I asked fourteen EXCEPTIONAL spey guides from the most infamous West Coast steelhead rivers the same questions. Every guide was given the task of answering sixteen questions, some with a specific river in mind and others just as a general guide of steelhead tactics.
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Episode 44 – Steve Szeliga
This week I got to virtually sit down with Steve Szeliga. We got to talking about learning to fish, floating, our mutual intricate knowledge of deep sea fishing, tying in hand, dading, and nap based time telling.
“Circling Up” in Spey Casting
If we have an anchor that is pointing towards our target and provides the proper amount of water tension (e.g. our leader or sink tip laying flat on the water), it guarantees we have our hands in an acceptable position to make a forward cast …
Salmonflies: Swinging the Hatch
The memory of a Henry’s Fork rainbow cartwheeling multiple times over a waking muddler in the glow of a May sunset still has me grinning years later. And I can almost feel the warmth of the June sun as I recall working a flooded willow bank. The plump brown trout that I eventually landed nearly pulled my 3-wt. trout spey out of my hand on the grab.
Episode 43- Simon Gawesworth
This week I got the chance to speak with Simon Gawesworth. We had a great time discussing growing up along side a fly fishing school, traditional rods in the UK, working with Rio, the trials and tribulations of moving, the joy of teaching, and how he got started fishing with Goldfish.
Guide Gossip Question 4:
I have always been a two-knot kind of gal – a turle and a clinch. That is until I tried a non-slip mono, or an Orvis knot, or a riffle hitch … The list goes on. I gauge the knot based on the style of hook and go with the strongest knot I know. With that said, all of these expert answers below gets me thinking …
Scandi-Style Trout Tube
Recently shifting a lot of my tying focus to Trout Spey, I realized that I still had an abundance of fur in the 2.5-3-inch range; perfect for the trout flies I desired. And the Scandi-style was the perfect recipe for a decent-sized, lightly weighted fly that would still cast easily on any light trout rod and line. Bingo.
The P.T. Slow Swing
So simple and so effective, I cannot say how often it‘s saved my day, from my rivers at home, to along the classic rivers in England, where Frank Sawyer invented and published it in his book Nymphs and the Trout in 1958, to the wide rivers in Montana, like the Bighorn and many more.
Book: Matching Baitfish by Kevin Feenstra
Matching Baitfish is so much more than what the title lets on. In fact, I’m not sure any title could do justice to what lies within: incredible photography, an education on baitfish you won’t find in a lifetime elsewhere, innovative techniques and tactics for the swung fly angler, and one of a kind fly patterns.
Spey Casting in A Nutshell
I’m a firm believer in simplifying processes. First understand what we are trying to accomplish in simple terms and then break it down into steps that will get us there. Learning to spey cast is no different. While you certainly can make it as complicated as you want, for me, keeping it as simple as […]
Episode 42 – Mark Sherwood
I had an amazing talk with Mark Sherwood for this week’s show. We discussed everything, how he got started fishing, the fun of difficulty, language immersion, Native Fish Society, the importance of local advocates for rivers, all sorts of conservation efforts, and just a teeny tiny bit about white water. All that and we have […]
Ode to the 6-piece
I’ve fallen hard over the past few years for the 6-piece Spey rod. It’s really nothing complicated. They break down to almost the size of a 9-foot single hander, so they fit inside your luggage; you don’t need to check an extra “bag” (rod tube) on a flight or find an special spot inside an […]