Measuring Success

It's been suggested, repeatedly, that anglers go through a number of stages throughout their fishing lives. In the beginning all a new angler wants to do is catch a fish, any fish, it doesn't matter what kind or how big. The goal is to avoid being skunked!

As time passes you start to get the nag of this fly fishing thing. First you find a pretty reliable spot, learn how to fish it, with what fly/flies and a level of confidence begins to develop. The picture is becoming a bit more clear. You start to venture onto different waters and catch fish there too. Before long you're catching a good number of fish with few skunks.

This is where it starts to get a bit tricky. Enter the lust for big fish.

Somehow one day, you can't put a finger on it but it's definitely happened. Just a fish is not good enough anymore. You're a real damn angler and you deserve big fish, so much so that you begin to feel a certain disappointment with any fish that's not, in your mind at least, big enough. The desire to catch big fish is so great that there are times when a day with 20 small fish to hand is considered wasted because there were no big fish. Don't believe it? A one-time fishing companion declared he would never fish a particular creek again because the trout were too small. "If there's no chance at a 20 incher there's no point!"  In his mind, around 20, 10-14" trout to the net, were not worth his time. Go figure.

Then there comes the definitive classification of species worthiness. This depends a great degree on geographic location of the angler, but not always. This is one of the two stages of angler progression that can take hold for life. Speaking from personal experience, I grew up chasing largemouth bass and sunfish with a fly rod but even before I caught my first, trout have been my species of choice. Can't explain it, Don't fight it. Don't get me wrong though, I WILL fish for anything that pulls my string as long as it's legal.

The drive experienced during the natural angler progression can become so overwhelming at times that it's hard to think about anything else whether we're fishing or not. But hopefully, at some point, reason kicks in and we remember why we started fishing in the first place, to get outside and experience what being on the water has to offer.

As I get older, 60 is just months away, I find myself in that latter stage. Gone are the days of wearing the badge of catching "the" big fish. Don't misunderstand me, I still want to catch a big fish, and lots of them if possible, but numbers and size have ceased to be the point.

Also gone, are the days when I felt the need to be on the water when the line would freeze up in the guides because it makes me tougher than the guys who are sitting home tying flies. Neither do I feel the need to dodge tornadoes, hail or gale force winds just to say I was on the water when.

I've been out there and froze my ass off, nearly losing fingers to frost bite, dodged hail storms and cast in wind that would lift 2x4's off the ground, just to prove a point. Looking back, I'm not sure what that point was, nor am I sure I ever did. In a few of those cases I feel lucky to be alive and have all my phalanges still intact.

I first read about the natural progression of an angler in my mid-thirties. I think it was John Gierach's version of it. Young and full of spunk, I remember thinking at the time, "whatever."  More than a couple decades later, it's pretty clear, if you're not there yet, you're just not there yet and no amount of words will explain it. It's easier to see the point 25 years on.

Having started fishing at a really young age it could be said I had a head start on the natural progression of an angler, maybe not. By the time I was in my twenties the urge to only catch big fish had already set in and it wasn't until I read the analogy of an angler's progression that it occurred to me there may be a different way of looking at things. But of course by then my transition to fly fishing was well underway and the process had started all over again except this time it all had to be done with a fly rod. Even in  my mid-thirties I still figured there was a flaw in the progression. Now it makes perfect sense.

I know for a fact that I'm one lucky duck. I've been able to fish from the Florida keys to Washington State. In the process I've caught somewhere in the neighborhood of 75 species of warmwater, coldwater and saltwater fish. Some of them have been pretty spectacular specimens. So what's the point of all this? Bragging? No. There's really nothing to brag about. Stick with it long enough, pay attention, stay open-minded and any fool can catch a lot of fish.

The point is a while back I posted the picture above on a Facebook fishing page. I immediately got blasted with comments like, and this is my favorite of the bunch, "sunset pics = no fish looser!" Actually I did quite well that day but it wasn't the fish I wanted to remember, though I do. I've hit that ramp dozens of times, at all times of the day but I had never seen a sunset like that over my kayak. What I have seen many times, fishing from that ramp and other places, are largemouth bass with my fly hanging out of their jaw.

The picture isn't the best being from my phone camera but it does capture the scene I wanted to. Looking back I feel for those guys that couldn't just see the sunset for what it was.

Cardboard Johnny

There are times when you just can't help but believe you're privileged to have the best friends in the world, the kind of friends who will do whatever it takes to bring you along on a trip even when you can't make it. What?

It started a few years ago when Nick Haxhijaj met me in Woodland Park Colorado for a few days fishing the tailwaters of the South Platte River. In those few days we hit all the spots that everyone hits when they fish the South Platte; Cheeseman, Elevenmile, The Dream Stream and Deckers. We had a blast, caught more trout than we deserved and couldn't wait to get back. We've made it an annual trip since then.

We started planning this year's trip back in March.......I think. Everything went well until I made the move from Texas to Billings, MT. During the move I blew out my knee and word on the street was it would have to be replaced. For a time it looked like I wasn't going to be able make it to Colorado. Even though some of the locations we fish are easy to get to doing so on a freshly replaced knee joint would be problematic at best.

As it turns out the knee replacement is out and even though I did it on a bad limp I still made the trip to Colorado. I drove down the day before Nick, James, Engiell and Justin flew in from Texas. On the day they were arriving I went to the rental in Woodland Park to wait, sent a text asking how long before they arrived and got these back in reply.

You guessed it, I'm the pale one in the middle, kind of, that's Coardboard Johnny. Sitting on an airplane I never got to fly in and sitting in the middle of the SUV they all tooled around in for the week.




Yes I did make this trip but they had the cardboard version made up when my attendance was in question. Like I said a group of friends who will do whatever it takes to make sure no one is left out.


There's a particular lake we like to fish when we're there, unfortunately it's one of the places an old gimp would have a hard time getting into and an even harder time getting out of but at least Cardboard Johnny got to make it.

Thanks guys for bring me along. I had a blast and I wasn't even there. I did n't catch any fish but hey sometimes it just goes that way.

Thanks for bringing me along guys!!

Where Does Your Water Come From?

I'll admit it, I am a Facebook surfer. It's a quick and easy way to keep up with what friends are up to, find new fly patterns, link to fishing articles and even see what the latest shenanigans in Washington are. It's all fun and games as long as I don't get myself sucked into some of the pointless "discussions" over pointless subjects (political and otherwise) that most of us can't do anything about. But every once in a while a feed pops up that we can do something about.

Several weeks ago I saw an article about the Nestle Company renewing rights to continue pumping millions of gallons of water. the article and the ensuing discussion demonized Nestle. I was all worked up about it for a while then other matters stole my attention. Another article on the same subject popped up again this morning and it hit me, why are we pissed at Nestle? Nestle and other companies like it are simply filling a retail demand, a demand that we the people have created, the bottled water industry. Companies are in business to make money and as long as we keep feeding the beats that is the bottled water industry that industry is going to keep pumping billions of gallons of water into manufactured plastic bottles.

As anglers we may well have had a hand in creating the monster that is the bottled water industry, sure we're not the only demographic but every single serving bottle of water we consume is going to be replaced by a company like Nestle, Ozarka, Disani, Aquafina, and the list goes on. The big question here and the one that needs to be addressed by everyone who is upset about it is, what part did I have in building that multi-billion dollar industry?

I will admit that for years I bought bottled water by the flat to take on fishing trips because it was convenient. Stick a couple bottles in my waistpack and hit the river for the morning, drink those two and replenish at lunch with a couple more then slam a couple more on the drive home. That's 6 bottles a day. Over the course of a week of fishing I would consume as many as 42 bottles of water. That's 42 plastic bottles going either to the landfill or to be recycled. That's 42 bottles too many. Then my brain kicked in.

Instead of being pissed that bottled water companies are collectively pumping billions of gallons a year from sources that should be left alone and making billions of bottles that are either thrown out or recycled I decided to change my ways.

At first I saw it as an obstacle but really the solution is no more inconvenient than having to purchase and repurchase individual bottles and I don't have to worry whether the locale I'm in has recycling facilities. Believe it or not some municipalities still don't recycle! The solution is to simply plan ahead in a different way.

My choice is to carry refillable bottles and a re-purposed gallon milk jug full of tap water. The two 16 oz. bottles get filled at home or hotel along with the gallon jug. The refillable bottles go into my waistpack and get refilled from the gallon jug as needed through the day. This solution allows me to consume as much water as needed from municipal sources without using disposable bottles. There are also other solutions to the bottled water conundrum.

Friends I fish with have taken to carrying straws and bottles that filter water right out of a stream as needed. Companies like Sawyer and other companies have multiple solutions to suit multiple situations. This article gives some of the best choices for 2019. I mention the Sawyer systems specifically because some of my angling companions use them and have had great success.

These solutions to the bottled water conundrum are good not only on stream but also at work and at home. If you find your municiple water source less than agreeable, companies such as Lifestraw have solutions for that too. In bottle or tap filters remove bad tastes, odors and they have solutions that remove contaminants like bacteria and harmful chemicals. What's not to like about that? I use a Lifestraw around the house and enjoy not having to recycle those single serving bottles.

As we become more and more environmentally conscious it's time to start looking at where the real issues and solutions lie. I think if we start to think differently than we have over the last few decades we might start to find solutions to some of the questions that face our society are right at our own fingertips.

Tamarack Transducer Mount

This post is mainly for my brother Mark. It is an installation sequence for a transducer mount I made to go on his Lifetime Tamarack kayak. The transducer is the trolling motor mount transducer for the Humminbird Piranhamax fish finder.

I've been using the Piranhamax for a while and really like it as a fish/depth finder for my Tamarack Angler kayak. It's easy to operate and does what I want it to do without being too complicated or overpriced due to a bunch of extra features I just won't use. The Piranhamax comes with a transom mount transducer (XNT 9 28 T) which I'm sure works just fine but I couldn't figure out a way to mount it so it would be out of harm's way when loading, unloading and paddling over timber. Luckily Humminbird has an awesome transducer exchange program which I took advantage of to make the switch to the trolling motor mounted transducer (XTM 9 28 T) which is much smaller and snuggles nicely into the scupper recess on the bottom side of the kayak.

By using some 3/4", schedule 40 PVC and fittings I was able to build a mount for the XTM 9 28T. The mount makes it possible to remove the transducer if you ever decide to sell or exchange the kayak or you want to mount it to a trolling motor on a boat.

In the package you'll find the transducer mounted to the lower portion of the mounting bracket. I have pre-threaded the cable. There is also a PVC adapter fitting which I have tapered on the threaded end. This will be the "mounting nut" that secures the mount to the kayak.

There is an 8" piece of PVC (installation pipe) in the box also, this will only be used during the installation and if you want to remove the transducer and mount form the kayak in the future. Hang on to it.

Shove the pipe firmly into the slip end of the mounting nut.

***The next step I did not photograph.*****

There is a burr in the scupper hole that remains from the manufacturing process, this burr must be removed before proceeding with installation. The hole needs to be opened up enough to accommodate the 1" outside diameter of the threaded pipe fitting. One way to do this is by using a 1" paddle bit in a drill motor. Another is to use a course file to remove the thin burr which results from the upper and lower halves of the kayak being welded together during manufacturing.

Use the bare end of the installation pipe to check the hole before proceeding. Forcing the mounting bracket through a too small hole may damage the threads.

The mount is configured to be placed in the scupper hole that is located under your right butt cheek when you're sitting in the seat. With the kayak upside down thread the transducer cord through the "right cheek" scupper hole. ***Be careful not to kink the transducer cable!!***

When the cable is threaded completely through the scupper hole from the bottom of the kayak drop it into the scupper recess and push the threaded nipple through the hole where the upper and lower halves of the kayak were welded together during manufacturing.

Using moderate force push the mount and transducer into the recess until the shoulder of the fitting fits snugly into the scupper hole. The back of the transducer mount should rest on the surface of the scupper recess.


Turn the kayak over to finish installation.

If the mounting bracket is lose in the scupper hole hold it in place with a piece of Gorilla Tape.

With the kayak right side up thread the transducer cord through the installation pipe and mounting nut.

****Start the cord through the installation nut end as shown.****

Thread the entire cord through the mounting nut and installation pipe.

Slide the mounting nut onto the threaded nipple and start the threads.

Snug up the nut securely onto the threaded nipple while applying downward pressure on the installation pipe.
**Do not try to over-tighten.**

When the mounting nut is secure continue to twist the installation pipe as if tightening the nut while pulling upward on the pipe.
**Do not lean over the pipe like I did, you could put an eye out KID!!**

Pull the installation pipe off the transducer cord.

I mounted the head unit to the gunwale just behind the factory rod mount. Coil the excess transducer cable so that it can lie under the seat mount then run the cable out to the head unit so it has a small amount of slack behind the head unit for swiveling.

Run the power cord back under the seat mount coil it up with the transducer cable. I used a twist tie to hold the cables in place while taping them to the gunwale.

Tear off narrow pieces of the supplied Gorilla Tape and tack the cables in place between the head unit and the seat.

Use sections of Gorilla Tape to cover the cords for protection against damage. I applied 3 layers of tape.

With the cords secured to the gunwale and the excess coiled under the seat, secure them in place with a Velcro strap.

Hook up the battery, put the seat back on and go get some fishies!!!

Trespass Slider

Here's a little video of the Trespass slider. More video coming soon....well as soon as the weather cooperates anyway.

Crab Cakes and Redfish

In March of 2017 I had the opportunity to fish with Captain Jeff Johnson of Fly Fish Rockport while working on a series of articles for Southwest Fly Fishing magazine. We had a great time chasing redfish around the flats accessible from Rockport, TX. Fishing with Johnson and Captain Gibson McGuire was like a two week crash course in chasing redfish from a skiff. I was so green at it when we started, that the first time I stepped onto the casting deck I missed the takes of two different redfish, one was a monster, because I had no idea how to get a hook set. "Just keep stripping and let them set the hook! Don't trout set!"

Tan Crab Cake

In addition to a hard learned lesson on hooksets, Johnson showed me how to tie his staple fly for the Texas flats. It's a fairly simple to tie creation he calls J J's Crab Cake. I can't give the details here but you can find them in the September/October 2018 issue of Southwest Fly Fishing along with a photo on the cover.

At the time I didn't think that much about the fly, mostly because living in far North Texas I don't do all that much coastal fishing. But I did and still do recognize the value of the Crab Cake due to the ease of tying, that's why I submitted it to the magazine for publication with Johnson's blessing of course. In the process of tying a really nice copy there were those inevitable copies that are just fine for fishing but not quite ready for prime time publication. Actually I ended up with nearly two dozen of them lying around.

Nick Haxhijaj with the second fish to be landed for the day.

A few months ago I sent a couple to my good friend Nick Haxhijaj of Nick Fly Fishing fame. Not long after that he called me as hew was getting off the water "Man I couldn't believe it, that crab fly is amazing!" He went on to describe how it came through for him on a day when the reds were so picky they just didn't want to hit anything else. "I cast and cast and cast. they would look at the EP Mullet and nothing. I put on the [Crab Cake] and bam! First fish I cast it to took it with no hesitation."

A beat up, tough survivor sheepshead that took a
Crab Cake in the color combo Back Country.

The same thing happened when I met Nick, James Dionizio and Andrew Vrana to chase redfish this past Tuesday. We hadn't even made it out to our eventual destination before Nick was hooked into a redfish on the Crab Cake. It was still dark enough I couldn't get photos without a flash. And so it went through the day. The Crab Cake ended up catching 6 redfish and 2 sheepshead for Nick and me by the time we were done.



We all ended the day with fish in the boat before the wind kicked up in the afternoon. I would love to give a blow by blow but this story is destined for print in Southwest Fly Fishing magazine. But here are a few more pics, including the last fish of the day which ate, you guessed it, a Crab Cake.

James Dionizio with a hard won redfish.

Andrew Vrana sporting the smile of a successful angler.

Yours truly with the last fish of the day.
Photo by: Andrew Vrana

In case you're wondering there will be a webpage to but this pattern in the very near future.

Thanks to Nick, James and Andrew for a great day on the water! We may have to do it again, wink, wink. And thanks to Captain Johnson for sharing the Crab Cake, it's a doozy!!

Second Shifter

The Second Shifter is a stream version of the stillwater Shape Shifter fly. I found the Shape Shifter to be effective in streams but sorely in need of refinement due to the requirements for smaller size and added flotation. On my first time out with the final incarnation of the Second Shifter I landed 4 rainbows ranging from 14” to 18” during a midge emergence on the Dream Stream section of the South Platte River in central Colorado. This pattern has since proved extremely effective along the entire South Platte River when chironomidae are present in good numbers and a good trailing searcher fly between active hatches.

Guadalupe River rainbow that fell for a purple Second Shifter

During a recent outing on the Guadalupe River downstream of Canyon Lake in central Texas the Second Shifter proved the fly of the day out performing a number of other proven patterns.

HISTORY

The history of the Second Shifter closely follows that of the Shape Shifter which was developed on the prairie lakes outside of Cody, WY over the course of 3 seasons. After seeing how effective the Shape Shifter was on stillwater I tried it repeatedly in the rivers of Wyoming and Colorado. When I could keep afloat it proved very effective but the floss “breathers” on the Shape Shifter just aren’t capable of shedding water well enough to make it feasible in moving water.

A South Platte River Rainbow taken on a purple Second Shifter.

Early incarnations of the Second Shifter tweaked more than the breathers as I searched for triggers that would make stream trout rise to the fly. Flashy tail materials induced rises but also resulted in a refusal rate of about 60% in bright daylight conditions. In low-light conditions the acceptance rate was well above 90%, an adequate rate of acceptance for any fly fished over trout conditioned to being hooked and released.

A close examination of the fly in a glass of water answered the question of why bright conditions caused such high refusal rates. When viewed from below, in water, the marabou abdomen emits a soft “glow” that mimics the gasses trapped in the husk of an emerging chironomid. Bright, flashy tail materials caused an even more intense glow in bright conditions making the fly appear 1-2 sized longer with a brilliant “flash” at the tail. In low-light conditions the tail more closely resembles the tail breathers on an emerging chironomid. Replacing the tail with a “snub” of marabou more closely resembles the tail of a natural in both conditions.

An added bonus to the water examination of early incarnations of the Second Shifter also revealed a lack of “glow” around the thorax which is one of the main reasons for the success of Shape Shifter. This was quickly remedied by replacing the marabou thorax with UV dubbing. The UV dubbing comes in a wide range of colors making it easy to match any shade of chironomidae.

FISHING

Fishing the Second Shifter is pretty straightforward as dry fly fishing goes. For the most part it’s a simple matter of matching the size and shade of the dominant chironomidae on a given river. The difficult part is tying them down to the ultra-small, 28-32 size chironomidae that appear on a good number of rivers. Beyond size 26 the thorax proportions become visually exaggerated. As yet I haven’t been able to test whether this is a fatal flaw in the smallest versions but hope to soon.

This Dream Stream cutthroat took a black Second Shifter on a cool afternoon.

I generally fish this fly on the surface of slick pools and runs where I can keep an eye on the bright foam breathers, though there is a fairly short range of visibility with the smaller sizes. In that case I fish it as a trailer to a slightly larger more visible dry on a 16”to 24” tippet attached to the bend of the point fly.

There are multiple benefits to fishing the Second Shifter as a trailing fly even when it is visible. The first is the ability to show the fish another fly giving them a choice. My preferred point is a size 16 or 18 Royal Trude, a pattern that just looks like fish food. The second benefit is the slightly large fly alerts trout to the presence of possible food, though they may not take the point it gets them focused on the surface in the vicinity of the smaller fly. The third benefit is to use the point fly as a focal point for the angler. It is often possible to pinpoint the Second Shifter once the point fly has been located. However, even if the smaller fly can’t be located it gives the angler a range of surface area to focus on in search of indication of takes or interested trout.

This pattern does benefit from the application of floatant but it MUST be a product that is compatible with the marabou and foam. My preferred floatant for this and all of the J Wood marabou bodied patterns is Loon Lochsa. Lochsa is also compatible with CDC making it a good addition to the vest of any dry fly angler.

The Second Shifter is also very effective fished “wet” just below the surface. By omitting the floatant and allowing it to just penetrate the meniscus the foam brings the fly to the surface but the surface tension holds it submerged just like the natural insects. There are times when this is a more effective method than keeping the fly on top. When fished through slightly rough currents it’s extremely difficult to see the fly or keep it on top. One fine afternoon while trying to do just that I discovered a pod of hungry rainbows at the tailout of a riffle that found the fly quite acceptable subsurface. It turned out to be one of those times where I caught trout until the feed finally gave out, 14 trout to be exact. So far that’s been the most I’ve taken in a single location with the Second Shifter. I’ll keep trying whenever the opportunity arises but for now, not too shabby.

Follow are the tying instructions for this killer fly for those of you who want to tie your own. For fly shops, guides, etc, this fly can be purchased through the CATCH Fly Fishing dealer program.