Ian Crabtree
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Zach and Ian
Great expedition fishing story and nice teamwork. Ian, is that an 8wt you are lugging through the brush?
Bryan
Wow Bryan, good eye. That’s my 8 weight Xi2. I’ve been messing around with a chuck and duck rig for general trout application in freestones, but I think I’ve come to the realization that it will be better suited to big water, specifically tailwaters.
I set it up with a big sculpin pattern and a glo bug. I guess the streamer got cut out of the photo, but you can see the glo bug hanging from the tag end of a surgeon’s knot. I thought I’d be able to sneak some flies down into deeper slots that have overhanging brush that would tangle floating lines and indicators, but it doesn’t really work all that well in those situations.
Have to amuse myself somehow…I was on the verge of a heart attack when the indicator went under and Zach didn’t see it, no doubt a profanity was soon to follow if the fish hadn’t hooked up. Feild and Taylor will probably read that and either laugh or cringe at the thought of me yelling about missed strikes.
I really love this method of fishing – pure spot and stalk. The more I do it, the more I realize that it’s truly a miracle that any large fish with any sense are caught blind fishing in smaller rivers. I think I speak for Zach as well in saying that this is some of the most fun (and intense) trout fishing you can do. I love it.
Zach, while I’m thinking of it: http://www.iffa.org.uk/dyinglines.htm
That’s a good point Bob. I always buy fast action rods because I love casting. I have an 8 weight Xi2 that I use for salmon, but to be honest, I’d much prefer to do most of my fishing with an 8 weight SLT. I had one and gave it to one of my friends and kind of regret it.
I feel like it’s just buying into the marketing speak, but I suppose there’s three types of rods (obviously the lines are blurred): casting rods, fishing rods, and fish fighting rods. I always buy casting rods for personal use, even though I know better.
Bob, there’s no crying in baseball!
I guess with one exception I’ve never cast a rod that gave me the “x factor.” I really really like the TCR 6, but I really don’t care for that rod series in all of the other line weights. Go figure.
I hope I’m not the only one that feels this way, but I’ve noticed that the better I get at casting the less the rod becomes a factor. Sure, I’m going to like some better than others, but I’d be hard pressed to think of any situation in which a rod has affected the results for better or worse in actual fishing situations. This obviously excludes situations like going trout fishing with a ten weight.
Some more food for thought:
If you have a Mac, go back and open up this thread using both Safari and Firefox. Night and day difference between how the two render the photos. When I was looking at this thread originally in firefox I really couldn’t understand the huge deal between the two photos, I saw a little oversaturation on the red in your shirt, but now looking at it in Safari… the first picture obviously isn’t acceptable, waaaaay oversaturated.I don’t know that Firefox is capable of color management, and if it is, it doesn’t appear to be honoring the embedded color profiles of the images you posted. What a frustrating experience it must be for photographers who are concerned about presenting color accurate images.
When I first bought my MacBook I borrowed a ColorVision Spyder to calibrate the LCD. The difference between the calibrated and uncalibrated profiles is significant, and the ColorVision was able to produce colors much more accurately (I think) than I had from the “eye test” calibration that comes with OS X.
What Peddler was referring to with the lead and pliers is actually what I’m looking for. I managed to find some here: http://www.fishermans-corner.com/mcart/index.cgi?ID=38HBZH&task=show&cat=Miscellaneous&pgidx=10
I have no idea if that’s a reputable dealer, but at least I’ve found it somewhere.
I’ll try to take a picture of some that I’ve punched to attach to the snap swivel.
Right now I’ve got it rigged up with a Rio intermediate shooting line and the pencil lead hooked up to a snap swivel above another swivel on the leader.
I talked at some length with my friend who guides around the Grand Rapids area and I can’t recall his exact words, but he suggested I use pencil lead rather than split shot to make it easy to switch out weights if you’re moving around a lot.
We improvised somewhat last summer using split shot while we were using chuck and ducks, and it seemed to work fine. I’d just hate to get up to Alaska only to realize I greatly prefer pencil lead and not have any.
I’m also going to be using pencil lead for boondogging kings, I’m not sure how well split shot would work with those setups.
There’s definitely something humorous about watching someone do slow-mo switch casts to techno music.
Good caster though, thanks for the link.
Interesting read: http://www.flyfishinsalt.com/article.jsp?ID=32011
I’d ask around on some of the saltwater boards for the greatest amount of input.
