ice. Isolating yourself from these places is not the answer. Staying connected – as hard as it may be – is how to be a part of the solution.
Guide Gossip #7: What to do when you flub your cast?
What do you do when you flub your cast? Fix it with a mend, strip in and re-cast, or do nothing?
Guide Gossip #6: Player Fish
If you have a ‘player’ fish what are your first steps to your approach to get it to come back?
Guide Gossip #5: Superstitions
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.
Guide Gossip: Does the Fly Matter?
It’s the question we think every time we open our fly box; the question we think of when you have been fishing all day with nothing to speak of; the question we think when your buddy hooks a fish behind you; the question we all lucidly dream about: Does the fly matter?
Leap Year
What Happens When a Steelhead Season is Lost? Derek Botchford, owner of the Frontier Steelhead Experience, says it best: “Similar to good health—we tend to take it for granted until it’s gone.”
Guide Gossip: What Fly?
“A skater, unless the zombie apocalypse is happening and I need to eat, then a dirty black leech with an orange cone head.” -Dax Messett
Guide Gossip: To Fish A Loop?
I asked fourteen EXCEPTIONAL 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.
The Forbidden Fruit
Superstitions and fishing go hand and fin. Some anglers have a lucky fishing hat that has been worn for years; others never wash their lucky fishing socks afraid to fade the mojo clean off. A long-time guide on the Rogue once told me that he would grease up his gunnels on the ol’ woody for good luck – so the fish could just slide right in.
Guide Gossip #10: The Fight
Does the position or angle of your rod matter?
Paris in Summer
Over the years I have received pieces of fly fishing advice that seem to combine both time-tested truth and a devilish elusiveness. Near the top of this list is: “Always be ready for the moment when a fish takes your fly. It can happen any time your fly is in the water, even when you […]
Winter Steelhead Rigging
On January 28 at 6:30 p.m. PST (9:30 EST), Swing the Fly Editor Zack Williams will host a live event about rigging for Winter/Spring steelheading.