Daily Fly Fishing News

We've been fishing Sage's new TXL-F ($625) three-, four- and five-weights on Colorado's Elk River for the past couple of days and can confirm that Sage has engineered the rumored sensitivity into the new rods. Via Micro Ferrule Technology, and an exclusive, ultra-light guide package, Sage reduced the weight of the TXL-F by 33 percent from the earlier TXL series. Our favorite rod in this range is the three-weight: it seems to hit the sweet spot for lightness and control, and while we were challenged to land 20-inch rainbows with it, we can't say it wasn't fun.

Meanwhile Sage has used different materials, different mandrels, and even a new taper in its replacement for the XP seies. We fished the new VXP ($485-585) extensively and think the four- and five-weights are great all-around rods. They certainly don't have the sensitivity of the TXL-F's, but they did throw streamers and multi-fly rigs well and did fine on the Trico hatch as well.

Jason Borger went for the "comic-book-style 'energy blast'" in tying his version of a Chironomid for this week's 30-Minute Fly Art. (Jeff Kennedy took the more refined route.)

Borger: “When I was in college, I went to fish for British Columbia stillwater trout for the first time. It was a trip filled with big lakes with equally big midges. Nothing quite like fishing a pupa the size of a brown drake nymph (and nothing like the take of a Kamloops 'bow when it smashes said pupa)."

• Michael Gracie covers the recent Carp Slam in Denver's warmwater fish factory suggesting that the fact that a smallmouth was the deciding catch may be reason to rethink the tournament.
• Migration patterns: eleven-foot python startles Indiana kayak fishers.
• Is war good for fish stocks? asks Conservation magazine.

Daniel Galhardo posts in interesting proposal on his Tenkara blog: that using one fly, in one size, for all fish regardless of hatch activity, will inevitably improve technique.

"Ever since getting into the discipline of using one fly pattern/style only, with no great concern for choosing the ]right] fly, but rather focusing proper fishing technique (presentation and manipulation of the fly), there have been moments of doubt."

"The surprise of the day was found in the success of the SUP, despite the lack of any special rigging for fishing. Clearly it demands good balance, but the unforeseen advantage of standing on an open surface is the ability to rotate your body to face whatever direction you choose. There's no need to paddle when you can simply turn around."

Scott Willoughby touts "adventure-cise" and fly fishing from a stand-up paddle board in his coverage of new Hobie products in The Denver Post.

MidCurrent photo editor Tim Romano interviews Tosh Brown for us this week and discovers that the Austin-based photographer and part-time publisher has many interests, but most of them seem to involve redfish, tarpon, or ill-mannered bird dogs.

Think stripping baskets are only for saltwater anglers? Think again. Combine twigs, brambles, wind and water with a stripped fly line and you have the recipe for a tangled mess. There's always Leon Chandler's classic hand-twist retrieve, Phil Monahan says, but the local hardware also store contains all the pieces of a good solution.

Tom's 100th podcast for Orvis focuses on streamer techniques and offers several ways to improve this "very active way of fishing." If you want to catch big trout, Tom says, fish streamers.

"Bear in mind that only a certain percentage of fish in a pool will take a streamer. And I'm not sure why. A streamer is usually not imitating an insect. It's imitating a baitfish, or a crayfish, or a leech, and in any given population of trout, there are a certain number of fish that kind of graduate from feeding on insects to the bigger prey. And they're usually the bigger fish -- that's how they get bigger."

Permit, one of Florida's most popular gamefish, will get a second look from state officials, who have been considering extended state law into federal waters and allow for spearing of the fish. As Kevin Wadlow quotes an FWC spokesman in the Florida Keys Keynoter, "The staff came up with some recommendations for the resources, and the public weighed in with the opinion that the recommendations do not go far enough," [Lee] Schlesinger said. "The commission asked staff to come up with some new ideas."

Jack Dennis Sports investors haven't taken kindly to the well-known guide and author's opening of Jack Dennis Fishing Trips a block away from their store, according to Amy Schenck in the Jackson Hole Daily. "Among other allegations, partners in the sporting goods store say a 1988 agreement gives it exclusive rights to the Jack Dennis name in retail sporting goods sales, and prohibits Dennis from using his name for any other business and promotional purposes."

Chris Rosenblum profiles trout master Joe Humphreys, who at 81 thinks of fly fishing as a fountain of youth. "'I’m 81, but today, I was 26,' he says after two hours with Spruce Creek, his old friend. 'I take that back. I was 16 today.' In Pennsylvania's Centre Daily Times.

• Come back as a river stone: in honor of her fly-fishing father, Kathy Presnell makes custom glass stones that contain a loved one's ashes.
• Bloodsports and danger: Young men learn about fire by playing with it, says "sports law professor."
• Renowned novelist and fly fisher Vance Bourjaily, who once advised hunting partner Kurt Vonnegut "The bigger the game, the more corrupted the soul of the hunter," died on August 31.

MidCurrent will be blogging live from the International Fly Tackle Dealer show in Denver, Colorado next week. The show runs Thursday through Saturday, September 9 through 11 at the Colrado Convention Center, and the fact that this will be the first retailer show run soley by AFFTA should make it an interesting event.

Mark your calendars and be sure to check in for our comments and photos (and perhaps even a video or two) on interesting new products landing on retailers' shelves in coming months.

Robert Merrill, and guide for the Three Rivers Ranch Orvis Fly Shop in Driggs, Idaho, is still missing two days after he and his clients were tossed from their driftboat on the South Fork of the Snake River Wednesday night. According to the story by Cory Hatch of the Jackson Hole Daily, "The clients escaped the river near the accident, but Merrill continued downstream.... 'They were up against the bank where [the river] goes right next to the road and hit a ... tree and capsized,' said Sgt. Karl Casperson, a member of the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office Aquatic Rescue Team."

Keys guides yesterday asked the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to postpone voting on revised rules for permit and African pompano, which include allowing divers to spear them in state waters.

In a related story, the Commission voted 7-0 to extend the ban on Gulf coast snook fishing until next September 1.

MidCurrent's Glenn Pittard recently had a chance to "cast on grass" at the only known fly fishing golf course in North America -- Orvis's spread on the Deschutes River in Bend, Oregon and covered it in detail last month.

The video below was produced at the 2010 National Casting Competition held August 12-15 and features TU and Orvis conservation efforts on the Deschutes.

Yesterday Simms announced a voucher program for anglers who want to trade in their old breathable waders (any brand) for a new pair of Simms waders. Bringing in those beaters will net you $50 towards a pair of G4Z, G4 Pro or G3 Guide™ Series waders or $25 on any waders from the Headwaters™ line.

Read the extended entry for the full press release.

In a major setback for anglers and conservationists, last week the N.C. Supreme Court issued a ruling that virtually negates a state law requiring “undisturbed” buffers for trout streams. "The Court’s decision leaves vulnerable thousands of miles of designated trout streams across the state," said the Southern Environmental Law Center.

Fly Rod & Reel Magazine has announced the 2010 winners of the Robert Traver Fly-Fishing Writing Award, fly-fishing's only major writing award, co-sponsored with the magazine by the John D. Voelker Foundation.

First Place: "Two Men in a Museum," by Kent Cowgill

Second Place: "A Way Home," by John Larison

(The 2010 first- and second-place stories are published in the Autumn 2010 issue of the magazine.)

Rusty Gates Memorial: "The Marble Run," by Michael Doherty

2011 contest rules can be found here.