Ian Crabtree
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Mending Machine,
If you’re not careful Orvis might take you off of their mailing list. Where would you be then?
One of my acquaintances who works for Umpqua once said, “those who use cheap mono for tippet have only themselves to blame for the results.”
I don’t know about Dai-Riki/Dan Bailey, but tippet, leaders, and hooks are the three things I refuse to buy off-brand.
Zach,
I have one of the Cortland Clear Camo intermediates (“slime line”) for salmon fishing, which actually does a remarkable job of blending in. Some tarpon/permit guys swear by those intermediate tip lines though – go figure.
go fluoroflex or go home
i’m guilty on that one
You have to wonder how trout are actually seeing tippet if they can see light outside of the spectrum visible to the human eye. I wonder what the UV would be like from tippet.
first place that came up in a google search – about 3/4 down the page
http://anglersall.imoutdoorshosting.com/store/page76.html
No idea if that’s a reputable seller though. $32… ouch.
I’ve gotten a few bad gashes from salmon and char, but they’ve all been pretty far from the heart.
On a separate but related note, make sure you wash those cuts out thoroughly. Last year one of my buddies got slashed by a silver and he ended up getting a nasty infection. They caught it right before it would have been necessary to amputate. There’s a surprising amount of bacteria in a fish’s mouth.
I didn’t realize how much the Simms line was being shaken up for next year, that site actually describes what is being discontinued or redesigned. It’s about time they redesigned those dry creek packs – they were horrible.
Not really answering your question, but if anyone’s wondering what you’re talking about: http://anglingexploration.com/index.htm (the new trailer is available here).
I’ve only seen the Fall 2006 reference to a release date.
It does look awesome…
Farming salmon in Alaska is currently illegal. This was done to protect commercial fishermen from being undercut by farmed salmon being sold as “Alaskan Salmon.”
Further information here: http://www.adfg.state.ak.us/special/as/as_faq.php
Zach – I’ll bring my spey rod tomorrow too, it’s an 8/9.
Back to the discussion at hand: Paul can you recommend a fly for me to catch these things with once they do start spawning in our river a couple decades from now?
Ah, that makes sense.
Strange but true – Fish and Game caught an Atlantic Salmon in one of the offshore test nets outside of our river mouth this season (Unalakleet River – Norton Sound – a little South East of Nome). So far as I know, it’s the only documented case of Atlantics in Northwest Alaska. They’re apparently becoming more and more common in SW Alaska and BC.
I might find some real use for the spey rod in our river fifteen years down the road.Alright, here’s a question. Atlantic Salmon are salmo trutta, just like brown trout. In fact, they are to brown trout what steelhead are to rainbow trout (both onchorynchus mykiss.)
Sea-Run Rainbow = Steelhead
Sea-Run Brown = Atlantic Salmon?Sorry to distract from your question, but it’s the first I’ve heard of it. I knew they had talked of classifying browns as salmon, but I didn’t know that they now consider non-anadromous atlantic salmon to be brown trout.
How is a landlocked atlantic different than a brown trout?
Not trying to split hairs… just confused. After all, it’s just a name. Any fish biologists in the house?
it seems that the guys with the most stuff seem to catch all the fish.
It’s funny you mention this, because I’d always thought the exact opposite. Rather than becoming a mobile tackle shop, I’d recommend keeping it minimal. Unless you’re fishing technical waters that require a great assortment of flies and tackle, I’d keep it down to the bare essentials.
These days I’m rotating between wearing a Fishpond hip pack and wearing a Granite Gear backpack with water-resistant zippers. I use the backpack if I need to carry a jacket and my DSLR, and the hip pack if I’m going lean and mean. Fly boxes go in my shirt pocket or the pocket in my waders.
Less is more, unless it isn’t… in which case, more is more.
Hey Zach, any chance of swinging down to Atlanta for a spey casting lesson some weekend? I’ve got the cast down where the line breaks the sound barrier with a beautiful whipping sound, but from there I’m stumped.
I actually have a 3 weight Winston Ascent that I bought because it was just too good of a rod for the price to pass up (I’m weak-willed, I’ll admit it). I imagine the rods are all over the map depending on weight and length as far as performance. However, to give you an idea, casting a 3 weight BIIX against the Ascent, the owner of the BIIX was having serious misgivings about having spent so much more for his rod. At 80 feet the BIIX showed where the rest of the money went, but who fishes a 3 weight at 80+ feet?
Warning: if you haven’t looked at one in person, the Winston Ascent is hands down the most hideous rod I’ve ever seen. This is coming from someone who could care less about the looks of a rod. I’m talking ugly – like I want to take sandpaper to it.
P.S. the rod tube is lavender (need I say more?).
Cast before you buy.
I’ve owned four different pairs of Patagonia boots in the past three years. They’re about as durable as a wet piece of paper. Every time I return the boots for replacement I include a note asking Patagonia to start sewing the felt on rather than using glue. I just killed my last pair of Patagonia boots and I won’t be sending them back for replacement again. I’m done with them for good.
The Simms L2s were hands down the most uncomfortable boots I’ve ever worn when I tried them out for a few days this summer, so that removed my most likely replacement candidate. Shopping for durable and light wading boots is an exercise in frustration. The freestone is too heavy for long range hike-ins. Anyone had a look at the new G3 wading boots?
That 13 weight is pretty beastly. The river I guide on in Alaska isn’t incredibly wide and is full of snags. I’ve been using a 12 weight TiCr with a T-400 to wrestle them out of the wood.
I still haven’t broken the 20 pound mark on the fly yet, but here’s a pretty average king caught on conventional gear to show you what I’m up against. (If I recall correctly, this one weighed out at 29 lbs after she’d been bled out)
There’s nothing wrong with over-gunning as long as you can still manage to muster up enough energy to fight the fish after a few hours of casting.
Hey Richard,
Thanks for all the information. Lots of food for thought. (I saw your work in a magazine lately – was it fish & fly?)
I’m still running Photoshop 7, so I can’t open NEF files. I guess I’ll have to cough up the $170 for an upgrade.
I hadn’t even tried to open a raw file yet on my computer as I had made a deliberate decision to take pictures in jpg, although that may have stemmed from bad advice. Namely here: http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/raw.htm
I guess my impression was this (from Ken Rockwell):
“The biggest quality advantage of raw is the ability to correct for some of your mistakes after the fact, so if you can get it right the first time most of the raw advantage evaporates, but all the disadvantages remain.”
I guess my decision was to learn to shoot correctly from the beginning rather than using raw files as a crutch to make up for my mistakes, in addition to saving the time in post-processing on an already slow laptop. When I do save up the capital to upgrade to the latest photoshop, I’ll definitely give raw a go and see if the results are any better.
I’m sure that disadvantages of raw are easily outweighed by the advantages for a professional photographer, but I wonder how well they translate to an amateur. Specifically, the required storage space and editing concern me. What are your thoughts?
P.S. I hadn’t realized you lived in Greer – not too far from Furman.
I just performed the aperture experiment and I see now. Larger F Number (Smaller Aperture?) = Greater Depth of Field = Longer Shutter Speed.
With the lighting you suggested, there isn’t a prayer for getting a sharp image at f/10 or f/22 without using a tripod. With the flash on, the shutter speed was sped up considerably. I think I see your points:
1) Higher aperture for greater DOF
2) Use a tripod. Or better yet, a good flash. Or even better, both.
