Fly Fishing at Night – Part 3 In Rivers

This third and latest article in a series on fly-fishing  at night concentrates on fishing in rivers.

While the rewards for fishing at night can be spectacular in terms of bigger fish, the potential dangers of fishing in rivers in the dark of night do require a good deal more preparation than is usual for daylight fishing.

“…I guess summing up the difficulties; when night fishing you become acutely aware of how much daytime fly-fishing relies on your seeing what is going on.

Ok, so it looks like night fishing is confined to a bunch of nutter fishermen, bumbling about in the dark, hoping they are doing the right thing, dreaming of a big fish, while their nose freezes off. Well, call me a nutter. But I am a nutter who enjoys catching bigger fish than are normally found during the day.

However here is one thing that is absolutely essential when contemplating fishing a river at night - know the water…”

Here we go again – 5 new quotes up now

Once more we delve into the depths of fishing literature to hook out pearls of wisdom about fishing. Numbers 931 – 935 are waiting your perusal.

And again I have two picks from today’s selection:

first from the grand-dame of fly fishing, Joan Salvato Wulff in ‘Thoughts of a Fly Fisherman – Or Two’

“The woods and waters of the outdoors became my church, a place where I could examine my thoughts and feel I was connected to all living things. This feeling is especially strong when, with rod in hand, I am wading a river for trout or salmon...where everything makes sense, where there is nothing but truth. There will be no disenchantment with this church.”

And some keen perception from Paul Quinnett in ‘Pavlov's Trout’

“The purpose of a fishing trip is not to catch fish. Bringing home meat is important, but it is more symbolic than necessary, as the new morality of catch-and-release has shown. What is important is what happens between people on fishing trips, especially between uncles and nephews, fathers and sons, old men in general and young boys in particular, it is one of the few times men are together without women.”

Catch Magazine – March issue out now

The new issue maintains the excellent standard of this magazine. New Zealanders will love the great shots of fly-fishing in the rain – we get the occasional bouts of precipitation here, you may have noticed. But, rain is the price we pay for green scenery, and clear, clean water.

You know how good this fly fishing on-line magazine is – just go and read it!

New batch of 5 fishing quotes and sayings

I have just up-loaded a new batch of fishy quotes and sayings for your undoubted pleasure and enlightenment – Numbers 926 – 930 (getting closer to the big 1000).

My pick of the batch (num 928):

“They argue about level lines and tapered, about heavy tackle or light, about whether you ought to fish upstream or down, about a single built rod or a double built. They get nasty the minute anybody says anything about balance -- that's like dynamite to 'em -- and I've seen 'em almost start a fight over whether Henshall designs were as good as Miss Austen's. After I've listened to them awhile I think they all ought to get a cane pole and garden hackle* and go down to the stream someday the way they did when they were kids. It might do 'em some good, and I bet they'd have a swell time, too"
"You're right, George, " I said. "All the tackle in the world won't give a fisherman a good time if he's not built for it.”
- Edwin L. Peterson No Life So Happy

*garden hackle – a worm

Actually, the ‘pick of the bunch’ from the quotes was a toss-up – the other one was (927):

“The wilderness reminds me that everything I do has a consequence.” – Sum Won

What makes a fly pattern “new”?

“Lets be honest, here. Very few patterns are truly new, by which I mean they are not modifications or versions of a previous pattern”

Midcurrent has a short article on the decision making process that goes into deciding whether a “new” fly is really new enough to be included into the Orvis range of flies.

New fishing quotes and sayings

Five new fishing quotes and sayings are up now – numbers 921 – 925.

My pick of this group, number 922…

“During the past two decades we have seen an explosion in the popularity of fly fishing. Thousands of new fly fishermen, and women, have embraced the sport and taken up fly tying as a part of it. During this same period we have had a proliferation in new tying materials; and new magazines abound espousing and rehashing the many nuances of tying. After fifty plus years of fly tying, I am always amused by tyers who purport to have discovered a brand new technique. Truth to be told there seems to be little that is truly new in the fly tying world. Claims of hot new patterns consistently appear that are nothing more than recycled variations or modifications using new materials on an old, forgotten fly.”

- Ian Moutter ‘Tying Flies The Paraloop Way’

Big bright flashy flies for brown trout?

To a South Island of New Zealand trained brown-trout fisherman, the answer to the question, what fly should I use to tempt the fish, was easy – a small brown nymph. If that did not work, toss out a smaller, browner nymph.

Use a big bright glistening fly? No never – scare the fish off would have been the answer, and to many it still is the answer. But for me that answer took a tumble on a fishing trip to Ireland last August (2009).

I was visiting my fishing-mad youngest son Eddie in London, where he now lives. Eddie decided it was a good idea for Dad and Lad to visit Ireland for a few days fishing. Neither of us had fished there. Off we went.

   Here is what happened.

Nice Article on Fishing the Matuara River, South Island, NZ

The always excellent Midcurrent fly-fishing site led me to a good article on fishing one of the best brown trout rivers in the world, in the New York Times.

Just one niggle, one little sentence in the article that makes a big mistake. It adds the instruction that when crossing farmland, “… do not fail to close a gate, lest livestock get out.” Wrong!

Farmers are the same world-over, and the instruction should be “leave gates as you find them, close them if you open them, leave them open if they were open.”

Oh my aching back, no more

When wrote my post yesterday about my new hip pack which has replaced my fly-fishing vest to help keep back pain under control, I forgot to mention something else my bad back Doctor, (the back is bad, definitely not the Doctor), advised.

He recommends, and remember he is a nutter fisherman like us, that when you are walking to and from the river or or stream, or from pool to pool, or wading in less than waist deep water, unclip your wader straps, and roll the waders down to your wader belt.

He advises that this is especially important if you use neoprene chest waders as the weight can really exert some nasty force on you neck and back muscles and joints. Neoprene waders, wet from wading, even if you are not much more than thigh deep, hold a lot of water and get heavy, bad news for your back as that weight is pulling down  on the wader’s straps when you leave the water.

But he also advises unhooking light chest-waders as well as most waders do restrict bending motion and it is this lack of full motion that leads to back pain.

Got to be worth a go – especially if you are a lot younger than this old fart, and before real damage is done.

Goodbye Fly Fishing Vest, Hello Hip Pack

I would have no real idea how many vests I have owned, but given they only last a year or two the flogging I give them, in 50  and more years of fishing I have gone through more than a few.

I have had a problem with vests since way back when I played as a front-row forward in a Rugby team. First I stuffed the vest with way too much gear, then slung this heavy load onto my shoulders. By the end of a solid days fishing my back was in lock-down mode and very painful. The problem got worse of course, all physical issues do as you get older.

Finally crisis point was reached and I had to endure a needle into one of my discs to shrink it. After the treatment the Doctor advised me to ditch the vest and get a hip or lumber pack.

So I tried a few. Most of the packs designed to be worn around the waist had a very big problem, for me and people like me. Not to put too fine a point on it those of us a tad past slim and trim and whose chest has slipped a bit.

For me packs that were deep just got the front edge pushed out, the bottom edge in, so it was impossible to to see into the pack to retrieve what I needed. Not goodness.

Then I got a chance to try the Simms ‘Headwaters’ Chest/Hip pack. Tried it – liked it – bought it.

At first sight it does not look to have enough space to fit a vest-full of gear, but it does – did not have to leave any of my needs or wants out. I normally have three to four medium-sized fly boxes, around four spools of leader, floatants, sinker gel, camera, split shot, no cell-phone, and a bunch of other stuff.

The pack rides easily on my hip, or around my waist under my gut. The pack can be used as a chest pack, but I have not needed or wanted to, so far. I have had no problem seeing and finding what I was looking for in the pack, once I got used to where I had stacked everything – but that takes time, even with a new vest.

There are a couple of things a pack of this size cannot allow for. There is no room for extra clothing or rain gear. Not too much of a problem in our Summer, but in Winter it could be a problem. But I guess if I was looking at a full day on the water I would throw on a very small, light day pack to hold extra clothes, and food and drink.

I find it much easier to walk in, and very much better when crossing or wading rivers, my balance is much better.

Best of all, no more back pain – wonderful!

5 More fishing quotes and sayings up now

Numbers 916 –920 are ready for your perusal as usual.

My pick, and a bit controversial, certainly my comments about it may be…

“The reason that all other kinds of fishermen look up to the dry-fly purist is not that he catches more fish than they; on the contrary, it is because he catches fewer. His is the sport in its purist, most impractical, least material form.”
- William Humphrey

My comment:

What a load of utter rubbish - the only anglers who look up to dry-fly purists are other purists and dogmatists. Most aspects of human endeavour have collected their share of  dogma and cant. Trout fishing is one sport where a short-sighted, blinkered view of how things could and should be done is rife amongst a self appointed ‘elite’.

There are some in this sport of ours, thankfully only a very few, that consider it some kind of duty to mystify and ritualise trout fishing. Most of these seem to be in the purist dry-fly fishing fraternity. They try to imbue trout fishing with an almost religious mysticism, complete with rituals and conventions. These ‘purists’ attach themselves to one form of trout fishing and will brook no deviation from this ‘pure’ practice. Bah and humbug!

If you are new to fly fishing and come across a purist trying to convert you to the 'one way', run one way. Away!

Five new fishing quotes and sayings up now

Five new fishing quotations and saying are up now. Numbers 911 – 915. Enjoy.

My pick of the litter:

“Of course fly-fishing is not proof against craziness. In fact, spending what can easily become serious money and endless time to catch fish you mostly release would by most measures prove craziness.”
- James R Babb - River Music

Comment
You just have to believe that moving around for hours in cold water up to and over your testimonials is not a persuasive definition of sanity - Bish

Do 10 foot light line-weight fly-rods make you a better angler?

As an ex-tackle-store owner I guess I got to handle and trial way more fly-fishing rods than most. That included all that was touted to be the latest and greatest. Fact was that handling so many rods lead to the perhaps jaded view that all new rods were merely slight advances on a rod building theme, and big advances in the persuasive power of the rod-makers advertising and marketing people.

Maybe this jaded outlook was the reason for the fact that the rod I used most was a 9' Sage RPL+ 6 weight that I bought around 20 years ago.

So when I was offered a chance to trial a new 10 foot single-handed 6 weight rod, I accepted, but my marketing hype and BS detection systems were on high alert.

Here is what happened.

Catch Magazine #9 is out now

These guys just keep on getting better – pure fly fishing bliss. Highlights this issue must be the two videos on fly fishing for mean gleaming golden Dorado in the jungles of South America – guaranteed to stir the blood.

As usual the photography is simply stunning – enough talk – just go get it!