Women in fly fishing

I rarely run into women when I'm out fishing. I do know a few wives of fly fishermen also fish with a fly rod, but generally fly fishing is a male dominated hobby.

April Vokey is one of the very few female fly fishing professionals. April runs a business which includes casting classes and guiding.

Here's a very nice video of April giving a casting demo at a fly show in Germany earlier this year. I think it's also a bit embarrassing to see how passive the public reacts to April's attempt to get them involved with her demonstration... People are probably baffled seeing this nice looking lady casting miles better than they do! :)

Go April!

Update July 2024:

Here's a podcast that gives a good overview of April's career.

Update Nov 2023:

I did a humpy tying demonstration for April Vokey's Anchored Outdoors.

 

Update 26 August 2013:
A message from the Fly Gal herself: "Thanks Jay, I appreciate the kind words.  :)"

Beef up your old wading boots with aluminum bars!

Patagonia rediscovered the traction power of aluminum. Their Rock grip wading boots has aluminum bars on the soles to provide the traction when fishing over slippery rock surfaces.

These boots are probably not for every situation. For instance on a drift boat, the guide will probably not allow you wearing one of these to prevent his boat from ripped up by the bars. Forking out $200 for wading boots that's for every once in a while?...

What if you have a pair of worn out wading boots, preferably with some kind of rubber sole like Vibram? By adding these aluminum bars you can turn them into wading boots to use with ultra slippery conditions. This way you give your old wading boots a second life!

Here's a great 'do-it-yourself' guide from Yellowstone Angler how to add Patagonia's replacement bars to your old wading boots. $40 for the replacement bars from Patagonia and some spare time and you get the real deal. Thanks George for the instructions!

Also check out the 2013 wader shootout at George's website.

Fly tying lamp

I have been looking around for the ultimate tying lamp for many years. One that's bright and easy to carry. Not that much to ask for, right?

Initially the ones that fit this description were halogen lamps. The bad thing with halogen is the heat. The halogen bulbs have a relative short life span and replacements are pricey. Then the lamps using LEDs started to appear. LED has low energy consumption, stays cool, have a long life span and give very clear white light.

So lets talk LED lamps for fly tiers. So, what are the options?

The best looking LED lamp for fly tiers at the moment is made by Marc Petitjean. This lamp is very well made, comes with an aluminum arm to attach the lamp to the vise. Unfortunately this lamp comes in at a hefty $280!

The next candidate is one made by Peak. This one doesn't look as sexy as the one by Petitjean, but it's still very nice. The one by Peak comes in at around $140. A lot less than the Petitjean but still no pocket money.

But tying lamps have one problem: the light coming from above the head of the vise cast a shadow on the side and bottom of the fly. No matter how bright the light is. A minor problem is the physical part: the lamp hanging above the head of the vise sometimes gets in the way with the tying.

So, what's the solution? A lamp with a longer neck? Even brighter lamp with dozens of LED bulbs? This would result in a heavy and not very portable lamp. Why not forget the idea of a lamp attached to the vise and look for something that doesn't come near the vise at all? Like a LED head lamp!

Mountaineers have been using LED head lamps because of the versatility, long stamina and you have your hands free. The best part I like is that the light goes where you look at. So no more shadows as you move your head around to inspect your fly.

I just looked up for an affordable LED head lamp and it's ridiculous but I ordered one that's just $3 including shipping!

Hat for a special guy

I just ordered two hats at Thomas & Thomas. These newly introduced hats come with the iconic hand-drawn (by Thomas Maxwell) casting man figure that originates from the early days of the company.

One of these hats is for a special guy.

Here is a nice little note by Marc Aroner on Maxwell's drawing.


Update March 10, 2013:
Thanks to Jonas Aroner, here's a link to Tom Maxwell related articles at Spinoza Rod Company.

Interview with Tom Dorsey

Here is a nice, yet short, interview with Tom Dorsey. Dorsey founded the Thomas and Thomas (T&T) rod company together with his (late) brother-in-law Thomas Maxwell in 1969.

They started building bamboo fly rods only with a brief experiment using fiberglass blanks from the Phillipson Rod company.

Tom Dorsey: "The first graphite rods were not built until 1978 when we purchased our graphite manufacturing equipment."

T&T switched owners several times the past decade. It was even briefly owned by a Scottish investment company. Now it's back to American ownership.

The famous picture (probably somewhere in the early 1970's) shown here shows the two Toms testing a new bamboo rod.

Also check my previous posting with a nice video on how bamboo rods are made at T&T.


Update Nov 20, 2013:
Here's the best article on T&T and interview with Tom Dorsey I've read so far.
The brief history on T&T up to the the current owner of T&T, Mark Richens, is very well done.

RISE Fly Fishing Film Festival 2013

The RISE Fly Fishing Film Festival 2013 is planned for 12 & 13 March 2013. The third edition in The Netherlands since 2010.

The feature film for 2013 is Predator. Predator explores the globe for the largest and most powerful fish that can be taken with a fly rod.

These large predators employ all sorts of techniques to maximise their chance of catching prey. Some, like the queenfish use pure speed to outrun and crush their prey in the surface film. Others like the mighty barramundi of Australia’s North use brute power to get a feed. Predator is going to be a visual extravaganza.

We changed the Amsterdam venue from Tuschinksi down town Amsterdam to Pathé Arena for easier access by car as well as parking facility nearby. The Rotterdam venue is still held at Cinerama.

Tickets for either of these venues are only available here.



Update Feb 16 2013:
Here is a preview snap of the announcement of RISE in the March 2013 issue of the Dutch angling magazine BEET.


Update March 14 2013:
Two shows done.

The ticket sale for both venues were about 30% down from previous edition(s). The Rotterdam venue turned out to be slightly more filled than the Amsterdam venue.

The reactions on this year's show were great. The three short movies before the feature movie were well received.

Especially the search for the illusive (300+ lbs!) Arapaima in Guyana (South America) turned out to be a very enjoyable one. As of yesterday (March 13 2013) this movie, Jungle fish, won the Sustainability Film Award at the 2013 Sundance Film festival.

Here's an (favorable) article on the BEET website about the show we did last evening. Thanks to Rudy van Duijnhoven again for the pictures of the show!




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Hopper fishing

I love fishing with a hopper. The very visual take is just an amazing sight.
Here's a very nice video on hopper fishing in Alberta, Canada by the Jensens.
It seems it's the Red Deer river, not far from Calgary.

How the west was won: a success story

Sports Illustrated is probably known to most as the magazine that publishes the famous annual swimsuit issue with the most fabulous women on earth. But they also seem to cover more than just chicks in bikini's.

Like this article from the April 30, 1956 issue about the successful introductory of the brown trout in America.

The story starts with a shipment of 80,000 fertilized brown trout eggs from Germany in February 24, 1883.

The start was quite bumpy as fishermen considered the brown trout was an inferior spices that just wasn't was easy to catch as the native brook or rainbow trout.

As the Fish and Game commission from Montana said: "The brown trout is a good fish, but the average fisherman is not skilled enough to catch it."

A week in Montana

So, there's a lot of rubbish videos on Youtube. And there are some jewels on Vimeo.

Here's a fantastic video, albeit shot with a professional quality DSLR. Check out the usage of sliders (also shown in the video itself) making the footages really pop out. Also notice the length of the video.

Hmm... I miss Montana.

New Patagonia Lightweight wading boot = Chota Caney Fork?

I was just watching a video on the new 2013 wading boots from Patagonia. I especially like their new Lightweight wading boot. It looks a lot more sturdy than their previous boots.

The Simms Freestone boots I have been using since they came out in the early 1990's (they were called Firehole boots back then) are true bomb proof boots. I still have a pair with felt soles almost gone but the boot itself is still going strong.

I haven't tried any wading boots from Patagonia yet, but I often read they are very lightweight (great when traveling by air), comfortable yet not very durable. Most of the problems came down to stitching coming loose. I hope these new boots are a lot more durable.

After watching the video I thought they have this look that looks a bit like Chota boots, in fact they look very similar to the Chota Caney Fork boot! Well, my guess is that Patagonia buy their boots from Chota.

Here's a good picture of the new Lightweight wading boot from Patagonia.

What do you think?

Fly fishing videos on Youtube are horrible...

Boring...

I just tried to watch some Youtube videos on New Zealand fly fishing action. You know: trying to get some relaxation after dinner.

I selected a dozen of the most recent videos, but there wasn't one that was really watchable. Then I started randomly selecting videos as suggested by Youtube.

My conclusion is that the majority of uploaded videos on Youtube are basically terrible.

What is wrong with most fly fishing videos on Youtube:

• Low resolution. These days I won't watch anything less than 720p. Those blocky 360p videos look prehistoric.

• Shaky video. It's a major head ache watching earthquake registrations. 

• Horrendous background(?) music. Bon Jovi as background music?...

• Too much boring action(?). Who wants to watch a bent rod for 3-4 minutes? C'mon, cut out the boring parts!

• Zooming in-and-out. Zooming (unless ultra smooth) makes a video look very amateurish. Stop behaving like tourists!

• Constant panning. Unless done ultra steady and slowly or using a slider of some sort, panning is asking for an asperine.

• Too long footage. Any footage (= shot without a stop) longer than 8-10 seconds looses its momentum.

• Monotonous setting. Video with only one (background) setting is very boring.

• Too short video. That's it?!

• Too long video. Video's longer than 5-6 minutes is too much.

• Raw material. Watching unedited raw video is not exciting.

There are zillions of fly fishing videos on Youtube and Vimeo. Not all videos are rubbish. There are a few very nice, even professional (looking) videos.

Some of the absolute best are from Todd Moen. One of my favorite video by Todd is Heads or Tails. The storyline, the suspense, the slow motion and the action. Simply amazing!

Obviously Todd is a professional cameraman so we can't compare his work with folks who upload their videos on Youtube, but there has to be said something about the quality of videos that are uploaded.

Discovery from yesterdays...

It's end of december and it's that time of the year. Long dark winter evenings which are made for reading. This evening I picked out a bunch of older issues (1982/1983) of Fly Fisherman magazine.

It's nice to see what innovations we've seen since the early 1980's. Take for instance the graphite rods. The early rods were much more nimble and slower actioned rods that resembled the best fiberglass and bamboo rods that were common. Brands like Powell, Fisher and LC (Loomis Composites) were the companies that brought the best new fly rods. All three rod companies are now defunct.

Other huge improvements have been in waders and (foul weather) clothing. Most waders back then were made of rubber. Very effective but also very heavy and uncomfortable. Neoprene waders were just entering the market. Same goes for wading jackets. In fact the rain jackets we now know as wading jackets didn't exist back then. Rain jackets back then was everything that kept you dry. The wading jackets as we now know was 'invented' in 1989 by Patagonia with their SST jacket.

I like to check out the ads in the magazines. Some were on the verge of getting really big. Like the now defunct Kaufmann's Streamborn with their famous catalogs and mail order business. While others, like Leonard's bamboo fly rods, were on their way out as demand for the products diminished.

Simms, back then located in Jackson Hole Wyoming (sounds better than Bozeman Montana to me!), wasn't the big wader company we know now but they started selling fishing accessories. Sage started their journey to the current dominance in high performance fly rods.

And Orvis was big back then as it is now, maybe even bigger. Here's a nice 'discovery' I did while wandering through the magazines.

It's known that Orvis issues other companies to put an Orvis label on their product to be sold as an Orvis product. The Orvis Featherweight SSS reel is the lightweight version of their famous SSS saltwater reels, which probably didn't stay long in the catalogs.

I ran into an ad from a company called Crystal Mark who made a reel called the Stutz Estuary Reel. So it seems that this company made the Featherweight SSS reels for Orvis.

Even more interesting is that it seems that both the original Stutz Estuary Reel and the Orvis Featherweight SSS reel were sold during the same period. Here is the announcement of the Orvis Featherweight SSS in the Jan/Feb 1982 issue of Fly Fisherman magazine, while the Stutz ad was found in the December 1982 issue.

Update:
The company that made the Estuary reel asked the then unknown machinist called Steve Abel to make the Estuary reels. We all know what became of Steve Abel. Here is where I got the information.

Little (european) joke

Fishing a whole month out west

Ever wished dropping everything and head out to fish for a whole month in the best rivers in Montana?
Sounds like a dream, but some guys just live the dream.

Backcountry fishing in Montana

Here's a great video of backcountry fishing in Montana. Fishing the spots where rarely fishermen are seen. Pretty much fly fishing heaven!

Check out the very nice horizontal moving shots in this footage. This type of variation of filming adds to a cinematic viewing experience. Probably used a slider of some sort since it's so smooth.

Too bad most sliders are pretty awkward to carry. I'll have to see if there's a lightweight version available. Here's a Kickstarter project called AirTracks. A very nice portable slider using an inflatable air bed as the track and a set of trolley wheels on a plate to keep everything extremely portable. Still at around $300 not exactly pocket money.


Update March 22, 2013:
Here's an affordable slider that's compact enough to take it along when fishing. This Mobislyder looks like the one we have been looking for. But... it's a cheap piece of crap unfortunately. Check out this video review.

Well, the search goes on...

Notice how close fishing is done

Rod companies are eager to sell their latest and the greatest rod to the discriminating angler.

I've been wondering more and more why we judge the performance and quality of a fly rod by taking it to the parking lot and start casting 80+ feet of line?

Don't get me wrong. I love casting an 80+ feet tight looped line. However, most of my fishing is done between 15 to about 40 feet. Sight fishing with nymphs is my favorite way of fishing. This is sometimes done as close as 10 - 15 feet.

This type of fishing means minimal false casting (generally only one or at the most two back casts), stealth approach and positioning yourself for that one chance delivery of the fly.

You've probably seen those amazing DVDs and YouTube clips of trophy trout fishing in New Zealand. Generally acknowledged as the highest difficulty level in fly fishing for trout. A trophy fish is spotted first and the fisherman carefully cast to that one fish.

Notice how close the fisherman is to the fish they are after.

How to choose a fly line

There's more than just picking a line from the shelves of a fly shop than the right line weight and taper.

These days many fly lines tend to get past the bandwidth set by the AFFTA for a line weight, usually heavier than the line weight should be.

Some fly line companies (like Rio) 'overweight' nearly all their fly lines while some only make one model that's overweighted (e.g. SA's GPX). This is probably the result of ever faster actioned rods of the past two decades: to create a line that feels better on modern (stiff) graphite rods...

I prefer fly lines from Scientific Anglers because their weight is true to the AFFTA standards. I also like SA lines because the diameter of their lines 'feel right' for their line weight. My experience with Cortland and Rio fly lines are due to the larger diameter of their lines they cause more wind resistance as well as taking more room on your reel.

Here's a great posting on another blog about how to choose the right fly line for your rod.

How to tie the original Klinkhåmer Special

Here's a nice write up of the history and the way to tie the Klinkhåmer Special as the originator, Hans van Klinken, does.

I've never really fished this fly much since I fish mostly nymphs, but it's always a good idea to have a couple in a fly box.

So, if you're not using the same hook, dubbing or even turning the hook 90 degrees to hackle the parachute hackle, you won't end up with a real Klinkhåmer Special!

If you're a really lazy bum, here's a video of Hans tying his Klinkhåmer Special so you can sit back and watch the whole process. You can't get closer to the original way of tying than this, can you? Well done Hans!

Update Nov 2024:

Recently Hans van Klinken finally finished his book, just on time for the 40th anniversary of the Klinkhamer. His fly seems to have undergone a few iterations along the years as the most recent version doesn't have a dubbed body but is made of quill wraps and a ribbing of silk.

Wingsuit flying

This is the most extreme footage I've ever seen in my life...

Steve Jobs' new super yacht

While the big Apple news today was that Scott Forstall got kicked out at Apple, I went out the office to check out Steve Jobs' super yacht called Venus unveiled at a shipyard in Aalsmeer.

The Dutch shipbuilder Jobs commissioned to build the super yacht happened to be just around the corner where I was working today.

Barely five minutes walk from the office door to the riverside, this 'world news' was barely noticed by the neighborhood.

Kinda weird to see this unusual looking yacht, probably full of the most modern maritime technology, waiting just a few hundred yards from me.



Here's a 360 degree panorama I took of the spot where I was standing with the yacht in sight on the other side of the river:


Update August 7, 2015:
The Venus seems to be doing just fine. Here's a clip with the Venus in the Caribbean.

September days

Fishing mainly with nymphs, I almost forgot how much fun it is to fish with a dry fly on light gear. The first few days were spent casting dry flies all day on a tiny stream in the hills of the upper Austria region in Austria. Austria is such a wonderful country filled with yummy trout streams and rivers.

We were the only fishermen on the entire 10 km of this stream. Under the canopy of trees it felt like being lost in dry fly wonderland. Casting can be awkward at times with hanging branches at just about every corner. The population were predominantly browns and a few rainbows. Unfortunately we haven't seen any graylings. Fish were generally in the 8 to 12 inch size with a nice sized fish every once in a while.

Bring along a short (no longer than 7.5 ft) and light rod and a dozen dry flies and you can have rising action all day long. We fished with a simplified version of the elk hair caddis the whole three days. Easy to tie and floats for ever. Just make sure to get that tight loop under the branches and you'll have tons of fun.

The stream ran low so you have to keep on moving to the next profitable stretch of water, be a pool or a undercut bank with that stretch of depth for hiding. Clear water and low water conditions means spooky fish. Try to walk along the banks rather than in the water when possible.

The temperature was just right (around 24 degrees Celsius) yet the sun stayed behind the clouds. A few rays of sunshine appeared by the end of the third day. Too bad we had to leave for our next chapter of the trip. We'll be back here in a few years and see what spring conditions look like.

Next stop was one of my favorite rivers for the past 15 years. Since the river has 4 sections of each about 5 km long, all with a different character I could easily spend a whole month here. Nymphing is the key to success here and on a good day 40+ fish a day is possible. Just make sure you wade carefully when the water levels are low in the fall. Fish are spooky after seeing fishermen all summer long.

Grayling population has been very low the past 5-7 years here, but it seems the lady of the stream is working on a come back and that's good news. Don't forget to cast under the hanging branches along the flat section. A nice surprise can be your reward. We did have a rainy night the second day so the river turned into a cafe latte the next afternoon. Fortunately the next day the river was a clear as it could be.

This week has been very enjoyable and once again strengthened our near 20 year friendship. Rolf, next time look around and you'll see a familiar scenery! And do get rid of the chest waders on a hot day when water levels are only calf deep...

I did capture some video footages, but not enough of it! I'll see if I can make anything decent out of them.

iPhone 5 launch

Apple's iPhone 5 announcement resulted in pre-orders which topped 2 million within the first 24 hours. Apple's previous record was the release of the iPhone 4S which was pre-ordered 1 million on day one.

The launch of a new product by Apple results in massive demand and people all over the world willing to spend many hours (some even days!) waiting in line. Often this camping in front of the stores is celebrated with each other with drinks, talking and having fun.

Other manufacturers try to emulate the same enthusiasm, but turned out to be a hoax. People stood in line for free concert tickets or free stuff...







And this is how Microsoft does it: