2011 Blog Archives

Everything has an End

Sunday afternoon along the Madison in the Park, the final day of the year for fishing in Yellowstone.

What Stirs in the Deep?

Aspen Leaves

Fall color is winding down, but it's still possible to find little pockets of late-turning aspen around the area.  Recent rain created a nice pattern on this collection of leaves.   

A Time For Yellow

As we enter mid-Ocotober, the brown trout are becoming a bit more willing to chase streamers.  This fish took a yellow Marabou Bullethead, an old school streamer popularized by the late Jack Gartside.  I still carry a couple in my fly book (they're at least twenty years old by now), and I think of Jack on the occasions I fish them.  He was an avid, expert streamer fisherman that loved patrolling the Baker's Hole area of the Madison at dawn.      

Baetis Weather

A squall moving over Raynold's Pass brings the promise of emerging Baetis to the Madison River.

Some Analysis of the Casting Stroke

Here’s a brief video demonstrating the fly casting stroke at two distances, approximately 20 feet and 50 feet. Following are some observations and analysis regarding a few aspects of the stroke.

Note the length of my casting stroke. It is a short stroke for the 20 foot cast, longer for the 50 foot cast. It is essential to understand that the length of the casting stroke is a function of the length of line being cast. The rule is this: Short line, short stroke. Longer line, longer stroke. (Most amateurs employ a one-length-fits-all casting stroke, which causes many problems.) Remember that any time you change casting distance, you must also change the length of your stroke.

The shape of the casting stroke—the path the hand and arm travel along—never changes. Ever. Only the length of the stroke changes. I cannot stress this enough: Short line, short stroke. Longer line, longer stroke. The shape of the stroke never changes.

My rod, hand, forearm, and upper arm are aligned in one plane, in this case the vertical plane. Form like this promotes accuracy and efficiency. If you have to drop the rod to the side—say, because of wind—that’s quite alright. Just be sure to keep your rod, hand and forearm in the same plane, at whatever angle is necessary to make the cast.

In a fundamentally solid casting stroke, there is no pushing or pulling motion with the hand and arm, and no excessive wristiness. You can see in the video that the casting stroke is really an up-and-down motion. The push-and-pull, parallel-to-the-ground movement employed by most anglers is less than ideal.

Along these lines, note the vertical movement of my elbow; it goes up on the backcast, and down on the forecast. This is an integral movement in all fly casts shorter than about 90 feet. (At extreme distances, the elbow moves up on both parts of the cast.) This elbow movement is more easily seen as I make the 50 foot cast (since the overall stroke is longer), but it is still present in the 20 foot cast. Look closely and you’ll see it. Strive to incorporate this up-and-down motion in your own casting. If you do it properly, you’ll eliminate tailing loops forever.

Digging a little deeper, you might notice that when I bring my wrist to bear it’s done so in the second half of the casting stroke (again, this is more obvious in the 50 foot cast). Good fly casters do this because it further accelerates the rod without requiring further acceleration of the arm. That contributes greatly to efficient (read easy) casting. For a more detailed look at this part of the stroke, see my earlier blog post titled, Using Your Wrist.

That’s a short look at some of the most important elements of the casting stroke. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments section and I’ll try to address them.

As a side note, some viewers may be struck by the apparent quick tempo of my casting, even in slow motion. It appears this way because the video was shot in a very strong headwind. Since the wind was helping extend my backcast behind me far faster than normal, I didn’t need to pause as long before beginning the forecast.

You can see the effect of the wind by looking at the difference in how my rod flexes on the backcast and forecast of the 50 foot cast. It barely loads on the backcast because the wind is aiding everything so much. But look at the bend in the rod (just above the grip) as I bring my wrist into play on the forecast. I am accelerating the rod with a great deal of force here in order to provide the line with sufficient speed to turn over into the wind.

For another look at a powerful, compact casting stroke, I suggest this video of Chris Korich.  Casting strokes are like golf swings—no two are identical, but the good ones all share the important fundamental elements.    

There Fell My Shadow

Autumn in Everything

As October looms, signs of autumn are everywhere and in everything.

Exploring New Water

As another fishing season slowly winds down here in Yellowstone country, I’ve found myself thinking back over my two seasons here at Blue Ribbon. Of all the things I’ve enjoyed about being here, the one that stands out most is exploring the vast amounts of trout water that are so relatively close to home. Growing up in eastern Pennsylvania, I did a lot of trout fishing, but I was limited to spending most of my time on the same three or four streams in the Philadelphia suburbs. When I went to college in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, I was suddenly surrounded by dozens of beautiful mountain brook trout streams, and I loved having a lot more places to fish. Coming to Yellowstone for the first time last summer, I was blown away by how many fishing options exist here. So, I’ve made it a point to fish as many new places as possible each season, while still leaving time to revisit some more familiar spots as well.

We are lucky to have so many different types of water here, and consequently we have many different types of fishing. In my opinion, this is one of the best parts of the Yellowstone fly-fishing experience: being able to constantly experience new and different things. We have tons of backcountry water to explore, as well as hundreds of more accessible miles of rivers to fish. We have beautiful lakes, tumbling mountain creeks, meandering meadow streams, big rivers, and everything in between. Why not spend some time exploring these places?

I understand that not everyone is capable of walking five or 10 miles into the middle of nowhere to search out obscure, rarely-fished waters, and that’s fine. I’m not necessarily talking about extreme backcountry trips, but rather a more general form of exploration. Sure, for some people that is what exploring means, but for others, it may be walking a quarter- or half-mile downstream from access points to see some new water. For some fisherman, this may mean trying a new type of fishing, like renting a boat and fishing one of the local lakes for a day, or coming at a different time of year than usual. And for yet another group of anglers, exploring may simply mean parking at the next pull-out and fishing a few hundred yards up or downstream, rather than fishing the same few runs each day.

The bottom line is, fishing new water can be extremely rewarding. Don’t get me wrong; I have my favorite spots like everyone else that I keep going back to, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. And if, like many of our customers, I were only here for a few days, I would certainly want to stick with places that I know best and have confidence in. But next time you’re here, if you have some time to spare and find yourself considering something a little different, go for it. Stop by the shop and we’ll point you towards something new. Or pull out a topographical map, find a spot that looks interesting, and go see what’s there. Not every trip will be a resounding success, but then maybe with this sort of fishing (or any kind of fishing, really), success shouldn’t be defined just by how many fish are caught or how big they are. There is a certain satisfaction in checking out a new place or putting in a little extra effort to get somewhere that is off the beaten path. If you’re willing to explore a little, you may find a new favorite place or two that you’ll go back to for years to come. 

A Female, For Comparison

I never tire of looking at brown trout, and as this is a particularly good time of year to study them, I try to make the most of it.  Always, I'm struck by the marked differences between the males and females.  In the previous post I showed a classic male specimen.  Pictured here, in the golden glow of early morning, is a well-conditioned female.  I hope you'll enjoy their differences as much as I do.      

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