum.

I'm not sure if the 2009 version will be a special edition or will be available for longer than a year. The previous re-issue of Perfects specially for Japan in the early 1990's were sold out pretty soon.

The Hardy Perfect always looked great on a bamboo fly rod. If one reel has proven that it could stand the test of time, the Perfect has. And the price? $850 for the smallest reel and $950 for the largest and that's a LOT of money for a reel!

If you're into the history of Hardy reels (or general history of fly fishing tackle), here is the site of the Sportfishing museum which hosts a large picture collection of historic Hardy reels. The museum has sadly closed its doors recently, but the collection can be viewed on-line.

If you're really into the history of fly fishing. Check out the site of the American Museum of Fly Fishing in Manchester, Vermont.

Wide angle challenges

I bought my camera after extensive reading through specs. Having a camera with a wide angle is great for taking pictures of surroundings but also taking pictures of subjects without having to walk backwards until the whole subject is in view (e.g. buildings or even just a picture in the living room).

Now what if you want to take a picture of the whole picture as you see it through your eye? The human eye can see a view angle of about 120 degrees. This kind of angle is impossible to capture with a regular camera unless using weird & expensive lenses like fish-eye lenses. Pictures taken with these lenses always produces weird looking pictures with a curved horizon like the one here on the left.

Another solution is stitching pictures together to make a panoramic view of the whole view. I just bought this nifty little application called DoubleTake. It's so easy to use: just drop the separate pictures you want to stitch together to form a wide view. DoubleTake makes sure that the overlapping areas are matched and crops the usable area of the whole picture and voila: a panorama view of the picture!

I like to take pictures of a stretch to show where the fishy parts are. This picture on the right is a stretch of the river from my last trip. The overhanging trees provided the shadow for fish to hide from the sun. Guess where I tossed my hopper-dropper rig?... The picture is a scaled down version of the real picture so you won't get a detailed view if you zoom in. But you get the idea.

On-line FF magazines

The internet being a much faster media than regular paper is giving fly fishing magazines a hard time. Some guys are using the internet to their advantage: why not an on-line magazine?

The on-line magazine This is Fly is the first of this new generation of fly fishing magazines only available through the internet. It's not your average on-line version of the magazines we know. It's pretty much the 'grunge' version with short articles with lots of graphically altered images, fast-and-furious action and weird fish caught in weird places. Kinda like fly fishing magazine meets MTV Jackass. Not really everyones cup of tea probably.

The brand new on-line magazine Catch Magazine is the next adventure by the famous professional photographer and fly fishing adventurer Brian O’Keefe. Catch is a visual extravaganza in terms of amazing photography, embedded video clips and mouthwatering destinations. You might call it a Brian O’Keefe commercial?... (grin)

Well anyway, take a look and make your choice.

Patagonia - Yvon Chouinard

Patagonia needs no introduction. It's basically the manufacturer of the finest outdoor clothing and fly fishing apparel. The man behind the brand is less known. Founder and owner Yvon Chouinard is also very much a pioneer in environmental conservation as well as one of the best rock climbers during his active years.

I've only seen pictures of Yvon Chouinard in silhouette in some advertisements of Patagonia in various fly fishing magazines. It's very inspiring to watch and listen to him in this little video. I really like the analogy he makes in the video: "...fly fishing, you have to read the river like a rock climber reads a rock...".

Another one:
"...fly fishing is not about catching fish... it's about adapting yourself to where you're worthy of catching a fish..."

No comment (II)

The previous edition of No Comment is here.

Some folks say fishing bamboo fly rods can be really addictive. Well, I have no plans to end up with such a collection of rods as the picture shows. But I can agree that bamboo rods are really fun to fish and cast. In fact, I've lost nearly all interest in graphite rods since I've been fishing with bamboo fly rods.

Well, probably a next edition of No Comment in the future.

Pretty small reels

I just ran into a bunch of new spare spools for the Hardy Flyweight and one for the Featherweight. The Hardy Lightweight reel series have been around for more than 50 years. I prefer the Orvis CFO reels as my lightweight reels but some prefer the Hardy reels. I've owned a nice Featherweight reel once. Not sure what ever happened to it. I think I sold it to a member of our fly fishing club.

I bought these spare spools since I knew somebody was looking for them. Well, I hope he will have fun with these spools. They look great on small midge bamboo fly rods.

Write your own font!

Ever wanted to make your own font but you don't have the skills to design them?
Here is Fontifier.


It's an amazingly simple concept:

1) Print out a template.
2) Write down the alphabet using your own handwriting on the sheet.
3) Scan the template.
4) Upload the file and preview the result.
5) If you like the result, download the converted font.
6) Use the font after copying the file into the Fonts-folder.

Every font you decide to use will cost you only $9.

Now, what a stupidly simple way to make your own unique font! That's why I just love Apple's philosophy.

The prince and his hopper

Back from my trip to the German Traun. The trip turned out to be different than anticipated. Both my buddies (Rolf & Andreas) couldn't make it, due to various reasons. Well, that's a bummer in terms of nice company and catching up with some good fishing, good laughs, fine food treatings and plain enjoying the nice surroundings. Weather was just as expected: sunny and HOT!

The river was in fine shape: clear and low. Chest waders were definitely too hot for this condition. Good thing I also brought my breathable hippers. I also decided to try something different this time. Usually I fish with weighted nymphs. This trip I have been using a hopper-dropper combination all four days, just like on my trip to Montana in 2005.

The hopper is the Alien Bug and the dropper is a sparsely tied bead head Prince. The many riffles, under overhanging branches as well as the edges around the undercut banks were just the spots to cast this duo. Yet, it's still amazing how a fish of around 16-18 inches still manages to keep unnoticed in a spot with barely 10 inches of water. This fellow hit the Prince nymph the moment I tossed it into a slightly deeper (we are talking about 10-12 inches of water here) channel of a fast riffle I walked by. Before I knew it he made a nasty run and came tail walking out of the water. Nice...

The predominantly browns just loved this enticing offering! Just seeing the hopper dive under made it even more exciting than the usual strike indicator jumping upstream. On several stretches the rig proved to be deadly. I wished my buddies were able to experience the superb fishing I had these couple of days. It's also interesting to see that some browns only had dark spots while others also had wonderful red spots. Looks like there are two (or maybe more) different strains of browns in the river.

Every once in a while a brave fish would grab the hopper. Most of them were missed simply because the hopper being just too big for them. I even caught several nice graylings, including a fat 18 inch fish. It's a darn nice sight to see a grayling come up and follow the offerings and eventually grabbing the nymph. Not to mention that these big graylings are tough fighters.

The fine Italian food of the local ristorante was nothing short of amazing after an enticing day of fishing.

I'll end with some various pictures of the trip. The wonderful painting was found at the hostel lobby where I was staying. While I tried to grab this view of a typical village at the valley of the fore Alp region of Southern Germany this nun greeted me on her bicycle! You can see her riding away. Would you think that was Maria?...

2nd trip of 2008 coming up!

My second fishing trip of 2008 is due next week. I'll be fishing a new stretch of the Deutsche Traun. I get to meet up with my old friend Andreas in Southern Germany.

Hope to see ideal conditions. The previous weeks has been pretty unstable weather. This week the skies are clearing up as well as the temperature heading towards the 25-30 degrees Celsius. I love fishing under a sunny sky! Yup, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do...

Spring fishing 2008

What can I say? After a period without fishing, you start to wonder if you're still into the game. Well, as soon as I saw the gin clear streams near the Austrian border it started to itch again... What will this spring bring us?

After the weird conditions of last year, I was hoping for conditions without extremities. We were blessed with excellent weather conditions. Just the weather I like for my fishing: sunny and warm.

The river conditions were close to normal. I did notice some changes in the structure of the river. Seems like the river endured some heavy rain causing strong enough current to change the structures on the bottom as well as the edges of the river.

For me our highlight of the trip was a days outing to the German Traun. The river is such an example of a prime trout water: gin clear water, strong fish and solitude. I need to capture this moment...

My buddies were especially impressed by the strength of the fish in this river. I really enjoyed the long runs the fish takes. Simply addicting!

Enjoy the pictures!

Fishing trip & Fly Fair 2008

The fishing trip I took last week was great. Great company, superb weather and slightly less than usual fishing. But nonetheless a memorable trip still. I'm waiting for the pictures from my friend Cees, so keep posted for the pictures as well as a more elaborate fishing report.

This weekend was the 2008 edition of the Fly Fair. Different location, old style fair with lots of tying as well as casting and shops showing their goods. It wasn't as extensively visited as the previous ones, which are by the way at least 5 years back. Not the fair with the big names like Charles Jardin, Dave Whitlock etc. Much more of the small cosy fair where people with the same game in mind come together.