[mountainsallaround]

Crab Porn??

😎

Which model Optio? I have the 43WR which is *not* supposed to be used underwater, while the the two newer models are supposedly usable underwater to 5 feet.

For a small camera you stick in your vest and don’t have to worry about when you face plant or fish on rainy days, they’re great.

TC

[mountainsallaround]

I own a Sylk, and I use it mostly in flatter, spring-creek style situations, especially during winter. It has very little memory and the color is ideal for technical fishing, but I haven’t latched on to the thing as an everyday line.

The diameter is smaller (fishes nice in the wind), but it also doesn’t float as well as the newer “fat” lines. On flatter water, flotation isn’t a problem, but on rougher stuff, it does matter.

I don’t know how real the “small guides” problem is. It’s true that silk lines used to be the norm, but I fish a bunch of Phillipsons and a few Grangers with standard 444 lines without noticing a problem.

I haven’t experienced it, but a few people have complained of the line getting “sticky” on them in hotter weather.

I have no idea what that means, but there it is.

In short, I think the Sylk is an interesting line and useful in some situations, but not my first choice for an all-arounder.

Some caneheads really like them, probably due to their extremely limber nature.

Tight lines,
TC

[mountainsallaround]

From time to time, a few of the regular (or irregular) rod builders on Clark’s board have talked about building wood rods. I don’t think you’d be limited to a $4,000 stick from Scotland if you were truly interested.

Also, I’ve played around with the new Italian braided silk lines (can’t remember the company name right now).

They’re wonderful things, though a little too much work for me. They even produce a synthetic version that’s less work. My buddy Dave Roberts is a killer midge/spring creek fisher, and he loves his silk lines for their suppleness and for how little they’re affected by wind.

He fishes them pretty much anytime the water surface is slick.

Not all the old stuff is obsolete… 😎

TC

[mountainsallaround]

I use a CF for all my midge/BWO/small fly stuff (pretty much the only box I carry around in the winter) and like it a lot.

It’s the kind with an extra leaf in the middle, though I admit to getting pretty irritated when it takes two hands to close the damn thing. Sometimes the plastic hinges don’t hold both halves of the clamshell in aligment, so the latch won’t engage.

Be nice if they fixed that flaw, especially given the cost of the things.

TC

[mountainsallaround]

G.A.

The quality of magazine photography might have suffered due to the rise of “not quite all there” digital cameras, but I have some faith that might prove to be a temporary problem.

As the technology improves (everyone remember where it was fouryears ago), hopefully the images run by magazines will too.

Certainly, it would be nice to use images from photographers skilled enough to actually control focus, but in that vein, I must sadly agree with Zach. Fly fishing magazines aren’t exactly overfunded, to the point that I’ve developed a fairly ho-hum attitude about doing any editorial writing work for them — and I’ve been an advertising copywriter for 20 years.

Slow pays, low payment rates, editorial coverage tainted with product placement —

[mountainsallaround]

Cracking seems to be the most common indicator your line is getting ready for the Big Spring Creek in the Sky.

Typically, it cracks first on the casting taper.

[mountainsallaround]

Tucker:

Thanks for the suggestion, but I’ll probably just shoot chromes; I have a flatbed scanner with the transparency lid so I can scan anything I need for online use.

Zach — are magazine covers routinely being shot on digital cameras nowadays? Do the 6MP DSLRs cut it for applications like that?

Tight lines,
TC

[mountainsallaround]

I think if you fished the same line 3-4 times a week, you might only get a season or two out of one.

I fish 5wts almost exclusively, but use cane rods which are probably easier on lines. I’m more likely to do something idiotic (like step on a line with studded boots or let a fish wrap me around a rock) to ruin a line before it wears out, but I hedge my bets — I use DT lines, so I can just swap ends and keep going.

With that in mind, I’ve got a pair of Cortland 444 (peach lines) that are 4 years old, though one recently cracked and passed onto the next plane of existence, which fits with my intial estimate.

I expect my WF7 Air Cell Supreme to last a decade given it’s only used during the stonefly hatch and for the Rogue’s summer steelhead.

TC

[mountainsallaround]

Thanks guys!

As someone with a few years experience as a newspaper photographer, I’m on board with the whole idea of manual camera controls.

What passes for a user interface on a lot of these things is beyond belief. Give me my old Canon F1 pro bodies, which — despite their Humvee-esque weight — actually take pictures when you push the button, and can be adjusted to shoot almost anything by twisting two dials.

Last week I was contacted by two editors looking specifically for Upper Sacramento pictures. They found me via my uppersac.com fishing report, and while I had a few pictures to send, I could have done a little better if the images had been capable of some size.

I get the impression that the low-end DSLRs don’t offer a lot of benefit over my old Canons. Think I’ll wait for another generation or two before sinking the big dollars into something.

In the meantime, the wife wants a point-and-shoot, so maybe I just goose up that purchase to something nice in the 6-8 MP level and leave it at that.

Thanks again! I understand pictures just fine, but have some real voids when it comes to digital technology…

TC

[mountainsallaround]

Background? Oy. I think it the asphalt parking space (the rod was laying across the bed of a pickup), so I’m pretty sure you’re seeing a single plowed snow line with thin, slushy snow turning grey from rain on both sides.

A weird day indeed.

Thanks!
TC

[mountainsallaround]

Thanks Zach.

At this point, I’d be hard-pressed to buy a low-end DSLR when my 20 year-old Canon film gear still works, and offers better quality too (if less convenience).

I was mostly interested in the image difference between your average 7MP point-and-shoot and a DSLR of similar resoution. Didn’t know if there was more to the story beyond the resolution, like a better signal processor or even a larger CCD area producing better results.

Interestingly, my 43WR produces JPEG files in excess of 2MB at the highest resolution.

I also looked at a few digitals that produced images in excess of 3000 pixels. Dividing that by 300 (for the 300 dpi image requirement of many magazines) means that the maximum imaged width is 10″ by (whatever the vertical resolution is)?

Am I figuring that right?

TC

[mountainsallaround]

Yeah, a Pentax Optio 43WR. It’s basically a point and shoot, and not even a great one, but since I drop it in the river pretty much every other trip, it’s good that it’s

[mountainsallaround]

You mean like Pamela Anderson?

bd

Perhaps, but I’ll leave it to you to decide which is the more desireable…. 😎

TC

[mountainsallaround]

Someone told me that Stanley paste is mostly silicone, which makes a certain amount of sense — no water, no ice.

That said, I would refrain from using it on bamboo rods (silicone can cause some real problems when you get the thing refinished) and in fact, when the guides are icing I often fish my 8.5′ 4wt Diamondglass rod, which is a very, very sweet synthetic rod that’s perfect for small bugs.

On the Upper Sacramento, a good snow storm (and the snow plows that follow it) can close off access to 95% of the river in one night, so xc-skiing and snowshoeing gets you to the river when the less adventurous are limited to the stockie spots in town.

I love fishing water when I know that I’ll have it to yourself, and then there’s that ego-boosting realization that you’re one crafty SOB to have figured this out while all the lesser vertebrates are only dreaming of fishing.

One caveat — grim personal experience suggests you’ll want to be very, very careful when fishing while wearing snowshoes.

Snowshoes are things of beauty on snow but wicked, evil things when you’re trying to maintain your balance on icy river rocks, and a collapsing snow bank can have you in the river before you can say “significant shrinkage.”

Hope everyone enjoys your winter. It’s really my favorite time of the year to fish.

TC

[mountainsallaround]

I don’t understand — how do you guys get your flies to float with all that weight on the line??

TC

[mountainsallaround]

I rarely fish anything but DT lines, though that might be because I’m a bamboo guy 99% of the time.

It seems that DTs have a lot of advantages (mend well at range, you can carry a lot of line without your loop opening up, reversible after I’ve done something stupid to one end, etc) and only one disadvantage, which seems minimal — you can’t shoot line quite as well.

It’s not as if you can’t shoot line at all, and frankly I think the difference is small outside of the saltwater arena, one of the three places I *do* use WF lines.

The real beauty of a DT is you can reverse it when one end is worn — a fact which I’m sure has not escaped the notice of line manufacturers, who seem
intent on selling WF lines, and why not?

For everyday trout fishing, I think the DT just makes more sense.

TC

[mountainsallaround]

That was cool Tom.

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks. Still trying to figure out if I’m making it out there again next spring.

[mountainsallaround]

Keep in mind that I’m a dry fly guy who typically fishes fairly long leaders. I have used the tippet ring with streamers and good sized fish, but I don’t know if there are any unseen problems nymphing with the things.

With the BWO hatches of winter in full swing on the Upper Sacramento, I’m unlikely to find out anytime soon… 😎

[mountainsallaround]

Consider using a tippet ring — the tiny stainless steel ring sold by Cortland. I hand tie all my own leaders and have started putting one of these at the end of the wear section.

Easy to tie on new tippet sections, and I haven’t had any ring failures. A pretty handy idea…

TC

I really like to go loop/loop for my tippet, but have found that a double(and triple)surgeons knot always seem to break when used for fluoro. I need a good loop for use with fluoro.

Zach, thanks for the Davey knot. I had seen that some time ago and forgot about it without ever trying it. I am going to practice it and put it in the experimentation rotation.

Steve

[mountainsallaround]

I’m going to slip in a vote for the low-sided, tunnel-hull Clacka. I live in Northern California and fish a lot with Dave Roberts (probalby the best Upper Rogue River fly fishing guide) and his tunnel hull blows me away.

You lean on the sticks and the boat just stops. Plus I can stand off-center on the thing and not screw up the handling overmuch. You could square dance in the back.

Keep in mind the rivers out here are a tougher float than the tailwaters I’ve seen in TN, though the Hiwassee isn’t exactly a walk in the park. The manueverability of the Clacka might not be as important as getting through skinny water, which is when a raft might not be a bad idea.

Getting in and out of the low-sided boat is a dream compared to the taller boats.

Good luck!
TC
http://www.troutunderground.com

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