Zach Matthews
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Hey John –
Circumstances for me seem to dictate the need for the wide angle. 99% of my fishing is either in a tight drift boat or canoe or in some extremely crowded mountain stream on a trail — very little room to back up. I really appreciate the advice. Pretty interesting to see how different people approach it.
Zach
You got it Tim. I will delete you a second time. Chances are you revived the account by logging back in, so it may be that if you change your mind, you can simply do that again.
Zach
Don’t worry about it Scott — that was the best article about our sport to make it to print in the last ten years. Great piece and actually a gorgeous web interface. If the fly fishing magazines could figure out how to achieve stuff like that I think they could actually make money selling subscriptions online.
Zach
Tim –
I got your PM and, as you requested, I deleted your account. Obviously the deletion didn’t go through, but the fact that you re-posted makes me question whether you were serious.
Let me know.
Zach
Buzz makes an interesting point. To my knowledge the last four brown trout world records were a sea-run fish from Argentina (non-native, anadromous), and then three fish from Arkansas’ White River system (40 lb. 4 oz. from the Little Red, 38 lb. something from the Norfork, and I think another before that) that were all getting huge eating tailwater sowbugs and stocked trout.
The fact that the world records came from the Norfork and Little Red tributaries rather than the White is interesting – both have hatcheries where pellets are dumped into the water en masse and the water is subsequently flushed out via pipes into the main streams. Big fish will stack up around those pipes, which essentially create a nutrient base for the entire river. Unsurprisingly, the sowbugs which are the primary forage for brown trout on the Little Red can be found in their highest concentrations right around the hatchery pipes. They can look like krill in there – after a big rain event they’ll literally drift up on the banks in flotsam lines that look like miniature shrimp.
For me the whole world record classification is kind of spurious. I would be very interested to know what the biggest trout in its native environment ever caught was. But there are so few native trout left. And what we know from less-precise historical records (like Lewis and Clark’s account of catching cutthroat as long and thick as their arms at the Great Falls of the Missouri) suggests that our records are hilariously puny compared to fish which once swam that were killed and eaten out of hand by early settlers.
Zach
Tosh Brown (also the photographer) bought the rights and worked with Miles to craft an actual book out of that thread. So the core is the same but I know it got a lot more polish put to it. Miles subsequently won a quiet write-on competition and was offered a position at Gray’s Sporting Journal as the Fishing Editor. Really nice guy.
Zach
You know grant, I’ve met Miles and interviewed him but I have never read his book. I need to get on that.
Zach
Ok I’ve switched it out for display names. It’s not a fully integrated experience with the board but it does work. If you set it to email you when you get a message (which is the default), you’ll be alerted to your new stuff. Nothing is going to pop up here on the board to tell you, but that’s the best I can do for the time being. If something better comes out I’ll jump on it.
Zach
I have a form of private messaging working now. It had to be a standalone plug in for the time being since the add on ‘Buddypress’ is not compatible with our theme. You can access PMs through any profile. It’s a bit awkward but I am working on streamlining it. And it does function–for now you just need to know your correspondent’s username, but I am trying to switch that out for displayed names.
Zach
Huh, interesting. I see they have actually made a version of the RC2 with an even more robust adjustment D-ring. This is overkill with anything other than a flagship, 8-pound camera, I assure you. My Manfrotto RC2 has been fine with my D600 and a lot of lens on it in some lengthy use this year.
I have been decently lucky but I’ve also proven that camera gear is pretty tough. I usually just put my lenses in a zippable LowePro sleeve, likewise for my speedlights, and then I’ll put them in a water resistant backpack (lots of packs meant for skiiers and snowboarders have water resistant zippers).
That’s enough to protect camera gear from anything other than full, lengthy submersion. You can absolutely swim out of a river in that situation and be fine. Remember, almost every DSLR is weather-sealed enough to survive a serious rainstorm. (I’ve proven that). The better stuff can survive outright submersion (also proven that) provided you dry it out to prevent fungus.
This stuff is meant to be used. In my experience the further in the bag you bury it, the less likely it is to be used to take pictures. If I am not going to be doing much wading I’ll just carry it around my neck/one shoulder.
Speaking of which, these are fantastic: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/661579-REG/Black_Rapid_RS7_1BB_RS_7_Camera_Strap.html
I modified mine by removing the 3/8ths inch screw clip it comes with and instead clipping its carabiner to the adjustment ring of my Manfrotto RC2 quick release plate. That way if I want to tripod-mount it I can just unclip the carabiner and pop it in. No unscrewing. Everything is probably robust enough for me to hang from a tree with so I am not worried about the camera.
Zach
John –
I was able to get this working. Like almost everything else out of the box with this software, the CSS (layout code) is extremely hinky. I’m going to turn private messaging back off for now until I have time to make it usable, but the good news is I did get around the issue that was breaking the whole site. I should be able to get this set up soon.
Zach
In Sage’s defense, I am certain they didn’t want to be in this situation in the first place. For background, Sage is owned by Farbank, which is a division of the Joshua Green Corporation. Farbank also owns Rio Products and Redington. I think those acquisitions were made around the 2004-5 timeframe, when things were looking pretty decent on the whole.
Then the economy crashed. I’ve met the present Mr. Green one time and he is a very sweet older man. He just came over and started showing me stuff in the Sage booth, like he worked there.
Sage was basically left holding the bag. They had something like three times as many employees as their nearest domestic competitor–and those are Americans making American salaries. They had done very well selling high-end rods at volume on the strength of really good design and really huge advertising budgets. But that high-volume, high-price model just was not sustainable with the economy melting down and I am sure their sales nose-dived.
Similar things happened at Simms. But Simms was pretty darn nimble and they successfully positioned themselves as a player in the broader market. Soft goods were perhaps better positioned for that in the first place — it’s not like Sage could come out with a line of bait rods, not reasonably anyway. So where Simms was able to turn lemons into lemonade by opening the big boxes (after a little spat with Farbank about sales reps, incidentally), Sage was not so lucky.
I don’t think Sage is in any danger as a company. Indeed last I heard they were still in acquisition mode, with Farbank making a play for Fishpond that didn’t wind up happening. But, you have to know their dealers have been hurting and no one likes to see someone else get a better margin deal than you yourself get.
Leland may be the first of several of these large shops to make this move. And Sage may need to retract a bit and get more nimble themselves. They certainly know that — there are good heads in charge over there, and I am sure they’ll be fine.
Zach
Hey John –
See my post in the Radian thread. I don’t have anything to say about the S4 other than it sounds like there was a big upgrade, which may tell you what you need to know.
Zach
Hey David –
From what I am hearing the 10′ 4 weight is an unusually great rod. The guys who have thrown it claim the materials have gotten light enough for their strength that you don’t notice the additional foot of blank when casting. Might make a great tailwater nymphing rod — something to check out.
Zach
