Question:

Hi  Sam, If you have a full size pickup, you can load the boat into the back of it pretty easily. Right side up and transom against the cab. A rack on top of most vehicles is pretty good too if you have two healthy people to load and unload it. A small trailer is the easiest way to get a small boat around locally. You will use the boat more if it is easy to deal with. A 14′ x 48" (bottom width) Jon boat on a trailer is very nice for 2 anglers. Most 12′ Jon boats are only 32" wide at the bottom and are pretty tippy? — Bill Kiene Kiene’s Fly Shop Sacramento, CA, USA www.kiene.com

Hello there folks.

I’m pretty much a novice at fishing but I have – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – been getting into it lately, and I’m at the point where I would like to go beyond fishing from land, its just too limiting.  It would be great to explore local lakes and rivers with a fishing boat.  Since I’m really not an expert fisherman I just need something that will suffice.  My two primary goals are two find something thats inexpensive and highly portable, and can fit two people, since I often fish with a friend.  I did check out a boat today, it was a Voyager series 4700 Jon boat, 12′ length.  The base price was $680, then when you factor in cost of electric motor, battery, oars, etc, it comes out to $1,100.  I can live with that price, but the thing that turned me off was that transporting the boat would be no easy task, and storing it might be a little challenging.  Are there any other options in this price range that would offer many of the same features that this boat has, but would be easier to transport and store?  Many thanks for any ideas you would have. –sam

Response:

You don’t say what part of the country you’re in. If you have room for a 12 footer on a trailer, that is definitely the way to go. Otherwise, a 12 foot johnboat will usually travel well in the bed of a full sized pickup truck. I used to have a 12 footer that I carried on the roof, and that worked OK, too. It was even a piece of cake to get it up there, as long as I had maneuvering room. I had receiver type hitch mounted on my little pickup, and instead of a hitch ball, it had a piece of tubing about 4 feet tall mounted on the hitch. Atop the tubing was an upside down trolling motor transom mount. I even had a little wheel that mounted right on the point of the bow. I could flip the boat over, pick it up by the stern and walk it anywhere with that little wheel rolling along. Then it was just a matter of picking up the stern, dropping the transom into the mounting bracket on top of the pole and tightening up the clamps. Then pick up the bow, walk it around to the front of the truck and set it on the roof rack. After I got the gear, battery and electric out of the boat, I could load it on top of the truck in about 2 or 3 minutes. As far as cost, I would wait till winter and look for a used one. You should be able to get into a 3 or 4 year old 12 to 14 footer with an electric for less than 500 bucks used. RichZ

Question:

rw, It’s in the Indian Ocean, south of Indonesia. There are bones there too. It is an Australian Territory and has provided the only official fly caught bones in Australian waters. It is better known to us as a refugee landing point. Hundreds of Chinese, Indonesians, now Iranians have arrived there in the last few months. Cheer JK

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – But no, that wasn’t me. rw’s off to Easter Island at some point; Uh, I think you got the wrong holiday there Trip, it’s *Christmas* Island<g. One funny thing is that there are two Christmas Islands in the South Pacific, and both have fishing. The "wrong" Christmas Island has blue water big game fishing. (No bonefish.) I wonder whether some confused flyfisherman has ever shown up there with totally wrong tackle. — visit my web site: http://home.earthlink.net/~royalwulff/ something bogus to avoid spam)

Response:

Mike: here’s the Alberta snow report: I drove through Calgary early this week. No snow to speak of. Absolutely none in Lethbridge where I live. Foescast calls for some flurries tonight, but a high of 8 C, so it won’t last long. No snow forecasted until Tuesday or Wednesday. Probably be another brown Xmas. Tim Lysyk

Well… Ok then… Maybe winters I remember. Heck last year in December I remeber we got some serious snow all around the region! I decide to stay here and it stay’s nice… What’s up with that? My parents are down in the Phillipines until January and I am having them scout some nice possiblities to fish while they travel around to golf… That’ll be a nice trip but one when my kids are much older. I can’t imgaine lugging all three girls around on an 18 hour plane trip! I am still thinking about Calgary in the Summer but I am not too sure. I’ll have to see how things go in the spring… That’d be nice though two weeks back home and as much fishing as I can squeeze in! — Michael Era

Question:

But seriously, someone once told me that Greg LeMonde was accidentally shot while he was fly fishing.  This true? I believe he was hunting birds with his brother.

He was turkey hunting. JM

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Well done Mike!  I don’t know bout Uncle Sam teaching him to shoot Indians at three hundred yards, but I wonder who taught him to shoot himself so comprehensively in the foot!!  Gillaroo

Response:

[snip] I can hear an occasional rustling in the brush.  Maybe hear a bird or was it a bat flying by.

Or maybe it was a 30/06 whizzing by… /daytripper (maybe I should paint my vest blaze orange?)

Response:

An archived article by Old Rupe indicates that he often fishes in Michigan.  And it got me thinking… There are those days.  I’ve made it to the stream somehow in spite of my work schedule. It’s before daybreak and I am shivering on the tailgate of my truck.  I can hear an occasional rustling in the brush.  Maybe hear a bird or was it a bat flying by.  What is very obvious is the sound of the river and the anticipation of excitement.  A bit of starlight or moonlight provides just enough to see the outline of the trees.  These are the moments when the imagination sometimes runs wild and suddenly, I begin wondering about those sightings of the Michigan sasquatch.  Oh s**t, what was that?  Did I just see an anthropoidal form emerge from the shadowed thicket?  Or is it Old Rupe at three hundred yards trying to get a good look at my face? Mu in Michigan

Response:

Maybe hear a bird or was it a bat flying by. Or maybe it was a 30/06 whizzing by… /daytripper (maybe I should paint my vest blaze orange?)

Oh, Mr. T, you menfolks is always talking about your guns and what size it is   d;-) But seriously, someone once told me that Greg LeMonde was accidentally shot while he was fly fishing.  This true? Mu

Response:

But seriously, someone once told me that Greg LeMonde was accidentally shot while he was fly fishing.  This true?

I believe he was hunting birds with his brother. — visit my web site: http://home.earthlink.net/~royalwulff/ something bogus to avoid spam)

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Question:

It looks like I’ll be in Switzerland next August. I was thinking that this might be a chance to try some European flyfishing. Anyone have suggestions about what would be good that time of year? It doesn’t have to be near Switzerland. This is a free trip, so I can afford to splurge on extra travel.

August is not exactly the best time for fishing here, but whatever, drop me a mail a little before the time and I will arrange something. Do it at least a month or so beforehand, and I will try and organise a license and everything for you if you would like to have a go here in Germany. I will try and send you some info on Switzerland as well. Your best bet for reasonable fishing is probably Austria. Tight lines ! MC

Response:

It looks like I’ll be in Switzerland next August. I was thinking that this might be a chance to try some European flyfishing. Anyone have suggestions about what would be good that time of year? It doesn’t have to be near Switzerland. This is a free trip, so I can afford to splurge on extra travel. — visit my web site: http://home.earthlink.net/~royalwulff/ something bogus to avoid spam)

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Question:

I made a three day trip of the Halloween weekend and went up to Northern California to fish Hat Creek and the Sacramento River.  I got away at 4:30 am Friday and was on Hat Creek at the Power House Riffle by 10.  I actually had it to myself for the first half hour or so.  There were a few BWO’s hatching, but not much surface action.  I fished very small soft hackles, 18’s and 20’s and took a few small fish.  Then all was quiet until late afternoon.  Several people came and fished the riffles, setting up homestead sites in prime locations, swinging their weighted, indicatored nymphs hour after hour.  The motion reminded me of nothing so much as one of those oilfield grasshopper pumps. I didn’t see them catch much, and I don’t have the patience to stand in one spot that long, so I didn’t indulge. Then about 4:30 the fish turned it on.  There had been sporadic BWO’s all day long, but the fish finally got interested.  I fished "under the hatch" swinging a small green bodied soft hackle in the water just below the riffle.  At one stage I was getting at least a bump on every cast.  I brought a number of good fish to hand, and several other strong pullers got loose.  I didn’t break any of them off.  I have taken a hint from Sylvester Nemes’ books on soft hackles and use quite strong tippets with even the smallest flies–4x with #20’s.  The notoriously picky fish of Hat Creek don’t seem to be leader shy to flies presented this way.  The only concession I made to size was to tie the fly on inside a surgeon’s loop for a bit freer action. The action continued until it got too dark to fish.  I had arranged to stay at a place I had just recently heard of–Pit River Lodge.  It’s only a couple of miles east of where Hat Creek crosses state route 299.  It was originally the work camp for the construction of the Pit River #1 Power House in the 20’s.  It became an executive retreat for Pacific Gas and Electric until they sold it a couple of years ago.  It’s a fine piece of craftsman gothic wooden architecture.  They have a restaurant on the premises but no liquour license yet–you’re welcome to byo.  A bottle of Bowmore’s Islay single malt in my luggage was a comfort.  The folks that run it are still learning the business and parts of it could be improved, but it’s nice and quiet, no TV’s, and the rates are quite reasonable.  Check it out if you are fishing the area.  There’s a web site http://www.pitriverlodge.com The next day, Saturday, on Hat Creek was pretty much a repeat of the first. Sunday I drove route 89 over to the upper Sacramento near the town of Mt. Shasta.  It was a beautiful hour drive over there with fall color being about as good as it gets for California. Take note though, the red stuff is mostly poison oak.  The weather was clear and the 14000 foot volcano of Mt.   Shasta had a dusting of snow.  I got on the river near the Cantara loop, site of the notorious herbicide spill in 1991.  October caddis were quite in evidence, but in three hours fishing I got only one fish.  But this was tourist fishing intended as a timekiller befor the main event which was to get on the lower Sacramento near Redding in the afternoon. I had been there three weeks ago for the first time and fished there all day.  Nothing but nothing happened until late afternoon that time so I didn’t see much point in being there in the morning.  Even then except for a couple of bumps I got skunked.  Those who caught fish got them on caddis pupa imitations which I didn’t have.  Going to the pattern books, I didn’t find anything that quite appealed to me, but I got some inspiration for a soft hackle.  It was pretty simple–orange thread, a body of tannish brown ostrich herl twisted into a chenille with a dubbing loop, gold crystal flash rib and partridge hackle.  The herl chenille has the appearance but not the effect of bulk. I got on the lower Sac at Cascade Park in Redding about 2:30.  It was very quiet until about 4.  The Redding Fly Shop suggested BWO and caddis imitations.  I went with my little green soft hackle that worked so well on Hat Creek.  I hooked up with an small but suprisingly strong fish on that fly.  By this time there were getting to be a lot noisy rises around me, but I stuck with that fly.  A bit later I got into a good fish, about a 15 inch rainbow.  This started the Pfleuger music–a couple of good runs and some minutes of bulldogging to bring him to hand.  He was actually snagged in the lower jaw, but soundly enough to be brought in.  By this time the snapping rises were going on all around me and the air was full of caddises fluttering about.  I decided it was now or never to try my new fly.  The first cast and swing got a real hard hit but no hookup.  It was hard enough that I retrieved to see that I still had a fly, even with the stout tippet I favor.  It was ok.   I cast again–nothing.  Third cast…a couple of mends…the fly is about to turn the corner and swing across…bang!  Rrrrrrrrrr–that beautiful sound, and that was all the testing that fly got.  By the time I got that fish in, revived and released, it was too dark to fish.  I got multiple runs with that lovely music including the last one when I got her in the net the first time and she jumped out.  She taped 24" of prime lower Sac Rainbow, biggest fish I’ve caught yet.  I plan more testing of this fly… Mike — Michael McGuire                     Hewlett Packard Laboratories  (remove x’s from email if not      Palo Alto, CA 94303-0971   a spammer) Phone: (650)-857-5491              

Response:

Good trip Mike,    The last time I was at Hat Creek during the day and things were quiet, I took a nice Rainbow just below the bridge to the power house by casting a Western Coachman across the stream and swimming it slowly back along the edge of the rocks. Ernie Harrison Have you tried a Blood Knot Machine?  http://home.pacbell.net/ernie2 I made a three day trip of the Halloween weekend and went up to Northern California to fish Hat Creek and the Sacramento River.  I got away at 4:30 am Friday and was on Hat Creek at the Power House Riffle by 10.  I actually

<snip Mike

Response:

Question:

I’m not sure how useful a strict definition of fly fishing would be. California, like many other states, makes a distinction for fishing with a single barbless hook and using artificial lures only which seems like the right thing, management-wise.  It’s not clear to me why you’d ever want to distinguish between fly fishers and spinning lure casters for purposes of management. In my book, someone who uses a spinning outfit to cast a bubble with a six foot leader and a fly on the end is fly-fishing.  I cannot see why you’d ever want to prevent someone from fishing in the above manner in waters intended for the more classical forms of angling with a fly rod.  (Unless, of course, you’re British! <g).

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Yeah, that’s pretty much it.   If a state is going to have special fly fishing only streams or seasons, it should IMHO have a decent definition of what qualifies as fly fishing.  

I don’t think Georgia has any FF only public water, and I’m not sure I’d be in favor of it. We do have artificial only/single hook, etc type restrictions which I think are sufficient. I’d agree, though, that if you have a FF only designation you need a good definition.   — Charlie…

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For what its worth, following are Connecticut’s official definitions of a fly and fly fishing. FLY:  A single or double hook dressed with hair, feathers, tinsel, thread, yarn or similar material to which no bait, spinner, spoon, plug, or other device is added. Extra weight may be built into the fly in its construction, as in a weighted nymph, and additional weight may attatched to the leader or line. The use of strike indicators is permitted.

This definition would make lead a head jig fly.  I believe some states have a clause saying that weight cannot be molded onto the hook.

Response:

In my book, someone who uses a spinning outfit to cast a bubble with a six foot leader and a fly on the end is fly-fishing.  I cannot see why you’d ever want to prevent someone from fishing in the above manner in waters intended for the more classical forms of angling with a fly rod.  (Unless, of course, you’re British! <g).

Rhubarb, rhubarb, murmur, murmur The right honorable gentleman from San Diego is full of CRAP!<g Mu Young Lee   Ann Arbor, MI  USA

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For what its worth, following are Connecticut’s official definitions of a fly and fly fishing. FLY:  A single or double hook dressed with hair, feathers, tinsel, thread, yarn or similar material to which no bait, spinner, spoon, plug, or other device is added. FLY FISHING:  Angling with the use of a fly reel, fly rod, fly line, leader, and a fly or flies. Extra weight may be built into the fly in its construction, as in a weighted nymph, and additional weight may attatched to the leader or line. The use of strike indicators is permitted. George Adams

Response:

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -For what its worth, following are Connecticut’s official definitions of a fly and fly fishing. FLY:  A single or double hook dressed with hair, feathers, tinsel, thread, yarn or similar material to which no bait, spinner, spoon, plug, or other device is added. FLY FISHING:  Angling with the use of a fly reel, fly rod, fly line, leader, and a fly or flies. Extra weight may be built into the fly in its construction, as in a weighted nymph, and additional weight may attatched to the leader or line. The use of strike indicators is permitted.

I propose continuing this topic so that we might come to a practical definition of fly fishing that we could all shout out to our respective regulatory agencies.   Maybe some official definitions are already sufficient and concise.   If so, I’d love to hear them.   The Connecticut definition above, however, falls short IMO because of what is does not exclude.   Under that definition, an angler use the chuck and duck method of throwing weight but still be legally fly fishing so long as he used fly fishing equipment.   My own state regs (MD) are similarly vague. As I’ve said before, what makes fly fishing mechanically different from spin fishing is that with fly fishing, the fly is propelled by the weight of the line itself, not by weight on the end of the line.   Do you suppose we could actually work constructively together on ROFF to devise a concise regulatory definition of fly fishing that correctly and completely defines what we do? How do your state regs handle it? I’m serious.   For this topic, at least, forget all the controvery and BS we’ve been dealing with elsewhere and be rational and constructive.   We might actually accomplish something.   (I better stop before I start singing Cumbayah.) Joe

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I propose continuing this topic so that we might come to a practical definition of fly fishing that we could all shout out to our respective regulatory agencies.   Maybe some official definitions are already sufficient and concise.   If so, I’d love to hear them. I guess I don’t understand whay fly fishing needs to be defined. Are you proposing fly-fishing only waters, special seasons, etc? — Charlie…

Yeah, that’s pretty much it.   If a state is going to have special fly fishing only streams or seasons, it should IMHO have a decent definition of what qualifies as fly fishing.   In my home state of Maryland, we do have FFO streams, and violations of the spirit of that regulation are not, to my knowledge, a problem here.   However, since I read this post right after a discussion of fishing on the Salmon R. in NY, the abuse of the FFO regulation there was fresh in my mind.   I’ve kind of had a burr under my saddle about that for a few years now.   It’s not my home state, but a substantial portion of the economy in that area derives from we tourists. If it’s not a national problem though, maybe I’m just spinning wheels. Joe Joe

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Question:

Nice trip Frank!  Bluegill can be a hoot when they are active and hitting on top. Wayne To fish is human…to release divine. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – As promised, here ’tis. (nice trip snipped) Frank (sunburned in Elkhart) Church Elkhart, IN

Response:

As promised, here ’tis. Met my brother Monday at Jackson L. in south central Florida about noon.  Temps in the low 80’s and an absolutely gorgeous day graced us. We fished first for bass, both of us missed a couple of good strikes, but that’s about it for the afternoon.  BTW, the strikes came on a wooly bugger popper that was shown in Warm Water Flyfishing mag. Nothing more than a wooly bugger (long shank hook) with a popper head on the front. I added rubber legs and eyes as well. This was a ‘dry’ camp, (no, not booze) but no water, no trash cans, and one pit toilet that defies description. (PU!!)  We spent the nite in our pickups as it turns out, tho we had planned to sleep in bivy tents. The preponderance of alligators suggested the prudent thing to do was get off the ground.  Shining a 5 cell light out on the water after dark revealed dozens of eyeballs staring back at us, and we had seen some ‘big’ ones during the day. The next morning we woke to peasoup fog, so opted to wait awhile for it to lift. As soon as we could make out trees in the gloom, we shoved off and stayed within sight of the trees.  Again, we both missed strikes.  I then switched to my St Croix 2 wt and began throwing tiny poppers, and then the fun began. Caught really nice size bluegill, and had a helluva time with the 2 wt, love it!!  During the time we were in the middle of this herd of ‘gills, one hit at my popper, I jerked it so hard that the popper sailed over my head and landed in the water behind me, guess what, another nailed it there before I could recover the ‘bad backcast’ and go after the first one. All in all, it was a fun time and really nice to get in walking shorts and sandals again. I don’t need to catch fish to have a good time, and a bonus was the wildlife…bald eagles, heron, egrets, coons, anhingas, and, of course, the ever present alligators. I will arrange another delivery down that way by the end of the month and try again. Frank (sunburned in Elkhart) Church Elkhart, IN

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Question:

Actually, it sounds like it might flow into the esopus.  Excerpt from AWA site: Beaverkill Reach: Turnwood to mouth County: Sullivan/Delaware Length: 32 Class: II-III Reach: Route 212 bridge below Willow to bridge over Esopus Creek near Mt. Tremper County: Ulster Length: 4.5 Class: III-V Notes: Local expert, Daniel Scher, 249 Munsee Way, Westfield, N.J. 07090 (908-232-3129) Tried contacting this guy with no luck. bob

Response:

        There may be some confusion here…..  The BeaverKill is a tributary of the East Branch of the Delaware River.  From Roscoe, NY to its mouth it is at best a class I,  and one of the best known flyfishing streams in NY.  Up above, it might get a little higher, and the Willowemoc, which flows into it, can also.         There is a Beaver Creek which flows in the Esopus at Mt. Tremper.  That is usually a very bony run even if the Esopus is high.  Denis McLaine has run it, but probably not often nor recently.  If there’s any water up there, head for the Esopus.             There are two gages for the Esopus up there, the Cold Brook one being the more useful.. It should be 4.8 ft or higher to run.   I think the reading you got was for the Beaverkill near Roscoe. JP – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Actually, it sounds like it might flow into the esopus.  Excerpt from AWA site: Beaverkill Reach: Turnwood to mouth County: Sullivan/Delaware Reach: Route 212 bridge below Willow to bridge over Esopus Creek near Mt. Tremper County: Ulster Length: 4.5 Class: III-V

Response:

Does anyone know anything about this creek?  It flows into the delaware and the AWA site lists a class II-III section and a III-V section.  It shot up to over 800 cfs last week and caught my attention, but i have no idea what the quality of the river is or what the minimum runnable level is.   thanks, bob

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Question:

I am looking at the possibility of starting a fly tying group/club in my area.  Has anyone had any experience with this that could give me some pointers so that I don’t have to reinvent the wheel??  Thanks! Dan

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I am looking at the possibility of starting a fly tying group/club in my area.  Has anyone had any experience with this that could give me some pointers so that I don’t have to reinvent the wheel??  Thanks!

Hi Dan, The Federation of Fly Fishers has a package for starting clubs.  It includes everything from sample by-laws to applying for 501C3 status.   Contact them at 406-585-7592 and ask for their affiliate club package. Tight Lines Al Beatty BT’s Fly Fishing Products Bozeman, MT (96 catalog)

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Question:

The fish are way easy to catch, and there’s a helluva lot more in the game than in the river.  I delude myself into thinking I’m honing my skills for my next visit to the McCloud.

Ditto.  I had more hookups while playing the game for 3 minutes than I’ve had on my previous 3-4 days on the McCloud.  Well, for $50, you don’t want to be skunked! Frank Holminski’s (sp?) response was that this game reflects the seasonal hatches and conditions you’ll encounter on this great river.  So, the buy the game and you shouldn’t have any zero-fish days — although I heard nothing about a money-back guarantee! I must admit, at the San Mateo show last weekend, whenever someone got a hookup, and you’d hear the ol’ reel scream through the PC speakers, that attracted more bystanders, as well as getting your adrenaline going!   For us Mac users, Frank says a Mac version may be developed later if they can get funding…my God, is not even flyfishing exempt from "vaporware"? Bill Uyeki

Response:

Yeah, got sucked into it myself.  In fact, my buddy bought me a copy.  I don’t find it a problem to run it outside of windows.  Alt+M to lose the music.  Can’t wait for new fishing holes, and maybe some different tunes. Chatted the whole thing up with Frank H. while I was there.  Cool game. The fish are way easy to catch, and there’s a helluva lot more in the game than in the river.  I delude myself into thinking I’m honing my skills for my next visit to the McCloud.

Response:

Many people think the Fly Fishing the McCloud River Game is CD ROM when they see it demonstrated. It is not but to get the great scans and animation that truly give the feel for dead driting an Adams or nymphing with a PT,  the game’s program uses approx 550 K of conventional memory while running.  This requires a memory mgt solution such as memmaker. The program is only 2.7 meg.  The game was the show stopper at the San Mateo ISO this past week, just ask Lefty DH

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Does anyone have any experience or comments about  this product?

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p because you need a config.sys with virtually nothing else configured for the program to run.  Once going, is challenging and fun.  Without sound, is hard to judge when fish are running.  Good luck.

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