Mike G

Ron, Sorry I buried a trap in there. Roland Martin used to feature fly fishing in his series regularly as I mentioned in an earlier post in this thread. a friend of mine has a video Roland made on fly fishing for bass in Florida. So, since it has been done, we can deduce that it can be done. like Cornwall, I want fly fishing to be visible in the mainstream of fishing in the lower 48-not something that you do in New Zealand, Chile, Montana or Alaska.

1950 would be a watershed year for fly fishing. Before then a bass fisherman had two choices for presenting a lure. baitcasting or fly fishing. Since this was before freespool baitcasters were available, it took a lot of practice to master backlash free casting with the windmill reels that they had to use. Comparatively fly fishing was not much more difficult to master if you were interested in serious casting. Those were the main choices my father and uncle had-baitcasting for big lures and fly casting for flies and smaller lures-like spinners, spoons, and plugs. Around 1950 spinning and spincasting happened. I was there to watch it. They made the whole casting proposition exponentially much easier and the "spin" tackle soon dominated bass fishing. The small flyrod lures and spoons that were popular back in the 40s quickly became spinning lures. Both baitcasting and fly fishing were shuffled to the back of the line becoming known as "hard to learn." As free spool technology got better baitcasting became "easier" to learn than fly casting. Though it was once very popular, and it remains relatively easy to learn, fly fishing for bass was pidgeon holed as a difficult technique like hunting with a long bow. Whereas you could find flyfishing equipment side by side with other tackle in shops back in the 40s and 50s, by the 90s you would have to look to specialty fly shops to find a reasonable selection of equipment. Joe Cornwall is right in stating that fly fishing has been surviving largely as an expensive elitist activity until recently when the economy went sour. The trick for fly tackle manufacturers is to regain that position that flyfishing for bass and other warmwater species held prior to 1950. That is where marketing comes in. Champions like Clouser, Kreh, and Whitlock are rare; and they are not widely recognized outside of Fly Fishing circles. As I have said, I don't think much will happen till we start seeing nationally recognized figures swinging fly rods. I would go with the guys who have established fishing and outdoor shows, the Lindners, Winkelman, Mike Iaconelli, Jimmy Houston, Bill Dance, Hank Parker, Roland Martin etc. It is risky. I am not sure if fly tackle manufacturers are ready to ante up. I am not sure that the Babe wants to be photographed holding one of those wimpy long rods. Just a thought.

Though I am not an historian, I am positive that all this bass fly fishing was already done before 1950 on bamboo rods with silk lines and gut leaders. As an eye witness I can assure you that bass were targated by fly fishermen on or about 1950. Though I did not witness them, the big name guys that did the sane were , Ray Bergman, John Alden Knight, Tom McNally, and AJ McClane-all excellent warm watter bass hunters. The advent of spinning and spincasting around 1950 really put a wrench into it as far as fly fishing is concerned. This is to say that the fly voices were there back then though buried by the spinning marketing plan. I will give Scott his due, however, the sport of bass fishing existed over 100 years before the insurance salesman was born.

Timothy, We are the reason why fly fishing will not go belly up. Once you mentioned Herter's, Tenacious for Quality, I knew we were brothers. My fly tying kit still contains stuff I bought from Herter's. I remember having to give my dad the cash so he could write the check, me not having a checking account yet. IT IS IN THE BLOOD.

I do. Bean's, Cabela's, Bass Pro seem to have it figured out. Beacons im thedarkness.

Jimmy Houston, Hank Parker, Mike Iconelli, and Denny Brauer.

Joe Cornwall's article inspired me to do some thinking. Mainly I do not think he went far enough. I will concentrate on two things, fly combos and fly shops. First, what fly fishing needs is a good $50 combo. That's right the whole outfit, rod, line, reel for half of a C note. I occasionally see such combos at Farm and Fleet or Walmart though I have not seen any lately. The fly shops that are still in business should be selling these. They are the perfect way to get the beginner begun. Look at it this way, you do not hand the keys to the Vette to your son the day after he gets his license. Let hin make his mistakes on the 7 year old family sedan. For a beginner the $50 combo is perfect for absorbing the abuse that is sure to come. Second, maybe the disappearance of the specialized fly shop is a good thing. Fly gear is fishing gear which should be sold along with all the other rods and reels a fisherman may want to use. We see this in some big box stores. The nice thing there is that you do not have to go anywhere else to look at a fly outfit. Again the remaining fly shops should probably be offering spinning and casting gear also. We need some role models here. Roland Martin has done shows on fly fishing. Orvis should hire him. If Jimmy, Hank, Mike, and Denny were to show up using a fly rod, then you would see some interest.

Got the Mar/Apr bulletin yesterday. It is more than a keeper. Besidies the usual Fischenwissenschaft, the issue has some truley tasty articies. First Steve Butler's invitation to step into the 21st Century with electronic delivery of the bulletin saving time and trees. Next Ben Lubchansky's intro to Zen Bass fishing. Though the article's title references fly fishing, any Smallmouth fisherman can learn from it. The Zen lesson is simple,"You do your best fishing when you are not fishing." Finally there is Joe Cornwall's call to arms for all fly fisherman to rise up to prevent the extinction of Fly Fishing. Well....umm....among those reading this, there are more than one saying,"'Bout time!" That can be the topic of the next thread.

Thanks for the notice Scott! A day without ISA is like a day without Sunshime!!

Scott, "Many of them (like TinyPic) will also give you a link that you can copy and paste into your post so that your photo will take up no space at all on our server." That sounds like one of the best answers to the space problem. I was wondering if it was OK to host on sites like Photobucket and link to put pictures into posts. Or was it better to store ths pic on the ISA site? Now I know the answer and will continue with Photobucket. Besides saving space for ISA, it gives me a way to put the same pic on other sites. The "IMG code" is easily copied and provides a link to a downsized pic.

I'll second IL Game and Fish which I read at the dentist's office. Then there is BASS and Field and Stream which I read at the barber shop. As many are noting the manufacturers drive the magazine content the same way the lobyists drive the congress and senate. I do not subscribe to any magazines except the Bronzeback Bulletin. Let's say I want to go treeless. It is easy enough to get info from various websites. BTW I am in the process of asking catalog outfits to take me off their mailing lists. I can't tell you how many BP and Cabella's catalogues go directly to recycling

Gavin, Thanks for your direct experience with shooting heads.

Thank goodness it is not a stripping basket!

As soon as I saw this one I thought of the Blockhead. The shape is so similar though the action may differ. Another difference is Blockhead head 75 cents each; cost of viceless frog head cut from craft foam sheet 2 cents. It is the fly of the week on Fly Anglers On Line. Complete instructions are there. If you miss it this week it will be in the archives.FAOL Tip 2: When you work with Crazy Glue wear thin plastic food service gloves. Otherwise you will be picking glue off your fingers for a week.

Now that I understand it, I guess I do not mind that Google peaks at my mail and tells me things I might be interested in. The price of furled leaders was an eyeopener. It looks like facebook does a lot of the same thing. Looking at Blowout pictures, I made this screengrab and blurred the husky subject's face. Notice the paid add in the lower right corner. I think this is a little pushy even for Big Brother. Always a joker in the deck.

Is anyone using these? Shooting heads are frequently recommended where long distance is an advantage such as fishing big rivers where targets are far off or in lakes to cover large areas of water as you would fan casting with casting or spinning gear. One can buy premade heads or make them from a section of double tapered line. What gives? Thanks in advance.

If I remember rightly, fees for hunting licenses, fishing licenses, and boating strckers come no where near covering the costs of the DNR operation now. Those entry fees probably would fill part of the gap, but ,as now, the state will continue to plug the gap if it can. Turning State Parks into County Forest Preserves is a thought. Some of the biggest State Parks are in remote counties with low populations. The rangers might be able to pick up the extra patrols thoguh they are stretched thin now. But there are a lot of other things-fixing roads and trails, maintaining piers, trash removal, brush removal, biology and forestry work... To get that done the counties might have to charge entry fees like they did at Blackwell 20-30 years ago. That brings us back to where we are.

They are called fly action discs available in many colors at WALLEY'S also known as sequins. Maybe you can recycle one of your wife's old outfits, rich.

Good tip on the windward side. I am not sure I want to be known as the guy with the cotton balls.

Kevin is the idealist. Don't be so hard on him.

Kevin, It sounds like you are searching for a higher metaphysical truth that lies way above selfish fun. You are an idealist searching for something more altruistic to hang on to--something categorically good. At the end of the day you should be able to say,"It was good for me; it was good for my wife; and it was good for the fish." Continue the search, grasshopper!

My email notices about new posts on this site come via Google gmail. Now I am beginning to wonder about that. Reading one of the notices about posts in the tapered leader thread, I noticed an add in the right hand column for Feathercraft's line of furled tapered leaders. $12.95 each BTW. Price was not the problem. How did they know I was currently involved in a thread that included furled leaders in the subject matter? That was eerie.

Paul judging by your Steel Headin' report, I would not mess with the formula for the leaders you are using. Seriously, you are close to the answer on leaders because there are many answers depending on what you are doing. The tapered leader is preferred by a lot of fishermen and the furled leader is a variation on that. You can see we have been kicking around tying a specialized taper for bulky flies fished on 8-9 wt rods. As you have seen, with sinking flies and streamers there are different thoughts on whether to use tapered or level leaders. The same with fishing in weeds. The classic case for a short 3-4' level leader is when you fish a sinking line. It keeps the fly down. No one answer.

Funny you should ask. Take the unrecorded words of Eve as she watched Adam carying a custom carved branch and the boys carrying their rough hewn stick leaving to go fishing, "The only difference between the man and the boys is in the price of their toys." No matter how the day comes out, fishing is my chance to play with my toys or have fun. I surround fishing with these words-fun, pleasure, enjoyment, recreation, and excitement. That is a nice break from other things I have to do which are surrounded by these words-work, pain, drudgery, exhaustion, and boredom. Once in a while some of these negative words creep into fishing, but the overall experience is fun.

Rob, There may be the makings of a pretty good club project here--next meeting tie leaders instead of flies if the members are interested. The big problem is the initial cost. If you were going to make Lefty's 8' leader in Berkley's Big Game, mono Cabela's will sell you 1/4 lb bulk spools for about $10 per spool by the time you pay tax and shipping. You need 5 diffferent weights to observe the formula -- say 40#, 30#, 20#, 15#, 10#. So you invest $50. The limiting factor is the 370 yards on the 40# spool. All the rest have more line on them. For example the 1/4 pound bulk spool of 10# holds 1500 yards. Allowing 6" at each end of the but section for knots, you need 5' of 40# for the butt section. So you will get 222 five foot sections for the 40 # butt from the spool. The nice thing is that, when you are done, your cost is 23 cents per leader. And on some spools you will have a lot of line left over for the next round. What does a premade tapered leader cost?