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Rumble in the Jungle: Catching Huge Arapaimas on the Fly in Guyana

Online Editors — Wed, 23 May 2012 08:48:01 -0400

Field & Stream editor-at-large and FlyTalk blogger Kirk Deeter recently took part in an expedition sponsored by Costa del Mar sunglasses to fish in Guyana, where he became one of the first fly fishermen ever to land an elusive wild arapaima—the world’s largest scaled freshwater fish species.

Click here to learn more about arapaima fishing opportunities in Guyana and the film "Jungle Fish."

The CatchFeed: 50 Top Photos from Catchbook, Field & Stream's New Social Fishing App

Dave_Maccar — Thu, 17 May 2012 12:43:40 -0400

These 50 photos are our editors' picks for the best shots posted so far by users of our new Catchbook app!

About Catchbook Fishing Reports
Catchbook is a free social fishing app we built for the iPhone to help you share photos of your fish while recording the spots where you caught them. Check out more great fish photos from around the country (and start posting your own catches) by downloading the app from iTunes! Visit fieldandstream.com/catchbook for details on how the app works, and why it'll help you catch more fish.

Catchbook Photo Contest
We're giving away a Columbia PFG Blood and Guts™ Ball Cap, for the best photo posted each week (as chosen by our editors) from now until then end of July. At the end of each month we'll pick our favorite overall shot and run it in the magazine! Each monthly winner will also receive a Columbia Airgill Chill™ Long Sleeve (men) or Ultimate Chill™ Long Sleeve (women). Click here to learn how you can enter this contest. Click here for the official rules.

The Best F&S Online Record Fish Stories and Photos

Online Editors — Tue, 08 May 2012 11:57:23 -0400

Photo Contest: Name This Fish, Win a Pair of Costa Sunglasses

Online Editors — Tue, 08 May 2012 10:06:20 -0400

by Kirk Deeter

The rules for this contest are simple: Tell us what kind of fish this is, where we caught it and what the fly this fish is chewing on looks like. Yes, this fish ate a fly.

The first commenter, if any, to nail all three answers will win a certificate that can be redeemed for a pair of high performance Costa polarized sunglasses.

I'll announce the answers and the winner on May 21, and give more details on what is a very interesting fish story.

International Nymphing: The French Twist

Sarah Smith — Mon, 07 May 2012 14:42:18 -0400

by Kirk Deeter

The French have won six world flyfishing championships by being masters of catching trout in the trickiest, most technically demanding conditions—clear, shallow water and slow-moving currents. When you find trout in these situations, and they are not eating dry flies, the best option is to throw light nymphs on a long, fine leader. The French have devised a rig for this scenario that works better than anything else.

Their twist (literally) is a coiled, two-toned sighter, sometimes called a Curley Q. The sighter is actually at the end of a standard leader, making the total leader system very long—16 feet or more—which can make casting tricky. A deliberately long stroke and wide loop is necessary here. And casts are made upstream rather than working perpendicular to the current, as the Czech tactic requires.

The Rig: Here, the same style of rod used in Czech nymphing works, but you’ll need to chop 5 feet from the tip of the weight-forward floating line. From the line connect an Umpqua 9-foot Power taper leader (butt section at least 2X), followed by the Curley Q.* The length of 5X tippet that extends from the Curley Q should be 2.5 times the water depth. The dropper fly hangs on an 8-inch tag, and the point fly is tied to 5X or 6X tippet 18 to 20 inches below the dropper. *Make a Curley Q: Take a 24-inch section of Jan Siman Bi-Colored Indicator Material (bluequillangler.com) and tightly wrap it around a 3-inch finishing nail. Boil the line-wrapped nail for five minutes, then freeze it for 24 hours. Make perfection loops on both ends.

The Flies: Fish a size 16 (or smaller) tungsten Zebra Midge as the point and a size 18 Soft Hackle Pheasant Tail as the dropper. Egan’s Frenchie is also a great all-around nymph for this tactic.

Where It Works: This rig is ideal in spring creeks and clear tailwaters—water where you know the fish are eating nymphs and emergers, but you think the splash made by a dry fly in a dry-dropper rig would spook your targets.

How It Works: Cast upstream and let the flies drift over your target fish (1). As the flies come downstream, lift the tip of the rod to gather the slack in the line. When a trout takes either fly, the Curley Q will stretch ever so slightly. Set the hook. The long leader makes the cast tricky, requiring a deliberately open loop. After the coil starts to lose its memory, you can refreeze it into form, but once it kinks like a telephone cord, it is ruiné…finis!

The Spanish Combo

The Czech Trick

The Irish Dibbler

From the April 2012 issue of Field & Stream magazine.

International Nymphing: The French Twist

Sarah Smith — Mon, 07 May 2012 14:42:18 -0400

by Kirk Deeter

The Spanish Combo

The Czech Trick

The Irish Dibbler

From the April 2012 issue of Field & Stream magazine.

Catchbook Contest: Photo of the Week!

Dave_Maccar — Thu, 03 May 2012 14:41:44 -0400

Congratulations to Austin Bockwinkel, whose spring Iowa largemouth bass takes top prize in our weekly Catchbook Photo Contest! Austin gets a PFG Blood and Guts™ Ball Cap from Columbia, and also qualifies to win our monthly prize, a Columbia Airgill Chill™ Long Sleeve fishing shirt and his mug in the pages of our magazine. Click here to learn how you can enter this contest by. Click here for the official rules.

Catchbook is a new fishing app for the iPhone that automatically turns photos of fish you've caught into detailed fishing journal entries that show up on your map, then shares those entries exclusively with trusted friends. Our goal is to help you and your buddies learn more about the spots you fish. You can download the app from iTunes here.

Tie Talk: Tying The Dirty Rat (Step-by-Step Photos)

Online Editors — Thu, 03 May 2012 10:13:59 -0400

by Tim Romano

Despite what it says on its Flyrecipes.com page, I'm pretty sure that this week's Tie Talk bug, The Dirty Rat, is not by Jackie Treehorn. Don't get me wrong, I love the character reference to one of my favorite movies of all time, as well the pattern itself. It IS damn dirty…
As "Jackie Treehorn" says, "One evening while enjoying some Glenfiddich 21 year old Gran Reserva... I noticed a small mouse swimming in my pool. He struggled and fought for dear life, nose barely breaking the surface, legs kicking like bunny. I was inspired by his heroic efforts and chose to create a fly that mimiced his final death dance. Most mouse patterns have the mouse floating on top of the water, while this is great at imitating a mouse which is dead and bloated, I wanted something that would fire up the bass and cause the most vicious of strikes, so my good friends, I present to you... THE DIRTY RAT..."

Click here for step-by-step instructions with photos.

Holy Mackerel: 2nd-Grader Hooks 68 lb. King Fish

Dave_Maccar — Wed, 02 May 2012 10:10:38 -0400

Andrew Quinn, a spirited Michigan second-grader who wrestles in the 77-pound weight class at his school, is no stranger to grappling with heavyweight foes.

But even Andrew almost met his match when he hooked this 5-foot king mackerel during a deep sea fishing trip in the Gulf of Mexico in late March. At the end of a 30-minute fight, Andrew had just enough strength left to boat the giant king, which weighed 68 pounds, 3 ounces—a touch lighter than Andrew but 4 ounces heavier than the current Alabama state record.

The 50 Best Field & Stream Reader Photos from April 2012

Dave_Maccar — Wed, 02 May 2012 09:25:49 -0400

Each month, Field & Stream editors review the hundreds of photos submitted by readers to our Trophy Room. If your photo is chosen to be printed in the Game Faces section of the magazine, you’ll win a Rapala Fish ‘N Fillet knife!

Submit your photos here!

Here are the other best reader photo collections from this year:

January 2012

February 2012

March 2012

Fishing Tip: Comb Your Flies Before You Cast

Online Editors — Tue, 01 May 2012 11:27:50 -0400

by Kirk Deeter

I carry a lot of "atypical" things in my fishing vest. I mean stuff you don't normally find at a fly shop. For example, I always carry Super Glue and dental floss, in case I have to fix a guide on my rod; Holly Twist yarn to make strike indicators; and nail clippers, in case my fancy nippers fall off the zinger.

But perhaps the most interesting thing I carry is a baby comb. (Okay, I hear the jokes from those of you who know me well enough to have seen what's underneath the hat. What would you need with a comb, Deeter?)

Actually, I have become a stickler for combing out my flies before I fish them. I think if you run a dry fly through the teeth of a comb (work the fly on the comb, rather than raking the fly over with the comb) before you dab floatant on it (or dress it some other way), it's going to look more natural, hold its profile better once it gets wet, and catch more fish. Moreover, if you comb the grit and gunk out of your flies after you are done fishing, they'll last much longer than they will otherwise.

I've also started combing out streamer flies, partly for the same reason of keeping them clean, but also because I think combing through and loosening up the tail feathers helps to make those materials undulate and flutter better in the water. And that attracts bites.

You might want to give it a try. A 39-cent plastic comb doesn't take up much space in your vest or pack, weighs virtually nothing, and can save you money on flies in the long run. If it helps you catch fish as well, what's not to love?

Novice Fishing Tip: Try Flyfishing Without Fly-Casting

Sarah Smith — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 10:16:32 -0400

by John Merwin

It is indeed possible to sometimes go trout flyfishing without doing any fly-casting*. The casting act is the most difficult and intimidating part for beginners. So sometimes, when starting out a beginner, I skip the casting part entirely. That way, they can get a fish on the line more easily and quickly, which does wonders for novice enthusiasms.

All that’s needed is a trout river/stream/brook with some current. Rig up with a 9-foot leader tapered to 4X, say, and tie on a small, weighted nymph--a size 14 Hare’s Ear is usually a good choice just about anywhere.

I have the person stand in the current above a likely trout lie. A riffle above a deeper pool is the usual scenario. Drop the leader and fly in the water, then shake out 15 to 20 feet of additional line just by wiggling the rod. Put the line coming off the reel tightly under the index finger of your rod hand, and you’re all set.

By moving the rod slowly back and forth horizontally, the nymph is made to swing back and forth in the current. No casting is needed. After a while a trout will whack the fly. I can almost guarantee this. just as I can almost guarantee the shrieks of fright and delight on the new angler’s part.

What this brings is flyfishing success in the least complicated way possible. It allows people to discover they can “do” flyfishing. It works for people who are naturally athletic. And it works for klutzes, too. Fly-casting lessons will come later, after a few fish have provided motivation and reinforcement.

I think one of the great problems in flyfishing is that we old guys tend to over-instruct. Our enthusiasm leads us to tell novices more than they need or want to know. This also happens to be more than they can possibly absorb in an initial session. And lacking experience, they have no way to choose when swarmed with a plethora of advice.

So take it easy on them. Flyfishing without fly-casting is one good way to do it.

*Note that I am not referring to Tenkara fishing, which is somewhat similar and can be done in much the same way. Beginners, though, are much more likely to have standard fly gear, so that’s what I’m describing.

Step-by-Step Photo Instructions on How to Tie "Triple Wing Caddis" Fly

Online Editors — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 11:54:48 -0400

3 Killer Fly Tactics for Big Early Spring Trout

Online Editors — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:18:38 -0400

When early spring brings unstable water conditions to your local trout stream, river, or lake, don’t wait for levels to drop before donning your waders and breaking out your fly rod. You could be tapping into some terrific trout action in that high, off-color water while other fly anglers are sitting on the couch waiting for things to clean up. These three killer tactics from veteran Kentucky and Tennessee guide Chris Nischan will help you hook up on the fly when the going gets tough.

A - Cut Some Slack
In high, murky water, big trout will often hole up in slow-spiraling eddies. Contrary to popular belief, these fish will frequently face downstream in the slack water created behind boulders and other current-breaking structure. Nymphs that incorporate some purple material or have flash backs are highly visible to trout in dirty water. Fish them on a 10-foot leader, starting at the outside edge of the eddy (1) and gradually working toward its center (2). Cast upstream and allow the fly to dead-drift. Take up the slack as the fly drifts back toward you (3), watching the line for subtle bumps and stops.

B - Lift and Lower
Never overlook shallow runs between deep runs in early spring for big trout, especially when water levels come up and increase the depth of those shallow runs a bit. In these spots Nischan prefers an in-line double fly rig, consisting of a Finnish raccoon shad streamer 18 inches below a size 10 Beadhead Pheasant Tail nymph. Cast upstream and allow the flies to sink (1), but don’t strip the line. Instead, gently lift the rod (2), then lower it (3), to give the flies an enticing crippled action. Trout often strike just as the flies begin to rise in the water column, or immediately after they begin to fall.

C - Swim a Spring
If you’re fishing still water, use a thermometer to locate springs, which can produce water 10 degrees warmer than the rest of the lake. Submerged weedbeds are thicker in these areas, and trout will cruise them while feeding on aquatic insects. On a 20-foot leader, tie a light soft hackle on a dropper on top, a lightly weighted nymph on a dropper in the center, and a heavy nymph at the end. Make an open loop cast parallel to the weedbed (1) and swim the flies toward you very slowly (2). Gently twitching the rod tip from side to side, pausing and repeating, will trigger strikes from following fish.

3 Killer Fly Tactics for Big Early Spring Trout

Online Editors — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:18:38 -0400

Catchbook Contest: Photo of the Week!

Dave_Maccar — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 15:21:10 -0400

Congratulations to Connor Brazell, who's early-season pike photo takes top prize in our weekly Catchbook Photo Contest! Connor gets a PFG Blood and Guts™ Ball Cap from Columbia, and also qualifies to win our monthly prize, a Columbia Airgill Chill™ Long Sleeve fishing shirt and his mug in the pages of our magazine. Click here to learn how you can enter this contest by. Click here for the official rules.

Lift a Fish to Land It, Use Your Forearm for Leverage

Online Editors — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 10:22:46 -0400

by Kirk Deeter

The key to landing fish quickly is knowing how to get their heads above the water's surface. Fish have all the leverage when they're fighting nose-down. You have all the leverage when their noses point up, and you can usually skate a fish right into the net, or land it by hand. The key to making this all happen quickly, which is of mutual benefit for the fish and the angler, is knowing how to "lift" fish.

It's often tricky, especially with large fish. Go ahead and try to pick a 10-pound dumbbell off the floor with a fly rod, fly line and 12-pound test leader. It's almost impossible if you hold the grip normally, gently lift the rod, and expect the flexed graphite tip of the rod to make it happen. When lifting heavy fish, you want to focus the stress into the line itself (trust me, 12-pound Maxima is harder to break than you think) and the butt section of the fly rod. To get that done, you want to grip slightly higher on the cork, bring the reel seat flush against your forearm, and then lift with your arm and shoulder, not just your wrist. This dramatically reinforces the leverage you have on the fish.

Here is a photo my friend J.P. Lipton of "Roughfisher" (you should check out his website, which is dedicated to catching "rough" species like carp on flies) getting ready to land a 20-pound carp on an eight-weight. The butt of the rod is about to snug up against his forearm, and soon after, he steers the fish right to the net.

Your landing efficiency will improve dramatically if you remember to use your forearm when lifting fish — especially heavy ones.

Four Deadly International Nymph Rigs and Techniques

Online Editors — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 10:32:27 -0400

A few years before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, three Eastern-bloc countries took part in a friendly flyfishing competition on Poland’s Dunajec River that would eventually lead to a worldwide angling revolution. The host Polish team dominated the contest over Czechoslovakia and East Germany, catching more and bigger fish by employing a short-line, heavy-fly system for presenting nymph patterns. In the following years, the Czechs further refined that system to the point that it’s now called Czech nymphing. By any name, it is deadly for catching large trout in numbers.

French and Spanish anglers have since added their own slants on nymphing. And, of course, many traditional wet-fly techniques were developed in the United Kingdom and Ireland decades, if not centuries, ago. The point being, by looking “across the pond,” American anglers can tap into a world of strategies that work great in their own rivers and lakes.

15 Reasons an Early Spring Makes Fishing More Difficult (And How To Catch Fish Anyway)

Dave_Maccar — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 09:16:26 -0400

Spring has sprung. Actually, it sprang a month ago in much of the country. With the unusual weather pattern setting record-high temperatures on a near-weekly basis, many of you are no doubt scratching your heads and asking, what’s this going to do to the fishing?

The Solitude Factor: An Angler's Reason for Being?

Online Editors — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 10:34:18 -0400

by Kirk Deeter

There are two types of anglers in my opinion. Type A (and I mean that) is the angler who feels his or her blood pressure rise when they park at the landing or trailhead and see other cars. Footprints on the riverbank are eyesores. The main appeal of fly fishing is communing with nature, and these anglers prefer to do that alone, thank you very much. They'll hike miles beyond the beaten path, often trading chances at large (planted) fish for smaller targets. They'll spend thousands of dollars on exotic adventures — to be dropped by float plane in the middle of nowhere. The reason? Solitude.

Type B is the "social angler" who enjoys the camaraderie with kindred spirits — even with the strangers they happen upon while walking the river. They actually embrace the challenge of trying to trick trout in the runs where others have already fished. And they like to catch big trout, even if that means standing almost shoulder-to-shoulder under the shadow of a hydroelectric dam in a "fish factory."

I guess I'm a little of both. There are times when I need a fix of the Frying Pan, the Bighorn or the A Section of the Green River. I need big fish, and don't mind rubbing shoulders to find them. I'm usually in this mode during the spring.

By summer though, I'm often done with that, and eager to get away from everything. That's when I do my hiking, float tubing and Tenkara fishing on smaller streams.

But if you put me on the spot and said I had to choose one scenario over the other, I'd choose solitude every time.

How about you?

The 50 Best Field & Stream Reader Photos from March 2012

Dave_Maccar — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 15:00:43 -0400

Submit your photos here!

Here are the other best reader photo collections from this year:

January 2012

February 2012

Catchbook Fishing Reports: A Social Fishing App from the Editors of Field & Stream

Online Editors — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 14:37:45 -0400

If you're an angler, you know that keeping a detailed journal of your time on the water is one of the best ways to up your catch rate. That's because, over time, your journal will show you patterns in when and where fish bite, and what lures and baits work best under different conditions. The more detailed your journal is, the more of these patterns you'll see. But keeping a detailed journal requires time and dedication that most anglers can't afford.

Not anymore. Field & Stream's FREE new Catchbook app, just released on the iPhone, is designed to take all the work out of keeping a fishing journal. The app does this by taking photos of fish you've already shot with your phone and automatically converting them into detailed fishing reports that include the weather and water conditions present when those photos were taken. The app pins each report to a map, then lets you share them exclusively with trusted friends and fishing buddies. The more friends you have, the more reports you see on your map, and the easier it becomes to pattern your spots!

Our editorial team has been working for nearly half a year on the project, and it finally launched last week. Now we're looking for feedback from the people we designed it for. You! If there are bugs, we want to know about them. If there's something you think we can improve, we want to know what that is. And if you love something we've done? We want to know that, too.

We'll incorporate your comments into updates to the app, which we're planning to roll out regularly. You can give us your feedback by commenting on this post, or within a new "Catchbook" category in our online Answers section. And, right now, exclusively for readers of this site (and for a limited time only) if you sign up and request user "Field & Stream" as a friend within the app, we'll add 5,000 points to your F&S Online username.

Click here to view the app in the iTunes store, or follow the jump for more details on how Catchbook works. Thanks for checking it out! -- The Editors

POST YOUR PHOTOS
Catchbook lets you turn any fish photo you’ve ever taken with your iPhone into a detailed journal entry that includes the time, date, location, and weather present when you caught each fish. Upload your old fish photos to get started, then make sure to snap away with your camera the next time you’re out on the water. Add records to your journal by choosing the photos you want to upload and telling us the species of fish in each photo. The app does the rest! Add optional information (such as the size and color lure you were using) to create even more detailed records to share with your friends.

POOL YOUR RECORDS
The more friends you invite into Catchbook, the more catches you’ll see on your map. And the more catches you see, the easier it will be for you to pattern your spots. Inviting friends is easy. Invite people you’re already friends with on Facebook, or send your fishing buddies invites by email. You can also find new people to fish with by searching for other Catchbook users who fish in the same places you do.

PATTERN YOUR SPOTS
Every time you (or one of your friends) posts a photo to Catchbook, that photo gets pinned to a spot on your map. Filter your map to show only fish caught at specific times of the year, at different times of the day, under specific weather conditions and water temps, and much, much more! You’ll quickly see patterns in which spots work best under different conditions. Then use the app’s “Best Baits” features to learn which flies, lures, and baits caught the most fish under the conditions and areas you’ve selected.

Map filtering options include:
-- Fish species and fish size
-- Time of year and time of day
-- Moon phase
-- Wind speed and direction
-- Water temperature, water clarity, lake/river level, and tidal stage
-- Barometric pressure and barometric trend
-- Air temperature, cloud cover, and precipitation type

WATCH CATCHES IN REAL TIME
Keep an eye on what people are catching around the country by clicking on the “Catches” tab. You’ll see all the latest fish entered into Catchbook (photos only — no spot burning here).

SEE WHERE YOU RANK!
Find your name in a list of top users by species.

X-Ray Fish Photos: 41 Incredible Shots From the Smithsonian Institute

Sarah Smith — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 17:44:31 -0400

X-ray Vision: Fish Inside Out, organized by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), is an exhibit traveling to museums across the country through 2015. Visit www.sites.si.edu/exhibitions/exhibits/ichthyo/index.htm for the tour itinerary.

Step-by-Step Photo Instructions on How to Tie "D-Rib Golden Stone" Fly

Online Editors — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 11:12:04 -0400

by Tim Romano

This week's fly, brought to us by Flyrecipes.com was created by Carl Pennington and is called the D-Rib Golden stone.

Carl says, "This nymph was designed for the South Platte River in Colorado. Mainly the Cheeseman Canyon section. The fly works great anywhere you find golden stone nymphs. I typically fish this nymph as a upper fly on a 2 fly nymph rig, or I will fish it as the middle fly on a 3 fly nymph rig. It can also be fished by dead drifting, bouncing along the bottom." You can find the fly tied commercially by Montana Fly Company, and in many quality fly shops.

SHARK!: A Preview of an Artistic Tribute To The Ancient Apex Predators of the Deep

Sarah Smith — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 16:07:05 -0400

Millennia before humans first appeared on this planet, sharks were cutting their way through Earth's seas. They come in all shapes and sizes and are found in every ocean in the world as well as in many rivers and lakes.

A major multimedia art exhibition, SHARK!, organized by the Ft. Lauderdale Museum of Art and curated by acclaimed wildlife artist, author and environmentalist Richard Ellis, brings together art and science in documenting the fascination people have with these apex predators of the sea. In addition to drawings and paintings, the exhibition contains photos, sculptures, and video as well as a section devoted to the sensational impact of the 1975 film Jaws.

Ellis was good enough to give us these photos of pieces from the exhibition as a sneak peak. SHARK! opens on May 13.

For more information on the exhibit, click here.