[brad bohen]

stellar work!

thanks

[brad bohen]

Zach

If you do a lot of stand up stuff in a canoe why don’t you just push pole?  It works a great deal better than the paddle and is kinda badass too if you are into that kind of thing…

[brad bohen]

Good advice thus far.

In any start-up business you need to have a plan and a realistic set of expectations as well as goals that you can shoot for.

It is crucial even as a fly fishing guide to have a clear plan of attack.  Take the time to write up a business plan.  If you wonder what this is google it and then do it.  Having to go through this process weather or not you need financing will help you understand what you are facing.

Give yourself at least 5 years to establish your business before you plan on making any money.  Seriously, plan on 5 seasons of hustle your ass off and take only a bare minimum of what you really need to survive out of the business and put everything else back into it and then some.

5 years of FOCUS.  That is a big devotion but will pay off.

Think of the business like a garden.

First you must prepare the soil…also account for lots of water and sunlight.

Then you plant the seed – first year you hope for a tiny little sprout.

Lots of watering, weeding and tending to the soil.

Second year – still a little plant, but it has survived.  Water, weed, fertilize maybe transplant maybe not.  If you are doing things well you might could see a small bloom…

Third year – an established plant.  Lot of fertilizer and still working the soil.  Lots of water and weeding but now you will start to realize some nice blooms and if you have done your job well a little bit of produce…also good to prune a bit here to give strength later there.

Forth year – yes, still water, weed, fertilize but the effort will show promise and reward.  If you have a green thumb you will start to have a surplus…but do not squander…put the excess back into the soil!

Fifth year!  Time to start to enjoy some of the fruits of your labor.  Continue to do your work but now you will see the bounty you have created and can count on an established crop.  Congrats!

😉

[brad bohen]

Tyler…I will drop you a line sometime…would love to go jump a boat!  I’m only out here in Cali for another couple of weeks for this trip…but will be back annually in the winter as well as on and off during the summer to retrieve Landcruisers for the Midwest…thanks for the contact!

Gary, Dan tells me that there were only a few hundred original fish in the initial stockings something like 150 years ago.  All of the fish have come from that small genetic pool and the broken liners are kind of like banjo pickin’ toofless freakers!

It is a remarkable fishery…but I am sad to say one in great danger of being whiped out!  The CA politicians and some big money AG interests are at work to declassify the striper as a gamefish.  Due to it’s non-native status it is being scapegoated in a war for Delta Water.

Dan talked at great length all day long about the fight they are waging to protect the Delta from water whores and to fight a mis-information campaign in the press about stripers.

The fly fishing board out here are all lit up with chatter!

We should all do what we are able to help protect this truly special critter and more importantly The Fresh Water Resource of the MAGNIFICENT California Delta!!

[brad bohen]

Nice report…

You got a real keeper lady!

When you put the 80# flouro back on look me up 😉

Thanks for the report

[brad bohen]

Great answers to all you fellows…

I’m glad this thread caught on hijacks and all…btw that surf footage was outrageous!

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to thoughtfully respond.

[brad bohen]

Nice real reel Zach…

I loves me some Pfluegers…they are kinda like the lynyrd skynyrd of fly fishing…I almost always forget how to spel it proper…

[brad bohen]

Doods

It is really not all that bad to throw…on a 10wt.  I like the Cortland Little Tunny for my top water work during the daytime…full floaters at night.  Nighttime is the righttime mostly 😉

Musky and poppers can be a cat herding festival.  They come to the top really well but with most poppers there is something like a 1:10 strike to hook-up ratio on the good days…bad days…well lets not go there eh.

SBSH is different.  It sits ass end down in the water at rest and gives the ‘skis something to grab onto.  It does not get pushed out of the way like most other topwaters.

Very exciting part of the game…and if you can keep your cool and not troutset a strike this kind of action will make your nipples hard!

[brad bohen]

Now fellows those are the kind of answers that inspire.

THANKS

I agree that it is up to the individual to get what they are looking for out of experiences.

[brad bohen]

Now fellows those are the kind of answers that inspire.

THANKS

I agree that it is up to the individual to get what they are looking for out of experiences.

[brad bohen]

Brad, what do you understand about the true internal workings of fly casting? Can you explain to me what causes a tailing loop and can you correct this fault? Can you demonstrate wide open loops tight loops and tailing loops on command as though you were showing a student and explain how you created those different loops? Can you explain to a client how to better deal with the wind or a big heavy fly or a sink tip line? Its one thing to be able to DO this, its another thing to be able to explain, demonstrate and teach this.

I was a fly fisherman with 35 years of experience in an incredibly diverse range of fisheries and with an  awful lot of teaching under my belt. I have lived and breathed the sport all those years. I would say I am a very experienced fly fisherman who THOUGHT he knew a bit about teaching casting and the mechanics of casting. I can’t tell you how humbled I was the first time I encountered a couple of FFF MCCI’s, I mean really humbled (Chuck Easterling, Lasse Karlson, and Soon Lee) – but not intentionally by them, by the realisation of how little I really understood the pure nuts and bolts of fly casting – not the urban mythology of fly casting as passed on by the ‘club expert’, just the facts.

Anyone who fly fishes and has aspirations to teach or is in a situation where they are constantly engaged with people who fly fish – whether its in a capacity as a fly shop assistant or guide, or club casting instructor, should at least achieve a CCI level of instruction. It is priceless.

The one thing you will learn is to deal with not knowing something.

Morsie

Peter Morse MCCI

There are plenty of things I know nothing about it is true Peter…

I can understand where you are coming from.  I feel a bit of sanctimony in your answer however.

Maybe you read me wrong.  I am humble and confident at the same time.  I always respect the process and personally I am always the student though I am often called upon to be a teacher.

To directly answer your question about my depth of understanding of the physics of the fly-cast as well as the psychology and physiology of the caster plus how the student/teacher interaction processes out…well that would be banal.  

Seems like you are calling me out or testing me.  Really?

Do you care or do you think I’m a braggart?

Ask around – I have many fly fishing clients and many close angling associates who can testify about what kind of caster, student, teacher I really am.

Personally I am always looking for a way to better my understanding and enjoyment and stewardship of the sport.

One of the most memorable scenes in Caddyshack happens when Judge Smails asks Ty what his golf score is…Ty answers something to the effect – Oh I don’t keep score…

The Judge gets kind of red and jowly over this and snorts back…Well how do you measure yourself against other golfers then?

Ty smiles and says, as he looks down at the Judge…By Height.

😉

So I guess I am still wondering about this entire FFF process.  I’m definitely interested to learn more.  The question I pose to Dave and others in the ranks is one I have often heard from other guides as well.  

I am hoping to have a more general discussion rather a personally focused one.

Thanks

[brad bohen]

Dave

I have considered getting a certification on and off for most of my guiding career.

[brad bohen]

Hopefully I’ll be doing some fishing and tying with him in the next few weeks…

I’ll see about getting some inside info:)

He has another pattern called The Pole Dancer that is all the rage out here right now.  Can’t wait to see what it is all about.

FYI – There is a book about Delta Stripers out that has his patterns in it I am told.

Charlie is a solid guy with hands the size of Christmas Hams.  Funny that he can manage to get those things to work on fly tying 😉

[brad bohen]

Both these guys are top shelf teachers…

None too purty to look at though – Ha!

Ely is a great fishing town too!!

[brad bohen]

I love my Chotas.

Boot foots…have two pairs…beat the snot out of em…one on the boot warmer…the other on me.

[brad bohen]

Good discussion.

First, I’ll say that Boulder Boats are nice.

Niced and expensive.

Plastic is good around rock gardens.

[brad bohen]

Good discussion.

This media is the future of this sport for better or for worse.

Personally I think it is long overdue.

[brad bohen]

It was a really good time fellows.  Southern Oregon is just flat out beautiful.  We fished the Rogue.  Stayed in Ashland.

Four guys who had never met – Wisco, Penn and two Texans (they knew each other) got together in SacTown, CA and roadtripped up to OR.  Interweb fly fishing dating at its finest.

We only had one fish to hand in four days together.  No matter as it was mainly a recon and touchy/feely trip.  All of us fished at different levels…one of the Texans was relentless and the rest of us would fish until satisfied and chill out in our own unique ways.

It worked.

The Penn chap made an interweb contact with our host Fred.  He opened up his home (both brick/mortar and motor) to us without ever having laid eyes on any one of us until we came a knockin…pointed us around the river, tied us flies, made us 3 squares a day and rolled plenty of smokes too.

I don’t know about you fellows but I enjoy this kind of anglinghood and take tremendous solace in the fact that we can still roll things out this way.  It proves to me that the Universe, as effed up as it seems, still is spinning in some sort of fishy way.
😉

Personally I went to OR with no expectations of catching a steelhead.  There were fish in the river.  Reports showed that about 4000 winter fish had made their way into the Upper Rogue since the New Year turned.  

The Upper Rogue is something like 60 miles of water(divided into Upper, Middle and Lower Upper btw) that is about 60 miles from salt…give or take a few the way I understand it.  Dudes drifting down in Mackenzies running plugs and spawn deep were picking up fish.

We were all looking for grabs on swung flies.  Aside from some last afternoon shadow casting and feats of strength shows at a boat landing we all stuck to working double hand stuff…skagits and t-14 tips and various Intruder and more traditional spey type patterns.

I had never seriously put my 13′ St. Croix into practice…and really wanted to add this style of angling to my arsenal.  It was a perfect boot camp really and after three full days of baptism by fire, observing and listening I can say I have the stroke figured out and can lay out a pretty fair lazer.

I got a few grabs and pulled the fly away from one solid taker.  To be honest if I would have taken a fish this trip I would have felt guilty.  I’m strange that way…knowing that dues must be paid for these special creatures…call me masochistic – hell I’m a musky man!

I liken the experience to a DIY trip to my area…any seasoned angler coming to mess with musky on their own terms expecting anything more than an eye opening better wear a nut cup!

I figured out the geography, got to sample three different beats on the Upper – Grants Pass, Table Rock and Shady Cove…all different and unique water and made some solid contacts.  There are several fly shops in the area…Ashland has a great little place titled The Ashland Fly Shop and Shady Cove a rustic hole-in-the-wall cum shuttle/boat rental/hook/bullet/fly emporium known as The Fishin Hole Fly Shop…adjacent to a kick ass deli with a delectable hot pastrami snadwich:)

Overall the locals were very down with out-of-State fly bums.  Very friendly and open.  Ashland is a town you could easily bring your wife and family to…and leave em to shop and roam for a couple of days.

It sports a Shakespeare Festival for a good portion of the year…they were just starting to ramp things up at this point in the season – casting calls, dress rehearsals, off-venue readings and whatnot.  I guess it is a pretty big draw in season.

Ashland is a very liberal town of about 20,000 with a cool State College populated by hippy chicks and dudes.  A very impressive brew pub – Standing Stone (I recommend the 2X IPA) as well as some very nice white wines and above decent Merlot grown locally satisfy a thirsty pallet and provide for downhome imbibement.

As I stated there is a big variety of one-off dining and shopping venues all situated in a great walk around district that has street musicians and poetry circles cropping up impromptu here and there.

For folks more into dirt bagging it…the area is your Oyster…lots of camping and RV’ing options.  Grants Pass and Merlin are on the other end of the spectrum – more Marlboro and Budweiser – from Ashland.  Folks are equally friendly and will wax on and on about the climate and river tripping if prompted.

Way too much to skim over in three to four days for a fly angler in this neck of the woods.  All I can say is I’ll go back and get more tuned in…Hopefully soon!

FYI – Sac International Airport is 300 miles due south on I-5 from Ashland.  It’s a great drive that takes one through Redding – Home to The Fly Shop…a must see mecca and smaller than you imagine but packed full…and Weed! CA at the base of Mt. Shasta.

There is also 727 type jet service into Medford OR the main hub near Ashland…but I avoided Medford and its WalMart type culture and service center atmosphere…not my style but certainly an easy and familiar town for you Holiday Inn Express types that like Chili’s and Olive Garden situations and are allergic to Mountain Hippies.

But I drive a 1988 FJ-62 so you see how I roll.  By the way I favor the 1983-1986 FJ-60’s which you will see featured in upcoming installments…glad to know there are still LandCrusher fans out there!

So for me this was a self actualizing experience…humbly and reverently approaching a river I have dreamed about meeting since I was old enough to read Try Combs and form dreams in my anglers mind.  Holy actually.

I was fulfilled, relaxed and inspired ultimately.  From this trip I will continue my journey and mission.  Questing for a chrome handshake and knowing I have dues yet to pay.  

So feel free to chime in, ask questions or PM me if you care too.

Until the next installment…I’m AA, the Wisco. exPat at large and in charge reporting from the Pacific Time Zone 🙂

[brad bohen]

This discussion has taken a really good and productive turn.  Good conversation.

I do agree that the best rod is the one that is the best for the caster using it.  And I’ll also agree that the big price rods are popular for the reasons outlined – they have a small high-end performance advantage and they make mediocre casters a tad bit more proficient.

I guide under some of the most difficult casting conditions you will find – big flies, lots of big casting all day long (blind casting 10 weights and retrieving all the way back to the rod tip) and in general in-experienced casters for the task.

Making the jump up to the heavy weights – at which I rank the 8wt the lightest (to me heavy weights are the 8-12 weight rods) is a big hurdle for the general fly angler.  There is so much technique that is introduced along with the muscle/tendon requirements at this end of the casting game and the average angler is not prepared to meet these requirements(generally).

I was there, and every other angler that did not learn/grow up working with a heavy weight rod is there when they decide to pick up that end of things.  Outgunned!

Being overly confident and/or lazy by nature…I’m both, many anglers do not spend the time developing their abilities and short cut by applying the wonga fix.  Buying-Up into the technology that seems to produce desired results is the American Way…fishing, golf, tennis, you name it.

My observations and experiences have been that this leads to frustration and failure more often than not.  Personally I did not become a proficient big rod caster until I humbled myself to take lessons and then develop my form and technique.

A fundamental base is the proper approach but is seldom preached and almost never promoted.  Advertisers will cringe at this – rod companies have built their stake on our big pockets and fragile egos.

I see dozens and dozens of anglers each season in the same boat.  They come up to Musky Country with very high quality gear and marginal skills and physical ability.  Ouch!

It can be a long road and a humbling experience for the angler and a difficult one for the guide I can testify.

The first advice I’ll give out and should have written this in my initial response to the question “Which big rod should I choose?” – is spend the first hundred dollars on casting instruction with an experienced instructor before you go down that road.

My mentor and guru up in the Twin Cities was a fellow named Bob Nasby…Nas is a superior teacher and one of the best casting instructors alive.  At the age of 25 I transformed myself with his coaching from a very good middle and light weight fly rod caster into a sound big rod caster.

From there I was able to realize my expectations and through another decade and a half I think I have developed into a very sound all-around stick.  And I do feel confident that the path I have traveled has provided me with the tools to discuss and teach the proper path for anglers seeking the same experience.

Casting the big rods has made me a much better medium and light rod angler as well.  The casting stroke and mechanics necessary to deal with musky on the fly – again, blind casting 10wts all day and starting out each additional cast with the leader at the rod tip – requires a full range of technique and understanding.

So I will say this – go back to school if you are serious about stepping up in rod class.  Even if you feel you have big chops some professional instruction can only improve your angling/casting if you approach it as an open vessel.

Humbly

Brad

[brad bohen]

Sorry boys…I’m a poor boy.

Echo Ion stacks up to the high wonga sticks at a fraction.

Plus Timmy Rajeff just plain rocks.

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