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Fall on the Great Lakes = Big, Angry King Salmon

Nolan Dahlberg
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Coming home to Wisconsin for the weekend, I decided to meet up with the old neighborhood crew to fish my first King (Chinook) Salmon run. This fish had some serious horsepower and walked me downriver at least a mile. It was a surreal experience, especially being in the heart of Milwaukee and this won’t be my last King run, that’s for sure.

Joe Bursinger (IG: @joebursinger) shows off a toothy Milwaukee River King

Sarah going head to head with an angry King while Kelsey Fritts (IG: @kelseyfritts) gets ready with the net.

Sarah Eldred is a WI native spends living and fly fishing in CO! Check her out on Instagram @seldred_

 

Photos courtesy of Nolan Dahlberg. Check him out on Instagram @dahlberg.digital

5 Tips: Catching Giant Rooster Fish in Baja, Mexico

Christiaan Pretorius
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I am no expert when it comes to chasing Roosterfish from the beach but I did learn a bunch during our last trip to Baja. This is one of those places where you will have to spend years and years walking the beach every day to get the slightest idea of what makes these fish tick.

But, here are five tips if you plan on doing this trip:

Prepare to fail.

It’s a strange thing but over the years the overall experience definitely overshadows the fish. We were all mentally prepared to work our asses of spending long hours in the blistering heat, running up and down, sweating, stepping on boxfish, you name it… I am a sucker for a challenge as you will always appreciate a fish more if you have to work hard.

Learn to cast, this is not even an option.

Don’t do this trip if you struggle to get 70ft+ of fly line out using a 10 wt rod…I honestly take my hat off to the guides that frequent these beaches.

Patience is key.

Camping out is by far not my favorite style of fishing and it’s something I try and avoid if possible. I think we are just spoiled having spent lots of time in the Seychelles where you are constantly busy. On the beaches of Baja, this is not always the case, although you do encounter days where you can have endless shots.  We really found it effective to stake out on certain areas where we saw bait etc. it’s just a matter of time before “the one” will show up.

Check your hooks.

Fishing from the beach in often heavy shore breaks takes its toll on hook sharpness. I can’t even remember how often we had to sharpen our hooks. Of all the hooks we played around with I found that the Owner Aki 6/0’s were my favorite and kept a sharp point longer.

Keep your cool.

I don’t think I have ever had more refusals from any other fish than Roosters. All you can do is laugh and prepare for the next one. This is part of the fun, and again you appreciate it more when it all finally comes together. You have to believe that the next one will commit and eat the fly, that is the only way you will keep casting and stripping with good focus and energy.

The setup for my big Rooster was:

Rod: Sage Salt 10wt

Reel: Nautilus CCFX2

Fly Line: Cortland Intermediate

Leader: Cortland 30lb Fluorocarbon

Christiaan Pretorius spends his time angling the world when he is not running Abaco Lodge in the Bahamas

All photos are courtesy of  Christiaan Pretorious check him out on Instagram @christiaanpretorius

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Fly Fishing and Football with Devin Street

Devin Street
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“My buddy (IG: @fly_fishing_buck) and I ventured up to the Teton Wilderness.  We had gotten word there were some brookies up there in a few lakes and small streams. Sure enough, we found them in the high alpine. And I was lucky enough to have a moment with my personal favorite fish.”

We asked him about the parallels between the demanding sports of fly fishing and football,

“I play in the NFL (currently a free agent) and have always dealt with coaches pushing you to be the best, ‘winning is everything’, 80,000 fans screaming at you and ridiculing your every move on social media. So I guess you could say fly fishing is my escape or slice of tranquility. Fish don’t lie or cheat, they can’t be bought, bribed or impressed by power, everything is earned.”

When asked if he could sum up his fly fishing journey he had this to say,

“Fly fishing has taken me on many backcountry roads leading to unparalleled landscapes paired with humble people.

I fly fish because I find solitude in the wilderness.”

 Oh yeah, did we mention the dude is a pro football player?

Devin Street is a current free agent in the NFL and he divides his time between training and fly fishing in the Rockies.

Check him out on Instagram @dev15

Beautiful Short Film: Fly Fishing Bavaria

Mark Koenen
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About the video:

When we plan and finally execute a fishing trip, we enter that mindset you entered as a child, while waiting for Christmas morning to come. Unfortunately, we don’t live anywhere close to the beautiful waters you see on all those amazing fishing videos. Therefore, it’s even better to have the opportunity to travel and live the fly fishing lifestyle for these short periods when we are on the move. It somehow makes the experience strikes deeper.

Most times we travel with a camper. When we aren’t fishing we are all jammed together in this small room.  In these times you really get to know your friends and, if you can still be friends after being jammed together for a couple of weeks. If you all survive, you have friends for life.

When I haven’t wet a line recently and get that text message from a friend saying he “misses being in the camper and putting on leaky waders to fish all night,” you know it’s time to gather as much money as you can and start planning the next trip. That’s how this trip came about, sadly we only had the time and money for a weekend trip.

This trip was going to be intense, fishing from 6 am – 11 pm with a permanent smile on your face.

Filming :

While we were on the water, filming was secondary as always. I am not the kind of filmmaker who is traveling for good footage.
First, I enjoy.. and if I have the time to put everything in the right perspective, it’s time to pull out my Panasonic GH4.Usually, I film without any stabilization. My Panasonic 14mm-140mm lens does a pretty good job keeping the picture stable. And then I let Premiere Pro do the rest. For the beautiful slow-motion shots, my lens of choice is my 1.8mm Mzuiko.

The funny part about our filming is that I am the one who catches all the fish. This means that in 90% of the scenes, I have to hand my rod over to my friend, grab the camera and do everything. But my friends are getting the hang of filming more and more, and will soon be leaving their padawan status.

Location and Targets:

Bavaria is beautiful and probably the best region of Germany. Especially for those who travel and want to see crazy Germans in beautiful dresses and lederhosen.  The Mountain lifestyle is deeply anchored in the heart of the people. They treat the environment the way it should be treated and due to this, you’ll find thousands of crystal clear lakes and rivers across the state.

Our target species for this trip was to catch a beautiful Brookie on a dry fly and of course to live the camper-and-leaky-wader lifestyle. At 3:30 into the video, you can see that dream come true. And what you can’t see in the video is that everything around was just as it should be.

All I can say is: Gather your money, get your gang and get out there.

Marc Koenen is a fly fishing film maker with Trout in Trouble. Check out his Vimeo channel here and on Instagram @marc.koenen

Of Sticks and Stones: A Story of Stream-side Innovation

Flylords
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Of Sticks and Stones: A Story of Stream-side Innovation

Fly fishing is all fun and games until someone gets hurt deep in the heart of the Colorado backcountry. Especially when that someone is the only fly rod you brought. This tale begins with three friends, Chris (IG: @simplekeeler), Schlepp (IG: @schleppycam), and Kyle (IG: @ksluski), planning a journey into a remote canyon, on a route that’s seldom traveled.

The excitement was high, as it was one boy’s (Schlepp’s) first time to this magnificent place. We had been planning the trip for weeks and, of course, shit happens. Schlepp gets sick after traveling across the country and Chris has to guide a last minute fishing trip. I’m left wondering if this trip is going to come to fruition at all. Against improbable odds, Schelpp shook off a nasty cold with a healthy dose of NyQuil. Meanwhile, Chris guided like a goddamn champ and got back ASAP so we could hit the road and try to beat an incoming storm to the trailhead.

While on the road, we skeptically looked to the horizon as the incoming black mass approached our destination. Once parked, we were fully engulfed by the storm. Hail pounded the car and lightning bleached the sky purple. Luckily, the storm passed quickly and we hoisted on our packs filled with a couple days worth of hooch and headed off to catch dream-worthy trout.

After four hours of pushing deep into the backcountry, we finally reached our destination with enough daylight to spare for a few casts. We set up camp, laced up the bug flingers and hit the river. The fishing was lights-out till the rain came again, then the race was on. Running over slick boulders with just the light of our headlamps, we got back to camp nothing short of drenched.

It took some time and maneuvering but we eventually got three grown boys in a 2-person tent while it spewed rain outside our thin-walled home. It poured for four hours straight with little to no break in the deluge, so needless to say we cracked a few cold ones to kill the time.

The morning came swift with a fuzzy head but without any rain or clouds. A glorious morning fueled by oatmeal spared us from our hangover and the energy in the air was electric. The morning session was wondrous with all of the boys catching multiple finned animals. It was just about time to slurp down the daily dose of canned tuna when the unthinkable happened. While caught on a large stone I broke the only rod I brought with me to a point of no return, a rod that didn’t even belong to me. After mourning my loss, Chris and Sam lent me their rods for a few casts here and there. That wasn’t enough, and I eventually decided to make my own.

The boys thought I was wasting my time but I figured I had to give it shot. First things first, I found a strong stick with a nice grip (about 6ft long) and got all the extra branches off. Now with a nice clean blank, I tied on about 8ft of 3x tippet for a leader and put on a scrumptious looking hopper-dropper rig. The real challenge came when I had to figure out the best way to cast the thing – turns out a semi-decent tension cast works pretty damn well.

I wasn’t more than a few casts in when I hooked into a plump rainbow. I wasn’t quite sure what to do other than lift my arm, back up, and yell to the boys. Chris came in with a spectacular net-boy job and we all gave each other that “I-can’t-believe-that-shit-just-worked” look. Moments later, we all found out that Chris had a sizable hole in his net. Once we realized the fish was gone forever, and that Chris blew it, we moved up-river and continued the hunt.

Throughout the rest of the day, five more fish were caught on the stick that gained many different names, with “Oathkeeper” being the crowd favorite. Unfortunately, our great journey was coming to an end but not without Chris getting some last minute closure on a nice ‘bow. After Chris released the last fish, we gathered up camp and started the trek back to civilization, but not before leaving the Oathkeeper behind.

So if you’re ever in the Colorado backcountry and come upon a stick rigged with a couple of flies, you know where we’ve been, you know the story, and I hope you use it for fun and not out of necessity.

Kyle Lusk is a resourceful and innovative fly fisherman out of Colorado! Check him out on Instagram @ksluski

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Video Of The Week: Tenkara | Roots in Patagonia

Flylords
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Sometimes fishing isn’t always about the gear…
Take this epic short from our good friends Bryan Gregson & Austin Trayser.

 Natural bamboo Tenkara fishing on a spring creek in a remote part of the Andes mountains in Patagonia, Argentina.

Location: Las Pampas Lodge

Black Fly Eyes’ New Trailer is 100% Worth a Watch…

Nerijus Rupciauskas
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We just got back from another 6 days fishing adventure in remote camp “North” in Greenland. It was an opening week of the season and fresh sea run arctic char were entering the river every day in massive numbers. Fish were mad and smashing our flies without mercy. Getting those chromers on our 6-weight fly rods were really tough because they are damn strong fighters until the last second. Camping in tents, long hikes, midnight sun and gorgeous landscapes gave a pure realization of real outdoor life once again.

Photos Courtesy of Nerijus Rupciauskas from Black Fly Eyes

Check out Black Fly Eyes on Instagram @blackflyeyes and on their Vimeo here.

Why We Need To Save Bristol Bay

Flylords
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“I would have said yes to the mine project 20 years ago,” the retired politician said over the headset. “What I didn’t understand then was the size of this project, nor the connection of water to everything; the blood of this system is water, and it’ll bleed everywhere.”

Halford was flying low over the proposed site of the Pebble Mine, an enormous deposit of copper and gold smack in the middle of the two largest river systems of Southwest Alaska’s Bristol Bay. For decades, there had been rumors about this region’s potential mineral deposits, and in 2001 a Canadian company called Northern Dynasty Minerals acquired the land rights and began digging exploratory holes. Word quickly spread about the magnitude of the strike: Northern Dynasty estimates that the Pebble deposit holds 107 million ounces of gold and 81 billion pounds of copper, enough to increase U.S. copper production by 20 percent. By 2007, Anglo American, one of the largest mining companies in the world, had partnered with Northern Dynasty, leveraging its financing and mining experience to acquire a fifty-fifty stake in the claim.

 

As we flew, Rick Halford followed the flow of winding rivers below, mimicking the path that millions of salmon take every year from the ocean to their breeding grounds.

But copper and gold aren’t the only treasures in the area: Bristol Bay holds the world’s largest salmon habitat, with over 30 million fish returning from the ocean every single year to swim up rivers to their spawning grounds; the 2017 run drew over 55 million salmon, one of largest ever recorded. This unique interplay between ocean, rivers and lakes is the last place left on the planet that supports wild salmon in such numbers, and the salmon in turn provide 14,000 full and seasonal jobs, about $1.5 billion in annual revenue, as well as food and cultural significance to the Native Alaskan tribes of the area. “You couldn’t find a worse place for the Pebble Mine if you tried,” Halford said earlier in the day, sitting at his home in Dillingham, Alaska. “[Bristol Bay] is not something that you can do again, this is the last place that you should experiment.”

Read the rest of the article here.

Down the Hatch

Jordan Andrus
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After seeing this in our Instagram feed, we just had to know the story behind the catch. Jordan told us this about the experience:

“After a 6-hour drive to the trailhead, we slept for about 5 hours then packed in about 7 miles. Beyond the horizon, lied an amazing mile-long stretch of beaver ponds, at about 12,500 feet, stuffed full of San Juan Cutthroat that acts as they have never seen a man-made fly before.  They were hitting dry flies like sharks in a feeding frenzy, and as you can see bugs aren’t the only thing on the menu.”

 Jordan Andrus is a Colorado native. Check out his fly fishing page @yankanglers
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Faces of Fly Fishing: Tatum Monod

Jared Zissu
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Tatum Monod is a professional freeskier from Canada with an incredible passion for fly fishing and the outdoors. She is a true role model in the outdoor community and we are excited to announce her as our latest feature in the “Faces of Fly Fishing” blog series from Fly Lords.
Fly Lords: Who is Tatum Monod?
Tatum: A professional freeskier, all Canadian girl, lover of animals, fashion, good food and fun, fly fishing obsessed.

Flylords: If you could describe fly fishing in one word what would it be?
Tatum: Electric
Fly Lords: How long have you been fly fishing for, who got you into the sport?
Tatum: I’ve been fishing since I was six years old. Some of the first memories I have are of my dad putting me in a big plastic container in his drift boat. We would fish all day rain or shine and I loved every minute of it. Long before I learned how to cast my dad would catch a fish and immediately pass me the rod to reel it in. I think thats what really got me hooked (no pun intended) on fishing

Fly Lords: How long have you been skiing for? Do you see any parallels between the two sports?
Tatum: I started skiing quite late at the age of twelve, I was fishing long before I was skiing. To me fishing is so dynamic and a lot like skiing, I am constantly trying to perfect my cast like I am trying to perfect my turn. People who don’t know fly fishing assume it’s boring, for me there are times that fishing is even more riveting than skiing. Sometimes I get so excited while fishing I get the jitters.

Fly Lords: I know you have been recovering from a torn ACL. Have you been fly fishing more since the accident? Do you think it is helping with the healing process?
Tatum: Along with my ACL I also tore my LCL, MCL, lateral and medial meniscus, I bone bruised my femur and stress fractured my tibia. About a month after my surgery when crutching around became more bearable my dad took me fishing. I posted up on the seat at the front of the boat and my dad would walk the boat up a run and line me up so I could cast. It was so good for my mental headspace, I felt true happiness again for the first time since my accident, I was back to living!
Fly Lords: Favorite place to fish? Favorite fish to catch?
Tatum: I like fishing on the Bow River in Alberta and salt water fishing in Baja.
Fly Lords: I saw you worked on a short video with Jimmy Chin and North Face, that came out awesome! What was working with Jimmy like?

Tatum: I’ve worked with Jimmy on several projects but this one was really special. Jimmy was the one that approached me with the idea, it originally was meant to be a project based on my skiing but after a knee injury we started thinking about plan b. Fishing is such a huge part of my life and Jimmy suggested we try and capture that. When Jimmy has an idea you really want to get on board because his creativity and storytelling is on another level. we set camp up on one of my favorite rivers in Alberta and started shooting. The fishing had been going off all summer and for some reason this trip it was really slow. My dad and I sort of looked at each other like holy shit what if we don’t actually catch anything, that would kinda defeat the purpose of a fly fishing film. We weren’t able to move through the river because we had a big camera crew which limited our chances even more. Finally, we made our way up to a nice pool where I ended up throwing a big streamer at a bull trout I saw and I was able to land him. I was relieved we finally caught something needless to say the look of shock on my face in the film was truly genuine.
Fly Lords: Favorite food?
Tatum: I love good food! Everything from Italian to Alberta Beef.
Flylords: Do you have any books you recommend reading?
Tatum: How to make friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie.
Fly Lords: If you could fish with one celebrity for a day who would it be?
I would prefer to fish with my dad, brother or a few select friends that way I don’t have to waste a good day on the river teaching someone how to cast 😉
Fly Lords: Do you have any role models in the fly fishing industry?
Tatum: April Vokey. Fishing with her and Maddie Brennaman would be my dream
Fly Lords: What’s next?
Tatum: Continue to do what I love to do… ski and fish!

You can find Tatum on Instagram @tatummonod
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