Tag: wind

The Wind Deflection Flop Cast

"Early in my guide days I discovered a brutal phenomenon. We'd float a piece of water that flowed south to north. On windy days, usually out of the NW, the wind would hammer the valley and the tall spruce on the east side of the river would deflect the wind, eddying it west, often pushing me across the river. It's counter-intuitive because as you prepare to...

Fly Fishing in the Wind

Wind is the fly angler's most interminable foe. A strong gust can blow bugs off the water, prematurely ending an otherwise graceful hatch. But that doesn't mean the fishing should stop. That's why this article, released last week over at Meat Eater, is a must-read as we head into the blustery spring fishing season. Read through all of Ryan Sparks' tips on...

Tierra del Fuego - Río Grande Fly Fishing

"The Rio Grande is renown for its massive populations of very big sea - run brown trout. In fact, some consider it to be the world’s best sea run brown trout fishery on earth. Two years ago, The Fly Shop invited me to film Scottish angler Gordon Armstrong as he fished the Argentinian stretch of the Rio Grande at the Estancia Maria Behety Lodge. Though...

Saltwater Tip: Dealing With Wind

"I'm out here fishing some baby tarpon and I want to share with you a really important tip that applies to any time you're in a flats boat. You can probably hear on the mic we are constantly battling wind and that's going to be one of the one of the problems that you're always going to deal with.  So what I want to teach you is a back cast: learning a...

Is There a Secret to Untangling Knots?

Have a question you want answered? Email it to us at [email protected]. Question: You’ve written several pieces about which knots to use for terminal tackle, but nothing about the other kind of common fly-fishing knots: the unintended ones you create because of wind or bad casting. A guide once told me that about half his job was untangling other...

Dealing With Wind

Have a question you want answered? Email it to us at [email protected]. Question: I’m heading to Alaska to fish for silvers, and I’ve been warned that it’s almost always windy on the rivers we’ll be fishing. Can you offer some tips for casting into the wind? via email Answer: I spent a summer guiding on the Copper River, which drains into Lake...

"I Can See Clearly Now"

For most of my fish-addled life, a winter trip to Florida was a sanity-saving jump into summer for a week or so.  I made the jump to Florida the second week of March this year, but I landed into another version of winter. A cold north wind rattled the palmettos around the vacation condo, and I wore jeans, hiking boots and a down vest whenever I ventured...

Fly Fishing Jazz: The Irish Golf Lesson

A FEW WEEKS AGO, I had the great honor of playing 18 holes at Enniscrone Golf Club, in County Sligo, Ireland, with club manager Pat Sweeney. Pat is a soft-spoken gentleman of the best Irish kind, which was a good thing, because Enniscrone is a severe, unforgiving test for the American golfer—tall dunes (under which the ancient Irish buried Viking...

Fly Fishing Jazz: Playing the Breeze

Wind happens.  And for the fly angler, “wind” is about as good a swear word as any other that fits in front of “happens.” When my buddy Tim Romano and I row his boat down the Colorado River, he not only refuses to say that word himself (he just says “W”), he get’s downright angry—like, threaten to kick me overboard angry—if I say...