ct
Drifter
Wishing I was on the river!
Posts: 25
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Post by ct on Feb 21, 2021 13:38:24 GMT -6
Hey Gents. I've been an angler for about 10 years now. Started slow only a few times a year with some buddies and now I'm hooked. I'm always looking for a way to get on the river. I'm lucky enough now to find my self on LMF about 8-10 times a year. Feels like home. Can't believe I just found this board. So, I feel like I've got the basic stuff down now and I have no dreams of going pro, I'm just here for the river. But I don't really know what to work on next. I am having trouble finding the "So you got the basics down, what now?" book. Would love any thoughts you have.
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Post by dainw on Feb 21, 2021 13:58:56 GMT -6
The next step is to decide if you’re a euro guy or a dry fly purist and then have philosophical debates on the forum with people about things like confidence flies and what color air lock is the best Just kidding. It’s hard to speak to your question bc I’ve never fished with you before and I don’t know if there’s a certain agreed upon set of basics. It sounds like you and I are probably at similar points in our journey. I can maybe relate to where you’re at with my own experience and say that there was a big jump in my game when I started tying flies and took up euronymphing (which happened about the same time). It forced me to become more conscious about my drift and things like weight, sink rate etc. So now, even when I go back to throwing a bobber (which I do sometimes), I feel that I’m a better bobber fisherman as well. Again, don’t know where you’re at with all that stuff and maybe those are things you’re already doing or don’t care to do at all. There are plenty of great fly fishermen that don’t euro nymph or tie their own flies. For me the next steps as I see them, are that I want to be more proficient at sight fishing, which means seeing fish better (which might mean eye surgery who knows), and fishing different methods besides nymphing. Another thing that has helped me is I’ve sought out people that are better fishermen than myself and tried to fish with them so I can emulate what they do when the bite is slow and learn how they approach a certain stretch of river. When I started fishing a lot with Aaron, that gave me a goal for what I wanted my own fishing abilities to be and I think has helped me down that path. It also helped my whiskey tolerance. Hiring a guide at this stage also helps as well. I don’t need to hire Peter to catch fish at broken bow at this point, but I still do a couple times a year. A good guide will help you refine your skills as well, if you tell them what you want to focus on improving practicing etc.
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ct
Drifter
Wishing I was on the river!
Posts: 25
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Post by ct on Feb 21, 2021 14:57:40 GMT -6
Dain, you are the best. I really need to think through where I want to go next. So on point there. I do need to fish with others that are more experienced than I am for sure. Right now I am mostly just going with my family and on guy trips. But my buddies are just here for fun and are not that serious about it. I need to get a guide at some point to learn the river better and then maybe figure out what a euro is? Assuming you'r not talking currency (HA!). I don't think I have the bandwidth to take up tying my own. I also love the experience of it all more than actually landing the fish. And of course, I need regular breaks for whisky and cigars. I like the idea of working on sight fishing and how to approach the river.
I agree there are no real set of "basics." I just mean to say that on my own for an hour or two I know how to put it all together and make a half decent pattern choice and maybe catch a fish or two. I want to get to the place where I feel really confident in which fly I am using and why and how to look at the water and say, yup, there are some trout over there!
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Post by jonbo on Feb 22, 2021 13:27:36 GMT -6
Hire a guide. They'll teach you HOW to fish, most of all.
What most of us call euro-nymphing is when you "tight-line nymph, no bobber. It's mostly very short range with the rod held pretty high. Because of the short range, with a normal length leader, the transition from line to leader will be somewhere in the guides. The line, being heavier, will sag in the guides, messing everything up. Soo,... euro-nymph fishermen use either about a 30 foot mono leader and don't handle actual fly line while casting, or a use a special "euro" line. Then you also need a special euro-rod. So, it's way different. Now, believe me, you do need a specialized euro-rod to do it. I have a hybrid. It doesn't work very well. You really need a sensitive tip, I've discovered (at least I do), which my euro-rod doesn't have. I can't tell when I'm tapping the bottom unless I hang up on it. Until I break down and by a Syndicate or Cortland, or something, I've kind of given it up.
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Post by dainw on Feb 22, 2021 19:42:07 GMT -6
Dain, you are the best. I really need to think through where I want to go next. So on point there. I do need to fish with others that are more experienced than I am for sure. Right now I am mostly just going with my family and on guy trips. But my buddies are just here for fun and are not that serious about it. I need to get a guide at some point to learn the river better and then maybe figure out what a euro is? Assuming you'r not talking currency (HA!). I don't think I have the bandwidth to take up tying my own. I also love the experience of it all more than actually landing the fish. And of course, I need regular breaks for whisky and cigars. I like the idea of working on sight fishing and how to approach the river. I agree there are no real set of "basics." I just mean to say that on my own for an hour or two I know how to put it all together and make a half decent pattern choice and maybe catch a fish or two. I want to get to the place where I feel really confident in which fly I am using and why and how to look at the water and say, yup, there are some trout over there! As far as euronymphing goes, there is a lot of stuff out there on YouTube about it. If you’re really interested in it, just start checking out everything you can on YouTube. Guys live George Daniel, Devin Olson, and Lance Egan have a lot of informational stuff out there that’s pretty good. You can purchase the video “modern nymphing” on Vimeo for like $20 and it’s gives you a really good overview and some of the basics. It’s definitely a productive technique. It’s not the be all end all though and does have its limitations. It’s mostly evolved from competitions where you can’t put weight on your line or throw a bobber, so guys have to improvise. There are situations, like slow, flat water for example, where it makes more sense to have a small bobber or use a different technique. I dedicated rod definitely helps, but I started out using my normal rod and it was productive enough for me to be able to realize that it was an improvement in most situations over a standard bobber rig. I went from being pretty happy about a 6-10 fish on the the LMF to having 15-20 fish days that I thought were pretty slow or the fishing sucked because it was all dinks that day, and that was mainly due to me figuring out how to euronymph. I’d also encourage you to get out and find new rivers and waters to fish. I don’t know where you live or where you’re from, but it definitely helped my game to get out and fish in Missouri, Arkansas, and Colorado. You’ll see and recognize trout water better by seeing different kinds of habitat in different rivers. Fishing new water forces you to up your game. Kind of one of those things where there’s no substitute for just getting out and doing it. I’d seek out places that are considered “challenging” pieces of water and try to fish those. For example crane creek in Missouri is considered one of the toughest places around to catch a trout. If you haven’t been out west and fished in Colorado, I’d encourage you to do that as well. It’s a different ball game going from fishing to mostly stockers to fishing to wild fish. Sorry I couldn’t give you a better answer than that, but I don’t know if there’s a book out there or a video that you can watch that will take the place of just getting out and fishing.
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ct
Drifter
Wishing I was on the river!
Posts: 25
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Post by ct on Feb 22, 2021 20:34:45 GMT -6
Hire a guide. They'll teach you HOW to fish, most of all. What most of us call euro-nymphing is when you "tight-line nymph, no bobber. It's mostly very short range with the rod held pretty high. Because of the short range, with a normal length leader, the transition from line to leader will be somewhere in the guides. The line, being heavier, will sag in the guides, messing everything up. Soo,... euro-nymph fishermen use either about a 30 foot mono leader and don't handle actual fly line while casting, or a use a special "euro" line. Then you also need a special euro-rod. So, it's way different. Now, believe me, you do need a specialized euro-rod to do it. I have a hybrid. It doesn't work very well. You really need a sensitive tip, I've discovered (at least I do), which my euro-rod doesn't have. I can't tell when I'm tapping the bottom unless I hang up on it. Until I break down and by a Syndicate or Cortland, or something, I've kind of given it up. Thank you Jonbo. I now know this is not for me! I have had a guide a few times but not in LMF. I need to get set up with one. Any suggestions?
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ct
Drifter
Wishing I was on the river!
Posts: 25
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Post by ct on Feb 22, 2021 20:54:05 GMT -6
Dain, you are the best. I really need to think through where I want to go next. So on point there. I do need to fish with others that are more experienced than I am for sure. Right now I am mostly just going with my family and on guy trips. But my buddies are just here for fun and are not that serious about it. I need to get a guide at some point to learn the river better and then maybe figure out what a euro is? Assuming you'r not talking currency (HA!). I don't think I have the bandwidth to take up tying my own. I also love the experience of it all more than actually landing the fish. And of course, I need regular breaks for whisky and cigars. I like the idea of working on sight fishing and how to approach the river. I agree there are no real set of "basics." I just mean to say that on my own for an hour or two I know how to put it all together and make a half decent pattern choice and maybe catch a fish or two. I want to get to the place where I feel really confident in which fly I am using and why and how to look at the water and say, yup, there are some trout over there! As far as euronymphing goes, there is a lot of stuff out there on YouTube about it. If you’re really interested in it, just start checking out everything you can on YouTube. Guys live George Daniel, Devin Olson, and Lance Egan have a lot of informational stuff out there that’s pretty good. You can purchase the video “modern nymphing” on Vimeo for like $20 and it’s gives you a really good overview and some of the basics. It’s definitely a productive technique. It’s not the be all end all though and does have its limitations. It’s mostly evolved from competitions where you can’t put weight on your line or throw a bobber, so guys have to improvise. There are situations, like slow, flat water for example, where it makes more sense to have a small bobber or use a different technique. I dedicated rod definitely helps, but I started out using my normal rod and it was productive enough for me to be able to realize that it was an improvement in most situations over a standard bobber rig. I went from being pretty happy about a 6-10 fish on the the LMF to having 15-20 fish days that I thought were pretty slow or the fishing sucked because it was all dinks that day, and that was mainly due to me figuring out how to euronymph. I’d also encourage you to get out and find new rivers and waters to fish. I don’t know where you live or where you’re from, but it definitely helped my game to get out and fish in Missouri, Arkansas, and Colorado. You’ll see and recognize trout water better by seeing different kinds of habitat in different rivers. Fishing new water forces you to up your game. Kind of one of those things where there’s no substitute for just getting out and doing it. I’d seek out places that are considered “challenging” pieces of water and try to fish those. For example crane creek in Missouri is considered one of the toughest places around to catch a trout. If you haven’t been out west and fished in Colorado, I’d encourage you to do that as well. It’s a different ball game going from fishing to mostly stockers to fishing to wild fish. Sorry I couldn’t give you a better answer than that, but I don’t know if there’s a book out there or a video that you can watch that will take the place of just getting out and fishing. Great answers Dain. I think I’m gonna hold off on the euro stuff for now. I think maybe just work on how to approach the river and learning fly patters will do it for now. I have fished in Colorado which was lovely. That is my photo here. I’ve fished in Idaho, and Snake River in Teton Park (which was just epic) and Norfork in Arkansas, that was where I learned. But I agree it is a big world out there and I need to find time to find more river. I like the idea of a new river challenging me to be better. That is a good mind set. I live in Dallas and have a young family, daughter is 3 and my son is 1. We just bought a cabin in Broken Bow, which got my wife interested in going to the park more... selfishly gets me a few more hours on the river.
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Post by dainw on Feb 23, 2021 9:43:30 GMT -6
Well man it’s your journey. Plenty of great fly fishermen both on this board and in general that don’t euronymph, just sharing what helped me. Anyways, congrats on the cabin, that’s awesome. Should allow you to plenty of time on the water which is probably the main thing you need to up your game.
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Post by jonbo on Feb 23, 2021 12:36:45 GMT -6
The Fly Shop is your friend.
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Post by breeden3 on Feb 23, 2021 19:41:14 GMT -6
CT, I am the Head Guide for Beavers Bend Fly Shop and am good friends with a lot of people on the message board. You won’t go wrong with any of our Beavers Bend Fly Shop guides. Call the shop at 580-494-6071 or go to beaversbendflyshop.com if you want to book a trip.
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ct
Drifter
Wishing I was on the river!
Posts: 25
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Post by ct on Feb 24, 2021 19:27:15 GMT -6
Well man it’s your journey. Plenty of great fly fishermen both on this board and in general that don’t euronymph, just sharing what helped me. Anyways, congrats on the cabin, that’s awesome. Should allow you to plenty of time on the water which is probably the main thing you need to up your game. Thanks Dain. I appreciate your story. I live hearing what helps others and it definitely puts euronymphing on the radar for the future. The cabin has been a fun project. The wife loves it, she loves decorating and remodeling so that has been a fun process. Once we get all the photos done I will post on here for comment. Mainly, it give me an excuse to get up there more! I was kind of hoping I pipe or something broke last weekend so I would "have to go up."
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ct
Drifter
Wishing I was on the river!
Posts: 25
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Post by ct on Feb 24, 2021 19:28:26 GMT -6
Thanks Breeden. I take it that you are the moderator and head guide that you will be easy to find next time I am up there and ready to get a guide, which I know I need to do!
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