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On June 21,2014, Rich and I floated the Upper Kenai with Val Reynolds from San Diego. It was an interesting trip with a variety of complications that I’ll tell you about in a bit. I have to finish the story so come back here to read the rest…

Oh, there WERE fish! 😉

Val and a nice Kenai rainbow!

Indie Alaska is one of the production arms of Alaska Public Media and they do a great series of short videos about people who help make Alaska the unique place that it is (Real Alaska, not Reality Alaska as portrayed on the cable channels…)

This episode is about one of the pillars of our fly fishing community – Pudge Kleinkauf. Check it out. You’ll like it…

We’re always looking for a little bit of an advantage over our pea-sized brained adversaries so we’re willing to try the high-tech approach to try to gain a little over the millions of years of instinct (and a REALLY good nose) that the trout has. So recently I ran across this app called Ryple. (Yes, pronounced like ripple – the water, not the wine…) It purports to give us an edge up to 7 days in advance for choosing the best spots to go fishing (US data only at this time.) Sort of a high-tech take on the Farmer’s Almanac. Well, since it’s an app for my iPhone, I’m game to try it. $2.99 in the iTunes store. I download it, open it with great expectations, run through the short tutorial and… bust! There’s no data for Alaska! Only the lower 48! I am totally bummed…
Read more blah, blah here

A Select-A-Bead fly developed by Lance and Rich

Rich has been working like a mad man trying to get the Fly Patterns section of our site up and loaded. Go there and take a look! These are all great patterns and specifically are the ones WE use! I’m sure you can find something there worth trying. Many of these are available commercially in local Fly Shops if you don’t tie. And if you happen to run into us on the river, we’ll be happy to share a couple with you…

Sharp Hooks and Tight Lines!

One of our favorite e-magazines – Catch Magazine  – has a new issue available online!  Some of the best Fly Fishing, photography, and videos available! Worth every penny of the subscription cost!

From the album: Timeline Photos

By CATCH MAGAZINE

CATCH MAGAZINE ISSUE #33 IS LIVE!
This is a BIG issue. Really, really packed with great photography and video. Get it here!!!!
www.CatchMagazine.net

Photo by Pasi Visakivi
Contact: pasivisakivi@gmail.com

Fly fishermen? Obsessed? Tell me it isn’t so!

Well, I guess we are. To one degree or another we all get that way. Here’s a trailer for a new film by Mountain Made Media that you may enjoy that talks about this very problem. His obsession is big Brown Trout but that can be extrapolated to whatever YOU fish for. Feed the Obsession!

Obsession Trailer – Fly Fishing for Big Brown Trout in Oregon from Mountain Made Media on Vimeo.

Another trailer from this year’s upcoming F3T –

Tributaries Fly Fishing Film Trailer #1
from RC Cone Plus 6 days ago All Audiences

AVAILABLE NOW – tributariesfilm.com – Starting at $4.

Fly fishing is a powerful current that unifies an even stronger worldwide community.

Tributaries is a journey to uncover the commonality among different cultures, people and water. It explores the contrasting experiences of three diverse guides — a Bahamian flats-drifter, a Patagonian trout bum and a Viking-blooded Icelander.

Watch three characters’ stories merge into one: a tribute to the world’s water.

Tributaries Fly Fishing Film Trailer #1 from RC Cone on Vimeo.

Enjoy!

Well, 2013 is now part of the history books. Many changes happened during the year – some good, some not so good. You usually don’t know for sure until you’ve lived with them for a while. Our trip to Florida was a case in point. The fishing was memorable but not because we were having a great time hooking and landing redfish (why we went) but because we SAW a ton of redfish – all running away from us. You’d think you could easily see 1000 fish right in front of you in 18″ of water, right? Trust me – it isn’t nearly as easy as it looks! But we caught sea trout and that was cool. Them suckers got some serious dentiture!

And there was opening week on the Kenai in June. Lots of floating, less catching. Of anything. Best fishing of THAT trip was over spawners right behind the campground! Gave me a chance to try out my new Hevi-Beads. And man did they work!?! Looking forward to more action with them!

Then the July trip up North and the killer hike to an undisclosed stream the size of Campbell Creek that made up for everything that had happened all year! Small water, big fish, and gorgeous scenery. Best day on the water in years! (Yes, we’re planning another trip there this year, and No, you can’t come along. Sorry. But everyone has to have their own personal slice of heaven. This one is ours.)

Other not so memorable excursions happened, but they were… not so memorable…

So!

On to 2014! First and most important New Year’s Revolution is to Go Fishing More! That’s the mantra for the year. You can’t find those great places without getting out there and looking for them.

Number 2 Revolution is to get in better shape to support Number 1. A great place you die accessing is – by definition – not so great a place…

And that’s the enchilada for the year. There are others you don’t need to know about but the results from those two will show up on this blog from time to time throughout the year. Onward and Upward!

Weird, But we LIKE it!

This Spring at the Great Alaska Sportsman’s Show I watched a demo for a product being sold through Mountain View Sports called Hevi-Beads. Back too them in a minute…

Now anyone who knows me very well knows that Rich and I have not been great fans of the practice of using beads for trout despite their undeniable effectiveness. They just didn’t seem to be flies to us. So a couple of years ago we set out on a quest to come up with a way to fish beads – with the ability to make quick changes – and we came up with the Select-A-Bead system. A fly with a plastic tag that could be threaded through the bead (or two) and allow you to fish it like a bead head. We’ve tried them in a variety of patterns from standard eggs through Wooly Buggers and Bunny flies to Sculpins. Sometimes they work sometimes they don’t. We had days where they outfished everything else in the box and days where they didn’t catch a thing but regular beads on the line above a bare hook caught many. It was very frustrating.  Read the rest of this entry »