Reminiscing - part III

My first visit to the Rocky Mountains region in 1992, I ran into some very memorable moments. That year I saw the majestic scenery of the park for the first time as we entered the park through the north eastern entrance.

In the little town of West Yellowstone, my buddy Don and I awaited for Scott to arrive in his camper he bought from his (then) boss. It was an old beast, pretty much resembling a lunch box on wheels. But we had the best camping experience in the park! The fishing in the park has never been as good as during my first visit.

I also met Craig Mathews, the owner of Blue Ribbon Flies. I wasn't aware that he was a fly fishing celebrity then. Like any fly shop in the Rockies, this shop was like heaven on earth. Every imaginable brand, equipment and the ambiance was just amazing!

What made an everlasting impression was that he agreed to trade in my 2 piece rod (Sage 690LL) I bought back home specially for this trip for a brand new 4 piece rod, which was quite a novelty back then. The 4 piece Sage 490 LL I traded was an eye opener for me! The lighter weight of the rod was such a joy to cast all day. The multi piece rod that casts like a 2 piece rod was also totally new to me.

2007 & weather

It's early November and it's hard to imagine how a nice and sunny day feels like. Talking about the weather! 2007 is surely one of the most unstable year when the weather is concerned. We had a hot spring, cool summer and basically a wet year. Friends who took a trip to New Zealand during October were treated with lots of rain and windy conditions. Not exactly what you are looking for when you decide to take the wet dream destination of fly fishermen...

Was 2007 a normal year at your heck of the woods or are the weather hick ups we saw in Europe part of a global proces?

2007 is almost coming to an end. Well not quite maybe. I just might treat myself with a short trip to the Austrian river which is still open this late. Not sure how the weather will hold up.

Keep posted for the trip report. Here is the trip report of last winter.

Apple's iPhone - part II

The iPhone has been released in the UK and Germany today. No sign of it being released in The Netherlands yet... Folks are buying these iPhone from the US and hacking them to work on their local providers. I'll just wait and see when it officially arrives here.

Again, I haven't seen one in real life yet but I have been watching the reactions about the device from a distance. I'm sure Apple has made a fine mobile phone, but it can't be THAT good?...

Well, after watching this guy's comment on the iPhone, I'm really starting to think that the iPhone IS really setting a whole new level of mobile experience. This Chris Pirillo is supposed to be the uber-geek of the computer world. I've never heard about this guy before but I understand that things he says are respected by many.

Check out this guy's thought on the iPhone:

Sharkskin

I lawn casted the new SA's Sharkskin line today. It was a WF5 and boy does it cast!

The line is:
* Very limp;
* It holds no memory at all;
* The line glides through the eyes like a slippery snake;
* The high pitched noise it makes when running through the eyes is pretty annoying. I have no idea if it will wear out the eyes faster than regular lines;
* The diameter of the line feels a bit thicker than SA's regular WF5. So casting might feel different on your favorite rod;
* The fluorescent yellow color is a bit bright for my taste.


I just renewed all my lines this season, so I'll wait until it's time to get new lines. I have no idea if the line floats well as SA says and how it will handle warm weather conditions. I'm sure more stories on this new line will follow the next few months. The price is just too steep ($100!) to buy one solely as a lawn casting line.

SST

The rain jacket for the serious fly fisherman was and still is the Patagonia SST Jacket (SST stands for salmon, steelhead and trout). The original jacket was released by Patagonia in 1989 and has been for sale ever since. It has undergone several minor changes (mainly color and the jacket got a bit longer) but the main characteristics never changed: wearing comfort, functionality and sheer versatility.

I have had my jacket for many years and now. Last winter I went to fish the Goiserer and Ischler Traun in Austria and the first day was just downright wet and chilly. Never a moment did I feel cold or damp.

This jacket doesn't come cheap, but if you need a jacket for the three cooler seasons you might as well get the best. For summer use it's just too bulky & hot, unless your name is Rolf. He managed to zip up the jacket all the way to his chin during a scorching hot week in Austria. He wanted to prevent ticks crawling into his undies...

Picture of the week!

One of my photo's from my recent April trip made it 'picture of the week' on the RiverBum site!
Check it out at RiverBum.

Job: Trout bum

These guys at the Angling Exploration Group are some lucky guys. Seems like these guys don't have to take care of mortgage, 9-5 jobs and groceries to take care of. They just fly fish and travel to the best fishing destinations of the world! How's that for a life! I wish I could have done that during my college years or even just after finishing college and travel for a year.

These guys from AEG made two DVDs on their Patagonia and New Zealand trips. I got them both and these DVDs sure are mouth watering. The story line is pretty funky, much more like MTV-stylish shows rather than the fly fishing DVDs we're used to.

These guys are now in Mongolia to fish for huge taimens and monstrous brown trouts using big streamers. Keep track of their daily stories on their blog. If you want to listento their stories in Mongolia so far, check out the podcast at Zach's site.

Where are these guys going next time? Which remote destination full of huge trouts are there left? Hmm... probably Chile, the Himalayas, the moon, Kamchatka....

Wireless world

Wifi is everywhere these days and now it's also in my home. I bought the Airport Extreme with the latest and fastest IEEE 802.11n protocol. This latest implementation of the wifi technology is FAST. Typical 200+ Mbps compared to the more common 802.11g which has a 54 Mbps limit. Basically the Airport Extreme will keep up with the fastest broadband internet connection for years to come.

In the past, setting up a network meant that you had to string up the house with these clumsy UTP cables, drill holes in the floors and walls. Keeping the ugly white cables out of sight is pretty impossible too. Wireless networking using the wifi-technology makes life simply easier, more flexible and no messy cables laying around.

The nice thing about Apple's Airport solution is that you can hook up any USB printer and/or USB external harddisk to print from any spot in the house or access the external harddisk from any of the computers. It's obviously both compatible with Macs and Windows. But no Windows machine is allowed in my heck of the woods!

Anyone doing this?

Just curious:

Is anyone doing this?...

Sage goes bass bug

Now this is an interesting move from Sage. They released a fly rod specially for fishing big and wind resistant deer hair bass bugs. There are two rods (2009: now three rods) available: one for smallmouth bass and one for largemouth bass. The last one being a more robust rod to cast those big nasty bugs. Both are a lot shorter than the rods we are used to: 7ft 11 inches. The yellowish color gives the rod a retro look resembling the older fiber glass rods.

Here is Sage's rod designer Jerry Siem showing off the new rods:


I have no idea how much easier these shorter rods will cast the big bass bugs, but I'll let you know as soon as I've cast one WITH one of my bass bugs tied to the leader. Surely other rod brands will follow this new niche market?

Hilarious PC history

While looking through YouTube this evening, I found this hilarious piece of PC history about the evergoing battle between the Mac and Windows. This three part 'instruction videos' on Mac vs Windows 95 shows how fast the computers have evolved. The features shown, while still up and running in todays operating systems, look very dated compared to today's approach.

Take a look and have a laugh!


Here is part 2 and 3.

Tango

There are probably a dozen movie clips on building bamboo fly rods on YouTube, but none so far is as fun to watch and sounds better than the one from my friend Marcelo Calviello from Argentina. This one is actually a series of still pictures but nicely zooming and panning makes the experience very alive. The gracious tango of Astor Piazolla accompanies the clip. Well done Marcelo!

Get a drink, press the play button, sit back and enjoy!

Weather blues...

Well, our trip to the Isar turned out to be a bummer... Basically we were rained out.

The heavy rain period two weeks before our trip turned the Isar into a milky blue soup. Even though the water levels dropped considerably during the week before we left, the visibility of the river was far from ideal.

The first day of the trip was pretty nice and sunny. Yet the visibility of less than 10 inches made fishing very difficult.
The second day the blue sky was exchanged for dark grey clouds. After a few hours in the morning the clouds opened their doors and the wind picked up seriously making fishing further impossible. The additional rain wiped out any hope we still had for the river to clear up.

We decided to head back home after another cloudy day. Andy who arranged the fishing for us mailed me later that once the water in the lake that feeds the Isar gets milky, it can take up to 2-3 weeks to clear up.

How frustrating to know that the following days will be quite sunny and nice!

Well, we'll definitely try this river again. Hopefully we'll have picture perfect conditions. The nice grayling I caught the first day probably tells me there is more to come.

Tying bassbugs (II)

YouTube is such a wonderful medium. I found this four part video on tying a Dahlberg Diver by a tier called Ken Bohannon. Someone filmed the tying process of Ken's Dahlberg Diver at the 2007 Texoma Tie In. Probably a fly tying show of some sort.

Although I like to tie my divers slightly different, the basic idea is the same. Ken's explanation is top notch so there is lots to learn for anyone who wants to tie a diver or improve their hair tying process. If anyone has a a question on tying the diver, hair bugs or tying with hair in general, just leave a question in the comments window and I'll get in touch with you.


Enjoy Ken's video on tying the Dahlberg Diver:



Here's part two, three and four.

Lukas' tip for Southern Germany

Lukas sent me a picture of a bead head nymph he used on his recent trip with great success. The bright maylar body seems to work well in discolored water. I will definitely tie a few of these nymphs if we do encounter discolored conditions. Thank you Lukas!

The weather in Southern Germany looks pretty bad right now. This is a snapshot from the weather widget as of now in the Munich area.

We're hoping that the weather will improve by next week and stays that way! At this moment I'm not really worried about the weather because it's still two weeks away. If it stays this way the week we leave, then I'll look a bit more worried...


Update on the weather (14 sep 2007):
It looks like the weather is improving after a rainy period. Early this week the raining stopped. The next couple of days will be even sunny and warm. The second half of next week the temperature seems to drop quite a bit.

Only concern now is the amount of water that flows through the river. At this moment the amount is dropping from a whopping 5x the average amount early this week to now about 2x. Hopefully by the beginning of next week it will be just above the average of 25-30 m3/sec.

Next trip coming up!

I'm looking forward to our next trip in a few weeks. We'll be heading to a new river in Southern Germany with 4 guys. All our gear is waiting to get back in action again. There is supposed to be lots of big graylings in this river. The scenery I've seen so far reminds me of a mixture of New Zealand and the Rockies. Are you guys getting a bit curious which river we're talking about? Patience my friend...


Some news from the FF front:

* The weather has been brutal in the US this summer. Most states are having some very hot and dry weather. Not good for smaller trout streams.
* Hans went fishing for a weeks fishing for atlantic salmon in Norway last month and he caught... zip? You gotta love the surroundings.
* I can't seem to find big (size 8) light wired scuds hooks. Tiemco dropped this size some years ago. Anyone know which brand still has LIGHT WIRED scud hooks in size 8?
* My Dynaking vice is still going strong.
* Olli is falling for Orvis in a big way. My guess is he will be ordering some Orvis thongs soon!
* I'm hoping for sunny & warm weather in September. So I can wear shorts and (breathable) hippers rather than chest waders.
* Rolf finally got his wet dream: an orange colored Orvis breathable waders. So no more jokes about waders!
* My minimalism in flies for fishing has come to an optimum. I'll be using just two patterns now.

Summer break

Due to moving to my new house I haven't had much time to work on my blog. No thanks to my ISP either. I'm still waiting for my internet connection...

My next trip is due in mid september. So keep posted!

Update 23 Aug:
My internet connection is finally up & running again.

Reminiscing - part II

This is the mighty Missouri river in the state of Montana.
It's one of those rivers where one gets the feeling of being tiny and totally absorbed by the greatness of the scenery...

Hardy is losing its identity

Hardy of Alnwick, maker of fine fly reels as well as fly rods, is moving their production to Korea.
In other words: Hardy is outsourcing.

There are four main reasons for outsourcing that is occurring in the fly fishing industry:
* Labor is much cheaper than homeland;
* Production related costs (the non-labor related ones like housing costs, taxes, etc.) are much cheaper elsewhere;
* There are simply no new craftsmen available;
* The investors just want more money for their bang (= getting greedy).

If a company is to stay producing in the original country, the question is: is the consumer willing to pay a higher price for it? How realistic this is depends on whether the product is unique enough simply because it's a one of a kind...

Hardy's decision to outsource is an approach that probably will hurt Hardy more and deeper than they realize. Hardy equals tradition and tradition only. Not because it's technically more advanced that other similar products (which long ago was by the way). Hardy made in the far east means it's just a fishing brand just like many others. No more distinction so it just needs to fight for the same value for money balance as the next brand.

Good bye Hardy...

No comment...

A tick-free summer

There's no reason to get freaked out or to get afraid being in the outdoors. But with just a few good sense tips you can enjoy a tick free summer. After reading Tom's posting on his blog about ticks made me realize that fishermen should be educated rather than freaked out about ticks.

Especially my buddy Rolf is one terrified mama when it comes down to this subject. I remember one trip to Austria's Koppen Traun river where he was all zipped up to his chins wearing a rain jacket. Mind you it was around 30 degrees (around 90 F) with a clear blue sky! Needless to say that he was sweating like a seal in the jungle... *grin!*

Here's some good information on keeping tick free as well as taking care of it if you got bitten by one of these nasty critters.

Reminiscing

Maybe I'm getting old but I like to look back at the good times I had in the past. Here is a nice picture of the Crowsnest river in Alberta (Canada). This picture is from my trip in 1998.