The
first time I had the chance to fish with my friend Jim Kelsos sink-tip
system, we were on a driftboat trip for king salmon. The Salmon River in upstate
New York can be a crowded place to fish during the run, and for a fly caster, its
almost impossible to find a spot for a proper backcast. Usually, fly anglers in
the area resort to long monofilament leaders and ample quantities of split shot
used on a running line. This system is called "Chuck and Duck", named
for the result if you cast it wrong.
The new system Jim and his friends who fish the Lake Ontario streams came up
with uses hybrid sink-tip lines that can be cast in …

This past year, I made a pleasant discovery while
doing research for a fly fishing book project. Glen Mikkleson, proprietor of
Atlantic Flies, had sent me examples of saltwater patterns popular for catching
stripers and bluefish along the shores of Long Island. I was really intrigued
with one of the flies, called a Blados Crease Fly. The fly is a popular surface
pattern for stripers and blues, and is constructed out of sheet foam. This
started me thinking of other foam patterns that might work for bass and panfish.

The Crease Fly looked like a fly fishing version
of a Rapala or similar surface plug, yet it was as light as a feather. …

Ask a bass angler his favorite method of bass fishing and, unfotunately, few will answer fly-fishing.
Some fishermen feel that fly-fishing is difficult–
it’s not, you’ll be surprised at how quickly it is to learn.
Others think fly-fishing is expensive– it can be;
however, keeping it simple and low-cost does not lessen its
enjoyment.
If, you try fly-fishing and enjoy it as much as I do
I’m sure you”ll have more than one outfit and I say spend
what you can afford. However, while you’re experimenting, I
suggest a good, low-cost, basic outfit.
Recommende line size is printed on fly rods: an 8-1/2-
foot fiberglass rod for a #8 line and costing $25 to $35 is
a good first choice.
A single-action reel– $20 to $30– large enough to
hold a #8 line …

Swirling rings of water, like the first signs of a maelstrom, twisted and subsided in the still water. It was March, and the backwaters of B.C.’s most prized possession, the Fraser River, were alive with the sights and sounds of predator and prey. Like a Discovery Channel special, the creatures that periodically inhabit those waters were eating and being eaten. Darting salmon fry were encountering the perils of their journey to the salt and cutthroat trout were gorging on their primary food source. Each salmon species has its own “personality”; a distinct outward appearance, migratory pace, and preferential spawning terrain. These traits in turn affect the feeding behaviour of the cutthroat trout as it moves from one …

height="163" alt="salt6t.jpg (17362 bytes)" class="image-left" />As someone who has
spent most of his fly fishing time on trout streams and bass waters in New York State, I
never thought I would travel to some exotic tropic location and fish for bonefish. I
pretty much figured that the closest that I would ever get to catching a bonefish was a
Hudson River shad.

Then my wife Bonnie came up with the idea of a Florida Keys vacation and with a little
research I discovered that for a very reasonable amount of money, an angler can go to
Florida and find bonefish on his own. The Florida Keys are a great place to go for a
vacation and better yet, they’re surrounded by wadeable …

Few
fish capture the hearts of anglers like the Atlantic salmon. Here in the
northeast, scientists and volunteers from conservation organizations are trying
to restore runs of these majestic fish. While these efforts have met with
varying degrees of success, there is still hope for restoring Atlantic Salmon to
the areas where they were historically present, and to greater numbers. Until
this happens, there is one way anglers can enjoy some great fishing for Atlantic
Salmon without an expensive fishing trip. Another version of the Atlantic salmon
has all of the characteristics of its sea-run cousins, although it never spends
any time in saltwater. Landlocked salmon are common to many lakes and rivers in
the northeast and are highly prized for their …

I had a discussion the other day with a guide who said, the problem with a lot of fly
fishermen is that they get too locked into certain things, and become purists that think that the
only way to fish is for trout. Well, I learned how to fly fish on warmwater species, and I think
that one of the most enjoyable fly fishing venues is the lowly panfish, and the bluegill in
particular is one of my favorites. Pound for pound these scrappy fish will put most trout to
shame, and in a lake where the population is under good management, they will grow to large
sizes, and are great sport on fly tackle.

Fishing for …

Sometimes everything comes together. Such was the case in one of my recent smallmouth
outings on the Mohawk River. My brother Bill is way into tournament bass
fishing, while my game has always been fly fishing. We were on the river in Bills
bass boat under the perfect conditions; an overcast evening, and very clear
water. We were working the surface over a channel about 12 feet deep, my brother
using a Zara Spook, and I flinging a big hairbug. My yellow diver bug had just
hit the water when a heavy smallmouth rocketed from underneath to take the fly.
This bass and several other good-sized smallmouths, made for a very memorable
evening of fishing as I kept up with …

The rich salmon runs of last summer and fall have long since passed into
memory. Warm April days bring flashbacks of wet-wading for sockeye and casting for
springs. The salmon did their job with legendary proficiency that defies logic–many beat
incredible odds to allude man and resist the harsher forces of nature. They made it to
their spawning grounds, leaving thousands of eggs to hatch into the next generation of
battlers.

It is a fact of life that a large percentage of those young salmon known
as fry will never make it to the ocean. Hours, perhaps minutes, after they leave their
protective gravel redd, they will flee from the jaws of hungry cutthroat trout. The
cutthroat have just finished spawning in …

Shortly after dawn, I arrived at the trail head to one of my favorite
trout ponds, and
shouldered the frame backpack that I carry all of my pond fishing gear with.
The hike to this particular pond is just under two miles, but in this case, its
two miles up the side of a mountain.
The sun had already begun warming the shallows as I arrived at the shore of
the pond. I was greeted by the welcome sight of a couple of trout slurping their
breakfast from the ponds surface (in this case a size 22 gray midge). This
got me moving as I quickly donned my waders and float tube, and began paddling
my way towards a …