Portables for Athletes
I have to try some of these rice cake, power bar, power balls, for running, climbing and other activities.
One Fly, Two Flies
If you look back in time, you’ll find a few legendary anglers who filled extraordinary bags with just one fly, maybe two. Frank Sawyer and his pheasant tail nymph and grey goose come to mind (although he actually had 5 flies in all, including for lakes). Rim Chung and his RS2. Magical flies or perfect technique, a mere mortal would question? Truth is that it is a little of both. By doing 90% of all things perfectly you cannot catch 90% of the fish in a river. Only by doing 100% perfectly will you achieve that kind of success. Sawyer could average 20 trout an hour on just two flies, one in brown, the other in grey, in a variety of sizes, or even more on grayling for that matter on his Killer Bug. I have seen Rim have these banner days as well on public stretches with wild trout here in the West. The wonderful part of many of these flies are that they are very simple to tie, just some pheasant tail and wire, or yarn and wire, or sewing thread on a hook, in the case of a Yong Special. So how can such a simple fly be so effective? So what’s the secret? Perfection of a single technique and fly, in the hands of experts in presentation. Light lines, small flies, tied well and fished without drag, over finicky trout. Flies that are more a semblance of a midge or mayfly nymph with good segmentation. Simple but translucent bodies. Thin, elegant tapering of the fly bodies. Putting the fly where the fish are at, without drag. Exceeding concentration and strike detection. Excellent control of the fish once the hook is set,
What’s a choil on a knife used for?
"What is the purpose of the choil?" Many knives have a small choil. A choil is the cut away area, or notch, between the heel of the blade edge and the ricasso of a pocket knife blade and between the edge and the guard of a fixed blade knife. For many knives, the reason for a choil simply ad to do with the ability to sharpen the full length of the blade edge. In some instances a choil is not necessary because the blade is wider than the ricasso making it possible to sharpen the edge cleanly all the way to the heel. While a choil often adds to the visual appeal of a blade, that is not the reason for one to be used. A blade that does not require a choil. However, some makes have chosen to exaggerate the choil for use as a line cutter or bird wing cutter like in the knife below.
Horseman’s Spanish
"A la verga" -Holy shit... Ayuda me? -...can you help me... Put this shoe back on? ...esta caballo necessita una herradura.
Are You Ready to Fish Just One Fly?
Fly-Fishing Secrets of the Ancients: A Celebration of Five Centuries of Lore and Wisdom by Paul Schullery is a great read. One of my favorite sections, talks about whether anglers are really needing thousands of match the hatch imitations, or perhaps even just one fly. he found many anglers, even editors of fishing magazines, often used only a handful of patterns. Are you ready to fish one fly, like Rim Chung has with his RS2 for the last 30 years, albiet in six sizes and six different colors? It makes your fly fishing much more Zen like, at least for me anyway. And, I would be the first to switch back to my thousands of patterns that I carried as a commercial fly tyer if I caught more fish with them, but Rim's method is the most productive of any that I have ever seen. Are you ready for one fly? It is difficult to argue with Herd's comments. It makes sense that fly shops want to profit from selling as many flies as possible. In fact if they all worked like magnets, the average angler would be buying less flies, not more (so there is a lot of financial incentive for the industry to sell you flies you don't need). I saw this in the difference between American flies shops and those across the pond, which are spartan in comparison. It's not that our English and European brotheran catch less, they just buy less, as marketing and consumerism isn't as big of part of their daily lives, especially among anglers. But it's also true from experience that fishing the same fly over the same group of fish will eventually get old with those fish
Andy’s YKnot Fly
Photo Courtesy of Andy Kim This chronomid only hatches during the spring and fall, according to legendary guide and fish magnet, Andy Kim. But it doesn't have to be the prevalent insect in the water for trout to take your fly resembling it, as "sometimes big fish look for big meals," says Andy. The fly is killing it on our local waters and has become one of my favorite flies, not only to tie but to fish. You can buy the fibers from Andy to tie yourself, or better yet, just buy the flies from Andy at http://www.fly-fish.com/ because for only $3 each, you can't go wrong. And, take a lesson while you at it with Andy, because there is lot more to his success than simply copying his fly recipes. His method and skills are worth the costs of going back to him again and again, as you always pick up a little more each time, even for this seasoned angler. Tiemco 200R, size 18 and 20. Use red 8/0 thread and make about 4-5 wraps at the eye of the hook, after twisting bobbin counterclockwise about 20 times to make it lie flat on the hook. Tie in a Blondie AK Fiber on the near side of the hook and wrap to the bend. Wrap thread forward in ribs, spacing one wrap for every two thread wraps on the way back, so as to not make the fly body too thick. Stop at halfway point of fly and half hitch the thread. Wrap Blondie AK Fiber forward to halfway point and tie off with 2-3 wraps and cut off fiber. Twist red thread clockwise to make it a little thicker rope and wrap
Clay Pottery for Cooking
From Ferenc Recommendations on non-micaceous clay pots: I think Roemertopf ( Römertopf ) pots are the most flexible. They used to be made in Mexico, but are now made in Germany ( again ). The newer pots have a glazed bottom, so cleaning them after cooking is easier now. There's an out of print cookbook, which has lots of very good recipes for it: By the Editors of Consumer Guide Clay Cookery Some of our favorite recipes from it: Wedding Chicken From Crete, Gingered Roast Chicken with Nectarines, Ratatouille. The latter is our all time favorite. This pot is for the oven only. Though not made of micaceous clay, the Emile Henry pots can take a lot of heat. Some can be used on stove tops. You can even use soap to clean them. I use this one mostly for cooking chicken: Emile Henry Made In France Flame Oval Stewpot Dutch Oven, 6.3 quart, Charcoal Micaceous clay: Chamba You'd like the Chamba Cookware https://www.mytoque.com/pages/about-la-chamba-cookware ) soup pots for stews and soups. The Chamba pots are made from black clay. I use them on the stove top, but would work in the oven too. They're functional and beautiful. Güveç It's a Turkish clay pot. ( See for example: https://drojkent.wordpress.com/2013/02/12/istanbul-pots-and-cooking-guvec/ I make Turkish moussaka in it. Got that pot here: https://www.tulumba.com/products/3438-earthenware-non-coated-pot-medium/ But they don't always have it available. When I use clay pots on the stove top, I always use a flame diffuser, which I brought from Hungary. You can get similar stuff here too, of course ( see for example: http://www.bramcookware.com/index.php ). I soak and them scrub with baking soda--never use soap on my clay pots. Because of the different pots I have, I put
Favorite New Fly – Calgon Fly -Ancient Chinese Secret
The “Calgon” Effect: A Simple Fly That’s Quietly Dominating the Water In fly fishing, innovation rarely comes from reinventing the wheel. More often, it’s about refinement—taking what already works and distilling it down to its most effective elements. That’s exactly the thinking behind my newest go-to pattern: a deceptively simple fly with a tongue-in-cheek origin story and a serious track record on the stream. Originally dubbed the “Ancient Chinese Secret,” this emerging pattern—now better known as the Calgon fly—isn’t built on mystery, so much as mastery. It draws from a lineage of proven performers, blending the DNA of the Yong Special, Pat Dorsey’s Mercury series, and Rim Chung’s Plebby into a single, highly efficient design. At its core, the Calgon fly is a hybrid: the subtle profile and fish-catching instincts of the Andy Kim Yong Special meet the flash-triggering appeal of a Pat Dorsey-style mercury bead. The result is a clean, minimalistic pattern that’s easy to tie and even easier for trout to find irresistible. There’s also a nod to Rim Chung’s Plebby—a pattern known for its sparse elegance. Like the Plebby, the Calgon incorporates a thread-based tail, paired with a peacock-toned bead and fine wire ribbing. It’s a study in restraint, proving once again that less can be more when it comes to fooling pressured fish. The materials are straightforward but intentional. Tied with Coats & Clark thread, the Calgon fly comes in a range of productive hues: summer brown, olive, cream, chartreuse, and multiple shades of grey. Lately, medium grey (charcoal) has emerged as the standout—echoing the same tone Andy Kim favors in his Yong JR and consistently producing results across varied conditions. But perhaps the real secret to the Calgon’s success isn’t
Yong Special Featured in Fly Fisherman Magazine
Andy Kim is a legendary guide on the San Juan River for the past 20 years, after having fished extensively in Colorado and Utah. His 13 fly patterns are relatively simple impressionistic flies, yet they are the most deadly effective that I have ever come across in having fished with lots of guides and well-known anglers. The key, as he has told me several times, to his often imitated but never duplicated thread bodied nymph is "in the exact right shape and thickness, with a reasonably close color, not the exact material." The quest for his Yong Special tying thread, believing that is the secret to his fish catching success has become a hobby within a hobby to many. The truth is he has used a lot of materials over the years, but he is very meticulous about following the exact method of tying, as any deformity in the shape or abnormal tapering, etc., will effect the effectiveness of his simple midge patterns described in this Fly Fisherman Magazine article from 2001. Further, he is a master at presentation of the fly, using many different techniques. He teaches all of this to his clients so hiring him for a day is the key to starting to learn how the hell he catches so many fish. I have been hiring him for 20 years and took his three day one-on-one school, and I've just begun to scratch the surface, as he spends so much time on the water, that his methods and flies continue to adapt and improve with time. The name of the game on the San Juan River, where Andy guides, is to fish midge imitations (tiny ones). The San Juan River is filled
The Hooker and Royal Hooker Flies
The Hooker is a pheasant tail based nymph pattern devised by Rim Chung about 20 years ago. He ties it in brown with copper wire and black with silver wire, and used it extensively for many years, coupled in a two fly rig, with the RS2 as the point fly. While it was one of his most effective flies and even though he still uses it occasionally, he currently has mostly gone to his Avatar and Plebby as his more common upper fly. I created a similar fly made from DMC metallic embroidery thread 272 Blanc (which has been discontinued), that Rim dubbed the Royal Hooker. It works very well on the South Platte River, the Arkansas, and many other Colorado rivers, especially where cased caddis are present. Rim's brown and black ones work everywhere that there are mayfly nymphs, for as Frank Sawyer note, the nymphs tuck in their legs when swimming through the water and the midge nymphs do not have tails, so they may be taken for those as well as the mayfly nymphs.