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.

Hot April

Just back from my annual trip to Southern Germany (also known as Bavaria). This trip can be summarized as way too hot for the month of April. The temperatures (25-28 C or low 80's F) were uncommonly high for this time of the year. But all together great fishing weather! This time I went to Southern Germany with my friend Hans. We were going to stay there for a full week, so for change of scenery sakes we decided to take an outing to the Deutsche Traun as well as the Torrener Ache in Austria.

Although we fished the last week of April, the whole month of April has been just too warm & dry. We usually see this kind of weather in mid June. The past winter was too warm already with hardly any snow, so river ran extremely low. I've seen the river this low during the end of the summer!

Don't know if this will stay this way further on this summer? My guess is that the fishing next year will be hurt by the current hot spring. I talked to the manager of another stretch of the Weisse Traun and he was considering closing down the river for a few weeks in May. Closing the river will disappoint quite a few fishermen who wants to fish in May but it's probably the best thing to do. But we'll see how the weather stays during the course of summer and fall.

Surprisingly the fish were still in great condition. I enjoyed some superb fishing using nymphs. My buddy is a dry fly fisherman and with the low water conditions, the fish were almost forced to look up. The upper stretch seems to contain less food than the lower part of the river. The fish, especially the rainbows, caught on the upper stretches were a lot slimmer for their size. The browns were overal in much better health. I even caught a handsome grayling, which is pretty rare for this part of the Weisse Traun.

The fish were pretty spooky because of the low water levels, but this also made sight fishing with nymphs a deadly method. I sometimes caught rainbows feeding in just ankle deep sections. As soon as a feeding fish was located, it was just like hunting: crawling on the knees to get as close as possible without spooking them. More often it was a one cast chance. It's a real kick to see the fish move ever so slightly to the side and detect a take. The more faster sections with deeper water levels, it's the general nymphing with little strike indicators.



Deutsche Traun
Our day on the Deutsche Traun was quite different than the other days. This day the sunny blue sky was substituted by an even grey sky. The slight drizzle was a nice welcome to the warm and sunny days.

The Deutsche Traun is the result of the Rote Traun joining the Weisse Traun in the town of Siegsdorf. Yet the fishing in the Deutsche Traun near the town of Traunstein is a whole different ball game. The river is slightly larger in size, but it's the fish that really makes fishing a different experience. One can catch some serious big fish. Fish (rainbows, browns or grayling) in the 20-25 inch range isn't uncommon. And boy do these fish kick ass!

I hooked at least a half a dozen fish in the 20 inch range, but most of them got away due to my tippet (4x) snapping or the hook simply bending out. I did manage to land two big fish. One in the 20 inch range which had a unusual high back, just like an American football. The other one was in the 23 inch range. Much slimmer but still very muscular. A bite out of the tail fin showed that these fish aren't wild fish from origin. But the fishing sure is exciting. Once hooked these fish explode and head for the river as if there's no tomorrow!





Torrener Ache
Our next outing was the Torrener Ache near the town of Golling in Austria. This little stream runs through a national park and the scenery is simply breathtaking. Under a blue sky the teal colored stream looks just like magic. The cold water and the pebbly bottom seems to contain much fewer nutrients for the insects. The population is mainly brown and brook trout. The small but beautifully spotted browns are so pale they just seem to disappear on the light colored bottom.

The gin clear stream is typical for this part of the world. Talking about water, being somewhat adventurous, I got wet after crossing the stream by jumping from one side of the stream on top of a fallen tree to the shallow bank on the other side.

Wearing breathable hippers rather than chest waders, the splash of the landing meant I had to take off my hippers to get them dry. But heck, the scenery was superb and it was hot and windy. Half an hour later I was fishing again. In spite of the small fish, the Torrener Ache has to be seen to believe.



Here are some of the many shots I took during this trip. Enjoy!












Previous trip reports to Bavaria in 2006 and 2005.

Best of the west - part II

Yesterday (April 14) the unofficial Dutch version of the Best of the West casting competition was held in Kampen. The weather was unusually warm (even hot!) for this time of the year. Unlike the US version this event was held outdoors. Under a blue sky a nice stretch of lawn was found near the Pikefly fly shop. Although the event was talked about by many, just about 50 people showed up with only about 30 people joining the competition. The competition was split in to four categories: youth, women (with only ONE contender!), recreational and pro's.

To keep the event as true to the original, the same rules were applied: every contender gets to make three casts with one trial cast (which can be measured but then you only have two more casts). Only casts which end up on the casting lane (width of about 2 meter) are measured. Everyone used the same line as mentioned earlier. Any factory made 9ft #5 rod was allowed. I borrowed a G. Loomis Stream Dance GLX rod from one of the contenders. It's not as stiff as the Sage TCR, yet casts like a dream. In fact I prefer it over the super stiff Sage. I don't like the titanium coiled eyes though. It's supposed to be super light and nearly indestructible, but it looks cheap.

The occasional gust of wind (slightly from behind & left) sometimes made the final delivering cast a problem. One of my casts ended outside the casting lane. I ended second in the recreational category with 29 m (95 feet). I was aiming to end up somewhere around 33 m (108 feet). My trial cast ended somewhere between the 30 (98 feet) and 35 (115 feet) meter mark. Foolish me for not having it measured... Well, try again next time. The overall winner made a phenomenal cast of 38 m (125 feet)! This is pretty amazing.

All together, this was a very nice event which will be probably repeated next year. It was great fun trying out many different kinds of rods, talking with old friends as well as meeting new people. The weather was nothing short of spectacular.


Next: I'll be off for my first trip of the year soon! Keep posted!

April morning

The weather is getting warmer and warmer. I can't wait to feel the sun on my face standing in a gin clear stream. Three more weeks and we are back in business: my first trip of the year!

In the mean time, I need to compete in this crazy casting competition, tie some nymphs for the trip and get my gear ready. This is going to be a great fishing season!

Anyone else getting ready for a nice fishing trip soon?

Best of the west

On April 14, 2007 the Dutch version of the Best of the West (the guy in the picture on the right is Steve Rajeff) competition will be held in Kampen. Well, it's not the official tournament of course, just a get together organized by the Pikefly fly shop. It started as a joke after reading many statements of fly fishermen on the Dutch bulletin boards about easily casting 90+ feet. This is the means to check who is really able to cast 90+ feet or just don't have a clue about distances and measurements...

I'll be competing too, just for fun. I had my first practice this afternoon. It went okay, a bit rusty after a long winter break. We used the Sage TCR rod to practise. Man, this is one mean casting machine!

As you can see I already got the competition line: a #5 SA's Expert Distance Competition. The Expert Distance Competition is the line that is used at casting competitions and is 120 feet (36,5 m!) long (hot orange color) rather than the regular version which is 'only' 105 feet long (mist green color).

All casts will be made using a #5 weight ED Competition line. Any 9ft #5 rod can be used. Since I don't own a very fast action fly rod, I'll be borrowing a Sage TCR 590 or (I hope) the new Sage Z-Axis 590.

A bit of fly fishing history

Here is a bit of fly fishing history captured thanks to today's modern technology. Somebody uploaded a famous movie (Salar, The Leaper) on Lee Wulff fishing for atlantic salmon in the Miramichi river in New Brunswick, Canada. Lee Wulff needs no introduction. He is the most famous fly fisherman ever. He introduced us the fly vest as well as the Wulff flies, the Royal Wulff being the most famous one.

It's really amazing how Lee fishes for salmon so differently to what salmon fishing is these days with long spey rods. Here in Holland we have this saying "why do it the hard way, if it can be done easier?". Well, I have never ventured the salmon fishing area to say we are all doing the wrong way, but it sure shows that there is no method that should be seen as the only way. Isn't that why fly fishing brings us so much joy?

Here's the first part of the movie. The second part can be seen here. By the way, don't you just love the opening music?



What really caught my attention in this movie is how Lee catches salmon up to 15 lbs using a small Orvis Superfine rod. The bamboo fly rod that is and not a graphite rod. Orvis introduced graphite rods in the mid 1970's (they weren't called the Superfine series back then, just Graphite). In this movie Lee is using the 6ft ONE piece Orvis Superfine bamboo fly rod (Orvis introduced this rod in 1953). Did you know that this tiny rod weighs a mere 1 3/4 oz.?...

For Orvis geeks only, here's a (huge) list of serial numbers (incl. model name) of nearly all the bamboo fly and spinning rods made by Orvis since 1943 to 2004 (and the list is growing every day). Very interesting to see which models were introduced through the years. Warning: this is a VERY LARGE file (almost 8Mb), so it might take a while before it is loaded.

I've heard that Lee has caught even larger salmon using these small rods, just to prove his great ability to cast and catch these mighty salmon. It also shows that the weird idea of bamboo fly rods as vulnerable fishing tools is rubbish. Todays bamboo rods also use much more advanced glues to keep the six strips together. Knowing that I own a rod that shares history with Lee Wulff is kinda nice to know...


Update:
Someone figured out which rod Lee Wulff used in the movie. Lee Wulff owned Superfine #19836 (8/25/56 by Jordan & Reid), which may be the rod he's using in the film. He also owned other Orvis fly and spinning rods including #15270, #15426, #16557, #16693, #18498 and #33096.

Another history fact:
The Deluxe rods were all 2-piece lightweight models introduced in 1952 and went through at least one taper change in the following years. The 6ft one piece rod was named the Superfine. In 1967 Orvis renamed the Deluxe rods to Superfines consisting of three models: 6.5ft, 7ft and a 7.5ft fly rod

Tying bassbugs

I will be tying at a fly shop in Kampen (Netherlands) on March 24. It started as a joke about the shop having Danville tying thread but not stocking the great Danville Flymaster Plus thread as well. This thread is my choice of thread for tying bassbugs. So I told him to show how good this thread is as well as being dirt cheap compared to all these high priced gel spun and kevlar threads.

I need to tie some new bugs to get prepared for the show:

* hair mouse (always a favorite amongst women and kids)
* a couple of hair poppers
* one or two diving frogs

Update March 25:
Tying at the shop was quite enjoyable. Again, tying bassbugs in Holland of all places always raises some eye brows. Most people have hardly any experience with spinning & stacking colorful hair bugs. This makes it hard to explain which part of the tying they need to take care of to get the best results. The mouse pattern always put a smile on their face. I'll ask Hans to take a nice picture of Mighty Mouse soon.

New spring season inspirations

Spring is the time to get our fishing gear ready, but also means new inspirations for the grooming part. Here are some pictures I find very inspiring.

Just have a look and see why I'm so fond of Italian (especially Napolitan) suits (the silhouette is more 'cut to the bone' than English suits) and Italian shoes, especially Santoni and Sutor Mantellassi. I won't bother you with my suits, so just enjoy the nice silhouette of these nice suits.

Catskill dry flies (III) - Rube Cross

Reuben Cross was born in Neversink, New York on March 16, 1896 and would become one of the legends of the Catskill tying scene. During his early teenage years Theodore Gordon was tying flies for a living and Rube claimed that he learned tying from Gordon, although this was never confirmed by anyone.

In 1927 Walt Dette asked Rube Cross, in exchange for $50, to teach him the art of fly tying. Rube told Walt to go to hell... Walt started to untie Rube's flies and mastered fly tying retying the fly. (1992 Eric Leiser, The Dettes, Willowkill Press).

Here are some of Rube's dry flies and pictures of Rube at his tying table from his book Tying American Trout Flies (1936 Dodd, Mead & Co). Did you notice how he ties without using a a bobbin holder? It's pretty amazing how tiers like Rube and Walt during that era (1920-1940's) managed to tie such wonderful flies using fly tying materials which were pretty hard to get and hardly the quality as we know now. Wonderful fly tying history. 

About my Catskill project: Hmm... I still haven't had the moment to sit down and tie the Catskill dries... If I start tying, I just want to tie the whole project at once. But before I'm up and running I'll be distracted by the rush of the weekend. I also need to tie a bunch of flies for Ed (olive dahlberg diver) and experiment on some Zoo Cougars for my streamer box. I think I just promised Zach a lanyard. I just need a sunday afternoon without chores and phone calls!

More about Reuben Cross from the book 'Fish Flies: The Encyclopedia of the Fly Tier's Art' by Terry Hellekson.

Update Nov 22, 2025:

I found this issue of Outdoor Life December 1934 in the Internet Archive with an article about Rube Cross. Don't forget to scroll to page 63 for the final part.

Update Oct 24, 2024:

Check out the new book about the life of Rube Cross.

Kelly Galloup's Zoo Cougar

I watched Kelly's streamer fishing DVD at Dave's shop during my last trip to Canada & USA. I rarely fish with a streamer during my fishing because I think using a streamer will ruin a stretch of the river which I prefer to fish with a nymph or a dry fly. But there are parts of a river that a streamer might be the best approach, like a very deep pool. Again, streamer fishing means you have to re-rig your rod and often as not I'll just pass and move to the next part of the river where I can continue fishing with my nymph.

I ran into this tying video of Kelly Galloup's favorite streamer, the Zoo Cougar. The nice thing is, it's tied by the man himself! Kelly Galloup is a fishing guide and a lodge & fly shop owner, but he became well known because of his streamer fishing methods (jerk strip retrieve) which are on DVD nowadays. The videos on YouTube aren't ideal for fast moving videos. For slower moving shots it's just watchable.

Here's Kelly showing us how to tie his Zoo Cougar:

Here's a podcast interview with Kelly Galloup which contains many excellent tips on fishing with a streamer.


Back to the streamers:
I don't have a favorite streamer yet. Mostly I'll carry a bunch of Wooly buggers and a few muddler-type streamers. Since I don't fish a streamer that often, I haven't developed a certain preference for a pattern. I think I should fish more often (where possible) with a streamer this season. Maybe I'll tie half a dozen Zoo Cougars and fish with them exclusively to improve my knowledge about streamer fishing.

Update:
I just found the video where Kelly shows us how he fishes his streamers. The shots aren't worth a dime, but the info on the rig is the main issue.

Update April 24, 2016:
Here's a Zoo Cougar tied by Kelly in a superb high resolution:

Apple's iPhone - the Phone reinvented

The huge success of Apple's iPods started to raise the question: when is Apple going to make an iPod integrated with a mobile (folks in the US call it a 'cellular') phone? Well, after many months of speculation, it's finally here! Today Apple launched the iPhone.

Apple's interpretation of anything is always different from anything else that's on the market. The iPhone isn't a regular phone with just an option to play music, but it's a personal communication wonder. It's a phone (quad band so useable all over the world), it's an internet client with Wifi & Edge (web browser Safari and Mail built-in) and a wide-screen video iPod. Of course one of Apple's trademark is how they approach the Human Interface of their applications. The iPhone is no exception.

Obviously nobody has seen the thing in real life yet. The iPhone will be available in June in the USA, Europe at the end of 2007. Prices are aimed at $499 for a 4Gb and $699 for a 8Gb version for the moment. But it looks like this thing will blow away every phone with MP3 playing feature available. So you thought Sony's Walkman phones were nifty? Check out the iPhone's amazing capabilities and possibilities here.

Flashback:
What did Steve Balmer say about the iPhone back in 2007?

By the way, wat the heck is a Zune?...

Making dubbing brushes

I met Jan Siman during the Fly Fair of 1992(?). I was tying at the show and Jan came to my stand and gave me a bunch of dubbing brushes to try. He said he made them himself. Ever since my number one nymph, the bead head caddis pupa, is made out of this material.

Dubbing brushes can be made at home using a simple dubbing whirl or the neat dubbing brush spinning block. Several years ago I met this elderly German who made a similar machine himself. I bought one of his few machines. I haven't used it since these ready to use dubbing brushes are so easy to come by. Or maybe I'm just plain lazy to try it out.

On the YouTube site I ran into this instructional video of Jan Siman's dubbing brush spinning block. This video does a much better job explaning than the (badly) written one.

Paying my Finnish hotel bill

Every once in a while we all do something foolish. Last week I replied to Olli's posting on his blog about tying with hair. I agreed to tie Olli a Dahlberg diver and a Humpy in exchange for a full service guided 2 week fishing trip if I ever decide to come to Finland. I've had worse deals in my life...

The Dalhberg diver shown here has the following ingredients:

Hook: Tiemco 8089 bassbug hook
Thread: Chartreuse Danville Flymaster Plus
Weed guard: 20 lbs mono
Tail guard: 20 lbs mono
Tail: striped rabbit strip (wide cut) & Krystalflash
Skirt: Hackled Chartreuse hen hackle
Collar: deer hair
Head: spun deer hair (chartreuse and olive)

The Humpy and the Diver are ready for shipment!

* New Blog navigation features *

Please notice the new improved navigation features.

Now it's easier to browse through older postings just by pressing the 'Older posts' button on the bottom of each page rather than viewing them month-by-month. Obviously you can also go back by pressing 'Newer posts'. It's just like turning a page of a book.

You can also navigate through older postings by the hierarchal tree-structure in the sidebar (Previous postings). By 'opening' a month, you can see which items were posted that month.

Enjoy!

We need creative & inspiring moviemakers!

As much as I enjoy watching these destination videos with amazing scenery and gin clear rivers, I always wonder why these videos all look the same? Why can't anyone come up with a new interesting format to cover this item? Is it the limitation of the subject, film equipment or the lack of creativity of the makers?

I've seen documentaries on BBC, Discovery Channel etc. how they follow the flight of an albatross (or was it a bee?) REALLY close. It's like flying on the back of a fellow bird/insect. They can even capture the natural habitat of a termite in its dungeons deep under the ground. So it's not the lack of technique that's limiting us from making innovative movies.

Why are fly fishing videos still using stone age scripts and techniques? For example, I don't like the parts where they play the fish. One or two takes of a big fish showing off while hooked is okay. I don't need to see more of them, especially when the fish are small. The presentation of the fly, close view drift of the fly to the fish and the take (both above and under the water!) are much more interesting. What about following a fish in its natural habitat, watching the fisherman from the fishes view and how it gets fooled by the fly? How about satellite overview of the river or stretch and zooming in on a certain spot or stretch. A view of the fisherman from a birds eye view?

The publishers / moviemakers of fly fishing videos need to take the next step in innovation.
Anyone in the business care to join the discussion?

New DVDs: Gmundner Traun & Henry's Fork

The long winter evenings are here, so time to enjoy some new DVDs on nice destinations! I recently bought two new DVDs on the Austrian Gmundner Traun and the Henry's Fork in the USA. The company who publishes them also has three other DVDs on Silver Creek / Madison, Green river and Cayo Largo (Cuba). I'm sure there are more nice destinations coming soon.

The Gmundner Traun is one of the most famous Austrian rivers, well known for its grayling population. I've fished it once so far and didn't have much success due to high water levels. One thing I noticed during that day was how difficult it was to follow the river from the road. The river is hardly visible from the road making it very difficult to look for nice stretches to fish. The steep and high banks along the river made river access pretty impossible.

This video shows how diverse the Gmundner Traun is during its course from the Gmundner lake to the downstream stretches. Rudi Heger, who managed the river for many years, tells us what makes the Gmundner Traun such a special river as well as how they improved the fishery the past years after a period when the river was in a bad condition. After watching this video I'm sure I'll give it another go soon. By the way, the tickets for this river are no give away either. I paid about 75 Euros (about 90-95 USD) back in 2004...

The Henry's Fork needs no introduction. This is without doubt one of the most famous rivers in the world. I remember reading about it when back in the 1980's. This huge spring creek is famous for its highly educated rainbows and the hatches of mayfly and caddis spieces. Who hasn't seen the wonderful scenery of the Harriman Ranch area of the Henry's Fork? I've visited the Rocky Mountain area about 5 times now, but I've never fished the Henry's Fork. It's still on my To Do-list.

As a reference for a trip preparation these DVDs will not be enough. You will still need to do your own research on your destination on the internet. But as a hint what can be expected, it's nice. These DVDs can be bought at the site of the makers Destination Mouche. Maybe your local fly shop has some copies on the shelf.


Update Dec 16, 2019:
I finally visited the Henry's Fork in the summer of 2018.
Here is part 1, part 2 & part 3 of my (way too short) visit to the Henry's Fork.

The art of wood carving

Ed Felker of the Flyfishin' blog really liked the brook trout I caught in Austria last month that he made it picture of the week on his site. Besides running a nice blog, Ed is a very talented wood carver too. Check out the carving Ed made of the picture. WOW! I think it's amazing how Ed captured just the essential contours of the picture.

Although I try to take pictures that follows some sort of 'picture taking rules' I see in fly fishing magazines and books, I never thought that one of my pictures would end up as art! It sounds weird but I'm kinda proud now. Thanks Ed!

I'm not sure how much a print made from one of Ed's wood carvings cost. I'm sure he will make a marvelous wood carving of your favorite picture (assuming that the picture is 'carvable') for you. Get in touch with Ed to get the answer and price. I'm waiting to see how a print made of the block turns out.


Update 20 dec 2006
Ed just made the first print of the wooden plate he carved out. These prints cost $50 and $65 if matted. Check out Ed's blog to read more about his prints.

Update 17 jan 2007
The print arrived today! I'll get it framed soon. Should look nice on the wall in the attic of our new house. Thanks Ed!

Powerfibers

Here is a picture of a slice from a bamboo culm I received from a buddy. Check out the dense powerfibers. Powerfibers are located on the outer part of the bamboo giving this living material its unique strength, flexibility and durability. I'm told that this is a slice taken from one of the thinner culms, showing at least 4 mm of powerfibers.

The quality of bamboo rod builders look for making bamboo fly rods are straightness, no (or hardly any) damages by insect bites, watermarks, etc. I'm sure these culms will end up as excellent bamboo fly rods!