Zach Matthews
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Mick what’s the thought process on hooking gar with the circle hook? Just let them take and run like normal? Does it stay secured in their hard jaws?
That’s a fair point Mike, and to be honest these tips really are not targeted at Western anglers much at all. You guys have so much more wild trout water than we do here in the East. Probably the widest streams with wild fish populations here (targetable wild fish populations, not those mixed in with de-sensitized stocker trout) would be in the lower reaches of the Smokies, like Abrams, Hazel and Eagle Creeks. Even there the water’s never more than a cast across, although there are plenty of big fish.
Zach
Pretty awesome, Travis. Did you not feel the deck built into the boat gave you enough elevation? I like the foresight in putting in backstops for both the cooler and the battery.
Zach
This came up recently in the context of Phil Monahan’s article on Midcurrent, and I wanted to bump this post back to the top.
The moral of the story is that heat shrink tubing and a heat gun can form a welded loop stronger than any knot you can tie to a fly line.
Zach
The awards process is legit in the sense that no one can stuff the ballot box, but you absolutely need to keep in mind who the voters are. Typically the attendees are either exhibitors who all vote for their own products or shop owners who obviously have a vested interest in voting for the stuff they sell. To me, it’s always interesting when one of the smaller players, who presumably does not bring the “voting bloc” with them to the event, wins an award. That signifies real appreciation, because people are in a sense are voting against their own pocketbooks.
Zach
I typically either use the same Simms neoprene socks that Wayne mentioned, with boots, or I’ll simply wet wade in Chaco sandals. Of note, Fishpond partnered with Chaco this year to release a set of sandals (both flip flop style and the more burly kind) with the Aquaseal style rubber on the bottom for better grip.
Zach
Clay I camped one time at a WMA down there really close, but it was not actually on the river (at least not until we had a gullywasher flood that turned my tent floor into a waterbed…)
I believe that was the Joe Kurtz WMA.
Zach
Dan there is a time commitment but honestly, Spey casting is its own reward. It is freaking beautiful and many of the skills you learn can then be applied to make you a better single hand rod caster. I use Spey casts all the time in nymphing now that I have learned them.
Snap T:
Switch Cast (i.e. Dynamic Roll Cast):
Snake Roll (Change of direction cast):
I bought Simon Gawesworth’s “Spey Casting,” made a grass leader, and practiced with a beater rod until I got it.
Zach
Hahaha. Dan you need to read my piece which is about to come out in Arkansas Life magazine about Michael McLellan and what he has done with two-handed rods. Have you tried using a switch rod there? It’s basically perfect for that water, with its tangled banks and limited wading sections. You might well be able to get away from the crowds.
JT I’ve actually “played” the course in Bend. It’s a lot of fun! Very challenging. Just like in normal golf I was strong through about 16 holes and then completely went to pieces.
Hahahah,
Zach
Bob I just think people have a limited amount of time in the day for all forms of social media.
Eventually I see Facebook declining in popularity, because in order to monetize they have had to degrade the experience of seeing friends’ posts. People also hit critical mass in the friend groups years ago and for the most part the sensation of catching up with old acquaintances has died off. Now there are just real life friends and Facebook friends, and that initial sense of discovery I think is gone.
Will they come back to forums like this one? Likely not in the numbers we saw in 2005-2007, which in retrospect was the heyday of specialty forums on the internet. But will these forums ever totally die off? No, not as long as there is interest in a specialty event.
I also think to some extent it has to do with the quality of the experience. People were posting a lot when the economy was cranking in the mid-2000s. The forum decline has coincided with economic decline. I don’t think people were getting to fish as much. With gas prices low and hiring picking up I think we may see a bit of a burst this year — and I bet the fly shops are looking forward to that.
Zach
I feel like this is the only fish on earth that can do to a fly rod what every bait bubba imagines an ordinary black bass or striper would do…
Bob –
Your question has been answered very well technically, but I’ll try to put it into a lay context.
The Canon has a sensor the size of 22.2 X 14.8 mm which is 328.5 square millimeters.
The Panasonic has a sensor which which is 13.2 x 8.8 mm for a total of 116 square millimeters, or about 1/3rd the size of the Canon (as an area measurement).
If you’ve ever put a lens designed for a smaller sensor size on a camera with a big sensor, you’ll understand this: the lens shines a circle of light back onto the sensor/film area. The sensor itself merely records a square which is “punched out” of that circle of light. On a mismatched setup like I described the square punch can be bigger than the round circle of light and you can thus actually see the circle in the final image. Here’s an example of what that looks like:
Get the idea? Now imagine that instead of the light circle being smaller than the square “punch,” it’s the other way around. The question becomes, how big is the square punch? Let’s assume we use the same lens on the same camera and merely change out the sensor size, ok?
Unquestionably the bigger sensor will take better pictures. This is because it is capturing more of the available circle of light. When you blow that little square up to a regular viewing size (say 8X10), it takes much less *magnification* to fill the 8X10 space than if you used the tiny sensor in the same circle of light.
Generally speaking bigger sensors and bigger lenses are always going to take better pictures. This is why photographers like Ansel Adams used the enormous full sized Land Camera with 4 inch by 6 inch plates of film to take their amazing landscape shots. A few years ago Kodak made a single camera that took a life-sized picture of a human being (they used it after 9/11 to photograph firefighters). The resolution was astounding because there was no magnification at all. It was like looking at a 2D person standing in front of you.
I tell you all this so you understand what is really going on with “crop factor.” Really it is a measurement of magnification only. If I take a 200 mm lens and put it on a full frame body (meaning it has a sensor the size of 35mm film), and take a picture, THEN I put the lens on a “DX” or APS-C style body, and take the same picture, then the shot taken with the smaller sensor will be more zoomed in and thus will appear to give more of a telephoto effect. But, this is really just an optical illusion, because I can take the picture from the first body, MAGNIFY IT, cut out the center, and get the exact same result. The advantage of the bigger chip is that you actually have the OPTION to decide whether you want to magnify the image to “APS-C” size or not.
In other words, there is no true telephoto effect assuming one uses the same lens. The smaller chip size simply forces you into magnification *after the light is collected by the sensor*, which generally speaking is something you’d rather control versus being forced to accept.
Your question is more complicated because of course you are not comparing apples to apples. One is a DSLR with multiple lens options and the other is a glorified point and shoot with only one lens, although that lens may well be more versatile than any single lens you could get for the DSLR. I think you need to decide whether you are looking for an easy carry around versus more of a real commitment to the camera. Of course, if you are looking for a mere carry around, you most likely already have an excellent point and shoot camera in your pocket.
Zach
Kenny that is exactly the information I was given once we were booked and down there, and exactly the OPPOSITE of what I was told when I reached out to the local shop last October to inquire into the best time to come. We weren’t super thrilled with a few aspects of how it worked out, even though the guys in the shop were very nice to us.
Zach