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New Season – New Toys!
Seems like every season requires replacement of some equipment from the various rods, reels and clothing that seems to invade my life during the fishing season. This year the needed items were a new pair of wading boots, a new reel for my Sage XP 590-4 as well as some new lines for several spools and other items of technical clothing.
After reading reports on rubber soled boots from the likes of Tom Chandler at the Trout Underground, I decided that not only was I going to give the rubber soles a shot but I was going to stud the heck out the boots to gain every advantage I could. Goodbye felt! Gonna’ miss ya! Hello Rubber! Hoping you and I become fast friends!
I choose the Simms Rivershed boot with the new CleanStream rubber sole. The decision came down to one of basic economics. Not the economics of cash – that’s called accounting, but the economics of supply and demand. It seems that the fly shops around me, save for the Cabela’s store and the Orvis shop, are all big on Simms brand waders and boots so that was the supply side of the equation. The demand side came when they “demanded” my hard earned dollars at the till. I have to thank my friend Victor Babbitt at Tahoe Fly Fishing Outfitters for dialing me in on the boots.
My...what knobby tread you have!
Victor explained how to best pattern the combo of Hardbite studs and Hardbite stars, even going so far as to draw a diagram. Of course, I leave the written diagram at the shop. So I just took a look at the bottom of the sole and asked myself “where the heck do these things go?” Not having the answer and not referring to my trusty web browser, I got the screw shooter and made up my own pattern. Only after mounting all the studs did I take a peek at the Simms website for the recommended pattern. Noting some very different ideas on placement, I have decided that claiming my pattern as either “brilliant” or “brilliantly haphazzard” can wait until after a few excursions. Worst case scenario is that my pattern causes me to crash and burn and post-hospital stay I can redo the studs to Simms recommendations. Here is a shot of my pattern (the left) and Simms recommended (the right) for your amusement.
On the left we have Brian's stud pattern of pain and on the right we have the RECOMMENDED pattern.
The reel was a much easier decision. I had purchased my wife Erin a Lamsom Velocity the previous year and we both loved it. At her request…ok…demand, I grabbed my own. The funny thing is that this reel is replacing my second fly reel ever purchased, a Redington RS, that went the distance. Only last season did it start to do funky things like come apart when you had 3 pound fish on the end of the line, so it was time to retire the reel. I grabbed a Scientific Anglers Textured Series GPX WF line to go with it and should be in business. The reel gets its first test on Monday.
Ready for a hard life of sand, water and hard knocks on rocks?
I plan on reporting back on the performance of both products as the season progresses.
Now I am off to tie up some more flies for the upcoming trip. Seems like I am always at the vice last minute trying to fill the boxes with patterns that are missing that should have been tied during the slack part of the season in the winter. Oh well.
A windy day on Pyramid Lake
9 months ago
The decision on where to head for a bit of birthday fishing came down to finding a spot on the Truckee that was not pumping, heading south to the Rosaschi or trying out something new like Pyramid Lake. I have been hearing good things about the fishing this season so Pyramid Lake wins the draw.
I headed to one of the local fly shops to gather some intel. The takeaway from the shop was a part of my conversation with one of the employees. I went like this -
shop: “What rod are you planning on taking to Pyramid?”
me: “My 5-wt”
shop: “um…what brand is your rod?”
me: “It’s a Sage XP. Why?”
shop: “Well, there is a good chance that you will break your 5-wt on the fish at Pyramid. Sage has a lifetime warranty so you should be fine. Do you own a heavier rod?”
I did pack my 8-wt based on this conversation and it turns out this was a very good move.
A short drive out this morning from my house, a quick stop at the tribal general store to purchase my daily permit and I was at the Lake and ready to…get blown all over the place. The winds were very brisk to say the least and were gusting up to the mid-thirties. That definitely did not stop the crowds from descending upon the Nets.
This is only a small swatch of the Nets.
I snapped a full panorama of shots at the South Nets beach. What you see here is but one small section. Notice the “sticks” lined up in the water? Well those are the anglers. What you do not see in this shot is the fact that the line up continues for a quite a few more yards and that most of the cars were actually a bit higher up off the beach. This is the infamous “ladder” fishing of Pyramid Lake.
Despite the crazy winds and the intermittent rain squalls, I witnessed some of the anglers hooking up on fish. A good sign! So now it is time for me to hit the water and get serious.
I started driving along the shoreline. I had a tip from the fly shop employee, the same one that told me I needed to bring a bigger rod, so I headed in the direction he indicated. I must admit that he did not steer me wrong. When I arrived at the mentioned beach, it was vacant. Now if only that wind would go away.
Just a wee bit windy today!
The pre-fish drill, you know, the one that starts with stringing up the rod and ends with tying on the starting fly, a wooly bugger in this case, does nothing to excite me about tossing a big #8 Dennis Estrada bugger that I had in my bugger barn. It is wind like this that cause big flies to impale their casters. A short walk to the waters edge and I am stripping line and trying in vain to cast in the wind. Pretty futile efforts, despite the big rod.
After about 20 or so drifts, I decide that I am not made of whatever those other anglers sitting on ladders in water with 12-14″ white caps are made of and I call it quits.
My takeaway today is that Pyramid is a beautiful high desert lake and the Cutts in the Lake are big and healthy. I will be heading back in the next few weeks, just on a day when the weather reports shows the winds to be negligible.
Rain...rain...go away.
New CalTrout site by the Trout Underground
10 months ago
by Freedog
in Conservation
Tom Chandler of the Trout Underground has helped implement a brand-spanking new website for CalTrout. I surfed over the the site and did not even recognize that I had landed on the page affiliated with my bookmark. GREAT job Tom and Team Underground!
On the Northern Sierra Region page there is a great shot of Mikey Wier holding a massive fish. Funny thing because I was just thinking about hitting up his website to see if his Soulfish 2 video is up for sale yet. I seem to have the same addiction to Mikey’s videos as to the winter sports videos that I grew up watching. Wonder why that is?
You can read Tom’s blog post about the new CalTrout site here or go see the new CalTrout site for yourself.
Truckee River Reconn Mission
10 months ago
Prime spring-time fishing!
I went on a reconn mission to checkout some of my favorite access points on the Truckee in Reno. While the river was a bit higher than normal, the water was still green and was not showing any of the usual discoloration that can be associated with run off. Looks like good fishing conditions…Time to grab my rod and hit the water!
Some Video Clips to whet the appetite
10 months ago
by Freedog
in Fishing Vids
I have grabbed a few of my favorite Burl Productions clips from YouTube and Vimeo and posted here. Guess all this snow has be still pumped about skiing but also thinking that it is time to start fishing for the season. This is going to be a fantastic season!