Take Care of Your Gear and It Will Take Care of You

Noticed the price of fly lines lately? Yeah, they're pushing a hundred bucks these days for many of the most popular lines. In my experience, the performance improvements are very much worth it - especially if you're a less-than-perfect caster like myself.

600' of fly line on the floor.

In my Trout/Smallmouth quiver I had a wide range of lines -- floating textured, intermediate, sink tip, etc. I've dealt with polymer-based products of all ilk for enough years to know that if you care for them they last longer and perform better during that life. With that in mind, this year I started to do a little research on fly line care. What I found centered on two key areas:

Clean
Even the cleanest of rivers has a monumental amount of gunk. Leaves. Algae. Dead salmon guts. Bugs. Tree bark. Foam. And your line floats through all the same gunk on every drift. Today's modern fly line has a wide range of coatings, textures, and other advanced technologies to enable it to cast, mend, and perform well. Initial research showed a number of folks who recommended simply washing them in dish detergent. Then others said, "no, that strips the chemicals, use liquid hand soap...". Wait, I've got an idea, manufacturers develop cleaning solutions for their lines. Since they designed the damn thing, maybe they know a thing or two about cleaning them. A visit to my friends at Schultz Outfitters - guys who know lines - recommended two products:

• For non-textured lines like Rio Outbound Short, the Rio Fly Cleaning Towelette
• For textured lines like the Scientific Anglers Titan Taper, the Rio Wonder Cloth

Condition

A well-conditioned line floats higher (if it's a floater - duh), casts further, and lasts longer. Just like all of my polymer kayaks and canoes have been regularly treated with 303 Protectant, my fly lines need protection, too. For the past couple of years I've been using Rio's Agent X Line Dressing. 

The process was pretty simple - strip the line off the reel. And yes, it takes a while to strip 100' of fly line of. Even longer to do it six times like I did. Try to keep it neat so things don't tangle. Chaos is a pain here, so take a little care. Then clean, and let them dry overnight. Next apply the dressing with a cloth. Leave it to dry overnight, buff with a clean cloth and bingo bango, you're in business. Reel 'em up, put the reels in cases, and you're ready to store.

And yes, I know storing the line on the reel isn't as good as wrapped around a larger coffee can, or spun back on to the original spool is better. However, if you're reading this blog, you're at least a bit serious about this. Which means you've got more than one reel/line to deal with. Do you really want to wrap 600' of line around a coffee can? And then have to re-spool it all in the Spring? No, you don't.

There you have it -- line maintenance 101!

-Sean-

Cabin Fever

Pardon my French, but I am done with the fucking Polar Vortex. I love Winter. And I've been enjoying all the snow this year tremendously. But endless days of single-digit high temps, nighttime lows in double-digit negatives, and significant wind have me done with Winter. Or at least this kind of Winter.

On Wednesday night, I was hanging out with the usual Schultz Outfitters crew at the popular Bar Flies tying series. Ed McCoy was on the vise showing us a couple of patterns. Discussion turned to the brutal Winter. Now remember, this is a group of hardy Winter Steelheaders. Misery is a badge of honor for us. Trout guys look at us like we've lost our minds (probably some truth to that...). And to a one, we're all going stir crazy looking for a break in this. We're tying flies, watching too much TV, or embracing a new workout program. All to retain some degree of our sanity.

Whenever I head to my basement, my bike taunts me. I'm dying to get out, but that won't happen any time soon. So back into the gym I go. None too happily. I'm geared up to get riding earlier and longer. This year I'll complete a full Century. But not anytime soon. I haven't seen the surface of my driveway in a month.

Headed to Colorado at the end of the month. I would like to request that Winter show some serious retreat by my return...

-Sean-

Big Sky 2.0 - Day 1

A bit tardy in posting, but wow was Montana an excellent trip! This was my second visit to the Big Sky, and I enjoyed it even more than the first visit. A bit part, I believe, was the increase in my skills. I felt 100% more confident with new skills, and more time on the water. 

After landing in Bozeman, we grabbed our rental and beat it for Ennis and the Madison river. My buddy Schultzy had done a little research and found that just below Ennis lake was a hot spot just then. We hit a fly shop or two, grabbed a cheap motel room that all three of us could pile into, and geared up for the river. 

While walking in from the parking lot, Schultzy throws a streamer into the undercut bank. Bang! We have our first fish of the trip - in about 30 seconds! At this point, the Madison braids, so we had lots of water to fish among the three of us. Schultzy and Reid have a much more high-speed style than mine, so I let them roll down the river ahead of me. 

Within 3 casts I had a nice little rainbow. And pretty quickly I had another half dozen 8-12" fish. A nice confidence builder and fun way to get into the groove. A little while later a mid-teens rainbow grabs my streamer and makes a run for it. But I got the better of him and scored my first "real" fish of the trip.

Before long, I catch up to Schultzy, who's just stuck a 23" brown that's in full pre-spawn colors. Beautiful fish. Not ten minutes later, Reid grabs a nice 20".

As the sun begins to set, we realize we're a good bit downstream from the truck! Time for the death march back. We easily had a two mile hike back to the truck - most of it tromping through cover, across streams, through muck. But beer never tasted quite so good as after that afternoon fishing and evening hiking back!

Following a quick stop at the motel, we wandered of to find food and drink. If you're ever in Ennis, I highly recommend the Gravel Bar - cool environment, very good food, and a nice beer selection!

-Sean-

First Impressions - Scientific Anglers Titan Taper Fly Line

In the quest for distance, I swapped in a Scientific Anglers Mastery Series Titan Taper for use on my Scott A4 907/4 stick for smallies and carp. And now, my two word review...

"Holy sh@t!!!!!"

To call this line a rocket is an understatement. The web site says, "Loads quickly and delivers the biggest flies to the furthest targets". That's marketingspeak for, "This thing will throw a half a chicken down a football field". It loads my 7-weight Scott A4 like a freight train. And the Mastery Series texture isn't a gimmick - it really does aid shooting line considerably. This is the second Mastery Series line I've added to my quiver (the other is a GPX in 6 weight) and these things will definitely move the line.

Did some quick testing with Mike Schultz at the Schultz Outfitters Secret Testing Facility (aka Riverside Park in Ypsi) to determine line weight. Mike's found that in some instances underlining can be a benefit, depending on the rod. With my A4, the rated 7-weight was perfect. I will be interested to try this line on a stiff stick like a Scott S4 or a Sage Z-Axis.

Looking forward to hucking some leech patterns at local smallies and carp on this rig over the weekend!

-Sean-

Big Sky Country

I love travelling out West - whether it's Utah, Montana, or Arizona. The whole scale is SO vastly different from what we see in the Midwest. Your entire frame of reference is suddenly skewed. Freight trains with 80 cars suddenly look like toys when set across the vast background of terrain and sky.

Wisely, I took the DSLR along on the Montana trip. I hope you enjoy the results.

Beaverhead River Skyline

Beaverhead River with the Fisheye

Schultzy Chillin' at the Takeout

Tobacco Root Mountains - Snow on the Last Two Days

Jefferson River Vista



More Jefferson River




Secret Tributary up in the Ruby Range


Enjoy; I sure did. I've already booked again for next year!

-Sean-