Salt Water Fly Fishing

Snowbee Fly Rods 2010 Prestige and Deep Blue

Well last week i was lucky enough to get a hold of a 6 and 7 wt snowbee prestige that was matched with the new 2010 Snowbee Geo reel.
Before i even picked up the rod i could tell that major changes have taken place in the look of the rod in general they have darkened the woos on the reel seat giving a deep luscious look and warmth that is associated with rods of 3 times there price. Well time for a feel, i pick up the rod and nitice how light it is! I have been using sage and helios rods ofr the past 7 months that are indeed very light and responsive though cost at least 2-3 times the price. A quick flick through the air and tracing is excellent. Off we go into the field for dry testing and fitted with the new hi floater line introduced this year. We set a target at 40ft away a reasonable close range cats is all thats needed. double haul like i normaly do and bang the line has landed 70ft foot away? Hmmmm that should have happened i retrieved the line and et up again with out double hauling and bang in 40ft cast on the nail. The rod tracked perfectly, so we continued to 80ft cast with accuracy though this was with double hauling to get the extra speed needed for distance casting. Exactly the same with both rods they are exceptional. So off to the ply with a box of small flies that are designed for dry fly and wet fly methods allowing the dries to site perfectly i sit in the bank hiding and snap casting to cruising mullet, i only have an hour before the tides turn. Wet flies go on and again no problem at all. Bread flies go on and no problem at all i fished with a bung on the leader with no issues. Could i drop to a 5wt for mullet fishing? With the action of he rods i feel they would handle this with ease and a decent bend would be put into the reel. Fianlly hooking a small 2lb mullet on the 6wt the reel screaming off down stream and soon under control the rod tip hanging nicely in an arc, absorbing all of the bang and lunges that are taking place in the water. Bacck again to the 7wt, and fishing the same staic method of trotting the fly past on a dead drift re tracking and mending the line accordingly. A 3 1/2lb fish takes the top dropper and takes off reel screaming through the clutch again, will i tame this on a 7wt??
WEll within 3 mins the fish is banked and released, i have noticed that the rods are evenly matched to the reels with balance and poise. I do feel if i had access to the 5wt this wold handle the average plym mullet with a good sporting fight in the currents. Reel wise is is just superb i cant say enough about it after i managed to break 4 snowbee rods last year mostly through abuse and misuse i started to lose faith, but then again i have broken 11 rods in 12 months of fishing from 4wt through to 10wt in different makes and a lot of them costing a dam site more than snowbee. On this point i would point out that when i di break snowbee's rods they have replaced them with out quibble as soon as i arrived and always apologised for inconvienience. Often i pck up a few tying materials for free to cover inconvienience also custome service is impecable.
The deep blue 8wt. well i have done test n this range before in both 8 and 9wt so this couldnt be that different could it?
Oh how wrong i was, picking up the 8wt 2010 model they have completely redesigned it from the ground upwards. Adding pacific bat uploacking double reel seat designed and lade especially for them, adding a 2nd stripped ring just above the first delaying the line slap with distance casting, thicker walled blanks which in turn are a dam site more resposive. Now i liked the original rods but these new versions? They are punching well above there weight in the price stakes, they have double in price from last year, though they have quadrupled in performance, i teamed the rod with an XSD780 reel in diecast alloy. A couple of casts to get dialed in and bang 90ft casts!!!
I ended up stood in thhe main rod outside of snowbee casting down there alley whilst staff are packing orders in the warehouse, using them as targets and it was getting there. If there is an ideal sounthwwest saltwater fly rod range then the deep blues are it! Not only are they a local business, but there rods are exceptional i can use 6,7 prestige for mullet and mackerel fishing and the 8,9wt for bass fishing and the 10,12 for anything that swims. Matching the rod with the Geo 790 reel in drilled alloy that it is designed to work well with provided the cream on the cake it just sings through the air. My only downside i can find thus far iis the deep blue range only come in a cordura reinforced tube where the prestige are presented in a alloy tube pure looks but would have been a nice touch. In conclusion i will be buying new snowbee rods this year in favour of much more expensive rods that are available.
tight lines all

Fly fishing or plugging? The argument....

There are a great man people that use both methods, many have been brought up starting with a small spinning kit on the piers catching mackerel, from here they have gone to learn about the other methods that are available to them. This was much the same for myself being given a diawa spinning rod and beach caster then a boat rod. Chucking out wedges and cheap lures for many years i had great fun. Then i was invitied fly fising when i was 8 years old by my grandfather on the dart if i rememebr rightly, fising for salmon and sea trout, i always rememebr him saying that if you can catch it on a fly then you can catch it on anything. So stood up to my waist in cold water with a rod with a small piece of fluff tied on the leader till i got used to it i was set to learn. Many many hours went through tangling in trees crashing line on the water. Though my grandfather never lost paitience often laughed at my distinct inability to fly cast. Though he continued and i got the hang of river fishing in the end learning the techniques that are involved in leaders, watercraft and entomology. I did not have a clue that this woyuld stand me in good stead for the rest of my fishing life. Sitting watching him tie a small gnat on the river bank and smoking salmon there and them eating it with nothing more than a pocket knife and apple.  The good old days. Soon after i returned to sea fishing again and used the skills that i learnt for watercraft to my distinct advantage. Fishing seasons point 5 days out of 7 after school i could knock out bass by the dozen then pollock, ray, you name it htough i never had that flair i had derived for trout and slamon fshing. So ifeel away from this and into caro fishing, then fly fishing again and back to sea fishing then the world of saltwater fly fishing was opened up to me, i would fish at eastern kings, having a crown stood by the cafe watching this nutter fly fish in the sea eventually giving casting lessons. I then spent a year fshing ofr mullet and spinning only using all of the above skills, this was effective though something was missing i couldnt choose deep water and fishi this to my advantage very well with lures and control the depth with snags ect what to do?
Fly fish with full sinking lines and fast water small flies would it work?
So the test began in earnest:
Plugging for surface feeding fish, this worked well stripping the walk the dog style though fish would only take a lure that resembled what they were feeding on there and then. Average casting distance? 60ft for a standard large lure. I had fishi feeding ut of range that i wanted to get to in deeper water also. What to do? Shooting heads with a fast tip actioned rods this would then i could cast up to 100ft. More fish were being caught lures had found there niche for many people though the advantages and disadvantages are below:

Lure advantages:
Easy to change
Many varities
cheap wedges and cheap lures
casting is easy
surface fishing
top water fishing
ideal for kids
no bait required.
Disadvantages:
cost of expensive lures £13 each?
only fish certain depths at distance
only colours available
cant carry 600 lures in a couple of average boxes
rods and reels can be expensive
lack of control at distance
storage of long rods


fly fishing advantages:
cheap flies
fish all depths with selection of lines or shooting heads
carry hundreds of flies
tie your own cheaply
if you find baitfish tie a fly to imitate them
top end rods have life time garantee
silent casting
more distance
close distance for more species
ideal mullet weapon
different weights cast all flies
lines last 10 years plus
not restricted to saltwater freshwater or coarse fish also.

disadvantages:
cost of top end rods £600 each
lines £50 each
wind factor hinders new fishers on casting front
fish for all species
learning to cast



We have all used spinnnig or pluggng gear in the past though there truely is not limit on the saltwater fly fishing curcuit that is growing steadily over the past few years indeed next issue of fly fishing and fly tying has a big article report of saltwater fly fishing. I fish for all species on a fly only from brook trout through stillwater carp, pike to bass pollock gar, macks, sharks, smooth hounds
you name it i will fish for it in total there is nothing that i cant catch. If i were to buy a complete kit of 35 rods to cover all styles and 2 rods of each weight for buggerment and enough tying materials to last more than a life time i weould spend in the region of £25000 in my life. Though compare this to sea fishing and lost lures bait tackle ect in a life? Well i have spent £15000 in the last 4 years . When you look through it that way it really is cheap to fly fish. These are the advantgaes and disadvantages to fly fishing and spinning. each person has there own path they follow i am a typical fly fishing um i would rather buy a rod or reel than i would buy a new car. Though a car doesnt catch you tea all year round does it... Fly fishing in general can be deadly for al species that swim in the right circumstances. Go on there get a line wet..

tight lines all.

The fishing weekend...... An adventure.....

Well it has finaly gotten here the weekend has started 11pm friday night we set out, via TIm Hortons the worlds best coffee i have to admit i want one in england before i get back. Well 2 thermos flasks filled with coffee we are off, a drive 300 miles to get to first camp and then another 85 miles into the country it is with smoke breaks every 20 miles or so to stay awake.

Well  4.30 in the morning we arrive i was just starting to doze off when i see the water next to me christ i must have died in m sleep and gone to heaven. A can see salmon jumping in the distance, right check the gear, load the rifle yep just in case we get approached by bears, wolves, cototes, rabid squirels, yes rabid suirels just as bad as bears apparently they go for the throat. Well i am awake good and proper now, well the line went in he water with a bloody big deciever pattern  i made up especially. First cast and i have a 12ln pike landed in a matter of minutes i have the fly changed for a new one and back in the water again 3 cats 17lb pike in the net. This is ridiculous this continued then i tested out the 6wt rod with a clouser on the end bank pike on again they are nailing anything that swims there way.

Well time to move on up the system so for the orning we contiinue stopping for breakfast, beer, smokes and fishing along the way it seemed that no matter where we fished we caught loads of fish in total in the first hour we release over 30 pike between three of us!!
Well on the a mark that looks to be very productive indeed, well set up camp for the night here i guess, Right firepit sorted, guns sorted, beer sorted, smokes, coffee, fishing gear right off again down on the steep far bank fishing into an outlet system this time letting the flies drift into the strong current and deep into fast water, bang fish on christ it took off i have bever felt anything like this before in my life, it just kept on taking line and line and line i couldnt stop it, after 20 minutues i managed to tame it a little and kev shouts thats a bloody laker mate, well i manage to tip the head into the net and the tail hangs out over the end still.

Weighed in immediately at 19lb!!! a 19lb trout we are talking here ah thats small compareed to what is out there mate, well i dont care this is going on the BBQ that night.
Back to the water and pike are back in again this continued to the evening when the other retired to sleep for a couple of hours i couldnt do that i knew the salmon would be feeding withn the next hour of dusk. So on with tube flies first casts nothing, then a take screaming off down the riffles i lose it, re tie another leader and fly off again i lost it again, stronger leader, they are shy down here are they. Well bang on the fish landed my first land locked salmon (OUanimish) as the original name, Well the pike and lakers start bitting again, i have it again 27 pike later i have another kaler on feels like a big fish i have to say making 100 yeard rune on a 6wt!!!
Bring him in also and disptach that is breakfast, well of to camp it is with my quota filled for the day, all all essential in the truck and sit around the fire regaling fishing stories of old.

Well the night falls and the sounds start you hear the animals in the woods watching waiting, well finished eating and drinking for the night, pass the garbage to kev to arranges any scrap foods away from us for nature to take care of. I found sleeping in the passenger seat of a ford F150 truck surprissingly compfy i have to say.  Waking up early to repeat the fishing we has yesterday well i wasnt dispaointed, more lakers nad pike were obliging.

We had lakers landed and ready then started alnding pike for the table Well we settled on taking 5 lakers and 4 pike, 1 salmon and 1 sucker for the meals. This was the legal limit ofr taking fish in a 2 day period. Returning home we must have fished 8 rivers on the way through nothing happening water temps are well down on what they should have been by now. But i have to say a truely cracking wekeend that i will never forget..........

Fly Casting and the art of Zen......

Well if you are reading through this you have either already leant to cast or failing that are looking to learn the basics or improve no matter how good or bad your casting it take time.
When i first learned to fly cast many many years ago i would tie a piece of restistent fluff on the leader and cast back and forth and back and forth. Then the itme come to take casting lessons from a proffessional coach to improve and correct my own technique. This i repeat every 2 years for when i pick up bad habbits. Though casting is a personal approach, if you want to improve speak with a qualified fly casting instructor i can not stress this enough. Though the most improtant thing of all is "NO MIND" remember the film the last samurai? Well in this they taught the no mind technique to lcear all thoughts and conditions, and let the motions take you through it. Do not concentrate you will og to pot quickly.

Let the motion of the rod take you through try this for instance...

Lay the line in front of you strip off enough to cast 30ft in distance. Then stri back and stop the rod mid air at the 1 oclock position. Let the line straighten and cast forward and stop at 11 oclock position the books tend to teach stopping at 10 - 2 this is correct by trying to stop at the other you allow for the drift in rod. Thus correcting you short distance casting, swffing isnt about being able to ast 130ft which many people can with prective and persaveriance. But i would trade that any day for a 50ft accurate cast to a rising fish.

Once you have managed to cast the first 30ft adaquately then strip another 10ft and keep going until you are happy, never attempt to impress others, just yourself that is all that matters. Once happy try double hauling this can nor be put into words adaquately enough for my liking though if anjyone want to lean the basics of hauling then i will gladly meet with them and show then through the techniques that are needed.

The single most important thing is to not concentrate and just let the rod and line do the work that is required.  Working htrough ninjutsu for many years this helped with the single minded technique that is required. If you want any further information please feel free to ask...

tight lines all...

Mike