Daily Fly Fishing News

On July 10, all three authors will come to their alma mater's Wharton Center's Pasant Theatre for an authors' event moderated by Bill Castanier, who writes this very detailed piece on the authors' connections. "For more than 40 years, authors, friends and Michigan State University alumni Jim Harrison and Thomas McGuane have exchanged letters, documenting a trove of their trials, tribulations and careers. The letters reside in sealed boxes in university archives; McGuane's at MSU and Harrison's at Grand Valley State University. The letters may be signed and delivered, but as of now remain sealed from public view, and they probably will stay that way for some time." In the Lansing, Michigan City Pulse.

The next fly fishing adventure movie producer who doesn't sign up Greta Gaines to do the sound track has got some explaining to do, in my opinion. Gaines, who many might recognize as a champion snowboarder and ESPN correspondent, will release a "country-rock-inspired" album later this month, according to country music Web site CMT.com. "'I was fly-fishing with my grandfather when I was just a baby girl. Because I was the only girl, it was my way of getting undivided attention from my father and grandfather. I'm primarily a fly fisherwoman, but I'm really a catch-fish-woman -- whatever it takes to do that,' she laughs."

For a taste of Gaines's music, you can hear 10 of her tracks on her Web site.

Angling Trade magazine, a periodical for fly fishing retailers and manufacturers, just expanded and redesigned their Web site. Like almost everything these guys do, the new site is sharp and well-organized. The site itself is built around a blog, but you can also download .pdf files of each published print issue. If you own a fly shop, make fly fishing stuff, or just like to stay current on gear and industry trends, I'd suggest signing up for their email updates and checking out the site every few days.

By the way, if you want to read the primer I wrote on Internet marketing for Angling Trade, you can find it in the December issue, which you can download here.

Wes Smalling says that before realizing he should probably buy most of his flies, he once fit the prototype of the Fly Shop Guy: "He's that guy who's recently become obsessed with fly-fishing and fly tying. He pops into the store at least once a day -- he never buys anything -- he just hangs around complaining about how expensive everything is and asking a million annoying questions: What size lead wrap do you use for a wooly bugger? Who invented the conehead wooly bugger?" In the Jackson Hole Star-Tribune.

RIO is adding two new lines to their MainStream fly line series: a sink-tip line that comes in four weights, and an intermediate line with a sink rate of between 1 1/2 and 2 inches per second. Both lines are designed for cold water, but the sink-tip line has a braided mono core, while the intermediate has a solid mono core and is designed for wary fish, particularly in lakes.

Read the extended entry for the full press release.

A friend of mine, a Montana guide, wrote in an email yesterday: "PMD hatches have been great, and with so many bugs and feeding fish, it becomes something of a spectator sport for me. It should be for my clients, too, but most of them don't see (even with coaching) a lot of what is going on right in front of them. Most of them don't have the chance to spend enough time on the water to train themselves to see the subtle parts of trout fishing -- the idiosyncratic feeding behavior of a particular fish, the little nuances of current, the differences between riseforms, etc., etc. It's an enjoyable time to be a trout guide."

In a state where, as the governor notes, "no matter what the weather is, we're never more than two weeks from a drought," residents are enjoying the wettest year in almost a decade, and fly fishers -- especially the ones who really know the waters -- are breathing a huge sigh of relief. While snow and mud still clog many rivers and cause no end of headaches for outfitters, the resources themselves are getting a much needed respite. Ranchers won't be fighting for higher draw-downs, Montana and Wyoming will stop fighting over Bighorn flows (at least for the season), and rivers where important populations of fish have been decimated by high temperatures have a few months to recover. In short, if you like elbow room and lots of water, and if gas and airline ticket prices haven't already depleted your bank account, this is probably the best year in recent memory to go fish Montana and other northern Rocky Mountains states.

The hand and the arm -- they are, after all, the gears driving any good fly cast. Tip control, proper application of power, and even the particular style of presentation all begin with mastering the fundamentals of hand and arm control. Joan Wulff considered it so important that she began her now-classic instructional DVD "Dynamics of Fly Casting" with a discussion of role of the arm and hand in the casting stroke.

We're lucky to have permission from producer Jeffrey Pill (whom you probably recognize by now as the producer of "Why Fly Fishing" and Gary LaFontaine's "Successful Fly Fishing Strategies") to begin showing segments of Wulff's "Dynamics" on MidCurrent. Wulff has the remarkable distinction of having taken the art of fly casting to its highest level while remaining able to explain complex techniques in the clearest, simplest terms. "The Hand and the Arm" is an example of why she has had such a tremendous impact on fly casting instruction.

Alice Munroe, author of the best seller The Beach House and of the new book Time Is a River, says fly fishing isn't just about catching fish. It's about feeling life. "Monroe says she is taken with the spiritual and intellectual aspect of fly-fishing, just as her character Mia is. 'You'll experience it today,' Monroe says to a fly-fishing novice. 'You'll feel life. You'll study the fish, what they're doing. It's what brings you back every time, trying to figure it all out. It's all about doing the dance with the fish.'" Craig Wilson interviews the author for USAToday.

"The new species can not be identified by physical appearance -- only by examining DNA in the cell nucleus from bits of clipped dorsal fins. Geneticists at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg made the discovery recently based on samples taken from the Keys; the western, undeveloped side of Andros Island in the Bahamas; Mexico's Yucatan region; the Virgin Islands; and Grand Bahama Island." As Susan Cocking reports in the Miami Herald, genetic tests have identified a third species of bonefish in the Caribbean.

"A Joe's Hopper was tied to my three-foot leader that tested eight pounds. This is no place for delicacy: keep the leader short and stout. Wispy leaders seldom can keep a big night-feeder out of the log jams or sweepers, and big fish are strong and heavy in the current." Dave Richey hunts down a hex hatch on Michigan's AuSable. In the Traverse City Record-Eagle.

Members of the Junior America Cup fly-fishing team will be using engraved #1 Abel Creek reels, courtesy of the tackle manufacturer, during their September international competition in Frisco, Colorado. Teams from Japan, Ireland, Australia, the USA, Hungary, and others are expected to compete.

Read the full press release in the extended entry.

Charles Meck offers an excellent rundown of trico (Tricorythodes) hatches in the U.S., including listing the biggest seasonal activity and the best places to find and fish tricos on both sides of the country. Here's an interesting tidbit on why you'll spend most of your time matching the olive-bodied female dun rather than the males: "Have you ever seen a male Trico dun? If you have you probably haven't seen many. Why? A few decades ago Robert Hall conducted a study of the Trico for his doctoral requirements. In that study he found that male duns often emerge from 10 P.M. until 2 A.M. So, don't worry about matching the male dun. The olive-bodied female dun emerges from 5 A.M. to 11 A.M. depending on the weather conditions and the time of year."

Tricos begin coming off earlier in the U.S. east than they do out west, and the challenge often becomes finding cool-enough air temperatures, as Bill Ferris points out on Cumberlink.com. "Unlike many other mayfly hatches the trico hatch begins along about July 5th and on any given morning until the first hard frost the little mayflies flutter over the riffles on many of our trout streams and trout rise to eat them. I'm told that the first hatching insects are about a size 20 and as the season warms through summer the size diminishes to about a 24 or 26. I can't see to tie a size 26 fly on my tippet so the smallest I tie is a size 24 but mostly I compromise and simply tie 22's."

After glancing at the opening photo for Deborah Weisberg's piece on the growth of carp fishing in the U.S., all I can say is, "To each their own." While I won't be tying garbanzo-bean-flavored Clouser Foxy Red Minnows any time soon, I applaud those who have challenged themselves to trick these very difficult fish on a fly rod.

John Smeaton may not be a household name in the U.S., but it certainly is in Scotland and in western Europe. Smeaton was the baggage handler who, one year ago, fought back against one of the bombers at Glasgow Airport and helped drag an injured colleague to safety. "John Smeaton is a remarkable man. He has the ability to smoke a cigarette, fiddle with the TomTom sat-nav, rummage for the next packet of Marlboro Lights, discuss Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of New York, and the multi-billionaire's preference for the great rivers of Colorado for fly fishing and drive through Glasgow's early morning traffic without once slamming us into the tail of the car in front." Stephen McGinty in The Scotsman.

In the B.C. Western Star, columnist Russell Wangersky writes eloquently about why he's stopped salmon fishing. "July is racing towards us now, when the dragonfly larvae finally crawl up from the bottom and let their skins harden and split in the sun. Then, like bright needles, they will dart and hover in the air and eat many times their weight in blackflies. The outdoors will become slightly more habitable, until the cow bees hatch as well, to circle you like delta-winged biting drones, and those who fish salmon will occasionally even find themselves suddenly riverside in their dreams."

After reading yesterday's comment by the nurse who gave CPR to the dying Colorado kayaker (see Fly Fishing Guide Tries to Save Kayaker), I had to wonder whether there wasn't a mass rush to secure notoriety for high-water rescues going on. But then reader Doug Haacke sent us this link to a story that we know we can trust: in the past week fly fishing guide Bob Krumm has helped at least two groups of anglers who were capsized floating Montana's Bighorn River.