Fly Fishing Life

Any fly shop owner will tell you that wet flies, whether winged or wingless, represent a very small fraction of their fly sales. When it comes to insect imitations, most fly fishers use dry flies and/or nymphs. Although we now have variations on this theme in the form of various emerger patterns, most of them look like and are fished as either a dry or a nymph. You can find books on wet flies, and magazine articles discussing their lengthy history and extolling their effectiveness. Yet still, few people use them.

This blog is intended for those who have to contend with snow and ice when they want to go stream trout fishing in the winter. Winter flyfishing introduces numerous new variables into the formula for your success on the water. This blog seeks to serve as a primer to help those who have thought about giving this a try, but haven’t gotten over the hump to do it. Many of the ideas will also work whenever you are facing very low and clear water fishing conditions.

In Part 1, we looked in detail at how to layer clothing to stay warm when fishing in cold conditions (25-45 °F). This time we are going to look at how to stay dry and comfortable when it is raining and how to handle those hot, and often humid, days.

Guest Blogger: Joe Dellaria, Woodbury MN Years ago I was fishing with a friend when the weat...

A separation is always difficult despite the time involved and always leaves you feeling lost. Miles and miles of explored river will always lead to parts that you have never set your foot on. A new part of a river can be intimidating, you have to decide how to fish it, feel out all the underwater features, and take your best cast and try and hook something. That is where I am at, feeling out this new, scary unknown part of the water to see if I will take a wrong step or have sure footing. Fortunately, beyond the face of fear is freedom. That is what we are all after, the freedom to be happy and cast again no matter what the fates have in store.

  The polar opposite of this situation occurs when an angler chooses to carry and use only a single fly or fly pattern.  Perhaps the best known example is the “One-Fly” contest. The basic rules are simple.  A team of anglers draws a beat on a river, and each participant chooses one fly to use for the duration of the contest. If you lose that fly, it’s game-over for you.  The team that catches the most total inches of fish wins.  There may also be individual awards.  These contests are commonly done to benefit some charity or other, often involving stream conservation.  So whether you approve of competitive angling or not, it is for a good cause.

Many fly fishing anglers rely on emerger flies to target trout. Guest blogger Mike Cline explains what an emerger fly pattern is, and what they imitating that makes them attractive to trout.

After spending a ridiculous amount of money on tying materials, rods, reels, new line, and the latest and greatest gadgets, we find ourselves face to face with our scaled quarry. Have you ever sat back and thought about why we do all this just to catch a fish? For a fisherman, all that money and time spent preparing is worth it just to feel that tug at the end of your line. The moment your fly disappears or that strike indicator goes down, the little spike of excitement in your heart can be like a drug. We must get more and more of it to get our fix of this little thing called fly fishing. Cuts, bruises, and pain become inconsequential to watching a fish run at the end of your line. Norman Maclean once said,” There's certainly something in fishing that makes a man feel he is doing right; I can't explain it, but it's very pleasant.” That indescribable feeling that Norman is talking about is just that, indescribable.

Road Trip Part One, the smoky half of the story, left me alongside the Truckee River in northern Nevada, tired and cold. This is part two.

Guest Blogger: Michael Vorhis, author of ARCHANGEL suspense thriller, OPEN DISTANCE adventure thriller &...

Fly Fishing Poem by Michael Voris

As I was working through a bunch of Wikipedia articles related to fly tying, it struck me that Initialisms and acronyms have to some extent permeated our avocation like they have across the spectrum of endeavors. Only uninitiated fly anglers wouldn’t be familiar with these initialisms—PMD (Pale Morning Dun), BWO (Blue Wing Olive), EHC (Elk Hair Caddis). Of course there are more obscure initialisms that might take some explaining—CDL (Coq de Leon), CDC (Cul de Canard), PTN (Pheasant Tail nymph)