Thursday, June 6, 2013

The Beaver Island "Welcome Package"

Last night Indigo Guide Service sent their first dispatch of the summer from Beaver Island and it was a wake up in my mind that the T.F.M. hosted trip is just over a month away.  Damn...I need to spend some time each evening in the yard standing on top of my YETI Roadie working on laying out long casts with the glass eight and nine weights to be properly ready.


As the T.F.M. hosted trip was coming together and the slots were filling up, I then began thinking about the creating a small welcome package of sorts which would include some of my favorite things that I took to Beaver Island last year along with a couple new items as well.

TROUTHUNTER FLOUROCARBON TIPPET

One of the first things that I learned about how to fish Beaver Island was to not over think leaders.  Pull off four or five feet of 0X flourocarbon tippet and you're good.  Last summer I took a couple spools of TroutHunter Flourocarbon in 0X and 1X and was nothing but impressed with the strength and durability of this tippet material.

Check out the T.F.M. gear review for a more through write up on this great tippet offering.

S.A. MASTERY TEXTURED FLY LINES

Over the past several years I've transitioned over to using almost exclusively Scientific Anglers Mastery Textured Series fly lines from the trout weights through the heavy big fly/big fish line weights as well.  They seem to match glass really well and I like how they shoot through the guides when casting distance.

New for this year is the Professional Custom Taper which should be perfect for turning over big carp flies in skinny water.

FREE FLY APPAREL SUN MASK

One of my biggest worries with everyone that is attending the Beaver Island trip is that someone will end up with a sunburn on day one and be miserable for the next couple days on the water.  Over exposure to the sun is real up there since you can get a lot of reflection off the big lake and your skin will get baked to a crisp.  Honestly, you still need to cover up on cloudy days as well.  The lake is nothing but a big reflector for the sun.

The Free Fly Apparel Sun Masks are super comfortable and with sewn ends keep them in place on your cap so they don't roll down like other similar face covers.

Though out of stock right now, check out this T.F.M. review of sorts of the Free Fly Apparel Sun Masks.

REP YOUR WATER CARP HAT

Like the Rep Your Water Bluegill hats aren't cool enough, they also have a brown Carp hat (t-shirts too).  Everyone on the trip got one of these and I'm hoping that we'll have a few photos of big beefy carp and anglers with this cap donned on their head. 

FEATHER-CRAFT MEAT LOCKER

Carp and smallmouth flies take up a lot of space and one of my favorite fly boxes has been the Meat Locker from Feather-Craft Fly Fishing.  Not only can you cram the inside foam panels with big flies but there is an outside slotted foam cover to shove a few go to flies or let retired patterns dry out before going back in the box. 

Also included to top off the package were a few decals including the new "Terminator Carp" decal from Boneyard Fly Fishing.

Everyone's Beaver Island welcome packages have arrived and now is the time to start hashing out what other gear to bring along, spool fly reels, and figure out what sticks are making the trip.  Not surprisingly on a T.F.M. hosted trip, there will be quite a few fiberglass fly rods from six weight to nine weight in the boats which will do battle with big carp and smallmouth during our time there.

A special thanks to the gear sponsors that made this welcome package possible which includes TroutHunter, Scientific Anglers, Free Fly Apparel, Rep Your Water, Feather-Craft Fly Fishing, and Boneyard Fly Gear.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow, that's quite the friggin' pile of swag for a welcome package! Good job, dude!

Fly Waters Edge - Kevin said...

Good Luck!!!
Frair Winds and Following Seas!