March 2007

Via the marginally frightening crew at Moldy Chum comes this list of GORP’s (an outdoor site) “Top Ten Global Fly Fishing Spots”–which includes four top trout destinations:

• Hampshire, England
• North & South Islands, New Zealand
• Labrador, Canada
• Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

This comes on the heels of a UK Guardian list of the world’s top fishing spots, and interestingly, neither list includes a single destination in the United States.

• Sutherland, Scotland
• Lough Corrib, Connemara, Ireland
• South Stradbroke Island, Queensland, Australia
• Tusket River, Nova Scotia, Canada
• River Lochy, Queenstown, New Zealand
• River Lanio, Swedish Lapland
• River Moyola, Northern Ireland
• River Wye, Monsal Head, Derbyshire
• River Teifi, Wales
• Rio Grande, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

Huh?

Putting aside the world’s acknowledged #1 fly fishing opportunity (where you fish the Upper Sacramento River just for the chance to see me), we wonder what happened to the trouty fleshpots of the Rocky Mountain West?

Have they become so overrun with Brad Pitt wannabes that there’s no point in going?

Has the American Trout Fishing Experience been worn out by the post-movie onslaught, or is it just sooooo 1990s in an industry that thrives on hype instead of zen?

Or do the authors of both lists simply have their heads up their butts?

The Underground Wants to Know

At the Underground, we’re always poking sticks at things that would be better left alone, and there’s no reason to stop now.

Does the Rocky Mountain West contain any spots worthy of a Top 10 Fly Fishing list?

Is steelheading so existential that it none of the better rivers deserve recognition?

The floor is yours.

[tags]fly fishing, top 10, tierra del fuego, labrador, montana, brad pitt[/tags]

I’m mostly a bamboo and fiberglass guy, meaning I like rods that bend easily.

I think concerns about weight are way overblown, so as a result, modern, high-quality (and high-priced) graphite isn’t much in evidence in my rod closet.

So when I had the chance to score a high-end Orvis rod (disclosure: a trade) I went for a rod that played to graphite’s better qualities: a big fish/high winds/sinking line/streamer rod.

I went with a 9′ 6wt in the Orvis “mid flex” (7.5 flex), figuring I’d feel more at home with the taper than with the “tip flex” rods which I don’t much care for.

The wraps are simple, and the deep red blank is handsome.

I’ve fished the rod four times under winter conditions (it’s a special-purpose rod after all–if I waited until I used it a dozen times you’d be reading this a year from now), including a couple brief flings with a streamer, casting a dry, and [sigh] nymphing.

First.

I have some serious doubts about technology being the one true path to fly rod happiness, but I will say Orvis got the cosmetics right.

The Zero Gravity comes in a gorgeous, pebbled finish red tube, and the blank itself is handsome, deep red color. Pretty.

The wraps are clean and neat (what you’d expect from a high-end rod), and the guides appear to be standard

The new Orvis reel seats are shapely (and clearly lightweight) affairs, though they’re overshadowed a bit by the 7″ reverse wells grip, which is (to my preference) too long, though the center swell fills the hand nicely.

Of course, that kind of grip is pretty standard on today’s production rods, and if you’re a total pain in the ass about a grip, you’re probably buying custom rods anyway.

Gorgeous reel seat.

Enough About Pretty. Is it Manly?

You knew we’d get around to this eventually. First, this rod is–as advertised–as light as you’d expect it to be.

I know some fly fishers who obsess over the loss of an eighth of an ounce off their fly rod, a practice any bamboo fly rod guy finds oddly misplaced, but then, Sage, Loomis and others have been selling this kind of technology (with great success) for years, so you can hardly blame Orvis for following suit.

According to Orvis, the Zero Gravity rods use a thermoplastic resin, boron fibers and a unidirectional carbon scrim to produce blanks that are “25% stronger yet 25% thinner than comparable blanks, and 40% lighter.”

Clearly, fly rods are growing lighter, and as I understand it, the challenge nowadays is to retain some semblance of strength in the things, which I understand to be the real reason they went to the thermoplastic resin.

All I can say for sure is the rod didn’t break, and an Orvis dealer I spoke to said he had yet to see a broken one. And sadly, I haven’t yet fought a 28″ steelhead on the thing to truly test it.

If I do, you’ll hear about it soon enough.

So let’s just say the rod is clearly competitive on the technology front, give durability a tentative checkmark, and move on.

How Does it Fish?

Simply put, it casts nicely. Given that all high modulus graphite rods feel stiff to my hand, I found this rod a surprisingly smooth caster.

The tip was light enough to fish well at close range, yet the rod was certainly capable of throwing a lot of line. A lot.

My first tendency with a lot of modern graphite rods is to throw a heavier line on the thing to try and squeeze some semblance of feel out of the thing, and I was happily surprised to discover this Zero G rod didn’t need that.

Wayne Eng cast the rod and also felt it was “true” 6wt, so Orvis clearly got this part of the taper right.

Also surprising was the all-around “troubability” of the thing: modern freshwater 6wts are typically only fished over big trout and small steelhead, so you wouldn’t expect 6x delicacy from the thing, though in fact I did land a feisty 15″ trout on a 6x nymph dropper.

Score one for reasonable tapers.

I also threw a weighted streamer for a while, and the rod was certainly up to the job, though I have yet to find a rod where that kind of activity might be considered fun.

Of course, if high-modulus graphite rods have a sweet spot, it’s centered directly over nymphing, and I can say two things with certainty:

1. This rod nymphs extremely well–it’s strong enough to pitch a couple shot and excels at setting the hook. If I was a nymph fisher, I’d use this rod fulltime.
2. If fly fishing was only about indicator nymphing, I’d take up bowling.

All-Rounder

In truth, I was surprised at how nice the rod was, though I’m not busy listing my 5wt bamboo and glass rods for sale.

It’s at testament to the flexibility of medium tapers that this would probably make a nice all-around rod if you primarily fished freestone rivers or lakes, especially in windy/big fly situations.

If you were buying a rod specifically for flinging streamers the size of squirrels, then I’d do what Ian Rutter suggests and get a 7wt.

Still, if you were into high-tech rods and wanted a powerful-yet-all-around 6wt that fished lakes, stoneflies and freestoners (on windy days no less), then I’d have to give the Zero Gravity a thumbs up.

It would make a great windy-day back up to a 4wt that you could keep fishing after the wind died down (on anything short of a spring creek) and not give much away in terms of fishability or even tippet protection.

For a backwards, low-modulus kind of guy like myself, this is clearly a special-purpose rod, but–unlike some of the steeper, faster taper graphite rods I’ve tried–I could fish this one a large percentage of the time and not feel like I’d died and been sent to fly fishing hell for swearing on the Internet.

It’s a reasonable, fishable 6wt that does some things extremely well, which is about all you can really ask from a fly rod.

Orvis makes a damned pretty rod tube.

[tags]orvis, fly rod, orvis fly rod, zero gravity, zero gravity fly rod, graphite fly rod[/tags]

PacifiCorp’s “emissions-free” dams on the Klamath River have not only brought the once-mighty Klamath salmon runs to the brink of extinction (and the commercial salmon fishery along with it), but they’re also poisoning the lakes:

SACRAMENTO, CA- Today the Klamath Riverkeeper, the Karuk Tribe of California, and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Association (PCFFA) jointly petitioned for the California State Water Board to hold PacifiCorp accountable for dangerously high blooms of toxic blue green algae in Klamath reservoirs.

Since 2005, Iron Gate and Copco reservoirs have seen some of the most toxic blooms of the toxic algae Microcystis aeruginosa ever recorded in the United States (see http://www.karuk.us/press/06-08-08%20toxic%20reservoirs.pdf for details).

Health experts warn that even modest exposure to the toxin produced by the algae, called microcystin, can lead to skin rashes, vomiting, and diarrhea. High doses of the toxin, such as those found in the Klamath reservoirs each summer, could lead to massive liver failure and even death in humans. Microcystin also can poison and kill fish and wildlife.

Source: Groups Want PacifiCorp Held Accountable for Toxic Discharges into Klamath River : Indybay

Ahh, lovely stuff.

Let’s do the math.

These four hydro projects have destroyed a once-mighty salmon run, put much of the West Coast’s commercial salmon industry on the skids, damaged a huge sport fishing industry, and created a toxic stew every summer that’s so foul, swimming in it could lead to liver failure or even death.

What we get is only enough energy (sometimes) to power 70,000 houses–the cash equivalent of which isn’t even a small fraction of the economic impacts of these four dams.

Despite the fact that pretty much everybody on the planet knows what should be done, PacifiCorp is threatening to keep the salmon-extincting dams, sticking ratepayers with the costs of retrofitting them with fish ladders (which don’t address water quality issues).

Isn’t it time Warren Buffet of Berkshire-Hathaway (owners of PacifiCorp) said “enough” to this insanity?

Save a Salmon. Eat a Dam.

[tags]klamath river, klamath, pacificorp, salmon, karuk[/tags]

More peachy news on the environmental front from the Sacramento Bee:

Fall-run chinook salmon that make a home in the Sacramento River and its tributaries fell last year to their lowest numbers since 1992, according to estimates by the Pacific Fishery Management Council.

This is a surprise to fisheries managers, because the population was expected to be strong after commercial fishing was drastically curtailed last year to protect Klamath River fish. The rebound for Klamath salmon is likely to mean better fortunes for Pacific coast commercial fishermen this year.

Source: News - Sacramento River salmon take a dive - sacbee.com

It remains to be seen what this will mean to the commercial salmon fishing season, but the numbers are chilling:

That population includes American River fall-run chinook, and only 8,728 salmon returned to the Nimbus Hatchery on the river last fall, according to the state Department of Fish and Game. That’s the smallest number since 1997, well below the 2005 return of 22,349 fish. (ED: emphasis mine)

Ouch. The eggheads we pay to protect salmon stocks (and aren’t we getting our money’s worth) suggest the lack of an upwelling of food organisms, current changes, and perhaps “bad mojo” are causing the decline (OK, I added the “mojo”).

In truth, they don’t know. They don’t have a clue why the Central Valley salmon are suffering when the Klamath stocks have come back some, but there it is.

I’m taking orders for the Trout Underground’s new bumper sticker:

“Save a Salmon. Eat a Dam.”

As always, alternate bumper sticker concepts are welcome.

[tags]salmon, sacramento river, sacramento, nimbus, chinook, [/tags]

Just a quick post about two cool “new” fly fishing blogs.

In a prior post I mentioned the Teh Wind Knot; a literate site with an interesting view of life on the stream, yet I somehow managed to screw up my RSS feed and missed a couple gems.

Foremost among them was his series outing the membership list of the happy-to-privatize-your-rivers Spring Ridge Club in Pennsylvania.

Worth a visit.

The Wet Boots

Written by a soon-to-graduate college student, The Wet Boots is based in the Southeast . The author’s mission includes:

I want to show that there is a young group of anglers and writers who have a severe passion/obsession for this spiritual sport. Welcome to The Wet Boots. (No Bait Fishermen)

There you go.

[tags]fly fishing, blogs, blogging, teh wind knot, the wet boots[/tags]

From Flyfishmagazine comes the compelling story of a tiny rod and reel (30″) that its maker suggests would be perfect for tiny streams and brookies.

At the Underground, we know what this is really all about.

This the rig you haul out to make those 6″ trout look like footlong trout.

And a true 12″ fish would achieve world-record proportions in any cleverly composed photo.

From Flyfishmagazine:

I was able to cast one of these rigs at a fly fishing show a few years ago and found it to cast pretty well considering that it is only 30 inches long. This Micro Fly Rod and Reel from J. Austin Forbes Ltd. would make even the smallest brookie feel like a small tarpon.

Cast it? Who cares how it casts? We’re interested in how it photographs…

[tags]fly fishing, fly rod, flyfishmagazine[/tags]

MidCurrent dug up this great story a while ago (naturally, we stole his content for our own nefarious purposes).

Now there’s more on the steelhead fishing train from New West.

If you’ve forgotten, the steelhead train runs ten miles along the Wallowa River, and fishers are dropped off and picked up on a regular schedule.

Finally, train technology put to good use. From MidCurrent:

We first mentioned the Wallowa River Canyon fishing train back in January (read “Fast Train to Steelhead”), and this month New West’s Bill Schneider gives his take on the fanciful service, which lasts through the end of this month. “Fleser keeps careful track of his customers so leaves nobody behind, and he keeps a strict schedule. When the whistle blows three times, you better be on the train–unless you have a fish on, of course. ‘We brake for fish,’ Fleser admits.”

[tags]fly fishing, steelhead, wallowa, midcurrent, train[/tags]

It’s not as if there’s a lot of fishing going on around here. The good news (for me) is that I booked my early May trip to Tennessee.

This time, I’m hoping to avoid catching The Flying to Tennessee Death Flu a couple days before the flight.

This should allow me to remain conscious throughout the fishing portion of the trip (unlike last year, when a monster brown trout ate my streamer and I basically lost consciousness halfway through the hookset).

This trip’s already taking on a backcountry theme (I’ll likely backpack in the Smokies for three nights), and could also acquire a fiberglass-ish flavor on the fly rod end of things.

Expect nauseatingly detailed posts soon. It’s what I do.

The Southwestern Slaw Dog?

Those who remember last year’s trip to Tennessee should remember my photographs of the Phillips 66 gas station slaw dog.

Indeed, the slaw dog has been one of the Underground’s most-enduring topics.

Alert Reader Steve Bertrand pointed out the slaw dog may cross many cultural boundaries:

“Cody Thompson, 26 , is a loyal follower of the Sonoran hot dog.”

“Thompson, who says he has not a drop of Hispanic blood in his veins, became addicted to the South Side culinary staple after some “Spanish” coworkers took him to a roadside stand several years ago.” Source: Selecting Sonoran | www.azstarnet.com ®

Could this be the Southwestern Slaw Dog we never knew existed?

And could this very same slaw dog offer us a bridge between widely disparate cultures–a small handful of gas station/food stand tasty goodness that actually makes the world a better place to live?

The Underground thinks so. More on this as Alert Reader Steve Bertrand works up the courage to actually try one of the things.

A Big Equity Boomer Runs Through It.

From the Oregonian comes this “amusing-if-it-wasn’t-so-painfully-true” story about the invasion of the rural West by monied urban types, who no sooner buy into the lifestyle than they try to change it:

JOSEPH — Not wanting his Ferrari’s paint chipped by gravel, a landowner recently asked when workers from cash-strapped Wallowa County planned to pave the 21/2-mile road to his ranch.

A homeowner near Wallowa Lake wanted county commissioners to do something about the manure from horses that people ride on the road outside her house. Source: A fat wallet runs through it

It’s tempting (and very easy) to positively launch ourselves down the class wars road, but in truth, the rural folks don’t have a monopoly on righteousness either, and the whole gig–for me at least–has become more an economic question than one of social injustice.

How will the Western rural lifestyle survive in the face of added economic environmental pressures? In other words, how do you move somewhere for the fish and game when your very presence their makes both less viable?

Rutter Sees Bugs. Underground Insanely Jealous.

Much of this post seems to have a Tennessee theme.

For example, I’m about to point you to Ian Rutter’s fishing report, where the bastard–fresh from a triumphant trip to Belize–reports the presence of the first mayflies of the spring on his Tennessee home waters.

We’re a long ways away from fishable hatches out here, so naturally, I hate Ian’s guts.

Seems fair to me.

[tags]fly fishing, tennessee, ian rutter, oregon,[/tags]

Three small fish wouldn’t send most fly fishers into fits of ecstasy, but I’d have been happy with no fish at all.

I don’t want to go all dark and existential on the Underground, but there are days when hanging around the house for even one more hour is a one-way ticket to family discord, if not divorce court.

So instead of torturing the rest of the household, I went to the river.

Once there, I flogged the water with a weighted streamer (gathering data for my upcoming graphite rod review), but fighting the current got old, and I just laid on a sunny rock and listened to the river go by.

For about an hour.

For those who–like me–have been too long from the river–I reproduced that effect in a video:

Later, I swapped the streamer rig for a red brassie, and had four quick grabs (getting three to my feet) in a trio of pocket water runs.

The fish were in the 10″-12″ range, which suggests the little fish are waking up.

They’re typically not much seen during the winter, so the good news is maybe winter is going away.

Of course, that’s what I say every March, and it’s more an artifact of wishful thinking than reality.

Still reality is overrated, and I’m sticking with my words. The little fish are waking up. Winter’s ending. Report finished.

[tags]fly fishing, upper sac, upper sacramento river, trout[/tags]

Yesterday I received an e-mail from a trip coordinator looking for suggestions. Which just became a question for the Undergrounders.

Her firm was taking its best customers on a two-day fly fishing junket in May, and wanted a luxury destination–a place where the sports could enjoy excellent (guided, I assume) fly fishing while the non-fly fishers and spouses would be pampered.

Frankly, I’d rather contribute to Nestle’s latest “strong-arming” strategy session than spend too much time at a luxury resort, but hey–let’s help this poor woman out.

Given that the company’s based in the USA, the trip’s only two days of fishing (so traveling three days to Christmas Island is probably out), and she wants this to happen in May.

What would you suggest?

Keep in mind the time of year. And think luxury, you magnificent bastards.

[tags]fly fishing, lodge, luxury trip[/tags]

The MidCurrent blog is three hours ahead of the Trout Underground, so he gets to all the good stories first. I’d be cranky about it, but in truth, it just makes my life that much easier.

This time, Marshall uncovered a bit in the San Diego Union-Tribune about the new “early” season regulations allowing fishing in the Eastern Sierra.

There seems to be a bit of confusion about the regulations (given the non-impact of a winter season on the Upper Sacramento, expect to see more winter fly fishing in the state).

From MidCurrent:

“‘When we didn’t see any other fishermen by 9 a.m. we thought we messed up and actually called Fish and Game from the river to make sure we weren’t breaking any laws,’ said Gary Conway, 60, who drove seven hours with his fishing buddy, Dennis Stevens, 60, from Solvang to fish the Upper Owens River.”

I read the whole story in the San Diego paper, and caught myself wondering if a lot of fly fishers aren’t a few flies shy of a full box, if you get my drift, but I suppose they catch a break because the signs were wrong.

More interestingly, I thought the local Sheriff’s objections to an early season (”Scholl wondered how many search-and-rescue operations would be needed for fishermen not accustomed to fishing in freezing temperatures and driving on snow-covered roads”) were ludicrous.

 
Fly fishers unsafe at any speed? C’mon…

If the roads are dangerous, close ‘em. If not, well, people are allowed to drive on them.

Anyway, here’s today’s question: are fly fishers simply too dumb to figure out minimally complex regulations? And if not, are they incapable of driving in winter conditions?

Discuss…

[tags]fly fishing, season, sierras, midcurrent, california[/tags]