"Going into Depth"

This is another parable about fly fishing lessons learned by an outdoor video guy, who is lucky enough to work with some pretty good anglers.  The subject is mostly about getting your fly to the proper depth.  No matter what kind of fly fishing, from the Salt to the High-Sierras, much of your success will depend upon how well you have placed your pattern in the optimum portion of the water column.

Denny Rickards

Denny Rickards is a Stillwater trophy trout fly fishing author, instructor, guide, and lecturer.  We were on his home water, Klamath Lake, Oregon, when I first remember him saying … “When an angler sees someone catch a fish in a lake the first question they ask is “what fly are they using”.   According to Denny their question should be what line are they using?”

In Denny’s videos on stillwater fly fishing, all coincidentally produced by Cascade Media Works and available at flyfishtv.com, Denny emphasizes the importance of having a fly line that keeps your presentation in the strike zone for the longest time.  His favorite line is a slow sinking intermediate that he can count down and then make the entire retrieve at the optimum depth.  You will see a lot of lake anglers fishing a sink tip that can drop the fly down to the strike zone and then they pull it up through, but if the fish are feeding at a particular depth the fly is only there for a very short time.

Recently we finished a new production on Midge fishing with Davy Wotton.   Kelly Galloup, another of our video hosts, first comment about “Midge Magic” was on how well Davy emphasized getting the proper depth on his flies.  Here was a streamer guy agreeing with a midger that perhaps the most crucial aspect of angling was first to get the proper depth.  Both, Davy and Kelly are great tiers, so you would think they would favor fly selection over how deep you get your presentation but they don’t.  They think the fly selection is important but the depth of the presentation is even more critical.

When I recently did the midge videos with Davy he started it out doing a rigging segment and then as we worked our way through how to fish from the surface to the depths he kept doing more rigging segments.  A fishing video guy wants action but here we were spending a lot of time sitting and talking about how to put your stuff together.  Only when I edited the production did I realize that what Davy was trying to get across was how to place tiny midge flies at the proper depth and keep them there.  Again and again he waded into heavily fished waters and delivered fish when no one else around was having much luck.  The reason became obvious … Davy put and kept his fly at the depth fish were feeding.  If this meant changing twelve inches of tippet material from mono to fluorocarbon that is what he did.  It helps that Davy has spent as many of his waking hours on the water as off, and that he can read a rise form and tell exactly (and by exactly I mean to the inch) at what depth fish are feeding.

Now I know many of you like to fish a particular style and that your skills as anglers and your secret patterns can entice fish to come from any depth to devour your presentation.  For the rest of us my suggestion is that your first consideration  when approaching new water is to decide what depth you want to fish and take care to select the line, leader, and weighting system to get you there.  You may discover a fly that works, but unless you concentrate on your rigging you won’t know the most productive depth to be fishing at.

Gene Hering
Fly Fish TV

Fly Fishing For Bass DVD - Production Updates

We have one of the first and few Fly Fishing for Bass Dvds on the market, and we think its high time for another.

This time around, we have joined up with Joe Warren.  Our goal is to cover smallmouth fishing from early spring through the entire fishing season, and show a variety of techniques and water types in the process.  We just about have that done and one more outing this fall should wrap things up.

We already had some great early season streamer and popper action shot on the Columbia River in the can.  Then we had to reschedule our planned shoot for Joe to be in attendance at the birth of a new grandson.  We are told he is a keeper!

Joe works full time in the research of fresh water fisheries, and is an outdoor writer who shares his knowledge of Northwest fly fishing through a variety of publications.  His book on glass bead flies is a standard for fly tiers, and he has a good understanding of how to select and fish a variety of fly lines.  We are confident the hard-won  knowledge he shares in the video will  help you become a better bass angler.
To say this past weeks’ shoot went smoothly would be an exaggeration, what follows is Tucker's (the other half of Fly Fish TV) account of the adventure.

This month we headed to the John Day River in Eastern Oregon. We made it to the John Day River and the conditions were slightly less than ideal.  The water color was somewhere between coffee with creamora and peanut butter, so we drove lower down on the John Day at Cottonwood and here was our big catch......
 
 Joe did give us some good ideas on how to catch small mouth bass in a river - and on the walk back to the car Gene stepped on a snake and Tuck (that's me) almost had a heart attack!!!!!!

Then we went on to shoot rigging. Joe talks about which rods, lines and leader configurations he uses. Show us a variety of flies he uses - many of them bead flies as he is known for tying them. Good flies, but still sad little fish.

So, we went back home & got Joe's boat then went back to the upper Columbia near Boardman, OR. Like much of our trips ill timing, we arrived after the local Bass tournament!!! The fish were sick of seeing lures. However Joe & Gene did get plenty respectable small mouth bass and stayed out fishing past dark - 10pm (I wasn't too pleased). Then they got up at 5am the next day and stayed out until the wind picked up so bad it blew them home.

The entire video will include pre-spawn, spawn & summer fishing for small mouth bass. It will also have sections on special techniques, reading water & configuring gear. We'll keep you posted.

New Davy Wotton Fly Fishing Video - Midge Magic in Production

We just got back from the White River in Arkansas where we filmed an upcoming release on Midge Fishing teaming up again with Davy Wotton.  Davy and the crew fished and tied midges in the sauna that is the deep South.  I think we came up with some really great information on how to fish and tie these tiny insects.  Like what you see? Check out all of our Davy Wotton Videos.

Midges can make up 90% of a trout’s diet and few know more about midges than Davy.  Davy is such a respected angler and tier because he pays such close attention to detail, and that is what you need if you’re going to make midges a key part of your angling arsenal.  We learned that everything about midges needs to be small … your flies, your gear, and your approach.  From the size of your flies to the weight of your tippet, it all is covered in what will be a two DVD set coming out late this fall.  

T-Bird, Davy’s companion and professional tier as well as public advocate for Federal fish hatcheries, posted a number of short video clips during the production that will give you a flavor of the shoot.

Photos courtesy of Teresa VanWinkle

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Learn the ins and outs of How to fly fish the Snake River...everything you need to know to plan your own trip!

This ninety-minute DVD features famed Idaho angler Mike Lawson and South Fork fly shop manager Todd Lanning in an action-filled educational adventure that covers where and how to fly fish the entirety of this World Class angling destination.  This Idaho fishery is home to native Snake River cutthroat trout and the result is a fly fisher’s amusement park where wild fish readily rise to abundant hatches. Six distinct sections of the South Fork and four different fly boxes are in the ten fact-filled DVD Chapters.

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Trout Fly Tying Video - Six Great Standards Crafted by “Hall of Fame” Fly Fisher and Tier Bob Jacklin


Bob Jacklin  … Has been tying flies since he was sixteen years old, learning from such legends as Lee Wulff. Recently inducted into the Fly Fishing Hall of Fame, he has been honored for his tying, teaching, and angling expertise.  At his fly shop in West Yellowstone Bob creates these patterns that “just catch fish”.

They Do It "Their" Way

                I have often tried to recount the number of fishing shows and videos I have done and my best recollection is that it has to be pushing four-hundred.  The point being that I have spent a lot of time waiting for folks to catch fish because you can’t have a show without fish … well there was one time but that’s another story.  In any event I discovered early on, the best way to not catch fish is to ignore the advice of your guide or the person you talked to at the fly shop on your way to the water.  That is the subject of this rant about fishing show hosts, but I am confident it applies to regular anglers as well. 

                My first exhibit or example in this argument for listening to the guide or paying attention to the local knowledge occurred some years ago.  I was shooting for a show called “Fishing the West”, hosted by Larry Schoenborn.  Larry has since passed away, and a finer person I have never met, but in any event we were fishing for steelhead with terminal gear drifting the Chetco River in Southern Oregon.  Larry grew up fishing steelhead and had built a sporting goods empire in Portland so he was confident he didn’t need to be told how or where to fish for steelhead. 

So there Larry was fishing with the weights and baits he knew would work and casting to the pockets he felt would hold fish.  After hours without a take the guide forced me to take a rod and asked if I would fish off the main seam and slow down my presentation.  Knowing where my bread was buttered I didn’t fish a lot but I did fish where and how the guide wanted.  Needless to say four steelhead were boated that day and all came off the rod I was using.  There were of course numerous times when Larry’s angling knowledge paid off but the stubborn little German, despite repeated similar experiences, would often have to be shown he was wrong before doing it the guide’s way. 

                A guide on the San Juan River, Chuck Ruzutto, who just recently retired, had a great story about a couple of celebrity clients he had that exemplifies the same point.  He was guiding a guy who is known for starting cable TV and his actress friend, and the guy was having a tough time catching fish.  As the day progressed he apparently got sourer and sourer as the gal routinely hooked-up.  She was all covered up with hat, gloves, and scarf and not particularly enthusiastic about the adventure but had listened to the guides instructions on how to properly present the tiny nymphs used on the San Juan.  At lunch she turned on Chuck and in no uncertain terms told him to tell the stupid so and so once again how exactly to fish so that she could get the bleepedy bleep off the river. 

                I could go on and on with similar examples of professional anglers being unable to take advice.  Like Kelly Galloup not wanting to fish beads when I took him to Alaska for the first time because streamers would work better.  He did prove he could catch fish streamers but they didn’t work better. In any event I understand if you have a method of fly fishing you just enjoy more despite its effect on your creel count.  But do take my advice that when you’re on new waters listen to your guide or the local fly shop clerk.  Ultimately catching you more fish is what the get paid for and in what they say and show you are bits of wisdom that are hard-won and worth pay attention to.

Gene Hering

Fly Fish TV  - Fly Fishing Videos