Moved To Alaska

Posted by Spencer on 18 May 2013, 9:40 pm

Hey everyone. I know this has been a long time coming. I am sure there are a few of you out there wondering where I went. Well, I up and moved my family to the great land of Alaska. It has been a dream of mine since childhood. We finally found an opportunity to make our dreams come true. I look forward to the new learning opportunities I have in front of me. This is going to be an EPIC ride for sure.

Our new home in Alaska

I have been here since March 29th. Unfortunately for the time being we don’t have access to the internet at our place. We are going to be setting it up as soon as possible. Not to make any excuses for not posting, but I promise you this blog is NOT dead. I am getting ready for something big so hang tight, read up on all the archived posts and soon we will be back in a big way.

Van testing out the water on the Knik River AK. No fish yet, we live really close to the river so we were just practicing to get Van ready to land his first salmon this summer.

For those of you who don’t know, my wife and I have been given an awesome opportunity to travel to Tordrillo Mountain Lodge this August. I randomly entered a contest put on by the people at Trout TV, and won an all expenses paid trip to Tordrillo Mountain fly out lodge. We cannot wait to go on that trip. I will be making a special effort to document the trip to the fullest extent. I’m not sure how many more times an opportunity like this will present its self in the future. Let me know if you have any questions or comments. Thank you for your support. Make sure you get onto facebook, pinterest, and twitter. I try to stay very active on those mediums. In the mean time I am looking forward to the future and the great things that are going to happen!

Common-Sense Fly Fishing: 3 Valuable Lessons Learned

Posted by Spencer on 13 March 2013, 1:10 pm

I thought I would throw out a little bit different post today. A book review. I just got done reading (for the third time) the book: Common Sense Fly Fishing 7 Simple Lessons to Catch More Trout by Eric Stroup. There is a reason I have read it three times. I think it is an awesome book to help a new comer to fly fishing get over difficulties and mistakes. If you haven’t read it then I urge you to pick it up and give it a read. Even if you aren’t a beginner, there is tons to be learned. Below are three of the reasons I recommend reading this book.

Common-Sense Fly Fishing

1. Simplicity. If you have fly fished for a while, you will realize that it can be complicated. I like to teach and think in simplistic terms and get by with as little mess as possible. In his book Eric explains over and over that catching fish boils down to technique and presentation more than fly patterns or secrets. I cannot stress this point enough when teaching my classes. Keep it simple, perfect the technique, catch more fish.

2. Common-Sense. I know, I just ripped of the title of the book but, that is the over all message of the book and it is great! A lot of what you find difficult in fly fishing can probably be solved if you just stop and think. One thing in particular that I see a lot of is the tendency to mend line TOO MUCH! I know you are trying to achieve that perfect drift to fool that giant trout, but sometimes you go overboard. One simple lesson from the book is where to position yourself in the river to achieve the optimal presentation. I love to tell people to get as close as they can to the fish. Trying to cast 50 ft and then throwing in all sorts of mends won’t get you as many fish as stealth and precision at short range.

3. Rod Position. To go right along with common-sense, it is hard to catch fish when there too much slack line on the water, EVEN WHEN FISHING DRIES! This is something that I had a hard time remembering at first and I don’t know why, it makes sense. The more line you get off of the water while maintaining a good drift the more effective your hook set will be. Therefore, you will catch more fish. He tells you to always keep the rod tip at or above shoulder height at all times, even while fishing dry flies. Just doing that one little thing will increase your hook up percentage, try it!

I first heard about the book while listening to and interview with Eric Stroup on Ask About Fly Fishing Internet Radio. He does a great job of explaining a lot of the principles discussed in his book. You can listen to the interview for FREE so definitely check that out!

If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them. If you have read a good book I would love to know about it. Reading provides a great opportunity for growth and the fly fishing world is teeming with good books.

Continue Learning:

Rigging for Success

Posted by Spencer on 8 March 2013, 1:53 pm

There have been a lot of people curious about the way I set up my nymphing rig. I made this illustration to show you all of the secrets. If you look closely you will see that I tie my own leaders. I think it is extremely important to do this for performance reasons. When nymphing, it is important to have control over the system you are fishing. By tying your own leaders you control the overall length and taper. A major component of this system is eliminating slack. When you have any slack anywhere in the connection from your rod tip to your flies you give up a certain amount of control. There are a few situations where slack can help you, but generally speaking, the less slack in the system the better. Putting yourself in a position where you can eliminate all of the slack from your rig while still achieving a “drag free drift”, will give you the opportunity you need to catch every fish in the river.

The ideal length for any nymphing leader is going to be:

5ft + depth

There are innumerable situations you encounter as you work a given river system, so being able to manipulate your rig is key. From the length of the leader to strike indicator placement to the number of split shot, the better you understand the system the better you can set up. The terminal end of the leader or tippet section plays a vital role in the overall success of the rig. The illustration below shows how I set it up. I try to be as precise as possible with the measurements I give. You will find it to be very important as you utilize this system.

Understanding rigging will give you the edge in fly fishing. Too many fly fisherman spend time fiddling with their fly patterns. I have found it much more important to dial in my rigging before handing blame to my fly patterns. The illustrations above are the beginnings of understanding effective nymphing. If the drawings seem vague to you, then feel free to ask me any and all questions about it. There will be much more information to come in the very near future that will explain in greater depth the details of this rig and its benefits.

If this is your first time to my website here are few posts that will help you further your learning:

The Nymph

Feeding Economy of Fish

Nymphing: You’re missing out if you don’t.

Posted by Spencer on 27 February 2013, 1:10 pm

If you have spent any amount of time on the water you have probably realized that fish aren’t rising all of the time. I remember when I was a kid fishing in the mountains in the summer time, we would wait until the magic hour right before sun set to put a fly behind a bubble and light ‘em up! There were times when it seemed the lake was boiling there were so many fish feeding on the surface. I only knew that fish would rise at sun set, during the day we would use a worm or some power bait and sink it to the bottom.

So do fish only feed when there are flies on the surface, not hardly. Infact, the VAST VAST majority of the time fish are consuming their calories sub-surface. Fish are constantly on the move so they are in an almost constant need to replenish calories used up by swimming. Here is a little chart to give you an idea of the percentages of time fish spending feeding in each zone.

Over the course of a year, a trout will feed about 90% of the time beneath the surface of the water. I don’t know about you, but I am not patient enough to only catch fish 10% of the time. There are fly fisherman out there that are self-proclaimed “dry fly” fisherman. They become extremely good at picking up selective fish with a dry fly. It is even looked upon at times as a more “elite” way to fish. I’ve even heard an angler say that nymphing is about as boring as watching paint dry. That if they can’t see a fish take a fly then it’s not worth casting to them.

If this is your way of thinking then, AWESOME! That means I will be on the river fishing without you 90% of the time. Don’t get me wrong, I love to watch a trout take a dry fly. There isn’t anything more thrilling that making the perfect cast, seeing a huge trout eye-balling your fly and then suck it in. It has it’s time and place. I just don’t want to limit myself to only fishing when there are rising fish. I fish according to the conditions. Learning how to approach the water in any condition will assure you have a great time year-round and at all times of the day.

Don’t make the mistake of limiting yourself by thinking you’re elite. Get out there and have a blast learning how to catch fish in all circumstances. By learning to nymph effectively you will up the chances for success tremendously. If you have any input or ideas let me know. I wouldn’t say I am an authority on the subject, I just fly fish. Please feel free to comment or give your input below.

Continue Learning:

The Nymph

Efficient vs In-efficient Loops

Posted by Spencer on 22 February 2013, 10:53 am

As you progress as a fly fisherman you are going to realize it takes a whole lot less energy to achieve the results you want. If you are just starting with casting a fly rod then this article will give you a good start. Knowing what causes the shapes of your loops will help you self-correct while practicing, making your time on the water a lot less difficult. There are essentially only two classifications for loops, efficient and in-efficient.

You might be asking yourself, what is a loop? A loop is the shape that the fly line creates as it exits the rod tip on a casting stroke. It looks like a horizontal candy cane. In fly fishing we are casting virtually weightless lures a.k.a. flies. So you would be correct in thinking, you don’t actually cast the fly but rather the fly line. Properly transferring energy through the rod to the fly line is crucial to presenting your fly in a manner that will fool a trout.

In-Efficient Loop 1: The Open Loop

An in-efficient loop or an open is a loop that takes a lot of energy to cast. In a windy situation, an open loop will only end in disaster. There are however, situations when opening your loop a bit is desirable. While casting heavy flies or weighted rigs for nymphing are a few of those situations. But, if you don’t know how to control the shape then you won’t be able to take advantage of it’s benefits when the situation calls for it.

As you can see in the illustration, the energy in this loop is dissipated in all directions. Not only will it take more energy to get this loop to unroll, it will cause your fly line land in a big pile in front of you. This loop shape is caused by an arcing motion made by your casting hand. Usually it is because a caster is using too much wrist or elbow. The power for your cast should come from the forearm and shoulder. If you aren’t moving the rod tip on a 180 degree plane you will find that your loops will do funny things.

In-Efficient Loop 2: The Tailing Loop

Another loop that we can classify as in-efficient is the tailing loop. Unlike the open loop, there are no situations where this loop shape is desirable. If you find that you get a lot of “wind knots” in your line and leader, then you are most likely throwing tailing loops.

It is relatively obvious how this loop can foul up the casting motion. When you find yourself getting knots in your fly line it is usually caused by moving the rod tip in a concave path. Often this happens because you are using a little t0o much power on your forward cast, but obviously the cause varies with each caster. Some of the best advice I ever received, was to slow down. That helped me get rid of tailing loops. I was told to see how slow I could cast and still make good loops. I was overpowering my cast and it was causing problems.

Efficient Loops: Tight Loops

An efficient loop can also be called a tight loop or a narrow loop. This type of loop is extremely efficient in the wind and enables you to present your fly with pin-point accuracy. The energy is mostly uni-directional and has high line speed. You will find that tight loops will require a whole lot less energy to control. Tight loops are also really fun to cast.

You can see in the illustration that these loop shapes are going to be efficient because the energy is focused. To make a tight loop you must have good line speed (high line speed isn’t necessarily generated by high rod speed) and move the rod tip on a 180 degree plane. Much of what dictates the direction your rod tip will travel, is going to be your hand. It is important to accelerate your hand to a crisp stop in a straight line in order to achieve amazingly tight loops.

The top shape is a narrow loop. It is the ideal and most picturesque loop. It will deliver a dry fly magnificently and delicately. The bottom shape is the ultra mega super duper shape :). Being able to create pointy loops is a direct function of crisp execution and high line speed. When you can consistently make pointed loops on command, you have entered the fly casting masters group. I might be exaggerating a bit but, they are awesome and deliver your fly in an EXTREMELY efficient way! Perhaps someday I will enter that club, but for now I just practice a lot.

Conclusion

There is a lot to be said about casting and forming efficient loops. This post barely scratched the surface but, understanding how to identify loop shapes is the first step to correcting your cast. For more information about casting and efficiency I recommend checking out my post called: The 5 Essentials Of Fly Casting. Another topic that will GREATLY improve your casting is Line Control. I try to emphasize the importance of line control in my class but some students just don’t appreciate it until they are on the water.

Make sure you practice casting. The best place to learn how to control your loop shapes in off of the water. When you get on the water you want to be fishing not just casting. Thanks for reading, if you have any questions feel free to leave a comment or shoot me an email.