Dec

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Fishing Memories

December 30, 2007 | Leave a Comment

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I have many great memories of fishing with my father as a small child, my father had a love for fly-fishing and he would take me along to some remote place every time he had the day off and the weather was good. We would usually end up far from home at some very secluded creek, lake or small river in the foothills of Alberta, we would walk cut lines for hours on end exploring the creeks, rivers and tiny lakes that were hidden from all but the most serious of fisherman.

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In all my childhood years fishing with my dad I don’t ever remember bumping into another fisherman, we did on occasion run into some lonely trapper who would point us to some new hidden fishing spot and off we would go to check it out. We never brought any food, as it was my father’s rule, if you want to eat you had better catch something, not very often did we go home hungry. I can still remember listening to the bugling of an Elk and the smell of Rainbow Trout and Artic Grayling roasting slowing over an open fire, the wind rusting through the leaves as we sit together in silence enjoying the day and dreaming of our next trip together.

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My dad has been gone many years now and his last wish was to go on one more trip together. I took a few days off work and headed off into the foothills, where his ashes are now spread over some of our most favorite fishing spots, and I can say in all honesty that grown men do cry, and that these were the most emotion filled days of my life. I went from each river and creek spreading his ashes, I would sit down and the memories of that particular spot would come flooding back to me and I could almost smell the fish roasting and my mind could see my dad fishing along the bank. I was gone for 4 days on this trip and I never did cast my fly, but it was one of the best trips I have ever done in my life.

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The memories I have of our trips will last forever and hardly a day goes by that at some point my thoughts will wander off and I can see us standing there together, fishing side by side. There has been days in my life where my wife will come into the kitchen and see me sitting there, staring off into space, holding my cup of coffee with a silly grin on my face, and she will ask what’s wrong with me and I would tell her nothing is wrong, absolutely nothing.

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Now that I have children that go along with me to the same places that my dad has taken me, I can see why my dad was always smiling on these trips. The absolute best part of taking my kids fishing is to sit and listen to them tell their friends about how much fun they have going out with the “old man” and you can actually hear the excitement in their voice and see the sparkle in their eyes. Hopefully the memories that I now share with my children are the memories that they will have forever, and someday when I am no longer on this earth, they will be sitting back with their cup of coffee, a silly grin on their face staring off into space.

Tip! The favorite crab for crab fishing is the blue crab, which is called Callinectes sapidus scientifically. And like its name,the blue crab comes in shades of blue, olive-green, and red.

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Dec

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Tip! If a boat is used to catch crabs, you should use and drop cone nets with the bait tied to the bottom center of the drop net. This technique can also be used if fishing from a bridge.

Knee deep I stand contorting my neck as I stare into the rosy red light desperately trying to differentiate my fly from the foam bubbles and the late afternoon Caddis hatch that litter the water’s surface. No matter how hard I squint, I just can’t figure out which fly I should be focused on.

“Maybe if I adjust my position or take these sunglasses off?”

“That didn’t work.”

“Put those back on, how about another cast?”

I accelerate the fly line to halt in the calm air behind me, and once again focus on the line, then the fly, as it passes by in a rush to land softly on the water’s surface. My eyes are locked on the fly as it lazily drifts down the eddy line. I’m so excited that I almost forget to raise the rod tip as my fly is engulfed in a froth of white.

“Set the hook you dummy!”

There are literally thousands of fly rods to choose from but which one will help you in creating memories? The following is intended to give you some of the basics in, weight, action, size, and price that hopefully will put you on the right track to fly rod ownership.

Tip! This might be the first time that the family is going to the lake. It will be a good idea to ask if there is a guide that will be able to direct the people to the best fishing site.

CASTING

Before going into the details of rod construction let’s cover the basic premise of fly-casting. Unlike gear fishing where the line weighs nearly nothing and lead weight or a steal spoon provides the weight to load the rod, the art of fly casting is in the ability to use weighted line to load or evenly flex a rod on the back cast, then unload and propel the line and fly on the forward cast. Therefore, picking a fly rod is all about matching your casting stroke with the right rod and line weight combination.

WEIGHT

Determining where you will be using this rod the majority of the time will help you decide on the appropriate weight. Will it be that small creek not far from home, standing on a local beach strewn with cobbles as the waves lap the shores, or maybe on your next backpacking trip to your favorite alpine lake?

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Fly rods are given a weight, which has nothing to do with the actual weight of the rod. It’s the number that best describes a fly line that will properly load the rod on both the forward and back cast. Fly line manufactures alter the diameter and density of line producing a variety of lines given numbers from 00 through 12+ that are then matched to the rod weight that best suits your fishing environment and desired casting length.

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In general, a rod with a small weight number will cast a shorter distance and require lighter flies. If this is going to be your only rod, I would recommend picking a rod weight that represents the largest, heaviest fly you plan to fish. Here are some generalizations that describe fly rods by weight:

ACTION

Tip! There are different methods of crab fishing, which are quite cost effective and others that need a lot in terms of money and time. You can use a dip net to catch the crabs.

Rod action refers to the flex and feel of a rod. Most rods can be classified as slow, medium or fast action.

PIECE SIZE

Tip! If you plan to go crab fishing onshore, then the best time is when the tide is rising. For onshore crab fishing, you’ll need a dip net, long string and some type of bait, like eel, chicken necks, or small fish.

By now you probably have some ideas about which weight and action rod fits your needs. Now let’s cover 2-piece rods verses 4-piece.

2-piece, 4-piece or even 5-piece rods are all available in today’s market. Most often, the fewer pieces a rod is the cheaper the rod. This is justified by the amount of engineering it takes to provide a reliable, even flex as you add joints to the system. I prefer to go with 4-piece rods because they are easy to store and travel with. These typically break down to be around 2 1/2 feet in length and fit in many different style travel bags.

PRICE

Price might not be such an issue with rods if all you had to buy was the rod, but that’s often not the case. You need a reel, fly line and backing. If this is your first rod you are also likely to be buy a whole lot of other fly fishing garb such as, tippit, fly boxes, vests, flies, etc. So where should you spend the bulk of your hard earned cash? The rod, hands down. The rod is the most critical piece to the puzzle. Besides skill (which you learn through practice and instruction) the rod has more to do with your ability to make quality presentations to eager fish than any other piece in the system. Not to say a cheap rod isn’t capable of making quality casts, but often they aren’t as consistent and can be much harder to learn or improve your casting ability on. So with that said, I spend most of my money on the rod, buy the best line I can afford, then whatever money I have left would go to the reel.

Tip! For trout fishing, the leader should not be greased. It will not sink far enough to cause any difficulty when picking the line and lure from the water, but if it is allowed to float; it will cast a shadow on the bottom of the stream which may scare the trout.

Cast It

When buying a rod make sure you take some time to cast it before you buy it. I’ve picked up some amazingly expensive rods, cast them and known right from the start I liked its cheaper counterpart better. Have a knowledgeable sales person work with you to find the rod that fits. In fact rod manufactures like Sage are now outfitting some of there retailers with a casting analysis tool that break your cast down into section give you tips to improve on and help you choose the right rod for your casting stroke.

Tip! Check your line just above the lure frequently when fishing crankbaits around rocks, gravel, stumps, and other hard obstructions. They can quickly fray your line.

Ask Questions

Ask some question about what comes with the rod. Is there an unconditional replacement / repair warranty? How about a rod tube and sleeve? Details like these have a way of leveling the playing field when it comes to price. My experience is that many of the cheaper rods don’t come with these items, which are all things that I’ve found to be really useful in the long-term ownership of a fly rod.

You should now have the basics of choosing a fly rod. Find a good instructor to help you with your casting stroke and you’re on your way to years of great memories.

John Scheafer is the co-owner of Anew Outdoors, a Washington guide service that offers fly fishing, sea kayaking, rock climbing, backpacking, ski touring and snowshoeing. When John’s not fly fishing the Yakima River, his personal time has yielded such adventures as sea kayaking around Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, landing the elusive steelhead with the fly rod, climbing Yosemite National Park’s El Capitan, kayaking the Colorado’s Grand Canyon, and skiing off the summits of many Washington volcanoes.

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