Classic split cane rod advertisement

This week’s classic fly fishing book is Fly-fishing in Maine lakes: or, camp-life in the wilderness By Charles Woodbury Stevens.  The book, written in 1884, is a collection of lighthearted tales of fly fishing.  The book is filled with some great illustrations, some of which are rather comical.  I imagine this would be an even more interesting read for those of you familiar with the waters about which he has written.  The image to the right is an ad that appears at the end of  the book, which I thought was pretty cool as really enjoy vintage graphic design and advertisements.  The other really exquisite part of the book is the drop cap and chapter heading illustrations; these are really nice.

I haven’t completed reading this book yet, but have really enjoyed what I have read so far and recommend that you check it out.  Enjoy.

Fly-fishing in Maine lakes: or, camp-life in the wilderness By Charles Woodbury Stevens (via Google Books)

Trout cruising (photo from another outing)

The other day I was out scouting a local urban creek to look for some fishing opportunities.  Mostly I was going to see if there were any carp in a place I had seen  them before, thinking it would be fun to tie into one on a little creek.  What I found surprised me.  As I approached the creek, I could see there were 20-30 fish schooled up at the bottom of the run.  I couldn’t distinguish what they were, so I moved in for a closer look.  This move scared off several of the nicer ones and for a moment I thought I was looking at some mountain whitefish.  However when I got a clear look at the few that remained I found they were all trout, some in the 14-16 inch range.  I was shocked to say the least.  Historically, I had caught trout on higher up on the creek as a kid, but after years of pollution and encroachment of white bass and carp, I guess I figured that trout were a thing of the past.  These trout were stacked like cord wood in there and they were all wild.  Amazing!  Now to get back there and hook a few without drawing too much attention to myself, that will be the real trick!

Spring Fishing On The Weber River

Mountain whitefish

My favorite local origination TV show, Roughin’ It Outdoors, ran a couple of segments on the joys of fly fishing for mountain whitefish on Utah’s Weber River. There are two segments below. The first where they catch a few nice whitefish, the second where they proceed to cook and eat them.  I can personally vouch for the tasty nature of the mountain whitefish, particularly when caught in late winter, early spring.  Check out the videos:

• Spring Fishing On The Weber River (via Roughin’ It Outdoors)
• Cooking Whitefish (via Roughin’ It Outdoors)

Google Books is considered a fairly controversial project in some circles, but from where I stand the bounty has been plentiful.  In the last 6 months Google digitized the autobiography of my great-great-grandfather, James S. Brown.  This is a book that is out of print and very difficult to come by and expensive if you do.

Fishing with the Fly, by Charles F Orvis

Fly fishermen can enjoy access to a treasure-trove of classic texts and I will aim to highlight one each Tuesday (we’ll see how long this lasts).  The first book I am reviewing is Fishing with the Fly by Charles F Orvis and A. Nelson Cheney published in 1886.  This is an interesting read from one of the most historically influential fly anglers of all time.  This book contains some great full color plate illustrations of early fly patterns and some classic quotes like this one about brook trout:
It is well known that the salmo fontinalis gives no care or thought to its offspring; and evinces no love or affection for it after it passes the embryotic or ova-otic stage ; and that daring that stage their parental fondness is akin to that of the cannibal for the conventional “fat missionary.”
I think one of my favorite parts is the chapter called Fly Fishing in the Yosemite.  This is an entertaining story of a trip to the Yosemite.  There are a lot of gems in this book and I encourage you to check it out and it is definitely at least worth a scan.

• Fishing with the Fly by Charles F Orvis and A. Nelson Cheney, 1886

The online only fly fishing magazine, This is Fly, yesterday released their 22nd issue.  It is a really cool magazine with a much more vibrant and edgy design than you are used to seeing in fishing publications.  This is more like Thrasher for the fly fishing set.  This months issue features an article about extreme winter fly fishing in Utah that is pretty cool and features some big trout.  My other favorite article is about fishing for the hucho hucho, also called the danube salmon, which is a large trout species in Europe which I can honestly say I had never heard of before.  It reminds me of the taimen of Mongolia, which I guess is a relative.  If you haven’t checked out the magazine yet, do it now!

This is Fly!

SkateTheFly.com, a blog by Dylan Rose has a great post today featuring the photos of Jason Jagger (not sure if he is related to Mick).  The photos are primarily of trout in the act of feeding and are really killer shots.  This is sort of the still photo version of the video I posted a couple weeks back.  I have included my favorite here, but you will need to click the link below to see the rest.

STF SPOTLIGHT: JASON JAGGER

My 5 year old daughter wanted to try her hand at this week’s fly, the muddler minnow.  She opted for a sparse design.  I am guessing she is planning to use it for some winter steelheading.  Way to go kiddo!

If this clip doesn’t have you salivating over some sweet dry fly fishing then there is something wrong with you! The trailer is for a film called Chasing Hatches by from RA Beattie (Vimeo channel). I have never seen such great footage of rising trout. Really incredible! Enjoy!chasing hatches from RA Beattie on Vimeo.

This week’s drawing is the classic streamer pattern, the muddler minnow.  My rendering this week is completely digital.  I used Adobe Fireworks to do everything.  I started off wanting to do something Charlie Harper inspired, but ended up going this route instead.  I am pretty happy with it and will confess that it took closer to 30 minutes to draw.Update:Here is Jeff’s drawing for the week.  A very cool charcoal rendering.Update 2:Here is Jason’s drawing for the week. Really cool effects with what looks like water color and charcoal.

I know a lot of fly anglers have a philosophical problem with whitefish, but what is the problem really?  They eat all the same food as trout so if your “trash fish” mentality is based on you are what you eat, then the same holds true for trout.  They inhabit all the same waters in the Mountain West as trout, so it can’t be based on that.  I have taken whitefish using dry flies, nymphs, wet flies, and – as of last fall – even on streamers so you can’t just say they only eat nymphs and other stuff the grub from the bottom.  I have eaten whitefish and they are really tasty.  I will confess that in my early years of fly fishing I was on the other side of the fence and would toss them up on the bank like they were a carp or some invasive species.  But the fact is, they have been living successfully in our favorite waters for much longer than trout.  They are classified as salmonids, as are trout.  So what is it then?  Is it the color?  Is it the small, slightly downward pointed mouths? Is their somewhat timid fighting style?  Aren’t they due some respect and at least a courteous release once caught? What is your opinion?