Zach Matthews
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Patagonia sent you a new pair, Jeff, because they do not possess repair facilities–all their waders are made abroad. As much as I like and respect the Patagonia brand and their corporate philosophy, in this regard they are not exactly living their reduce/reuse/recycle ideals. Simms will repair waders (I had a new set of boot feet put on my ~2000 pair of Guides a few years back), giving you more use out of the same pair. Patagonia is just not set up to do that because of their offshore manufacturing. Simms offshores a lot of product as well, but their waders are actually made in Bozeman. I’ve watched them do it.
Eric, this is my opinion based on having reviewed and used most of the sunglasses on the market.
I think the 580G (glass) lenses from Costa are the best of the breed.
I think the Costa 580P and Smith Chromapop lenses (both plastic) are rough equivalents and would come in at number 2.
I think the Costa 400, Oakley, Smith “standard” lenses, Kaenon and Maui Jims, which are all plastic, would be the next step down.
Below that you have Suncloud, which is owned by Smith.
And then at the bottom of “acceptable” fishing lenses you have Fisherman Eyewear and a few $25-30 clones. Those are pretty bad but they’re not quite the off-the-rack gas station specials we used to buy in college and throw away after three weeks.
Note: this doesn’t take into account Smith’s silver-based photochromic technology, which cuts light transmission as the sun gets brighter and which is unique to them. That’s kind of a side spur on the chart but it’s a useful feature.
Hope that helps,
ZachThese guys make great stuff Chris:
http://fishpondusa.com/product/category/packs-vests/vests-tech-packs/16
I have one of the Westwater waterproof lumbar packs and it is really solid. Here’s the backpack/chestpack version: http://fishpondusa.com/product/detail/westwater-backpack/7
Zach
Bob they sound like a flying lawnmower. There’s no way you could sneak up on anyone. And they have wide angle cameras because they’re so bouncy. From a private citizen perspective, no, I wouldn’t worry about that. Military drones are probably way advanced though…
Zach
Well, that only took an update of the entire website… Fortunately I was able to re-enable search, which will make browsing the archives much easier.
Here’s my plan.
Attachments:
Here’s a great one Bill Rugen from Motofish took while we were in Mexico:
Then one of mine:
I wish I could have positioned Paul a little bit further out so he didn’t have his head obscured by the foliage, but it’s pretty hard to compose these, especially when you’re shooting without telling people.
Mike the easiest way to deal with that as a photographer is to use fill flash. You’ll note I had a flash going when I handed the camera off for the trout pic, but not for the permit shot. That permit shot was taken with the guide’s point and shoot camera. Headlamps off, yes.
Mike, wader warranties are pretty irrelevant. Tim is completely right: they all leak eventually. You just repair them with Aquaseal and go on. I have two pairs of Simms Guides which are both thoroughly trashed but they still keep the water out even though one pair is over 10 years old.
Zach
Mike it’s late for the white bass run. Those could be buffalo carp. But theft to catch them with is a small clouser minnow. Congrats on the trout!
My permit ended up taking a tan felt crab of some kind. It was an amazing experience; I fed him about 45 feet out feeding in turtlegrass. He ignored the first fly (an Enrico Puglisi shrimp left behind at the lodge by Enrico himself). We got lucky and had time to re-rig with a crab; he zeroed in on that and kinda dead-eyed it for a long ten seconds, then he pounced on it. Very, very addiction-inducing. I spent the morning looking at aerials of Boca Paila and mapping the drive (45 hours; maybe not a good idea).
With the Outback, what I want to do guys is get my fiancee Tracy into one of the new CrossTreks, which are basically the old-model Outback body. I really like those and she does too, and of course they have the all wheel drive.
Hey Jim –
I don’t have any experience with either of those rods, but speaking generally I think you are absolutely on the right track. For brook trout a lot of the hassle you’ll run into has to do with the height of the forest canopy. Fiberglass rods are great in there because they can still bend in the shorter lengths. To me there’s no point in getting a fiberglass rod over 7 feet long, but from 6 to 7 feet they’re ideal. For brookies, obviously, a 2 or 3 weight is fine, but you could go up to a 4 weight if you also wanted to use the rod on tailwaters or as a backup.
Zach
