I haven’t owned one of those aggressively front-loaded, big-bug throwing fly lines in well over a decade, but given my desire to get back to throwing poppers at bass from a float tube, it seemed like time.

Especially given the $23 price tag.

A reservoir trout -- and a good reason to own a handful of 6wt fly lines

(In this post, the Underground rolls out the Index Rating the rest of the fly fishing industry has sadly neglected: The Risk To Relationship Rating. An R2RR rating of 23 is pretty safe; a rating of 800 [e.g. -- for one of the new high-end fly rods] puts you firmly in the red zone.)

Still, no purchase ever goes unpunished, and in this case, adding another 6wt line has added a little juice to my only real source of fly fishing gear angst.

I don’t have any place to put them all.

I’ve got five 6wt fly lines, but only one 6wt reel:

• A slow-sinking clear intermediate line (my “go-to” stillwater line)
• A faster-sinking (Type 3?) solid line
• An Outbound streamer line
• A standard DT floating line
• A Bass Bug line (as soon as it arrives, anyway)

Only two of the above are actually found on reels, and one is mounted on an old Teton Tioga, which may be strong enough to withstand a nuclear strike, but which is, I’ve decided, way too damned heavy.

(I’m not one of those anal types whose reels have to balance their rods perfectly, but even I have my limits. It’s voted off the island, paving the way for my followup gear post: The Underground Closeout Sale).

Stillwater guru [Name Redacted] impressed me with his stillwater system; a couple of those truly affordable synthetic fly reels and a handful of extra spools (sadly, he managed to misplace the reels last season).

He liked their affordability (a former government employee, he said they were “Forest Service cheap“) and the fact they weighed almost nothing.

Both of which are sounding pretty good.

As a man who has caught a lot of very big trout on lakes, if he says they work, then they work.

So I turn to the Undergrounders for their advice.

The Reel System

I can find a reel for my floating line. Which leaves those four other specialty fly lines.

Is the smart play to buy a pair of synthetic fly reels and a handful of spare spools? (Orvis sells a $49 budget model with $25 spare spools, so the Risk To Relationship Rating is $150.)

Or do I risk matrimonial eviction and pony up for a pair of mid-range reels and a couple spare spools? (Risk To Relationship Rating of $330.)

Note that I’m looking at two reels. There are times when one sinking fly line isn’t enough, and despite what the popular literature would have you believe, changing spools while fishing is not a particularly quick or relaxing process.

Has anyone else come up with an affordable system that doesn’t lead to the immediate filing of divorce papers?

Keep in mind I’m not a reel snob; I own one of the Winston/Hardy Perfects (a tradeout) and one of those high-end Ross fly reels meant to mimic the original Etna-built Ross. I bought both a bargain prices, but I can safely say I’d have done just fine without either of them.

In fact, there’s something to be said for fishing with reels affordable enough to not generate a sharp, worried intake of breath every time you stumble.

Underground Gear Fiends, the floor is yours.

See you juggling 6wt fly lines, Tom Chandler.

Instead of going to show and uncritically gushing about all the like totally awesome gear I see, I’m going to instead shovel the interesting new product announcements to the Undergrounders via cleverly disguised PR posts (which I’ll label as “PR Posts”).

That way, I can preserve my limited stock of “gush” for things like actual fishing reports and essays.

Enjoy, Undergrounders. Tomorrow we’ve got some interesting news from Orvis, and whatever else comes across my desk. (Given my lack of interest in publishing prior press releases, it turns out I’m not on all that many media lists. Who knew?)

Buff Gear

Buff – the makers of the handy “tube” headwear so beloved by the Underground has expanded its line of tubes with Polygiene treatment (designed to keep the synthetic tube from smelling like crap after one use) and its Insect Shield treatment (described below):

The Polygiene® treatment lasts a lifetime and effectively blocks 99.9-percent of odor-causing agents. Additionally, it reduces static electricity and has a soft, next-to-skin feel.
Polygiene® does not contain any harmful substances and is 100-percent safe to wear.

Insect Shield® is a man-made version of a natural insect repellent found in certain types of chrysanthemum plants; think of it as invisible, odorless, non-toxic and wearable insect protection.

I like the Buff products for all sorts of reasons (and all sorts of weather), and while I’m not above springing for a less-expensive substitute, I use the things enough that I probably will tumble for the real thing.

Simms Rebate

Simms is throwing down a $50 rebate on your old waders if you buy a new pair of Simms. From their email:

We couldn’t have made it any easier. Just register online for your rebate voucher, locate a participating retailer, trade in your old pair of breathable waders and you receive up to $50 off immediately.

Fly Rod & Reel

Things are picking up for Fly Rod & Reel magazine, who reports a 15% growth in readership from 2009. Obviously, I don’t know if the improved “quality” of the magazine is responsible (it would help newsstand sales), though their press release doesn’t offer up any subscriber information:

…verified reports on issues served through the mail plus newsstand show Fly Rod & Reel is reaching more than 51,000 fly-fishers—a 15 % growth in readership from 2009. “The numbers came in for our March 2010 issue, and they’re whopping. This was the first issue of FR&R with our new upscale format and readers voted a resounding ‘yes’ to our upgrades. For example, we sold nearly 14,000 copies on newsstand.

Hardy USA

Launches two new lines of high-tech fly rods:

…their new Zenith freshwater and Proaxis saltwater ranges of fly rods. Each range is built with Hardy’s proprietary new Sintrix material. Sintrix is the result of ground breaking technology in the use of Silica Matrix Resin technology in collaboration with the 3M Corporation.

Hardy has developed their own specific formulation from this technology, and the results have been extensively field tested over the past 18 months. Their team of fishing pros from the Florida Keys to Montana has hailed the rods as truly innovative and exceptional fishing and casting tools.

The Sintrix material allows the design team to build the first series of rods that combines the best attributes of the modern reserve-power, fast action fly rods with the more technical requirements of tracking, tippet protection and a taper that shifts the load to the butt when you need to lay into the fish.

3M Corporation is offering up a new resin technology for graphite rods that is popping up like Dandelions in spring, and while those who worry about eighths of an ounce in their fly rod want to know more, I still haven’t forgotten that 3M bought the Bill Phillipson Rod Company and then shut it down (bastidges!).

Never speak their name around the Underground again.

See you in the PR Department, Tom Chandler.

I call it: “Revolutionary, or Just A Bunch Of Hot Air?”

The premise is simple; marketers are fond of describing their latest/greatest/fastest/lightest product as Revolutionary.

Yet most simply aren’t.

In fact, to most observers, fly fishing is recognizably the same sport now as it was at the turn of the 20th century, suggesting even our “revolutions” are barely evolutionary (though it’s possible we look sillier now than we did then).

Has any development in the last 70 years truly “revolutionized” the sport of fly fishing?

First, The Obvious Answer…

While I might listen politely to an argument suggesting graphite fly rods revolutionized fly fishing, I’d suggest they really haven’t.

After all, someone casting fiberglass or bamboo looks pretty much the same as someone casting graphite.

You might argue that graphite made more extreme versions of fly fishing (saltwater fishing) more available to “average” anglers, but I’d suggest the majority of fly fishermen (certainly the freshwater fly fishermen) would do just fine with “older” rod materials.

So is graphite really revolutionary, or evolutionary? And in that same vein, can a graphite rod that’s simply lighter really be revolutionary?

What Else?

Any ideas?

Breathable waders may have saved hundreds (if not thousands) of fat, sweaty fly fishermen from heatstroke, but you’d be hard-pressed to convince they “revolutionized” the sport (though you’re welcome to try).

Any other ideas?

I’ve got one – and you’re going to hate it.

The Indicator

Indicator nymphing – and its close cousins – are relatively new to fly fishing (many date “modern” nymphing to the post-war era).

And hate it or love it, the lowly bobbicator has clearly changed the sport – physically, visually, and yes – viscerally.

Hire a guide, and they’ll probably fire up an indicator rig, regardless of your claimed expertise level. I once fished with a guide who actually threw a hissy fit because I’d decided I’d caught enough fish on a nymph, and broke out the dry fly rod.

And in truth, most newbies learn to indicator nymph before anything else – and many even believe it’s what fly fishing “is.”

So the indicator (bobbicator, whatever) seems to have physically changed the sport of fly fishing.

In other words, revolutionized it.

Any others?

With the IFTD show looming – and the hype meter probably about to get pegged – can any of the Undergrounders make a case for “revolutionary?”

Can any of fly fishing’s marketers?

As the announcements stream forth from the show, we’ll monitor them for words like “revolutionary” – and let the Undergrounders decide…

See you in marketing hell, Tom Chandler.

UPDATE: Some interesting thoughts (and a few rants) in the comments below. I added two more potentially revolutionary items in a comment below. You’ll be suprised, and at least some of you will be outraged…

Your hat. The cold beer back at the truck. Underwear that don’t creep. Your camera.

In my case, add a pocket notebook to the pile.

Does carrying a notebook tell you much about me as a fly fisherman? I'm betting it does...

Notebooks are an artifact of the fishing journals I used to keep; I carried a notebook so I’d have someplace to jot down trip details before they disappeared from my brain.

Temperatures, flies, ideas – even the odd paragraph of an essay.

I stopped writing a fishing journal years ago (probably too busy writing here), but the notebook still goes most everywhere I do, probably because I’m what a marketing colleague called a “background thinker.”

Stuff churns around in the back of my head, and eventually – when I’m not really aware of it – something pops up.

That it often happens in the middle of the river is revealing, and probably offers concrete proof of something fly fishermen have long suspected: Knocking off work and going fly fishing is actually good for the economy.

(When do I collect my Nobel Prize?)

Wet Tech

For a while, I experimented with a digital voice recorder and even my cell phone, but I can offer sad, waterlogged proof that mixing water-soluble electronic devices with a river offers some very real (and expensive) drawbacks.

Which neatly circles us back to the cheap, no-batteries-needed notebook.

Early on, I carried those miniature marbled “Composition” books, and while they were cheap and offered plenty of paper, the covers rarely survived a second trip.

Lately I’ve tumbled for these plain, hugely nostalgic “Field Notes” notebooks.

They’re not waterproof, but they’re durable (the covers survive everyday life). Inside the back cover you’ll find production notes – alongside a tongue-in-cheek list of “practical applications.”

These include “Half-Ass Calculations,” “Roadtrip Mileage,” “Tall Orders” and “Last Will/Testament” – all of which seem oddly applicable to most fly fishing trips.

In an age of hyperventilated marketing, I’m a sucker for a quiet, subversive sense of humor, and when I see it in a company, I’m probably going to buy the product.

Some of the real commandos out there might prefer a waterproof notepad, but I always figure my job is to *not* drop the thing in the water, and besides, any thoughts I have in the rain are probably dark, and don’t need to be recorded.

What Does Your Gear Say About You?

Waylay a fly fisherman mid-stream, force him to pull out his gear, and you’ll inevitably find a few items unconnected to fly fishing, but deeply connected to the fly fisherman.

Sometimes that connection borders on the superstitious (lucky hat), but gather up all the pieces, and you’ve likely drawn a portrait of the fisherman in question.

For example, cameras and notebooks suggest I’m almost as interested in the stuff surrounding the fishing as the fish – a concept supported by a preference for small streams and soft fly rods.

It’s also evidence of what one frustrated fishing partner called “a lack of killer instinct.”

That was brought on by my willingness to wait for an impending hatch (to dry fly types, a hatch is always “impending”) instead of nymphing the runs.

Most of the Undergrounders carry similar stuff, the little bits and pieces of which can be assembled into a psychological profile (eerily similar to those used to catch serial killers, but let’s not dwell on that for now).

If you emptied your vest on the tailgate, what assumptions would we make about you?

See you at the psych evaluation, Tom Chandler.

I suggested more military surplus gear might find its way to the Budget Underground’s pages.

And why not?

Military “surplus” gear lacks panache (and any semblance of style), but it’s generally rugged and often attractively priced.

And if one thing’s become clear, it’s that the Undergrounders are a bunch of cheap bastards thrifty fly fishermen, and when our readers cry out for relief from pressing economic conditions, the Underground answers [strike heroic post].

Included in the descriptions below are links to a couple Cheap Gear Sources. Bear this in mind: I’m not suggesting these are the only places to get this stuff, and I’m also not benefiting in any way from the sale.

I’m just a giver, that’s all. A giver.

The Tube-Style Headwrap (The Buff)

You’ll find a lot of anglers wearing Buff headgear these days – especially those in sun-drenched saltwater environments.

They’re basically tubes of breathable fabric – a lightweight version of the venerable neck gaiter.

I was skeptical of the things – until I ran into a cloud of truly aggressive mosquitoes, and found only an empty bottle of repellent.

In desperation, I wore the Buff over my face and neck (my hat went on top), and while it was a little warm and fogged my glasses (eyeglass wearers know exactly what I mean), it was a hell of a lot better than a few dozen mosquito bites.

Speaking as someone who happily avoids the sun whenever possible, I’ve also pressed my tube headwear into a solar-avoidance role, and it worked – without wholly cooking me in the process.

Problem is, I lost my Buff.

And it turns out, they’re expensive ($20+). If you’re interested in one of their colorful patterns or anti-microbial/UV blocking tubes, then by all means buy the Buff.

If you can live with Olive Drab or Desert Tan, you can find a military-issue headwrap (Buff-style) product here – for $8.

They’re lightweight and basically disappear into the back pocket of a vest or chest pack, so you’ll do yourself the favor of always having one on hand when you really need it.

Like the affordable Boonie hat, I can’t see a reason you wouldn’t have a couple of these stashed in your gear.

They’ve become a staple on my small stream trips; they’ll protect you from sunburn (or more importantly, from more sunburn), keep you warm on cool days, and turn an irritating cloud of mosquitoes into background noise.

I risk ridicule, but not mosquito bites.

For $8.

At that “such a deal” price, buy a couple and squirrel them away (buy now, thank us later).

Identify Yourself

Ever leave a vest, bag, duffel or other piece of gear behind – without any ID attached?

(No, of course I haven’t – my mind is sharp as a #20 dry fly hook.)

However, it could conceivably happen to one of you, and when it does, you’ll be glad you’re a regular Underground reader.

We give you the US military dog tag.

They’re cheap, they’re durable, they’re custom – and with the included chains, they attach easily to a pack, vest, duffel, briefcase or other bag that can get left behind by aging, forgetful fly fishermen.

In simple terms, they offer a good Samaritan a chance to find the real owner.

And yes, if you’re struck by lightning or rendered unconscious by your own faulty backcast, wearing a dog tag might help folks find out who you are and how they can reach your family – especially if you’re like me and you often don’t carry your wallet into the wilderness.

Custom dog tags (complete with chain and rubber “silencers”) cost only $6/pair at The Command Post site, so for $12, you get four personalized tags – one to wear on a chain and three to scatter among your easily misplaced gear.

You may begin thanking me at any time.

Wader Aid

Small stream fishermen spend a lot of time hiding behind low-to-the-ground things, which means you either develop Lance Armstrong-level quads and squat, or you chew the crap out of your knees (and pinhole your expensive waders).

If you lean towards the latter, then you’ve no doubt ‘enjoyed’ that special moment when you find yourself hopping around on one knee while trying to dislodge the pointed rock from your kneecap.

It hurts, it’s not pretty, and there’s always the chance someone with a video camera will tape the event, landing you squarely on YouTube at one of your least photogenic moments.

The solution?

Silly, but effective (no pinholes)

I bought a pair of these last year – when it became clear I was spending a lot of time fishing from my knees, and they weren’t happy about it.

Decades ago, I carried a pair of sizable “drywall” knee pads on fishing trips in an effort to avoid all those wader pinhole leaks that irritated the hell out of me.

Those worked (to a point), but didn’t stay up while walking and took up a fair amount of space in a daypack.

When I lost them, I didn’t bother to replace them.

Still, I recently went looking for a replacement, and discovered that a lot of US Special Forces troops wear knee protection in the form of “tactical” knee pads.

The newer, slimmer “tactical” knee pads stay on your knees better than the old geezers, and while they’re not exactly comfortable (you won’t wear them when you don’t need them), they’re good enough to carry along in the car.

For example, on my last small stream trip, I didn’t wear the things on the freestone part of the trip, but unlimbered them for the meadow portion, where you pretty much have to fish from your knees if you’d like to accomplish more than spooking trout.

Several different brands are available, but these are pretty cheap ($15), seem to work well, and are even available in camo colors.

It’s hard to imagine whipping these out on the Upper Sacramento River, but easy to see the benefits on a smaller venue, especially if you’re wet wading, and your knees are wholly unprotected.

Your knees will thank us…

See you at the surplus store, Tom Chandler.

The numbers were reported by the National Sporting Goods Association in an SNEWS article:

Among equipment categories with sales of more than $1 billion in 2009, hunting & firearms showed the greatest percentage increase. Sales of hunting & firearms equipment rose 14% to $5.2 billion from $4.5 billion in 2008.

By only a few million dollars, exercise equipment remained the largest individual equipment category surveyed by NSGA. Sales of exercise equipment decreased 2% to $5.2 billion.

Among other equipment categories with sales of more than $1 billion, only sports optics and camping showed increases. Sports optics rose 4%, to $1.07 billion. Camping equipment sales grew 2%, from $1.46 billion in 2008 to $1.5 billion in 2009.

In other $1 billion-plus sales categories, golf equipment and fishing tackle experienced double-digit declines. Golf equipment sales fell 19% to $2.84 billion. Fishing tackle fell 10% to $1.9 billion.

Were it not for a 14% increase in the firearms industry (growth which seems to be disappearing in 2010), the outdoor industry as a whole would have suffered a bigger drop than the 3% reported.

With new fly fishermen not exactly streaming into the sport, and every fly fishermen already the proud owner of a couple dozen fly rods, guessing at bigger drops in fly fishing’s industry pie isn’t exactly a stretch.

And you have to wonder how the high-end (and high-margin) products like fly rods and reels performed. (Any guesses from the Undergrounders?)

The Good News?

In the past, I’ve criticized the American Fly Fishing Tackle Association (AFFTA) for its lack of transparency and deeply flawed decision-making process.

Yet – in the interest of giving credit where it’s due – the “new” AFFTA seems focused on communicating better (note the news feed on the site, and the AFFTA email newsletter is packed with info).

While I’m less interested than most in seeing hordes of new fly fishermen clogging the rivers, an industry less focused on catfights and more focused on issues of sustainability, legislative issues and youth recruitment can only be a positive.

It’s expensive.

And while the Underground rarely does product posts, I mis-clicked somewhere – and stumbled on what may be fly fishing’s ultimate mobile phone:

The Casio G’Zone Brigade is water resistant, shock resistant and – according to the Web site – it’s also a “navigation system-ready, camera/camcorder cell phone.”

In other words, it’s perfectly capable of taking our irritating hero pics; shooting video of our fly fishing partner stepping into that five-foot deep hole; getting us good and lost with the GPS; and then letting us make that pathetic “I’m lost” call for help.

What more could a fly fisherman want?

(And to think manufacturers are wary of my equipment reviews.)

The Mobile Question

Mobile phones used to be persona non grata among some on the stream, but that prohibition largely went away after some anglers [cough]Dave Roberts[cough] realized cell phones were the ideal way to reach out and touch those trapped in their offices instead of out on the river.

Now cell phones are pretty much par for the course; given the aging fly fishing demographic, phones probably aren’t the worst thing you could carry.

And frankly, the new phones offer so much more functionality than prior units.

Instead of just calling to taunt your friends, you can now instantly send them photos (and video). Clearly, humanity has advanced greatly the last couple years.

Given the Underground’s deep and abiding hatred of his Blackberry Storm phone, this ruggedized little baby could soon find its way to a blogger near you.

Naturally, the Undergrounders are encouraged to weigh in.

See you making underwater phone calls, Tom Chandler.

Fly fishing when ice is as common as the water offers its own challenges...

(Whether that’s good or bad depends entirely on your feelings about impressing other fly fishermen with Jack London fishing stories)

In the “old” days (like upwards of four years ago), cold weather meant a couple base layers, at least one fleece layer (perhaps two), and a wading jacket.

It kept you warm, but was bulky, and god forbid the sun came out or you decided to hike thirty minutes to another spot.

Fleece is wonderful stuff, but it doesn’t compress at all, and most wading jackets don’t exactly crush down to fist-sized wads.

In other words, those layers are hell to stuff into the back of a vest.

Fly fishing in the winter: You're dealing with a lot of variables.

“Warm” when you’re standing stock still in a river waving a stick at a BWO hatch is different from “warm” when you’re briskly skiing or hiking to the river.

And while layering is a useful concept, it doesn’t always adapt well to circumstances where you can peel away a layer, but lack a place to put it once you do.

Like when you’re fly fishing.

First, The Soft Shell Arrives

A truism about being outdoors in the winter is that “way too warm” is almost always worse than “a teensy bit cold.”

That’s because overheating leads to sweat, which leads to hypothermia, which is why – two winters ago – I expressed my love for Patagonia’s Insulator soft shell jacket.

It was a brilliant piece of engineering – one I found desirable for its adaptability and serviceability across a very wide range of temperatures.

To refresh, Patagonia’s Insulator soft shell isn’t bulky, insulates nicely, repels water and wind, yet moves moisture like the California Aqueduct – so hiking/skiing fly fishermen don’t become sweat-soaked hiking/skiing fly fishermen.

My Insulator soft shell sheds water, but stays warm even when it gets wet.

It’s become my all-around cold-weather fishing jacket – one I wear even when I’m not fly fishing (chicks dig me in it).

On this winter’s pair of ski/fish trips, I never really needed anything besides my Insulator soft shell – a startling confession given the difference between standing in 38 degree water and xc-skiing for 50 minutes up a steep hill.

Still, despite my love of the soft shell, they do run run second best when temperatures fall below freezing – especially if you’re not hiking, skiing or generating any heat of your own.

When it’s real cold and you’re simply standing in a river – or in the front of a drift boat – something warmer would make for a happier fly fisherman.

Soft shells don’t react well to a lot of base layers, so you can’t simply throw a few long-sleeve underlayers on when it gets cold.

In other words, when it’s truly cold, it’s not your best choice.

Welcome to Nano and Micro territory.

Cue The Happier Fly Fisherman

A while after I sprung for the Patagonia Insulator, I also bought Patagnoia’s Micro Puff jacket – a piece of clothing recommend by every mountain guide I spoke to (and mountain guides know from cold).

And yes, I discovered it’s everything they said it was – unbelievably light, windproof, water resistant, extremely compressible, warm when wet, and… very warm.

Really warm.

In fact, it’s often a little too warm for an active fly fisherman in this part of the country.

I wore it – and loved it when I needed it – but kept bumping against an unfortunate reality; the Micro Puff overheated me within minutes of starting a hike or if the sun came out.

Which is often how my fly fishing goes.

My army-drab Micro Puff jacket: Great when you need it, too warm when you don't.

I ended up wearing the Micro Puff when I knew I’d be standing in the front of a drift boat, or fishing a single, waist-deep run when it was very cold. And basically loved every second of it.

Lightweight and supple, I hardly knew it was there.

Yet the fly in the ointment is that the Micro Puff was often too warm for this area’s above-arctic temperatures, though on a pair of occasions I was damned glad I had it along. And yes, it almost always came “along” – it compresses into a sack about the size of a small lunch bag.

If I lived farther north – like one of those deluded souls who inhabit northern Montana or Idaho – my Micro Puff would probably never leave my body.

My mountain guide friends use the things endlessly; they ski or climb in their soft shells, but once they stop for any length of time, out comes the Micro Puff, which fits over their soft shell, keeping them warm while their disgustingly fit guide bodies stop burning calories.

As I discovered, that works better at 10,000′ than it does at 2500′.

This year, looking for a kinder, gentler version of the Micro Puff, I tumbled for Patagonia’s Nano Puff pullover (Disclosure: despite being handsome and thrifty and frankly deserving of a lot more free swag than I actually get, I bought my Nano Pullover, though got a “media” discount).

Nano Perfection

In essence, the Nano is an even lighter variation off the Micro Puff jacket; less insulation wrapped in an even smaller package (it stuffs into its own pocket, which is about the size of a small, thick paperback book).

The Nano Pullover (photo stolen from Patagonia)

Despite its “floats on air” mass, it’s still windproof, still water “resistant” and yes – quite warm.

Just not too warm.

I still wouldn’t wear it while skiing, but it’s so damned small and light that I can bring it along when I do.

Couple it with a baselayer and a rain jacket (for when it really rains), and I’ve got something that will work right down to the temperatures where it’s really too cold to fish.

The Nano I bought was so well received in the Underground’s household that it almost immediately disappeared into the L&T’s cavernous closet.

She found it indispensable for downhill skiing, post-xc-skiing, and just generally wearing around town.

This meant that – when I needed it for fishing – it was usually gone, and while Patagonia still has to answer for almost causing a divorce, I finally broke down and ordered a women’s model for the L&T, reclaiming mine by force when hers arrived.

Who says money can’t buy happiness?

A portrait of the writer being happily warm...

The Lightweight Revolution: A Plea For Sanity

Fly fishing tends to lag other (higher-tech) outdoor sports on the clothing front, and why not?

Despite a lot of videos to the contrary, fly fishing is not an “extreme” sport in the climactic sense, and I think we’re only experiencing the lightweight/minimalist revolution that has shaped mountaineering and backpacking the past ten years.

In essence, it’s no longer considered smart (or fashionable) to carry 65 pound backpacks on weekend trips or lug huge technical daypacks on simple ski trips.

Older Bro Chandler – who once lugged backpacks in the 45 pound range – has embraced backpacking’s lightweight revolution, and now routinely finds himself shouldering three-day packs weighing less than 20 pounds.

Even though wide-angle distortion makes it bigger than it really is, you can tell the Nano Puff packs small.

Materials advances have accounted for some of the weight loss, as has a willingness to cut out the useless crap that was formerly used to conquer the wilderness instead of simply passing through it.

Accounting for most of weight loss is an embrace of minimalism, which means that an ultra lightweight tarp might be prove just as useful as a tent, and that the equipment itself didn’t exactly need to be built to resist nuclear attacks.

A case in point is the Older Bro’s old Dana backpack, which was state of the art a decade ago. Unloaded, it weighed in at a manly 8.5 pounds, and literally would last forever.

Today, his bare Osprey pack weighs just over three pounds.

One difference is the design philosophy – buying goodies made to last four lifetimes is great, except that hardly anybody backpacks more than a dozen times a year, or needs bombproof straps, or needs all those straps to being with.

And five pounds is five pounds.

Invoking the same design philosophy across every category of gear has resulted in people hiking the Pacific Crest Trail with (admittedly extreme) 10 pound packs.

We may be on the verge of seeing the beginnings of that thinking today in fly fishing – wading jackets are getting lighter (and thinner), minimalist chest packs are appearing, and even wading boots seem to be on a diet.

Every time I drag my fly fishing gear to an alpine lake, I couldn’t be happier.

My soft shell remains at the center of my winter fly fishing universe, but I can also stuff my Marmot Precip rain jacket (very light) and a Nano Puff in the back pocket of my chest pack (they both fit), and be ready for everything from a frozen downpour to a hard ski out of the river canyon in brilliant sunshine.

The Frozen River: What do you wear to fish this?

If the forecast was for really cold temps – and I was standing on the front of a drift boat or waist deep in a steelhead run all day long – I’d pop for the Micro Puff and my soft shell, and If I had to wear both together and still wasn’t warm, I’d know I needed to get the hell out of there.

One caveat to all this lightweight love is this: My Nano Puff pullover is nowhere near as durable as my Filson waxed cotton wading jacket.

If I repaired trucks or trimmed trees for a living, I wouldn’t wear a Nano to work.

The Micro and Nano’s whisper light fabric has held up so far, but a guide rowing a boat every day might opt for something more durable (and heavier), and that makes sense.

Still, I think the lightweight revolution is peeking out from around the edges of the fly fishing world.

All the major fly fishing manufacturers now offer soft shell jackets, and Orvis is touting its sonic welded seam wader and wading jacket technology for lightweight, packable waders and jackets.

(A report is coming on the Orvis packable waders as soon as they’ve been put through their paces, though I can say the sonic seam waders may well get a workout whenever I’m away from the Upper Sac’s wild blackberries).

Simms offers what appears to be a lightweight insulated jacket in the same vein as Patagonia’s Micro/Nano jackets (though Simms doesn’t offer weight data), and almost everyone is throwing their hat in the minimalist vest/chest pack/sling bag ring.

In other words, the days of carrying enough gear (and enough overbult gear) to invade Canada – and earning the stooped posture to go with it – may be ending for fly fishermen.

In a day (summer or winter), we can literally cover miles of river and spend hours on our feet – a lot of it spent wading in fast-moving water – and if we bothered to check, I think we’d learn that even a five-pound weight difference would make a big difference at the end of a day (or a couple of them).

Frankly, the less I hurt, the happier I am. (I may not be alone in this.)

(Interesting lightweight side note: My four-day backpack trip up Tennessee’s Hazel Creek saw my pack, tent, gear & food come in at 23 pounds, yet my clunky fly fishing gear – waders, boots, two rods, one reel and flies – sadly added almost 15 pounds to the equation. Anyone still wonder why I’m grateful for lighter weight fly fishing gear?)

I’ll find out for sure during next year’s alpine fishing adventures, but I bet I can shave a good ten pounds off my “let’s hike into an alpine lake and fish it today” pack simply by using lighter, more appropriate gear.

And as Older Bro has pointed out (often), when you’re hiking, ounces equal pounds, and pounds equal pain.

See you on the river (warm but lightweight), Tom Chandler.

A winter stonefly on the Upper Sacramento. Hmm. Wonder what the trout were eating?

Second, I really needed that.

Not the bug, or the photograph. I mean the ski trip into the Upper Sacramento River, where I tried some new gear, fished a bit, caught a trout, and then turned around and slogged skied back up the hill.

The trip (in order).

Ingress

Skiing into the river here shouldn’t be hard – at least if you could ski acceptably.

It’s downhill, and for the talented gravity slaves among my readers, that means smooth sailing.

Alas, when you’re accompanied by a big, clumsy dog possessed of both a need to be in front (the hunting dog instinct) and the very real tendency to get distracted by tree bits in the snow – resulting in a sudden stop right where my skis are pointed – “smooth” doesn’t quite describe the situation.

In fact – if you’re the skier – you tend to describe the situation with a lot of four-letter words, most of which you wouldn’t repeat in front of your pre-verbal child.

It doesn’t help that the “skier” in question isn’t exactly talented, and to say more would be to flog this horse long after it stopped moving.

And besides, all that’s behind me. Having fly fished and returned home to the bosom of my living family, I’m happy now. See?

That's me being happy (despite the snow jammed down my pants)

The Fishing Part

I won’t delve into the fly fishing overmuch. It was a lunchtime trip – one that actually included a riverside lunch – so my fishing time was limited to that stuff that didn’t include the following:

• Skiing in
• Getting skis off, removing jacket, removing snow jammed in pants (courtesy multiple Wonderdog-related crashes)
• Getting into waders
• Assembling fly fishing
• Starting stove for lunch
• Eating lunch
• Sitting and grooving on intense, snowy, people-free beauty
• Catching a 13″ trout
• Taking photos
• Re-packing gear
• Slogging Skiing up the long, steep hill

I did fish long enough to catch a single trout on a nymph – a brilliant fly fishing decision made in part after I observed the following:

Ahh, Stonefly on a Stick - a new snack sensation.

Because I’m the very essence of the Scientific Fly Fisherman, I saw the bugs and immediately made a decision: I’d use a small, skinny black nymph.

(I can almost hear the Undergrounders shaking their heads in wonderment.)

Sadly, the Underground’s waterproof Pentax camera was stuck at home – the victim of a re-waterproofing attempt via some Marine Epoxy – so I was forced to bring the big DSLR, which doesn’t venture out onto the water with me.

Thus – while you no doubt expected one – there is no in-water trout portrait today.

Sorry.

You’ll have to simply trust me when I say the trout was sleek and pure and beautiful and strawberry-striped and leave it at that (you can close your eyes and imagine it if you’d like).

That was it for the fishing portion of the trip: one bite, one hook set, one bowed rod, and one fish.

And trust me, it was plenty. I was a happy man (see picture above).

And why not?

The only thing prettier than a trout stream in spring might be a trout stream in winter. Astonishingly – despite the yards-high piles of snow up in town – the Upper Sacramento wasn’t blanketed with snow, and in fact, a couple bare spots near the river forced me to take the skis off and walk around them.

Clearly, the Snowy Line of Doom for our recent “storm of a lifetime” ran just above the Upper Sacramento River.

The Gear Stuff

Because I often wake up at night wondering if I’m doing enough for my readers, I decided it was time to test-fire a 9′ 4wt rod and reel provided by the Redding Fly Shop – their own “Fresh H2O” private label brand.

How did I end up with this? At one point, I contacted St. Croix rods in the interest of seeing how their “new” Imperial fly rods compared to the much loved, smooth-tapered classic Imperial series.

It seemed like a natural story, and frankly it would have been grand – both from a “is this a new classic?” standpoint and a “where are the bargain-priced rods today” perspective.

Sadly, St. Croix didn’t bother to respond to the request, treating me the same way that cheerleader in high school did, and while I’m kinda misting up right now just thinking about it, I want you all to know I’m moving past the whole thing.

Just talk amongst yourselves for a minute.

…

OK. I’m back. And happy, dammit.

So when I had a conversation with the Fly Shop’s Mike Michalak about the McCloud relicensing – and he offered up one of his value-priced Fresh H2O combos for testing, I said what the hell?

The Redding Fly Shop's Fresh H2O combo. Testing begins...

He did just before I left for Ethiopia, and one problem with testing gear is that you actually have to use this stuff (at least here, though I have questions about some of the other reviews I read).

That I’m just getting around to it now says a lot about my unwillingness to part with the gear I already use and like, but that, my friendly Undergrounders, is the hell of it.

Because I only nymphed with the rod and didn’t actually air it out, I’m not going to craft a detailed report. Suffice it to say the rod’s plenty powerful for all-around fishing (has the high-modulus 4wt become the “standard” trout rod?), and the reel – while a bit on the heavy side – was impressively smooth.

In other words, this is the kind of combo that has high-end manufacturers asking questions about their onshore production lines – and the kind of bargain-priced (under $300) setup that should have been available during fly fishing’s boom years.

In truth, I’m not a huge fan of many of today’s graphite fly rods, but I do try to set that aside, at least so far as the Undergrounders are concerned.

More to come on this setup; I plan to let Wayne Eng loose with it for his thoughts.

In Other Gear Tests

The availability of really warm, really light, really weather-ready winter gear has largely revolutionized cold weather pursuits like skiing, mountaineering, ice climbing, backpacking, etc.

Yet the bleedover into fly fishing has been slow, though after last year’s Patagonia soft shell tests, I’m back testing some new cold weather gear – a pair of ultra-warm, ultra-light insulated jackets from Patagonia (disclosure: I paid for the things).

And I’ve come to some interesting conclusions, which I plan to publish next week.

Until then, let me tease you with a picture of a jacket so warm, comfy, silky and tiny that it was immediately stolen from my grasp by the gear-houndish L&T.

Gotcha! It's a jacket in a tiny packet - the Patagonia Nano Puff. So far, Tommy likes.

Divorce loomed until the L&T ordered a Patagonia Nano Puff jacket for herself (I had to dangle a new Nano in a far more interesting color, natch), and now that the Nano’s safely back in my grasp, I’ve proceeded with testing.

And yes, the word is good.

In truth, ultra-light backpacking and cold-weather gear isn’t often translated to the fly fishing world (or if it is, it goes slowly). Wading jackets are still (in many cases) bulletproof, but also heavy and bulky. Why is that?

Clearly, there’s more to come on the gear front.

For now, I’ll leave the Wonderdog partisans with this photograph of the ski-career-ending hound doing something mindless. Eating snow:

Wally the Wonderdog... eating snow?

See you on the ski trip in, Tom Chandler.

Is that a hexagonal grip on that fly rod?

Look closely at the grips on that one.

There’s no need to explicitly thank us for the time we invest keeping you up to speed on the latest gear trends.

It’s just one of the many sacrifices we make for our readership who doesn’t send checks nearly as often as they should, and we’re happy to do it.

See you in the buff, Tom Chandler.

UPDATE: Singlebarbed – as if reading my mind (or exhibiting other power of precognition) – takes issue with our ongoing attempts to keep readers enlightened about the latest gear trends (the nerve).