Stuck in Alaska for the summer, and looking for the non-surfing related activities to keep me wet. Going to get back into flyfishing after years away from it.
So, as I was pondering fly fishing, it occurred to me that it appeals to me for many of the same reasons surfing does… It is quiet, best enjoyed solo or with just a friend or two, requires practice and plenty of water time, brute force and delicacy, experience enhanced by expensive handcrafted equipment, communion with nature, appreciation of a really nice fishshape, etc…
So, I just thought I’d informally poll the crew here, see if there is a greater proportion of flyfishermen in the sways community than in the general population.
Taking another step, I was also thinking fly-tying would be a nice departure from my shaping for the summer. How many here have tied their own flies, or made their own poles? Seems pretty natural for folks who make their own surfboards to make other things as intricate, beautiful and useful as a dry fly.
Or is it just me?
Sorry, about the OT, but curiosity got the better of me.
I sport a reel my grandfather gave me that’s at least 75 years old…mated to a fly pole this total hottie of a baling wire sales rep brought me once I’d made her year in commissions. I buy the little stuff like mosquitos but I’ll tie a caddis or a damsel. Since I’m a waterfowler, I always have a great supply of feathers. I throw out after browns, mostly, never got into the Salmon or Steelies.
You read The River Why? I hear AK is a good place to catch up on reading
You need anything up there, PM me a mailing address. I hear the cost of living can be oppressive…
Good flyrods will last a lifetime unless unforseen circumstances rear their ugly head. Bad ones probably last a long time too…so I’ll skip flirting with that disaster. Tying flies seems like a rewarding thing but the detail required to make good ones is a bit daunting for my eyes, even with magnification. There can be serious money in it, too, but I have enough entertainment trying to lay out and cut wood patterns wearing these bloody stinking glasses with “progressive lenses” (talk about an off-topic subject…anybody try to wear glasses with “progressive lenses” and eyeball jigsaw cuts?).
You can get lost in flyfishing. I eventually resigned a kayak to a perch under an avocado tree when I started using an inflatable float tube. And as one of the ancient outdoor writers once wrote in a magazine I read when I was a kid too young to understand, flies are better than bait when you go on a fishing trip and leave them in the trunk of the car for a week while you and your buddies drink…
Hey Shwuz - I’m a longrodder and a bugtwister too. I think the best thing about the combination of surfing and fishing is, when it comes to spending time on the water, our bets are pretty much hedged. There’s really no bad time to head down to the water.
Fly-tying, and reloading shotgun shells was a pass time growing up for me and my brothers. I think I was 10 when I got my own vise. My older brother wrapped a Sage blank for a class project in high school. Spent some time away from tying but ended up picking it back up on a 6 month deployment in the gulf. Now reside in San Diego and have yet to tie or flyfish down here… I have the gear, just not the time. Happy fishing. Post OT all the salmon pics!
I flyfished until i started shaping. I also tied my own flies, everthing from midges to bass lures. I have a shit reel my cousin gave me(he is now a professional bass fisherman)
Stuck in Alaska for the summer, and looking for the non-surfing related activities to keep me wet. Going to get back into flyfishing after years away from it.
You ARE taking a board aren’t you? There’s so many miles of coastline with waves, it’d be a shame to get up there and not get wet. I think you’ll need a fullsuit. Also, back to the fishing thing, take bug spray, my dad used to go hunting up there in the summer and says the mozzies will carry you away if you ain’t prepared!!!
I’d have to put surfing and flyfishing together as two obsessions that I don’t get to indulge nearly as much as I’d like. I got into the fishing thing when I became landlocked in VA at grad school. Small stream brookie fishing was the ticket when I needed to get away from the scholastic headaches that go along with getting a masters. I took the fishing thing to the salt water for Blues/Stripers when home to Long Island, NY from said school. There’s nothing like the pull of a big fish on a fly rod. I got into tying as well, but mainly for salt waters species as well as smallmouths. These patterns do not require the delicate detail of some trout patterns. Streamers are relatively easy and the proportions are easy to pick up quickly. Flies can be quite costly and if you keep it simple, you can do well tying, catching, and saving a few bucks. Many articles/books talk about “time on the water” in order to become successful with the fly rod and I think the same goes for both activities. I’m not the most well traveled guy, but I have been to some phenomenal places in pursuit of both activities and the above comments about who with and where both surfing and flyfishing are pursued could not ring more true in my eyes. I look forward to the time when my boys(7 & 4) will be able to share both of these avocations with me.
Quick story about both. The last few years I've been fortunate enough to visit Nantucket in late August. The place we have been renting is way(long dirt road) out on the beach in Madaket. Last summer one of my best days went like this. AM wake up to overcast off shores, gray sky, gray water,waist/shoulder high peaks that were perfect. It doesn't get much better as it's an east coast beach break. It was one of those days wher the water was so glassy, it looked like an oil slick. I get an hour plus with no one but the seals in sight. I actually lucked out and got multiple days of off shores last year without seeing another surfer in the water the whole 10 days I was out there. Get out due to the fact that I have a 11:00 charter to fish. Get on board as the weather breaks and we motor out to a rip off shore where we get into 7-10lb bluefish on both spinning and fly tackle. It's not long before we get to witness school bluefin tuna coming up from the depths attacking the bluefish. An impressive display of the food chain to say the least. Hooked up with a few tuna(on spinning gear) and finished off the day spotting a fin back whale feeding on the clouds of krill out near this rip. Back to the house for a swim with the boys/family. Tuna on the grill for dinner. I'd be hard pressed to have a better day pursuing my obsessions. As for AK, my cousin who is a surfer and fisherman spent time up there last summer and had a ball doing both for his entire trip. Have fun and enjoy your "time on the water"
Yep, I flyfish. Like surfing, not nearly as often as I want to, though. Started tying flies at 14, but haven’t tied in years. It’s not difficult to tie simple patterns or to catch fish on them. If a wild rainbow will hit a flourescent orange indicator, it’ll hit most things floated by.
Most of my flyfishing time is spent on remote sections of rivers on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada. Just being in that environment is the payoff for me. Like surfing, the scenery, the sounds and the smells are a large part of the picture. Like surfing, you are really immersed in the environment while you pursue the activity. Also, like when surfing alone, I often feel like I’m being watched and I know I am on my own when it comes to getting out in one piece or getting out at all. I kinda like that.
That’s a yea here but because I fish the open beaches most of the time the fly rod seldom comes out because of wind and wave condtions. I do little local freshwater fly fishing though and have a few patterns that work. Conventional (very light) surfcasting gear is the call most of the time on and around Monterey Bay. I tie all my own terminal rigs and do some reel smithing and rod building as well.
Right now it’s all Plumbing. Work in the trades is bustin’ loose a little early this year with the dry winter. The northwesterlies are blowing, south swell is running and Salmon season opens on the 7th. Setting up some fly gear for Chinook this year for when I get a chance to get out on the bay.
Also, like when surfing alone, I often feel like I’m being watched
Read an interview with the late Ken Kesey in which he recounted that his father told him that if he was going to spend a lot of time outdoors he should carry a fishing rod, so people wouldn’t think he was crazy…always liked that one…
Quote:
and I know I am on my own when it comes to getting out in one piece or getting out at all. I kinda like that.
I’m scared to look and see if new waders come with waterproof cellphone pockets…the Brave New World…
Somewhere buried in a trunk sits my grandfather’s bamboo fly rod, aquired no doubt when he owned a hardware store in Portland Oregon in the 20’s and 30’s and sold everything under the infrequent sun. Last time I saw it the varnish was starting to peel a bit. I’m saving that for a special project and place as yet to be determined.
Flies? Sometimes I’ll just try to match the hatch and see if I can make one fly last the day. An exercise in minimalism, I suppose. I seem to take a lot more care in where and when I wet the line. If there is a lot of action or potential action I won’t just kill the day and hold myself to it. I see more territory, more other wildlife…clouds and plants and all kinds of stuff I might otherwise miss if fish-catching mania dominates. Lose the fly with hours of light left? Find a nice place and wait to see if those clouds turn into a thunderstorm…wait and see if the clouds last until sunset…a full moon usually kills the fishing but makes for great night hikes…sitting around a campfire drinking the cheapest beer available is an activity best saved for suburbia in ruins…
And there is an important thing to note - if you happen to stay down in a deep canyon all day and fish until you can’t see anymore then have to hike/climb/scramble out in the dark, don’t worry, you can’t get poison oak at night.
And there is an important thing to note - if you happen to stay down in a deep canyon all day and fish until you can’t see anymore then have to hike/climb/scramble out in the dark, don’t worry, you can’t get poison oak at night
Well, yes, of course…I think that is now taught right before cell-phone rescue etiquette…you also can’t get snakebit either…
for those who are wondering…
I hate to sound all Santa Cruzy, but when it comes to fishing the Sierra Nevada I’m an East side guy…prefer to fish up dryish canyons…prefer to walk out downhill…I’m an environmentalist…must conserve energy…I like float tubes in lakes because they are both small, quiet, and give exercise when kicking around wearing fins…but really like dropping a line with a net bag with a rock in it as an anchor and just sitting there watching the reflections or wind ripples on the water, the mountains all around…sometimes it pisses me off if a fish interrupts…
Somewhere buried in a trunk sits my grandfather’s bamboo fly rod, aquired no doubt when he owned a hardware store in Portland Oregon in the 20’s and 30’s and sold everything under the infrequent sun.
Great grandparents had a similar set up in Bend OR. I know my dad scored some nice bamboo rods, and a lot of old school lures. Old hardware stores are pretty cool.
Yes. I’m at uni in sheffield, and took up fishing. I love it. I tie my own flys but haven’t made rods. I’m off to the outer hebrides this summer, about the wildest spot in the UK, great waves, awesome (fairly cheap) fishing for trout and salmon and wild camping. I love tying flys. It’s a bit like when your surfing and think about the perfect board for the conditions, with fishing you can go and tie that fly when you get in the door. These are usually the best designs as well.
I guess I’m what you’d call “avid” (or maybe rabid, or maybe just plain crazy). I still tie most of my flies and have made a number of rods. Although “making” a graphite rod is the equivalent of applying the last coat of paint to a Surftech. I also fish cane rods and was lucky enough to get them before collectors started getting nuts about them. In fact I have a new cane rod in the works. Let’s see, I’ve been waiting about 14 months now so maybe 4-6 more to go. Sound familiar? Rod-making is an interesting parallel to the surfboard industry but it played out about 40-50 years ago. Cane was the material of choice and rods were either made by individuals or relatively small shops. Then fiberglass came on the scene. Because it was cheaper and easier to mass produce it pretty much spelled the end of the handmade cane rod era (Mao’s takeover in China didn’t help either. Tonkin Cane comes from a small area there). Graphite took over from fiberglass in the '70s but that’s just one mass-produced product consuming another one. There are still quite a few guys who make cane rods. They’re expensive and the waits are long because, like the great shapers, they’re still in high demand.
Anyway, long ramble over. Fly-fishing = good. Have fun fishing in Alaska but don’t get spoiled.
Alaska’s a pretty nice place to be stuck for a summer. Sounds like a great time to me. The mosquitoes will ravage you if not prepared. You can fish or surf 24 hours a day if you like. I use a forty dollar tourist model rod/reel combo that included some flies, too. I’m very scientific about fly selection, though. I lean over to my daughter and ask, “What should we try now?” She will say something like, " this ones pretty." We usually hook up, too. We were in Alaska two summers ago. Two camplers were killed and eaten and two other fishermen were killed by Griz in the two weeks we visited. It’s wilderness at FULL VOLUME. Mike
Shwuz you should do some research on building bamboo fly rods, I just saw a show on tv about it and it looked real interesting. I think it could be right up your alley.
I started flyfishing in south Africa the river in front of my boarding school had trout in it. I still fish a bit in the stream down the road for some wild brownies. I try and get a bit of saltwater flyfishing in when I go to SA on Holidays. I currently reside in Weymouth UK. I tie my own flys as well though I havent being doing it too much lately as I have been board building.
just had an idea my next board should be a big paddle board and maybe I can use it as a flyfishing platform. HMM not such a bad idea.
I buy the little stuff like mosquitos but I’ll tie a caddis or a damsel. Since I’m a waterfowler, I always have a great supply of feathers. I throw out after browns, mostly, never got into the Salmon or Steelies.
for those who are wondering…