For all you carp freaks out there I thought I'd give a little re-cap on the Denver Pro-Am carp slam (fly only) put on by Trout Unlimited last weekend.  It was held on the "DSP" or Dirty South Platte as we like to call it.  Fifteen teams participated. I was an amateur that paid money to enter, the pros (guides) got to participate for free.  Entry fees went to Trout Unlimited/Denver and the restoration of the Platte in metro Denver. Thousands of dollars were raised.

My pro, David Luna aka Butters was a professional guide that hails from Denver and couldn't have been a nicer guy and stellar fisherman.  Unfortunately we blanked. Not a fish landed between the two of us.  We had our chances though... By lunch only seven of the fifteen teams had landed a fish - a true testament to the utter absurdity of catching carp on a fly. By the evening all but five teams...

...had landed fish. Once again my friend and fly shop manager Rob Kolanda from Front Range Anglers here in Boulder and teammate Tyler Stewart won the whole thing, pocketing $1000. The godfather of carp Barry Reynolds and Michael Gracie took 2nd place with Matt Snider and Paul Gaeke taking 3rd.

The entire event was a class act from start to finish with great food, live music and perhaps a little to much drink.  If you'd like to see some of the teams in action check out the Wolrd Fishing Network. They covered the entire thing with their TV cameras and should have a snippet of the event up soon. 

If you live in the area I highly recommend participating as a guide or amateur next year. It was a ton of fun and raised money for a river that badly needs it.

TR

Do you give unsolicited advice when you're fishing with a friend, and he (or she), is making an obvious mistake?  I'm always hesitant.  Maybe I shouldn't be.

Classic example occurred the other day.  We were fishing dry flies (red quills) to rising trout.  My friend and I were casting the same fly pattern, about a size #16 generic red quill.  I'm getting bit, he's not. 

After about 10 minutes, he can't stand it, so he decides to switch things up.  He knows the fly pattern works, so he doesn't change that.  Instead, he switches his tippet to 6X flurocarbon. 

I'm thinking, "dumb move."  Why?

I'll tell you...

First, and most obviously, flurocarbon sinks.  I never fish fluoro with dries.  It can cause micro-drag, and the subsurface fish is more likely to encounter the sagging tippet before the fly.  Secondly, my pal didn't ask, but I was using 4X.  He (like so many anglers often do, prematurely) assumed the fish were tippet shy (or leader shy).  And that is rarely ever the culprit.

In my experience, there are so many other factors that turn fish off--most notably a bad drift and presentation of the fly--that the smart angler should address those issues first and foremost.  Adjust where you are standing.  Mend your line properly for a perfect, drag-free dead drift (or position directly downstream of your target).  Then think about changing your fly (you don't necessarily have to change the pattern, just go one size smaller).

Were I in his position, I would have changed where I stood, I'd have focused on the drift, and then changed my bug, in that order.  About the last thing I would have done is change my tippet.

Sure, there are situations when that does make sense (especially in still or slow-moving clear water).  But by and large, I think the tippet decision is hugely overrated.  I carry three spools: 4X for nymphs (and dries); 5X for small dries; 2X for streamers... and I've never thought twice about it.

After all, it's better to land the fish you catch than leave trails of thin tippets dangling out their mouths as they bolt downstream.

Agree or disagree?

Deeter (and I did speak up)

Photo by Kirk Deeter

From the "Geez, why hadn't I thought of that?" department comes a great resource dedicated to serving fly tiers...  The website is FlyRecipes.Com (www.flyrecipes.com) and it is loaded with free information to help anyone interested in fly tying, including video instructions (over 300 videos), and over 2100 step-by-step recipes for producing some of the most popular and effective (and obscure) fly patterns on the planet.  Trout, salmon, saltwater... all there.

What's cool is that users can upload and share their recipes, ultimately creating a diverse, no-cost database for anyone interested in tying.  You can also jump on a forum dialed into your specific interests... how-to for beginners, trading flies, and regional-specific patterns, etc.

In my experience, there are three types of fly fishers: Those who tie their own flies; those who know how to tie flies, but aren't always motivated to do so; and those who think fly tying is best left to the good people in Sri Lanka.  

So which group are you in? 

If it's group 1 or group 2, I'd suggest you screw the cap back on your head cement, and take five minutes to visit flyrecipes.com.  Registration is fairly quick (all you have to do is agree not to steal copyrights or say bad words), and it wil make available one of the best electronic fly tying resources out there.

Enjoy.

Deeter

What do you think the three questions I get asked most often about fly fishing are?

Okay, no suspense, I'll tell you.  1.  Where's my favorite place to fish?  2.  What's the best fish I ever caught?  And 3. What's the most important item of gear for a newcomer to the sport?

I'm not copping out on you, but I have no set answers for questions 1 or 2... My favorite place to fish is "wherever I'm fishing right now."  The best fish I ever caught... mmm, yeah, there are many contenders, but in the end, I love them all.

As for 3, on the other hand, I do have a firm answer.  You see, I think the most important weapon in the arsenal of any would-be great angler isn't a rod, or a reel, or a line, or that killer fly... it's what's between his or her ears.  Knowledge trumps all.  Doesn't matter if you're sporting that $700 fly stick if you don't know how, when, where, and why to use it the right way. Thus, the number one gear advice I can give to the newbie is a good book on the basics of fly fishing.

To that end, I'll call your attention to a great new title by Tom Rosenbauer called the Orvis Guide to Beginning Fly Fishing.  It is, after a thorough reading, the best intro tip and technique book on fly fishing I have seen... and I have read Rosenbauer's books on fly fishing (and many others) for about 25 years now.

It's concise.  It's honest.  It's accurate.  And it includes 101 simple how-to tips for anyone who wants to get into fly fishing, written in a way that the novice can understand, and the self-professed expert can appreciate.  Its color-coded sections cover everything from casting, to equipment, from trout fishing, to saltwater.  It is, in effect, a recipe book.  You want to cook up some fly fishing moxie?  Then Rosenbauer has laid it all out for you like Emeril Lagasse... all the "Bam" you need to catch fish on a fly is right here.

Best of all, the price is $12.95. 

Sure, nothing written in a book, nor in a magazine, nor certainly on a blog like this, can ever top the time you actually spend on the water, learning and doing for yourself.  But, you tell me... before you buy that $100 or $200 or $700 for a rod... isn't it worth paying the equivalent of a medium take-out pizza to stuff your brain with some insights also?

Deeter