Innholdsfortegnelse for October/November/December 2024 i Fly Fisherman

IF YOU HAVE ACHIEVED EVEN A LEVEL OF MEDIOCRITY IN THE SPORT OF FLY FISHING, YOU’VE LIKELY HAD THE HELP OF A MENTOR TO GET YOU THERE. AND EVERY REAL EXPERT I HAVE WORKED WITH IN THIS SPORT OVER THE LAST 30 YEARS HAS ACKNOWLEDGED THE INFLUENCE OF A GUIDING HAND. THE SUBTLETIES AND NUANCES OF THIS ALL-ENCOMPASSING SPORT—FROM FLY TYING AND CASTING TO SPOTTING FISH, ACHIEVING A ZEN-LIKE CONNECTION WITH YOUR TIPPET, “READING” TIDAL FORCES AND PREDICTING FISH MOVEMENT, AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN—REQUIRE YEARS OF ENCOURAGEMENT AND COACHING FROM A MENTOR. IF YOU ARE READING THIS MAGAZINE IT’S LIKELY YOU HAVE HAD A MENTOR, AND HOPEFULLY YOU HAVE BEEN A MENTOR ALSO. In the T. Edward Nickens story “Flip’s World” (page 28) we learn that one of the most…

IN THE LAST 12 MONTHS, FOUR DAMS HAVE BEEN REMOVED ON THE KLAMATH RIVER, RECONNECTING OVER 300 MILES OF HISTORICAL SALMON AND STEELHEAD HABITAT. TO FISHERMEN, THIS SOUNDS APPEALING, BUT WHERE ARE ALL THE NEW FISH GOING TO COME FROM TO REPOPULATE THAT AREA AND HELP RECOVER THIS LEGACY FISHERY? BY NOW, WE ALL KNOW HATCHERIES AREN’T THE ANSWER FOR RECOVERING NATIVE FISH STOCKS. WE NEED WILD FISH TO DO THAT, AND WILD FISH NEED HABITAT. First off, I will tell you where the wild fish are not going to come from. They aren’t going to come from the Klamath River. It sounds counterintuitive, but reality is that very few fish actually spawn in the main stem of the Klamath River. The Klamath River itself is just a highway to…

On Saturday August 17 more than 100 volunteers gathered at the Delaware River Club in Starlight, Pennsylvania to join the Eighth Annual Get Trashed Delaware River cleanup. They stopped at the shop in the morning to fill up on water, trash bags, and snacks, and then moved to the West Branch on foot and by boat to pick up litter and debris in the river channel and at boat ramps. Those who drifted in boats received free shuttles provided by Oars of Hancock. The volunteers filled an entire dumpster and two trailers full of trash. The most common trash item was likely tires—more than 60 were removed from the river. The event, as usual, was organized by Chris Calabrese of Housefly Fishing in Hawley, Pennsylvania; Jeff White of the Delaware…

THE PONDEROSA PINES THAT LINED THE RIVERBANKS AND CLIMBED ALONG THE HILLSIDES RELEASED THEIR POLLEN IN A YELLOW HAZE AS THE SUN BEGAN DESCENDING BEHIND THE RIDGELINE AT OUR FIRST CAMPSITE. STREAKS OF SUNLIGHT ILLUMINATED THE FLICKERING CADDIS AND PALE MORNING DUNS LIKE SWIRLING BALLS OF LIGHT. A HANDFUL OF PMDS RODE THE CURRENTS, DRYING THEIR WINGS IN THE WANING LIGHT, OBLIVIOUS TO THEIR INEVITABLE DEMISE IN THE JAWS OF THE SMITH’S WILD TROUT. At least that’s what I envisioned in my mind, and true to form while fly fishing somewhere new, the river chose to surprise and intrigue me. The duns remained untouched through prime feeding lanes, a tease for this mayfly-obsessed angler. Our guide slowly backrowed and slid the raft ashore onto a pebble beach. Three young gear…

GO HAVE FUN I always enjoy George Daniel’s insights whether he is speaking, teaching, or writing. His article “The Devil Fishes Mono” in the Aug.-Sep. 2024 issue was honest and thorough. “If you act legally and without doing harm to the resource, go have fun.” That pretty much sums it up for me as well. BOB BUDDHOLLIDAYSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA BAMBOO BAIT Regarding Ross Purnell’s editorial “Is It Really Fly Fishing?” in the Aug.-Sep. 2024 issue: My take is, that if you’re trying to fool a fish into biting something that was tied on a fly-tying vise, you’re fishing with a fly. What you call it is up to you. If you’re not casting a fly line, you’re not fly casting. What you call it is up to you. To muddy the…

THEY TOOK ME TO A PLACE THEY NAMED “THE GAP,” WHICH IS WHAT THEY STILL CALL IT, 50 YEARS OR BETTER SINCE THEY FIRST SAW IT ON A SET OF AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHS. IT WAS WHERE THE EVERGLADES BACKCOUNTRY OPENED UP TO THEM LIKE AN ANCIENT SCROLL. THEY STILL HAD TO TRANSLATE ITS HIERATIC SCRIPT AND CALLIGRAPHY OF MANGROVES AND OYSTER-ARMORED CREEK MOUTHS, WHICH WOULD BE A YEARS-LONG UNDERTAKING. BUT THAT WOULD BE THE EASY PART. THE FUN PART. FIGURING OUT THE SECRET PASSAGEWAY WAS THE GREATER CHALLENGE, AND ONE THAT REQUIRED A CURIOUS CONVERGENCE OF FACTORS: FLIP PALLOT WAS GROWING INCREASINGLY AGITATED BY THE LACK OF SOLITUDE TO BE FOUND IN THE KEYS, AND BISCAYNE BAY, AND PARTS OF FLORIDA BAY. AND ROB FORDYCE HAPPENED TO BE DATING A WOMAN…

Tom Ossoff and his father—both from Oil City, Pennsylvania—have been doing DIY summer fishing trips together for 24 consecutive years. Their dedication paid off with the fish of a lifetime. They used to camp on their annual sojourns, but now his father is 80 years old and is battling cancer, so this year they stayed at the Rainbow Drive Resort in Cotter, Arkansas, for 16 consecutive days. Tom fished the White River with the elder Ossoff during the day, and often drifted by himself at night in his River Rat raft looking for “the big one.” In August 2024 he caught several nighttime browns while fishing solo and swimming a mouse pattern at the surface. The biggest was 33 inches long with a 24-inch girth, and it was carefully released…

SOME ANGLERS PUT A LOT OF TIME AND THOUGHT INTO FINDING THE RIGHT FLY PATTERNS TO FILL THEIR FLY BOXES. I WAS ONE OF THOSE ANGLERS. I SPENT HOURS LOOKING THROUGH BOOKS AND SEARCHING THE INTERNET FOR INSPIRATION ON NEW FLY DESIGNS TO USE ON MY NEXT FISHING OUTING. BUT THROUGH MY YEARS OF FISHING, TRAVEL, AND EXPERIENCES, I HAVE SIMPLIFIED THE FLIES THAT I REGULARLY USE. I LIKE TO TAKE THE APPROACH OF USING NYMPH PATTERNS THAT SHOULD WORK 365 DAYS A YEAR INSTEAD OF SPECIFIC PATTERNS FOR A CERTAIN DAY, RIVER, OR HATCH. A SIMPLE FLY SELECTION HAS HELPED ME BUILD CONFIDENCE ON ANY TROUT WATERSHED I COME ACROSS. Of course, there are times when fish can be selective and key in on specific bugs. The problem is…

SALTWATER FLATS FISHING HAS COME A LONG WAY IN THE PAST FEW DECADES, BUT ONE OF THE MOST PECULIAR THINGS ABOUT THAT FACT IS THAT IT SEEMS THE FLIES, FOR THE MOST PART, HAVE REMAINED STRAIGHT OUTTA THE 70S. FLY LISTS FOR DESTINATION TRIPS STILL FEATURE OLD-TIMEY FLIES LIKE THE GOTCHA, MERKIN, AND COCKROACH AT THE TOP OF THE PILE, AND WHILE THERE IS NO DENYING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THESE FLIES, I’M ALWAYS ON THE LOOKOUT FOR SOMETHING NEW AND EXCITING WHEN TYING FOR A TRIP. DREW CHICONE IS THE FIRST GUY I CALL. Chicone lives in Fort Myers, Florida and has taken saltwater fly tying to an entirely new level. Approaching the varied life forms found on a saltwater flat like a trout angler might approach an insect hatch,…

SMOKE POURED FROM THE TAILPIPE OF OUR ’78 POWDER-BLUE MALIBU. AT AGE SEVEN I STOOD ENVIOUS IN OUR DRIVEWAY AS MY FATHER DROVE OFF FOR HIS ANNUAL FLY-FISHING TRIP TO THE BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS OF VIRGINIA WITH HIS FRIENDS. SOME WERE PROFESSORS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WEST VIRGINIA, WHERE MY FATHER MATRICULATED. OTHERS WERE RESPECTABLE BUSINESSMEN, AND MORE. I WAS TOLD I WASN’T OLD ENOUGH TO JOIN THEIR TRIBE. YET. I did join for a single trip to Bolar Run, a tributary of the upper Jackson River, when I was 20, but many of the old tribe were in heaven by then, likely floating among memories of the wild trout of Virginia’s finest streams, like the Bullpasture, Back Creek, Buffalo Creek, and others that thread this bucolic part of the…

ROSS REELS ANIMAS NATIVE SERIES Following the stunning success of its Colorado Native Series, which used the Ross Colorado reel as a platform to raise more than $100,000 for Colorado native cutts, Ross Reels is expanding its Native Series to the national level with golden trout-, rainbow trout-, and Eastern brook trout-themed Animas reels. The three new limited-edition 4/5-size Animas reel designs will retail for $495, with a portion of each sale going to Trout Unlimited’s Embrace A Stream (EAS) Grant Program. The are 495 of each design, and each reel carries a unique number. Since its inception, EAS has already funded more than 1,150 projects with $4.9 million in grants. Local Trout Unlimited chapters that are working on native rainbow trout, native golden trout, and native brook trout projects…

Back to back champions . . . that has a nice ring to it. The USA Fly Fishing Youth team for the second year in a row has won gold. This year it was at the FIPS-Mouche World Youth Fly Fishing Championship in the Czech Republic. In 2023 it was the same event in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The 2024 team consisted of Kage Kossler, Max Logan, Justin Hardie, Landon Cook, Lawson Braun, and Blake Hall. Four of those team members were also part of the 2023 team. In addition to the overall team finish, Kossler, Logan, and Hardie took individual gold, silver, and bronze medals (respectively) in the championship event. The top ten teams were USA, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Finland, France, South Africa, Spain, Slovenia, and Ireland in…

MOUNT OWEN STOICALLY PUSHES UP THROUGH THE FOG AND CLOUDS OF THE TASMAN DISTRICT OF THE SOUTH ISLAND OF NEW ZEALAND, AND AT 1,875 METERS (6,150 FEET) ABOVE SEA LEVEL IS THE HIGHEST PEAK IN KAHURANGI NATIONAL PARK. ITS SPECTACULAR MARBLE KARST GEOLOGY MAKES IT A MAJOR DRAW FOR HIKERS, PHOTOGRAPHERS, CAVERS, AND SCIENTISTS OF ALL KINDS. THE MARBLE’S SURFACE IS INCREDIBLY FEATURED BY EROSION, WITH DEEP SLOTS AND TRENCHES—SOME OF THEM PAPER-THIN FISSURES, OTHERS AS WIDE AS HALLWAYS. WHERE ONE SLOT ENDS, ANOTHER BEGINS NEARBY AS THOUGH SOME GIANT DRAGON HAD RAKED AND CUT THE STONE. It’s an otherworldly setting, so much so that scenes from The Lord of the Rings were filmed here. When Gandalf fell into the abyss with the Balrog, and the rest of the fellowship…