headscan

Watermarks by Jim McLennan Anything by John Gierach, Thomas McGuane (especially The Longest Silence), and Roderick Haig-Brown A Good Life Wasted by Dave Ames I'm currently reading Lines on the Water by David Adams Richards and it's pretty good so far. It's about fishing for salmon on the Miramichi. Won a Governor General's award too.

http://oregonflyfishingblog.com/2009/12/17...searchers-find/ And a link to the study itself for those interested: http://www.statesmanjournal.com/assets/pdf/J01486461216.PDF

Is it just that you want more backing on the reel or a slightly bigger reel to balance out the rod better? To balance you might want at least a 4" diameter reel with some decent width to it. To get more backing, you could cut a little more running line off the Windcutter since it has something like 70' to it. I'd also consider upping to 30# dacron for the size of fish you're seeing with a 9wt rod. Gelspun is also an option - high break strength and you can fit more of it on the reel if it's just a question of getting more backing on it.

What's the line weight of your Windcutter and are you using 20# or 30# backing? Your Integrity holds a WF10 and 170yds of 30# backing, while the Konic 4 holds a WF10 and 240yds of 30# so it definitely has a bit more capacity. Theoretically the Konic should be able to hold about 70 more yards of 30# backing, provided their listed capacities are accurate.

You should be letting the rod do the work. A longer rod will get you some extra distance with the same amount of effort, but in my experience they're heavier and will tire you out sooner than a shorter, lighter rod.

Out of curiosity what were the materials in the envelope for the first contest?

Sorry, don't know which one specifically. I'm sure if you google you'll find a few that do the trick.

You have to use each of the materials in the envelope plus you can use one other material not counting glues and epoxy is what Nancy told me on Saturday.

Rio's recommendations for your rod are: Skagit - 475 grains AFS - 7/8 Windcutter - 7/8/9 or 8/9/10 Since those are Simon Gawesworth's preferences you might find you prefer something a little heavier. Depends on your ability as well as how deep a load you like. If you want to go with a skagit I'd suggest borrowing an Airflo Compact Skagit kit, then starting with the 480 grain head, see how you like it, then try one size heavier and one lighter.

Ed is Loomis and Simms pro-staff, and I think they also sponsored the video. Same with that Western River Conservation thing. I guess I'd rather see a bit of that if it makes the difference between the video getting made or not. Plus they're up front about it compared to most movies where all the computers are Macs, the characters only drink Coke, all the Transformers are GMs, etc.

I was thinking it might also be because a $50 head is less painful than a $70+ full line for a single hander. Plus if you already have a running line on your reel with loop to loop connections it's easy enough to switch out, try the new head, then put your old head back on if you don't like it.

An opinion piece from The Onion. Lots of four letter words, so if you're easily offended don't follow the link. Pretty funny though.

Never had a need to do it myself but I know people who have done it successfully.

Been tying some big stuff.

Fish Tales has a compact skagit kit that I've borrowed before to dial in a rod. Just go by the shop and ask if you can take it out for a few hours.

So there have been a lot of new lines for two-handed rods coming to market over the last couple of years - Compact Skagits and Scandis, Flights, Tactical Steelhead, Scandits, Skagit Shorts, Speydicator, and a bunch more I'm forgetting. This isn't a bad thing, but I noticed that when they do come out there's a big rush to try them out that you don't see with single-handed lines. You can give most people an all-around line like a GPX for their single hander and they'll be perfectly happy with it until it wears out. When I see a new single-handed line on the market I notice it without feeling any great urge to try one, but when I see a new two-handed line come out I can't wait to give it a try. In the last few years I've owned Rio Skagits, Windcutters, Flights, AFS heads, Airflo Compact Scandis and Skagits, Loop Multis, Beulah Elixirs, and a Snowbee Scandinavian. You can see the same thing on Speypages by the number of people asking about new lines and rushing to try them when they first hear about them. So why is this? Is it because we're hoping to find a "silver bullet" line to cover up casting deficiencies, we own more of the shorter lightweight rods that a lot of these new lines are being designed for, you need many more types of lines for different fishing situations with anadromous fish as opposed to resident fish, or is it that there are so many differences in rods and casting styles that we need all these different lines to make a setup "work" for us?

Will there be actual demo lines that we can try out? My one complaint has always been that you can test plenty of rods, but other than finding a shop or someone with the compact skagit or scandi kit it's difficult to test lines around here unless you buy them.

I think this is the line that they were originally calling the Delta Squeeze last year, so my guess is that it's a shorter version of their Delta multi-tip.

From what I recall there was a little bit about fishing technique. Mostly casting technique though.

If you actually believe that then I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.

Yeah, a lot like these guys.

A poll on a fly fishing site in Alberta of all places can hardly be considered even remotely statistically accurate. For someone who's always out to debunk "bad science" this should be pretty obvious to you. Unless of course you only take the science you disagree with to task and ignore the bad science you agree with...

http://speypages.com/speyclave/showthread.php?t=36077 Not exactly what you were asking, but the same concept. I use the red Gammies for my stingers and I get plenty of hook-ups on them. I've also tried the nickel ones and haven't noticed any difference. To me the colour of the fly is less important than presentation, profile, movement, and size so I guess I feel the same way about the hook colour.

http://www.apple.com/support/ or http://discussions.apple.com/index.jspa

And even when it warms up, please remember not to lay your fish on the ice for pictures, measurements, etc.