Southern Culture On The Fly - No. 1

The first issue of Southern Culture On The Fly went live last night and it's been a long time coming. 

Publishers David Grossman and Steven Seinberg, as editor and art director, have put together an online fly fishing magazine that certainly has it's own distinct look.  There are a lot of online fly fishing magazines but S.C.O.F. is the first to set their focus entirely on the plight of the southeast angler.

Though I waited until the last possible moment to submit a piece on Poe's Tavern, the fellows at S.C.O.F. found a place for my article and photographs on our favorite haunt on Sullivan's Island, and I couldn't feel happier about being included. 

Pour yourself a glass of sweet tea and check out all the goodness of Southern Culture On The Fly - No. 1.

T.F.M. Spotting - Happy Halloween

Last night a late night an email dropped into my inbox with perfect timing.  Mark Walker sent a photo of his "Retro Fly" pumpkin creation with a short note.

Mark wrote...  "I’m not well versed on shutter speeds, and this was taken with a little automatic Kodak, but I think you get the idea here.  I almost finished carving “T.F.M.” on the bottom right of the pumpkin but the knife slipped and made it T.F....BIGHOLE.  Damn.  Covered it with tape."

How cool is that? 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN.

Fiberhammer Steelhead

Last week Sam Wike of Big R Fly Shop sent me a couple photographs of their latest excursions over to Idaho to swing flies to steelhead with his Scott Fly Rod Company Fiberhammer. 

Damn.  I can only imagine the bend that this steelhead put in the 10'6" Fiberhammer.

Sam got his girlfriend Christie on the water and she swung herself a steelhead as well.  

Check the Big R Fly Shop Bug Blog for all the details on this most excellent road trip.

Hex Fishing Company

I have been following Joel DeJong's artwork and fly fishing blog A Year On The Fly and he has taken his talent a different direction with a new company called Hex Fishing Company. 

Joel is offering these handmade wooden rod cases in either Top Cap Hex Tube Style or Hinged Hex Case Style.  These cases are made out of carefully selected woods and skillful inlays. 

These cases would make the perfect home for a special (fiberglass) fly rod.

From the Hex Fishing Company website...  

"Fly Fishermen know that the Art of Fly Fishing is not just about catching fish but it is in fact the entire process in which you hook that fish.  We at the Hexagenia (Hex) Fishing Company live this philosophy not only with the way we fish but the gear we use.  Our artfully created Fly Rod Cases, Fly Boxes, and Fishing Apparel embody the soul of a Fly Fisherman like no other.  We are sure that our original products will protect and hold your fly fishing equipment with class and style for years to come."

"Here at The Hexagenia Fishing Company, our gear is important to us and the way we store that gear is equally important. That is why we have created a line of products that will not only protect you gear but do with a style and class hard to find in the big box store world of today. We are confident that once you have purchased our original products, you will no longer keep your beloved gear in the garage with car but instead find a place in your home to display these one of a kind pieces of functional art."

Check out the Hex Fishing Company website for more information.

A Backyard In Nowhere

Here's hoping that the A Backyard In Nowhere full length film is as stellar as the dramatic trailer.


a BACKYARD in NOWHERE official HD trailer from Sellfish Media & Smatis Film on Vimeo.

My DVD copy should arrive in the mail next week.  Hopefully.

Check out the website for more information or to purchase your own copy.

T.F.M. Spotting - Joe's Trib Trip

Joe Kayafas of Troutman recently returned from a long weekend chasing browns and steelhead in a dizzying list of tributaries flowing onto Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.

Joe sent along a stack of photographs from the weekend trip including a T.F.M. Spotting Photo Contest submission as well.

Joe wrote...  "A few friends and I made the journey north to some Lake Erie and Ontario tributaries for the lake run of salmon and trout.  I personally fish for trout up there, whether it be steelhead or brown trout.  Coho and Atlantic salmon are also welcome on the end of my line but we didn't run into any this trip. We started on the biggest Lake Erie tributary in New York and made our way to the Ontario tributaries after three days.  A great time was had by all.  There were many fish caught, beer, liquor, good food consumed, sights seen, and stories told.  I will remember this trip forever."

Check out the photo heavy Troutman blog for more on this trip and Joe's other excursions from this fall.

What $1000 Looks Like

Last week Shane Gray of Graywolf Rods and I were talking on the phone and he mentioned that he had just placed an order and that it had cost him a grand to get the quantity and quality of cork that he needed for the anticipated builds over the next few months.

I had asked Shane to send me a photo of what $1000 worth of cork looks like and it's surprisingly a small amount.  A lot of money is invested in three gallon sized bags filled with cork rings of various sizes.

For custom builders and fly rod companies a like, the availability of high grade cork has become tougher to come by the past few years.  Blame it on the wine industry, the fact that it takes a dozen years or so between harvests on a cork tree, or the natural fluctuations in the cork market itself.

It really makes you think about the cost of what goes into a fly rod made in a custom shop or a factory operating in the states.

Follow along with what Shane does with this cork on the Graywolf Rods website, Facebook page, and Blog too.

The iPhoneography of Robert Yaskovic

(Some time ago I asked Robert Yaskovic if he'd mind sharing a few of his iPhoneography secrets and he sent along today's post which is full of great ideas and app suggestions for your iPhone.) 

I am a professional photographer and an amateur fly fisherman. My fishing work can be seen on the Tumblr site The Fly Shutter and my professional work can be seen at Yaskovic Wedding + Protrait.

I am going to give away all my secrets for awesome fly fishing iPhoneography.  I have an Apple iPhone 3Gs and hopefully soon an iPhone 4S.  I have more photo applications (apps) on my phone than anything else.  My favorites are Hipstamatic, Camera+, Diptic, Lo-Mob and Infinicam.  I am also a huge fan of Instagram where there is a growing fly fishing community.

As photographer and principal at Yaskovic Wedding + Portrait, I document weddings as well as commercial, corporate, and editorial work.  My Nikon is an extension of my hands and eyes however I rarely bring it fishing.  Something about thousands of dollars of equipment ending up in the water makes me uncomfortable. That being said, my phone is always on me and it does have a camera.  Basically the camera on my iPhone is pretty crappy.  The different apps I use help make the photos standout.

There are still basic elements to a great photo such as good light, composition, subject and so on that you need to start off with.

Lets get back to the apps!  I love Hipstamatic for it’s different looks.  You can change “film” and “lenses” all day and even add colored “flash” and so you will never have the same look twice.  It’s funny because you are basically making digital photos look like film, but who wants to get film developed when you can have instant gratification?

My new favorite app is Camera+.  I learned about it from skateboarding legend Jamie Thomas and Instagram.  The process is simple...

Open photo in Camera+.  Use Clarity, then HDR (be sure to adjust with slider so it doesn’t look TOO crazy), then maybe add a vignette.

Viola! Clarity is adjusting the mid tones in your photo and looks great on fish, flies, and some scenery but almost never on portraits.  It brings out all the imperfections of the skin, unless you are looking for that.  HDR stands for High Dynamic Range, and it is basically a filter that cheats for you.  Real HDR photos make multiple, usually two or three, exposures and puts them together to give you a photo that has all the highlights and shadows perfectly exposed for.  Sometimes it’s fun but often times it's just too much.

This is where my other current iPhone obsession comes in...Instagram (IG).  If you have an iPhone, join, it’s free and the fly fishing community is blowing up.  I have Instagram friends in Europe and Japan and in-between. Some run their digital SLR photos through Instagram, and that’s cool, but I’m a purist...iPhone only!

Here are some more photos with the Camera+ routine.

I am a fan of the Diptic app as well. (Diptic is a fancy way of saying two photos side by side. A triptych is three photos. You get the idea). This app allows you to create diptics, triptychs, and so on in your phone and output them to full resolution, so they could be printed. It’s a great app. Here are some creations.

Some of these apps are cheap, some are not.  Camera+ for $1.99 is a steal and Instagram is free.  With these two you are well on your way to awesome iPhoneography.

Some of my other faves are below with samples. When you ask for some fly tying material for Christmas and your birthday, ask for an iTunes gift card as well and head to the App store! I am not paid by Apple to say any of this but I wouldn’t mind it if they did.

Lo-Mob

Infinicam

TiltShift Generator

Camera+

Robert...thanks for your time in this post.  As a fellow iPhone user I find information like this to be quite fascinating and it's neat to get inside your process.

Who would have ever thought that our cellphones would be capable of taking and sharing such stunning images?

Fly Fishers Inc. - Issue #6

The latest issue of the N.Z. online rag Fly Fishers Inc. dropped in my inbox last night and I was pleasantly surprised to see an article by Simon Chu on fly fishing with glass, specifically his Scott Fly Rod Company F2 four weight.  Big fish on yellow glass is a neat sight to see.

While all of us stateside are thinking fall, streamers, and B.W.O.'s, our friends in New Zealand are starting to see warm days and the first mayfly hatches of their spring. 

Weird...right?

T.F.M. Spotting - Matt's Salmon

I have a hard time keeping up with Matt Trevors of 411#3 as his work takes him literally all over the world and I also appreciate his new found obsession with his local smallmouth fly fishing.

Recently Matt sent along this excellent submission for the T.F.M. Spotting Photo Contest of his search for of Atlantic salmon on the fly.

Matt wrote...  "I was in northern Saskatchewan for work in August/early September and got invited out with some of the client's staff to go pike fishing.  I caught one on my first cast and on the first cast of my second time out.  I ended up catching the biggest pike anyone from that project has ever caught.  I wasn't invited to go pike fishing anymore after that...

So I then decided to put my focus on finally catching my first Atlantic salmon which is the game fish of choice in my home province of New Brunswick (some people there wouldn't consider anything else BUT salmon fishing as "fishing").  While working, I listened to various podcasts on salmon and steelhead fishing (the techniques and their behaviours are similar) and in the evening I read everything I could find on fishing for them online.  I also started tying some basic salmon flies ("popsicle" style marabou streamers)."

"Three days after I got home from that project I hit the water and caught and released my first and second salmon (not including juvenile salmon parr).

Then I went into a deep slump (along with an associated deep depression) for three weeks until I caught a few bull trout in Idaho a few weeks ago."

So cool.  Follow Matt's adventures on 411#3.

The Contemporary Sportsman - Fall 2011

The Fall Issue of The Contemporary Sportsman went live this week and is a mix of both field sports and fly fishing.

Highlights in this issue include a wonderful piece on reel maker Stan Bogdan and then a couple pieces involving fall angling for big fish on two handers.  Does it get any better than that?

Lane's Rio Grande

The New Orleans Fly Fishers recently held their 3rd Annual Rio Grande Rodeo and rod builder Lane Pelissier not only attended the event but was one of the few that caught a Rio Grande that day.  Lane was using his eight foot McFarland fiberglass blank build and caught most fish on a size #10 Jitterbee.  

Lane wrote...  "Thanks to the New Orleans Fly Fishers for another fun event. Fishermen from Lake Charles, Lafayette, Natchitoches, Houma, Baton Rouge, Mandeville, and the New Orleans clubs showed up. New Orleans Fly Fishers provided grilled hamburgers, sausage and soft drinks, and there were even updates on the LSU-Kentucky game.

Despite high pressure and gusty north winds, a good number of fish were caught, including lots of hand-sized bluegill and bass in the 8 to 12 inch range, and even quite a few sacalait (crappie). The Rio Grandes in Lafreniere Park were a bit spooky though.  In the end, only three anglers landed any Rios and the longest belonged to Jimmy Mayeaux of the N.O.F.F. club which went 7 1/2 inches.  With the approach of the cool season the Rio Grande fishing will shut off till things warm back up.  Let's all hope this great event will return for it's fourth year."

Rio Grandes are definitely on my short list of fish to catch on the fly.  They look like a feisty cichlid.   

The Lost Steffen Brothers Review

The process of writing this blog means that I always have stories and ideas on various burners in different stages of completion.  These blog posts are stored in draft form on Blogger, various emails, folders on a couple different desktops, and from time to time a post gets lost in the stream of things.  This is one of those posts.

This past June photographer Gregg Barckholtz organized and hosted the Glass-A-Hex Gathering in northern Michigan and the week after sent a stack of photos that he had taken in his studio along with a few notes on the Steffen Brothers demos that had been sent for the event. 

Gregory wrote...  "Smooth is the best word to describe the demos that were sent and the eight foot four weight was hands down the champion of "Oooohs" at the Hex-A-Glass Gathering.

The 7'6" 2/3 had a three weight 444 double taper on it and it was a pure delight to cast.  Yes, the wind messed with it just a little and that is where the eight foot four weight took things one step further.  Better line control and just the perfect weight line for a fishing cast.  Any river, any size, even with just a little wind, was just a pure delight to cast.

The biggest thing was the comments on him as a business man.  Not one negative thing.  You can not gush to much over this guy's work.  I spoke with his wife yesterday and she even had only praise for him.  What a man!

I have put in my order for two eight foot four weights.  Both my brother-in-law and myself left there just raving about his whole line up of fly rods.

Mark Steffen's fly rods need just a touch more of sexy to take them over the top.  Not that it will make them cast any better but it could give them a little more eye appeal.

I have never cast a fly rod over 7'6" that I liked until that eight foot 3/4 weight.  I like the eight foot 5/6 weight, but I guess that is just not my style.

I have a little arthritis building in the right hand from carrying to many cameras with big glass lenses so I like my rods light to the hand."

Fine report and I completely agree on his assessment on the Steffen 8' 3/4 weight.  One of the nicest fly rods I've ever cast.

Yard Work

I am a week out from a redfish trip with Lowcountry Fly Shop and spent some time in the yard this past weekend working my big stick out by casting to various shrubs that dot the edges of the lawn and clearing line as Hadley or Finn would pick up the leader and make a run across the yard with it.    

The Steffen Brothers eight foot 8/9 weight is matched with a Cabela's WLx fly reel which is lined with a Scientific Anglers Mastery Textured Saltwater nine weight fly line.

All the pieces seem to work together quite nicely and I'm just hoping I don't fall apart when trying to lay out a length of line towards redfish that will hopefully be tails up in the grass.

T.F.M. Apparel Order And Overstock

The T.F.M. apparel order is winding down for this month and if you are interested in a cap, hoodie, or t-shirt in short or long sleeve please let me know this week by email.

The next order will be sent to the printer on November 1st and delivery should be around mid month. 

For those interested I do have a few T.F.M. t-shirts left over from the last order.  All the t-shirts are black short sleeve with the Retro Fly artwork in the following sizes... 

Youth Medium
Women's Medium or Extra Large


The price for each of these shirts is $20 shipped.  Please send an email to order one of these overstock shirts. 

Your support of the website through T.F.M. apparel orders is greatly appreciated.  Thank you.

Leeson On "The Glass Renaissance"

The latest issue of Fly Rod & Reel arrived a few weeks ago and includes a well written article by Ted Leeson on the rebound of fiberglass over the past several years.   Indeed there is a "renaissance" occurring even if it is still quite a small niche considering the entire spectrum of fly fishing.   

What I enjoyed about Ted Leeson's article is that it was both an informative piece along with field tests of a few contemporary fiberglass fly rods which were chosen from small single craftsmen shops and larger fly rod companies as well.  This will surely give readers a starting point in any further research that they may do.  

I spoke with Ted Leeson several times over the phone as this article was coming together and during each of our conversations I noted his surprise and growing delight as he had been test casting and fishing glass almost exclusively for months to research for this article.  I got the feeling that he was kind of blown away by how much he enjoyed these glass rods and expect that some of his graphite might take a backseat to a few new fiberglass favorites.       

I wholeheartedly agree with Ted Leeson's assessment of glass compared to graphite with this quote from the article...

"Above all else is an attribute underscored by every fiberglass devotee and rod maker I talked with:  the sensation of the shaft working.  A fast graphite rod with a tip that delivers searing speed and hairpin loops is a marvelous instrument in a dozen ways.  But between your hand and the action up top is a length of comparatively lifeless material.  With fiberglass, you can feel moving mass, the rod bending, loading and unloading, and to some anglers that's the sweetest feeling in all of fishing."

Well said and highlights just a few of the reasons that I enjoy fiberglass fly rods so much.   

This article is similar to the American Angler article which was written more for those not familiar or had forgotten that fiberglass even existed and much less so for the devotee.  Again the assessment is made that glass is best in shorter lengths and in the trout weights which is debatable but in the end I am excited to see fiberglass again brought up in a mainstream fly fishing magazine.  If someone decides to try glass because they read this article and liked what it is saying, then they can decide if long glass or heavy line weight glass fits their fancy like it does mine.

Look for Fly Rod & Reel on the magazine rack at your local bookstore or even better...subscribe.   

Deschutues Trout And Glass

Randall Clark, a.k.a. clarkman23 on the Fiberglass Flyrodders forum, got him a GoPro and is just starting to figure it out.



For this trip Randall fished his Steffen Brothers 8' 5/6 weight matched with a Pflueger Medalist 1494 which has become his go to glass for just about everything that he fishes for in Oregon.   

Check the video.  Look at that bend. 

Christian's Leiderman Rods Kabuto Build

It looks like I wasn't the only one to receive a white fiberglass Kabuto Rods build this fall which was masterfully built by Leiderman Rods.  Christian Hörgren of Sweden took delivery of an eight foot three piece five weight that looks sharp in all ways and could very well be the big brother to the white fiberglass four weight that I have.

Check out the Leiderman Rods website for more information and photographs of Matt's work.