Miscellaneous

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.    

Trout rising to midges on a nasty winter’s day

Yesterday's weather forecast called for high temps in the low 40's with light winds and sun. PERFECT, so I thought, for finding a midge emergence and trout rising to them. I headed to the river at noon. It was 27 degrees and overcast with winds from the south around 15-20mph...hardly "light" as forecasted. A high overcast ski persisted the entire day, a condition I'd rather have than bright sun for fishing midges. The temps never warmed about 30 degrees, the winds kept coming strong and the midges never emerged. I saw one rise all day...but I did take several fine brown trout on our Muskrat Midge and Rick's Bood Midge before heading home 3pm.

Today's forecast called for high temps of 35 with partly sunny skies and light winds. Arriving on the Madison near West Fork my thermometer never reached 30, clouds persisted and the winds howled. But, the midges came off strong and the trout rose to them.Go figure! I had very good dry fly fishing using  Scotty's and Skittering Zelon Midges. Approaching a favorite run, a shallow pool which was sheltered from the gale force winds by a huge boulder, the midges skittered along the suface just below the boulder and the trout rose steadily. I knotted on a #20 Scotty's and had a nice plump rainbow on the first cast...usually bad luck for me as is often the case when taking a fish on the first presentation for this might be tmy one and only fish of the day. Today was an exception as I took several more trout, all rising to midges. I changed spots a couple times when the trout went down. I searched out places that were out of the wind, like the second pocket I checked and found risers. This pocket was protected from the winds by a large snowdrift. As the midges emerged they scuttled along the shoreline just off the snowdrift overhanging from the shoreline and were picked off by the trout. Here I tried a Skittering Midge after observing trout moving to take skittering adults still trapped in their pupal shucks. I stuck with this pattern for an hour or two having taken several nice trout before afternoon temps dropped and the wind picked up even more. I came home. My hands and feet are still chilled, but I had a great time catching rising trout on small dry flies. My audience included water ouzles and their lovely song, a badger that stuck its nose out of a streamside den and then walked down to the river for a quick drink before heading back to its den...(not without glaring at me a short 30 feet away.) Too, I saw ducks and a kite, a Rough-legged Hawk and a cow and calf moose. But most of all, I saw midges and trouts noses as they rose to them; I saw my fly get taken by the trout....I will see this many times in my dream tonight, and dream of spring. It has been a very long winter, even the old-time locals are complaining. I hear them at the Ennis Pharmacy and the West Yellowstone Post Office and other places too. But, this winter I will continue to search for trout rising to winter midges and enjoy the wildlife and work on new fly patterns and complain with the old-timers about our long-windy-cold winter. This is our 33rd winter since moving to Montana....and, no doubt, our hardest-longest-windest......thank goodness for midges and wild tdrout! 

Fishing the Madison with Tenkara

This week the forecast is for temps in the 30's and calm winds...we will be fishing so stay tuned here. In the meantime make sure you check out the video we did for Patagonia on Tenkara fishing the Madison. You will be amazed at how I manage to catch a couple fish while being slammed by a few ice bergs!

Just click on the following link http://www.blue-ribbon-flies.com/how-to/craig_fishing_tenkara_rod_on_madison/  and hang on for some action packed winter fishing! Let me know what you think....I'll be trying Tenkara again this week it is an awesome way to fish, so simple and effective, and anyone can do it. Tenkara is just now making a splash here in Yellowstone. More later.

once you get in….you can’t get out

What about the title you ask? Well when you check out the photos we will edit in this blog entry later you will see what I mean. I hit the river this afternoon and once I got in, I could not get out. The snowdrifts off the shoreline were so high in places that once I got in I could only get out by wading long distances to a spot where the drifts cleared. In the hardened snowdrifts measure over 12 feet high and since I didn't bring climbing gear I was forced to fish upstream for as much as 200 yards before finding a low spot in the drifts which allowed me to climb out of the water. The fishing was great and I ended up with several nice rainbows that came to nymphs and dry midge patterns.

Too, you will see a shot of blood on the ice shelf along the river....along with lots of otter tracks. Most times this spot offers up some wonderful winter fishing, but if the otter(s) has recently been there the fish move out of the run and into mid-river and become very spooky......I've watched this otter and family on many occasions and have had the large male swim between my legs fishing late in the evening during summer caddis times. He is huge, over 60" from nose to tip of the tail, and almost black in color but I wish he'd not be such an efficient predator on my beloved fish here. On a side-note, a very good friend of mine did his masters work on otters in the Madison and found their favorite food to be stonefly nymphs followed by whitefish and then trout. On another note, the whitefish population in the Madison River has crashed and this has biologists very concerned. A study is forthcoming so stay tuned here.

Back to today's fishing. Jackie and I headed  to Ennis this morning for a late morning breakfast at the Ennis Pharmacy. Returning home around 10am we stopped on our bridge and could see a couple small rainbows nymphing in the currents behind a bridge abutment. I came home and got my gear and headed down to the river near Wolf Creek. There I located a pocket with a couple rising trout and took one on a Skittering Zelon Midge. In the run below I scored another on the same fly before busting a good brown off on the same fly. I sat on water and did not see another trout come up so changed to a #16 red Copper John and trailed a #20 Slough Creek Midge Larva behind and took another half dozen rainbows, one a beautiful male before the winds drove me for shelter. I took a shot of the larger rainbow which will be edited herein. The rainbows are jsut now getting their spawning colors and this male's kype was just beginning to hook.

The forecast is for warm weather all week so stay tuned for more reports to follow. This is the time of winter when the trout really come up for midges, both clumps and emerging adults so you should be ready with adults tied with trailing shucks like G Gnat Emergers and standard and Skittering Zelon Midges. Cluster patterns like our Hi Viz Midge Cluster and sometimes the Griffiths Gnat work well too. Give us a call before making the trip to check on river and weather conditions if heading this way.

On the 2nd Day of 2011

I missed fishing yesterday, the first day of the new year. This was the first time in a few years I'd missed New Years Day fishing on the Madison. The temps ranged from a measley minus 12 to a balmy 5 above with a 30 mph constant breeze and blowing-drifting snow. Our snow crew showed up to blow us out in time to make it to $3 Bridge Ranch at 1pm for dinner. Most invited guests made it but a few were snowed in and unable to be with us. I'm sure most of you, when attending a dinner like this one, do not have to fret over leaving the fun times after only an hour or  two at most due to the possibilty of being snowed out of your driveway when you return home....We busted 2-3 feet drifts and made it home by 3pm. Driving over the bridge I looked a few minutes at the river and could see several fish moving in and out of view between ice flows.....I long for a warm-up!

The weather folks tell us it may reach into the high 20's this week with little chance of new snow and light winds so we will get in some river time soon. In the meantime we are tying lots of flies and working on some new fly ideas.

This morning we are checking out 5 good bull elk on a wind swept ridge of the Madison Range of mountains on the east side of the river. I like to think these are the same 5 animals we have watched for the last several years on the same ridge. In the past one bull had a distinct limp owing to an injured left front shoulder, and  he seemed much larger than the others. Plus, over the last several winters the 5 bulls showed up later in January. But, this year the snows are deeper and temps have been colder so they may have showed earlier this winter. Today I cannot detect any appreciable size difference in these bulls, nor a limp. These guys are on a ridge about 2 miles from where we've been watching 9 wolves zeroing in on a wounded 6 point for the past month. We have not seen this animal for a few days now and the wolves have not been around either.

There is never a dull moment here in the valley. All we have to do is look out a window with our spotting scopes and whether it be a mountain goat, pronghorn, wolf, deer or elk there is always something to watch even if the outside temps can't break zero and there's no fishing to be done. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!! And stay tuned here for more reports.

A Christmas Trout Denied!

Yesterday, Christmas Day, I drove to the river with fishing gear in the truck hoping to fish. Our snow plow guy, Chris, had called around 10am and said he'd broken through the drifts and cleared the road to our house....I could tell by the way the Douglas Fir trees bent and bowed below our house the wind along the river would be fierce, but the thermometer read 32 degrees when I left at noon, and I was dead set on catching a trout today.

I drove to the river and got out to check conditions. The flow was clogged with slush ice forming on the river rocks at the shoreline. I could watch the sheets of snow blowing off the flats along the river into the river forming slush which concentrated on the rocks and swirlied in the currents. The slush flows would, from time-to-time, break loose and move with the current. clogging the drift. 

I suited up hoping for a miracle cast, one which would find an opening in the slush flows and allow the nymph to drop down to the bottom in the currents. After several presentations failed to break the slush ice flows I knew I was wasting time. I failed in my attempt to take a Christmas trout.

Returning home at 2pm I thought about returning to the river before our guests arrived for Christmas dinner at 5pm. But, our friends from the Longhorn Ranch in Ennis called at 2:30pm and talked about canceling their trip up valley to our place due to blowing and drifting snow on the Cameron Flats along Highway 287 between here and their ranch. I told them I'd check the flats and call them back . Jackie and I had long planned to have them here for dinner. And since our plans with them were snowed out Thanksgiving Day we were determined to make today's dinner and visit work. I drove to the flats.  I wish I'd had my camera to show you how 3 Mt Dept of Transporatation plows working side-by-side coming south blocking both lanes of traffic cleared the snowdrifts...it was spectacular! I stopped to let them pass then returned home and called our guests who came early to dinner. I did not make my later trip to fish for a Christmas trout...we did have a wonderful time with our friends who were able to stay until 6pm as the winds dropped and snow drifting subsided. 

Today's condtions are 35 degrees at 11am with a wild south wind, maybe gusting to 35 mph....will I fish? I'll give it a try and let you know!

A Winter’s Day in a deep and bright December

Yesterday, December 23rd, I drove to the river at 1pm after Jackie, me and the doggies went for a long xc ski up Quaking Aspen Creek. At 1pm the temperature warmed to 32 degrees with a bright-sunny blue sky and calm conditions. At the river I noted a set of racoon tracks in last night's fresh snow, you will see these tracks in one of the photos below. The tracks headed upstream towards Tee Pee Point where I was planning on slugging through the knee-deep snow to fish. I'd come across this animal last November as it dined on a whitefish that had washed up dead on the shoreline. The little creature growled at me then and I backed off remembering a hound I'd lost to a coon as a kid growing up in Michigan. Back then, some 45 years or more ago, we were hunting along a creek bottom at night. Our dogs had a big boar coon at bay took and the critter took out a small Walker hound I was training to hunt. All this flashed in my mind as I knotted on a fresh tippet and GM Nymph with a #16 Rick's Red Dip trailer fly. I just finished tying on the flies when behind me came a roar....All I could think of was a bear as I spun around and saw a small bull moose running off. Waiting for my heart to come down from my throat I had time to re-group and watch the water for risers!

I waded to my spot and saw the coon tracks continued upstream and around the next bend out of sight, I didn't need anymore surprises. I took a small rainbow then a couple browns which you can see in the pictures below. I ended with a nice rainbow. This mixed bag of trout took both flies today. I saw no risers and very few midges. I expect the midge activity to pick up in the next 2-3 weeks and continue through January and Febrauary. On my short drive home, as the sun dipped below the bench of land above our house, I noted an unusual thin cloud pattern to the west which you can also see in below photo. This time of year, around  Winter Solstice, we never know what surprises we may come upon when fishing! Check out this blog tomorrow, if it warms about 30 degrees I will try for a Christmas trout and file a report!

Merry Christmas Everyone, from all of us at Blue Ribbon Flies!!!  

A Balmy December Day on the River

Yesterday I worked until 2pm then headed home as the temps rose into the 40's for the first time in several weeks, and I knew the river would fish well.
On the drive I passed a  cow moose with her calf near Beaver Creek. I saw several bighorn sheep near the Earthquake Lake Visitor Center , then a covey of Hungarian Partridge at the entrance to High Valley Ranch. There was a herd of a dozen or so elk at the Sun Ranch which drew my attention as one was a giant bull sporting 6 points on one side and 7 on the other. By the time I drove across our bridge it was nearly 3pm but still, I stopped on the bridge to check for trout rising to midges and was not disappointed.

I hustled home, suited up and drove down to Pine Butte. At 3:30 I had my first trout on a Hi Vis Midge Cluster, a whopping 11" brown but it came up in classic head-and-tail rise to my fly. In the next hour I took a few more trout, all on dries, before the sun dipped below the far bench, temperatures dropped below freezing and I headed home. On the 10 minute drive I smiled to myself. Where else could you live and and work, see the wildlife I 'd seen this afternoon and catch wild trout on dry flies with no audience save bald eagles and wandering elk?

This morning I'm scheming to head home earlier....maybe around noon, to take advantage of another day with above freezing temps. The forecasters predict a big cold front arriving tomorrow and lasting a couple days so I'd like to get some river time in before it arrives. 

Our 2011 catalogue is off to the printers, I have tied 60 dozen flies already this month...I'm trying to justify my time off today to myself and Jackie. Stay tuned! Attached are a couple photos I took yetesterday to show how the hillsides have bared off near the river as well as a couple shots taken near home. More will follow in the weeks ahead, I promise!

P.S. If you can't see the additional photos click on the title or "view full post"

A Quiet Afternoon on the Madison

Yesterday, December 9th, at 3p.m. I decided to check the river for trout rising to midges. I'd made a run to the dump near Palisade, glassed a couple hundred wintering elk in the valley, watched a badger dig out a snowdrift from its den entrance. I had brought along my fishing gear and hoped to put in an hour on the river since the afternoon winds had laid down and the temperature broke the freezing mark.

I called Bucky at the shop and told him I'd have a fishing report for him by 4p.m. I checked a couple midge spots but even though a few midges skittered along the shoreline I saw no risers. I put on one of our new Telstrike Indicators and knotted an Original Brown #16 $3.00 Dip without a bead behind a General Manager Nymph. Bucky has been touting the new indicators and I have to say that I now believe everything he's been saying about them. I know I took many more trout than I would have had I not been using this awesome indicator. Not only does it float well, is easy to cast and see, but the stiff hi-vis center post is so sensitive that even the most subtle-gentle takes are detected through this little addition to the simple indicator!

I took 10-11 trout, 8-9 rainbows and 2 browns from 11-17" in less than an hour and I covered only 20 yards of water. All rainbows took the GM Nymph and the 2 browns came to the $3.00 Dip. I had a wonderful time....so quiet and peaceful on the river with only the song of a Water Ouzel mixed with the soft murmer of the currents to accompany the lively splashes of the trout I brought to net!

Today, December 10th, I'd hoped to fish again but 20-25 mph winds from the north made even our long Cross-Country Ski trip a saga. Jackie and I had a tough time negotiating our trail as a huge bull moose had left its hoof prints in our skinny ski trail causing our skis to chatter/skitter as we descended down a couple steep grades. By the time we got back home at noon a new cold front had arrived in the valley and wind chills dipped into the teens....maybe Sunday! 

Thinking of Wintering in West?

We’re in the midst of a particularly nasty five day blizzard here in West. After tying my allotment of flies for today, all the while watching it snow and blow, I decided a trip to my wood pile was in order so as to restock my supply of firewood. After carefully surveying the situation from my back window, I opted to bring with me the log carrier and, additionally, a three day supply of food. After all, my woodpile is thirty feet from my back door. Long story short, after untold amounts of shoveling, I made it back with wood in hand— and only used up two days worth of food. (I’ll plan better next time.)

But all that activity and the incredible storm inspired me to walk downtown and take a few pictures, which I hope you’ll enjoy. And remember, if you’re ever thinking of wintering here, don’t. There’s a reason this is summer range…

Harold Gooding’s house, which I pass daily on the way from my house to Blue Ribbon. Isn’t that a beautifully developed (or should I say still developing) cornice? The wind has been ferocious.

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