The three musketeers

The nice weather inspired me to have a look at my 9ft 4 weight rods (yes, I love 4 weight rods!). The three musketeers are the G. Loomis 490-4 IMX, Sage 490-4 RPL and the Sage 490-4 LL. All three from the same era of fly fishing history.

The fast graphite rods as we know today began in the end 1980's with the introduction of high modulus graphites developed by the aircraft companies like Boeing.

G. Loomis introduced in 1987 the IMX graphite and the rods with the same name. Sage (originally started as the Winslow Manufacturing Co.) introduced in 1989 Graphite III with the legendary Sage RPL series. These days we might even call these rods medium-fast action rods as rods have become faster and stiffer.

The RPL (Reserve Power Light) series were manufactured for quite a long time. Starting from 1989 and discontinued in 1997. The blank reincarnated in 1997 as a budget rod series called the VPS. In 1987 the LL (Light Line) series started as rods using a slightly lower modulus graphite called Graphite II. In 1989 the LL rod series (discontinued 1999) were also built with the new Graphite III.


Update March 2019:
I sold the Sage 490-4 RPL

Walt Mossberg on the influence Apple has had the past 20 years

Walt Mossberg tells about the influence Apple had, especially the past 20 years.

Jeez, I was there when it happened!

Drones

Every once in a while I wished I had some Steven Spielberg DNA. Not because I want to produce a Hollywood block buster, but because I really like to make a fishing trip memory to be captured worthy to be watched and enjoyed.

How to capture the sometimes amazing scenery I run into when traveling to my fishing destinations? Filming with even an iPhone can be done in 4K these days, so affordable quality isn't much an issue anymore. Nice destinations? Check! For more advanced shots with nice depth of field (blurry background while the subject is in focus) effects you'll need a camera with interchangeable lenses. Check!

How about shots from the air? Adding some aerial shots dramatically enhances the video. Hiring a helicopter was the way to go, but these days drones are getting more advanced every day, both in aerial capabilities (however still limited to about 30 minutes of battery life) as well with on-board cameras (4K!). So being a real fly-fishing-Steven-Spielberg is pretty close to reality. Check out this capture made with one of the most advanced drones at the moment (costing about $3500, ouch…).

Goiserer Traun 2006 - 2016

Didn't noticed it right away, but it has been 10 years ago I fished the Goiserer Traun for the first time.
Although I missed the opportunity to fish this spring, maybe later this year?

2016

2007

2006

EWF 2016

Attended the EWF Show in Fürstenfeldbruck in southern Germany near Munich for the first time as a fly tier after winning the Open German Fly tying Championship in 2014, the award ceremony is held at the EWF. What a great show! The people are great, the organization is superb and the venue of the show stunning. Thank you Michaela, Robert and Armin.

It has been about 20 years I tied at a fly show. It was odd to experience that all the fly tiers I used to tie together were all gone. There's now a whole new generation of fly anglers. Unfortunately the weather was pretty bad on Saturday. Because of the rain, the people all gathered inside. It was really crowded!

As usual I had lots of people smiling when they see the colorful deer hair bugs. Especially the frogs and mice were real magnets. I think I tied 95% of the time my mouse because people were desiring a mouse. Many times they asked me what do I catch with these mice. I told them it doesn't catch fish but families! The following smile is priceless.

After the show I headed with two of my friends to the town of Bad Goisern in Austria. The goal was to fish the Goiserer Traun river. Unfortunately the water was, after many wet days, too high for my taste. We looked at several spots to fish but the high water made wading down or up the river pretty difficult. Since there are several rivers and streams in the proximity of the Goiserer traun, we headed for the Ischler Ache on saturday and the Rettenbach on sunday.

The weather was amazing on saturday. The Ischler Ache is one of the many tributaries of the Traun and looked like a dream in the sun. The lower part near the town of Bad Ischl the river meanders a bit before joining the Traun. At a slow and deep bend we saw several big fish, probably barbels, cruising along the deep edges. The fish we caught were sparse and rather small.

The upper part of the Ischler Ache looks quite different as it more resembles a canal with very few diversity in structure or vegetation for the fish to hold. It was a pretty barren stretch with a couple of fish holding against the few boulders. My buddy Marcel caught a nice little grayling on a dry fly. I caught a few graylings amongst most rainbows. I really couldn't find any fish above 12-15 inch. Maybe we're just too early.

The Rettenbach, another tributary of the Traun, is a very different beast so the speak. A small freestone type water with many boulders, corners and vegetation for the fish to hold. Not a stream to fish for the faint hearted or with bad physical shape. We had a 3 hour period of drizzly rain, so fishing was a bit challenging at times. One nice fish managed to open up the bend of my nymph and get away...

I really love this type of streams as it challenges one to sneak up to a fishy spot and move to a strategic spot to cast that one and only chance to stir up the big guy waiting for a nice meal. This is a great stream for a 3 or 4 weight rod, be a graphite, glass or bamboo rod. I'm for sure returning to it when the conditions are better.

I later heard that our friend Rudy did manage to fish the Goiserer traun a few days later. He caught a couple of very nice graylings.

Bjarne Fries, an extraordinary rod maker

Bjarne Fries is a Danish rod maker who has been building bamboo rods for more than 30 years. His rods are very distinguishable, unlike any other rod available today. I rarely, if ever, see a Fries rod on the secondary market. His rods have achieved a true following by Japanese fly fishermen.

Recently Bjarne and I were back in contact again after many years and he offered me to cast a newly built rod. Bjarne generously sent me two rods last week to review: one from the Katana series (8 ft #4) and one from the Pendular series (8.6ft #4, his favorite rod for dry fly fishing).

One can distinguish a Fries rod from miles away. The grip has this gorgeous torpedo-style shape. I just love the proportions of the grip and they feel very comfortable in my hand. The reel seat is all cork (including the reel ring!) and the butt cap is also finished with cork. The underside of the butt cap shows what he calls 'the window to the soul of bamboo'. I really like the looks of these rods.

Fries is the inventor of the bamboo ferrule which he calls F.I.B.H. (Fries Integrated Bamboo Hexaferrule). Seeing a bamboo rod without a nickel silver ferrule is quite a different sight. These FIBH ferrules makes his rods very light, the action of the rod remains continuous and no more need to align when putting the parts together.

The two rods are very different characters indeed. The Katana has what Bjarne calls a 'New semi parabolic' action. The Katana series is probably one of his most sought after rods. The rod feels extremely lively and light in the hand. The rod follows the lengthening of the line very smoothly without ever being sloppy. The Katana just becomes an extension of your arm. At a mere 3 oz (86 grams) this is one extraordinary rod.

The Pendular rod series could be called one of Bjarne's signature series. If one has never cast a parabolic actioned rod, he might be very confused at the very first casting stroke as it feels very tip heavy and sloppy. It takes a while to understand this action and needs some adjusting of the casting stroke.

Although the parabolic action feels quite slow due to the lower section being more flexible than the mid and tip section giving the feeling that its action is 'upside down', this rod was also able to keep up with a more aggressive casting stroke. But the real strength of this action is the way it is capable of 'catapulting' the fly line from the lower (and strongest) part of the rod. Probably hence the name Pendular.

Even though the Pendular feels quite tip heavy due to the taper this rod just weighs only 3.1 oz (89 grams)! That's astounding. In fact Fries' rods are probably the lightest bamboo rods in the world. Quite an achievement since his rods are not hollow built. The diameter of his rods are very small compared to other rods I've seen in the 8-8.5ft length.

His catalog shows an amazing array of rods in several rod series with mostly his own proprietary tapers. One of his most extraordinary rod is called the Noodle, an 8ft #2-3 (!).  Bjarne recently told me that he stopped offering rods with nickel silver ferrules. All his rods are now built with his FIBH ferrules.

Rods built by Bjarne Fries aren't cheap starting at around 2000 Euro's (about $2300) and comes with one tip. An additional tip adds 1000 Euro's ($1100). His rods are immaculately finished (his rods aren't varnished but hand rubbed with polyurethane giving the rod a very stealthy look) and details (like the heavy brass tube cap with an inlay of a piece of the hexagonal bamboo) really show his aim for perfection.

Thank you Bjarne for letting me have a look at your amazing rods!

Update Feb 2018:
Bjarne retired from rod making in 2017. This is too bad for me as I was about to order a rod...

The best of Field & Stream magazine

Here are a bunch of nice articles I found in old issues of Field & Stream magazine thanks to Google Book's search option.

Best way to read these articles is to place the mouse pointer on the article and press right button to 'Open frame in new window' to get a full screen view.


Yellowstone river:




America's fish:




Making sense of trout (or why the nice fish are gone when you arrive):




Of course we already knew these, but always nice to read them again:




Best of the West, a nice list of rivers to fish in the American Rockies:




Fly fishing gets ugly, some nice tips on fly fishing for carp (yes, carp!…):




Going deep in the name of the trout research. A rather long title but some really interesting (nymphing) tips.
I really like tip number 1:

Joe Messinger Jr.

Update Dec 2023:

Read the Q&A I did with Joe.

I've been fortunate to call the legendary deer hair tier Joe Messinger Jr. a friend. I have been corresponding (no internet back then!) with Joe since 1994. Along the end of the 1990's we lost touch due to finishing college and being busy with work.

Almost 20 years later we got in touch again and our friendship is continued like it was never lost. Meeting Joe one day would be a huge honor. Maybe I'll convince Joe one day to visit Europe.

Yesterday the postman delivered a Bucktail Frog and a DVD from Joe. Joe is now in his 70's yet his tying is still immaculate! Thank you Joe! In the DVD Joe shows the unique tying technique Messinger Sr. developed in the 1920's. I think I need Joe's guidance to really understand the technique. Messinger Sr. is also the inventor of the Irresistible.

Anyone interested in the history of the Bucktail Frog I definitely recommend Mike Valla's book 'The Founding Flies'. This book also covers other fly tying legends like Lee Wulff, Rube Cross and the Dettes.

Inspired by Joe's Bucktail Frog, I tied this 'leaping frog' somewhere in the mid 1990's. The picture was taken by Hans Weilenmann during a DAAFT (until some 15 years ago a club of tiers from both the USA and The Netherlands called the 'Dutch American Association of Fly Tiers') get together. I have no idea where the frog leaped to, but Hans later generously gave me a big print out of this picture as a memory.

Here's the only article (American Angler - July/Aug 1991) ever published on how to tie the Messinger Frog. Here's another article (Jan 2020) about Joe and how he is trying to keep the legacy his father started with the deer hair frog alive.

Here's a nice article from Field and Stream, 1991 august issue about the history of Joe Messinger Sr. and his Bucktail Frog. The best way to read this article is to place the mouse pointer on the article and press right button to 'Open frame in new window' to get a full screen view.

Whiting Farms - a video profile

I've written various postings about hackle and the history of genetic hackles. Here is a great video on the history of Whiting Farms and its current operations. No chickens running around the barn yard here. It's basically a laboratory.

Tying at fly fishing events

It has been a while I've tied at fly fishing events. I used to tie more regularly at events when I was in college some 20+ years ago.

This year I'll be tying at two shows no less: the Experience the World of Fly Fishing (Erlebniswelt Fliegenfischen / EWF) in Fürstenfeld, Southern Germany early april. I'll add a few days of fishing with friends in Austria after the event. The second event is the good old Dutch Fly Fair at the end of may.

Maybe I'll get to meet some of you at one of these events?… Please drop by!


Update 1 okt 2016:
I'll also be tying at the Niederrheinische Fliegenfischertag (NFFT), an event organized by Finest Fly Fishing, a fly shop just over the German border.

Elk River near Fernie, BC

After watching this video about the Elk River near Fernie in British Columbia, I had a flash back.

The Elk river is one of the prettier rivers I've fished. I fished the Elk river in 1998. A few years earlier I was supposed to make a nice float trip down the Elk river on a pontoon boat with my friend Doug, but that fell threw due to his busy schedules.

Last time I saw the Elk river was in 2005 when I drove highway number 3 which runs next to the river for miles, on my way to Doug in Coeur D'Alene in Idaho. Why didn't I just stop and toss a fly?...

Just over the borders of Alberta, about an hour drive from the Crowsnest River, the Elk river meanders through valley along the continental divide of the Canadian Rockies. Home of lots of wild cutthroats and bull trouts. There are some tributaries of the Elk river that's famous for large cutthroats. I still wished I had fished the Wigwam river...

The picture I took of the house with the bright red roof is located near the road ending at the Elk river. I always wondered how nice it would be to live in that house right next to the banks of the Elk…

By the way, do you recognize the other picture? :)

Feathers as artwork

We try to make nice flies out of feathers.
Here is someone who really makes art out of feathers. Wow...

What rod companies forgot to tell you...

I've posted several posts on the subject on fast rods in the past and wondering why companies like Sage keep on churning out fast and stiff rods. 99.8% of the time fly fishing isn't about casting 100ft or even 'performing'. Most fish is caught between 20 to 40 ft at the most. The rod should deliver a tiny fly. That's it!

Today Kelly Galloup posted a video and talks about fly lines, but he really hits the topic on the ever faster rods of the past 20 years in the first part of this video. I guess he is saying that rod companies (and the line companies following the rod companies) forgot to tell you something…

At the end Kelly also gives a great tip: stalk more, cast less.

Drone's view of Sockeye salmon run

Using a drone someone captured the yearly run of the Sockeye salmon to the upper tributaries of the main river systems around lake Illiamna in Alaska.

This radical new way to capture an yearly event is really amazing. My guess is videos captured using drones will flood the fly fishing videos within two years.

Joe Humphreys' nymphing techniques

Hot weather inspiration: Swimming Frog (Whitlock style)

A hot sunny day probably inspired me to tie this diving frog.
This frog is tied Whitlock style, which has a slightly flatter head than the regular Dahlberg diver style and a lower collar.

There were some questions about who originated this pattern: Larry Dahlberg or Dave Whitlock?
As I wrote in my posting about Dahlberg Divers in 2006, I watched a video (VHS tape!) somewhere early 1990. The article about the 'The Bass fly revolution' in Field & Stream of May 1990 (see below) also shows that Dave Whitlock came up with his Swimming Frog pattern somewhere around the same period.

The real answer might come up by asking both anglers (maybe I will in the future), but for now it seems both anglers were experimenting with deer hair patterns for bass and pike side by side, without knowing each other's work.

Anyway, here's a very interesting article about the history of fly fishing for bass.


Update Dec 16, 2015:
I asked Larry Dahlberg and he confirms that he is the originator of the shape that's so typical of the deer hair diver head.

Update Feb 22, 2018:
The search for the origins of the Dahlberg diver has ended!

In this article from Fly Fisherman September 1983 issue, Dave Whitlock gives Larry Dahlberg full credits for inventing the deer hair head shape and collar that makes this bass bug dive and float back to the surface.

Hook: Tiemco 8089
Weed guard: Mason hard nylon 20 lbs
Thread: Danville Flymaster Plus
Tail: Large bass hackle (3 on each side)
Body: Stacked deer hair (white for the bottom, olive, green and black for top).
Legs: Round medium rubber legs.

This frog will be donated to a friend who desperately needs a fly on his new hat.

Field & Stream, May 1990 'The Bass Fly Revolution'.
Best way to read this article is to place the mouse pointer on the article and press right button to 'Open frame in new window' to get a full screen view.

Getting a new hair cut, sorta...

Every once in a while you get this smile on your face when you start casting a rod. I ran into this (no name) 8 weight rod on a sale some 10 years ago. I rarely fish with rods this heavy, but I bought it because I was amazed how well the rod cast.

I have cast quite some 8 weight rods from various brands, both high end as well as up coming brands like Guideline, but none of them really struck me as a rod I would like to cast for hours on end. Most of them are simply too stiff for my taste. This rod has a really nice medium-fast action that feels very smooth. Very light in hand as well.

What I didn't like, and this goes for nearly all other rods from 6 weight (salt water versions) and up is the size of the full wells grip. They are just too large for my taste to feel really comfortable casting all day. Maybe the manufacturers assume heavy weight lines are only used by guys with big hands? I tried to slim down the grip using sandpaper, but eventually the grip got wasted… I found out I'm no rod maker.

Last year I asked my friend George Minculete of Tight Loop Fly Rods to put a new grip on it, but a shorter (13 cork rings equals about 6.5 inch) and slimmer grip. There was no hurry, so I didn't expect the rod being taken care of any soon. This week George sent me some pictures of the final grip. Simply outstanding as usual. Thanks George!


Update August 2, 2015:
The grip looks absolutely top notch. The thinner grip makes the rod feel much like a trout rod. The dark red/brownish anodized reel seat matches the translucent dark brown blank. Can't be happier!

RISE 2016 - Backcountry South Island

Backcountry - South Island is the feature movie of the 2016 edition of RISE Fly Fishing Film Festival and the follow up of the amazing Backcountry - North Island. The scenery looks just as we all visualize of fishing in New Zealand. Add some humongous trouts rising for your dry fly and you have your fly fisherman's wet dream.

I can't tell yet if RISE Fly Fishing Film Festival will return to The Netherlands in 2016. It's hard to understand 200 seats can't be filled in two cities to enjoy some of the best fly fishing entertainment you can imagine. And you get to enjoy a glass of beer afterwards with fellow enthusiasts?… I'll talk to Nick soon about getting RISE back here. Keep posted.

Cutties somewhere in Montana

A nice footage of cutthroat fishing somewhere in Montana.
Where do we line up?…

Still regret not fishing the .….. Creek (not sure I'm suppose to tell this in public) my
buddy David advised me to go to fish for big & fat cutthroats.

McCoy Spring Creeks (MT)

This little private spring creek near Dillon, Montana has some hot fishing as this video shows. The footages show a fishery very similar to the spring creek in the wonderful video 'Heads or tails'. Just love these intimate streams!

Not sure how much the fee (probably $100+ a day) is for fishing this spring creek. Contact the local fly shop The River's Edge for more info.

1998 - Crowsnest

1998 trip to Alberta (Canada) and Montana (USA).

First destination of the trip: the Crowsnest river.
Simply splendid.

Another oldie

Another oldie.

I think I tied this Matuka Sculpin somewhere around 1992. I was inspired by the sculpin tied by Dave Whitlock in the book 'The art of the trout fly' (page 61). I have no idea where this sculpin swam away to?..

Update May 4, 2015:
Wow, I got a compliment from Emily Whitlock, Dave Whitlock's wife!

My memory goes back to May 1994. I met Dave and Emily Whitlock at the Dutch Fly Fair. We met during the dinner on the eve before the fair. Both Dave and I were attending the fair as fly tier. Dave tied for me this Red Fox Squirrel nymph during my break from the tying bench. Time flies…