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948 | Inside Thomas & Thomas: Connor Quigley on Fly Rod Design and Innovation

Connor Fly Rod Fishing
Connor Fly Rod Fishing

In this episode, Connor shares the history of Thomas & Thomas, explains what gives a fly rod its “soul,” and offers practical tips for choosing the right rod for trout, stripers, Atlantic salmon, pike, and more.

From working in a local fly shop to designing premium fly rods, Connor Quigley has spent years immersed in the fly fishing industry. Today, he helps lead product development at Thomas & Thomas, blending tradition with modern rod technology.

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(The full episode transcript is at the bottom of this blogpost) 👇🏻

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Show Notes with Connor Quigley on Fly Rods

[00:01:54] Connor grew up fly-fishing in Massachusetts, and when he got started with The Bears Den Fly Shop, it played such a big role in his life. He began fishing at a young age, learned to tie flies, and eventually worked at the shop during high school and college. The experience gave him hands-on exposure to gear, casting, fly tying, and customer service. Looking back, Connor says that the shop was a major reason he ended up working in the fly-fishing industry.

Today, he works closely with anglers and guides to develop new fly rods while continuing the company’s tradition of building rods in the USA.

The Culture of Striper Fishing

[00:05:58] Growing up in Massachusetts, Connor spent plenty of time chasing striped bass with family and friends, and those experiences helped shape his love for fly fishing. He now explains why striper fishing is such a big part of life in the Northeast, with many anglers looking forward to the spring and fall migrations every year. The spring run brings hungry fish and lots of bait, while the fall run offers another chance to target big bass, making it one of the region’s most anticipated fisheries.

How Thomas & Thomas Builds Fly Rods

[00:13:43] Connor takes us behind the scenes of fly rod design, explaining how every detail from the carbon fiber and resin system to the blank, guides, and grip plays a role in how a rod performs on the water. He also shares how prototypes are tested and refined before they ever reach anglers. Every Thomas & Thomas rod is still built by hand in Massachusetts, and Connor explains why that level of craftsmanship continues to set the company apart from others.

What Gives a Fly Rod “Soul”?

[00:20:15] Connor dives into what gives a fly rod its “soul” and why the way a rod feels can matter just as much as its performance. He explains how rod loading and timing create a better connection between the angler and the cast, rather than simply making the rod as fast as possible. It’s a look at why many experienced anglers still appreciate rods that offer feel, feedback, and a more enjoyable casting experience.

Classic vs. Modern Rods

[00:23:40] Connor compares classic Thomas & Thomas rods with today’s lighter, more advanced designs, highlighting how rod technology has evolved over the years. While modern materials have made rods lighter and stronger, many anglers still appreciate the smooth, deep-loading feel of older rods with thicker walls. Connor explains that neither style is better; they offer different casting experiences, and finding the right rod comes down to preference, depending on whether you like to fish.

Bamboo Rods
Photo via https://thomasandthomas.com/collections/bamboo

Testing a Six-Piece Spey Rod

Connor now shares the story behind developing a six-piece spey rod and putting it to the test on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. After experimenting with different types of rod actions and line setups, he found the combination that felt just right. The trip became even more memorable when he landed a steelhead on the prototype during its first real outing, a very rewarding milestone that showed the rod was ready for the water.

Six Piece Spey Rod
Photo via https://elkhornflyfishing.com/cdn/shop/files/TwoHand14896.jpg?v

Choosing the Right Fly Rod

[00:42:40] Connor also shares some of his favorite rod setups for trout fishing, Atlantic salmon, and northern pike. He explains why a 9-foot 5-weight is such a versatile trout rod, when he prefers a longer single-hand rod for salmon, and why big pike flies often call for a heavier setup. His main advice is to think about fly size, line choice, and fishing conditions before choosing a rod. The right setup should make casting easier and help you enjoy the day on the water.


If you enjoyed this episode, definitely reach out to Connor Quigley of Thomas & Thomas and let them know.

Instagram: @carbonquigley

Instagram: @thomasandthomasflyrods

Website: Thomas & Thomas

Youtube: @thomasthomasflyrods

Thomas & Thomas Fly Rods

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Full Podcast Transcript

Episode Transcript
00;00;02;00 – 00;00;27;05 Dave Some of the most loved fly rides ever made would probably be called to slow if they launched today. On this episode, Connor Quigley from Thomas and Thomas joins us to talk about what modern fly rod design gained, what it lost, and why experienced anglers still chase rides that actually let you feel the cast. We’re going to get into bamboo history, soulful graphite rods, speed design, stripers, Atlantic salmon and everything in between. 00;00;27;19 – 00;00;46;13 Dave And we’re going to find out why certain rods instantly click, while others never do. This is the fly swing podcast ratio of the best places to travel to for fly fishing. How to find the best resources and tools to prepare for that big trip and what you can do to give back the fish species we all love. Today we are going to dig into what makes a fly rod have soul. 00;00;46;24 – 00;01;04;16 Dave We’re going to get into the history like we talked about bamboo and how that transition into the modern rods. And we can find out the difference between a rod that Caswell and he rather fish as well. And Conner’s favorite set ups for trout stripers, Atlantic salmon for bully’s pike. We’re even going to get into sort of spey. All right. 00;01;04;16 – 00;01;19;10 Dave This is going to be a good one. We’re also going to get a six piece spray rod prototype and we’re going to get a bunch of little tips and tricks along the way. Here he is, Conner Quigley. You can find him at Thomas and Thomashawk.com. How are you doing, Connor? 00;01;19;21 – 00;01;20;21 Connor Good, Dave. How are you? 00;01;21;01 – 00;01;38;08 Dave I’m doing great. I’m doing great. Always good to jump on a podcast to talk about rods, especially when it’s a rod company that is a big name out there. You know, Thomas and Thomas, who you work for, has been doing great things for a long time. We’re going to get into the history. We’re going to get help. Somebody maybe choose a new rod, learn about what you do. 00;01;38;08 – 00;01;50;24 Dave So. So we’re going to jump into it all today. But before we jump in, you know, Foley, maybe just talk about, you know, how you came in to Thomas and Thomas. Is this something that you had been thinking about your whole life or talk about that a little bit? 00;01;51;04 – 00;02;13;24 Connor Yeah, for sure. So I’ve been fly fishing for quite a long time, as a lot of people on your podcast have. Can’t really remember a time where I didn’t have a fly rod in my hand then casting a lot, you know, that’s kind of what I really enjoyed practice casting in my yard as a kid and, you know, kind of got into it with starting out with a pretty cheap, you know, bass Pro combo and then going up from there. 00;02;14;09 – 00;02;30;04 Connor But my real introduction to the sport was that the bears done fly, shopped and taught in Massachusetts. I went into that store, I think I was probably around 13 years old, and it’s pretty much why I’m here today. And that’s a really good fly shop. 00;02;30;09 – 00;02;31;03 Dave Is it still there? 00;02;31;14 – 00;02;57;13 Connor Certainly, yes. And there you can look there. Very. Scott at the Bears Den has kind of been like a mentor to me. And the industry is definitely part of the reason why I’m talking to you right now. But that Fly shop is a fantastic shop carrying a multitude of Rod’s fly tying materials, reels with also an indoor casting area and just a fantastic a fantastic space. 00;02;58;02 – 00;03;12;08 Connor And so kind of with that opportunity, I got into Fly tying around that time when I was in my early teens and when I got my license, I think one of the first places I drove was the Bears Den for my first kind of like little high school job. 00;03;12;19 – 00;03;13;07 Dave Oh, wow. 00;03;13;08 – 00;03;33;21 Connor So I worked there for a few years, off and on through early college, but mainly in high school. And I did kind of a host of everything I did, you know, sales over the phone. I did real repairs, spooling rails for sure, and helping people select fly tying materials. I think I even tied at one of their early shows. 00;03;33;28 – 00;03;38;19 Dave I’ll call some of the bears that fly shop had their own like fly fishing shows Scott did. 00;03;38;19 – 00;04;08;17 Connor Yes. Our listeners, some listeners will probably remember going to them where he had some huge names like Lefty and Larry Doll Bird. So the Fly shop itself is is in an industrial park in Taunton, and it’s a pretty big warehouse style building. So before you kind of filled the back up with some other projects, it was a pretty open space and he was able to put up a bunch of booths, a bunch of literally vendors and suppliers would go, It was fabulous with tires. 00;04;08;17 – 00;04;28;25 Connor It was a mini fly fishing show held in kind of around the main fly fishing show circuit. But usually around January, February, it was fabulous. So I went to that. I tie it at that. There was that was so cool and such big names there, and it was just such a good community for kind of southeast Massachusetts fly fishing. 00;04;29;07 – 00;04;45;12 Connor Really cool. And with that, the location of the Bears Den is kind of equidistant from Boston to the Cape to Providence Airport. So it really did bring in a lot of international customers as well for people trying to, you know, go to the Cape to fish for bass. 00;04;45;13 – 00;05;00;29 Dave Oh, so fish for bass, right? Yeah, That’s huge out there. Right. That’s huge. That’s the cool thing about the East Coast is that, well, you got a bunch of things going on, but the striper is like, That’s huge, right? You’ve got this amazing. I was talking to somebody in the in our community and he was like, All right, Steelhead is done. 00;05;01;08 – 00;05;05;26 Dave I’m getting fired up for this. And it’s just like, how do you describe that? The striper fishing out there. 00;05;06;07 – 00;05;24;28 Connor I think it’s really a part of the culture out here, specifically where I was born and raised. That’s kind of like what I grew up doing with my uncle, who got me into fishing and just taking out his boat on like the Taunton River and stuff like that and catching bass early season and like Mount Hope Bay and stuff was just fabulous. 00;05;24;28 – 00;05;46;05 Connor Is just on, you know, it’s getting a little bit busier and busier every year. But back in like the early 2000s, it was just plenty of fish shows. Awesome. Plenty of bunker bogeys. And it was just such a great fishery. But now, you know, the striped bass have seen a little bit decline in the spawn, but there’s still a lot of fish to be had, A lot of big fish now. 00;05;46;05 – 00;05;48;22 Connor And I will be striper fishing this weekend and. 00;05;48;22 – 00;05;52;23 Dave Oh, you will. Yeah. So you’re actually is that where you are now physically, Where are you located? 00;05;53;00 – 00;05;57;14 Connor I am physically in Greenfield, Massachusetts at Thomas and Thomas right now. 00;05;57;17 – 00;05;58;15 Dave There you go. Awesome. 00;05;58;15 – 00;06;05;22 Connor But about 2 hours away from my folks who are still down in southeast Mass so I can visit my parents, which is very nice. 00;06;06;02 – 00;06;17;04 Dave That’s right. Yeah. It’s awesome. And we’re hoping to get a another striper episode in soon to talk about it because I know now is it was the time of year when it’s kind of because there’s this migratory thing, right? Is there a time when it’s like just the prime time to go there? 00;06;17;13 – 00;06;42;23 Connor Yes. So I would definitely say late May, June is going to be your kind of that you get a lot of bait. You got a lot for Rhode Island and Massachusetts. That’s a really, really good time to fish for them. They’re active, they’re moving, and they’re hungry. Towards the end of June, July, it kind of starts to slow down a bit, the doldrums, as many say, but the fish kind of have their kind of deeper water holding areas. 00;06;43;00 – 00;06;53;08 Connor And then in the fall, it really ramps up again when they want to go home. So that’s kind of the fall run, which is driven a lot of times by the peanut bunker and mullet in Rhode Island. 00;06;53;16 – 00;06;56;14 Dave Oh, right. So they’re chasing these other species around. 00;06;56;16 – 00;07;01;14 Connor Yes. So they come up for a certain date and then they go down kind of on the baby bait in general. 00;07;01;19 – 00;07;08;24 Dave Well, does Thomas and Thomas cover kind of all lines or do you have special focuses on species as far as your rod line up? 00;07;09;04 – 00;07;34;01 Connor Yeah, that’s a really good question. So what we tend to do is instead of other rod companies that say, have like one line up with maybe 20 models ranging from little three weights to ten weights, 12 weights. We kind of specialize in certain actions or certain kind of styles of fraud and families of Rod. So anything from like a saltwater rod, that’s fast action for flat fishing, like a sextant for floating line work. 00;07;34;01 – 00;08;00;16 Connor And then we also have a Rod series called the Exocet 88, which is actually designed for more sinking line applications and larger flies. So we almost make 2 to 410 weights, but they’re completely different rods and they do serve different purposes. It’s kind of nice to be able to have the pro staff that we have all over the world to be able to kind of do flat fishing and then try the rod there and then try it up here for Alves or Bass. 00;08;00;28 – 00;08;19;13 Connor But it kind of we try to make very well-rounded line ups that have the correct amount of models, the correct amount of rods in that range to kind of give you anything from especially like the 88 a trout streamer rod to a tarpon rod. So but they all have a similar familiar action in the family. 00;08;19;21 – 00;08;28;13 Dave Right. Gotcha. And do you have as far as your I don’t know if you ambassadors are the people, what do you guys call your pro your pro staff or pro. 00;08;28;13 – 00;08;49;17 Connor Staff, ambassadors, advisors. This kind of different levels. But they yeah, they all help us out and they’re all, you know, elbows out either on social with content or kind of advisory work in terms of rod development, which is very helpful for me. So I can send prototypes out to people who are unbelievable and just put, you know, fish in the boat. 00;08;49;17 – 00;08;51;04 Connor So try them out. Yeah, that’s. 00;08;51;04 – 00;08;57;04 Dave Great. And is there a place you can find? Do you have a list of some of those ambassadors out there on the site. 00;08;57;04 – 00;09;12;16 Connor Or definitely you can go on our website and we have we have a list of ambassadors and people or feel free to reach out to those, those ambassadors and pros on social and see if you know, if they need advice or fishing in that area. They’re more than willing to help for sure. 00;09;12;24 – 00;09;23;17 Dave Okay. Yeah, I’m looking right now. I’m like, what a pro program, I guess. Where would it be located? That’s always I’m trying to think it’s somewhere in here. We will have to track it. We’ll put a link in the show notes, we’ll track it down. 00;09;23;17 – 00;09;28;16 Connor And yeah, if you go into our stories on the website and then meet the team, there’s a whole list. 00;09;28;22 – 00;09;34;17 Dave Meet the team? Yeah, about it. Yeah. Got it. Cool. Awesome. Yeah, I see it now. Okay. Yeah. You got a bunch in here. 00;09;34;28 – 00;09;36;05 Connor Bunch of happy faces. 00;09;36;21 – 00;09;58;22 Dave Yeah. Great. Awesome. Yeah, of course. Yeah. We’ve talked about. That’s the great thing is that we’ve talked to a lot of these people on the podcast. Not all of them, but. And you guys do. Yeah. You cover, I mean, pretty much everything, but you cover saltwater pretty well. I feel like that’s something you guys, you feel like that’s an equal part salt versus fresh water, even though, you know, you always hear that trout is kind of the big the biggest thing out there. 00;09;59;02 – 00;10;06;16 Connor Trout’s big. I mean, that’s definitely a trout makes money. Yeah. You know, in terms of freshwater fishing. So, yeah. 00;10;06;16 – 00;10;14;24 Dave But you compare like, what do you think the percentages if you look at trout fisherman versus and just say I mean I’m sure there’s overlap at trout fisherman versus saltwater fisherman. 00;10;15;07 – 00;10;36;25 Connor There’s a lot more trout. I would say it depends on where you are. You know, there’s some guys out here in mass that literally don’t even fish for trout. They just striped, they fly fish for bass. But I would say, you know, if you’re taking the whole world and especially Europe and, you know, continental United States and Steelhead and Alaska and stuff, there’s a lot of trout, salmonella species, you know. 00;10;37;02 – 00;10;44;15 Dave Yeah, definitely, definitely cool. And I see I see Josh Miller is on here, too. Yes. Josh’s definitely a that guy is an all star. 00;10;44;25 – 00;10;46;15 Connor Is is a rock star, for sure. 00;10;46;18 – 00;11;01;08 Dave Yeah. Okay. So where do you start with somebody? You know, you talked a little bit about about kind of the models and things like that, but maybe take us to what you do at Thomas and Thomas. Maybe that’ll help clarify a little bit more of how people can maybe choose their next rod. Describe that a little bit. 00;11;01;08 – 00;11;42;05 Connor Yeah. Awesome. So, yeah, what I do here is I in charge of product development. So that’s kind of anything from picking out a specific guide to designing a blank. So it’s kind of a breadth of work, but it allows me to for full design control of the products that we make. So anything from, you know, the carbon fiber that we use, the resin systems, we use the layups of said materials to the rolling of those materials, the casting of that blank, you know, once it comes out and then putting guides on it and making sure that we have, you know, very good quality guides, guides with purpose, you know, and making sure the layouts are 00;11;42;05 – 00;12;04;19 Connor good. And then obviously grip choice, component choice and making the rods look gorgeous. So that’s kind of a little bit of everything I do. And I do talk to a lot of our suppliers. I do do a lot of, you know, I kind of have a pretty much full control over a lot of that aspect of the product development and overseeing the the manufacturing of these products as well. 00;12;04;26 – 00;12;08;15 Dave Yeah. Which are all manufactured in the in the U.S., correct? 00;12;08;15 – 00;12;14;05 Connor Yes. We roll every blank here and we make every rod in this building in Greenfield, Massachusetts. 00;12;14;05 – 00;12;21;20 Dave Yes, That’s amazing. Yeah. And I think that out of the there’s probably not a lot of brands doing that right. That are all 100% in the U.S.. There’s a. 00;12;21;20 – 00;12;44;06 Connor Few. Yeah, there’s a few. And I won’t discount that they’re doing it. Everyone’s doing a great job these days. I mean, it’s hard. What I will say and what the price of rods, you know, I could have a whole podcast on that. But with the price of raws these days, it is you are paying for an American made product, in our case, 20 to 25 American hands, you know, going into this. 00;12;44;20 – 00;12;45;05 Dave No kidding. 00;12;45;15 – 00;12;47;19 Connor Item. Yeah, yeah. No, it’s a small building, so. 00;12;47;19 – 00;12;53;14 Dave That’s what it takes. So there’s 20 to 25, 20 people. Yeah. Going into the making of that rod, correct. 00;12;53;15 – 00;13;12;19 Connor Yes. 20 to 25 hands depending there. It goes out to a home wrapper or is wrapped in house, you know, inspected all this stuff. You know, it really is from, from the person cutting that carbon fiber to the person shipping that your rod in the box. It’s you know, it’s 20 and you’re paying a wage to those people in the state of Massachusetts. 00;13;12;19 – 00;13;29;12 Connor You know it’s that that’s a that’s what we do here. So we’re blessed. We’re blessed to be able to do that, you know, And we also are blessed to be able to take pride in that product. So when you call here, if you have any issues with it or questions, you’re going to talk to me, you’re going to talk to Mark or Kim, you know, that’s John. 00;13;29;12 – 00;13;30;26 Connor You know, just some people, you know. 00;13;31;04 – 00;13;43;17 Dave And what about the if you look back at maybe take us back on the history a little bit of Thomas because I think that you’ve definitely got maybe just start with I don’t know how far back this goes, but take us back to the start. Let’s hear it. Let’s hear how this thing got going. 00;13;43;24 – 00;14;06;09 Connor Let’s go. So basically, back in the day, it was around the late the mid-sixties. There was a Tom Dorsey and Tom Maxwell kind of had this vision to start making bamboo rods. And they were kind of and they were actually Tom was in school at my alma mater, which was University of Maryland in College Park. He was a grad student there, which is kind of funny. 00;14;06;19 – 00;14;32;02 Connor But then he wanted to he liked to fish in and want to make some rods. So he eventually kind of set up a little shop in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and made rods for the likes of Charlie Fox and some marinaro for fishing on Big Spring and Le Tort. And and that was kind of the the name, you know, that was where he started making some of those those rods. 00;14;32;02 – 00;14;57;26 Connor So with that, he got an opportunity to be heard of the Sewell Dunton and Montague Rod shops which were up in Montague and Turners falls up here in Western Mass, and they were actually kind of offloading their equipment down here. They had plant, they had milling machines, planning forms, basically larger batch hardware store, bamboo rod making stuff. So they had everything. 00;14;57;26 – 00;15;05;11 Connor They had really old cane. They had these beautiful milling machines that we still use today and tons of stuff. 00;15;05;20 – 00;15;11;08 Dave And these were companies that were going out of business or what were they? Yes. Remind us again, what was the name of the company? 00;15;11;12 – 00;15;13;06 Connor Yep, There was Montague Rods. Yeah. 00;15;13;06 – 00;15;22;24 Dave Montague. Yeah, they were a definitely they been around for years. The Montague rods. And they made a lot of. Yeah. I mean, I think my dad still has the money, right? So you got those Now, what was the other name? 00;15;22;25 – 00;15;48;04 Connor The brand Sewell Dunton, which was kind of like a sub brand or a kind of a similar factory. So. DUNTON Yeah, they were kind of a kind of rod shops up here in Montague, Mass. And they had this. Yeah, they had the tons of bamboo, tons of machinery. And Tom, the two toms made the decision, the business decision to buy all of this equipment. 00;15;48;15 – 00;16;16;04 Connor And eventually Tom Maxwell parted ways and actually helped finish up some of the Leonard rods, which are very nice. And you kind of want to help out Leonard a little bit later in Leonard’s kind of life cycle. But Tom Dorsey stuck with the company, stuck with the vision, and started making bamboo rods up here in Turners Falls, which is just over the river, the Connecticut River, just a couple towns over. 00;16;16;22 – 00;16;36;10 Connor So with that, Tom, you know, was making these bamboo rods and he started to have some help. And but around this time, which was now the eighties, carbon fiber came out and Tom being as innovative and crafty and excited for making new materials as he was, he jumped on it and which was probably the best decision he made. 00;16;38;10 – 00;16;59;21 Dave Fishman Expeditions offers world class fly fishing right off Alaska’s incredible road system for monster rainbow trout to face the Arctic. GRAYLING You’ll chase big species in the stunning landscape, whether you’re a seasoned angler or just starting out there. Expert guides ensure an unforgettable adventure Book your trip today before spots fill up and experience Alaska’s diversity like never before. 00;17;00;06 – 00;17;23;19 Dave Check them out right now that’s Fish Town expeditions dot com Golden Fly shop isn’t your average fly shop. They have a 12 foot shark painted like a cutthroat, hovering over a huge selection of the best rods in the business, a massive assortment of tying materials and their famous steakhouse streamer display. And it’s the hub for a community of anglers who never stop tinkering with new ways to catch fish. 00;17;23;19 – 00;17;47;29 Dave Sometimes the conversation behind the counter includes what hatches are going off and what techniques are working best. Then tales of destination fishing adventure sought after species, or a good old congratulations. When a customer brings stories of finally connecting with that fish, they’ve searched for forever with a growing online store and a budding YouTube channel, you’ll be able to follow along with their fun antics, international adventures and helpful fly fishing tips. 00;17;48;04 – 00;18;05;10 Dave Goldfish shop where the community is hanging out even if they’re supposed to be working. That’s Golden Fly shop dot com. Check them out right now. So you had the bamboo rods going, but then you had that fiberglass. What was Thompson Thompson making and was it Thomas and Thomas back then. 00;18;05;22 – 00;18;13;16 Connor Yes, it was always Thomas and Thomas and it was 19. It’s still we still have it on our rods and tubes and stuff. It is established in 1969. 00;18;13;16 – 00;18;19;01 Dave So 69. Okay. And who was Thomas? Is Thomas and Thomas, is that a name? 00;18;19;08 – 00;18;23;17 Connor So the two Thomas’s. So yeah. Thomas Dorsey and Thomas Maxwell. 00;18;23;18 – 00;18;24;25 Dave Oh, right. Yeah. Just the Thomas. 00;18;25;10 – 00;18;25;21 Connor Who was they. 00;18;25;22 – 00;18;28;20 Dave Just so Tom Dorsey. Is Tom Dorsey still around. 00;18;29;10 – 00;18;37;28 Connor No, he passed a couple of years ago and that was Yeah. And he actually before his passing, he actually did come out with a book. 00;18;38;07 – 00;18;38;24 Dave Oh he did. 00;18;39;04 – 00;18;41;02 Connor Yes. Which is very nice. I have a copy here. Oh. 00;18;41;02 – 00;18;42;03 Dave Well, what’s it called. 00;18;42;09 – 00;19;02;17 Connor Searching for Telos. It’s a book that you can find on our website, and it’s basically an autobiography with a history of Thomas and Thomas. And it’s a very nice it’s a very nice small, little quick read. And it definitely has some of his, you know, his nuances and kind of his ramblings in there. And he was also very talented cellist. 00;19;02;27 – 00;19;14;17 Connor He played music a lot. He loved jazz. And it kind of talks about his whole life. He was very, very interesting gentleman. So and I was I was lucky enough to meet him a couple of times, which was very nice before his passing. 00;19;14;17 – 00;19;32;17 Dave Yeah. So what was Tom like when you when you met him later? It’s interesting because some of these older guys, you know, and I was just watching this video with Lefty Cray when he was, I think three years before he passed away. And it was really interesting to watch because it was this video of him and Ed basically teaching people how to cast. 00;19;33;01 – 00;19;48;06 Dave And you could what you could see at the video was really clear and you could just see in Lefty’s eyes, he’s old, you know, he’s 80 years old. He’s three years from passing away. But he’s still teaching you know, like, I feel like that’s something cool about these great people and that they keep. This. Was Tom the same way? 00;19;48;06 – 00;19;50;23 Dave Was he what was he like later in life as you talk to him? 00;19;51;05 – 00;20;15;01 Connor Very, very much so. He was just very just very excited about the, you know, how where the company was going. You know, he made a lot of great rods here. And, you know, I think he really coming from the bamboo background, he really kind of made this certain type of feel, which is a very soulful feel in a Thomas and Thomas fly rod even what, even a carbon rod that has a lot of it has a lot of soul. 00;20;15;02 – 00;20;30;17 Dave What is that soulful. How do you describe it? Because, I mean, soul is a good way maybe to describe because you hear a lot about these We’ve talked about this. We’ve had casting structures and instructors and people and you probably heard some of these, but how the the industry went to a really superfast raw. Right. And sometimes it’s not the greatest thing. 00;20;30;17 – 00;20;34;26 Dave Right. What’s your take on how how do you describe what is soul? You know, what does that mean? 00;20;35;01 – 00;20;59;12 Connor Soul is kind of the transmission, I would say from like the tip top, the tip of the rod to the butt of the rod. You know, you feel that rod, You’re actually sealing that rod load and unload in your hand, you know. So I think a lot of rods that are very, very stiff say, you know, with the kind of tip on the stick ceiling and there’s a bunch of little slow hands and lingo for it, but they may feel disconnected. 00;20;59;13 – 00;21;18;22 Connor They can make casts like a cannon, but you may not feel that on load and unload and it might be a a timing thing. You know, you may not get that timing initially. And if you learn that, Rod, sure, it’s going to work great. But Thomas and Thomas Rods tend to be coming from the bamboo as well, a little bit stiffer tipped. 00;21;19;02 – 00;21;36;13 Connor And what that kind of does is actually kind of drives a little bit more load down the blank and thus giving you that soulful kind of I feel the tip, I feel what’s going on. You know, I feel that what’s happening. And that’s kind of what I strive for, especially in the new Miles, especially like the avante, especially in the 88. 00;21;36;13 – 00;21;55;15 Connor I always know where that tip top is, so it allows me to kind of, Oh, I know the rod is loaded, I know it’s unloaded. You know, it’s very and very stable. And I think it’s just a stable rod. It’s and I see it a lot at shows as well. So I’m doing the fly fishing shows and I’m watching people pick up one of the rods and go out to the pond and they pick it up quickly. 00;21;55;23 – 00;22;11;28 Connor And that’s something good. Yeah, that’s a good thing. You know, where someone can, in this crowded environment can pick up a nine foot five way, go out and be like, Wow, that worked for me instead of like I see other. And they could be flailing around, but they could be struggling or maybe not shooting or trying to overpower it. 00;22;11;28 – 00;22;14;13 Connor But a TNT is very easy. It almost cast itself. 00;22;14;29 – 00;22;24;06 Dave All right, that’s awesome. And and where does the tip end? You’ve got the tip of the riser, a distance. You know, than a tip. What would you say is that where does the tip end in the rest of the rod begin? 00;22;24;18 – 00;22;41;15 Connor Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, if you were to mathematically, mathematically say it’d be like nine foot probably 20 and a half inches, you would be like, exactly. Like that’s the length of a tip. But really, like a lot of our rods, because of that stiffer tip, they kind of load into like the top third of the rod. 00;22;41;15 – 00;22;47;01 Connor And that’s kind of what I say is kind of, you know, that’s kind of your full tip is really the top third of the rod. 00;22;47;01 – 00;22;51;25 Dave Tops that are. So it’s quite a big. Yeah. So we’re not talking it is necessarily six inches or two inches the tip. 00;22;51;25 – 00;22;59;21 Connor Oh, gosh, no, no, not in a TNT. I actually other rods. Yes. I would say that there are some rods that are lightning fast that are very similar. 00;22;59;26 – 00;23;00;12 Dave To the top. 00;23;00;12 – 00;23;28;15 Connor Right. And they are they are a little bit softer tipped and that actually then, yes, you would actually have a rod that is, you know, maybe half of that tip, maybe 12 to 20 inches down just But, you know, it’s kind of yeah, it definitely is a variance that it’s something I’ve actually been playing around with with some recent designs is making some rods that are a little bit quicker in the tip still having that soulful feel but just something a little bit different. 00;23;28;15 – 00;23;39;28 Connor You know maybe a not a it actually still feels like a Thomas and Thomas, but it might have a little bit more zip and a little bit more of that tip feel. So that’s just personally what I’ve been working on over the last few months. Yep. 00;23;40;03 – 00;23;54;03 Dave Yeah, I think there’s something there. You know what? The baby was some of the old and there’s a bunch of well, there’s a number of the brands are still big out there in fly fishing that are doing, you know, graphite. But a lot of the big ones started with bamboo, right? I mean, you could look at all of all of this and any of them that came from. 00;23;54;03 – 00;23;59;24 Connor L.L.Bean, even L.L.Bean, you know, Yeah. That are not here anymore but made great bamboo rods. 00;23;59;24 – 00;24;03;01 Dave So elevate. Yeah. The lab made a bamboo rod back in the day. 00;24;03;01 – 00;24;10;07 Connor Yes, many they made they were a pretty big broad maker back in the early 1900s. And look where they are now. Huge company. 00;24;10;08 – 00;24;12;27 Dave Do they still well, do they make any are they still fishing? 00;24;13;03 – 00;24;15;19 Connor Yes, they do. They actually do still make a bamboo rod. 00;24;15;24 – 00;24;16;19 Dave Oh, no kidding. 00;24;16;19 – 00;24;17;13 Connor Yeah, they do. 00;24;17;13 – 00;24;18;13 Dave And that’s crazy. 00;24;18;13 – 00;24;34;12 Connor I don’t know who their contractor who it’s contracted out by. It’s kind of pricey and it looks decent. You know, they still keep that heritage, but they they actually had, I think, some of their graphite rods back in the day. They had some really great rods, but they’re actually contracted out by Loomis and stuff. They’re pretty nice. 00;24;34;12 – 00;24;34;22 Dave Planks. 00;24;34;22 – 00;24;58;09 Connor Right? Yeah. Yes. And a lot of what I would say about TNT, which is neat, is a lot of the early rods that were carbon. So say your Winstons and say your your even your Loomis and sages. There was a lot of these contracted companies. So your Powell blanks and your Fisher blanks and there was a lot of almost blank makers that were doing OEM work for these other rod companies. 00;24;58;09 – 00;25;21;02 Connor Scott as well. Tom still kept it in-house, which I kind of appreciated. So Tom, besides one model, which was actually a fiberglass rod, it was called the Kane Glass, Nobody really I don’t even think they’re out there anymore. But Tom kept all the blank making in, you know, with the machines that we still have, you know, and the materials and the patterns. 00;25;21;02 – 00;25;22;00 Connor He did every. 00;25;22;00 – 00;25;22;09 Dave He did. 00;25;22;09 – 00;25;35;05 Connor Everything. So looking back on, you know, 25, 30 years of rod making is fabulous. It’s really nice to see where his kind of thought process was. And I still have all his old patterns. All his old. 00;25;35;12 – 00;25;36;01 Dave You do? 00;25;36;02 – 00;25;38;14 Connor Oh, yeah. Chicken scratch and stuff. It’s pretty cool. 00;25;38;20 – 00;25;40;20 Dave It’s just notebooks and stuff. Just on paper. 00;25;41;06 – 00;26;07;01 Connor Just binders and and just binders of of rod patterns and manuals and tapers and all this stuff. And what that gives us now, which is fabulous, is the ability to repair a broad that is 30 years old. So I’m able to roll you the customer, a brand new part tip. But whatever outfit it with the original guides, the original color thread, put your serial number on it. 00;26;07;01 – 00;26;08;27 Connor It looks amazing. It looks so good. 00;26;09;05 – 00;26;24;26 Dave That’s cool. So you can still get this exact. And you hear that a lot about the rods, too. We’ve heard that that those eighties rods in that range, some of those are still amazing rods. There’s still a lot of time. People like fishing, some of the older rods, even because the action was different. Right. How does that look with the action? 00;26;24;26 – 00;26;32;18 Dave If you look at the action, Thomas and Thomas in the eighties, nineties versus today, you know, how does that is it changed? Do you still have some of those same models today? 00;26;33;00 – 00;27;03;06 Connor Yeah, no, definitely. We do have kind of the families are actually kind of similar. So we back in the nineties we had a paradigm. We still make a paradigm is certainly not the same rod but the paradigm was a medium action rod and today it still is the horizon, which is a name that we don’t use anymore. But I would love to use is a faster action rod, you know, so he still had kind of families of rods back in the day, which I think is cool, along with the LPs, another very, very famous trout rod. 00;27;03;19 – 00;27;27;03 Connor But the Horizon two pieces were very legendary and they were very good. Yes. And they’re they’re really good. And then when he transitioned from the horizon two piece to the Horizon four piece, those are very, very state of the art. Good tapers, very smooth, very stout, very strong rods, very impressive honestly, for the nineties and up people loved them. 00;27;27;18 – 00;27;50;14 Connor We still get people I get people at shows every single year. They’re like, I love my horizon. I’m like, Oh, that’s cool. Cause if you break, you know, But they’re durable. And what I will say is that a lot of the older rods are thicker walled, lower modulus material. They’re heavier, they’re a little bit beefier. And some in terms of where modern rods have gone, everything’s so light, so strong, so nice. 00;27;50;25 – 00;28;16;08 Connor But there’s something to be said about especially those old LPs. Is where they kind of have that really almost cane blank load. So if you just wiggle around a kind of lows off the blank, that’s really neat and that’s honestly something that is tough to sell these days to sell you. Hey, like we’re making a rod that’s actually heavier, but it’s going to suit you really well for this, this and this dry fly fishing or, you know, brook trout fishing. 00;28;16;15 – 00;28;35;03 Dave If it’s a like eight and a half or nine foot rod trout rod, it seems like the weight isn’t as big of a deal, but it is. You get into these, you’re on, you know, ten foot like long or even space rods, stuff like that. Right? The the weight becomes very critical. Like, what’s your thought on that? How why is a lighter rod say better or maybe when is a heavier rod better. 00;28;35;16 – 00;28;50;21 Connor Yeah. So grilling so kind of like what I was saying with the the medium action rods are like a dry fly rod. Having that little bit of weight in the blank kind of helps the blank load. And when I say that, it kind of you can have just the leader out no load just by you moving the rod. 00;28;50;28 – 00;29;18;14 Connor That’s cool. You know, that’s huge. Very, very similar to a space rod. So what a space rod is. Space rods in general are a little bit stouter tip, depending if it’s Skagit or a Scandi rod, but a Skagit rod may have a little bit of a heavier tip, getting that rod to load deeper and actually have a little bit of meat and potatoes to kind of you feel that cast and feel that rod load up to throw because really a spare rods quite easy to cast. 00;29;18;14 – 00;29;29;27 Connor It’s less energy than casting a ten weight, you know, in terms of you you know in terms of your actual bodily movement and your power, you know, all you have to do is just move your hands in the right ways. Yeah. 00;29;29;28 – 00;29;34;00 Dave Because the lever I mean, it can kind of come down to the the fact that it’s a longer lever right. That’s a correct. 00;29;34;15 – 00;29;55;23 Connor 100%. And also just you’re using two hands using that bottom hand, which is pretty much on used besides a double haul. But, you know, you have a lot more power. So that’s really nice. But having a rod like especially our old days, like our or even a rod, some of them were designed back in the day by Simon Bosworth. 00;29;56;19 – 00;30;04;03 Connor Oh yeah. So some of the all three pieces were designed with in conjunction with Simon when he was AT&T Pro. 00;30;04;14 – 00;30;06;22 Dave Oh, okay. So Simon was AT&T back? 00;30;06;26 – 00;30;10;10 Connor Way back, Yeah. Early 2000s yet like before. 00;30;10;10 – 00;30;13;07 Dave So before he got into before with real. Yes. 00;30;13;07 – 00;30;18;19 Connor Oh yeah. Definitely before. So he was helping Tom out on some of these legendary rods. 00;30;19;06 – 00;30;26;17 Dave Wow. And that was in the time when early days really? I think that was 2000. Probably the earlier days of space. Right? It was getting going. Yeah. 00;30;26;18 – 00;30;47;07 Connor Yes, Yes, exactly. So we came out with the D series in 2000 and that was a Yeah. Which is a fantastic series. And especially the 13 foot seven weight three piece is known as a absolute rocket ship I and it is I still cast this fabulous 500 grain suit you to the moon. Yeah it’s really good. Very easy. 00;30;47;07 – 00;31;09;08 Connor Yeah. And it’s a heavy rod It’s a beefy rod. It’s so heavy by modern standards. But just the magic of that blank and the material in the tape is just fabulous. So stuff like that is like when I, I’ve been working on a little bit a six piece actually. 6000, no kidding. Designs. Yes. And the rod I’ve been kind of a good starting point is around a 13 foot seven weight. 00;31;09;08 – 00;31;13;09 Connor That’s a very general stay rod That’s a do it all one in the quiver. 00;31;13;09 – 00;31;24;13 Dave You can go bigger you can go it’s it’s a little bit light maybe for some stuff, but you can still do it and then you can go lighter, right? I mean that’s the thing of when you get to an eight weight or a six weight, you’re kind of either going one way or the other, right? 00;31;24;19 – 00;31;49;00 Connor Correct. Exactly. And just said it’s kind of in, you know. Yeah. Like you say, it’s a jack of all trades rod. But what I did was when I was kind of thinking about it and putting it on the deflection board and going through kind of what I would do to design a six piece rod, which we haven’t done ever before, is build up the 13 foot three piece and then go out and cast that and see what is this, What was this all about? 00;31;49;06 – 00;32;08;05 Connor You know, and actually having the ability to, hey like go up in the attic and Farrel one of these up and go cast It is pretty neat you know being able to you know actually have one in the building you know is is nice you know because sometimes you can’t those little odd and end rods are tough to find if it’s 30 years old you know right. 00;32;08;05 – 00;32;30;02 Dave Yeah it is. That’s really cool. Yeah, forget about that too, because I think and I guess I love the TNT to Right, Thomas, the Thomas team just rings, you know? Well, but it’s good. It’s really good. What is the you know and you look and I didn’t realize the speed because I think when you think of Thomas and Thomas and I didn’t actually know about speed, but people think of I think right to the trout, you think of the guys so and so. 00;32;30;02 – 00;32;39;00 Dave Yeah. But you have the space. I mean, you have the line up. Is that something that’s always been is that something looking ahead that you’re going to it sounds like you’re going continue kind of evolving the space. 00;32;39;00 – 00;32;55;21 Connor Oh, for sure. I mean, even in recent years, Joe did a bunch of Joe Goodspeed did a bunch of work. Joe, Joe Oh, yeah. Joe did a bunch of work. Joe. Joe was here from I think he did a lot of the rod design from around 2017 to 2021. 00;32;56;00 – 00;32;56;18 Dave Okay? 00;32;56;21 – 00;33;17;11 Connor You know, so that was a lot of his his designs. And he has some amazing rods, but he did like a trout spey and then a short spey, which were really nice rods and those are really good. So those are, you know, some more modern double handers. But apart from that, we haven’t touched that travel size. And I think what are people like? 00;33;17;13 – 00;33;24;16 Connor I’m from, you know, Massachusetts and I want to use a double hand rod. I’m probably going to travel somewhere, you know, to use it. 00;33;24;20 – 00;33;33;20 Dave Yeah, right. It travels huge trout. I mean, I’m right now getting ready for an Atlantic salmon trip. Nice. Where are you going or you heading up to Mt. Waters. 00;33;33;20 – 00;33;34;11 Connor Up in New Place. 00;33;34;23 – 00;33;50;01 Dave And. Yeah, and we’re. And I’m coming across the country and I’m like, what? I’m thinking already? Like, do I want to take my space rod across? You know what I mean? Because I got to go all the way. Or do I, you know, use a guide rod Or maybe because they do single hand. That’s the cool thing about up there. 00;33;50;01 – 00;33;53;25 Dave They don’t it’s not just space. So I could literally just take a single hand. 00;33;53;25 – 00;33;55;11 Connor Rod Yes, definitely. 00;33;55;11 – 00;34;04;03 Dave You know, but what you’re saying is like the 60 and I get it. You know, I think that the multi pieces, it’s just better because I mean, a four piece speed rod is a giant thing to carry around. 00;34;04;04 – 00;34;20;23 Connor Still a big thing. Exactly. Especially in those 13, 14 foot lengths. So, yeah, I think just something I’m looking at, just something I’m always thinking about. But I was I did have a fantastic opportunity during show season to fish out in the Olympic Peninsula for Steelhead, which is fabulous. 00;34;20;27 – 00;34;22;14 Dave How was that? Was that your first time out there? 00;34;22;20 – 00;34;26;16 Connor That was my first time fishing for, yes. West Coast Steelhead. 00;34;26;22 – 00;34;29;00 Dave Cool. What was it like when you got out on those rivers? What were. 00;34;29;00 – 00;34;52;22 Connor You. Oh, just fab, big, fabulous, big. And yeah, what I kept saying, I went out with a colleague who’s who’s actually a customer service and sales here. His name’s John Carpenter. He’s been steelhead fishing for a lot of his life. And he’s he’s very, you know, he’s got his fair share of steelhead. And yeah, it was nice to spend that time with him out for a few days and do a bunch of steelhead fishing. 00;34;53;01 – 00;35;06;17 Connor But even more cool was that I was able to use these six piece rods, so I was able to try out a couple different rods, a couple of different designs with brand new materials. And I actually did manage to get one a steelhead, which was. 00;35;06;17 – 00;35;08;15 Dave You did I did. You landed one. 00;35;08;20 – 00;35;09;18 Connor They landed one. 00;35;09;18 – 00;35;10;09 Dave Nice work. 00;35;10;10 – 00;35;11;19 Connor For. I was fabulous. Well, tell. 00;35;11;19 – 00;35;16;16 Dave Me this is great because, I mean, not everybody lands a steelhead, especially their first time on a river, but. 00;35;16;16 – 00;35;17;25 Connor Oh, it was unreal. 00;35;17;26 – 00;35;22;25 Dave What was it? What was the fly set up for? Using the Skagit set up and what did you get it on? 00;35;22;27 – 00;35;56;22 Connor Yeah, it was just a yeah, it was a Skagit. Yeah. It was like a 500 grain Rio Skagit with some like 12 and a half feet of T 11 and we already kind of ran through the pool a few times and you know, we actually jumped around a lot of all the way from the ocean to the national park boundaries and yeah, and then we just it was late in the evening and John, my colleague, was a few hundred yards upstream, so I don’t have the hero shot, but I do have the pictures and Yeah, yeah, just, you know, almost at the end. 00;35;56;27 – 00;35;59;07 Dave What was the take. Was it at the hang down at the end. 00;35;59;07 – 00;36;01;09 Connor No not at the hanging. It was mid Swang. 00;36;01;09 – 00;36;04;15 Dave Mid swing. Was it in a tail out or was it mid run. Where, where was. 00;36;04;15 – 00;36;05;17 Connor The tail out. 00;36;05;21 – 00;36;07;01 Dave Yeah. Oh I love the tail out. 00;36;07;01 – 00;36;11;00 Connor I was so good. I was fabulous. And just the, the are real. This came to life. It was cool. 00;36;11;17 – 00;36;14;06 Dave There you go. So how did the six piece perform. 00;36;14;16 – 00;36;35;17 Connor Amazing. It was great. I actually brought two out and there was one that was stiffer, which I would kind of call a more scandi rod. And then there was one that was a little softer like I was talking about earlier. I fished for it was actually on the first day, which was crazy. So we showed up and I started off with a stiffer rod and a bunch of lines, and I was just kind of cycling through a couple of lines. 00;36;35;17 – 00;36;52;07 Connor You know, I had a couple of heads in my pocket and I try out so see what I felt was best. I scrapped the stiff rod, went to the soft rod, and I settled on this perfect setup and I fish there for the two and a half days. It was so good, you know, And that was a fabulous rod. 00;36;52;07 – 00;37;05;20 Connor I eventually gave that rod to a buddy in IUL. He’s actually fishing it for not for grill or salmon in Ireland right now. So that’s pretty cool. So that specific rod, I will want that rod back, right. 00;37;05;24 – 00;37;07;18 Dave So you don’t have a bunch right now. People can. 00;37;08;00 – 00;37;08;04 Connor Just. 00;37;08;05 – 00;37;09;07 Dave Like a piece on. 00;37;09;07 – 00;37;13;06 Connor Sanded prototype, just like it’s one of one exists. 00;37;13;13 – 00;37;14;14 Dave That’s really sweet. 00;37;14;17 – 00;37;33;20 Connor Cool. But you know, just like that, that reward and actually, you know, being able to cast and cast and really practice the casting and you can only do that so much here like the Deerfield is big enough to cast on, but it just doesn’t sometimes have the speed of water and, you know, it was just so such a nice it’s so relaxing. 00;37;33;20 – 00;37;37;10 Connor I would do it again in a heartbeat. You know, it’s so much fun, blessed to be able to do that. 00;37;39;07 – 00;37;59;29 Dave Fly fish with me, Utah Discover year round blue ribbon trout fishing on the famed Provo River. Choose a guided walk and Wade or a scenic float and experience big trout, stunning canyons and unforgettable days on the water. You can book your adventure right now at Fly Fish With me Utah Ecom World class water. Incredible fishing that’s fly fish. 00;37;59;29 – 00;38;20;18 Dave With me Utah dot com trout roots by Onyx is built for fly anglers who want better intel without spending hours digging for the information. You’ll get access to public land maps, stream access points, regulations and even road and trail maps all in one place. It’s become my go to app for scouting new trips. You can check them out right now. 00;38;20;18 – 00;38;42;07 Dave Go to where by swinging dot com slash trout routes and download the app today. Well good. I’m glad you got out on some stone fishing. We’ve been kind of bounced around a little bit here, which has been amazing. What else would you tell us, you know people about Thomas and Thomas that we we don’t know. I don’t know if the if there’s more history we missed or just your lineup. 00;38;42;15 – 00;38;43;21 Dave What have we missed today so far? 00;38;44;02 – 00;39;13;13 Connor I think we did a pretty good job with the history. I think, you know, coming into the I will mention that coming into like that kind of coming up into like the COVID times was kind of like a really kind of an explosion of TNT where Joe had a lot of input on the rod design and he did a really good job on like the the Contact series, which is very, very well known now, which is and you know, and of Rod series that this past year we actually updated into the contact three. 00;39;13;13 – 00;39;35;05 Connor So now there’s been the third generation of contacts and with the help of some amazing anglers, we were able to kind of get the newest contact series out, which has been a fantastic success. And but yeah, stuff like that, we’re pushing the envelope and I think that’s something that I would like to kind of see more and I try to do more, especially like in the Yvonne. 00;39;35;05 – 00;40;03;06 Connor I think the Yvonne too is just such a fabulous fishing rod, just a awesome trout fishing rod and overall freshwater fishing rod, but kind of just keeping that keeping that going and pushing the envelope and maybe coming out with some new niche models, you know? But I also think too, that going back to the past and maybe kind of rereleasing some of the older series, you know, and maybe redoing some of those old specialty Heritage series rods. 00;40;03;06 – 00;40;24;19 Connor So maybe. But what I think would be kind of cool is maybe even picking out a couple rods. It’d be like, oh, like people loved this two piece 12 weight, you know, or, you know, or this two piece, six weight and but, you know, then it’s larger tubes. It’s kind of a whole thing. So whether whether that comes into fruition, I can’t say for certain, but there’s always room for development. 00;40;24;24 – 00;40;30;05 Connor You know even we get a lot of ask for one piece rods, especially from guides and the keys. 00;40;30;14 – 00;40;35;06 Dave What is the benefit of a, you know, a two piece rod say versus a four piece. 00;40;35;14 – 00;40;48;00 Connor Honestly, these days with the smoothness of four piece rods, it’s really I wouldn’t even say it’s a benefit. I would say it’s kind of less it might be less hassle and less things to maybe check. 00;40;48;10 – 00;40;51;08 Dave Like why would guys want a two piece or a one piece rod. 00;40;51;20 – 00;40;56;11 Connor A one piece for sure. The one piece is just a fabulous tool. 00;40;56;15 – 00;40;58;27 Dave It is So one piece is a different deal that that is. 00;40;58;27 – 00;41;23;01 Connor Something that’s a whole different ballgame is okay. And Loomis recently had a T to s, which is a kind of like a 8020 split rod, which is a really good idea, which is neat. And there’s a lot of innovation in terms of that, maybe even a kind of a faux one piece, but a true one piece fraud. It does like what Hardy’s done and what I would, you know, eventually, maybe like to come to market. 00;41;23;01 – 00;41;40;14 Connor It’s just really desirable for like boat guides where they’re, you know, the broad is is strung up in the boat all the time. They put the four pieces together, they might as well superglue it. You know, it’s never coming apart, you know, And that’s where it is an advantage where the actual fishing advantages, it cuts better. It’s a thinner blanket. 00;41;40;14 – 00;42;03;11 Connor It’s usually a thinner blanc. Overall, it just has a little bit more kind of, again, that feel, it really transmits a lot of feeling and it’s very, very smooth. And with Farrell, not really these days with the rods that we’ve been doing recently but with Farrell’s come possible issues so cracking or you know Farrell’s coming, they don’t come loose on our rods. 00;42;03;11 – 00;42;23;29 Connor But you know, it is issues, you know, stress concentrations I would say in from engineering terms. So yes, by removing all of those, you really get a nice smooth I mean that’s why most spending rods are one piece, you know, surf rods. A lot of the good ones are one piece, you know, stuff like that. So one piece rods are neat and something I would love to try exploring. 00;42;24;03 – 00;42;40;15 Dave Yeah, it makes sense. You know? It does make sense. It’s definitely. Yeah. If you’re never breaking down your rod, then yeah, you might as well just have a one piece. That’s. That’s good. Well, so let’s go down a road on a couple of species that we’ve got coming here, some trips and let’s start with, let’s just start with our Montana. 00;42;40;16 – 00;42;49;21 Dave We’re going to be heading to Montana fish there this year. What do you think is the good all around? I guess, again, it depends on what you’re doing, but let’s just say dry fly your fish injuries. A lot. 00;42;49;21 – 00;43;06;19 Connor Okay, Dries, I would probably go for a905. I just I don’t think you can beat that out there. Depending on the size of water you’re on. You know, four way could be good. You know, if you’re on like some tail waters and stuff and maybe some smaller bugs. But I think a nine foot five weight, especially if the wind kicks up, I think you’re going to want it. 00;43;06;19 – 00;43;24;12 Connor You know, I think that’s just that’s why they sell so well out there. You know, as a nine foot five weight, if you are trying to get a little bit more versatility down the road, I would step it up to a nine foot six weight. You know, if you are trying to throw maybe a streamer, maybe a hop or or a larger bug depending on the time of year, right? 00;43;24;12 – 00;43;28;04 Dave Yeah, I get up to a six. Is that in your rod like what would be is there a native on. 00;43;28;21 – 00;43;39;20 Connor Avon to 906 would be that that’s kind of that’s my truck rod that’s kind of what I sell to everybody that would be my you know, apocalypse rod. You could catch the world on that thing, you know. Yeah, that’s it. 00;43;40;04 – 00;43;47;04 Dave So we got that. So that’s the avante for the kind of a trout. Now what about we talked about the Atlantic salmon. What would be the single hand rod for Atlantic salmon. 00;43;47;09 – 00;44;12;17 Connor Awesome. Awesome question. Yeah. I think you with all kind of a couple different ways but I think like a ten foot seven weight is a really strong contender because then you could also you just have that men’s ability of that double hander. So, you know, you get that line out there and you have a big long belly and you’re throwing either a little sink tip, a bomber, or even, you know, say you bring it to Iceland and you’re allowed to fish, maybe some sinking lines. 00;44;12;23 – 00;44;26;29 Connor You do have that ability to throw a men’s in there with that ten foot rod. A lot easier than a nine footer. a908 or a ten foot seven would probably be my choice for kind of your, you know, Canada. A salmon fishing with a single hand rod. Yeah. Either one of those. 00;44;27;00 – 00;44;41;05 Dave Nine foot eight way. Yeah. And I’ve got a bunch of, you know, just going back as a Steelhead angler before spey, you know, I’ve got a bunch of nine foot eight weights and there, you know, the great thing is, I’ll bet you if I fished one of your nine foot eight weights, it would probably feel a little different. 00;44;41;05 – 00;44;57;08 Dave Cause I think the the ones I have are probably a little bit older, a little bit heavier. But the ten foot seven weight, you get a longer rod, a little less. So it’s not quite as heavy, but yeah, it seems like that would be the rod, especially because rods are lighter now, right? So why seems like the ten foot is probably the the more effective Rod. 00;44;57;18 – 00;45;19;20 Connor I think it is a little bit more effective of a rod for that choice. It’s kind of borderline switch, you know, but I think you’re going to get a little bit more. You’re going to it’s just going to throw those men’s better. And a lot of times with these salmon, especially if you are, you know, regulated to say like a no sinking tip, you know, you have to fish a single hook, you have to fish, you know, fairly traditionally. 00;45;20;02 – 00;45;45;06 Connor You are going to be doing some mending to slow down that line. So, you know, having a longer rod is going to aid that. You know, that’s why doubles are honestly really good for mending. You know, you can always throw a couple of men’s and what the double hander and kind of what a single hander you can’t throw that 60 foot man does easily all day and also adding that 1040 you can just throw a little stack in there and you’re you’re going to be you’re going to be off to the swing. 00;45;45;11 – 00;45;58;22 Dave You’re good to go. Awesome. Okay, so we talked about steel, how we got that rod cover with the SPEY. Let’s go to another species we’re chasing this year. We’re heading up north to Saskatchewan to fish for Northern Pike. What would be the rod we’d be looking for there? 00;45;58;28 – 00;46;03;16 Connor Yeah, depending on your fly size and if you’re throwing floaters or sinkers surface. 00;46;03;16 – 00;46;04;17 Dave Yeah. So floaters, I think. 00;46;04;17 – 00;46;20;22 Connor Awesome. Yeah. I would probably go for like a 300 grain Exocet at 810 weight. I think that that would be a fantastic choice. It’s going to throw any sort of popper or large surface fly you’re going to want to be throwing. It’s going to have plenty and you’re going to able to cast that all day. 00;46;20;22 – 00;46;22;16 Dave So this is the Exocet 88. 00;46;22;16 – 00;46;24;17 Connor And it is, Yep. So the streamer rod. 00;46;24;22 – 00;46;26;15 Dave The Oh, the streamer. And then what was that again. 00;46;26;21 – 00;46;29;01 Connor Going to be a ten weight. 350 Great. 00;46;29;03 – 00;46;33;02 Dave So you want. Yeah. With Pike the big Pike you want it, you want nine weights not you want a big rod. 00;46;33;06 – 00;46;50;10 Connor I would you know. And I think what a lot of people especially with fly choice kind of like what I was saying with that that Montana what you were bringing up was fly size line is really kind of what I would want people to think about is like if I’m throwing smaller bugs, I can go lighter on the line. 00;46;50;12 – 00;47;09;18 Connor If you’re throwing a big popper, I need a big fly to push that popper. So, you know, having like, say your Titan, say Titan on a 350 grain 88, you could cast that all day and it’s going to get that popper and turn it over. So that would be my choice. And that’s a fantastic rod. And it fights fish really good. 00;47;09;18 – 00;47;34;27 Connor And if it sticks, it keeps it. You a pike and like a muskie and stuff like that, they tend to, you know, have large head shakes and having a little bit of a softer rod. And overall that’s a little bit more moderate. Absorb those head shakes after the hook has been stuck on a strip set is going to be very, very nice close to the boat instead of, say a stiffer rod that might have a little bit more of a tendency to pull a hook. 00;47;35;06 – 00;47;36;21 Dave Yeah, you want a little bit of that? Okay. 00;47;36;21 – 00;47;37;18 Connor A little more bend. 00;47;37;18 – 00;47;57;06 Dave Yeah, a little more bent. And another one we’ve heard a lot about. Seems maybe it’s the one that I hear the most about. Is the sextant, right? Yeah. And under the sun. And is that now Because we are. That’s another big trip we’ve got coming here is bully’s right. And I think that that’s going to be exciting because you know permits you know bone fish amazing And then tarpon potentially. 00;47;57;06 – 00;47;59;28 Dave Right. Like what is this, the sexton mainly a saltwater. 00;48;00;09 – 00;48;28;00 Connor Yes. So it definitely is little bit sore. People do use them for trout and small mouth and a host of other species. But I would say and pike and I use a sexton ten weight for Pike as well but and it’s a very versatile rod but I think it really excels with floating lines and smaller flies. So throwing that tighter loop into wind, throwing that presentation cast at 70 C where you are false, casting a fair distance. 00;48;28;07 – 00;48;32;08 Dave Like you’re holding line, you’re casting maybe 70, 80 feet, holding that line in the air or. 00;48;32;10 – 00;48;54;09 Connor Maybe has a forecast. But, you know, I think but hold in that line and say tracking a fish. So say a fish is moving across a flat or you know you’re not happy with that last or you’re not happy with that last that last false cast. Oh, it’s going to be this next one, you know, So having that kind of ability to carry that line in the air, throw it accurate tight loop with a small fly that sexton. 00;48;54;09 – 00;49;18;18 Connor So for Belize like you were saying a fabulous fishery if you wanted all those three species if you want a grand slam rod it’d be a nine way. The sextant nine is fabulous and it would do all of those species very well for because especially Belize, you’re not getting giant, you’re not getting, you know, as large tarpon. So you know, if you were to going for that slam you might be fishing for juveniles. 00;49;18;18 – 00;49;30;18 Connor So a nine way, it’s going to be just fine. And then it’s not too you know, with the right wine, it’s good for bones. And then it is a fantastic permit rod for, you know, throwing bigger crabs. So that’s that would be my choice. 00;49;30;27 – 00;49;57;04 Dave Good. So we got the line up, and I know there’s a lot more we could talk about here, but I think that’s a good chunk to kind of touch base on. And we’ll be in touch. Definitely stay on this. I’m looking ahead. You know, again, we talked about Tom Dorsey and you knew him a little bit. What would be do you have any Tom Dorsey stories you want to add before he head out of here that come to your mind that I’m just trying to get a feel like, you know, this guy that created this company, You know, if he looks back, I’m sure he was proud of what he created. 00;49;57;13 – 00;50;08;27 Dave But is he what was he like? Because I think a lefty, you know, has all these stories. He was obviously there’s only one lefty. But, you know, did Tom have a similar similar sort of, you know, what was he like? How would you describe that? 00;50;08;27 – 00;50;28;08 Connor He was kind of thoughtful and, dare I say, maybe later in life. And I didn’t know him when he was younger, but he kind of had an eclectic feel, you know, kind of like your, you know, sitting sitting back and smoking a pipe and drinking a glass of whiskey kind of guy, you know, a guy that you could kind of listen to and tell stories with. 00;50;28;08 – 00;50;42;29 Connor And just a fantastic soul, you know, and someone who, you know, really had a love for what he did and a passion, you know, and just, you know, excitement. So whenever he would kind of go out and cast a rod, it was kind of giddy, you know, And yeah. 00;50;42;29 – 00;50;47;07 Dave He was what was he into? What were his species? Did he have one or a few that he really loved? 00;50;47;07 – 00;51;00;04 Connor He kind of did at all. I think he really liked the I think he really liked where he lived out here, you know, being able to kind of go for his trout and his bass. But he also did a fair share of salmon fishing as well, just kind of like. 00;51;00;04 – 00;51;00;28 Dave Atlantic salmon. 00;51;00;28 – 00;51;27;15 Connor Atlantic City in Canada, kind of like your traditional kind of fisherman, you know, and and that’s how I appreciate. But one of my favorite quotes from Tom and and something that’s kind of stuck with me is about the rod design is he was also a really he loved cooking. You know he was a yeah he loved cooking. So one of his favorite things to say was that Rod designed itself as the way it is, is more akin to, say, a culinary art. 00;51;27;25 – 00;51;38;24 Connor And you’re like, Huh, okay. But it is true. It’s kind of like you said, it’s like tasting a soup. Like when you make a recipe, when you make this blank or you make this rod, you have to taste it. 00;51;39;01 – 00;51;40;22 Dave And then, you know, and then you adjust it, right? 00;51;40;23 – 00;52;02;11 Connor And then you adjust it. Exactly. So then you’re like, Oh, it’s not that right. This needs this and that needs that. So that’s always stuck with me. And that’s something, you know, you’re still what I do here. And then, you know, what Tom definitely did is, you know, you strive for perfection. You strive for that premium feel. And I think Tom was very, you know, coming from that background, coming from that musical. 00;52;02;11 – 00;52;32;27 Connor And music is very much perfection, you know, jazz, very technical, you know. So you’re you’re not missing that. No, you’re not missing that beat. You’re on time and you bring that into the bamboo. You know, it’s the absolute attention to detail that he always, you know, strived for. And a lot of the older the craftsmen here that we have that knew Tom, definitely, you know, more so than me would kind of continue that legacy of that attention to detail. 00;52;32;27 – 00;52;48;12 Connor So like the epoxy work is incredibly thin, you know, and not thin. You know, it’s covering the wraps, but it’s very, very flat. Very flat on the it’s it’s not not more than you need. And that’s, again, keeping weight down. You know, there’s a reason. 00;52;48;20 – 00;52;53;05 Dave So that’s big. So like literally the epoxy having too much fat. Yeah. 00;52;53;10 – 00;53;14;01 Connor Mm hmm. And all that, all that kind of, you know, smaller in contract and stuff. But yeah, I think that Tom was just a very, you know, a very good soul and someone who, you know, really had a, I think honestly. Thomas And Thomas, you know, kind of grew bigger than he could handle. You know, it had a lot of different changes of ownership and it had, it had its times. 00;53;14;01 – 00;53;37;04 Connor And I think what the new with Neville and and and leading the company and in a great direction for you know making records in the USA OR like I said it’s hard but having someone who has the mindset and someone who wants to succeed you know and is Pat and Tom passing that torch on to a novel has been very successful. 00;53;37;04 – 00;53;58;04 Connor So I think that Tom’s willingness to kind of try that kind of maybe different ownership styles in the past, you know, may have led down some different roads. But yeah, I think what’s really funny is I’ll just mention this is back in the day in the nineties, there were some I look at the old catalogs and I wasn’t even there the mid-nineties. 00;53;58;04 – 00;54;09;26 Connor I wasn’t even born yet. Right. But, but some of these old catalogs, it was literally like a fly shop. You could order anything you want. We had boots we had we sold Sage Rots. 00;54;09;27 – 00;54;12;28 Dave Oh, so this is the old Thompson Thomas catalog in the nineties in. 00;54;12;28 – 00;54;14;10 Connor The neighborhood was a mail. 00;54;14;10 – 00;54;19;05 Dave Order. Yeah. Mail order. And they could buy like, not just Thomas the Thomas records but everything. It was like any shop. 00;54;19;12 – 00;54;44;07 Connor It was literally a shop. So like having, like all of that happening was, you know, a lot, I think and it may have kind of just been a lot of different wheelhouse is to be in once, but I’m really happy now that it is solely a rod shop. Well, the only thing we make here is rods. You know, we’re not we have yes, we have apparel and accessories, but the only thing we produce here is amazing fishing rods. 00;54;44;22 – 00;55;12;25 Connor But I think. Yeah. And Tom then passing that bamboo torch on to then Tom Moran from Hardee’s and then now on to Troy Jack’s who’s doing our bamboo currently that attention to detail is always going to be seen in in the TNT rods and the bamboo as well. So I just think it’s a holistic approach to that detail and that beautiful rods that I always would love to. 00;55;13;08 – 00;55;14;23 Connor Well, love to see. Yeah. 00;55;15;06 – 00;55;23;15 Dave Nice. Well, tell me, what do you have coming up for you as far as your any fishing trips in the next year that you’re thinking about maybe or any species you want to add to the list? 00;55;23;15 – 00;55;49;25 Connor Yeah, definitely. I like doing the I would love a really big carp. I think that’s something that I would love to do, is sight fish a really big carp. But in terms of new species, I would love to do a Canada trip for salmon. I like you’re doing. I’m jealous. Yeah, I would love that. That that’s definitely something that that whole Gaspé and all those rivers up there is very I’ve done my I’ve done some research and it’s very exciting. 00;55;49;25 – 00;56;07;28 Connor I think that that would be very cool especially, you know, doing more of that kind of double hand work and, and just getting up there and putting some eyes on it would be very nice for me. But in terms of, you know, honestly, with the way that the world is right now, I think kicking it close to home for something to be said about that as well. 00;56;07;28 – 00;56;26;28 Connor So I do a lot of small mouth fishing, I do a lot of fishing out of canoes are my canoe. And yeah, it’s there’s just so much water in this area in western Mass that let alone trout, bass and pike and stuff like that. It’s just could you get a fish a whole lifetime out here and never be bored? 00;56;27;28 – 00;56;47;05 Connor So I think, you know, with that, I think that’s also that’s also something to be said about any angler listening to this podcast is don’t discount the water in your backyard. You know, you can you can really find some great things if you put the time in. And that’s really what it is, is putting the time in. So as everyone would love to fish more, you know? 00;56;47;08 – 00;57;03;06 Dave Cool. Yeah. Well, let’s wrap this up. I always love a couple random ones. And of course, the podcast is something I’m always thinking about. It sounds like you listen to the podcast out there. Are there any shows that you enjoy listening to genres or anything like that? Are you listening to more music or podcasts? 00;57;03;06 – 00;57;11;10 Connor I’m more of a music guy, but the one podcast that I have or not even podcast is an NPR show, but it is on Spotify as car talk. That’s what. 00;57;11;10 – 00;57;12;28 Dave I yeah, that’s. 00;57;12;28 – 00;57;17;03 Connor My that is my favorite. So those two guys, the TAPPER brothers. Yeah. 00;57;17;03 – 00;57;19;23 Dave Oh man, those guys talk about the one liners, right? 00;57;19;23 – 00;57;23;11 Connor Those guys are those are my that’s one of my that’s my favorite. 00;57;23;11 – 00;57;25;07 Dave They’re in that your area right, at Boston. 00;57;25;08 – 00;57;30;15 Connor Yeah, exactly. So it’s kind of like it’s kind of the accent and all that stuff. That’s just what I grew up listening to. 00;57;30;15 – 00;57;33;00 Dave Okay, well, you don’t have the accent, though, right? 00;57;33;01 – 00;57;43;17 Connor I don’t. My dad does a little bit, but my mom’s from Ireland, so I don’t have like double I don’t have like double double accent, but that’s another trip I love to do is Ireland. My mom’s from there, so. 00;57;43;17 – 00;57;44;04 Dave I have to be. 00;57;44;04 – 00;57;46;20 Connor Great. I’ve got salmon over there and that’s just fabulous. 00;57;46;20 – 00;57;48;21 Dave Oh, you have, you’ve got Atlantic salmon and I have. 00;57;48;21 – 00;57;49;11 Connor That’s really neat. 00;57;49;11 – 00;57;50;07 Dave Yeah, that’s great. 00;57;50;18 – 00;57;51;08 Connor So that’s cool. 00;57;51;17 – 00;57;56;10 Dave So you’ve done that. And then what about sports? I always. You can’t in Massachusetts. Are you a sports fan and all that. 00;57;56;11 – 00;58;14;23 Connor Funny my I was a Bruins fan growing up I played hockey in high school I always I still like the Bruins but now I kind of in college I kind of went towards cycling actually so mountain biking cross and long distance was kind of what I enjoyed to do. 00;58;15;00 – 00;58;18;18 Dave That’s cool. Like how long distance would you go on as a ride on the road? 00;58;18;23 – 00;58;25;05 Connor I’ve done pretty big rides. The biggest one I ever did solo was 150. 00;58;25;08 – 00;58;26;18 Dave 150 miles. 00;58;26;18 – 00;58;29;20 Connor Yeah, yeah, 10,000 feet. That was a big ride. 00;58;29;20 – 00;58;31;12 Dave So that was. Would that take you. Was that. 00;58;31;13 – 00;58;59;11 Connor That was about 13 hours. Yeah. 30. Yeah. Moving time. Yeah. That was, that was big. So but the I haven’t done, you know, I’ve done like some pretty big rides since then but it’s been doing a lot of fishing. But yeah, I really, I think like the long, the cycling was really, really good for me in college because in Maryland it was, the fishing was not, not the great it was warm, you know, being close to D.C. and you know, there were some ponds and stuff, but it’s urban. 00;58;59;25 – 00;59;04;18 Connor You did have some stuff up north towards Pennsylvania, and I did fish Pennsylvania a little bit. 00;59;04;18 – 00;59;07;11 Dave Sure. And you have you have some stuff down south, right? SHAD? 00;59;07;11 – 00;59;20;23 Connor Yeah, the shad and I did the Shad a bunch and Fletchers and Anacostia. But yeah, I didn’t really again, I was in college, I didn’t really have a I’d actually didn’t have a car. So I just ride my bike a lot. I bike fish. Like fishing was awesome. 00;59;20;23 – 00;59;22;02 Dave Oh, you did you bike striper. 00;59;22;02 – 00;59;29;00 Connor Oh, of course. Striper bike ride to the bike and and go fishing. That was. Yeah. And fly right Is again perfect for that. 00;59;29;00 – 00;59;37;10 Dave So I know we used to do this thing is this of biking up like gravel roads. I remember strapping the rods to the main bar right. You strap and then. 00;59;37;22 – 00;59;39;04 Connor Right to the top tube. Yep. 00;59;39;04 – 00;59;51;11 Dave Yep. Yeah. Right to the top. To where you got your hands on there. I know. Yeah. It’s, it’s the bikes were great. Yeah. When you’re that age it’s definitely. But it changed the game. Did it when you got your car sound like the first thing you did was get to the fly shop. So you’ve been. You’ve been doing this your whole life. 00;59;51;11 – 00;59;56;16 Dave It’s pretty cool. Do you do you find yourself you’re potentially sticking with it, you think for the long term? 00;59;56;17 – 01;00;11;19 Connor Yeah, I think for the long term, yes. I think, you know, I’m very, you know, very comfortable where I am. I live in a beautiful area, very happy here. So and I do love I take pride in what I do. And it is a great team here. So I do see myself sticking with it for a while. 01;00;11;19 – 01;00;28;21 Dave Yeah, that’s pretty sweet. Awesome. Well, this has been great, Connor. I think we’ll definitely stay in touch with you because you’ve got a lot of good stuff going. I want to hear more about this six piece space ride because I think that that’s something people will be loving, you know, to hear more about. But we’ll send everybody out to Thomas and Thomas Seacom to connect or at Carbon. 01;00;29;01 – 01;00;34;18 Dave Quigley on social and yeah, man, thanks for all your time. This has been great and looking forward to keeping in touch with you. 01;00;35;00 – 01;00;40;14 Connor Appreciate it. Dave, you very much for the opportunity to be on the podcast. 01;00;40;14 – 01;00;59;00 Dave All right. If get a chance, check in with Connor. You can do that right now at Carbon Quigley on Instagram or check in with him on the website. Thomas and Thomashawk.com if you’re interested in connecting more with us and the community, go to our Facebook income, slash pro sign up there and we’ll get you some information when we launch. 01;00;59;00 – 01;01;15;25 Dave And that launch is coming up soon because we’ve got a boot camp that’s right around the corner. So if you’re interested in joining our next boot camp, our summer boot camp, this is your chance to get access to an amazing cast of expert speakers. And this year it’s going to be free. So make sure you sign up there. 01;01;15;25 – 01;01;34;07 Dave What fly swinging dot com slash boot camp. All right. That’s what we got for you today. I hope you’re enjoying this one. I hope you enjoyed the podcast. If you have any questions, need anything, send me an email any time diva, workplace or income. And I want to wish you a happy evening. A happy morning or wonderful afternoon. 01;01;34;07 – 01;01;53;06 Dave And I want to thank you again for stopping by. We’ll talk to you on the next one. Thanks for listening to the Wet fly, swing, fly fishing show for notes and links from this episode, visit Wet fly, swing, Ecom.
Connor Fly Rod Fishing

Conclusion with Connor Quigley on Fly Rods

Connor Quigley shared what goes into designing a fly rod that not only performs well but also feels right in an angler’s hands. From the history of Thomas & Thomas to rod actions, craftsmanship, and choosing the right setup for different fisheries, this episode offers plenty of practical takeaways for fly anglers of every experience level. What qualities do you look for in a fly rod, and is there one that has earned a permanent spot in your lineup?

     

From Filmmaker to Togiak River Lodge: Jordan Larsen’s Alaska Fly Fishing Story

togiak river lodge

Episode Show Notes

Jordan Larsen joins us to share the behind-the-scenes story of Togiak River Lodge, one of the most remote fishing destinations in Bristol Bay. We talk about Chinook fishing, spey programs, conservation, mentorship, filmmaking, and the unlikely road that led Jordan and his brother Zack to ownership during one of the most uncertain periods in modern history.


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togiak river lodge

Show Notes with Jordan Larsen on Togiak River Lodge

About Jordan Larsen

Jordan Larsen is co-owner of Togiak River Lodge in Bristol Bay, Alaska. Before entering lodge management, he built his skills as an outdoor filmmaker and videographer, producing hunting and fishing content throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

Today, Jordan helps oversee operations at one of Alaska’s most remote fisheries while continuing to share the stories, conservation values, and experiences that make the Togiak system unique.

Why the 2024 Spey Season Was So Special

For years, Jordan and the team worked to build a strong Spey fishing program at Togiak. Floods, high water, and difficult conditions repeatedly challenged those efforts, but last season everything finally lined up.

The water stayed fishable, Chinook arrived early, and guests experienced some of the best fishing the lodge has seen in years. Several anglers who had never touched a Spey rod found themselves hooked up to adult king salmon on their first day.

Key takeaways:

  • Early Chinook arrival created excellent opportunities
  • Favorable water conditions improved swinging success
  • New Spey anglers found immediate success
  • Strong conservation-minded guest groups added to the experience

The Hidden Gem of Bristol Bay

One theme that comes up throughout the conversation is just how remote the Togiak system really is. While many Alaska lodges promote wilderness experiences, Jordan explains that Togiak remains one of the least pressured systems in Bristol Bay.

Guests often arrive after fishing many famous Alaska rivers and leave wondering how they overlooked Togiak for so long. The lack of fishing pressure and the sheer scale of the wilderness continue to separate the fishery from many better-known destinations.

togiak river lodge

Why anglers love Togiak:

  • Extremely low fishing pressure
  • Remote Bristol Bay location
  • Strong salmon runs
  • Diverse fishing opportunities throughout the season

Salmon Variety Throughout the Season

One of the unique aspects of the fishery is the variety available throughout the summer. During our visit, bright Chinook, chum salmon, and sockeye were all in play.

Jordan explains that timing changes everything. Mid-July can offer kings, pinks, sockeye, chum salmon, rainbows, and more, all willing to grab many of the same swung flies.

Species discussed:

  • Chinook salmon
  • Chum salmon
  • Sockeye salmon
  • Pink salmon
  • Rainbow trout
  • Dolly Varden
  • Coho salmon (later season)

From a GoPro to a Career in the Outdoor Industry

Jordan’s journey started with a Christmas gift: a GoPro camera. When he visited Togiak before his senior year of high school, he filmed everything simply to capture memories.

The lodge’s previous owner, Larry, noticed something different. He saw a passion for storytelling and video production that Jordan hadn’t fully recognized yet. That observation led to an invitation to return the following summer as the lodge videographer.

That single conversation changed the trajectory of Jordan’s life.

Jordan’s early path included:

  • High school video classes
  • Outdoor filmmaking education
  • Editing and production training
  • Filming hunting and fishing content
  • Building a production business
togiak river lodge
July 11, 2025 “Nearly ten years ago, I took a video editing class with Tom Petry in Ohio, just trying to prep for a job filming at Togiak River Lodge. Never would I have guessed that handshake would lead to a lifelong friendship—and eventually, to Zack and I owning the lodge. Even better, I’ve now had the chance to share this place not once, but twice in a year with Tom. Wild how life works. Here’s to old friends and unexpected paths 🍻” (Photo via: https://www.instagram.com/togiak_river_lodge/)

The Mentors Who Opened the Next Door

Jordan credits much of his growth to filmmaker Tom Petry and the outdoor production community he discovered through specialized filmmaking courses.

What started as a training opportunity quickly turned into a mentorship. Jordan spent years refining his craft, attending advanced classes, and working alongside professionals in the outdoor media world.

One lesson stands out throughout this section: progress happens quickly when you’re surrounded by people who are willing to help.

Learning to Run a Lodge Instead of Holding a Camera

The next chapter arrived unexpectedly. Jordan returned to Alaska expecting to continue filming, but instead found himself helping manage lodge operations. At first, it wasn’t what he wanted at all.

Managing staff, handling logistics, and learning business systems pushed him far outside his comfort zone. Looking back, though, those experiences became the foundation that prepared him for lodge ownership years later.

Skills Jordan developed:

  • Staff management
  • Guest relations
  • Operations logistics
  • Marketing and content creation
  • Business administration

Buying the Lodge During the Peak of Uncertainty

Perhaps the most remarkable part of the story came in 2020. Jordan and Zack never planned to buy Togiak River Lodge. Instead, longtime guests and investors approached them after recognizing how invested they had become in the future of the operation.

Ownership became reality in May 2020, right in the middle of the COVID uncertainty. Jordan describes the process as a series of doors opening at exactly the right moments. Despite the challenges, investors maintained confidence in the brothers and helped make the purchase possible.

The Full-Circle Moment Back on the River

One of the most emotional moments in the episode centers around a recent filming project featuring Jordan’s longtime mentors.

Years after beginning his journey with a camera, Jordan found himself standing on the Togiak with the very people who helped shape his career. Sharing the river, introducing them to his family, and documenting the experience created a full-circle moment that is difficult to describe without emotion.


You can find Jordan on Instagram @jordan_togiak_lodge and @togiak_river_lodge.

Visit their website at togiakspey.com.


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Full Podcast Transcript

Episode Transcript
WFS 947b Transcript 00:00:00 Dave: Sometimes the best stories in fly fishing aren’t about the fish. They’re about how someone ends up standing on a river they were never supposed to be on in the first place, because not that long ago. Today’s guest was just a kid with a GoPro. No plan, no business, no lodge. Just filming whatever he could. And somehow, through a few doors opening at the right time. That turned into owning one of the most remote lodges in Alaska. Jordan Larson from Togiak River Lodge is here to share how a random trip to Alaska turned into a full time path in the outdoor industry. The moment a simple camera changed everything and set the direction forward, we’re going to get into the behind the scenes reality of taking over a remote Alaska lodge during complete uncertainty. And we’re going to find out what makes the spaces and different up here at Togiak, and why more anglers are chasing it now. This is going to be a fun one if you want to check in with Jordan and the crew at Togiak. You can do that right now. Go to Togiak bay dot com. All right. Here he is, Jordan Larsen. How are you doing, Jordan? 00:01:01 Jordan: Doing good. Dave. It’s a busy time of the year, but it means we’re getting closer to Alaska. 00:01:06 Dave: Yeah, you’re getting closer. It’s as we’re talking, we’re getting close. April’s right around the corner. This will probably go live in later in April or somewhere in there. Actually, we’ve had a couple episodes. I’ve talked to Floyd again after the big trip. We’re going to talk about, um, a couple of your mentors who were on the podcast and they share a really cool story and the story of really, you guys, how you put this together. And I think that’s, I think your story is unique and we’re going to talk about that today, but you guys aren’t the, um, maybe the most likely people you think that would own this amazing lodge, right? You guys have this really cool story that’s pretty powerful. So we’re gonna get into that. But let’s start with the recap on the season. We were up there, you know, when we were up there, we had this amazing trip. I mean, I got my first Chinook on on the swing. It doesn’t get any better than that. But but give us a recap on the on the season this last year. How things go for you guys. 00:01:49 Jordan: Man. It’s hard to put into words how special this last season was, specifically the space season. Uh, and I say that for a couple of reasons. It feels like every year, you know, we’ve intentionally had two handed guests come up. And as we’ve tried building the program, we’ve always had some sort of hurdle in the way. You know, in the beginning for Epic Waters in their camp, it was like they got flooded out and they’re out of a tent camp and it’s just difficult. And then, you know, after that, it’s, you know, two years ago, we had crazy high water, like unbelievable high water most of the season. And it’s, you know, it’s hard to swing in those conditions. I mean, I’m talking you couldn’t even run gear trips. It was so high, you know, and so it was just like hurdle after hurdle. And so finally last season, I won’t say that we had the absolute best water conditions in the world, but for our guides and our repeat guests, it was like the waters below the bank, like, let’s celebrate, you know, and, uh, and with that, the king showed up early for whatever reason. You know, we, we probably had pretty decent numbers of fish in the river by June fifteenth. And so we just had a lot of things line up. And most importantly, the fish were there to start the season. And it was incredible. You know, our first group, we had a group of nine guys and probably seventy percent of them had never even picked up a fly rod before. And on the first day, several of them were into, you know, twenty plus pound adult Chinook on Spey rods. And they had just learned how to cast. Like it was incredible. And so that was kind of the gist of the whole season was there was a lot of folks that came up to try it out and had a great time. Caught fish. I had a guy, the second rotation that told me he had been on like twelve trips previous to coming to Togiak with no success on the Spey rod, which is hard to believe. I don’t know where he’s where he where he had been, but he was just he couldn’t believe the amount of action that, you know, he was getting, not just on Chinook, but everything. It just was bewildered. And for me, coming from the gear arena, it’s hard for me to wrap my mind around guys being stoked about, you know, a grab or two a day. I understand it now, but it’s such a breath of fresh air and I just was so, gosh, I just loved this last season, man. It was so it was awesome. I just felt I felt like I was at home. The guests were amazing. They just were great people. I feel like I feel like their values were much more aligned with where Zach and I are conservation wise and how important the fishery is to us. Like we had folks there that were there for the right reasons, and that’s what made it so special, I guess, if in a nutshell. 00:04:30 Dave: Yeah, no, I mean, I think that’s what’s cool about it. You know, the people that are into fly fishing and stuff for the most part are, um, you know, I was talking to a big brand today and we were talking about doing an event coming up and, and one of their requirements was, you know, who is your conservation partner? You know, they needed somebody that was connected. And I was like, yeah, that’s a, that’s a great, uh, kind of thing to have. And so I feel like, right, we’re all thinking about that. And Chinook is great. I mean, is a, is a good thing to look at because there are it’s not perfect. There’s some challenges out there, right? We’ve we’ve heard about it, you know, major, there’s challenges around Alaska and things like that and around the world. But but you guys are still in one of those places where, you know, there’s a good number. We actually had the biologist who, who kind of is in charge of your river Togiak and those other big major, you know, sockeye. And we heard him talk about it. It was really interesting telling the story of how many millions and tens of millions of fish are coming back there, you know, sockeye runs and everything. So you’re in this unique place. I mean, you must think about that all the time, right? When you look back and you’re like, man, I’m heading back to Togiak, right. Does that feel pretty good? 00:05:33 Jordan: Yeah, it’s I still have to ground myself in the fact that we’re on the most remote system in Bristol Bay. And it’s there’s a lot of advertisements for different lodges in Alaska and specifically for the the fly lodges in Bristol Bay. They’re all advertising something similar. It’s like Remote wilderness. Uh, you know, not that many people, but the reality is, is a lot of these systems, they, they actually do have a lot of people fishing on them throughout the summer with fly out lodges and, and then permanent lodges as well. Like you look at rivers like the Naknek and the Khojak, which are the most well-known rainbow rivers in Alaska, arguably even even the world and the user days or the angler days on the river, comparatively to the Togiak are so much more. I mean, the amount of, of people flying into both of those systems on a daily basis during the summertime is I don’t know how much higher it is than the togiak, but I’m willing to step out on a limb and say it’s upwards of fifty times more than what we’re experiencing. Maybe more than that, it’s incredible. 00:06:33 Dave: It’s a lot because we didn’t see Roy when we were there. I mean, I think we saw a couple of native boats out there, but I mean, we didn’t really see anybody else out there. I think when I was there that I could remember. 00:06:44 Jordan: Exactly. And so that’s my point is we are sitting on, you know, Bristol Bay’s hidden gem. It just it’s so remote. It’s hard to access. It’s hard. It can be hard to fish as well if you don’t know it. And so it just the barrier to entry is very high for other people. And that’s why it’s such a special river to us. And, and it’s again, you can tell, you can tell people that or they can look at it on your website. But until they see it in person, it doesn’t stick. And that’s the biggest takeaway is guests will get there that have fished all across Alaska. And they’re like, man, I can’t believe it took me this long to find this place. And so my point being is that it’s not people aren’t coming to the lodge to fish the river because of Zach and I. We’re not the selling point. Right. It’s the it’s the system, man. And it’s just, you know, it’s up to us to manage our guides and our logistics and make the experience, you know, a good one. But the river sells itself. 00:07:37 Dave: Yeah. It does. Yeah. I mean, for me, it was my like I said, my first time hooking into a Chinook, the fresh, you know, chrome bright fish just right out of the ocean. Right. And it’s something that, you know, in all my years of steelhead fishing that, you know, that was the first time I’ve ever felt that. Right. It’s a, it’s a different experience. But then also, like you said, you know, hooking into, you know, a bunch of chum, these chum are not these are not like spawned out chum. These are bright chum that are, they’re cool fish. And then I think I also hooked a sockeye, a bright sockeye. And then right we were there. And I guess if you go maybe a little bit later or how does that change? Do you tend to get some. Also some pinks and maybe even some coho if you go a little bit later. 00:08:14 Jordan: It depends on the season. Uh, so this year is an even year. And so we’ll have an epic run of pinks this year, which is a good and bad. It’s, they are a ton of fun for the sake of variety. They’re amazing. And so mid-July. Yeah. You’ll see, you know, still a good numbers of kings, pinks, sockeye chums, rainbows. A little early for dollies. Um, there’s typically not a ton of overlap in our, you know, the heart of our king season where you’re going to, uh, have the chance to catch Silva’s. You’re really not going to see any of those until August, you know. But yeah, this year it’s I mean, mid-July, you don’t know what you’re going to catch swinging because all of them are going to bite the same flies. 00:08:56 Dave: Yeah, exactly. Well, we have we’ll have a link in the show notes to the episode that I did with Floyd. I mentioned it. It was he’s such a passionate guy. You know what I mean? I loved what his take on it too. He told me we had this moment out there on the river where I was struggling one day, you know, my cast wasn’t great. It was kind of one of those days we all have where you’re almost like, oh my God, I want to throw the rod almost, you know what I mean? But he kind of puts it in perspective. You know what I mean? Like where you are. And, and, you know, I kind of came back and had a good day. But so I feel like, you know, we talked a little bit about that. But, you know, in your story, another episode we did recently was with a couple of your mentors. So I want to hear about a little bit of that so people don’t miss this video that’s out there. This is a movie. Maybe describe from your perspective. We went deep on it. I watched the video. It literally brought a tear to my eye. I think anybody that watches it watching you in the video, you know, talking how emotional becoming the owner of Togiak was. Describe what your take is on that, that movie, that video that’s out there. 00:09:50 Jordan: Man, it’s a lot to dive into. But the synopsis is, is it was never my intention. It was never mine. And Zack contention to own the Lodge. Like when we started working in Alaska, we didn’t set out saying, we’re going to own this place. Right? It just through a series of crazy doors opening. I mean, that’s where we’re at now. But where I started was I started with video production, and the way that I got there was, well, it was through Alaska. So in twenty fifteen, my brother had his first season guiding on the Togiak for the previous owners of the Lodge. And in early July, he called my dad and I and he asked us what we were doing in late July. And as you might imagine, there were like crickets as my dad and I were looking at each other like, you know, what’s he getting at? And, uh, more or less the previous owner of the lodge opened an invitation to any, any family of staff members to come up in between Kings and Silvers. Right. So we have a break period in between the two seasons where we’re kind of just getting ready for silvers, and we have some downtime and getting cleaned up after King season, etc. and so he lets them come up, you know, essentially just covering airfare costs. And so that invitation was extended to my dad and I to come up and visit Zach. And of course, we did it. It was a no brainer. And I was coming into the senior my senior year of high school, and I really had no idea what I wanted to do after I was going to graduate the following year. Um, and so I, you know, I brought up a GoPro with me that I had gotten for Christmas, and I didn’t have any aspirations to do any video production professionally. Uh, I just took the camera because why would you not take a camera on a trip of a lifetime to Alaska? Right? Anybody would do that. And so I filmed everything while I was up there. Everything. And, uh, for some reason, the previous owner, Larry, he saw and he didn’t know me and I didn’t know him, but he saw something in me like, I don’t know how to describe it. He saw a love for video production that maybe I didn’t know I had yet. And so on our last day there before we left, he asked if he could fish with us in the morning, to which of course we said yes. It was, you know, our honor to be able to fish with a guy who invited us up there and made this boy’s trip of a lifetime, a dream come true. And so I’m filming, and he asked me what my aspirations are after school. And I said, I really didn’t know. And he said, well, what would you think about coming up next summer and working for the Lodge as a videographer? And I in all seriousness, it was like the light bulb went on right at that moment. And, you know, after he had made that job offer to me, I was like, no way. Like, I, maybe I could film outfitters or, or put together branding videos or film hunts hunter? I don’t know. I really don’t know. 00:12:39 Dave: What. 00:12:39 Jordan: It is. 00:12:40 Dave: At this point. You had literally just in high school, you just grabbed a camera and you had no real formal experience doing this. 00:12:47 Jordan: Correct. Yeah. I mean, I had been I had been filming, you know, all of our fishing trips and stuff back home with the GoPro just for the sake of memories. And, you know, GoPros were really cool in twenty fourteen, right? Like twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen. And so man, I just couldn’t believe it. And he offered to, you know, pay for all my equipment and, and pay for schooling if needed. But and he told me he’s like, you need to get some, you know, classes or some sort of education under your belt before you come up next summer. Of course, it makes sense. And I just couldn’t, man. I just couldn’t believe it. And so it was like, from there on, I just had never thought about it. But I was like, man, I think I want to start a video production company that specializes in content for outdoor companies, whether it be hunting and fishing outfitters or lodges in Alaska, you know, Montana, whatever I want to be, I want to be in the outdoor industry and I want to be filming. That’s what I want to do. And so I went home and signed up for classes shortly after that. And I found a video class offered at the high school that I took from September to December. And man, it was, uh, the basics. Yeah. Right. I mean, I look back at it now and it was rough, right? I mean, I, but, but it was just like I had to start somewhere, you know, and that’s where I started. And so coming into October, my mom had actually been looking around at video education classes and back in the day for anyone who, you know, used to watch, you know, hunting shows or whatever a big company was, uh, Campbell cameras and they were out of, uh, Illinois. And so I had always seen their commercials as a little kid. And I remember getting on their website and looking around at their cameras and their film classes, etc.. Well, my mom had gotten on there to see if they still had film classes, and they referred us to a guy named Tom Petrie. Well, Tom used to work for Campbell cameras, and so he had broken off from them. And now he was starting his own thing called film The Hunt. And it was exactly what I was looking for. It’s like classes specifically for guys that want to get into outdoor production in the outdoor industry. I mean, it was like, dude, this is insane that there’s a thing that like, it is the niche, you know? 00:14:58 Dave: Right. You were his target. You were his perfect customer. 00:15:02 Jordan: Yes. But more importantly, you know, my mom called him and, uh, you know, we’re both really green in the sense of not knowing anything about how any of this works. And he was just incredibly nice and just walked us through the whole process and just. And that’s so important. Like just starting with someone who’s willing to help is it’s a big deal. And, uh, so as a, as a graduation present, they bought a four day editing class for me, which was March of twenty sixteen. So I was in my senior year of school, only had a few months left. And so leading up to that, I just made it my goal. I’m going to film everything. And I remember skipping a couple days of school to go fish for steelhead down on the Cowlitz with my brother, who was guiding full time. Like, I just want as much content as I can to, to show up and have something, have a cool story to edit together. And so I take off was the first trip I’d ever taken by myself at seventeen, you know, by myself, you know, a young man. And it, I got there and I’m just like immersed in there’s like everyone there is there for the same reason I’m there. Like they love filming. They love hunting. They love fishing. I was the only one there trying to edit, you know, fishing videos. But I had a very intentional goal. I’m like, I just, I want to be able to produce the absolute best video that I can for our guests this next summer. And I want them to walk away at the end of their five day trip and have something that they can take home to show family, because it’s not just a pride thing for me in that I want to produce a good. I want to produce a good video for our guests. But there’s a marketing factor as well. Like Larry’s paying me to be there. There has to be some sort of ROI on my production. And so I wanted it to be good so that ultimately it would book him more trips. So I go through the class and I’m like, I bliss. Like I, it’s hard to even describe. I just, I was with my people, man, and I, I immediately hit it off with Tom and, and we got along real well. And, you know, just the fact that I wasn’t trying to film whitetail or turkey hunts made me different and stand out a little bit, you know? And so I took what he had taught me, and I actually ended up booking an additional day or two, uh, after the class that was just like him and I, which was really cool. So at that point, I was like, man, I just, I want to, uh, I want to do at least one of these classes a year and just keep honing my skills. And because, you know, editing software and cameras, they change every year significantly. And so if you’re not staying on top of it, things can change really quick. And that’s what I find now, you know, being so being so overloaded with admin and lodge related work. When I do get around to my editing projects, it takes me a little bit to get back in the saddle and be proficient anyway. So I filmed that summer and you know, if you want to learn how to do anything really good, you do it every day for eight to ten hours. And that’s what I got to do. And it was amazing. And it’s funny because I’ll go back and watch my videos from the beginning of that summer in June, and then the end in September. And it’s like, it’s honestly amazing. Like it’s how quickly they progressed and got better. And I didn’t have, I didn’t have a lot of time to edit these videos. And Larry’s preference was I just, you know, slapped a bunch of footage together and burned it to a DVD and called it a day. But I just, I couldn’t, the artist in me wanted it to be as good as it possibly could, and I wanted to apply what I learned in editing classes to like, like if I ever, if I’m ever gonna film for a company that has shows that end up on, you know, cable TV, like I want them, I want it to be good. I want to practice as if I’m a professional now, you know, and, uh, and that’s what I did. And so I got done, I actually booked a handful of, uh, videos to edit for guests that I had met up there that go, you know, because all of our guests are going on lots of different trips throughout the year. And so I had, uh, I had a guy going to Canada on a big waterfowl hunt. And so I ended up editing all of his footage. And then I got hired. More importantly, I got hired to film an elk hunt in eastern Oregon, uh, by a guy that I met up there that I had filmed. And so just quickly progressing and just, I was so happy. So I went back the next spring to Ohio again. I took an advanced editing class with Tom, and then I spent an additional two days with him again at his house, uh, one on one. And, uh, I mean, that’s what I wanted to do. So fast forward to twenty nineteen. I decided at that point that I probably should start filming for whoever I can. And so in Olympia, I got involved with the, uh, Chamber of Commerce. And so I just, I started volunteering for all sorts of different people and companies to make videos and kind of get my name out there. And then I had a big elk hunt planned with Tom that September that I was going to be a cameraman for. And originally I had reached out to him in like January of nineteen and said, hey, I’d like to do another custom class with you at. I’m not going to say I don’t care what it costs, I do, but it’s worth it for me to have one on one time because it just goes so much farther. Right? And I got a long ways to fly. Like most all of his clientele is coming from somewhere close to Ohio in the Midwest somewhere, you know, within twelve to fifteen hours. But for me, it’s like it’s a whole day of travel both ways. Anyway, so he says, well, I got something better. I’m looking for a cameraman in September for an elk hunt. Are you in? And I was like, couldn’t get the words out of my mouth fast enough. And so I actually ended up going that spring to film a turkey hunt. And then I went back again right before Alaska for another production class. Uh, and that was a four day trip. I got home for a day, and then I left the next day after that to go to Alaska. And, uh, at this point, filming wasn’t my primary job at the lodge, unfortunately. Uh, and that that has its own story, but more or less, in twenty eighteen, I showed up to film again and Larry, the previous owner, said, hey, you’re going to help me with my job. You’re not going to film anymore. And of course, I just bought a new camera and a bunch of new lenses, and I was excited. And so that I was pretty upset about that because I didn’t find out until I got there. And, uh, but in hindsight, right, you can see where this is going. 00:21:17 Dave: Yeah. 00:21:17 Jordan: Now I’m learning how to manage the business, which I had no desire to do. And it was it was a tough summer, man. Like I’m twenty years old, nineteen, twenty years old, and I didn’t know any of his systems. And it just was. And now I’m dealing with employees. And for those listening that know what it’s like to manage, you know, you know, your first time managing people, it’s tough. Like it’s. 00:21:38 Dave: Not easy. It’s just, yeah, it’s a skill. It’s yeah. 00:21:41 Jordan: Yeah. It’s it’s own thing. And if you’re not planning on that, it’s, I don’t know, especially when you have sour a couple of sour chefs. In our case, it was like, I don’t want to do this, you know. So coming back in twenty nineteen, I told Larry, I said, look, I’ll come back because he really wanted me to come back and do the same thing. And I said, I’ll come back. However, like my goal in life is to run a production company. And so I want I don’t want to be gone for three months, not shooting any videos or photos like I want to. I have to hone my skills and I have to stay sharp. And so I’ll tell you what, I’ll help you do your job. But at lunch every day and one day, another day out of the week, I’m gonna go film. And it’s not to put videos together for guests, but like, I want to produce content for your social media and for the website. And like, I want to, I want to do what I can to also make your business better, but also at the same time, satisfying my need to go shoot video and photos. Right? So it’s a, it’s a win win for both of us. Um, and, uh, so twenty nineteen, I roll in and I’m helping him manage the business. I mean, to a point where he can really, he did step away from the business. Um, and, uh, he had a good friend of his up there and they would go and fish every day for over half the day. I mean, it was pretty rare actually at that point that Larry would be in the lodge working with me. He would touch base with me. Uh, especially before another group would come in. But for the most part, I was tackling all of it. And of course that’s guests saw that as well, right. And the lodge had been for sale for a number of years. And so people are now starting to connect the dots that Zach and I weren’t. But more or less, I, uh, I get through that season and our investors had proposed the idea of, you know, financing the lodge for us. And they had fished with Zach two times that summer. They’re guests of ours. They still are. And so just my I got this elk hunt in September. And now this idea of possibly buying the lodge is floating around. And it’s like, I mean, it was overwhelming. And I had been gone for, you know, four or five months and I wasn’t married yet at the time. But I at the time, girlfriend who’s now my wife was not super stoked about me being gone as much as I was. So anyway, we get to the elk hunt in September and it was just phenomenal. I mean, I got to spend thirty days in Montana with, with Tom and Jordan and, uh, you know, you get close real quick when you’re with someone every day and some of the hardest work I’ve ever done in my life. And it was just in a beautiful place. It was just amazing. I just, I’m like, I can’t believe I’m twenty one And I mean, I’ve already lived a lifetime. Even before we bought the lodge, I just I couldn’t believe it. And so we got done at the end of September, drove back to Ohio, did two weeks of whitetail hunts and and then I finally came home. And then at that point, I had a bunch of production work lined up and I was doing really well for myself. And so that’s why. And I got really emotional. Oh, man. And I might right now, like, I got really emotional and, and Tom’s two videos because like, that was a major crossroads in my life. Like, you know, I could have proceeded with my production company and who knows what would have happened through Covid or whatever else and where would I be now? But I knew for a fact that, you know, taking on the Lodge would change the trajectory of, of my family tree. And, uh, you know, it’s bittersweet because ultimately, I’d love to still be filming right now every day, all day, you know, but I made the right choice for what I thought was best for my family, my future family. But my point is, is to have Tom and Jordan come up to help us shoot content for our space season this last year, and then also, you know, shoot a graduates episode for himself. It just was I felt like I was back in the saddle, man. 00:25:28 Dave: That’s it. That’s the episode. Yeah. Right. The graduates that’s what this was on was his program. His graduates program. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:25:35 Jordan: And it’s like, I got two of my huge, you know, video mentors with me here that shaped my love for video production and photos. And, and they’re here with me right now. And now I get to share this crazy experience that is togiak with them. Like it just was like it was full circle, I guess is my point. And, uh, it just was so special. Like, I can’t, I cannot put into words how amazing that trip was. And it’s great because Tom doesn’t fish like. 00:26:04 Dave: Oh, he doesn’t. That’s right. Yeah. Jordan’s a fisherman. Yeah. Yeah. 00:26:07 Jordan: Jordan’s the fisherman. And so Tom is showing up with a completely unbiased perspective and, uh, which honestly was better for teaching him how to throw or swing a spey. Rod Jordan struggled. Right? Well, he just, you know, a single hand guys have, uh. 00:26:23 Dave: Yeah, the top hand, you have the top hand bias because you’re used to. Yeah. 00:26:27 Jordan: Yeah. Just it’s there’s really. No, there’s not a whole lot of, uh, there’s not a lot of single hand stuff that you use swinging Spey rods. And so. Old habits die hard and it’s hard to learn new. Right. Anyway, but so it was just so cool to share it with them. They got to meet my wife and my daughter, which was super special. They were there at the same time and that’s cool. We just had a great. We just had a great trip. And two, it’s incredibly rare that I take five days to go fish, right? 00:26:53 Dave: Yeah. Because you were fishing with you were out with them and, uh, and Aaron. Right. You guys were that week. 00:26:57 Jordan: Yeah, we fished with Aaron and, uh, I got my first adult Chinook, like proper adult, um, that we got on, on camera and, uh, there was just a lot of, you know, first times with them. There it was. It was just great. And that’s. 00:27:12 Dave: Great. 00:27:12 Jordan: Yeah. And I get really emotional in the videos because it is true. Like I, it just was so special. And I think it’s easy to see that in the videos. And it just was kind of a completion of a, a very wholesome story. 00:27:25 Dave: And the story that comes out is, you know, I think, and people can watch right now at Kab, go to Carbontv and just search for Togiak episode one and two. They can find it there. But I think the, the emotional, you see it because you realize you’re talking about how you didn’t think it was possible. And then because, you know, because like a lot of us, we don’t have, you know, thousands and, you know, bazillions of dollars to just buy lodges. But you realize at a certain point that, wow, okay, I was going to be able to get some help to actually make this a reality. Right. And that’s where you kind of, that must have been the moment where you’re like, wow, when you, what did that feel like when you first realized, okay, I can actually buy this lodge? 00:28:03 Jordan: Well, yeah. And I want to make sure that it’s clearly communicated that Zach and I, we’re not the ones who pursued our investors. They saw something in us because we were so involved in the lodge and management before we owned it, and they didn’t want to see it go to someone else that maybe would make it private or they didn’t want to see. Maybe, God forbid something happens to Larry, and now no one’s running the lodge like they wanted to keep going. Uh, but they also wanted to see someone who loved it be in charge. And so they’re the ones who came to us. And I want to make sure that that’s that that’s clear. It’s like they saw something in us, just like Tom saw something in me. A love for video production. They saw something, told them, hey, these guys might be able to manage this place. And so, number one, it flattered. Of course, who wouldn’t be? Um. But dude, I’m telling you right now, um, divine intervention was involved. Doors were open that I could never dream of. And it’s like every time something crazy would come up and a friendly reminder like we. We closed. We became owners of the Lodge May seventh of twenty twenty at the in the middle of madness in the world, right? 00:29:15 Dave: Yeah. The peak or the start of the Covid. Yeah. Right there. 00:29:18 Jordan: Yeah. The peak unknown. Um, and it was like every time something crazy would come up and Zach and I would ask ourselves, how are we going to get through this? It’s like, well, a solution would present itself. And we told our investors, you know, through the purchase agreement process, hey, you know, if you guys got to back out on this, we completely understand like it, like the world is in a weird place right now. And if you need to say, hey, this needs to wait or we’re just not going to do it, we totally understand. Like, who wouldn’t? I probably would. Um, but they said, nope, we’re confident that this is all going to fold over and that this is going to work out like they had just an unbelievable amount of faith in us. And, uh, so to answer your question, I don’t know, like it’s, it just was so overwhelming, but good overwhelming. It’s just. The thing is too is Larry, God bless him, he he kind of drug his feet on accepting an offer. So it was like January seventh, January sixth, January seventh, somewhere in there, twenty twenty. And I finally had to prompt him. I’m like, Larry, you know, here’s the, the deal’s on the table because we had they had been back and forth and I said, the deal’s on the table. You and I both know that we have to start loading containers really soon, and all of our non-perishables for the entirety of the season have to be purchased within the next sixty days. So we need a decision because someone has to start doing that. And if that someone is us, we have to start right now. Like there’s no time to spare. So what’s your answer? And I don’t remember verbatim what he said, but he was like, well, I’m just doing my usual procrastinating. So I think the answer is yes. And I’m like, geez, Louise, dude. Okay, well let’s proceed. And then the whole purchase agreement started. And that was lengthy and Complicated and lots of lawyers involved. But yeah, so from there, to answer your question, I still don’t know if I’ve had time to process everything because we just got thrown in the fray. It was like, we don’t have any time to waste. We just have to do it right now. And that’s Zach and I work really good under pressure like that because that’s how we started, right? 00:31:17 Dave: That’s how you started. And still to this day, as we look at this now, yeah, this episode, I think as we’re talking now, will probably go a little bit later towards the summer when it goes live. But as we’re talking, it’s it’s March going on April and you guys are getting ready. Does it, does it always feel like kind of a lot going on right now? Is this the time when it starts heating up on you guys? 00:31:36 Jordan: Yes, absolutely. So our containers leave next Thursday. And yeah, it’s just a lot of moving parts to line up. And as we continue to improve our infrastructure, you know, this is year six. And every year we’ve had some crazy building project or new boats or, you know, it’s always something. And uh, this year is no different. We’re coming up over the knoll, so to speak, and that we won’t have a ton of new giant infrastructure projects to work on after this season, thank God. So but it’s just, yeah, it’s just a lot to line up and then to unfortunately, and I don’t mean to make this political, but it seems like world world events always happen in March, right? 00:32:19 Dave: Oh, really? Is that right? World events always happen in March, right. 00:32:22 Jordan: Covid was twenty twenty. March of twenty twenty. And then twenty twenty two, we get the Ukraine deal, which directly increases our fuel prices by an unbelievable amount. Plus all sorts of, you know, supply chains and whatever else. And so I’m watching this whole thing go down with Iran and I’m like, man, I should have I should have went through with whatever fuel quotes I got like a month ago. You know what I mean? 00:32:45 Dave: Oh yeah. Right. 00:32:47 Jordan: Yeah. A month ago, I got quotes, you know, for fuel that I just usually I don’t take care of it until mid to late March. And now I’m, I’m really, I’m really disappointed. I did not take care of that a month ago, you know? So yeah, it’s always something, but it’s okay. It’s my point is, is, uh, something always comes up when we work through it and it seems hard to get through at the time, but. 00:33:10 Dave: So you guys are gonna be there. That’s the cool thing is that Togiak is on. And as people are listening to this, if this is coming out in, you know, early summer and they could check in with you guys, but as you come up here, you know, June, July, that’s that swing, that’s really that that Chinook who are the are the guides? Is it the same crew that was up when we were up there that are going to be back there? 00:33:28 Jordan: Yep, yep. And this year we are increasing our guests up to fourteen total for space. So we’ll have one additional guide who guided for us in twenty four. So yeah, it’s the same same set of guides that’s been there the last two years, which is really special. 00:33:43 Dave: That’s cool. And we’ve talked to well, I fished with a lot of them when we were there and I’ve had them on the podcast. A number of them will have some links out to that. We mentioned Floyd and Larry, of course, Larry was an epic day with Larry and um, yeah. Bailey. I mean, really, you guys have a good, really cool crew up there. 00:34:01 Jordan: Absolutely. 00:34:01 Dave: They’re all sp-a. They’re all like sp-a. They’re full on, right? 00:34:04 Jordan: Yeah, well, all of them are absolutely knee deep in sp-a and and, uh, very well versed. But the great thing is that a few of them switch over to guiding gear trips for us and single hand trips later in the season as well. And that’s, that’s big for us. You know, if we don’t have to completely replace a whole crew, it’s very advantageous for us from, you know, a finance standpoint to not have to replace a whole crew of guides mid-season. So I love the fact that we have some holdovers, so to speak. Uh, and, and honestly, a couple of them saw this season a couple years ago and said, hey, I want to, I want to get into this. And so they’ve learned like Aaron, I mean, first summer guiding Sp-a trips and was incredibly successful, did an awesome job. And, and now that’s something he’s doing down here in Washington, uh, to fill up some of his gaps in between gear trips that he’s running. It’s amazing. It’s awesome. 00:34:57 Dave: Yeah, that is cool. So. So right now, so yeah, you guys are going to have a little bit more availability. So if folks, and I think what we’re going to be building here too is, you know, looking ahead is either myself or maybe another super guru, somebody who’s even way higher than me coming out to maybe kind of a hosted sort of thing. So we’re going to leave that opportunity out there. And if people want to check in, they can check in with me or you either way and check in on this, but we’ll be working on this and then we’ll have another event this year to kind of a promotional kind of giveaway event. We’ll do some of that too. So I’m pretty excited because for me, I remember when I was there, it’s one of those trips where I’m like, okay, I would love to come up here every year, but you know, because of family and other stuff, you know, it makes it really hard to do that. But I feel like, you know what I mean? If I could get up there and just have a plan that sometime, you know, again, I’ll be getting up. Do you find that people I mean, I guess some of the people coming up there are probably traveling around hitting other places. Togiak is just one of their big bucket lists. You find you get some repeat people coming up. 00:35:53 Jordan: Absolutely. For both seasons, but especially Sp-a, you know, guys, number one, there’s not a lot of great options in Alaska to go swing for kings. Like your options are pretty limited. 00:36:06 Dave: Or really anywhere in the world if you think about it. I mean, for Bright Kings, I mean, there’s not I mean, we talked about that with some of the Larry and stuff, the Great Lakes, right? They have kings, but they’re not the same as what you’re getting at. Togiak right. 00:36:18 Jordan: That’s correct. And so here we are. We’re the new option. And so guys got to take a big risk if they have spots locked in at wherever they’ve been going for years, they have to now give them up and then take a chance that we’re going to be what they want to be and then follow through. Now, the good thing is that we are most of the time and that they have a new place to go. But yeah, it’s there’s a very high percentage of repeat guests for space specifically, and that makes our life easy. I want to be able to have guys come up to me on the last night and say, hey, put me in for next year. It makes my life incredibly easy. Plus two. You feel like if at a certain point you become family, like it’s just like, I really look forward to these different rotations because I know so many people in them and I’ve gotten close with them. And that’s dude, that’s what makes that’s what makes us so special. You know, we’ve been, we’ve been trying to figure out at what point this season are we going to take breaks and I’m going to go home. And then Zach goes home and takes a break just away from the lodge. And you know our our lowest pressure season from a from a management standpoint is space season. But I told Zach, I’m like, dude, I, I just love it too much to go home. Like I, I don’t want to miss out on it, you know? Um, so yeah, very, very high percentage of repeats and what I’m finding too, I’m getting, I’ve had several inquiries here in the last couple months in the last year, especially where guys will be on the Sandy and then they’ll have a day in Anchorage. And then they want to know if they want to come out, if they can come out and, you know, swing with us on the Togiak for Kings. And so a lot of guys are they’re getting it. You know, they’re getting several trips in and they want as many flavors as possible. 00:37:54 Dave: Sure. So they’re adding so they’re coming in, maybe getting a couple trips while up in Alaska. Yep. That’s cool. Yeah. That’s right. Yeah. Because the the trip essentially you get up to Anchorage and then you hop on the plane. Right. And which is a cool flight. That’s one of the first times I haven’t been on small planes like that in the past. And getting on that little plane was, was really a cool experience because you come in and you land on that gravel landing strip, you know, in Togiak in the village there. It’s it’s yeah, it’s pretty, it’s the whole thing is unique. You know what I mean? I think that’s and then you’re up there in the, in the nights and it’s the middle of summer and it’s light until twelve two in the morning. And that’s really cool too. 00:38:32 Jordan: We try to make the logistics as easy as possible for folks, because otherwise it can be a pain and it can be a thing that can ruin a trip. Really. I mean, if you get stuck in Dillingham, you’re delayed, or maybe you lose rods or whatever. That can taint a trip real quick. And it’s not the outfitters fault, but the logistics are everything. And so having our charter planes fly directly from Anchorage to Togiak, it just makes everyone’s life a lot easier. And then two, we can get them early enough. On day one, they get their rod set up their fishing that afternoon. That’s really important. 00:39:03 Dave: That’s right. Yeah. You’re fishing out there. And of course you always have the the dock right off of camp, right in that little run just upstream where if you boat, you know, there’s that little run just right up from the lodge to. Right. Great water. 00:39:13 Jordan: Amazing. Yeah. I mean water dependent, of course. But you know, for late June through when you were there, I can’t tell you how many times I’d make my way down to the lodge to turn off the big generator for the night at nine thirty or so, and there would be just a line of guys, you know, guides and then guests as well, fishing from the dock all the way up the bank and catching some pretty dang nice fish too. And having just a grand old time, a couple really, really nice adult Chinook in the evening. I’m like, that is that is that’s what it’s about, man. Like, just like I just love the camaraderie during spaces and like, everyone is on the same page and they’re looking at each other’s setups and helping cast better. And it’s just, it’s, it’s just so interactive, you know? 00:40:01 Dave: Yeah, it was, it was definitely a cool trip. And, uh, like I said, we’re hopefully going to put this together again, but, um, give us a heads up. So the season it’s on, you guys are coming back here. What else should we be highlighting here? Maybe the other species we talk about. We mentioned a few, but are you guys going to be changing anything up this year. Or is it going to be very similar to what you did last year? 00:40:20 Jordan: Yep, we are changing things up. Wouldn’t be a normal season without some change. Um, so we, uh, our demand for, for trips has been very good comparatively to last year. And so with the demand for trips, we’ve decided that we are now going to run through August fifth this year for our first season, which is the latest that we’ve ever ran, which is amazing. Another big change coming to next season. Uh, all of our trips June twenty first through August fifteenth, we’re going to reduce our capacity down to fourteen guests. Uh, and the reason for that is number one, less pressure on the system, uh, which equates to a better trip for our guests. It’s already a remote system, but removing three additional boats going down to seven boats from ten is a big deal. It gives our guests so much space to spread out at the lodge. It gives our staff a ton of space to spread out and not have to be around each other every waking moment of every day. Uh. And then once we get into the peak of our silver season, just due to demand, we’ll still run twenty guests. Um, but we want, we’re doing everything we can to start designing a five year model to where we can run fourteen people because that’s what we’ll fit on an ace plane and, uh, just figure out how to take pressure off the system more importantly, and its pressure off Zach and I as well. If if he needs to go take two weeks at home with his family and I’m only managing, you know, fourteen guests and ten staff, that’s that’s so much easier than twenty. So I mean, so much, so much easier. So we’re running through August fifth. Uh, hard to say if we’ll expand that next season. Um, but, uh, I’m really excited to go through early August and give ourselves a small break and then run into silver season. So that’s probably the biggest change. But for twenty seven, reducing our capacity down to fourteen, that is going to be a game changer. Like I’m, I’m really excited, really excited about that. 00:42:20 Dave: That’s cool. Right. So it’s, it’s going to be more just a better experience overall. It sounds like for everybody. Yeah. Everybody included. Yeah. 00:42:27 Jordan: Well, like I said, we’ve already been doing that during spaces in any way. But to apply it to our gear season is I’m really looking forward to it big time. 00:42:35 Dave: Nice. Awesome. Well, this is good. I think that like we said, it’s the swing season when we think of Chinook is like, you know, that early or that late June, right? People can start getting their July into August, you mentioned. And then you start getting into coho, right. And that’s where the peak of the coho, if people are listening, could they come up or people coming up and doing like in later in the coho season, are people fishing both as it kind of gear or fly or some people doing? Are you doing or is it separate? Is it one or the other? 00:43:03 Jordan: Sure. No, it’s a mixed bag. Um, so we’re not fly only or gear only. Um, but I’d say really, once we get into the peak of the season in late August, it’s it’s split fifty fifty and some rotations are heavier on the fly side of things than gear. Look, we’re well versed to do both. I mean, our, our guides, we have guides set up that can, you know, that are expert fly fisherman and then expert gear fishermen and some that can do both. Uh, and so we just, I get that, uh, preference of guests before they get there and make sure I know what it is that they want to experience. How do they want to fish? And then I set them up with the guide that’s going to be able to deliver on that experience. Um, and so yeah, it’s a mixed bag. In the last couple of years, I’ve definitely seen an increase in fly anglers during silver season because it’s, it’s simple. It’s just, there’s just not, again, many places where you can go and catch volumes of fish that are bigger than eight pounds on, on flies. And, and silvers are crazy, you know, in the right conditions, you can fish from top water. Of course, we’re always doing subsurface. But when people see you fishing, you know, top water bugs for them, they just freak out. And that’s what everyone wants to do. And it’s understandable. It’s like bass fishing. 00:44:15 Dave: Yeah, it’s pretty cool. Yeah. The top water stuff is awesome and coho are sometimes chasing all the way to your feet, right? It’s it’s pretty sweet. 00:44:22 Jordan: It’s amazing. I did, I did get the chance to fish the Queen Jack this last year for rainbows. 00:44:27 Dave: Oh yeah. Yeah yeah. That’s right. Yeah. Which this was up with Jack Mitchell’s program, right? 00:44:31 Jordan: Yep, yep. Awesome program. Would recommend it to anyone the whole time I was there. and we’re swinging for rainbows. I was just thinking to myself, we have got to set some time aside to go see if we can do this on the togiak we have, um, we don’t have the numbers of rainbows that the Jack and the Naknek do, but we have some big fish. I mean, it’s an underdog and like, it’s a, it has a good rainbow fishery. It’s just we’ve never focused on it. We’ve, we’ve never needed to. But the whole time I’m swinging, I’m like, I would do nothing more than to be on the Togiak doing this right now. Uh, it’s hard for Zach and I to obviously take the time and go and do that. But mid to late September, when we’re getting ready to winterize the Lodge, we have a specific guest who’s going to come up, and we’re going to go and see if we can find them. Similar to how you would, you know, on the kayak, similar to, to Jack’s, uh, program. And I don’t know, you know, maybe one day we’ll be able to throw some guys in there that want to come up and swing for them. But even if we just saved it for ourself, and it was something we had to look forward to at the end of the season, I would be totally fine with that as well. 00:45:34 Dave: Yeah, Just yeah, hold that one for yourself. And you actually talk about your first fish because I’m not sure if we talked about that on the last one. Oh sure. Yeah. What was that you. Because you got a nice Chinook right out there. What was that. Was that when you were out there with Tom and Jordan? 00:45:49 Jordan: Yes. Yeah. It was. And it’s, you know, a friendly reminder. Like I’m, I’m really new to the to the Spey Arena. Right. And so this is, this is a new thing for me. I mean, I picked up a rod and Stevie Morrow taught me how to roughly cast, you know, in twenty four. And so this last season, I really wanted to get into a big Chinook. And so I was with Tom and Jordan. And, uh, the first two days was mostly interviews and chum fest, lots of chums, a handful of small, super jacked Chinook in the, you know, ten pound area. Um, but, uh, I think it was day three. We came in for lunch, they dumped a bunch of footage and did some organizing and charged some batteries, etc., and got ready. And the first spot was right there in what we call the home stretch, right in front of the lodge, anchored up off the bank. And we had been there for, I don’t know, maybe five or ten minutes. Um, I think we had landed a chum or two and then, you know, finally, you know, they’re filming me and I get this just unbelievable grab on the downside part of the swing. I mean, the rod was almost, you know, parallel to the back of the boat straight back. And, uh, when it went down, dude, I was like, oh, man, I know this for a fact. This is not a chum. And it was just so thrilling. It was amazing. I took my time. I listened to Aaron, you know, I was like, I do not want to lose this fish. And, uh, so, you know, we, we played it out. It probably was a, you know, five to eight minute fight. It was amazing. And it was probably a, it was probably a sixteen or seventeen pound Chinook. Nice fish. Beautiful. 00:47:28 Dave: Did you lay the set the hook towards the. How did that. How did that feel? Was that a nice set? Lay the lumber, as they say. 00:47:35 Jordan: It was a good set. Floyd would get mad at me because I definitely, uh, I set it opposite of the way I was swinging and I. I know for a fact he would give me crap for that, but it didn’t matter. I got, I got the hooks into it. And, uh, so we land that fish, get some great photos, some epic footage, release it in slo mo. Like it was just, it was amazing. It was awesome. And so I get done. I take that fly and I put it on my jacket and I kept it and I kept it there until I went to the Kiwi Jack. And, uh, I ended up losing a giant rainbow on that same fly. And I lost the fly, unfortunately. But, uh, yeah, man, it was, it was awesome. And again, to wrap back around to, you know, my time with, uh, Tom and Jordan, it just to be able to have that experience with them and then have it on video was just, it was so insane. Yeah, it was so, it was so great. I told them after that I don’t need to catch another one. I don’t need to fish like you guys made my whole season, you know? 00:48:34 Dave: Yeah, that’s what it was in that same for me. I think really a lot of Spey anglers are similar. You know, you get that fish like that and you’re just you’re good. You can sit back, smoke a stogie, have a drink. Like, okay, who’s next? You know, hop in and then you can just sit back and that relaxing of kicking back, sitting down. I know watching your your bud or whoever hop in the run and then you get to maybe watch him catch a fish. Exactly. That’s what’s really cool. It’s it’s not in numbers. It’s not like you get done. You’re like, oh man, I mean, you definitely want to catch more, but you got to almost take a moment to like collect yourself, right? 00:49:06 Jordan: You have to. Yeah. It’s, I mean, it’s, I certainly, of course, I wanted to catch more at some point, but that’s not what I was thinking about in that moment. I was just thinking about how special is this man? It’s the whole experience. And again, that’s like, that’s what we want to deliver to our guests. Like we want to be able to provide that opportunity for them to sit back and smoke a stogie and take it all in, you know? 00:49:27 Dave: Yeah. And then get back to the get back to the lodge and have a nice, uh, nice, good dinner, warm dinner, kind of hang out around on the dock. 00:49:34 Jordan: Share some stories and. Yeah, man. 00:49:36 Dave: Cool. Jordan. Well, I think, um, I think this is a good spot to leave it. You know, like we said, we’re going to be doing some more good stuff here and we’re going to be following up on some of the other guests and some of the guides, you know, that we were out there with, but we’ll send everybody out today to Togiak Spey dot com. If folks have questions or if they want to check in on these trips. And, and yeah, man, I’m excited to get back up there. I can’t wait to step off the plane again, you know, eventually and get on the ground there and, and see you guys in person. So yeah, thanks for all your time today. 00:50:04 Jordan: Of course. Thank you Dave. Really appreciate it. 00:50:07 Dave: All right. You can check in with Jordan right now. Head over to Togiak spey dot com and let Jordan know you heard this podcast. Check in with him on availability on the trip. It’s going to be a good one. Stay tuned. Swinging for Chinook. It doesn’t get any better than that. Uh, if you have any other questions for me, you can check in any time. Wet fly swing pro that’s wet fly swing dot com slash pro. We’ll let you know when we open up the doors for our next cohort. We just wrapped up one here and and it is coming up soon I believe as we speak on this one. We’ve got an opportunity for a boot camp that isn’t that far away. And if you missed the first boot camp, the next one’s going to be even better. Excited to have you in there and and excited to talk to you soon. Hope you’re having a great morning, a good afternoon, or if it’s evening, wherever you are in the world, uh, really appreciate you for stopping in till the very end. And we’ll see you and talk to you on the next episode. 00:51:02 Speaker 3: Thanks for listening to the Wet Fly Swing Fly Fishing show. For notes and links from this episode, visit wet fly dot com.
togiak river lodge

Conclusion with Jordan Larsen on Togiak River Lodge

Jordan’s story is a reminder that careers often grow from opportunities we never planned for. A simple fishing trip, a camera, and a few mentors willing to invest their time helped create a path that eventually led to ownership of one of Alaska’s most unique fly fishing destinations.

If you’re interested in Alaska fly fishing, Spey fishing for Chinook, or simply hearing a story about following unexpected opportunities, this is an episode you won’t want to miss.

     

947 | Cast and Iron Camp Cooking and British Columbia Fly Fishing with Teddy Cosco

You can learn a lot about a person by looking in their cooler at the end of a fishing trip. In this episode, we’re digging into Cast and Iron Camp Cooking and British Columbia Fly Fishing with Teddy Cosco.

Teddy is a steelhead angler, university professor, camp cook, and someone who has spent years exploring rivers across British Columbia, the Yukon, and beyond.

We get into steelhead fishing, Spey casting, camp cooking, and why some of the best memories from a trip happen back at camp after the rods are put away. Teddy shares his system for preparing meals before a trip, cooking over the fire, and making life on the river a whole lot easier.

If you love steelhead, good food, and the stories that come from time spent outdoors, you’re going to enjoy this one.

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(The full episode transcript is at the bottom of this blogpost) 👇🏻

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Show Notes with Teddy Cosco on Cast and Iron Camp Cooking

(01:48) Teddy spends his days as a professor studying mental health and health policy. This time of year is a welcome transition, with classes finished and more time to focus on research, family, and fishing.

With a one-year-old and a three-year-old at home, life stays busy. But with summer arriving, Teddy is looking forward to chasing coho and spending more time on the water.

A Year-Round Fishing Life in British Columbia

(04:12) Teddy is always looking for a chance to swing flies. Steelhead, salmon, bull trout, it doesn’t really matter as long as there’s a grab at the end of the swing.

One fishery he looks forward to every year is the summer coho run on the Capilano River near Vancouver. These smaller “blueback” coho are aggressive, fun to catch, and, as Teddy puts it, “extraordinarily good eating.”

He’s also gearing up for a trip with Saltchuck & Stream and guide Justin Miller near Campbell River. He looks forward to finding big schools of ocean-bright coho, pulling up alongside them, and stripping flies through the pod.

Teddy’s Spey Casting Journey

(08:24) Teddy grew up around fly fishing, but steelhead was almost off limits.

He jokes that his dad did a great job convincing him and his brothers that steelhead were these mysterious, hard-to-find fish, while they headed off to places like the Dean River with his buddies.

After spending nearly a decade in the UK and dealing with the challenges of fishing private water, Teddy moved back to Canada in 2017 and jumped back into the Spey world. Along the way, his dad introduced him to some of the people who would become close friends and mentors, including Tim Arsenault and the crew at Michael & Young Fly Shop.

Photo via https://www.instagram.com/castandiron

British Columbia, the Yukon, and World-Class Fisheries

(18:27) Teddy spent his summers growing up in the Yukon, where fishing was always part of life. Species like Arctic char, lake trout, grayling, and Chinook salmon helped shape his love for the outdoors.

He also shares why he thinks British Columbia is one of the best places anywhere for anglers. Living in North Vancouver gives him access to salmon, steelhead, sea-run bull trout, kokanee, stillwaters, and saltwater fisheries, all within a relatively short drive. If you’re new to steelheading and want to improve your odds, he recommends the crew at Chromer Sport Fishing.

We also get into his theory that every fishery comes down to three things:

  • Productivity
  • Accessibility
  • Solitude

Most of the time, you only get two out of three.

How Cast and Iron Got Started

(13:51) Cast and Iron was shaped by two big influences in Teddy’s life:

  • Growing up in the Yukon with a strong catch-and-cook culture.
  • Spending years in the UK, where cooking with friends helped sharpen his skills in the kitchen.

When he moved back to Canada, those experiences came together. Cast and Iron launched in 2019 with Teddy, his wife, and his sister-in-law, each bringing different skills to the project.

Their goal is to show that great fishing and great camp meals don’t have to be complicated.

Camp Cooking Systems: How Teddy Makes Incredible Meals Outdoors

(33:41) Teddy’s camp cooking philosophy centers on preparation.

Rather than trying to create elaborate meals entirely at camp, he believes the smartest approach is to do most of the work at home before leaving.

Sous vide ribs

One of his favorite examples is sous vide ribs. His process includes:

  • Searing pork or beef ribs at home.
  • Vacuum-sealing the ribs.
  • Cooking them sous vide for approximately forty-eight hours.
  • Freeze them before the trip.
  • Using the frozen packages as cooler ice packs.
  • Reheating them over a campfire when needed.

The result is incredibly tender meat that maintains better texture than traditional braising methods. Teddy explains that sous vide cooking allows connective tissue and collagen to break down while preserving a firmer texture than standard low-and-slow cooking.

Keep It Simple with Fresh Coho

When Teddy brings home a fresh coho, he doesn’t do much to it.

His favorite approach is a hot cast-iron pan, a little high-smoke-point oil, and some sea salt. That’s it. For him, good fish doesn’t need much help.

Photo via https://www.instagram.com/castandiron

A Vehicle That Does a Little Bit of Everything

(45:45) Teddy said one of his priorities after moving back to Canada was finding a vehicle that could handle both family life and outdoor adventures.

These days, he’s driving a Toyota RAV4 Trail and says it’s become his go-to for everything from hauling fishing gear and towing a boat to daycare drop-offs with his two kids. He likes that it’s capable enough for backroads and boat launches but still practical for everyday life around Vancouver.

If you enjoyed the camp cooking conversation in this episode, check out Episode 931 with Mia Sheppard, where we dig into Dutch oven cooking, camp meals, and stories from The Outfitter’s Camp Cookbook.

Teddy’s Camp Cooking Must-Haves

Teddy says you don’t need much to cook great meals outdoors.

For him, a cast-iron skillet is the foundation. It’s durable, holds heat well, and handles the hot spots that come with cooking over an open fire. In fact, the pan he uses today is the same one his parents used decades ago before he brought it back to life.

Add a pair of tongs, some cooking oil, and a fire, and he’s ready to cook. Sometimes he’ll use a grill grate, but often the pan goes right on a couple of rocks over the coals.

Photo via https://www.instagram.com/castandiron

What’s Teddy’s Go-To Spey Setup?

If Teddy could only choose one setup for steelhead and salmon, he’d go with a Hardy Ultralite NSX 13’6″ 8/9-weight.

He calls it a great all-around rod with plenty of backbone. It’s powerful enough for Chinook but still comfortable for steelhead and coho. His reel of choice is a Hardy Wide Spool Perfect 3¾”, paired with a Bridge Torrent line in the 550-grain range

Teddy Cosco's steelhead rig
Teddy Cosco’s steelhead rig

Connect with Teddy Cosco

Want to see more of Teddy’s fishing adventures, camp cooking, and outdoor stories? Follow Cast and Iron on Instagram and check out what he’s cooking up next.

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Full Podcast Transcript

Episode Transcript
WFS 947 Transcript 00:00:00 Dave: You can learn a lot about a person by looking in their cooler at the end of a fishing trip. Today we’re talking to Teddy Costco, a university professor, steelhead angler, camp cook, and the creator behind Cast and Iron. From chasing coho and steelhead across British Columbia to cooking incredible meals over a campfire, Teddy shares a perspective on fishing that’s about a lot more than what’s happened at the end of your line. This is the Wet Fly Swing podcast, where I show you the best places to travel to for fly fishing, how to find the best resources and tools to prepare for that big trip, and what you can do to give back to the fish species we all love. Today, Teddy is going to take us into his world as a professor. We’re going to talk about his connection to the outdoors and some of the biggest lessons he’s learned. He’s also going to talk about camp cooking and the system he uses to make it easy to cook great meals on the fire, and how to prepare for the trip at home to make it super smooth when you’re out there at camp. Lots of good tips and tricks on this one, including some Spey chat. It’s going to be a fun one. Teddy has spent a life fishing from the Yukon to B.C. and everything up and around. And today you’re going to get the full story on what he’s got going this year. You can find Teddy on Instagram at Cast and Iron, and I hope you enjoy this one. Here he is. Teddy. Costco. How you doing, Teddy? 00:01:18 Teddy: Good. Thanks. Thanks for having me. 00:01:19 Dave: Yeah, yeah. This is going to be a good one today. We’re going to talk probably bounce around a little bit. You’ve got a good background at Cast and Iron on Instagram. You do a lot of kind of outdoor. You’re cooking master. We’re going to talk about that today. I see the the a lot of the Spey rod in your hands. We’re going to we’re going to talk about maybe your Spey journey, all that stuff, but maybe just take us back. It sounds like you got a lot going. What’s going on this time of year? What keeps you busy? You know, throughout the year with your kind of outdoor, you know, fly fishing and outdoor stuff? 00:01:48 Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, the first thing to like be able to do the outdoor and fly fishing stuff, I need to, you know, live and keep my family alive, which has been challenging. Um, I got a one year old and a three year old, so they’re keeping me on my toes and keeping me from sleeping pretty regularly. Yep. Uh, and then this time of year is actually a great transition because my real job is, uh, as a professor and the term has wrapped up grades are in and in summer is air quotes research term, which basically means you can, you know, do your own stuff, write papers, do research, whatever. But it also means your, uh, your schedule is much freer. You don’t have to be in the office. So this is sort of transitioning into, um, getting into, uh, proper summertime and, uh, looking forward to summer coho on the Capilano and, um, heading up to Campbell River next week to try and get some saltwater coho on the fly. So lots of stuff coming up, but it’s been just notice to the grindstone for the last little while trying to wait for summer break. 00:02:57 Dave: Right? Summer break. And what do you what? You’re as a professor. What are you teaching there? 00:03:02 Speaker 3: Uh, I’m in the School of Public policy, but my portfolio is more like mental health and health policy. Like, my background is a as a chartered psychologist and epidemiologist. So I look at mental health over the life course. You know, how people can be happier and healthier for longer. And I teach mainly like research methods and statistics and stuff on mental health, that sort of thing. 00:03:26 Dave: Wow, that sounds pretty, uh, pretty important. It sounds like that probably keeps you pretty busy throughout the year. 00:03:31 Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it’s really important. I would say that students aren’t necessarily convinced. It’s always. 00:03:37 Dave: Really. 00:03:38 Speaker 3: Oh, yeah. I’m always amazed at how the, uh, post-secondary education has switched to more like edutainment, where really they expect professors to be, you know, engaging. And yeah, particularly with like courses online when it’s on Zoom, People are like, oh yeah, my video is not working. I don’t think I’m just, I’m just going to go on mute. And then they’re just, you know, laying in bed, not paying attention, but. 00:04:01 Dave: Right. 00:04:02 Speaker 3: Yeah. But certainly I think it’s important. And, you know, I think, uh, you know, mental health is a huge area and, uh, a good link with, uh, fly fishing for sure. 00:04:12 Dave: Right? Yeah, yeah. You hear a lot about that, right? The lots of groups out there that are trying to, whether that’s like Project healing waters or these, you know, trying to help people recover from, you know, traumatic stress disorder and all that stuff. Right. Um, well, that’s interesting. Well, I think you mentioned, uh, let’s just get into the fishing because I think you mentioned something pretty cool, the Campbell coho. What is during your year during, you know, what’s keeping you busy for fly fishing? Do you have one species or a few that you’re really focusing on? 00:04:40 Speaker 3: Uh, you know, typically like the spring, I’m always trying to get into some winter steelhead, but, uh, with mixed levels of success. Um, yeah, my easily my favorite thing to do is swinging flies. I think like everybody loves a tight line grab. Um, so it’s typically trying to use that as a platform, like swinging flies as a platform for trying to catch different types of fish, but, um, and typically like salmon and steelhead. Um, but yeah, I’m not afraid of a little trout action as well. Um, actually one that I’m a huge fan of that’s coming up is, uh, sea run bull trout on the pit. That is a extremely cool fishery. I got a trip planned. It’s actually taking my mom for her birthday, her seventy fifth birthday in a couple of weeks. So she’s pretty fired up about that. And so am I. 00:05:35 Dave: Nice, nice. What is the coho look like? Are you swinging for coho down there? What does that fishery look like? 00:05:41 Speaker 3: So the there’s the summer on Capilano Coho and that’s there. The little blueback fish, they’re like Two to five pounds, real small coho. And it’s a hatchery run effectively where the hatchery put like pumps, a bunch of fish into the river. And, uh, then they come back between sort of May, June, maybe July. And, uh, that’s typically stripping small, sparse little bugger type flies on a sinking line, which is fun. And, but the best part of it is, uh, they’re extraordinarily good eating, um, like really, really deep red flesh. And you can bonk two a day because it’s, you know, it’s a, it’s a kill fishery. Yep. Yeah. That’s super awesome. And then the, uh, the coho one, I haven’t actually done it yet. It’s my buddy of mine, um, uh, Justin Miller up in, uh, Campbell River. He’s got this new gig cell chucking stream where he’s taking people out to, like, on a little eighteen foot Boston Whaler, and just finding those schools of coho that are milling up around Campbell River. 00:06:54 Speaker 4: Oh, wow. 00:06:56 Speaker 3: Yeah. So there’s, you know, like forty zero zero zero odd coho, just sort of moving around in that area. And then you, once you locate them, post the whaler up beside it, and then just strip flies into, um, pods of coho. So I haven’t done it with him, but I’m super fired up about it because it’s, uh, you know, they’re proper coho, not these like little cab coho blueback situation. Um, yeah, stripping the flies in like big pods of coho and, uh, they’re, you know, real hot because they’re still in the ocean and yeah, and again, that’s like a bonk fishery too. So you can now fill your boots and yeah, super fired up about that one. That’s, uh, next week. 00:07:42 Dave: Next week. There you go. Yeah, that sounds great. So that’s. Yeah, it’s always good to fill the cooler. You get your coho fix there. You kind of with the cap, I guess. What was the name of that area? The capsule coho. 00:07:53 Speaker 3: The Capilano. Yeah. Coho. Um, that’s like the river. It’s literally, um at the foot of Lions Gate Bridge, uh, in Vancouver. 00:08:01 Dave: Okay. 00:08:02 Speaker 3: And, uh, it’s, uh, the Cleveland Dam is the dam that, you know, produces energy for a lot of Vancouver. And the reservoir produces the fresh water and they have a big hatchery program, uh, on the Capilano. 00:08:15 Dave: Right, right, right. That’s cool. Have you been is the Spey, is that something you’ve gotten into more recently, or have you been doing that a while? What’s your journey look like there? 00:08:24 Speaker 3: It’s a funny one. I like to point out that, you know, like my grandfather was fly fishing and my dad’s fly fishing and I’m fly fishing. And so I come from a, a long, storied history of very medium casters. And, uh, yeah, my dad, you know, grew up swinging fly and I grew up swinging flies. But when I was a kid, he was swinging flies. And it was a very well orchestrated, uh, ruse where he fooled his three sons into thinking that no steelhead were this very elusive fish. And he really was an excellent gatekeeper for Steelheading, and he kept the kids away from it. You go to the dean, swing flies with his buddies, uh, and leave the kids at home. 00:09:08 Dave: Oh, really? 00:09:09 Speaker 3: Oh, yeah. No, it was a very clever maneuver. 00:09:13 Dave: Could he have taken you guys? Could he have taken you out there? I guess that’s the thing. You have kids, right? Well, you have kids. You’ve got some youngsters there. Is that what you’re saying? Because you could have fished the dean, but you didn’t when you were younger. 00:09:23 Speaker 3: Yeah, like I could have in that, you know, I had could cast a fly rod half decently, but it would have been a massive pain in the ass if I was my dad having to deal with his three sons. And I would if if I was in his position, I’m like, I can deal with like these three kids that are, you know, a little snotty, or I can, uh, you know, have a nice cold beer with my buddies. All right. In the evening, rather than having to put them to bed and blah, blah, blah. So theoretically, I could have. But, uh, yeah, but like the, like, I’ve cast a fly rod since I was a little kid. I have not been proficient at it since I was a little kid for sure. And it hasn’t been like a consistent, you know, figure piece in my life. And I’ve sort of come back to it and, uh, you know, gone away from it. And then I lived in the UK for, you know, the better part of a decade. And that was, uh, fishing in the UK is, is, is coming from a Canadian perspective. Fishing in the UK is a very strange scene because every square inch of, uh, riverfront is privately owned. So it’s a different game. You can’t be like, oh, I want to go, uh, you know, catch some, some dinner. It’s like, oh, I got to talk to the owner and negotiate. Can I fish on their land? And if it’s a salmon river, you know, you have to pay out the nose to be able to get on to the beat and then oh yeah, blah, blah, blah. So like the there’s a lot of gatekeeping, as with a lot of, you know, English culture. Um, and, uh, but yeah, then when I, I got, I moved back to Canada in twenty seventeen and then just sort of like segued smoothly back into that. And ironically, um, my dad was the one who introduced me to folks that are like now my friends like Tim Arsenault and Aaron Goodison, the guys at Michael and Young, um, because he knew, he knew all those guys from a friend of his at the shop. And then when I moved back to Canada, they’re like, oh yeah, this is my son. Um. 00:11:26 Speaker 4: Oh, cool. 00:11:27 Speaker 3: Yeah. Which is sort of, uh, it’s not often that your dad is introducing people to you, to which you then become friends. 00:11:35 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:11:35 Dave: Right. Right, right. Yeah. And Tim is obviously just one. I think he’s like the greatest speed caster right now in the world. Right? 00:11:42 Speaker 3: In my in my opinion for sure. I think yeah, he’s won. He’s been was second in the last two years. And he was one in I think three years ago. Um, but uh, yeah, no, he is just a force to be reckoned with. 00:11:56 Dave: Yeah. Have you been, uh, increasing as your skills improved on the speed, knowing him since you’ve met him? 00:12:02 Speaker 4: Oh, yeah. 00:12:02 Speaker 3: Like in leaps and bounds. I would, I would put the, the bulk of my, uh, a marginal skill set as a result of, uh, Tim’s tutelage. Like I, my dad takes lessons from him for years and I started taking lessons from him, you know, years and years ago. And yeah, I think that he’s not only a phenomenal caster, he’s also an excellent, uh, teacher, um, which you don’t always find in the same person. So yeah, no, it’s, um, it’s, uh, a huge, been a huge positive impact for sure. 00:12:37 Dave: Trout Routes by Onex is built for fly anglers who want better Intel without spending hours digging for the information. You’ll get access to public land maps, stream access points, regulations and even road and trail maps all in one place. It’s become my go to app for scouting new trips. You can check them out right now. Go to webflow dot com slash routes and download the app today. The Gallatin River Lodge sits right in the middle of Montana’s fly fishing triangle, the Gallatin River out the door. The Madison in Yellowstone. Close enough that you’re fishing when conditions line up. The lodge is perfectly remote, yet close to everything. Private access nearby, solid guides, unreal food, and a lodge that understands the rhythm of a full day on the water. If Montana is on your list this year, don’t guess where to stay. You can call Gallatin River Lodge or head over to Lodge dot com right now and plan your next Montana adventure. That’s g lodge dot com. Check them out now. Well what is your on the the cast iron cast and iron. You’re on Instagram there. Talk about that. What do you your your it sounds like you do some outdoor cooking. I’m guessing the coho. You probably got a recipe or two for those. Describe that. What are you covering there from on that side of things? 00:13:51 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:13:51 Speaker 3: Like the genesis of cast iron was fairly organic coming from a bunch of different sources. Like when we’re I’m from Whitehorse in the Yukon and, uh, we grew up with sort of like the catch and cook sort of mentality. We’re always going out and catching fish and cooking it up. And that was just sort of a fixture. I’ve got two younger brothers and we all sort of grew up cooking, um, very much like a utilitarian sort of cooking thing. And my mom, you know, did a ton of cooking in the house, more of the day to day meals. And then my dad would show up to dazzle the, uh, the guests whenever they had dinner parties, which was frequently. 00:14:28 Speaker 4: So everybody in. 00:14:29 Speaker 3: The house. 00:14:29 Speaker 4: Was cooking. 00:14:31 Speaker 3: Yeah. Which is funny. So he sort of. My mom was the real workhorse in the kitchen. My dad was the show pony and you just like bring it out for dinner parties and such. Um, but then, uh, so we were always cooking growing up and like, I was cooking meals for the family by the time I was like, you know, ten, eleven years old and then, uh, moved to, as I mentioned, I lived in the UK and went there. And then we were doing a lot of dinner parties and I was cooking like a reasonable amount, um, just like for friends. Uh, but then when we moved to the UK, then it was really lots of dinner parties. So we’re doing, I do a lot of shooting and stuff out there as well. So, you know, you know, shoot a brace of pheasants or whatever, and then you cook them up for dinner. And then there’s a lot of dinner party things where and my friends over there, really good cooks. So we were trying to like, you know, one up each other. And then when I moved back to Canada, it sort of, uh, brought those two worlds together, the sort of like finer dining, uh, UK stuff with the caption cook that I was doing as a kid. And then that was something we started doing a lot more of, and then it started taking over my wife’s and sister in law’s Instagram pages, and then we got together and said, hey, why don’t we just start an account? And they actually work in the space. So there’s three of us in cast iron. 00:15:49 Dave: Oh, okay. 00:15:50 Speaker 3: I’m very quick to point out that, uh, they’re the brains of the operation. I’m just sort of in front of the camera. And my wife has worked in content marketing for, you know, decades. Uh, and my sister in law works in influencer marketing. So they actually could pull together like a reasonable sort of, um, you know, brand pillars and like a North star and all this fancy marketing talk that I don’t know anything about. And, um, yeah. And then yeah, my sister in law working in influencer marketing and she actually knows like how these sort of contracts operate from the inside. Yeah. And that was, that was sort of the, the start of it. And that was in Me. Nineteen. And then the rest is history. 00:16:31 Dave: Wow. That’s it. So you’re going. And then what do you cover? What’s your focus on your channel now? What do you other. I mean, obviously you have fly fishing out there. Is there a cooking segment that you’re doing? Are you doing some videos? We’ll talk about that a little bit. 00:16:46 Speaker 4: Yeah. Like I think like. 00:16:47 Speaker 3: The biggest focus is, or the overarching theme is highlighting how accessible things can be. Um, you know, I think there’s a lot of misperception that fly fishing is this super elite thing and which is not entirely untrue at the sort of extreme ends of it, but, uh, and, you know, the camp cooking is so difficult to do and it’s all about, you know, marshmallows and hot dogs. And I think it’s trying to, which is also true and also great. But, um, I think that a lot of the cast iron sort of, uh, is about trying to highlight with a minimal set of equipment and skill, you can get into fly fishing and with a minimal set of skills and equipment, you can make really good camp meals and trying to highlight that, you know, this is something like, I’m not a, you know, professional angler or a, you know, Red seal chef. I’ve never worked in as a chef ever. But, you know, I make reasonable meals that my friends and family seem to appreciate. And, you know, I have a modest set of skills and just trying to highlight that you with a little bit of preparation, you can make some pretty phenomenal things happen when you’re in the outdoors and, and also just doing it in the backdrop of like BC, like BC being just like a ridiculously beautiful part of the world. And that’s sort of like the biggest thing trying to highlight, you know, fishing is being accessible and fun and cooking being and the outdoors being accessible and fun. 00:18:15 Dave: Right, right. Yeah, that makes sense. That’s cool. Yeah. And the Yukon, I mean, you’ve got two, uh, well, the Yukon is pretty extreme, right? It’s further up north. What? What was that like growing up? Uh, how long were you in the Yukon before you moved to BC? 00:18:27 Speaker 3: Yeah. So I was in the I was born in the Yukon and then my. We moved down south to Edmonton for like elementary and stuff like that. Like to go to school. So I was only living in the Yukon for a very brief period of time. Okay. Um, but then we were, we went up to the Yukon every summer and, uh, so we spent every summer holiday there basically. And, uh, it’s great. Like, I think that, uh, it’s a, and after my brothers and I all graduated high school, every, everybody but me moved back to, uh, to Whitehorse. Oh, wow. And so my brothers and my parents lived there, uh, to this day, um, it’s a great spot. Like I think that, uh, when it’s good, it is phenomenal. When it’s not so great like January, it’s really miserable. 00:19:14 Dave: Yeah. It’s Whitehorse, the biggest town in Utah. In the Yukon. 00:19:17 Speaker 3: Yeah. By a considerable margin. Yeah. And even the white horse is not. No, it’s, uh. Depending on who you ask, it’s like around, like thirty five thousand. 00:19:31 Dave: Okay. Yeah. 00:19:32 Speaker 3: And then the, uh. But the bearing in mind, like the Yukon population itself is, you know, like forty five, forty seven thousand. So the vast majority of people, um, are concentrated in the, uh, in one city. 00:19:48 Dave: Yeah. What is the up there? Is it, uh, Arctic? Like, what are the species for fishing? That is the focus in the Yukon. 00:19:56 Speaker 3: A lot of it is like char. So you’re getting like Arctic char and like lake trout. Um, a lot, a lot of grayling. And those would be the biggest ones. Uh, they technically get a, uh, a salmon run, but it is, it’s, I think, um. I can’t remember what it is. It’s, they call it like the longest, uh, freshwater salmon migration in the world. Like it’s around like two thousand miles. 00:20:26 Dave: Oh, wow. 00:20:27 Speaker 3: Yeah, it’s a long, long way. So it’s not like you’re trying to, uh, intercept traveling dime bright fish. 00:20:35 Dave: And what are the where are they flowing? Where are they flowing into the ocean? Like, where are they coming from? 00:20:40 Speaker 3: Oh, like Bering Sea, like in Alaska. Like they, um, they’re, uh. Yeah, it’s the Yukon River is like, not. 00:20:48 Dave: Oh, right. Yeah. This is the Yukon. They’re coming all the way up. They’re not coming from south. They’re coming all the way across the Yukon. 00:20:54 Speaker 3: Oh, yeah. It’s from Alaska. And so that’s like a really interesting scene as well, because a lot of these, the fish are in the, in the like the Bering Sea, like in Alaska. Um, for, uh, the bulk of their adult lives in the ocean. And, uh, but then they go into the rivers in Alaska and they, they’re in US waters and US rivers, and they have to navigate all of that to get into the Yukon. And so there are, you know, multiple opportunities to intercept them before they get to the Yukon. And also the, uh, even just like the regulations around fishing for them are completely different. And you obviously have like the commercial fisheries in the Bering Sea, blah, blah, blah. And then so by the time they get to Whitehorse, there’s a fish ladder where you can go look at them. Um, and, uh, they’re pretty beat up. 00:21:54 Dave: Right. And are these are these what species are these are these, uh, of salmon? All of them. 00:22:00 Speaker 3: Oh, primarily, uh, depends on where you go. Yeah. Uh, primarily, uh, Chinook. That’d be like the ones that are like, getting, like, properly making it. They have some chum that can go into Yukon River, but, uh, you know, chum, as anybody who’s fish or chum can attest, like they zombify. Yeah, they do pretty quickly and, uh, don’t necessarily make it all the way, but yeah, this is primarily Chinook or king sort of thing in the US. 00:22:29 Dave: That’s cool. Yeah. We’ve been, I’ve been up to like Bethel and Alaska and fished the Kuskokwim and some other areas. Right. Togiak is right down south, but I’ve never really been up on the Yukon, which flows in into the Bering Sea north of that area. Right. And then goes, like you said, two thousand miles or whatever it is across Alaska and then into Yukon. Um, wow. Yeah, that’s obviously an extreme. But where you’re at now down in BC, so you’re in kind of the Vancouver area. 00:22:57 Speaker 3: Yeah, I’m in, uh, North Vancouver. 00:22:59 Dave: Yeah. So you’re right there. So the cool thing about that is, is that, you know, obviously more of the population, right? There’s a lot more people there, but you’ve got tons of fishing opportunities, right, with Vancouver Island. And like, is that what’s it feel like there? Does it feel like there’s just tons to do, whether that’s steal water or the, all the stuff that you mentioned for salmon. 00:23:17 Speaker 3: Oh, yeah. Yeah. It’s, uh, it’s yeah, really spoiled for choice here. Um, and, uh, you know, the options are really limitless even within, you know, an hour’s drive of, uh, where I’m sat in North van. You know, you can fish for, you know, all five species of salmon and steelhead. Uh, and then, yeah, you got Stillwater. If you want to travel a little farther afield, you like North bend is a really good jumping off point for sure. Um, I always say like with, with any fishery, uh, you can look at, you know, productivity, accessibility and it being not busy. Those are the sort of the three aspects, but you can only have two of three of those. Yeah. So if it’s productive and accessible, it’s going to be busy. If it’s accessible and not very busy, it’s probably not very productive. So you sort of have to pick and choose when you want, like what you want to, uh, to do on a day, what your priorities are. Like if you’re dead set on bonking a limit, you know, you go stand in a line on the better and you can probably accomplish, you know, a golf ball sized row under a float and you’ll probably get your limits. But you know, you can do you can do lots of things. And like, if, you know, if you’re willing to walk or you can drift it, you can access a lot of spots that are pretty remote. You won’t see anybody or maybe a couple people during the day. So it’s a spot that like, I could never move. I’ve been totally spoiled. 00:24:59 Dave: Really? 00:25:00 Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure. Like in terms of, uh, what it has to offer. Like I, my commute is I ride a bike to a ferry and take a fifteen minute ferry across Vancouver Harbor. And so that’s pretty easy. Um, get access to my job is right downtown, but I don’t have to drive to it and I don’t have to take the bus. That’s great. And then if I want to go from Squamish or from my house to Squamish, uh, it’s like forty five, fifty minutes. 00:25:33 Dave: Yeah. 00:25:33 Speaker 3: And then if I want to go, you know, fish for kokanee, you know, it’s like go to Maple Ridge on Alouette and, uh, got a little boat can tow it out there in about an hour. So it’s a really spoiled for choice. And, uh, if you and then, then you get the island right there too. My in-laws live, um, on the island, so we can pop over there and I can nip out to go fish for steelhead in the morning and then come back and be there for. So yeah, it’s just a ridiculous place to live. 00:26:07 Dave: Yeah. That’s it. So the island is the steelhead has some good steelhead, like the smaller rivers down throughout the island, all over the island. 00:26:15 Speaker 3: Yeah. You know, like yeah, is the short answer. Like I think that it takes some more doing like Steelheading is searching a lot at the best of times. And that’s really you got to know, you got to know what’s going on. Like you need to know, have like boots on the ground that are sort of knowing what’s what’s happening on different systems, you know, what the water is like, you know, are fish pushing in, you know, and, you know, rivers change, obviously. And, uh, so it’s a lot more, it’s a lot wilder for sure on the island. Um, you know, the steelhead rivers around here are, you know, like there’s a big hatchery steelhead program on the Vedder. Um, so if you want to, if you want to catch a steelhead, you want to bonk a steelhead, the better it is. 00:27:03 Dave: And the veteran is the better. Come in. That’s on the mainland and that flows in there, uh, around Vancouver. 00:27:09 Speaker 3: Yeah, it’s a tributary of the Fraser. 00:27:11 Dave: Oh, the Fraser. That’s right. Yeah. 00:27:13 Speaker 3: Yeah. There’s like a massive system and it gets, uh, gets a lot of pressure. Not surprisingly, if you if you want to go down, you want to go down a YouTube rabbit hole. 00:27:23 Dave: Yeah. We’ve heard we’ve heard some stories about the Vedder. Definitely. You know, we talk a lot about you know, it’s a lot further up north. But the Skeena, just because we’ve been doing some stuff at the Skeena Spey with with Brian and his lodge, you know, so we’ve been up there and talking about that a lot, but I feel like there’s some opportunities down around Vancouver and not just the Vedder, right. Like if somebody. And then you got if you look across the board, you go south into the US, you got all that stuff like around Seattle, Skagit, which has been impacted. Right. There’s been a lot of impacts just because of the population so big. But if somebody was going to go up into across the border towards Vancouver, where would they be? Where do you think would be a good place to go? Is could you find a steelhead river out there? Could you get on Vancouver and go find some water? 00:28:04 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah. You know, and there’s lots of lots of good guides, you know, like, uh, if you want to go, if you want to give your best college, try at catching steelhead like the Cromer guys, uh, run an operation that’s super tight. They know what they’re doing and like, they’re real friendly guys, um, like Josh and Johnny Mac and Pat and all those boys and Tom, they they’re, they know what they’re doing. Like if I was coming out of, uh, having never fished steelhead and I’m like, I want to go to Vancouver. I’m here for a conference. I’m here for work, book a day with them and do a drift. And they can show you everything from, you know, rigging to that. And you might not, you probably won’t catch a fish, but you know, it’s there. You go to greater than zero chance bro. 00:28:55 Dave: And who’s this and who is this again? The, the group here, the outfitter. 00:28:59 Speaker 3: Uh, it’s Cromer is a company. 00:29:02 Dave: Okay. 00:29:02 Speaker 3: Yeah. Those guys are rock solid and they’ve been doing it for a zillion years and they just know the fish. 00:29:10 Dave: Yeah. So the difference between let’s just take the Skeena, the Skeena Basin, which is obviously famous worldwide. You know, you’ve got the Skeena basins versus heading down south to your. What is the big difference? Do you maybe you don’t know about all the details, but I would think you would think there would be some pretty amazing steelhead rivers in that Vancouver region. You know, whether you’re up north and Vancouver Island, all that area. 00:29:31 Speaker 3: Yeah. Like, I think that in the same way that there’s like northern coho, this is my personal thought. I think like coho, there’s like, you need bigger, stronger fish to get up the rivers and they’re just a little bit tougher. Um, but I think the largest issue is just fishing pressure and development and human impact. Um, like the Capilano River used to be before it got dammed was a prolific steelhead river. Um, yeah. Huge runs of steelhead like in Vancouver proper. But I think it’s just shifting priorities. And, you know, folks are more inclined at the policy making level to make money and develop and do this, that and the other then, uh, you know, protect, um, these species. So I think like, that’s the major thing, but like, you can, uh, catch steelhead in three different rivers within an hour of Vancouver. Um, and the likelihood that you’re going to do that is, you know, TBD. And if you’re swinging flies, you’re definitely reducing the odds because they’re, you know, you have lots of people running pins and stuff like that that are quite successful. But I think the biggest issue in the Lower Mainland for fishing is just pressure. Just tons and tons of people. 00:30:53 Dave: Yeah. Have you ever done that center pinning, that style of fishing? 00:30:57 Speaker 3: No, I never have. 00:30:58 Dave: You’ve seen it though. 00:30:59 Speaker 3: Yeah. I’ve never I’ve done, I’ve fished with a float for, uh, you know, a handful of times and, uh, yeah, it just wasn’t my thing, you know, like, I think that casting is like the really enjoyable part for me. I really enjoy the casting piece. And that’s something that, uh, you’re going to be doing a lot of, uh, when you’re fishing for things that are difficult to catch. If my priorities were just to bonk fish, I would run a pin for sure. Yeah. But, uh, typically that’s not like my top priority. I like to catch fish, but I like to catch some fish in a way that I find enjoyable. And that’s where like the swing and flies things come in. And that being said, like I’m definitely not, uh, above like greasing one out later, you know, you know, I’ll definitely do that. And sometimes it’s nice to spice things up, you know, change it up. Like on the day when you’re just like, if you’re drifting, I’ll oftentimes, um, like have an indicator rig to just throw out there when we’re on the move. So I’m covering water just when we’re moving between swing spots, and then we’ll get to spot. And then just as a, a, uh, something to do. And, you know, you catch a lot more fish when you go to fly in the water. 00:32:18 Dave: Yeah, yeah. 00:32:19 Speaker 3: So yeah, you know, I think that it’s all for me, it’s all about priorities and, you know, is, is this the way you want to catch fish? Is catching fish the top priority? And if so, you know, no judgment for me. 00:32:32 Dave: Do you think you need a bush plane to fish Alaska’s legendary waters? Think again. 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It sounds like you’re going out to get some of those coho. Those two to five pounders. Once you get them back, how would you cook those? What would be your style to cook them up? Right. 00:33:41 Speaker 3: I am a big proponent of less is more. And, uh, if I had a fresh coho, um, I would probably, uh, get a high smoke point oil and some Maldon sea salt, and those would be the ingredients that would just sear it in a cast iron pan, like just fill it in and then cut it in like portion it out into, you know, like four, six ounce, uh, chunks and then sear it skin side down, uh, in a ripping hot pan and then flip it once and then serve. Yeah. Have it be like, yeah. Like, I don’t think you need to do anything to really, you know. 00:34:24 Dave: No, it’s already good. It’s already the best. 00:34:27 Speaker 3: Yeah. Like it it’s if you’ve got, uh, there are definitely times where I’ve got a chunk of salmon that’s been sitting in my freezer for a little while and I’m like, this is going to be freezer burnt and. 00:34:38 Dave: Right. 00:34:39 Speaker 3: So, and then also, I think that the thing that goes the most on salmon in the freezer is texture. Um, and if you’ve got it in there for like a year, the texture is probably going to be a little funky just because like the cell structure, blah, blah, blah. But with those, I’ll like typically I’ll even make burgers and. 00:34:57 Dave: Oh yeah, that’s a good idea. 00:34:59 Speaker 3: Grind it up and you’ll actually put some spices and stuff in there and, uh, different flavors and make burgers. And that’s always a great use of freezer burn salmon. 00:35:09 Dave: Right? There you go. What are some of the other meals you’re doing when you’re out there now? Are you guys doing a lot of a lot of camping, kind of outdoors, that sort of stuff. What’s that look like for you? 00:35:18 Speaker 3: Yeah. You know, like with kids, it obviously spices it up a bit, but that’s just sort of shifting it to different things. Um, when we’re camping, uh, I like doing things like doing things that are easy and like doing things where I can do a lot of, uh, prep. I think one of the best ways to have delicious meals is to do the bulk of the heavy lifting at home in a kitchen and then just be prepared. Um, so a classic one that I do virtually every time we go Um, camping is, uh, uh, sous vide ribs. So yeah, like pork ribs or like beef ribs a lot. And basically just sear them in a pan and then put them in a vacuum pack bag and then, um, sous vide them for like forty eight hours. And, uh, which is great because you can. Yeah, it cooks them through it. Um, when you braise things, they get that sort of stringy texture. When you cook something low and slow and liquid, you get that sort of stringy texture because the liquids at a really high temperature. But the thing with sous vide is you’re holding it at a lower temperature precisely for a long period of time. So you can get that same, you know, collagen gelatin breakdown, um, and all the connective tissues break down so it becomes really tender, but you can also have a bit of a meteor chew. So you can have like a medium rare sort of texture that you don’t get braising. So yeah, sous vide them for like two days and then freeze the ribs and then, uh, and make a barbecue sauce on the side or whatever, and then have those be like ice packs because they’re frozen in a cooler and then you bring them. And then all you have to do is just reheat them because they’re fully cooked and just do that over a campfire. And they are ridiculously good. 00:37:08 Dave: That’s good. Where can we find that recipe? Do you have is this something you’re doing on your channel where you have some of these recipes or how to do this? 00:37:15 Speaker 5: I’ve done not a full. 00:37:16 Speaker 3: Recipe, but I’ve definitely done a sneak peak on like how I, uh, like, uh, on the feed. I’ve got a post where I show how I prep ribs, um, like at my house or I like from getting him out of the pack to searing them up and then vacuum packing them. I’ve got that all there. Yeah, I’ve done it. I did it for ribs. I got another one for, um, venison ribs that were ridiculously good. Um, it’s just on the feed If you go to my Instagram page at cast iron, um, I have lots of good stuff in there. 00:37:53 Dave: Gotcha. Are you also doing some, uh, hunting, big game hunting or anything like that? 00:37:58 Speaker 3: Uh, I do, uh, I have again, it’s like a time sort of thing. The bulk of my time is typically spent, uh, helping people pack and cut meat. I rarely, rarely the person pulling the trigger, but, you know, you know, and it’s funny because I think about like, the experience you get when you’re hunting and you’re with a group of people, the person who pulls the trigger has the difference of your experience versus theirs is, you know, about 30s to a minute. 00:38:30 Dave: Yeah. But you’re out there on these. So, so you’re going hunting on like a hunting trip with the group? 00:38:34 Speaker 3: Yeah. Like typically go with my family, like when they’re out doing stuff. But, uh, yeah, it’s something I’ve done, uh, a reasonable amount of, but I wish I could do more, but it’s all time and priority. So if I like if my brothers are going out, I will definitely try and make it. But, um. 00:38:52 Dave: That’s rare. 00:38:52 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:38:53 Dave: What’s the big game species up north of or in Vancouver, BC or actually just in BC up there in BC. 00:39:00 Speaker 3: Um, the ones that are, I think good target species are like spring bear. Spring bear is really, uh, spring bear can be delicious. Um, particularly like berry fed bears are great as opposed to like ones that have been eaten rotten fish, you know, they’re, they’re fine, but, you know, you’re not gonna have like a burger. You’re probably gonna make a lot of, of, uh, sausage with strong flavors. Uh, and then just like lots of, um, like blacktail deer. Those are like the biggest ones. Um, when you, when you get up in the Yukon, it gets a little bit spicier where you got moose, caribou and all that fun stuff. Um. And Dall sheep. Stone sheep. 00:39:47 Dave: Oh, wow. 00:39:47 Speaker 3: Yeah. Like that’s the. And bison. There’s a wood bison population up in, uh, in the Yukon as well. 00:39:54 Dave: Man. Yeah. It’s so vast. You know, when you look at the, the both BC and the Yukon. Right. There’s so much land and so few people up there. Have you explored. Have you just driven a lot of BC and the. Or can you even drive the Yukon? Is it easy? Is there a place where the roads kind of end up there? 00:40:11 Speaker 3: Yeah, it’s a real pain in the backside to get from Vancouver to Whitehorse. It takes about twenty seven hours. Mhm. Um, because you got to drive to the interior. There’s not like a coastal road or anything. Yeah. Um, yeah, the, uh, the lost explorer. And like, it’s to my mind, it’s, uh, you know, the sort of the Lower mainland, and then you’re flying to terrace is the next big one because it’s, you know, what, sixteen hour drive, something like that. Um, and, uh, the and then you’re flying to the Yukon. Like. Like I’m not a big, massive road trip guy. 00:40:46 Dave: Yeah. You don’t have a big camper. You’re driving around around the province. 00:40:52 Speaker 3: It’s don’t even that it’s just like really time consuming. And when I got it, I’ve got commitments back, you know, with the family or work or whatever, you know, being able to take a full day of driving, like knocking out a sixteen, twenty hour drive in one go is not ideal. And that’s you got one of those on either side. But if you can fly, that’s great. Like, like I’ve gone to Campbell River next weekend or next week. And I was looking at the math on, okay, well, I can take the ferry over. Uh, that’s fine. And then, but I got some faff on either side. You got to be there early. Take the ferry. It’s an hour and a half, and then you got to drive to Campbell River. It’s, you know, three some hours. Um, so it’s going to take me six. It’s gonna take me half a day. So that’s going to ruin fishing or, you know. Pacific Coastal Airlines, they’ve got a forty five minute flight. Wow. And when you factor in gas and ferry costs, it’s roughly the same for one person. It’s basically the same cost. Yeah. So yeah, I’ll just fly up. I can be back the next day and I get two full days of fishing. 00:42:01 Dave: There you go. 00:42:02 Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. Lots to explore. But it’s just, it’s very time consuming. It’s to take advantage. 00:42:07 Dave: There’s a Campbell have, uh, a steelhead. I mean, is that something you’re fishing in the river? Kind of like you would fish in these other big rivers. 00:42:14 Speaker 3: Uh, the Campbells did an interesting one because it’s dammed. It’s a very short, dammed system. Uh, which is great from the perspective that when there’s no water on the rest of the island, it will have water because it’s dam controlled. Um, but, uh, I don’t think I would ever target steelhead on the Campbell. Um, there’s probably a few kicking around, but the big thing is, you know, like chum and Chinook and. 00:42:39 Dave: Coho salmon. 00:42:40 Speaker 3: Coho and all that, like zillions and zillions of pinks. 00:42:45 Dave: The pinks? Yeah. Have you caught a few pinks on the fly? 00:42:48 Speaker 3: Oh, yeah. One or two. One or two. 00:42:52 Dave: Now, are those pinks? Is there any time you can get a pink. And you could, uh, it’d be good eating on the table. 00:42:56 Speaker 3: Yeah, well, it depends on what your definition of good eating is, but. Yeah. 00:43:00 Dave: Have you cooked them up? Have you cooked them up on the Disney stuff with them? 00:43:03 Speaker 3: Yeah. No, absolutely. Like I think that, uh, like you can buy a, a, B, C pink salmon in the grocery store here. Um, like when they’re in the ocean, they’re great. And when they’re just fresh in like, if you can catch them on an incoming tide, they’re dying bright and they’re great. Um, like I think they get a bad rap. Uh, but you know, if I think the bad rap is largely around like texture because they’re like a little, the flesh is a little softer, you know, put it in a burger, you know, and it’ll be fine. And, uh, you can do lots of great things with it. Um, it’s just a question of, uh, with most things, most game, if it tastes funky, it’s probably an issue in bringing it from wherever you harvested it to the table. Like, is it any fun? You know, did you bleed it? All these sorts of things. And then, uh, but I think you can make pretty much anything, um, a good, absolutely passable meal if you put some time and effort into it and have a little prep. Yeah, yeah. No, pinks are fine. I think they get a bad rap, but they’re totally, um, totally palatable. 00:44:14 Dave: They are. Are there any sockeye in your neck of the woods down there? 00:44:18 Speaker 3: There are. Um, there’s, uh, there’s no seasons really on sockeye around here. Um, the Pitt River, for example, gets a big run of sockeye. Uh, well, the thing with sockeye is they one, they’re hard to catch because they like feeding on zooplankton. 00:44:34 Dave: Oh, right. Yeah. 00:44:35 Speaker 3: They’re tricky to catch. And, uh, they are very good eating and they just got net to hell. Uh, particularly like on the pit, like they just got decimated. People were really overharvest sockeye. Sure. But so I can’t say I put in a lot of time and effort in trying to catch sockeye, but, you know, they’re great. Sportfish. Uh, for sure. 00:45:00 Dave: Yeah, yeah. Gotcha. Well, let’s wrap it up here. Um, this is with our, um, our kind of, uh, our gear segment where we love to check on gear. And I think we had an episode recently we did on, um, using the Dutch oven. Right? Mia came in here and she talked about this new book. She’s actually got this book on cooking with a Dutch oven, but so I’m going to talk about a little bit of gear. Maybe we’ll talk cooking a little bit, but this is presented by Toyota today. And I want to get a couple of Toyota questions out of you as well because we’re working with them. Um, I, you know, drive the crap out of my truck. It’s been great. Uh, you know, we do we do actually do a lot of travel. I’ve got a four wheel camper on the back of mine, and we try to drive as much as we can to some of these places. And so it’s been fun. But but talk about that. What’s your Toyota connection? I know you have a Toyota as well. Have you been a Toyota driver for a while? 00:45:45 Speaker 3: Yeah. You know, I would say I, uh, when I moved back to Canada, a big priority was getting a vehicle that could, uh, do all the things I wanted to do, which is, you know, transport gear, get me into spots that I want to be in. And also more recently, like transport my family around and in a safe way. 00:46:04 Dave: Safe, right. 00:46:05 Speaker 3: Haul all my family’s gear, you know, tow a boat. Um, yeah. And I’ve been on the, like a Toyota ambassador more recently. Um, delighted to be on a team with some great folks. Um, and, uh, yeah, like the Rav4 trail is just does everything we need to do and it’s got a towing capacity of like three thousand five hundred pounds. So I can tell anything you need. And, uh, yeah, it’s as good to take the kids to daycare, which I’ll be doing in about fifteen minutes. And right as it is to, uh, get the boat in the water. 00:46:37 Dave: That’s it, that’s it, that’s cool. And is the Rav4 now you got you see those all over the place and they look, they really I remember the old Rav4. As you go back in the day, they were this tiny smaller car. But are they four wheel drive? Is it kind of all wheel drive? Can they kind of go off road? 00:46:50 Speaker 3: Yeah. Like the trail particularly is built for off road. And they got a bunch of fun settings for like mud and snow and stuff like that. 00:46:57 Dave: Okay. 00:46:57 Speaker 3: Gravel, but yeah, it’s dynamite. I haven’t had any issues with it. Um, and it’s just been a real all rounder for like, and it’s not so big that you feel a little silly in downtown. Like if you had a, you know, a quad cab long box dually in, you’re driving in downtown Vancouver, it’s not like you’re never going to find a parking spot. And, uh, but the Rav is, does everything I need to get things done on the weekends as well as during the week. Like if I need to go and pop into the office and drive, you know, it’s no problem finding a parking spot. But equally, I can get enough gear in there to satisfy, you know, two kids and two adults. 00:47:41 Dave: You can do it with the youngsters. That’s cool. Well well, good. So we got a nice little shout out on Toyota there. Um give me on the gear. Let’s just talk about that a little bit. What is if somebody wanted to get into more of this kind of sounds like the cast iron might be your start. What are a few things that you’re using that are keys that you can’t live without with the cooking out there? 00:47:58 Speaker 3: Yeah, I’d say cast Iron skillet is just a the bread and butter. 00:48:03 Dave: Yeah. Is that all you need? Is that all you need really need is a cast iron. 00:48:06 Speaker 3: Pretty much like for the vast majority of things that you’re going to do, uh, cooking in the outdoors, you can just use a cast iron. Um, yeah. It’s great. It’s bomb proof. You can ruin it. You can, um, uh, burn all the seasoning off and it’ll come back. And I’ve done that multiple, multiple times where I, I actually. The cast iron pan that I use now was one that my parents used forty years ago and forgot about for fifteen. And I brought it back to life. 00:48:34 Dave: Oh no kidding. 00:48:35 Speaker 3: Yeah. And it’s just such a solid platform because it when you’re cooking on an open fire, one of the biggest issues is hot spots. Um, and you’ll get a pan where if it’s really thin, part of the pan will be burning the food and the other part will be ice cold. Oh, right. With cast iron, because it’s so dense. Uh, it will distribute the heat more evenly. So it gives you a lot more of a margin for error when you’re cooking over an open fire, because the open fire is not going to be consistent. Like the flames, not like putting it on a stove. So that’s, uh, I think that’s like the, the will do the vast majority of things and having like a, a high smoke point oil like avocado or canola or vegetable oil, whatever you want and that you can see your stuff with, and then like a good pair of tongs and that you can do like the bulk of the. That’s it. Pretty much what, uh, I use for the vast majority of cooking. 00:49:38 Dave: Right. And then do you put the, do you have like a grill or a grate to throw on the fire? Or do you just throw the pan on the fire? How do you do that? 00:49:44 Speaker 3: You can absolutely. You can for sure have a, uh, a great, um, uh, wolf and grizzly makes a really good one. It’s a little packable one. 00:49:53 Dave: Oh, cool. Wolf grizzly. Okay. 00:49:55 Speaker 3: Yeah. And, uh, they, but oftentimes they’ll just use two rocks. I’ll just like stack two rocks and then put the pan like level them out and then put the pan on top of that. Um, and, or if you can just put a strain on the coals, you know, it’s really, it depends on how much control you want to have. If you want to be able to like precisely move the, uh, the pan up and down, you can do that. But the, uh, with grates and such, but the Just you can just throw it straight on the coals and it’ll work just as well. 00:50:25 Dave: Good to go. Okay. No. That’s awesome. And you give us one. We’ll take it out here with fly fishing. So, um, you know, what’s the rod are you using? Do you have, like, one you’re really loving these days? Or what’s your length of rod you’re using with your Spey? What’s your setup look like? Like, let’s just say I’m not sure what would be the steelhead river you’re going to be swinging next. 00:50:43 Speaker 3: If I could choose one. 00:50:45 Dave: Yeah. 00:50:45 Speaker 3: Just choose to use, uh, for steelhead and salmon. And this isn’t the a specialist for a specific species or. No. Uh, it’d be like the generalist. I would say an easy answer would be I’d use a hardy ultralight NSX, thirteen foot six inch, um, eight nine weight eight nine. 00:51:07 Dave: Okay. 00:51:08 Speaker 3: It’s got a lot of backbone and it is an absolute cannon. Um, and like you can turn around a Chinook with that. No problem. 00:51:17 Dave: Yeah. That’s right. It’s big enough to do Chinook with that. 00:51:20 Speaker 3: I wouldn’t want to do it every day, but you certainly can. Um, it’ll take any steelhead, uh, um, comfortably and, you know, even with like coho and stuff like that, like smaller species is great. And I would put on that. I’d put a hearty perfect three and three quarter. There you go. Um, and because I just like a clicker. That’s great. 00:51:44 Dave: Yeah. Is that the part? Now the hardy is that the perfect the new. You could just buy a brand new one these days. They make that right? 00:51:49 Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely. The the nineteen twenty one Hardy perfect is an absolute banger. It’s just beautiful. Very functional piece of art. You can get a vintage one, um, if you want to. And I’m definitely down that rabbit hole as well. Um, and then I would put a, uh, a bridge torrent line on that, uh, probably like in the five fifty grain range and yeah, I think, yeah, as you know, like Tim, uh, owns and operates bridge and it’s always a good sign when you can try out a product and you’re like, oh, I think this might be a little overtrained or under grained, and then you can talk to the person who designed the. 00:52:29 Dave: Line, right? 00:52:30 Speaker 3: And they’re like, oh yeah, I know, try this. And then, or you can do like a casting lesson with them and or go out on the water with them and with their, the line that they designed and like, nobody’s on your casting stroke and you know, this, that, and the other, you know, maybe you want to try a lighter line, like knock fifty grains off of it. So that’s always a bonus. That would be my, my go to rig that I cast. The bulk of the time is like a hearty thirteen, six, eight, nine weight, hearty, perfect three and three quarter inch and I’m bridge torrent. 00:53:03 Dave: That’s perfect. Wow. That’s a good combo. That’s all all great companies. And I know you’re working with some other companies. Are there you mentioned um Leatherman, are there a few other companies you want to give a shout out to some of the brands you’re working with? 00:53:15 Speaker 3: Absolutely. Yeah. like, uh, Hardy has been fantastic. I really enjoy working with them. Um. Extra tough. I’ve been on the team for a good while, and they’re always doing fun, innovative things. And, uh, the it’s funny, the extra tough, like movement in Vancouver is expanding. You just see them everywhere. I went to, I took took my kid to the doctor and the doctor. 00:53:40 Dave: Was wearing him. 00:53:41 Speaker 3: Comes in and scrubs in extra tufts. I’m like, yeah, that’s awesome. There you go. And, um, yeah, uh, Leatherman, even some of my primary supporters, uh, marble eyewear new on the scene. Great. 00:53:54 Dave: Right? Yeah, they’re on the are they on the east coast of Canada? 00:53:57 Speaker 3: Yep, yep. You know, Pat’s out, out, out of the east. Yeah. Those have been the main ones. Like I’ve had other folks that have been great. Um, but yeah, it’s, uh, you know, it’s, it’s always nice when you have people that believe in what you’re doing and, you know, um, can support that dream. 00:54:14 Dave: Yeah. It’s cool. No, it’s been great. Teddy catching up with you here. We definitely, um, you know, hopefully we’ll be able to get on the water eventually and talk more about it. And it sounds like you got some good stuff going. So we’ll send everybody out to at cast and and Iron on Instagram. They can follow up with you there. And yeah, thanks for all the insight and, uh, looking forward to staying in touch. 00:54:34 Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks so much for inviting me. And you know, whenever you want to chat again, just let me know. 00:54:40 Dave: Before we get out of here today, I want to remind you to check in with Teddy, uh, on Instagram cast and iron and also check in with Toyota. Uh, that’s what flying dot com slash Toyota today and check in with them and check out what they got going with vehicles is a fun one today to chat a little bit about Toyota. We’ve got a good, uh, adventure going this year, as always, some travel, some road trip. Uh, we got some great trips going to Montana. Uh, we’re going to be crossing the west and, uh, and hopefully we’re going to be getting down to the southeast. So we’ll be sharing more of that as we go. If you haven’t already checked out Wet Fly Swing Pro, you can go to wet fly swing dot com slash pro, sign up there and get your name in the hat, and we’ll let you know when we open up the doors. And we might be doing that very soon with our next boot camp. So if you’re interested, do that now and we will let you up. Turn back the doors and take a look inside. Lots of great episodes. As always. We’ve almost got episodes coming out every day now. If you have anything you need, please send me an email Dave at web dot com. I’ll get that together for you. That’s all I have. Uh, as always, thanks for checking in today and I hope you’re having a great afternoon, morning, or evening and we will see you and talk to you on the next episode. Have a good one. 00:55:49 Speaker 6: Thanks for listening to the Wet Fly Swing Fly Fishing show. For notes and links from this episode, visit Wet Fly swing dot com.

 

Photo via https://www.instagram.com/castandiron

Conclusion with Teddy Cosco on Cast and Iron Camp Cooking

Teddy reminds us that some of the best moments in fly fishing happen long after the cast is over. Whether it’s preparing a meal around the fire, introducing family members to the outdoors, or simply slowing down enough to appreciate where you are, those experiences often become the most memorable part of the trip.

     

946 | Fly Fishing for Giant Pike in Northern Saskatchewan with Mark Melnyk of The New Fly Fisher

giant pike

Episode Show Notes

Mark Melnyk from The New Fly Fisher returns to the podcast to explore one of North America’s most overlooked fly fishing destinations—northern Saskatchewan. From giant northern pike and shallow-water lake trout to Arctic grayling and floatplane adventures, Mark shares why Canada’s Prairie Provinces deserve a place on every fly angler’s travel list. Drawing from more than two decades of filming remote fisheries, he offers a firsthand look at what makes Scott Lake Lodge and the surrounding wilderness so unique.

The conversation covers planning a fly-in fishing trip, choosing the right gear for northern pike, targeting lake trout on the fly, and the unforgettable experience of landing on a remote lake by floatplane. Along the way, Mark shares stories from filming The New Fly Fisher, explains why Saskatchewan remains one of Canada’s best-kept fishing secrets, and highlights the people and places that keep drawing him back.

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(The full episode transcript is at the bottom of this blogpost) 👇🏻

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giant pike

Episode Recap

Why Northern Saskatchewan Might Be Canada’s Most Underrated Fly Fishing Destination

(5:22) When most anglers think of Canadian fly fishing, British Columbia and Alberta usually come to mind first. Mark believes northern Saskatchewan deserves just as much attention. Beyond the prairie farmland lies an enormous wilderness of untouched lakes, boreal forest, and remote fisheries where seeing another angler—or even another person—is rare. It’s this combination of solitude, healthy fish populations, and incredible scenery that keeps him returning year after year.

giant pike

Your First Floatplane Ride into Scott Lake Lodge

(8:08) Every great fly-in adventure starts before you ever make a cast. Mark describes the journey from Saskatoon to Stony Rapids before boarding a de Havilland Beaver or Otter for the final flight into Scott Lake Lodge. Flying low over endless lakes and forest before touching down beside the lodge becomes part of the adventure itself—and for many guests, it’s an experience they’ll never forget.

Photo by Scott Lake Lodge

Giant Northern Pike and Why Topwater Eats Never Get Old

(15:00) Northern Saskatchewan is famous for trophy pike, but Mark explains that success doesn’t always require giant flies or complicated tactics. Smaller natural-colored streamers, weight-forward floating lines, and accurate presentations are often all that’s needed. When conditions line up, few experiences compare to watching a 40-inch-plus northern pike explode on a surface popper—a strike Mark calls one of the most violent eats in freshwater fly fishing.

giant pike

Lake Trout on the Fly? Yes—and They’re Closer Than You Think

(28:20) Many anglers associate lake trout with deep water and heavy tackle, but Scott Lake offers something different. During spring and fall, lake trout move into surprisingly shallow water where they’re accessible on a fly rod. Mark shares stories of sight-fishing for giant lake trout, 100-fish days during experimental fall trips, and the unforgettable power of battling a trophy lake trout that simply refuses to quit.

The Scott Lake Century Club

(29:24) One of the lodge’s most unique traditions is the Century Club. To earn membership, anglers must catch a combined 100 inches of fish across three species: northern pike, lake trout, and Arctic grayling. Two 40-inch pike and a 20-inch grayling will do the trick, but as Mark admits, even coming within a quarter inch can leave you wanting another shot. It’s a fun challenge that perfectly captures the diversity of the fishery.

More Than a Fishing Trip

(47:30) As much as Mark loves catching fish, he believes the people are what make destinations memorable. He describes Scott Lake Lodge as a place where guides become lifelong friends, guests gather every evening to celebrate the day’s adventures, and the atmosphere feels more like staying with family than checking into a remote fishing lodge. It’s one of the reasons anglers return year after year.


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Resources Noted in the Show

Visit their website 👉 TheNewFlyFisher.com
YouTube 👉 The New Fly Fisher
Instagram 👉 @theofficialnewflyfisher

Scott Lake Lodge 👉 ScottLakeLodge.com

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Full Podcast Transcript

Episode Transcript
00;00;01;29 – 00;00;24;28 Dave The further you get away from the roads, the more interesting the fishing questions become. Today we’re heading into northern Saskatchewan with one of the most recognizable voices in fly fishing media. Mark Melnick from the new Fly Fisher joins us to talk about remote fisheries giant Northern Pike Lake Trout on the fly floatplane adventures and why some of the best destinations in North America still fly under the radar. 00;00;25;15 – 00;00;45;28 Dave Mark has spent decades filming, fly fishing across Canada and beyond. And today he’s given us a look at Scott Lake Lodge, the Prairies provinces and what keeps pulling him back to the wildest waters in the continent. In this episode, you’re going to hear what it’s really like flying into a remote lodge by floatplane, dropping in, staying low and dropping in on the water. 00;00;45;29 – 00;01;09;16 Dave We’re going to hear about when lake trout move into the shallow water and become realistic fly rod targets. We talk about this on lake trout and why top water pipe fishing creates some of the most violent eats in freshwater fishing. We’re also going to get into that so they get that experience. Plus what? 26 seasons of filming have taught Mark about adventure, travel and great fly fishing destinations. 00;01;10;04 – 00;01;18;27 Dave It’s all here today. You can find Mark Melnick at the new Fly Fisher on YouTube. Here he is, Mark Melnick. How you do, Mark? 00;01;19;10 – 00;01;24;13 Mark Melnyk Great. Thanks for having me. This. We had a lot of fun last time, so I’m expecting this one will be just as much fun. 00;01;24;19 – 00;01;43;05 Dave Yeah. Yeah, it was. It was a good one. I think that catching up with you is always great. You guys at the new Fly Fisher have a lot going on there. You’ve got a lot of episodes. I mean, I think you’re almost there. You’re not quite daily, but you’ve got a lot of different content pumping out there. And you’ve got one of the the biggest shows, you know, kind of on YouTube in the fly fishing space. 00;01;43;05 – 00;01;58;21 Dave So we’re going to talk about that today a little bit. But I also want to we’re heading out on a trip to Saskatchewan, northern Saskatchewan, to Scott Lake Lodge. And I know you’ve been there, so we’re going to get an update on that as we prepare for the big pike fishing and all of that. But maybe just take us back before we get started. 00;01;58;29 – 00;02;04;17 Dave It’s been the last episode I think was back in late 24. What’s been going on with you? What’s new these days? 00;02;04;29 – 00;02;32;09 Mark Melnyk Well, you know, we’re guns blazing right now in our production world. We are just finishing up season 25. Actually, our final episode drops on YouTube this Saturday morning at 9 a.m. Eastern Time. And then we we’ve got crews in the field already shooting season 26. So it’s busy time here. We got people all over North America and soon to be South America And yeah, it’s just go, go, go. 00;02;32;16 – 00;02;41;21 Dave Right, right. That’s awesome. Is it? So season 26 is coming up. Maybe describe that again. When do new episodes does it come out on YouTube? Where can people find the show? 00;02;41;29 – 00;03;09;24 Mark Melnyk Yeah. So our new season will begin at the end of December, just after Christmas in 2026, and then it will go 26 episodes. So 26 weeks to the middle of June, just like where we are now. And what happens is our episodes are dropped first on YouTube and those are the extended play episodes. So those shows are as long as they need to be to effectively tell the documentary story. 00;03;10;10 – 00;03;26;20 Mark Melnyk And then the television broadcast versions will be on Sportsman Channel Canada and W5 World Fishing Network in the United States, and that those shows, which are 30 minute shows, air that same week so dropped on YouTube on Saturday and then television that next week. 00;03;26;27 – 00;03;31;01 Dave Oh, I see. And the YouTube is the full length version. So it’s a little bit of a different version. 00;03;31;13 – 00;03;57;22 Mark Melnyk It’s a totally different version. So my view, my philosophy with the YouTube versions is, you know, I want people to be able to go to a an episode. Let’s say they’re going to start like watch and they want to see what Scott like lunch could really actually be like. And these documentaries showcase just that. So it’s the food, it’s the guides, it’s the wildlife, it’s the scenery, it’s the fishing, it’s the, you know, the bedding, all that sort of stuff. 00;03;57;22 – 00;04;17;24 Mark Melnyk So people can actually see what their trip might actually be like. And I get people, you know, I do. I do a number of the fly fishing shows over the wintertime and I get a lot of people that are fans of the show come up and say, hey, where are you going next? We like to follow you. We like to book our vacations based on where you’ve been, you know, kind of like that show, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, right? 00;04;17;26 – 00;04;33;14 Mark Melnyk Guy Fieri You know, as soon as he does an episode on Joe’s Bistro in downtown Cincinnati, all of a sudden, all these loyal fans run to Joe’s Bistro. Right? And it’s so that’s kind of that’s kind of the it’s kind of the deal. We want people to be able to actually see what it’s going to be like. 00;04;33;19 – 00;04;40;10 Dave Right? Right. And then then the TV show is kind of more of a a curated version of that where you kind of get shorter. You get right to the point in 25 minutes. 00;04;40;17 – 00;04;51;28 Mark Melnyk Exactly. That’s it. Exactly. So, yeah, the full versions on YouTube and then the broadcast versions on TV and then the international versions get distributed throughout the year to different countries all over the world. 00;04;52;07 – 00;05;14;28 Dave Perfect. Well, that’s great, and we’ll cover a little bit the same thing. I also want to take it up a little level and just think of Saskatchewan. I mean, this will be my first time going there, so I’m really excited. You know, I think it’s I mean, Canada’s got all these amazing destinations, right? All all the provinces have places, but I think Saskatchewan is one that maybe you hear a lot about B.C. you hear a lot about Alberta, you hear a lot about the East, some of the Ontario. 00;05;14;28 – 00;05;22;14 Dave But I feel like Saskatchewan maybe. And what are the other in the middle? It doesn’t get quite as much love. What’s your take on that as far as all the provinces and comparing them? 00;05;22;24 – 00;05;51;14 Mark Melnyk Yeah, you know, it’s funny because the prairie Provinces, Alberta, Saskatchewan, in Manitoba, there’s a there’s a funny saying that, you know, you can watch your dog run away for days right, Because it’s just flat and it’s wheat fields and everything. But when you get into the north of those those provinces, you know, it is dense forest, it’s subarctic tundra, it’s tons of wildlife, tons of like not mountains, but rocky, hilly structures, tons and tons of lakes and rivers. 00;05;51;14 – 00;06;15;01 Mark Melnyk And some of them are quite large. So the prairie provinces really are underutilized in the fly fishing world, really. And they’ve got some underbelly, movable fisheries that, you know, just you never see. I just got back from northern Manitoba and, you know, it’s rare that you can go on a trip for a week, a week and a half, and literally not see a piece of trash anywhere, not see another person anywhere. 00;06;15;13 – 00;06;25;27 Mark Melnyk You know, the closest road is 250 miles away. So it’s those three provinces are quite unique in their makeup up north. And the fisheries are basically untouched. 00;06;26;05 – 00;06;36;17 Dave Untouched. Yeah. And and what it would be, you know, if you think about the let’s just keep it to the prairies for a little bit. And that includes you mentioned it’s Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba. Is that three or is there another one there? 00;06;36;21 – 00;06;52;02 Mark Melnyk No, that’s them in a nutshell. When you get into Ontario, Ontario was very much boreal forest, 250,000 lakes and rivers in Ontario. Most of Ontario is unloaded. So you’re getting there by floatplane, similar to Saskatchewan and Manitoba, for sure. 00;06;52;09 – 00;07;08;23 Dave Yeah. Okay. So that’s pretty much so you get the three big and out of those like what are the speeds? So Pike is one. So we’re heading to Scott Lake for Pike. That’s a famous fishery up there, right, because of the size and kind of on the surface and stuff. What are the other species, do you think, when you think of prairies that are the big ones out there? 00;07;08;29 – 00;07;33;26 Mark Melnyk Yes. So the species are obviously northern pike. There’s a fantastic like fishery that we can talk about a little bit later. Arctic grayling are prevalent up there. There’s some places that have Big Brook trout as well, which people don’t realize. You know, God’s lake in Manitoba has giant Burkhardt in it. You know, you’ve got whitefish, which are a ton of fun to catch, and they go bigger, like £15. 00;07;34;12 – 00;07;40;23 Mark Melnyk Yeah. So, you know, most of the predator species that people like to target on fly are and are in the prairie provinces for sure. 00;07;41;00 – 00;07;56;19 Dave Yep. Yep. So and Lake Tahoe obviously get huge as well. Northern Pike Arctic drilling. Well, let’s just zoom in on Scott Lake, because that’s, you know, right now we’re going there. We’ve got the winner who won the last event we did. I’m going to be heading up with him. And, you know, we’re all stoked about this is going to be big. 00;07;57;01 – 00;08;08;28 Dave Describe Scott Lake a little bit high level. You know, maybe we could go back to your video. We can definitely watch that. We’ll have links to the show notes so people can check it out. But just describe how Scott Lake is maybe different than some of the places out there. 00;08;08;28 – 00;08;33;29 Mark Melnyk So Scott Lake Lodge is is unique in the sense that they have not left a single leaf unturned when it comes to the service and the quality of the fishery that’s up there. You’ve got literally millions of hectares of fishable water you can get, you know, in Saskatchewan as well as up in the Northwest Territories. So they have they have access to dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of lakes. 00;08;34;11 – 00;08;57;12 Mark Melnyk So Scott Lake proper is a giant lake. It’s their home lake. The lodge is located on an island. So getting there, you know, you get to Saskatoon and then you take a float plane or a charter plane to a small town called Stoney Rapids. And then you take their float plane into the lodge, which if you’ve never been on a float plane before, that is just an absolute blast. 00;08;57;16 – 00;09;07;04 Dave Yeah, describe that. So this is something cool for me because I have never been I’ve been on some small planes and helicopters, which is amazing. But describe a float plane. What is that like being on a float plane? 00;09;07;12 – 00;09;37;09 Mark Melnyk So the two planes that are utilized in the north are called the de Havilland Otter and the Havilland Beaver. The Beaver is the smaller version of the otter. Those are literally the workhorses of an arc. They bring everything into the lodges up there, so they’re all on floats, which is really fun. So you’re piling put your headphones on, noise canceling because they are quite loud and you take off from the water, you fly generally quite low. 00;09;37;09 – 00;09;55;11 Mark Melnyk You’re always below the cloud line so you can see everything going in. It is an absolute matte. And one of the funny things, Dave, is, is when you when they fire up those engines and you get that, you know, you get that smell of gas in your nostrils. Oh, wow. And, you know, I get goose bumps just thinking about it. 00;09;55;11 – 00;10;14;04 Mark Melnyk You know, that it’s taking you on an adventure, which is super, super fun. So what’ll happen is you’re you’ll fly. It’s, you know, from Stoney Rapids to the Lodges is probably 20 to 30 minutes. So it’s a great flight you can see out of no matter what seat you’ve got, you can see out a window if you can ride shotgun. 00;10;14;04 – 00;10;43;23 Mark Melnyk That’s super fun. And then, you know, you’ll do a circle around around the lodge to allow the pilot to figure out which way the wind is blowing. Then you’ll land into the wind, your taxi to the lodge and the guys are there to meet you. And the adventure begins. It’s it’s a truly remarkable experience. And I have to tell you, out of every single plane ever built, whether it’s a commercial plane, like a 747 or a Cessna that seats two people hands down the beaver and the otter. 00;10;43;23 – 00;10;57;18 Mark Melnyk The beaver, especially, is this, in my opinion, the safest aircraft you could ever get into? And the great thing about it is that if there’s a problem, which they’re more often than not, isn’t, you know, you can put those planes down almost anywhere. 00;10;57;23 – 00;10;58;18 Dave Oh, you can. Right. 00;10;59;03 – 00;11;05;25 Mark Melnyk So they’ve got a very short takeoff length to get into the air. So if there ever is a problem, you can land anywhere. 00;11;05;25 – 00;11;07;23 Dave And water is not an issue right out of water. 00;11;08;01 – 00;11;12;07 Mark Melnyk An issue up there. Exactly. So they are literally the safest plane plane going, in my opinion. 00;11;12;15 – 00;11;30;06 Dave Yeah. There’s some things that come to my mind. I always go back to, you know, we just recently had Tom McGuane on the podcast and he was we were talking about John Gear and Marilyn John was on the podcast before he passed away. He described being in one of those beavers and being in it, and it was taken off from the lake and he looked like they were going to fly right into the trees. 00;11;30;06 – 00;11;43;17 Dave And right at the last minute to him, it was like they pulled up and they were good. But, you know, it wasn’t even close, You know, it was just that he hadn’t been on one Roy at the time, do you ever get in those situations where you’re kind of like it’s new and you’re feeling like, Oh, wow, we’re kind of close, Are we okay, That sort of thing? 00;11;43;17 – 00;12;09;14 Mark Melnyk Yeah. I mean, it’s funny that so many of the pilots are young, are young pilots, and they take safety first and foremost. So if there’s a situation where they don’t think that there’s any chance that they might not be able to get off the water, you’re going to wait it out. So there are there are situations you know, I had one situation where we had a hot pocket going around a thunderstorm and we dropped 500 feet around and it was like, okay, let’s put it down. 00;12;09;14 – 00;12;19;00 Mark Melnyk And we put it down on a small lake in northern Ontario. We did the storm out and then where we went again. So they’re they’re super safe and and there are a lot of fun to fly in. 00;12;19;07 – 00;12;37;05 Dave Well, this is something I’ve been thinking with the there’s a show out there. You’ll appreciate this because you obviously do video and movies and stuff. But it’s the Madison, right? It’s this new TV show. It’s about you know, it’s kind of it’s Michelle Pfeiffer, Kurt Russell. It’s it’s I listen to I watched it because I had a number of guests that said, man, you got to watch this thing. 00;12;37;05 – 00;12;54;22 Dave It’s a great program. But, I mean, you know, I guess I don’t want to be a spoiler, but there’s this plane crash and it’s pretty intense. It’s pretty intense. It’s pretty quick and stuff like that. But I think that’s that’s always the fear, right? Planes, a lot of people have that fear your it feels like, you know, all the car driving in your car is way more dangerous than flying in a plane. 00;12;54;22 – 00;12;56;08 Dave Right. Whether it’s a beaver or whatever. 00;12;56;15 – 00;13;07;15 Mark Melnyk 100% 100%. Those like I said, those planes are bulletproof. And they’re again, just so much fun to be in. I would check your fear at the door when you get on because really you don’t have anything to be concerned about. 00;13;07;27 – 00;13;19;15 Dave All right. Awesome. So that’s exciting. So we’ve got the the float plane when you land in there, what does that take us to Scott Lake again? Well, what is that like when you jump off the plane that describe that first day and then into the first day of fishing? 00;13;19;24 – 00;13;42;26 Mark Melnyk Yeah. So when you land, it’s got Lake Lodge. The team is there to meet you. And you know, Jason Hamilton, who’s the co-owner and manager, will be there. Shake your hand, offer your cocktail or drink and show you to your cabin. They take care of all of the unloading. Everything. All your stuff is delivered to your cabin. And when you get into the cabin, they’re generally double occupancy. 00;13;43;13 – 00;13;54;21 Mark Melnyk One big room with a bathroom super comfortable, They upgrade them every the cabins, every single year. The beds are super comfortable. Every cabin has a lake. Look at lake view. 00;13;54;29 – 00;14;01;04 Dave Yeah, because it’s not a big island Right. You’re on it thing that’s fairly I mean you could look around and it’s I don’t know how big it is, but it’s, it’s not huge. 00;14;01;10 – 00;14;17;24 Mark Melnyk It’s not huge at all. And they’ve designed it so that with all of the cabins that are on the island, they’re all still extremely private. So you know, you might be able to see your cabin to your left or right, but you’re not going to hear anything. Oh, cool. It’s yeah, they’ve left a lot of the foliage up to hide the other cabins. 00;14;17;24 – 00;14;19;26 Mark Melnyk So you really feel like you’re isolated there. 00;14;19;26 – 00;14;28;15 Dave And you are. I mean, when you look at a map where it is, you’re literally about is I mean, you think about in the world, right? There’s you’re probably just about as isolated as you could be anywhere. 00;14;29;00 – 00;14;38;04 Mark Melnyk Yeah, absolutely. 100%. Like I said, they’ve got millions of acres of land and lakes that they can fish. And there’s literally nothing up there at all. 00;14;38;16 – 00;14;55;12 Dave Not so cool. What is the you know, we had a couple of questions. Katherine shout out to Katherine in in our community. She was asking about the best line for Pike. She’s going to be fishing for Pike and you guys on your show, I know you get into lots of tips and tricks and stuff. I know you’ve got Tom is on there a lot. 00;14;55;21 – 00;14;58;09 Dave Do you talk gear a lot on the on your show? 00;14;58;09 – 00;15;18;21 Mark Melnyk We do. We don’t we don’t have any secrets with the new fly for or everything that we do in success and failure we dissect so you know for northern Pike you’re looking at an eight weight or nine weight rod, you’re going to want a floating line, an intermediate line, and probably bringing a sink tip as well, depending on the time of year. 00;15;19;05 – 00;15;43;05 Mark Melnyk Right now, everything is super shallow. The fish are in a foot to three feet of water. They’re either just priest bond or just post spawn, depending on the lake. When I was up in northern Manitoba last week, we saw one fish that had spawning scars on it all. The other fish that we caught were clean as anything, so we were definitely pre spawn the lake that we did see the fish with some spawning scars on. 00;15;43;05 – 00;16;07;13 Mark Melnyk It was a very technical lake, a very dark lake, a very small lake and a very shallow lake. So it was 66 degrees in that lake, whereas the main lake was in the forties. So you want to be able to come and cover the water column with your fly Presentations of Floating line. Obviously is is my favorite simply because there is nothing more violent in fly fishing than watching in Northern Pike. 00;16;08;02 – 00;16;18;14 Mark Melnyk It is just 100% pure violence. And to be able to watch that unfold in front of you with a floating line is magical. It’s absolutely magical. 00;16;18;17 – 00;16;41;20 Dave This episode is brought to you by ABC Rig Adventure Vehicle Concepts out of Colorado. These guys build next level adventure vans designed to help you explore farther and stay out longer. Are you dreaming of a full van build? Or maybe you just need the best aluminum cabinets and storage for your DIY rig? AVC Rig makes it easy to turn your vehicle into the ultimate mobile base camp. 00;16;41;25 – 00;17;06;06 Dave You can check them out right now at ABC. Rig com That’s a v c rig. Dakar Trial Roots by Onyx is built for fly anglers who want better intel Without spending hours digging for the information, you’ll get access to public land maps, stream access points, regulations and even road and trail maps all in one place. It’s become my go to app for scouting new trips. 00;17;06;06 – 00;17;27;16 Dave You can check them out right now. Go to West by swing dot com slash trout roots and download the app today we’ve had a number of casting instructors. We’ve talked about lines and there’s always some confusion around lines, you know what I mean? Like the you got the even within the single hand you got the long tapered long belly sort of stuff, you got shorter tapers, more aggressive. 00;17;27;23 – 00;17;36;03 Dave Do you know, is there a line type or a style that’s good because you’re casting kind of some big fliers out there, you know, you’d recommend or a, you know, brand, that sort of stuff. 00;17;36;12 – 00;17;55;25 Mark Melnyk Yeah. So we use scientific anglers, infinite lines that are coated, so they do shoot a little bit better than than some of the uncoated lines and a weight forward or weight forward taper. You know, I was I was throwing lines that have a 35 foot taper to a 45 foot taper. You do have the opportunity to be windy up there. 00;17;55;25 – 00;18;03;02 Mark Melnyk So you really need that that weight forward line to be able to turn over those bigger flies. Yeah. So we go say all day. 00;18;03;11 – 00;18;19;29 Dave Yeah, yeah. We love our say too there. They have great stuff and all the brands have good, you know, good stuff. So wait for it. So you want something that’s a little aggressive to turn those flies over to punch into it. And then you also mentioned intermediate and a sink tab on the sink tips. Is this a kind of a lighter like a type three sort of thing, or do you want something? 00;18;20;04 – 00;18;26;11 Dave I guess like depending when you’re there, we’re going to be there. Sounds like they’re going to be pretty high in the column, so maybe we won’t need a super heavy sink line. 00;18;26;23 – 00;18;47;01 Mark Melnyk Yeah, no, you won’t. I mean, Piker are notoriously aggressive by nature, and if they want something, they’re going to come and get it. So the sink tip, if things are negative and the fish are being jerks, throw your sink tip on and and fish really slow fish super slow. You’ll be surprised at Scott Lake with the size of flies that they throw. 00;18;47;14 – 00;19;08;16 Mark Melnyk They don’t throw a lot of big flies there. They throw like 2 to 4 inch flies and a lot of a lot of natural colors. So browns, olives, blacks, that kind of thing. And you know what, Dave? I’m never a subscriber to Bright Fly Bright Day or Dark Fly Bright, you know, that kind of stuff. Again, Northern Pike are opportunistic. 00;19;08;26 – 00;19;25;00 Mark Melnyk They simply lie in wait for something that some other prey to make a mistake, and that’s when they’re going to jump. So yeah, I mean, it’s it’s as technical as you want to make it, but really you could go as basic as you want with a simple floating line and a weighted fly, and you’re going to see success. 00;19;25;07 – 00;19;29;00 Dave If I and the flies you’re imitating or just kind of other like bait fish that are up in the area. 00;19;29;08 – 00;19;49;09 Mark Melnyk Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you’ve got Whitefish, Cisco, Burbank, those kind of things. That’s why those natural colors work so well. And Scott Lake, by description is an extremely clear lake. So even if you are sinking that that sent tip line, you are still able to spot fish and cast to them in ten 1250 oh. 00;19;49;09 – 00;19;49;28 Dave Oh cool. 00;19;49;28 – 00;19;52;04 Mark Melnyk Of water. Yeah. It’s it’s remarkable. 00;19;52;08 – 00;20;00;18 Dave Wow. Wow. And the cool thing too is that some of the fish are pretty decent size here right up at the lake. There’s some like good I don’t know what what is the big pike in northern Pike? 00;20;00;25 – 00;20;28;29 Mark Melnyk Yes. So I judge Pike size not by weight, but by inches. So anything over 40 inches in Canada is deemed to be a trophy. I know Manitoba’s 41. I know. I think Saskatchewan is 40, Ontario is 40. So anything over 40 inches is considered a master. Anglerfish or a trophy fish. We’ve been in situations where we’ve been into a thick population of pike and we’re pulling flies away from 38 and 39 because. 00;20;29;03 – 00;20;29;24 Dave Oh really? 00;20;29;25 – 00;20;37;27 Mark Melnyk Oh yeah, because, you know, my big my biggest northern is 45 and three quarter inches in Saskatchewan and they catch them over 50. 00;20;38;00 – 00;20;53;19 Dave They do. They do. All right. So they’re they’re almost getting up to the size of of Muskie. Right. That’s a cool thing because you’ve got the this Muskie which is a great species as well. But the difference is, is that Muskie are known to be really hard to catch. You know, Pike Northern Pike are a little bit easier like you can get some numbers right of pike up. 00;20;53;19 – 00;21;09;08 Mark Melnyk Here 100%. I mean you can have dozen two dozen fish days. That’s not unheard of. Whereas, you know, they say the Muskie is the fish of 10,000 casts. You know, I’ve caught five in my life. So, you know, it’s and I’ve got thousands of northerns. 00;21;09;08 – 00;21;09;25 Dave That’s crazy. 00;21;09;27 – 00;21;37;20 Mark Melnyk What’s cool about that is to nerd out on a little bit. Pike spawn first, Muskie spawn after in the spring. So as soon as those pike are out of their fry stage, as soon as their sacks are gone, they’re feeding on things, whether it’s zooplankton or little minnows or little bugs or what have you. But when those muskie are out of their eggs situation and even in their exact situation, they’re vulnerable to predation by Northern Pike. 00;21;38;02 – 00;21;52;07 Mark Melnyk So simply from that biology of being born later in the season, the pike have a head start on the muskies and they will eat muskie fry. And maybe that’s maybe that’s why there’s there’s fewer populations of Muskie and they’re much harder to catch. 00;21;52;18 – 00;22;01;18 Dave All right. That’s crazy. So they come out soon. And so like you said, right now, as we’re talking, it’s mid-June and so when is the peak of the spawning for northern Pike up there? 00;22;01;27 – 00;22;31;10 Mark Melnyk It all depends on water temperature. You know, you know, as soon as the ice goes out, it’s on. So you’re going at a great time where those fish will still be in shallow water, warming up, digesting hunting, but they will retreat to the deeper ledges and they’re still catchable into July and August, being up north and Saskatchewan near far enough north that the weather, the lakes will not drop to temperatures of high sixties mid seventies. 00;22;31;20 – 00;22;48;12 Mark Melnyk So they won’t they don’t need to go deep. They don’t need to escape that warm water. So yeah, it’s a great fishery and you know, fishing. Scott Lake and in the fall we were there in September a couple of years ago and we were catching big northerns on top of our baits. So it’s a fishery that goes all season. 00;22;48;20 – 00;22;53;27 Dave Yeah. And so in the top water, what does that describe what you’re fishing there with that dry line. 00;22;54;05 – 00;23;17;22 Mark Melnyk Yeah. So the set up for the dry fry or top water bite for Northern is, you know, from your fly line I generally run about three feet of £30 fluorocarbon and then I run I tie that with a triple surgeon’s not a probably 18 to 20 inches of essay bite wire and that’s in the 20 to £30 range. 00;23;17;22 – 00;23;39;06 Mark Melnyk And the reason why you’re putting on 20 inches is as you’re changing flies, your bite wire is going to get smaller and smaller and smaller. When you get down to a foot, 12 inches or so, you’re going to want to consider swapping that out for a longer piece of bite wire. Then you tie your fly on with a gunshot or loop, whatever you like best and have at it. 00;23;39;06 – 00;23;43;22 Mark Melnyk And, you know, I’ve seen 40, 42 inch pike come clean out of the water eating poppers. 00;23;43;27 – 00;23;44;14 Dave No kidding. 00;23;44;23 – 00;23;47;04 Mark Melnyk Yeah. Yeah, they’re super, super aggressive. 00;23;47;04 – 00;23;49;00 Dave And what are they? What are the poppers imitating? 00;23;49;12 – 00;24;07;18 Mark Melnyk So in the springtime, the poppers will imitate anything from frog patterns, baby ducks, that kind of thing. And then in in the in the fall time, it’s just, you know, anything that’s making pushing a lot of water and making a lot of noise to grab their attention and they’ll they’ll jump all over. 00;24;07;21 – 00;24;13;02 Dave Did you guys get, you know, on the new fly fish or do you have some good video of of eats on the top? 00;24;13;18 – 00;24;21;06 Mark Melnyk We absolutely do. If you if you search on our YouTube page Pike eats there’s montages of Pike just going to go into town. 00;24;21;12 – 00;24;44;25 Dave We’ll have to do that. We’ll have to put it in the show notes. We’ll have some links out to those Pike eats and then maybe, maybe even on social, maybe we can get a video or two to share out there. That’d be cool. 100%. Get something there. Awesome. So that’s top water. This is going to be awesome. And obviously I feel like with fly fishing, it’s the ultimate, you know, whether you’re fish in a dry fly in a montana stream on the surface or it feels like, you know, we’re talking about top water here. 00;24;44;25 – 00;24;57;09 Dave And I just go to it. It seems like the the on the surface is the ultimate no matter the species. Right. Trout fishing, dry flies, you know, whatever that do you kind of find that that some of your best shows are those ones where you see in the fish on the top. 00;24;57;21 – 00;25;07;14 Mark Melnyk 100%, 100%. Like I said, there’s nothing more violent than a pike eat. And they’ve you know, at different times of the year you’ve got opportunities to target like trout as well, that commercial. 00;25;07;17 – 00;25;08;01 Dave Right. 00;25;08;10 – 00;25;24;14 Mark Melnyk Right. So we’ve actually caught late in the fall on poppers as well, which is which is a lot of fun. But you’re right, there’s nothing like whether it’s Atlantic salmon, cutthroat northern pike muskies. You know, there’s nothing like witnessing a dry fly or a popper or top order. 00;25;24;14 – 00;25;41;25 Dave Top or. Exactly. Yeah. And you get in the weight, like you said, eight or nine and that same thing. We’re going for Atlantic salmon to hear the ice soon. Actually, even before this other trip, we’re going to be I was like, all right, eight weight or nine weight or seven weight. And I decided to go with like a seven and nine just because I have tons of eight weights and stuff. 00;25;42;01 – 00;25;44;29 Dave What’s your take on this? Is it eight or nine better? Is it depend. 00;25;45;14 – 00;25;46;22 Mark Melnyk For for the audience? 00;25;46;22 – 00;25;47;17 Dave Yeah, for northerns. 00;25;48;11 – 00;25;49;23 Mark Melnyk I would bring both, bro. 00;25;49;24 – 00;25;50;14 Dave Really? Both. 00;25;50;24 – 00;26;20;23 Mark Melnyk Yeah. 100%. Reason being the eight weight will be great for your your streamer presentations because Scott Lake generally uses smaller flies. I mean they will throw big flies but they generally like to use smaller flies in the springtime. The eight weight will get it done on a nice day. You know, average size flies. It’s perfect. But when the wind kicks up or you’re throwing poppers or you know, you’ve got larger flies, you’re going to want that nine just because the wind will be the variable. 00;26;20;23 – 00;26;33;23 Mark Melnyk In that case, a lot of people think, you know, big rod, big fish. I don’t believe that to be the case. I believe that if you have adverse conditions, namely wind and larger flies, that’s when you want to drop it to a nine. 00;26;34;06 – 00;26;51;21 Dave To nine way. Okay, cool. Yeah. And that’s what I decided to go. And I just I’ve been doing I’ve never done this before, Roy, but I’ve got a casting instructor, right. And pardon from Sexy Loops. We’ve been doing some fun stuff and he was coaching me and I’ve been asked him about lines and he said he really loves the the scientific anglers the line. 00;26;51;27 – 00;27;10;06 Dave I think it’s the mastery expert distance line and the difference with that line is it’s a little bit more longer. I think the head length on it is more like, I don’t know what it is 50 or 60 feet versus say the 36. So it’s it’s almost more of like a double taper type line. But he says it casts overall in just a lot of different conditions. 00;27;10;06 – 00;27;18;28 Dave It’s good. So that’s kind of the line I got I’m using for Atlantic salmon and I’m kind of thinking that line would probably work well for Northern Pike as well, I’m guessing, right? 00;27;19;05 – 00;27;26;12 Mark Melnyk Absolutely. And, you know, one of the things I keep saying to myself, literally every trip I do is the fish don’t care what your cast look like. They really don’t know. 00;27;26;18 – 00;27;30;24 Dave Okay. So they know. So this is different. So Atlantic salmon, they do care, right? That’s a different deal. 00;27;31;02 – 00;27;33;10 Mark Melnyk They do? Yeah. They do wear efficient clinics. 00;27;33;22 – 00;27;39;11 Dave We’re heading out to Mountain Waters Resort in Newfoundland, Portland Creek, or, you know, Lee Lee Wolfe’s old lodge. 00;27;39;11 – 00;27;43;07 Mark Melnyk Oh, nice, Nice. I’m hitting the pin. Where? Next week in Labrador. 00;27;43;09 – 00;27;50;20 Dave Oh, in Labrador. Oh, wow. See? I don’t know. I haven’t been there, but that’s. Yeah, you’re hitting like remote, right? Is this one of those lodges that’s way out there? 00;27;51;01 – 00;28;07;21 Mark Melnyk No, actually, it’s to drive to lodge, which is great. Oh, which is fantastic. Cool. Yeah. And they’ve got a bunch of opportunities to fish Atlantics Big Brook trout, Sea run Brook trout and charter flights for Arctic char. We’re too early for char, but we’re going to be doing burpees in the Lennox. 00;28;08;03 – 00;28;20;22 Dave Well, and on this you’re mentioned with Scott Lake, the lake trout. So that’s another interesting thing because I feel like lake trout always that species. That’s really hard because they’re deep. But what you’re saying is these lake trout are coming into the shallow water as well out here. 00;28;20;29 – 00;28;40;00 Mark Melnyk Yeah, they do. They come shallow in the springtime and in the fall. In the spring they come shallow chasing bait. The water is cold. They can tolerate, you know, bright conditions for a certain amount of time. And they will they will come up and feed in shallow water, you know, like up to four feet kind of thing. So it’s got lake. 00;28;40;00 – 00;29;02;27 Mark Melnyk You can sight catch them as well. But in the fall time they come up shallow to spawn. So we actually did a film called Chasing Leviathans on that fall fishery and we went the full moon in September at the Lodge was closed to guests and Scott Lake wanted to do a trial to see if it was a viable fishery for to open up, to stay open longer. 00;29;03;22 – 00;29;24;05 Mark Melnyk And I’m here to tell you, man, oh my gosh, it is insane. I mean, we’re talking 100, 100 fish days and you’ll you’ll have situations where, you know, you’ll throw your fly in, strip at twice a lake. Charlie, eat it. And as you’re bringing that lake, Chad and there’ll be seven other fish behind it, kind of in a daisy chain kind of deal, like they’re just thick as thieves there. 00;29;24;16 – 00;29;43;02 Mark Melnyk And at Scott Lake, they’ve got a I think they still have this program where if you catch a 100 inches a fish over the three species, you enter the century club. So, so Northern Pike Lake and Arctic Grayling. So if you catch two forties in a 20 inch Grayling you’re in the Century Club. When I was there, I missed it by a quarter inch. 00;29;43;09 – 00;29;54;25 Dave Oh, you did. You did. Wow. Two, four days, the two forties and the 20 would do it. That would be that’ll be pretty doable because the, the pike you could definitely get one. And then also lake trout. I mean they get huge too. 00;29;54;25 – 00;30;00;10 Mark Melnyk I guess they do a master angler Lake Charters 35 or 36 inches and we were catching them over 40. 00;30;00;17 – 00;30;05;10 Dave No kidding. Four That’s a I mean how big is 40. That’s so you’re talking like £20 or something like that. 00;30;05;10 – 00;30;08;16 Mark Melnyk At least. At least. So you want your nine weight for that for sure. 00;30;08;17 – 00;30;09;08 Dave Wow. Right. 00;30;09;15 – 00;30;29;01 Mark Melnyk And they fight so differently than Northerns Northern when in northern fights in cold water. They’ll give you a couple of runs I’ve had pike take me in in my backing but once they do those two runs is kind of over and, you know, you kind of bring them in and handle and then let them go. But like trout, it’s like fighting a mack truck. 00;30;29;06 – 00;30;40;20 Mark Melnyk It just they don’t quit, especially in shallow water. They don’t quit. They run, you know, in deeper water, they’ll sound. But in shallow water, they they do multiple runs and they’re 100% fun to catch on fire. 00;30;41;04 – 00;30;46;01 Dave That’s cool. What are you guys going out on the boats at Scott Lake? What? What types of boats are they running out on? 00;30;46;16 – 00;31;09;00 Mark Melnyk So the boats that they run are aluminum tiller. Tiller run boats with, I believe, either 40 or 60 horsepower Yamaha. They all have casting decks on them. And the the junk in the boat is minimized. So, as you know, fly lanes have a way of finding everything to get tangled on. And these boats are super clean. They’re really safe, they’re high. 00;31;09;00 – 00;31;27;26 Mark Melnyk GUNNELS So you’re staying drier than most, which is nice. And, and they’ve got boats on all their fire, like so you’re not, you know, you’re not charging boats anywhere if you choose to do a fly at lake, which is highly recommended at Scott. The boats are they’re ready to go. So all they do come wintertime is bring the engines and flip them over. 00;31;27;26 – 00;31;32;22 Mark Melnyk So the bears the bears don’t have their way with them. And and Yeah. So you’re good to go on. 00;31;32;22 – 00;31;33;19 Dave On good to go. 00;31;33;19 – 00;31;34;26 Mark Melnyk The many likes that they have. 00;31;35;06 – 00;31;46;11 Dave Just go. Well, let’s take it up higher level. So we talked about Scott Lake. That’s up in the north that’s kind of almost to the north. Well it’s all the way, right? It’s all the way. And we’re going to be fishing in the province up north, right? The Northwest Territories. 00;31;46;17 – 00;31;50;11 Mark Melnyk Yeah. You’re more than likely fish. Saskatchewan and N.w.t., for sure. 00;31;50;18 – 00;32;05;13 Dave Yeah. Okay. And what is it again? Back to the prairies. So, Alberta, Saskatchewan, we’ve talked quite a bit. The Bow River obviously is a very famous river out of kind of Calgary in that area. What is when you look at Saskatchewan, what are some of the areas you guys have been to or maybe highlight some of this week? 00;32;05;14 – 00;32;08;18 Dave Because there’s not really even a city like a big city in Saskatchewan, right? 00;32;09;01 – 00;32;30;02 Mark Melnyk No, there’s Saskatoon, which is sort of the capital, I believe. And once you get north, it’s all just hunting and fishing lodges and there’s some Aboriginal communities up there as well. And you know, Scott Lake as well as other lodges up there, work hand in hand with our native Canadian friends to make sure that, you know, fisheries are looked after and that sort of thing. 00;32;30;02 – 00;32;37;00 Mark Melnyk But really, Dave, it’s all just plain access and pick a lake and go fishing right? 00;32;37;00 – 00;32;48;22 Dave That’s it. So fly around and hit. So there’s not a ton of you got Scott Lake up here. But as far as I mean, if somebody wasn’t going to a lodge, let’s just say they wanted to go to Saskatchewan and check things out like a DIY, Is that doable out there? 00;32;49;05 – 00;33;10;03 Mark Melnyk I think it is. I think it is. I think in the south there are trout rivers that you can access. You know, I haven’t had the pleasure of fishing. I’ve only ever fished in in the far north of Scotland, but the prairie provinces, you know, in Manitoba, they’ve got, you know, the parklands region, which are a bunch of a bunch of lakes that have a variety species of trout in them. 00;33;10;23 – 00;33;30;07 Mark Melnyk Alberta has got a ton of rivers that are that are famous for trout fishing. Yeah. So but the lodges in Saskatchewan, whether it’s Elk Island Lodge, which is a big lake trout and Northern Pike Lodge, as well as brook trout, you know, you’ve got Milton Lake Lodge, which has Grayling and big like Chard and Pike as well. There’s a number of them up there. 00;33;30;07 – 00;33;34;21 Mark Melnyk I think there’s there’s like 2500 different lodges in Saskatchewan. 00;33;34;21 – 00;33;36;28 Dave Also Saskatchewan has a ton of lodges, I. 00;33;36;28 – 00;33;37;12 Mark Melnyk Believe so. 00;33;37;12 – 00;33;52;14 Dave Yeah. Yeah, right. Okay. So that’s and then another species that we haven’t really talked about. So we talked about Northern Pike, we talked about Lakeshore is Walleye that comes up occasionally. You know, we hear more like on the gear fishing because it seems like walleye are harder to catch. Have you done walleye on the fly? 00;33;52;23 – 00;34;33;27 Mark Melnyk I have. I have. I actually I didn’t I didn’t submit it, but I actually had a world record. I caught a world record on fly fishing, walleye, Walleye this time of year are still shallow, which, which are great. So anything up to 15 feet, you can target walleye. One of the setups that I really, really find effective for fishing walleye is a full sinking line with a short leader like a four foot, you know, two ex-leader, and then you put on like a black bunny feature or a even like a women’s slider, something dark, something lychee kind of thing, and you douse that in float and those that fly and float. 00;34;33;27 – 00;34;52;00 Mark Melnyk And so what happens is you cast out your sinking line brings the fly down, but the floating keeps the fly a foot or so off the bottom. And that’s the strike zone for walleye. No matter where you’re targeting them. So even if you’re fishing 50 feet, you know, sure, you have to count your line down, but, you know, it’s totally doable. 00;34;52;00 – 00;34;57;23 Mark Melnyk But with that floating raising that fly up off the bottom, it’s a deadly technique for walleye. 00;34;58;02 – 00;35;05;09 Dave Okay. So and and are there is walleye is species that spread throughout kind of the prairies area or can you find the walleye? 00;35;05;20 – 00;35;29;12 Mark Melnyk You can find walleye all over the prairies. Saskatchewan Manitoba are famous for Big Walleyes in Lake Winnipeg. There there’s some they call it their famous species of walleye called the greenback. And they get absolutely huge over 30 inches kind of thing. You know, Ontario’s got tons of Walleye Lakes, Saskatchewan. But the funny thing is, is, you know, Scott Lake Lodge is kind of the Northern Territory for walleye. 00;35;29;20 – 00;35;33;16 Mark Melnyk Once you get in the Northwest Territories, you’re not going to find many. In my experience. 00;35;33;16 – 00;35;34;23 Dave So Scott Lake has walleye. 00;35;35;18 – 00;35;40;08 Mark Melnyk Yes, I believe they do. They have access to all. I I’m not sure that there’s actually walleye in Scott Lake proper. 00;35;42;06 – 00;36;03;20 Dave Check out Jackson Hole fly company today premium fly gear straight to your door without the premium price Jackson Hole fly company designs and builds their own fly rods, reels, flies and gear quality you can trust at prices that let you fish more and spend less. Whether you’re picking up a fly rod for the first time or guiding every day, they’ve got what you need. 00;36;04;03 – 00;36;25;23 Dave Check them out. Right now. That’s Jackson Hole Flight Company Dot Jackson Hole Flight Company. Com So that’s another species, I think Northern Pike Lake trout I mean these are three that are pretty killer. I mean northern pike you find more areas around the world but I feel like walleye and lake trout are the ones that are really hard to really find. 00;36;25;23 – 00;36;37;21 Dave You know, there’s only a few select places that you can really have good action with The fly, I think on those is in time of year, right? You said the spring. The key is to get them when they’re up out of the depth because when they’re down deep, you’re not really catching them on a fly, right? 00;36;37;27 – 00;36;58;22 Mark Melnyk Yeah, you’re right. Yeah. We got lots of walleye last week up at Anglers North Sewell River Lodge. We caught lots of big walleye. What was interesting was we were targeting Pike. So if you can picture this, we’re in a bay that is rocky and forested on two sides. On the left, in the right and at the foot of the bay is a beach. 00;36;59;09 – 00;37;23;07 Mark Melnyk So the sand comes out quite far from the shoreline. So on the edge of the sand, we were catching trophy pike on the sand, we were catching walleye. So those pike were positioned, waiting for those walleye to leave the shallow water on the sand so that they were they could ambush them there. So as we were catching walleye, you know, we’re having Pike coming and swiping at the walleye. 00;37;23;23 – 00;37;31;28 Mark Melnyk But then if we wanted to target a big pike, if we saw a big Northern, you know, they were off the sand in the darker, deeper water, it was just so, so, so fun. 00;37;32;06 – 00;37;38;26 Dave God, that’s great. So basically, yes. So there’s these places. And where is GINGRAS Where was that located? 00;37;39;04 – 00;37;51;07 Mark Melnyk Gingras is in northern Manitoba. It’s sort of on the same level as Scott Lake. It’s up there quite far. And it’s it’s a wonderful fishery. I’ve lost count on how many trophy pike we caught there. 00;37;51;11 – 00;37;53;28 Dave Oh, you did? So lots of pike, lots of walleye lake trout to. 00;37;54;04 – 00;38;17;23 Mark Melnyk Lake trout as well. Yeah. Got a 34 inch lake trout on fly last week and then the grayling fishing. I mean, Grayling is such an underutilized species in Canada. And there if anybody, if people enjoy fishing for trout, there’s literally no difference between fishing for brown trout and fishing for Arctic grayling. They behave the same, they eat the same. 00;38;18;07 – 00;38;31;01 Mark Melnyk You know, they live in rivers. They’re arguably the most beautiful fish going. We call them the sailfish of the north, and they can get quite large. I mean, the lodge record at Anglers is I think, 24 and a half inches. So two for Grayling. 00;38;31;05 – 00;38;41;25 Dave Wow. 24 inch grayling, Right. That’s unbelievable. Yeah, I think a grayling, I’m always thinking 17 inches 1670. Right. Somewhere in there like that you had 24. It would be. That’s amazing. 00;38;42;01 – 00;39;02;01 Mark Melnyk Yeah. And then they eat just like turd. I mean, you can throw humpies and stimulators and mayflies and things like that. We had trouble with Grayling last week simply because all those white had come shallow. So they were, they were hiding, they were fearing for their lives. But the grayling fishing at Scott Lake is, you know, use the old cliche is world class. 00;39;02;01 – 00;39;08;22 Mark Melnyk It’s it’s a flier. So your flier walk 5 minutes to the mouth of a river and outflow and it’s on, it’s on. 00;39;09;00 – 00;39;26;02 Dave It’s on. Give us a highlight. You mentioned you guys are working on season 26 of the show. Can you give us a highlight of maybe some places what you’re going to be fishing is going to be similar to what you guys have been doing 25 and because you’re getting not there 26 years, that’s amazing. But what do you have coming this next season? 00;39;26;08 – 00;39;44;25 Mark Melnyk Yeah, so I’m really excited for the season, you know. But five years ago Rosenbauer and I started going down to Chile and, you know, it’s from door to door. It’s it’s a long trip. You know, it’s ten hour flight to San Diego from where I live. And then two and a half hour, three hour flight to Obama, say to where they pick you up. 00;39;44;25 – 00;40;07;26 Mark Melnyk And then either it’s an hour drive to the larger it’s or it’s a five hour drive to a different launch or it’s a helicopter ride to their third launch. And I got to thinking, you know, if we’re flying all that way down to Chile every year, why can’t we go to Europe? Europe’s closer, you know, So I’m working on trying to find locations in northern Italy, the Dolomites for marble trout, looking for Iceland for browns. 00;40;07;26 – 00;40;40;14 Mark Melnyk And and Atlantic’s looking at Germany for Big Northern Pike as well, looking at Ireland for Atlantic. I’m going to Labrador, as I said next week to target Atlantic’s We have a Fallbrook chart show in Newfoundland, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and we’ve got an all indigenous owned outfit out of Terrace, B.C. that we’re working with this year, fishing for steelhead and things that those sort of an address fish that come into into the cranberry system. 00;40;40;14 – 00;40;49;18 Mark Melnyk In the Dene system, they’re looking to head back to Casper, Wyoming, fishing with the ugly bug where Blake Jackson Yeah. So we’re we’re all we’re all over the place. 00;40;49;18 – 00;41;06;09 Dave Yeah, you are. You are. And you’re expanding. It’s just cool. And you’re heading working on Europe, which is I think that’s something we’ve thought about too, that it feels like there’s places all over Europe that you could hear. You mentioned a few down throughout, but there’s also, yeah, the northern Finland, right? We’ve talked about that recently. Finland, Sweden. 00;41;06;09 – 00;41;20;05 Dave There’s some great fishing up there as well. And public waters too. That’s something I you hear about Norway and some of these places which are pay to play but there’s actually some places you can go and again kind of DIY, you know, in Finland and stuff like that. And in Atlantic salmon it’s it’s pretty amazing. 00;41;20;20 – 00;41;43;06 Mark Melnyk Yeah. And you know, speaking of Atlantic salmon, I’ve never fished Europe for Atlantic salmon, but I’ve got a friend who owns a lodge in Norway on the Gold River. And, you know, if they catch if they catch a couple of fish a week, it’s a good week. But here in Canada, Newfoundland, Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, I mean, my best day is is 11 fish really alone? 00;41;43;06 – 00;41;46;01 Dave 11 fish in Newfoundland and Labrador? 00;41;46;05 – 00;41;47;27 Mark Melnyk That was in Labrador. 00;41;48;01 – 00;41;55;12 Dave Labrador. Wow. Yeah. So you got so 11 fish in. Was that a fishing like mornings, evenings or like how many sessions? 00;41;55;12 – 00;42;05;24 Mark Melnyk Just all day. Just all day now. Now, I will tell you in all honesty, that in Newfoundland and Labrador there is a rule where you’re allowed to release three fish a day and then you’re done. 00;42;06;00 – 00;42;07;27 Dave Oh, that’s it. Yeah, that’s a great rule. 00;42;08;04 – 00;42;26;25 Mark Melnyk It is a good rule. But what we do, because we’re making television is after we release our second fish, we cut the hooks off our, our dry flies and all we do is shoot eats. Right. So with the super slow motion camera, you know, you get these these giant Atlantic’s coming up to eat a dirty bomber or a swung fly. 00;42;27;06 – 00;42;46;19 Mark Melnyk And to get those eats in slow motion is is really remarkable. But my point in talking about Europe versus Canada is our returns of Atlantic salmon are still very good. I mean, Atlantic salmon are struggling worldwide, but in Canada, they’re still very good. So I’m kind of torn. Robyn. I leave home, you know, to go. 00;42;46;26 – 00;42;47;16 Dave I know. 00;42;47;17 – 00;42;48;05 Mark Melnyk Somewhere else. 00;42;48;15 – 00;43;05;02 Dave Right? Yeah, exactly. Well, that’s the thing. I agree. And it’s really interesting because I think as I’ve been getting ready for this Newfoundland trip, you know, we’re going to mountain waters and that’s where Lee Wolf had his lodge. And Lee Wolf was a big conservationist. Right. And he wrote a lot about it. He was influenced by Joe Brooks. 00;43;05;02 – 00;43;26;00 Dave I read in this biography about Lee Wolf to kind of, you know, hear his stories. He’s got these amazing stories of like he bought a plane and learned to fly the this plane. Right. And and all this stuff. And it’s pretty cool history. But, yeah, I mean, he’s he battled with the actually it’s interesting because he was an American and he went up to you know, basically helped promote, you know, Newfoundland and some of the areas in Labrador. 00;43;26;09 – 00;43;41;06 Dave But he really was trying to fight for conservation for Atlantic salmon, get people to change the way they were, you know, no killing a fish and all that stuff. Right. So I feel like it’s a we have a down here right in the United States. There’s there’s challenges. You know, people are stuck in a way. Do you find that up in Canada there? 00;43;41;06 – 00;43;45;20 Dave There’s changes. People are going to more catch and release. Is it still struggle somewhere for some of that? 00;43;45;28 – 00;44;09;06 Mark Melnyk 100%. And you know, a lot of the lodges are strictly catch and release. And as the older generation of anglers are not able to join or participate in the trips that they did when they were younger, that’s the perfect opportunity for for lodges to be able to change their their philosophy on. So they’ve got a younger group coming in now. 00;44;09;15 – 00;44;27;05 Mark Melnyk Yes, there’s going to be some struggles with people wanting to put fish in coolers and things like that for a couple of years. But I’m going to a place a great smallmouth bass fishery up in northern Ontario called Hog Lake Lodge, and it’s I believe it’s one of the only or recent or it’s the only Orvis endorsed Lodge in Ontario, and it may be one of three or four in Canada. 00;44;27;24 – 00;44;50;02 Mark Melnyk And Ted Putnam is the owner and he is so set on catch and release, he actually brings his walleye for shore launch from a commercial distributor. So he will not even let people keep fish for for a short lunch. And the result of that is that’s where I caught that world record. Right? So it’s it takes a bit. 00;44;50;06 – 00;45;11;29 Mark Melnyk Now in Newfoundland and Labrador, they operate very similar to Montana and the West with high dollar restriction. Right. So if the temperatures are above 69 or 70 degrees, they shut those rivers down and you’re not permitted to fish at all for any species. So I think that’s I think that’s a big step moving forward to to protect migratory fish. 00;45;11;29 – 00;45;19;19 Mark Melnyk We all know that, you know, you fish over 60, not 68 or 69 degrees for for trout anywhere and it’s not good for them at all. So no. 00;45;20;04 – 00;45;27;09 Dave And we’ve talked about that some of the changes in the climate and it’s affecting the whole world, right? I mean, it’s not just in the places down south. 00;45;27;17 – 00;45;27;25 Mark Melnyk Yeah. 00;45;27;28 – 00;45;46;13 Dave Now it’s everywhere. Yeah. Hawk Lake is interesting too, because again, you look at these maps and you’re like, Oh my God, it just looks like bodies of water everywhere, thousands and thousands of. But there’s these lodges in places that are on what makes a law like take Hockley Lake. Are there kind of places you could you fish a lot of those water bodies out there or there bass and all those? 00;45;46;25 – 00;46;07;05 Mark Melnyk Yeah, 100%. I mean, Hawk Lake’s unique because there isn’t a boat ramp there and therefore it doesn’t get any outside pressure. But Ted also has had access to 18 to 25 other lakes, and a lot of these lodges have that opportunity, too. So you’re not just stuck on the main lake. You can you can fly out or ATV over or boat out and portage to different lakes. 00;46;07;16 – 00;46;13;03 Mark Melnyk But in Ontario alone, there’s over 250,000 lakes and rivers. You can’t even put a dent in it in a lifetime. 00;46;13;07 – 00;46;22;26 Dave You’re not even close. And you’re and that’s right, north of Lake of the Woods, which we’ve talked about. I think we’re looking at maybe doing a muskie trip up there, which is a famous right lake of the woods. That area is probably the most famous. 00;46;23;00 – 00;46;26;29 Mark Melnyk That’s Muskie, man. That is Muskie. Villard And they grow on Big Bear. 00;46;26;29 – 00;46;44;02 Dave They really get big. It’s working. And hopefully I’ve been talking to Rick Husted, and I think we’re going to be put something together up there in the coming years. So it’s fun. I’ve always you know, we’re similar to you a little bit different because obviously you guys do the movies in the video, but it’s a similar deal. You’re always, you know, kind of planning. 00;46;44;02 – 00;46;50;03 Dave And do you love the planning of trips when you’re getting right? Are you in are you still going out on on a number of these trips? 00;46;50;03 – 00;46;54;20 Mark Melnyk I’m trying very unsuccessfully to keep my butt in the office chair. 00;46;54;29 – 00;46;55;14 Dave Right hand. 00;46;55;27 – 00;47;14;22 Mark Melnyk You know, Colin, Colin gave me some great advice. You know, when I first working with him at the New Fly Fisher, when we first became partners, he said, if your boss, not if somebody but isn’t in the chair, we’re not making money, right? So I always have that, you know, that devil on my shoulder speaking to me. But I can’t resist not going to. 00;47;14;22 – 00;47;17;17 Mark Melnyk I mean, I love it. I love it. I love it. Yeah. 00;47;17;19 – 00;47;29;21 Dave And if you didn’t, that’s the great thing. If you were a button, the chair 100, you know, if you were that and you didn’t love it, you wouldn’t trade it. The experience for people, right? I mean, you’re part of that whole thing of making that passion that comes out. Yeah. Just hearing you talk. 00;47;30;01 – 00;47;52;01 Mark Melnyk I mean, the fly fishing is great, don’t get me wrong. But what really makes these trips and what you’re going to find at Scott Lake Lodge and in Newfoundland, especially, is the people that are involved in the fly fishing industry as outfitters, guides, lodge owners are. Some of the nicer, most genuine. I mean, if you’ve never been a Newfoundland, you’re going to be blown away. 00;47;52;02 – 00;48;14;11 Mark Melnyk You’re going to be blown away. The old cliche people will take the shirt off your back. Off their back for you is an understatement. In Newfoundland and Scott Lake Lodge, the culture at Scott Lake Lodge is one is a culture that I rarely see in lodge life. The guides are all friends. The most junior guide at Scott Lake Lodge has been there for 18 years or something like, Oh. 00;48;14;11 – 00;48;15;01 Dave Wow, yeah. 00;48;15;03 – 00;48;40;28 Mark Melnyk These guys are long lived. Scott Lakers. You know, when everybody gathers for dinner after a day of fishing, it’s a celebration. It’s a celebration of who did well, who did what. The food is off the charts. Amazing. But the whole vibe of Scott Lake Lodge is it’s the kind of place where when you walk in the lodge, you can feel like you can kick your flip flops off and eat at the table, barefoot kind of thing. 00;48;41;07 – 00;48;42;06 Dave You feel comfortable. 00;48;42;07 – 00;48;42;28 Mark Melnyk 100%. 00;48;43;06 – 00;49;00;27 Dave Yeah, that’s a big part of it. Yeah. I feel like that’s that’s a huge part of it. Yeah. The family atmosphere going to someplace new and you get everything else. I was interested. I was recently talking. You know, it’s funny because as you get older, you know, and as I get older, sometimes famous people aren’t as famous to young people, you know. 00;49;00;27 – 00;49;14;29 Dave But one person that I’ve been talking to we’re going to have on the podcast is Huey Lewis, right? Huey Lewis and the News. He was a a singer in the eighties. I guess he was popular. Back to the Future. He wrote the soundtrack. He’s going to be coming on the podcast here, kind of announcing it’s going to be fun. 00;49;15;08 – 00;49;22;19 Dave Have you had any when you do your shows, do you ever meet up with kind of famous people on these trips? Is this something or are you guys doing this solo kind of on your own? 00;49;23;00 – 00;49;47;19 Mark Melnyk Yeah, it does happen. It does happen. Probably the most fun one that I found gentleman that I got to eat breakfast with was at the lodge at Palisades Creek in Swan Valley, Idaho. And I was sitting there, sitting at the bar, eating breakfast with my camera guy. In walks Henry Winkler. So the Fonz sits down and we start to chat and and all the rest, and he fishes with his wife, Stacy. 00;49;48;06 – 00;50;07;17 Mark Melnyk And she’s a great stick. She’s she’s an amazing flying lawyer, as is he. And we just sort of hit it off telling him what we’re doing. And I’ve invited him to be on the show a couple of times, one to promote his book, I’ve Never Met an Idiot on the River. And the second one was for he to fish with Rosenbauer and I down in Chile. 00;50;08;01 – 00;50;10;03 Dave So he’s been so Henry Winkler has been on the show? 00;50;10;12 – 00;50;15;15 Mark Melnyk No, he hasn’t. Unfortunately, his schedule has never been. He’s a very busy guy. 00;50;15;23 – 00;50;31;09 Dave Yeah. Yeah, he’s amazing. Yeah, we I had him on the podcast and I remember he is I mean, when I had this is probably like four years ago, but I mean, he just won an Emmy, I think, right at the time for that show he was on. So he’s still going strong. He’s in the seventies and he’s still full on with his acting is pretty amazing. 00;50;31;15 – 00;50;48;10 Mark Melnyk Sure. And we see, you know, we meet a lot of sports figures and a lot of politicians and things like that. So but but what I love about fly fishing is that it’s a level it evens the playing field for everybody. And it doesn’t matter if you’re a janitor at a school if you’re president, the United States, everybody’s the same. 00;50;48;10 – 00;50;49;10 Mark Melnyk And a fly fishing lodge. 00;50;49;14 – 00;51;05;02 Dave I know. Yeah, that’s totally true. I, I kind of occasionally, you know, and I’ll have a big guest on and, you know, it’s I get a little more anxious, right? I mean, that’s always part of it. And and like I said, Tom McGuane was pretty big because he’s probably one of the most famous writers in Fly fishing and outdoors. 00;51;05;02 – 00;51;18;21 Dave And he he talked about, you know, some of the movies he’s made. And, I mean, Guy, the guy’s directed movies and done all this stuff. So do you find that when you’re out there, do you have any anxiety when you’re producing these shows? Because you’re you know, it’s got to be right. You’ve got to get the fish takes. 00;51;18;24 – 00;51;19;27 Dave Is that a struggle for you? 00;51;20;16 – 00;51;27;09 Mark Melnyk It used to be it isn’t anymore. And the reason why it is so, Dave, my background is in in sports television, so. 00;51;27;09 – 00;51;27;29 Dave Oh, right. 00;51;28;04 – 00;51;55;23 Mark Melnyk So I did I worked at a variety of sports networks here in Canada profiling major league sports figures. You know, I did Rodeo and Bull riding for four, eight years, fallen cowboys around around North America and stuff like that. And the reason I tell you that is because that really allowed me to develop my storytelling skills. And, you know, I’ve got I have a it’s a joke in my world that I’ve got something called resting place that I always look very unhappy. 00;51;55;23 – 00;52;16;13 Mark Melnyk Unhappy. And I’m not I’m always when I’m in the field, though, I’m always thinking about, okay, if this happens, how do I react? If this happens, how do I react if we don’t catch any fish, which has happened once, How do we still make a show out of that? And the way that we it is through our education, the way that we educate through the show? 00;52;16;17 – 00;52;42;11 Mark Melnyk We don’t need to catch fish. It’s nice and it makes the show that much better. But when push comes to shove, we rely on teaching education, conservation and hearing experiences from other people that are there that will get us out of that. You know, that content pickle. So it never really is a problem as long as our hosts are fluid and can bend and can adapt, you know, that’s, that’s the secret to it. 00;52;42;18 – 00;52;58;16 Dave Love it. And that’s just, just fishing. You know, I think anybody, the longer you get in it, the more you realize with fly fishing is that, you know, the fishing becomes less and less so most right. It feels like the whole experience And they caught what is this So you said rusting face is that what they call it? 00;52;58;20 – 00;53;02;00 Mark Melnyk Resting face? It’s not an actual medical thing. It’s okay. 00;53;02;00 – 00;53;03;10 Dave So it’s not a medical. 00;53;03;10 – 00;53;07;04 Mark Melnyk Yeah, no, I. I just always have a frown on. That’s the way my muscles are. 00;53;07;12 – 00;53;07;28 Dave Okay. 00;53;07;29 – 00;53;24;07 Mark Melnyk And people will come up to me and say, Are you all right? Did something. I was like, No, I’m totally fine. So I just make a joke. I just make a joke out of it. When I when I do presentations, that’s generally my opening line is I have to tell you, I’ve got this serious medical issue called RPF, and it’s been diagnosed as resting place. 00;53;24;09 – 00;53;26;18 Mark Melnyk So if I look, I’m happy. I’m really not. 00;53;26;19 – 00;53;44;14 Dave That’s great. Yeah, that’s good. Yeah, we’ll have to follow up on that and take a look at it stuff. So I got well, that’s one of the funny things about, you know the audio only is that, you know, people that don’t know, they’ll have to watch some of your videos to take a look. I will do that now, but well, let’s take it out here real quick, just with some some travel tips as we’re getting into this. 00;53;44;14 – 00;53;56;23 Dave So we’re you know, you’re going to be traveling. We’re going to be traveling. What you mentioned noise canceling headphones. Maybe. Give us that. What’s when you’re doing your travel, what are a couple of things you’re always bring in with the planes, trains, automobiles. That makes life easier. 00;53;57;01 – 00;54;18;20 Mark Melnyk Yeah, noise canceling headphones are fantastic, especially if you’re if you’re flying in those beavers and otters, they bring the noise down to a palatable level. They protect your ears. The one tip that I’ve been using that found on Amazon, ironically, because you’re limited to a certain amount of weight on these float planes, you can only bring so much stuff. 00;54;18;20 – 00;54;21;15 Dave Oh, yeah, Yeah. Like, what do you get? You get one bag sort of thing. 00;54;21;15 – 00;54;48;21 Mark Melnyk Yeah. I think you’re limited to some beavers, and otters are limited to £50, some are limited to £60. So if you’re bringing fly rods, waders, boots, rain jacket, puffy shirts, underwear, all that stuff, it takes up a lot of space in your pack or in your bag. So I generally travel with a yeti 100 liter panga, which is great because my fly rods can sit in the bottom of the duffel bag and then I can pack everything on top. 00;54;49;06 – 00;55;16;28 Mark Melnyk I stuff my underwear and my socks in my waiter waiting boots because that’s just empty space. But on Amazon, I found these bags that you can put your clothes in and you literally sit on the bags and all the air escapes out of the bags. They’re vacuum bags without a vacuum. So you don’t actually need a vacuum. So you just put all your stuff in there, you sit on it and it condenses your puffy stuff down to a fraction of what it would be if you were just to fold it up and put it in a bag. 00;55;16;28 – 00;55;31;02 Mark Melnyk You know, my wife and I just went to Africa in March for her 50th birthday, and, you know, we were there for two weeks. So what do you bring? Well, we ended up being able to bring all kinds of stuff because we use these vacuum bags. So they’re dirt cheap, 12 bucks for 24 of them or something like that. 00;55;31;02 – 00;55;37;09 Mark Melnyk And they’ve really changed how how we can pack for these trips that where you have limited weight. 00;55;37;17 – 00;55;44;28 Dave Okay. So we got some packing tips on you. And then are you with your rods? How is that look? Are you traveling with your carrying your rods on or how do you do that? 00;55;45;04 – 00;56;04;21 Mark Melnyk So I do it two ways. Depending on where I’m going, I will either pack them in the bottom of the duffel in tubes, or if weight is sensitive, I will use one of those Orvis rod bags and take them out of the tubes and put all my rods and rails leaders line tip it all my terminal tackle like snips and scissors and that sort of thing. 00;56;04;21 – 00;56;26;22 Mark Melnyk All in that rod. And then when when you’re about to board your plane, your commercial plane to get where you’re going, you know, obviously, if you need special time, if you need extra time or if you have kids under three, take that opportunity to go get on the plane, then talk to the flight attendant and say, have you got a pilot closet where they hang their jackets? 00;56;26;22 – 00;56;28;10 Dave Oh, yeah, right. 00;56;28;10 – 00;56;39;05 Mark Melnyk And more times than not, they do. And they’ll put their they’ll put your fly case in that. If not and you’re the first one on with your overhead and that bag will fit in an overhead compartment. 00;56;39;09 – 00;56;43;13 Dave Oh right. Well and this is kind of a multiple you put a bunch of rods in one one big tube. 00;56;43;18 – 00;56;51;13 Mark Melnyk Absolutely. You put like ten different rods in there. Kind of deal. It’s double compartments. So you’ve got rods on one side and then rails in all your other stuff on the other. 00;56;51;13 – 00;56;56;16 Dave Oh, Oh, yeah. That’s the whole thing. So this is something that an MRI has a strap so you can carry it on in the airport. 00;56;56;26 – 00;56;58;18 Mark Melnyk 100%. 100%. Yeah. 00;56;58;18 – 00;57;10;08 Dave Yeah, that’s it. Wow. Yeah. There’s all sorts of ways to do it, right. I think you can go, but you fly fish and you got gear, right? You got a lot of times you got to bring your waders and your boots. I mean, it all adds up, right? Do you find that that’s a struggle for you? How have you got? 00;57;10;08 – 00;57;14;17 Dave You know, you’re when you’re doing a big trip or you bring a lot of stuff, how do you how do you bounce that? 00;57;15;00 – 00;57;45;26 Mark Melnyk What I’ll do is is I will I will I will go light on clothing. I’ll make sure all of my fly fishing stuff is in first, and then I’ll add, like if I have to only bring three pairs of underwear for a two week trip when I’m there, I’m saying, where’s your laundry service or where? Where’s your laundry room so I can do laundry at night kind of thing In our world, oftentimes, you know, we we suggest to our hosts that you either bring two or three of the same shirt or you wear the same shirt every day for continuity. 00;57;45;26 – 00;58;05;06 Mark Melnyk So if you have to take a fish, if it’s a sunny day on a monday and it’s a sunny day on a Thursday, and you need to add a fish to the Monday day, the continuity is there, right? So we can move fish around within the show to balance out the show so that it looks like Monday was a great day. 00;58;05;06 – 00;58;11;21 Mark Melnyk Tuesday was a great day. Wednesday was a great day. But if it isn’t a great day, then it’s reality. That’s that’s kind of how we go. 00;58;12;01 – 00;58;26;17 Dave That’s the way it does. It. Oh, this is great. Well, I think we could probably leave it there for today. I do want to give a shout out. We mentioned the new Fly Fish Fisher on YouTube. I think this has been great. Anything we missed a high level of what you guys have going this coming year, Season 26, right? 00;58;26;25 – 00;58;50;00 Mark Melnyk Yeah, Season 26. One of the things that I will I will talk to is the trip that we do to Chile every year with Tom Rosenberg down to Magic Waters. We’re generally down there for three weeks doing three episodes. But what we also do is something called Tom’s tips and Tom will steal the camera guy for a couple of hours every day and bang off as well. 00;58;50;00 – 00;59;13;10 Mark Melnyk I bang off tips for the Orvis learning Center. So if you don’t know what the Orvis Learning Center is, it’s a free online portal that you can go to whenever you want and you can search tips by species, by gear, by. There’s literally hundreds of videos there that we produce with Orvis that will really help people at all levels with something maybe that have about or struggling for. 00;59;13;23 – 00;59;26;09 Mark Melnyk So those TOMS tips are vital to our education. You’ll see some of the same tips in the new fly for sure, as you will on the Orvis Learning Center. But it’s a great resource for all fly anglers, no matter what level you’re at. 00;59;26;09 – 00;59;40;01 Dave Yeah, that’s perfect. I’m glad you mentioned that because that is huge. Tom is obviously one of the best out there and he’s got a ton of information. I always think like Tom, I’m, you know, I always think about, you know, I mean, how long is he going to be doing this? Right? He’s got like it all of us as we get older. 00;59;40;01 – 00;59;45;17 Dave You know, I’m I’ve already he’s going to retire or I’m going to lose him. What’s your take on Tom? Do you think he’s going to be going strong for a while? 00;59;45;26 – 01;00;10;23 Mark Melnyk I think Tom’s going to go as long as he’s got breath in his body. He and I get along well. When I first met Tom, it was a little weird. The dynamic was weird. He’s like, Who’s this guy? I can kind of deal. And it was like that for the first plane ride, and I was trying to make nice conversation, but he was very standoffish, which is unlike Tom, I think because I was I was a new producer to him. 01;00;11;03 – 01;00;30;21 Mark Melnyk He was used to working with Colin. It was like, you know, again, who is this guy kind of deal? But it turned I can tell you the exact moment where Tom and I clicked. We were at Blake Jackson’s place at The Ugly Bug. We had fished hard all day catching brown trout and rainbows and caddies, and we got back to the lodge and I went. 01;00;30;21 – 01;00;48;01 Mark Melnyk I grabbed a beer and I went out to the deck and I was looking at the North Platte because the cabins right on the river elevated. And there were rainbows eating dry ice right in front of the lodge. And I called him over. I said, Tom, you want to go fishing? So we had fished all day and then didn’t even get two sips of a beer. 01;00;48;01 – 01;01;03;20 Mark Melnyk And I was suggesting that we go fishing again. That’s Tom Rosenbaum’s personality. He will fish until he cannot fish anymore. In a day. Like he’s just he’s an absolute machine. And we’ve been we’ve been best friends ever since. So I was at his house a couple weeks ago for the botanical Festival and. 01;01;03;23 – 01;01;04;07 Dave Nice. 01;01;04;07 – 01;01;09;18 Mark Melnyk Drinking wine and eating chocolate. And it was fantastic. So he’s a he’s a wonderful ambassador for our sport. 01;01;09;27 – 01;01;26;15 Dave I love it. Yeah, Tom is great and Orvis is great. You know, I think that’s something really cool, too, is Orvis has always been this amazing staple forever, right? They’ve been around for as long as anybody out there doing great stuff. So cool. All right, Margo, I’m glad you mention that because definitely it’s always good to give Tom a big shout out and all that good stuff. 01;01;26;15 – 01;01;37;19 Dave So we’ll send everybody out today to the New Fly Fisher on YouTube and check out your most recent episodes. And yeah, until we meet again. Hopefully we’ll see you on the lake or waterways someday soon and we’ll catch up with you then. 01;01;38;01 – 01;01;38;18 Mark Melnyk Let’s go fishing. 01;01;40;23 – 01;02;01;20 Dave Quick. Take away your call to action today. If you haven’t subscribed to the new Fly Fisher YouTube channel, please do that. Now check out their most recent video and if you’re interested in trips, definitely take a look at some of that good stuff they got going. As always, Fly Swing Pro is our community. If you want to help support this podcast, the best way to do that is to join Well, Fly, Swing Pro. 01;02;02;06 – 01;02;21;20 Dave This is our Pick Me where we are traveling around the country. We’re building trips together. We’re talking about trips. We’re learning together. We got fly casting instruction. It’s all there. We fly swing pro, fly, swing, dot com slash pro. We’ll let you know when we open up the next cohort and what we got today. It’s been good. We got trips going. 01;02;21;20 – 01;02;40;28 Dave We mentioned a couple of the big ones we’re heading to Montana here this summer as well. If you’re interested in Montana, definitely check with me. I’ll let you know what we have going there on availability. And I think I’m going to leave it there and just sign off for the day and tell you that I appreciate you for stopping in today and I hope you’re having a great, great morning, afternoon or evening. 01;02;41;09 – 01;02;59;24 Dave And we hope to see you on the water and we’ll talk to you soon. Thanks for listening to the wet fly, swing, fly fishing show for notes and links from this episode, visit Wet fly, swing, dotcom.

Conclusion

Northern Saskatchewan remains one of fly fishing’s hidden gems, offering trophy northern pike, shallow-water lake trout, Arctic grayling, and the kind of wilderness that’s increasingly difficult to find. Mark Melnyk’s stories remind us that the journey is just as important as the destination—from boarding a floatplane to sharing dinner with guides after a long day on the water. For anglers searching for their next bucket-list adventure, Scott Lake Lodge and Canada’s northern wilderness deliver an experience that’s about far more than catching fish.

     

945 | Carp Flats, Bonefish Trips, and Idaho Steelhead with Drew Evans from House of Fly

Episode Show Notes

Drew Evans of House of Fly returns to the podcast to share why carp may be one of the most underrated gamefish in fly fishing—and why they offer some of the best preparation for chasing bonefish, redfish, and other saltwater species. Drawing from years of experience fishing Idaho’s rivers and traveling to the flats, Drew explains how sight fishing for carp builds the casting, presentation, and fish-spotting skills that translate almost anywhere in the world.

The conversation also explores choosing the right fly line, matching rods to your casting style, improving the double haul, and planning bucket-list steelhead trips into Idaho’s remote Sheep Ranch. Along the way, Drew shares practical tips for reading carp behavior, building confidence on the flats, and discovering new fisheries when trout season slows down.

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Episode Recap

Why Carp Flats Are the Perfect Training Ground for Bonefish Trips

(5:45) Drew didn’t become obsessed with saltwater fly fishing by booking an exotic trip first. Instead, it started on local carp flats. Learning how to spot fish, lead a target, manage a fly line, and make accurate presentations gave him the confidence to chase bonefish and redfish later on. For anglers dreaming about their first saltwater adventure, Drew believes carp offer one of the most affordable and accessible ways to build those skills before ever stepping onto a tropical flat.

You Don’t Need a 100-Foot Cast to Catch More Fish

(10:01) Many anglers believe they need extraordinary casting distance before they can enjoy flats fishing. Drew challenges that idea. He explains why consistently placing a fly within about 50 feet is far more valuable than throwing 100-foot casts that sacrifice accuracy and control. Whether you’re targeting carp, bonefish, or redfish, the goal is making the right presentation—not the longest one.

Building a Fly Rod Setup That Actually Fits You

(19:00) Choosing a fly rod and line isn’t simply about matching numbers on the box. Drew walks through how rod action, fly line taper, and individual casting style all influence performance. Instead of relying on internet recommendations, he encourages anglers to spend time casting different setups with knowledgeable fly shop staff. Finding the right combination can improve accuracy, increase confidence, and make every day on the water more enjoyable.

Why the Double Haul Changes Everything

(26:24) If there’s one casting skill Drew wishes every angler would master before traveling, it’s the double haul. Better line speed, tighter loops, and improved control become especially important when sight fishing on windy flats, but those same benefits carry over to trout, bass, and steelhead fishing as well. His advice is simple: don’t wait until your destination trip to learn it. Practice before you leave home.

Inside Idaho’s Ultimate Steelhead Adventure

(33:22) Hidden deep within the Salmon River wilderness, Sheep Ranch offers one of the Lower 48’s most remote steelhead experiences. Reached only by jet boat, float plane, helicopter, or multi-day float, the ranch combines world-class fishing with rich Western history and surprisingly luxurious accommodations. Drew shares what makes the destination so memorable and why it’s become one of his favorite places to chase steelhead.

Photo by House of Fly from their Instagram

Why Warmwater Species Deserve More Respect

(48:23) As summer temperatures climb and trout fishing becomes more difficult, Drew encourages anglers to embrace warmwater opportunities instead of putting away their fly rods. Carp and smallmouth bass remain active throughout the season, provide exciting sight-fishing opportunities, and continue developing the same skills that pay off on trout rivers and tropical flats alike. Sometimes the best fishing isn’t the one everyone else is chasing.


Resources Noted in the Show

Visit their website at HouseOfFly.com

Follow Drew on Instagram @scuds.mackenzie
House of Fly @houseofflyusa

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Podcast Transcript

Episode Transcript
00;00;01;29 – 00;00;24;28 Dave The best site fishing in North America might be hiding in plain sight. Today, we’re talking to Drew Evans about a fish that can sharpen your casting and prove your accuracy, prepare you for saltwater trips, and completely change the way you look at fly fishing. Today we get into carp flats tactics, the carp claim. We’re going to talk about steelhead and a remote Idaho fishery that belongs on every swing anglers bucket list. 00;00;25;06 – 00;00;41;04 Dave This is the Wet Fly Swing podcast, where I show you the best places to travel to for fly fishing, how to find the best resources and tools to prepare for that big trip, and what you can do to give back to the fish species we all love. Drew Evans is back on the podcast today. He is from the House of Fly and the Fly Project. 00;00;41;04 – 00;00;57;12 Dave We’re going to go over what he’s been up to the last few years here, including a couple of carp caves. Talk about saltwater fishing. You’re going to find out why carp may be the closest thing to bone fish you’ll find in freshwater. We’re going to find out about this drag and drop presentation. And that consistently gets fish to commit. 00;00;58;01 – 00;01;14;24 Dave And we’re also going to hear how to tell the difference between a fish that’s feeding and one that’s not. And also what a productive carp flat actually looks like. All right, let’s get into it. This is a good one. Here is Drew Evans. You can find him at the house of Flygskam tied in. 00;01;14;24 – 00;01;20;16 Drew Evans Drew I’m doing great, Dave. I’m stoked to be back. It’s it’s an honor and a pleasure to get to chat with you again. 00;01;20;25 – 00;01;37;09 Dave Yeah, Yeah, It’s. It’s going to be fun. We talked. It’s been a couple of years now. The last episode 615, back in 2024, we talk carp, all things carbon ink. Today we’re going to get back into carp because I wanna hear about the carp Clay. We also are going to talk about some other good stuff you have going with steelhead fishing and travel. 00;01;37;21 – 00;01;47;26 Dave And we’re just going to cover everything you have at the Fly project, the House of Fly and all that. So but maybe take us back first. What’s been going on? It’s been a couple of years, what you’ve been up to last last two years out there. 00;01;48;08 – 00;02;18;26 Drew Evans Yeah. So, yeah, I’ve been doing a lot of travel, like you said, mostly saltwater trips. But digging deeper into the carp game. We’ve had a couple of carp claims since the last time we chatted and that was kind of the the thing that got us talk in the first time, but just been trying to get in as much saltwater experience as I can and, you know, dialing in some of the small mouth fisheries a little bit further here in my local home waters and trying to catch those elusive steelhead whenever it’s possible. 00;02;18;26 – 00;02;23;01 Drew Evans But I kind of suck at it. So you got to work twice as hard. 00;02;23;01 – 00;02;26;04 Dave Yeah, it’s tough. And remind everybody where your home waters is. 00;02;26;15 – 00;02;53;00 Drew Evans Yeah. So I’m here in Lewiston, Idaho, so I fish mostly on the Grand Ronde, the Snake and the Clearwater, but a little bit on the salmon as well. So those are the main places that I fish for bass, carp and steelhead. And then if I do sneak out to go do some trout fishing, we’re talking about like the locks or the spillway, the Saint Joe, the north fork of the Clearwater. 00;02;53;00 – 00;02;54;17 Drew Evans But that’s kind of where I call home. 00;02;55;00 – 00;03;10;20 Dave That’s it. Perfect. Well, in the carpet we talked a lot about on the last episode. We’ll have a link to the show notes to that one. But maybe talk about the carp gave us an update. How has that been going? Has been a couple years. Is that something that’s been getting bigger? Is carp still growing out there? What’s that look like? 00;03;11;06 – 00;03;31;25 Drew Evans Yeah, I think it’s definitely getting bigger and growing. We have more and more interest all the time in the shop, people looking to get into it and finding a different avenue to to have something to occupy their time to fish for other than trout. But we had a couple of those claims. We took a pause on it this year to kind of let it breathe. 00;03;31;25 – 00;04;07;13 Drew Evans And then I think we’re going to come back with a new format next year. But we had it in Boardman two years in a row. We had a Bill master Bill Akins, Ryan, Mark and Eric Linenger speak at the event both years, and it was great. Lots of people getting into the fishery because of it. And last year, the last time we had it, we got some really great media that kind of allows people that weren’t able to make it to the event to see what we were talking about in those classroom presentations on the water. 00;04;07;13 – 00;04;22;17 Drew Evans So if you go to how to fly or fly projects, YouTube channels, you’ll be able to see those videos and learn about techniques like the drag and drop, learn about fly selection approach, all those types of things. 00;04;22;27 – 00;04;23;13 Dave That’s cool. 00;04;23;28 – 00;04;24;11 Drew Evans Yeah. 00;04;24;29 – 00;04;31;04 Dave So the Fly project. So on the YouTube channel you guys recorded like Live on the River and then put it up on YouTube. 00;04;31;18 – 00;04;50;24 Drew Evans We did. Yeah. That was kind of the goal with year one, but just due to some weather factors, that wasn’t going to be conducive to that. So we wanted to make sure and and get some footage on the water so that folks could see in real time. What are we talking about here when we when we talk about some of these techniques? 00;04;51;07 – 00;05;06;10 Dave That’s awesome. Okay. That’s perfect. We’ll put a link to that out there in the show notes as well so people can take a look. And that’s a great idea. So people can not only if they’re in person, you know, obviously get some in person and ask questions, but now they can watch the recording and you can connect with a lot more people, right? 00;05;06;27 – 00;05;30;01 Drew Evans Absolutely. Because I know it is kind of like speaking a different language at first when you’re talking about this flat fishing thing. And that’s really what we’re trying to copy with the carp game. You know, people come in and ask, Do you use a sinking line? Do you use like big streamers? And, you know, not at all. We’re using completely different stuff. 00;05;30;13 – 00;05;45;05 Drew Evans So when you’re starting at a baseline where you just don’t have any clue, it’s kind of hard to to know, What are you talking about when you say casting in a shallow flat? So yeah, being able to have those videos helps a ton, I think. 00;05;45;16 – 00;06;01;16 Dave Yeah, that’s sweet. And what is it that you mentioned? You’ve been doing some travel around in the salt and all that. How similar is it to it? Sounds like it’s very similar, but is it pretty much the same? If you were fishing for carp and headed to salt or fish and salt and headed for the first time in carp, would it be pretty identical? 00;06;01;27 – 00;06;27;26 Drew Evans Absolutely. And I mean, really, it’s kind of funny. That’s how I came to get into saltwater. Fishing in general was through flats, fishing for carp. There are so many opportunities to do it here locally and my really good friend and guy that works in the company as well, Tyler Ball actually manages our Cortland shop. He just kept saying over and over again for a couple of years, We’ve got to go carp fishing. 00;06;27;26 – 00;06;52;13 Drew Evans You’ve got to come try it. He hosted Bonefish trips to Christmas Island for the better part of a decade. So for him, it was obvious. For me it wasn’t. You know, I was very skeptical at first and I couldn’t get it. And once he took me and showed me these different approaches and techniques and the challenge of it, it kind of got me really interested in this whole flat fishing thing. 00;06;52;29 – 00;07;12;28 Drew Evans And once I was able to stick a few carp and get some experience under my belt, he invited me to go to Texas and Fish for redfish. It just opened a whole new world again. And now saltwater is like the only thing I obsess over. And just any time I can go do a saltwater trip, that’s what I want to go do. 00;07;13;10 – 00;07;25;03 Dave That’s it. That’s cool. What is the you mentioned the new the approaches, techniques. What does that look like for carp? What are the things you guys are doing out there? Is this in the the snake, the Columbia system? Kind of a lot of places out there. 00;07;25;14 – 00;07;53;02 Drew Evans Yeah. Both I fish on the snake mostly just because it’s close from my doorstep to the boat ramp. I’m about 7 minutes and from the from the boat ramp to my favorite flat, that’s about another seven. So very, very close. But yeah, we’re using basically a saltwater setup, right? We’re using seven weight to an eight weight, some kind of line that’s really tapered like a saltwater line. 00;07;53;02 – 00;08;17;22 Drew Evans Or if it’s warm enough, you can just use a straight up saltwater line like a bone fish taper any all purpose flat taper. But we’re using something that’ll cast at distance into the wind just like in conditions that you’re going you’re going to experience on saltwater flats. And we’re using in most cases along the leaders like you would use for really picky bone fish. 00;08;18;07 – 00;08;36;19 Drew Evans And we’re trying to feed these pretty discerning fish, this little fly on the fly, just like you would bones or redfish or permit, but super, super similar. And it’s great practice for that first saltwater trip or the 100th saltwater trip you’ve been on. 00;08;37;01 – 00;08;52;12 Dave Yeah, that’s the great idea. That’s that’s probably because you can I mean, practicing in the wind just on the lawn, you know, in the grass is good for sure if you can do that. But getting on the water actually doing it for carp with the because the Columbia rate system now, there’s plenty of wind out there. If you hit it at the right there, is it probably windy? 00;08;52;12 – 00;08;53;23 Dave More days than not out there, isn’t it? 00;08;53;27 – 00;09;11;25 Drew Evans Oh, yeah. Unbelievably windy in same can be said for the snake here lately. Over the last few years I get so discouraged because there’s so many days I want to take the boat out and I’ll look at the look at the wind and it’s going to be like 20 and there’s whitecaps out there. So yeah, you can’t go. 00;09;11;25 – 00;09;36;27 Drew Evans But yeah, it’s, it can be very windy and you, you definitely want to pick your days but yeah, the just the sheer number of targets that you get when you’re carp fishing it’s great great practice for that saltwater trip because in some instances with bonefish or redfish or whatever it may be, not so much with reds but with bones and permit, you’re not going to get that many targets. 00;09;37;12 – 00;10;01;07 Drew Evans You got to make every shot out. So if you can sit there and get in reps that, you know, a hundred carp in a day and you can replicate that over several, several outings, you’re going to be tuned up and ready to stick that £10 bonefish, to stick that trashcan lid sized permit. And that’s that’s what we’re all hoping for when we go on those trips. 00;10;01;17 – 00;10;15;08 Dave Yeah, exactly. What is the distance for the carp and say if you take it to the also the flats, you know, what is that distance you need to be able to cast accurately in there. You’re trying to get it within about a pipe plate or something like that. I would describe that a little bit. 00;10;15;25 – 00;10;50;19 Drew Evans Yeah, definitely. And I think, you know, just like with any scenario in fishing or fly fishing specifically, it all depends, of course, right in my walk and in wading or in my on the bow of a boat. How good is my guide? How good am I? Those things all play a factor. But I think if you know, okay, I can dial in a cast at 50 feet pretty accurately, you’re going to be in good conditions to make a good cast of fish, whether you’re talking carp or bones or whatever you got. 00;10;51;04 – 00;11;10;04 Drew Evans You know, I think that’s a big fallacy about saltwater flats fishing. And obviously, I’m not I’m not flip pellet, I’m not draw on. I’m not one of these guys. But I don’t think you need to be able to cast 100 feet at all. No seldomly if ever do you need to do that and with carp and saltwater both. 00;11;10;04 – 00;11;13;01 Drew Evans I really don’t want to make the 100 foot cast. 00;11;13;01 – 00;11;14;13 Dave No, that’s a long ways. 00;11;14;18 – 00;11;33;02 Drew Evans It’s a long ways. And not only that, but I might spook for other fish that I didn’t even see When my line hits the water. Trying to get that one fish that’s that I can see that’s 80 feet out. And let’s say I made a bad cast or cool. Now that flat’s probably ruined because all those fish are scared. 00;11;33;24 – 00;11;59;07 Drew Evans And especially if you’re walking and wading, you don’t really have the ability to find new fresh fish very quickly. So you really want to be able to dial it in, I think at about 50 feet, you know, if you if you can cast further in that. Awesome. But yeah, definitely that pie plate scenario is great with carp, not so much with those other species, although I think it would work. 00;11;59;15 – 00;12;02;13 Drew Evans We use that dragon’s your up technique. 00;12;02;18 – 00;12;09;01 Dave Yeah, yeah. Describe that again. Just in case we got some new people that didn’t hear that one. What is that drag and drop? Is that something just for carp? 00;12;09;01 – 00;12;46;11 Drew Evans Mainly it. Yeah, I definitely use it a lot more for carp, but the drag and drop includes finding your target, casting past the fish’s face, lifting up your rod tip so that your line in your fly and your leader are basically just all up out of the water. You’re going to drag, drag, drag, drag and drop it so that it’s either dropping at kind of a 45 degree angle on the left or right side of the fish’s face within eyesight of there that side of their body that towards the broad side so they can see that fly drop. 00;12;47;00 – 00;13;12;06 Drew Evans That’s what you’re after and you’re kind of just killing it immediately. Once you get that fly to that 45 degree angle, you’re just going to let it fall. And that technique seems to work the best for getting carp to eat that we’ve found so far. But yeah, we use that a ton. With Bonefish. I don’t necessarily use that same technique because they they’re always moving, right? 00;13;12;06 – 00;13;30;20 Drew Evans They never stop carp. They’ll kind of hang out, do their own thing. They’re, they’re weird, moody fish that are unpredictable. You’ll hear people talk about sunning carp, which means they’re just sitting there, laid up you know, on the have fish will never eat. Yes, it will. They will they will eat. 00;13;30;27 – 00;13;31;15 Dave No kidding. 00;13;31;23 – 00;13;53;08 Drew Evans And sometimes they won’t, you know. But a lot of times they will. And that drag and drop seems to get them to want to eat and then even fish that are cruising. But with bones, you’re probably going to lead them a lot further. Same thing with Permit. The closest thing I would say to kind of that laid up style of fishing is is more with tarpon. 00;13;53;20 – 00;14;09;03 Drew Evans And again, in that case, I don’t really want to cast past them. I want to hit them in that dinner plate. So I think that, yeah, carp is really more particular to that drag and drop thing that we’re talking about. 00;14;09;03 – 00;14;18;27 Dave Drag and drop. Cool. And then you have maybe talk about flies. I know you have a new flier, too, out there. Describe what you’d be using or maybe what somebody else could use out there for carp. 00;14;18;27 – 00;14;44;11 Drew Evans Yeah, definitely. So I use a lot of like crab style flies. They’re just smaller versions of strong arms. They’re, you know, something like that. That’s an epi style bodied fly. And the reason why I do that is because they land soft. But they sink quick and I can kind of control with that drag and drop where they go really effectively. 00;14;44;24 – 00;15;08;26 Drew Evans So I really dig those. But I have a new fly that I just came up with that I stole a lot from for my buddy Darryl Aikens. He’s got a flight called the Detroit Mob City and mine is the the yada yada. But it’s very, very similar. It’s kind of like a grub tail. I use galaxy mop chenille from hairline to tie it. 00;15;09;12 – 00;15;32;06 Drew Evans And it kind of came to me after I was teaching bass worms. So if you’ve ever tied bass worms, you know, kind of be able to picture this, but you get a worm hook like you would get from your regular old bass fishing department and you tie in a length of chenille and then you tie in another length that’s about twice that length. 00;15;32;20 – 00;16;09;03 Drew Evans And you kind of wrap over those two pieces and braid it together and then tie it back together on the shank and burn it so that it all kind of sticks. Well, I, I started thinking I could make a tail that was like that. But, you know, half an inch long for carp. So I used those two materials and wrapped them and made this cool little tail that has a ton of movement and kind of aids in making not only the flies hook point lift up, but also gives it kind of this wobble once it hits the flap. 00;16;09;03 – 00;16;20;13 Drew Evans So you get movement without having to move the fly. And to me, I think that’s what makes it work pretty well. But yeah, I’ll have to mail you some of those so you can check them out. 00;16;20;24 – 00;16;23;29 Dave Yeah. Are those can people find those at the house of Flier anywhere out there. 00;16;24;10 – 00;16;46;13 Drew Evans Yeah. So they’ll be available on our website House fly dot com. In our small batch section. I kind of curated all the fliers for our American Small Batch program, so I always feel corny putting any of my own stuff on there since we’re we’re getting fliers from a lot of really good tires, but this is one that I feel like is kind of worthy. 00;16;46;13 – 00;16;48;14 Drew Evans It’s been a good pattern for me so far. 00;16;48;22 – 00;16;54;15 Dave That’s cool. And we’re and so on. The House of Fly Ecom, you would go under. What section would you go under? 00;16;54;24 – 00;16;59;15 Drew Evans So you go under flies. And and then there’s there’s a tab for American small batch. 00;16;59;23 – 00;17;01;02 Dave American small batch. Okay. 00;17;01;03 – 00;17;23;20 Drew Evans Yeah. Yeah. So that one should be in there, but it’s got tungsten bead on the front and then it has two little bead chain eyes, and that bead helps it to sink really fast with that tail up in the air. And then those bead chains, again, like I said, they kind of just help keep it stable and it kind of promotes that wobble and that little wobble. 00;17;23;20 – 00;17;47;19 Drew Evans It seems like it drives them nuts. So it’s been been cool to experiment with. It’s still pretty new, but yeah, that one, that one’s been working great. And then I have another weird little crab style fly that I call the Urban Sombrero, and it’s basically just an EP crab that’s just small with a and I do different tails on it. 00;17;47;19 – 00;18;10;26 Drew Evans You can use like squirmy wormy style tails. MFC has a great material. It’s called Squirm and it’s just like, I think it’s just coated chenille like the super chenille that you would use to tie a San Juan worm, but a lot more durable than than that. I’m blanking on the name of that material that you tie squirmy worms with. 00;18;10;28 – 00;18;14;08 Drew Evans Okay, yeah, that stuff. 00;18;14;20 – 00;18;37;22 Dave This episode is brought to you by AVC Rig Adventure Vehicle Concepts out of Colorado. These guys build next level adventure vans designed to help you explore farther and stay out longer. Are you dreaming of a full van build? Or maybe you just need the best aluminum cabinets and storage for your DIY rig? AVC Rig makes it easy to turn your vehicle into the ultimate mobile base camp. 00;18;37;28 – 00;19;00;02 Dave You can check them out right now at AVC Rig. AECOM That’s a v c rig. AECOM. I want to go back to the line. You mentioned the taper. What is the the taper you want to be able to cast into the wind, you know, the salt or or like on the carpet? What would be the line if you were going to pick one up? 00;19;00;02 – 00;19;03;27 Dave There wasn’t like a saw that was more of a cold water line that you could use out there. 00;19;04;14 – 00;19;30;20 Drew Evans Yeah. If you’re just going to get a line that you can find really readily available at any fly shop. Scientific anglers impex is a good one. And depending on the the stiffness of your rod, if you’ve got a really fast rod, you might go up a line size just to give you a little bit more punching power. If you’re pretty good caster, you can even just use the infinity also from scientific anglers. 00;19;30;29 – 00;19;34;14 Dave Yeah, and the infinity. What’s the difference in the infinity and the impacts. 00;19;34;26 – 00;19;45;13 Drew Evans Just a much longer taper. I think the impacts, as I remember it, is about 37 feet and then the infinity is 47 feet I think. 00;19;45;15 – 00;19;58;12 Dave Oh 47 and ten or 15. So it’s longer, it’s more of a that’s interesting about the fly lines. You know, you’ve got all this. That’s why it’s great to have a fly stop to go in and be like, okay, what do I need here? Because I’ve got this rod. And that’s kind of challenges. Like, what have you have this rod? 00;19;58;13 – 00;20;03;16 Dave How do you know? You know how fast the rod is? How would you tell somebody if they’re sitting here with the rod and they’re not sure? 00;20;04;00 – 00;20;08;11 Drew Evans Well, the first thing that you don’t want to do is pick up the rod and wiggle it. 00;20;08;23 – 00;20;23;24 Dave So that’s the way you go. Well, I’ve heard that before. The the old shop will go right. You’ve got 30 feet. I’ve asked this isn’t fly casting instructors like, is that really a good thing to do it? Actually, the three ply is if you’re like an expert in, you know, Yeah, you will know. But most people won’t be able to tell no. 00;20;23;24 – 00;20;34;01 Drew Evans And I would argue, even if you are an expert, I don’t think you’re going to be able to tell that. Well, but I think maybe you can. I don’t claim to be an expert at anything. 00;20;34;01 – 00;20;34;20 Dave I gotcha. 00;20;34;24 – 00;20;42;25 Drew Evans But I think the best way to tell is pretend to be cast and watch where the rod bends when you’re pretending to make the test. 00;20;42;29 – 00;20;45;12 Dave You mean without a line? Just to. Just with that? With no line on it? 00;20;45;17 – 00;21;06;21 Drew Evans Yep. Just pick it up and. And just pretend like your cast and watch where that rod bends the other way is that you can take the rod tip and put it on the floor lightly and bend it and see where that flex happens. If it’s a deep flexing rod, what we call a deep flex rod or a slower rod, it’s going to go back towards the handle or the mid-section. 00;21;07;04 – 00;21;29;22 Drew Evans If it’s a faster rod, it’s going to stop, you know, towards the tip more so depending on those factors. And then also if you ever house a fly any of our locations, we’re all nerds about this stuff and we’re all super happy to inform you or just take you outside and go cast so we can put a line and the real on and go try out whatever rod you want to try. 00;21;29;22 – 00;21;39;13 Drew Evans And that’s, that’s probably the quickest, best, easiest way to figure out what’s my casting style and how does that best match a fly rod. 00;21;39;25 – 00;21;41;14 Dave Right? Yeah, Just get out and cast it. 00;21;41;14 – 00;22;02;15 Drew Evans Yeah, totally. And if you have somebody with you that is watching you cast, they can say, You know what, man? I think this rod is actually going to work better for X-Y-Z Reason and you’re going to want this line for it. I think no matter where you are leaning on your local fly shop, it’s always a good idea to dial in all your gear and technique. 00;22;02;24 – 00;22;21;29 Dave Yeah, that’s the way to do it. Go in the shop, bring your rod in, bring your gear and say, Hey, I need. I need something that fits. And like you said, it might be up sizing you. So if we had the let’s say we have this rod that bends, you know, a little bit deeper, you know, and it’s kind of more of a medium or full flex then you would want to go with potentially like the Infiniti, right. 00;22;21;29 – 00;22;29;04 Dave The line, the longer line, because it can handle that kind of situation for those fast action. You want more of a shorter head. Is that the situation? 00;22;29;16 – 00;22;51;13 Drew Evans Yeah, 100%. No, definitely agree with that. And then also some of it’s just your ability to if you can turn over a line and a fly pretty easily, you’re kind of open to cast whatever you like. But I think that those heavier weighted, shorter tapers are good training wheels. If you’re not an experienced caster. Yep. 00;22;51;21 – 00;23;09;10 Dave That’s it. Yeah. And it’s interesting because there’s there’s the pluses and minuses of each right. Because the Infiniti the longer probably has more of the gradual taper it’s going to be more a little more subtle right. For landing things probably a little bit in the others. It’s like that speed difference, right. This gadget versus this candy, it’s kind of the same sort of thing where you got this. 00;23;09;10 – 00;23;16;20 Dave Are you fishing for summer steelhead? Really want this subtle thing? Are you fishing for winter steelhead where you want to focus these giant flies? It’s kind of same thing we’re talking about here, right? 00;23;17;03 – 00;23;38;11 Drew Evans 100%. Yup. And when I talk about tapers and fly lines on the wall, when I do my one on one classes, I talk about them as being tools. You know, like when you look at the wall, there’s screwdrivers and hammers and everything else in between. It just depends on what the task is and figuring out what tools are going to work best. 00;23;38;23 – 00;23;54;14 Dave Yeah, that’s it. Okay, cool. So we’ve got a couple in scientific anglers, obviously. Great. There’s a bunch of good companies, I’m sure that have similar lines, but we got a couple out there, so. Yeah. And then Rod Wise, let’s just remind folks on that. Do you like a what’s your length of the rod you like to use for carp? 00;23;55;00 – 00;24;18;16 Drew Evans I would say in general, just nine feet is going to be good. There are some newer rods on the market that are really big flip pallets rod that he just came out with. With Echo, it’s a93. It’s called the Overcast and it’s got tremendous power, but it’s a deeper flexing rod. So very unique. I think that’s a really, really cool rod. 00;24;19;04 – 00;24;50;07 Drew Evans But I do dig shorter odds two St Croix has They’re tannic and I love that Rod Echo also has the eight for B, so if I’m making short little stab casts off the bow, my boat and I know I’m not going to need to bomb anything out, I reach for those shorter rods and then if I’m going to go walk and Wade and do some target practice that distance, then I’ll probably just stick to that nine foot or even, like I said, like a93 in that flip pellet rod that I think is sweet. 00;24;50;17 – 00;24;57;08 Dave Yeah. Okay. And so you don’t have to go to like a ten foot or something long like that. There’s no real advantage out there on the flat. 00;24;57;19 – 00;25;15;19 Drew Evans You know, I think back in the day a lot of guys did that to me and my style and how I cast it doesn’t seem to give me an advantage. But if you have that or you have access to a ten foot or you use it, it’s going to be great. But for me personally, it just doesn’t seem like it does that much extra. 00;25;15;19 – 00;25;24;29 Drew Evans I think really more than anything, it’s just dialing in the right line with the rod that you have, your fly lines, everything. 00;25;25;09 – 00;25;39;08 Dave Yeah, that’s why this is so important. I know if you get and you mentioned over lightning, how would you know? I guess going back to that for a second, how would you know when to up at a line, you know you’ve got an eight waiting to move up to a nine way. Just I guess you’d have to cast it or what are your thoughts there. 00;25;39;23 – 00;26;04;21 Drew Evans Yeah, definitely casting and see how the rod interacts with the fly line. I think being really careful to when you pick out a fly line because some of them are already over lined. So you can always ask a fly shop, talk like me, is this going to work? Well, because like I said, some lines like, for example, scientific, English, bass, bug line, it’s another good line for carp, but it’s two line sizes heavy. 00;26;05;04 – 00;26;24;14 Drew Evans So I’ll play with the numbers there a little bit and put like a six weight on my eight weight or maybe even a seven weight on my eight weight. But it just depends. Sometimes I might want that extra flex and I think it’s just going to depend on that. Rod And then also your casting style is a big part of it too. 00;26;24;27 – 00;26;48;25 Drew Evans If you’re a great caster or a newer caster, that’s maybe not so good. Using that little extra heft from a heavier weighted line can help flex that rod a little bit more and get you some better feel and contact, especially when you’re you’re learning the double hull, which is another critical aspect of not only carp on the flats, but anywhere you go flat fishing. 00;26;48;25 – 00;26;56;21 Drew Evans I can’t stress enough. Please, please practice the double hull cast before you go on one of these trips. If you don’t, you’re going to be sorry. 00;26;57;03 – 00;27;04;01 Dave Yeah. The double hull. That’s a key. A key part of it. Because you can just line speed, right? That’s a huge part of this. Getting your line speed up. 00;27;04;26 – 00;27;19;27 Drew Evans Line speed and constant control of your line. Everything with the site casting thing on the flats is all about control. Being able to control where that fly lands in a hurry is the difference between catch and fish or not. 00;27;20;11 – 00;27;35;12 Dave Yeah. Yeah. I think it and it applies to almost a lot of places in fly fishing, you know where we’re heading out for Atlantic salmon here at the end of the month and of course the same sort of thing. We got, you know, a similar set up. It’s going to be windy there probably. We’ve got to be accurate. 00;27;35;12 – 00;27;49;13 Dave You know, Atlantic salmon are a little bit different because for these because they’re on the surface, you got to land it like nice and straight. You can’t do a pile one out and do a big man. You got to be like accurate, you know, So you’ve got all these things planned, so you got to have this lying and rod that can same thing. 00;27;49;13 – 00;28;02;02 Dave They can shoot out there and you have control of it. So it’s a you know, I guess in the double haul will obviously be a big part of that. So I think that’s a you know, I think everybody could probably practice the double haul a little bit and get a little bit better as you go. 00;28;02;18 – 00;28;21;02 Drew Evans Definitely. Yeah. I think no matter where you’re fishing, what you’re fishing for, once you learn that double haul, it’ll just it’ll just be the way that you cast after that for the most part, because it just makes life easier. But especially on the flats, it’s, it’s very imperative that you know how to do it. Where are you going to go? 00;28;21;02 – 00;28;22;06 Drew Evans Fish. Atlantic. 00;28;22;06 – 00;28;25;12 Dave So we’re heading out to Newfoundland to Mountain Waters Resort. 00;28;25;23 – 00;28;26;24 Drew Evans Oh, cool, man. 00;28;26;25 – 00;28;41;16 Dave Yeah, it’s pretty epic. We’re going to the same waters that Lee Wolfe, his lodge was back in the day. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, He had a camp on on the same Portland creek, the same exact place. We’re going to be fishing. The same runs that Lee fest back in the day when he flew his plane in there. You know, that’s pretty cool. 00;28;41;25 – 00;28;47;02 Drew Evans That’s super cool. That’s high on the bucket list for me. It’d be be cool to go do that trip. 00;28;47;14 – 00;29;01;08 Dave Yeah, totally. We’ve been re I know since I’ve been young there’s been a lot of I mean, really summer steelhead. You know all about summers out there where you’re at. I mean a lot of the people, when they first started fishing for summers, you know, they learned they use Atlantic salmon techniques and there’s a number of books out there. 00;29;01;08 – 00;29;06;26 Dave Right. So a lot of that grease line fishing and stuff is really comes from Atlantic salmon, which is kind of cool. 00;29;07;07 – 00;29;13;09 Drew Evans Yeah, it’s still huge out here. I mean, that’s kind of the the thing that everybody lives and dies by. 00;29;13;09 – 00;29;23;08 Dave Is it still head still, Yeah. Out where you’re at. I mean, you’re in this place. I mean I’m like lower way down and we have it here too. But you’re in a place that’s pretty, pretty epic, right, For steelhead? 00;29;24;00 – 00;29;42;03 Drew Evans Yeah, I would say so. I’ve been fortunate enough to get to grow up here and fish for him basically all my life. But, you know, spey and fly fishing for him is pretty new to me. Only in the last probably seven years, six years, something like that. 00;29;42;17 – 00;29;55;15 Dave Right? That’s cool. So you got into Spey like a little bit more, more recent. You’re not back in the back in the the old school, you know, I got into it late as well. So it’s I’m still you know what I mean? I’m still learning a lot of stuff to learn to. 00;29;55;24 – 00;30;20;21 Drew Evans Yeah I grew up gear fishing for him a bunch you know my dad is an excellent angler, so we always had fish. We always got fish. But the spey thing, and especially like you’re talking with mid bellies, long bellies, grease line. And so skating dries or, or running a small little Atlantic salmon style patterns that that was all a brand new paradigm to me. 00;30;20;21 – 00;30;27;18 Drew Evans But yeah, I always jokingly call this GB’s country because everybody just wants to fish green but skunk. 00;30;27;27 – 00;30;34;04 Dave All right, the green. Is that the classic If you had to pick the most classic steelhead pattern out there, is that one of them. 00;30;34;12 – 00;30;55;22 Drew Evans In this area? At least? I would say, yeah. I would say pretty much everybody that comes to visit here, unless if you’re a coastal guy that mostly just fishes gadget stuff, you’re pretty much going to have green But skunks and every fly box that you see on the river, everybody faces them, or Blue Charms or, you know, all those OG patterns like that. 00;30;55;28 – 00;31;03;04 Dave Yeah, all the old stuff, all the. So you’re fishing. So typically out there fishing, you’re using kind of the standard traditional wet flies out there. 00;31;03;19 – 00;31;28;00 Drew Evans Yeah, I use them some. I’m not as much of a traditionalist or a purist. I use a lot of hobos on a scandi and an intermediate and are in a lot of floating stuff too. But this year I’ve gotten obsessed with Todd Hirano patterns and book bugs, and I just wanted to get one on the surface really bad early, so I’m going to focus on that. 00;31;28;00 – 00;31;31;12 Drew Evans But yeah, all the Todd here on those visor really, really cool. 00;31;31;25 – 00;31;45;15 Dave I love it. Yeah, we just had John Hazel on from the Deschutes Angler and he, we were talking about space. He was one of the early guys. He was actually the guy that brought spay Roy kind of to the Northwest. He was one of them, you know, And I was asking him about, you know, just the on the surface. 00;31;46;01 – 00;32;01;22 Dave And he said, you know, a lot of people that do it, they try it. You know, they have their morning session, don’t get anything, you know, And they start thinking second guessing themselves, like, oh, man, if I put on a wet fly, I could hook a steelhead. And they just don’t put the time in, Right? He said, You got to just put that dry on. 00;32;01;28 – 00;32;10;26 Dave But that’s later on. Just fish it, fish it all day, you know, and it’s the same thing and you’ll get them. That’s the cool thing about summer steelhead is there when the conditions are right, Right. They will come up. 00;32;11;12 – 00;32;33;23 Drew Evans Yeah. And you know, it is kind of punishment at first. It’s brutal. It is kind of hard. I have not caught a lot of steelhead on the surface. I’ve caught them, you know, with a mud layer just below more. But I can’t say that I’ve got tons of them on the surface. But it’s again, because I’m in that same camp of dude, I just want to stick a fish. 00;32;33;27 – 00;32;57;05 Drew Evans So I’ll put on something that I feel like I can get them on. But yeah, I mean, there’s so many different techniques to learn what surface fishing to like claws free more. He did a cool presentation last year at the space gathering, talking about like even putting in a cast at a 90, putting in a big belly in it and speed mat fly along and kind of popping it. 00;32;57;23 – 00;33;06;29 Drew Evans So he’s got like some different techniques of fishing, those boat bugs on the surface that kind of blew my mind. So definitely going to give that stuff a try come July. 00;33;07;13 – 00;33;21;15 Dave Nice. Right on. And we’re going to jump back and forth here and probably jump back in the carpet. I want to hear you mentioned kind of we were getting started off air about kind of a new primer, the Shep Ranch. Maybe you can describe that a little bit. I’d love to hear what’s going on out there for Steelhead. 00;33;22;05 – 00;33;48;19 Drew Evans Yeah, it’s a to me, probably the coolest and I haven’t been everywhere, but to me in the lower 48, I think it’s probably about the coolest steelhead fishery there is or if not the coolest, that’s definitely one of them. So you’re in the wilderness of the Salmon River, so the only way that you can get in is by a 40 mile boat ride plus from Vinegar Creek, which is quite literally the end of the road. 00;33;48;21 – 00;34;07;26 Drew Evans There’s no more road once you reach that point. Or you can float down from like Salmon, Idaho. It should be quite a ways or by helicopter or plane. So pretty remote. But, you know, the the accommodations are crazy. The the ranch itself is very, very, very nice. 00;34;08;01 – 00;34;10;24 Dave So there’s an actual ranch like structures and all that stuff. 00;34;11;05 – 00;34;34;05 Drew Evans Correct? Yep. My really good friend Travis DeBoer is the ranch manager and the head guide. And there’s just there’s too much stuff to list. It’s amazing. They’ve got like gongs that you can shoot out to a thousand yards. They have horns, they have these big mule teams. They’ve got, oh, wow, elk hunting, bird hunting. They’ve got bear hunting. 00;34;34;07 – 00;34;35;13 Dave I always say, you it all. 00;34;35;21 – 00;34;41;01 Drew Evans But they’ve got all kinds of stuff, man. I’ve just been there to steelhead, so I just barely scratched the surface. 00;34;41;09 – 00;34;45;13 Dave Right where you when you were there for steelhead fishing with the other guys there for hunting and everything else. 00;34;45;24 – 00;35;07;23 Drew Evans No, we got some pretty meager hospitality. So all the crew there is kind of there. Just just for us, it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever been a part of. And I owe a lot of gratitude to my buddy Travis and everybody at Shep Ranch. They they treated us really, really well. But amazing meals, they’ve got really great chefs there. 00;35;07;23 – 00;35;32;22 Drew Evans You’ve got these cool little cabins that are all done up that you get to stay in and their world class, I mean, truly for especially for being out in the wilderness, they’re amazing. And not only that, but that place is just completely full of history. There’s a cabin or a ranch right across the river. That’s the Polybius Ranch, and I’m probably going to butcher the stories so people should go look it up. 00;35;32;22 – 00;35;59;11 Drew Evans But basically, Polybius was sold into sex work by her parents when she was little way back in the day, like 1800s, for like a bag of rice. And this guy and her chef, he bought her basically and set her free and later in life, they found each other because he liked water in a poker game. Again, I’m pro screw on this so go look it up. 00;36;00;02 – 00;36;19;04 Drew Evans A really interesting story full of history. And then, you know, he was actually killed I think in a poker game on that property as well. So a bunch of cool a bunch of cool like gnarly old West history and crazy. He’s buried there on the site so you can see where his grave. 00;36;19;04 – 00;36;21;27 Dave Is on the site, the sheep ranch. He’s there. 00;36;21;27 – 00;36;54;05 Drew Evans Mm. And there’s a, there’s a movie about Polybius from, I think like the nineties, I think it’s called The Thousand Pieces of Gold. So that that would further illustrate that whole story. But super, super cool. And then in addition, all that the fishing is just world class. Like I said, the huge runs, tons of structure, really beautiful big B run fish and we did not see a single person swinging or really even fishing that much for that matter. 00;36;54;22 – 00;37;10;08 Drew Evans The entire time we were up there and we were up there for, I think four days. So very unique in that regard because if you go to the snake, the Ronde, specifically the Grand Ronde or the Clearwater, they’re pretty busy. 00;37;10;08 – 00;37;29;16 Dave The Gallatin River Lodge sits right in the middle of Montana’s fly fishing triangle, the Gallatin River, out the door, the Madison and Yellowstone. Close enough that you’re fishing when conditions line up. 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Discover the El Rey series and more at pescado or on the fly dotcom. 00;38;14;23 – 00;38;22;12 Dave And where are you in relation to Where is this ship? Ranch on the salmon. Fill us in to the Snake River system, the grand run and where it’s located. 00;38;23;03 – 00;38;34;18 Drew Evans So It’s going to be down below all that stuff. So I’m sitting what am I am probably about 2 hours and some change from the Vinegar Creek boat ramp. 00;38;34;25 – 00;38;37;01 Dave And you’re in romance again where you’re at the city. 00;38;37;12 – 00;38;38;22 Drew Evans I’m in Lewiston, Idaho. 00;38;38;24 – 00;38;39;13 Dave You’re in Lewiston. 00;38;39;13 – 00;39;03;13 Drew Evans Okay, So if you’re looking on a map ship, ranch would be closest to like Oregon’s Idaho. And it’s kind of funky because right there there’s a time change. So it’s always kind of hard for me to to gauge how far stuff is. Yeah, it goes from Mountain Time to Pacific. So I’m in Pacific Time here in the Valley, whereas they’re at ship there. 00;39;03;16 – 00;39;04;26 Drew Evans They’re on mountain time. 00;39;05;08 – 00;39;24;03 Dave Right, Right. Gotcha. So it’s kind of from Lewiston, It’s kind of south southeast, right. You just head out into the. Yeah. Until the wilderness. Well, is this partly because you have the middle fork of salmon, which is out there somewhere, too, Right. Which is this 2 million acre wilderness area. It’s kind of in the same roughly same area by the national forest and all that. 00;39;24;15 – 00;39;44;08 Drew Evans Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It’s like the Frank Church. I believe so. And it’s pretty cool. I’ve seldomly ever been out there, which is funny, you know, I don’t live too far from it, but it’s the first time I’ve ever been out into that wilderness section. I’ve been up to Vinegar Creek before and fished like Short’s Bar, which is just below that. 00;39;44;17 – 00;39;57;13 Drew Evans But yeah, I’ve never, never fished any of that stuff. So it’s truly amazing that if you’re a steelhead angler, and particularly on the swing, I don’t know if it’s not on your bucket list, it needs to be now. 00;39;57;25 – 00;40;02;06 Dave Definitely it is. It is. And now did you guys fly in there or how did you get to the ship ranch? 00;40;02;12 – 00;40;04;20 Drew Evans Nope. Travis picked us up in a jet boat. 00;40;04;20 – 00;40;06;05 Dave So from Riggins? 00;40;06;16 – 00;40;08;12 Drew Evans No, from Vinegar Creek. 00;40;08;18 – 00;40;09;04 Dave Oh, Vinegar. 00;40;09;04 – 00;40;24;11 Drew Evans Okay, so you drive. You drive through the town, Riggins, and you go on beyond that, down probably another 20 miles till you hit Vinegar Creek. It might be more than that, but you’re on this epic, picturesque boat ride all the way up to the ranch. 00;40;24;15 – 00;40;27;20 Dave Wow. What’s the water like in there? Are you going through some whitewater and stuff? 00;40;28;01 – 00;40;38;00 Drew Evans Absolutely. Hip. And that’s that’s another big barrier to entry to getting there is you can’t just be Joe Schmo with your little 14 foot trout boat. 00;40;38;04 – 00;40;41;16 Dave Yeah, this is a flat water. You need a boat to get through some big stuff. 00;40;41;27 – 00;40;56;20 Drew Evans You need a boat to get through some big stuff and you’ve got to be kind of a bad ass on the sticks. You got to know how to navigate through some rapids. You know, I have a jet boat and I grew up on them, but we were running through some of that stuff. I was puckering a little bit. 00;40;56;27 – 00;40;57;11 Drew Evans Okay. 00;40;57;19 – 00;41;00;18 Dave What do you think? If you could handle it, you could get it in a boat? 00;41;00;29 – 00;41;09;21 Drew Evans No, absolutely not. It would take me some some training. Yeah, Maybe need a spotter to get through some of that stuff. 00;41;09;29 – 00;41;19;16 Dave Wow, that’s amazing. What are the runs like when you get on the salmon there at the Shep Ranch? Are these. What would be the comparison? Is a similar to the Ronde or the other snake or other areas. 00;41;19;28 – 00;41;40;23 Drew Evans You know, it’s a funny thing because I really compare it to like a combo of like Clearwater and Snake. So they’re really long runs. Like I fish a lot on the on the snake, but they’re just dotted up with all this amazing structure like you would find on the Clearwater. So you kind of have the best of both worlds. 00;41;41;04 – 00;42;03;17 Drew Evans And it’s definitely, for me, an area where I would greatly encourage you to fish a sink tip because it’s it’s quite a bit deeper. At that time when we were there in October, the water was already in the high thirties, low forties. So using the tip was kind of the way to go. We’re using like intruders and hobos and that kind of thing. 00;42;04;13 – 00;42;33;14 Drew Evans But yeah, you’ve got all this great structure to swing over so. There’s plenty of area for fish to be from edge to edge and it’s not like super wide. I would say like the snake can be or the Clearwater can be in some spots it’s a little bit narrower, more towards like what the Ronde is like. But definitely in terms of structure, it’s it’s got a lot more boulders like the Clearwater and then just these big long runs like on the snake. 00;42;33;14 – 00;42;36;29 Drew Evans So kind of a combo of all of it. It’s pretty cool and unique. 00;42;37;08 – 00;42;50;24 Dave Wow. Yeah, that sounds great. Cool. Well, we we hit on that, so we got a little steelhead. Let’s take it back as we start to kind of take it out of here, back to the car, because I want to get a few tips. And what we talked about here on I think because obviously that’s going to be the easier one. 00;42;50;24 – 00;42;53;28 Dave I think a lot of people can really all around the country can hit carp. 00;42;54;02 – 00;42;54;28 Drew Evans Absolutely. 00;42;54;28 – 00;43;10;24 Dave The Shep Ranch is probably one that’s a little bit more more the bucket list, right? Yeah, It’s going to take some time. Totally. But talk about the carp as far as you know, we mentioned the drag and drop. So we got that that covered. We know that technique. How do you know the say you’re on there, You’ve got carp. 00;43;10;27 – 00;43;18;16 Dave How do you know when fish is kind of ready to take? You know, when you come up to carp, do you can you tell whether it’s ready of feeding all that stuff? 00;43;19;01 – 00;43;39;13 Drew Evans Yeah, that’s a great question. You know, just like with flat fish, the easiest way is to see a tailing fish. So they’ll have their face down in the mud rooting around with their tail, literally out in the water kind of way of an ant. You throw a fly at me, I’m ready to eat. So that’s that’s the easiest way to identify a happy fish. 00;43;39;25 – 00;44;03;17 Drew Evans But usually I’m looking for those fish that are kind of slow moving. They’re cruising, but they’re moving it like a little bit like a lazy walk. I’m looking for that guy because he’s he’s actively looking for food. Usually those fish that are kind of hauling ass, they’re on a mission. They’re usually not interested in eating, although sometimes they will. 00;44;04;01 – 00;44;24;20 Drew Evans And then again, those laid up fish that are stunning, those are usually not fish that’ll eat. But again, sometimes they will. So it’s either those tailors or those fish that are just kind of cruising slow. And if you’re way too fishing, I would say a big, big tip is to steal a play out of my buddy Bill Martz playbook. 00;44;24;20 – 00;44;55;11 Drew Evans You want to fish like a hero. And what he means by that is you’re you’re walking extremely slowly and very, very deliberately so good. You know, you’ve got to really have your head on a swivel and walk super slow. And this this will pay dividends again on that Platts trip to the Bahamas, to Belize, wherever, because if you’re just tromping through the water, splashing everywhere, making a big trail of mud behind you, it’s just a dead giveaway to those fish. 00;44;55;25 – 00;44;57;07 Drew Evans Something’s up. Let’s leave. 00;44;57;19 – 00;45;11;22 Dave Yeah. So the heron. So, yeah. And the heron. It’s amazing If you’ve ever seen the heron, the great blue heron or any heron. Yeah. They just sit there and they’re just still and they’re just waiting and then they, and then they attack. Right. And they do their stuff and we also saw we were out on the river, we saw some Osprey. 00;45;11;22 – 00;45;19;24 Dave Right. That’s a little bit different technique, but it’s pretty amazing to see an Osprey from 50 feet or however far the up dive into the water. Did you guys see a few Osprey out there? 00;45;20;06 – 00;45;36;19 Drew Evans Yeah, Yeah, definitely. We’ve got a bunch of them. It’s pretty cool. And in the heron, they’re coming back and there’s actually a really cool rookery right next to one of the runs that I fish on the snake. It’s pretty neat. Little spot. But yeah, for some reason we have pelicans now too, so. 00;45;36;19 – 00;45;37;17 Dave Yeah, pelicans. Wow. 00;45;37;25 – 00;45;43;29 Drew Evans Yeah, that’s kind of a bummer because I think they eat a lot of a lot of everything everything. 00;45;43;29 – 00;45;44;08 Dave Yeah. 00;45;44;09 – 00;45;52;20 Drew Evans Uh, they’re here now. There’s lots of them, but yeah, same thing. You see those guys from way up, just dive, bomb and go grab whatever they’re grab and. 00;45;52;25 – 00;45;57;17 Dave Going for it for what would be a perfect carp flat. How would you describe that to be out there? 00;45;58;02 – 00;46;18;15 Drew Evans So I’m looking for something that usually has a tan if I can like that’s, that’s perfect and ideal, even like sand colored. And the reason for that is the fish are just going to stand out way more. I can, I can see them, but I’m looking for something that’s pockmarked or dimpled. It’ll look like little craters of the moon. 00;46;18;24 – 00;46;42;08 Drew Evans And that’s very indicative of fish failing, going down and stirring stuff on the bottom and eating. If I just see this flat, barren landscape, it’s nothing. You know, usually there’s not going to be fish in there eating. But those little craters are a good sign that they’re going to be there eating. I’m looking for, obviously, if I can if I can get it a little bit. 00;46;42;08 – 00;47;10;08 Drew Evans Stiller conditions something that’s about, I’d say a foot to three feet deep. I don’t really want anything deeper than that. And something that’s got just tons of forage. So whether it’s going to be insects or crayfish, you know, any kind of little crustacean, even clams, freshwater clams, they eat a lot of those. So those are kind of the things I’m looking for most. 00;47;10;23 – 00;47;29;03 Drew Evans And then obviously, if I see fish in there rooting around spawning, there’s going to be fish peeling off that are going to go eat. So that’s kind of the perfect flat, something ten, something shallow and something with a lot of signs like pockmarks. 00;47;29;12 – 00;47;36;00 Dave Gotcha. What is the is there a kind of a best time of year? When do you really like to get out there and go for it? Can you I guess you can fish year around. 00;47;36;12 – 00;48;01;12 Drew Evans Yeah, I would say summer, of course, is going to be the best time. Sometimes the spring can be really great, but it can be full of challenges too, depending on how much rain you get, how much runoff you get if you’re fishing in a river, in a river system like I am, because obviously that foot deep flat now becomes a six foot deep flat and just not going to work. 00;48;02;03 – 00;48;23;14 Drew Evans Also, you know, I’m looking for water clarity. That’s a huge thing. And if I can find a spot that doesn’t have weeds, a lot of these areas are going to be full of weeds that those fish can just kind of tuck into and you don’t see them anymore or they’re going to screw up your presentation. But yeah, a runoff is going to kill the water clarity. 00;48;23;14 – 00;48;43;15 Drew Evans So like right now, the time that we’re recording this, it’s the first part of June. So it’s shaping up to be great where I’m at right now because runoff is kind of done. We’re not going to get much water. So this is a good year to go get your carp set up and go try it or small mouth set up. 00;48;43;26 – 00;48;53;28 Drew Evans The mountains are going to be pretty unforgiving to our trout. So I would say, you know, try some warm water stuff you can fish for those guys. Not heard anything. 00;48;54;08 – 00;49;12;15 Dave Right. That’s that’s the great thing. And so it’s it’s tough because it might be probably going to be it’s impacting a lot of the West because the snowpack is low and all that. But I mean, I guess, you know, looking at that as a positive, right, is that these fish carp and smallmouth bass, really everything, all the warm water fish is going to be they’re going to be loving it this year. 00;49;12;29 – 00;49;35;17 Drew Evans They’re going to be loving it. And, you know, I love trout. I love going to that some of those rivers that we talked about, Luxor, Salt Lake City, Joe, North Fork, all that stuff. But at the end of the day, to me, there’s just so much more diversity in ways that I can approach the fish. The challenge of fishing to, you know, fisheries like small mouth or carp. 00;49;36;02 – 00;49;44;09 Drew Evans So I really encourage people to just give it a try. I know trout are cool, but try this stuff out. It’s it’s a lot of fun. 00;49;44;24 – 00;49;57;10 Dave That’s sweet. So you guys have this carp clay that’s you’re going to it sounds like you will be back this next year when you did this setting this up, are there other carp events like this around the country, You know, East Coast, West Coast, they do a little research there. 00;49;57;22 – 00;50;25;02 Drew Evans You know, I’d never seen a purely info driven event around carp like that, but there’s a lot of cool carp events that have started probably before. And since then there’s that dirty carp in New Orleans. There’s been the dirt or the Denver carp slam for years now. There’s I think they call it carp aside, and I think it’s like Minneapolis, Saint Paul. 00;50;25;22 – 00;50;48;17 Drew Evans And then I think in Oklahoma City, those guys at JT Adams and Sons, I think they have something called carp palooza. Don’t quote me on that. Wrong. Yeah, but in any case, it’s it’s catching on there’s definitely starting to be a lot more interest in it. And I think that’s the coolest part about that fishery is it’s so utilitarian I can do it literally anywhere. 00;50;48;17 – 00;51;00;12 Drew Evans There’s carp in the Grand Ronde in this crystal clear river where steelhead live, and there’s also carp in this scummy gross urban area there. 00;51;00;13 – 00;51;06;29 Dave And yeah, we’ve done those on Arizona, right? There’s those canals in Arizona, right in the city. You know you totally yeah, in Phenix and. 00;51;06;29 – 00;51;26;15 Drew Evans Stuff and everywhere in between. You know I’m pretty lucky. I’ve got some flats where I’m not going to be bothered by anybody. And it’s in the picture as backdrop of the Hills Canyon and stuff like that where I’m at. But, but I also have those flats that are in town that I can go fish. So I think that’s what’s cool about it. 00;51;26;15 – 00;51;44;19 Drew Evans It’s also just a really conservation forward fishery. Again, when it’s too hot to fish for those trout, I have something to fish for and it’s not a lesser than thing or a compromise. For me. It’s actually something I seek out more these days because I think it’s kind of more fun. 00;51;45;02 – 00;51;51;23 Dave Yeah, exactly. What is it like when you hook a carp? The playing of the carp in the landing? What’s it how’s it compare to anything else? 00;51;52;09 – 00;52;19;00 Drew Evans Well, in most cases, the the fun part about it is it’s pretty much always going to take you to your backing. So that’s a difference there between trout fishing and carp fishing. And you’re going to let that fish just run just like you would a bonefish or redfish until it stops and then you’re going to fight it and you want to apply side pressure this way or that way, depending on which way it runs, you kind of want to just go the opposite so that you can kind of bring it to heal a little quicker. 00;52;19;14 – 00;52;44;20 Drew Evans But you know, where we’re at, it’s not uncommon to have carp run 75, 100 yards in your backing. So sometimes I’ll set my reels up just like I would for bones with 250 plus yards of backing on it. We’ve got big, big fish that can range anywhere up to the £30 class. So when they decide to go, it’s not like a bullet train taking off, but it’s like a big freightliner. 00;52;44;20 – 00;52;45;14 Drew Evans That’s just all. 00;52;46;01 – 00;52;46;18 Dave Right. 00;52;46;25 – 00;53;15;19 Drew Evans Poland and going out for a long time. So it’s fun to pull on something that that heavy and play a fish that’s that big. I would say you know if you if you got a net, it helps a ton, obviously, just like with any fish to land them. But you want to be careful if you’re going to lead or I broke a rod a couple summers ago just being silly and I wasn’t paying attention and didn’t give myself enough slack when I went to leader a fish and it was significantly smaller. 00;53;15;19 – 00;53;35;24 Drew Evans It was like an £8 fish. So you ought to be cognizant of that if you have a friend with you, which helps, especially if you’re in a boat. I think that’s kind of the fun part of. It whether you’re carp fishing or flats fishing somewhere, it’s a team sport at that point, right? Everybody wants you to catch a fish if you’re on the bell, because then it’s the next person’s turn. 00;53;36;07 – 00;53;48;13 Drew Evans So calling out shots, being able to help a friend and help land fish is is pretty cool too. But yeah, just play the fish till they’re tired and and scoop them with a huge net. 00;53;49;04 – 00;53;55;25 Dave Big net. What is the the boat you’re using out there. What’s is it matter. Like it sounds like you’ve got a kind of a flat style boat or what do you use. 00;53;55;25 – 00;54;26;12 Drew Evans And Yeah, I have a Hog Island skiff. It’s a little 16 foot shallow water boat with a pulling platform on it. And I’ve got a casting platform on the bow. But I think if you have even a John boat or a kayak or a paddle board, just anything that will get you elevated and that will talk you into some water that you otherwise can’t get to very easily, you’re at a big, big advantage if you can get up higher off the water. 00;54;26;17 – 00;54;36;29 Dave Higher even a drift boat. Right. You could get out there and stand up on the deck and it’s not promoted. You’d be. Yeah, right. It’s not flat. It’s not as flat as you want it to be, but you could do it totally. 00;54;37;08 – 00;54;47;09 Drew Evans Unlike Adipose has those little platforms. Oh, yeah. And I bet that’s what other companies have them too. Yeah. If you can just get yourself elevated, it changes the game. 00;54;47;17 – 00;54;51;29 Dave It does. And are you pulling out there? It sounds like you’re. You like. Just like you would be out on the flats. 00;54;52;17 – 00;55;06;26 Drew Evans Yep I use a push pull. You don’t have to go crazy with it. I have one of the tfo push poles and I think it’s like 500 bucks. So compared to like some of those one piece stuffies that are way more expensive. 00;55;06;28 – 00;55;07;23 Dave Like, a lot more. 00;55;08;25 – 00;55;10;17 Drew Evans I think they’re thousand plus. 00;55;10;17 – 00;55;12;15 Dave So yeah, that’s all. 00;55;12;15 – 00;55;23;27 Drew Evans Yeah. You can, you can get it done. And I mean, you could probably even do it with like my buddy Jordan, one of our curb claims he built one out of like one of those extenders that you use for painting. 00;55;24;12 – 00;55;27;14 Dave Oh, yeah, sure. I mean, how long is the pole typically? 00;55;27;26 – 00;55;30;22 Drew Evans So you ought to be three feet longer than your vessel. 00;55;30;23 – 00;55;36;05 Dave Usually than your vessel. Oh, wow. So, yeah. So you’re looking at like 20 feet or maybe more potentially. 00;55;36;11 – 00;55;37;06 Drew Evans Exactly. 00;55;37;07 – 00;55;38;02 Dave That is pretty long. 00;55;38;09 – 00;55;45;06 Drew Evans Long is good. If you can go longer, you go longer. But yeah, three feet longer than your vessel is what you’re after. 00;55;45;13 – 00;56;00;03 Dave Three feet longer. Wow. This is great. Yeah. I think that, you know, and maybe the next one we didn’t talk much about smallmouth bass, but I know that’s a species that you guys are also chasing. Maybe just leave us today with. You know what we missed on other species? Give us a run through. It Sounds like you guys are kind of all over the place. 00;56;00;03 – 00;56;04;16 Dave Do you have any any big trips coming that you’re excited about you want to share through your program? 00;56;04;26 – 00;56;27;06 Drew Evans Yeah, we’ve got tons of trips that we do through our hosted program, A house to Fly. So I think next spring I’ll be doing Billie’s spring of 27. We’ve got trips to the Bahamas. I just came from there this February. That was that was probably my favorite saltwater trip I’ve ever done. Huge bonefish, tons of them. We’ve got trips to Puerto Rico. 00;56;27;06 – 00;56;48;16 Drew Evans We’ve got our Texas Red Fish program. We’re to start some stuff in Florida for tarpon and snook and reds. So we kind of run the gamut of things. And in addition to that, we have like our trout spay camp that we have on the Missouri in Montana. Yeah, that’s a pretty cool one. But we’re always kind of adding and tweaking those things. 00;56;48;16 – 00;57;18;26 Drew Evans So yeah, if you head over to house and go to the travel tab, you’ll see a lot of opportunities there for you to do one of our trips if you want to go fishing with us. Otherwise we always have like these DIY curated little trips that we can recommend to you. But yeah, here locally we’ve got so many opportunities for different fisheries, whether it be pike up north of us or the steelhead, obviously carp, small mouth, West Slope, cutthroat full trout, you know, we’ve kind of got it all. 00;57;18;26 – 00;57;21;27 Drew Evans That’s, that’s what keeps me here is right. 00;57;21;28 – 00;57;22;26 Dave You’re in a good spot. 00;57;23;08 – 00;57;24;13 Drew Evans Totally, totally. 00;57;24;13 – 00;57;39;24 Dave You’ve got a lot you’re right in the you’re right in the middle really of it when you think about it, because you’re Idaho is, you know, you go east and you’ve got Montana and all that, all that stuff, trout. And then you go west and you got more steelhead and yeah, it’s, it’s a pretty good spot because if you’re out, you know, kind of on coast, it’s great. 00;57;39;24 – 00;57;44;17 Dave But you’ve got to go a lot farther to get to, you know? Yeah, yeah, there’s some of that stuff. So it’s cool. 00;57;45;07 – 00;57;49;03 Drew Evans Actually. I take it back. It sucks. Nobody should come here. Yeah, right. 00;57;49;03 – 00;57;59;18 Dave Yeah. No, nobody should move there. And where are you at? So describe your because you’ve got the the house, the fly. There’s a few fly shops. Describe that for people that know like what shop are you at and what are the other shops in the, in the fleet there. 00;58;00;03 – 00;58;28;21 Drew Evans Yeah. So house flies these little Not little they’re pretty big. They’re these fly fly shops that are inside of this feed store. It’s called North 40 Outfitters. So there’s, I want to say seven locations I have. Stop and think about it for a minute. We’ve got Mead in Washington, which is near Spokane. We have West Spokane. We’ve got Coeur d’Alene, Ponderay, where I’m at here in Lewiston, Idaho. 00;58;28;21 – 00;58;50;20 Drew Evans We’ve got Great Falls, Montana. And then we we also own the trout shop on the Missouri and Craig. And we have the trout lodge there and the Hub Saloon. So in that little area of Craig, we’ve got kind of a lot going on, but it’s a pretty cool little spot there. They’ve got tons of trips. They run out of there. 00;58;50;20 – 00;59;06;06 Drew Evans There’s a deli with amazing food, full service guide shop, of course. So anything that you would need there and then on top of it, we’ve got places to stay and a place to eat. And of course we run shuttles for you to do. 00;59;06;16 – 00;59;24;17 Dave Yeah. And this year going to be I know the the salmon fly. We had the salmon fly project folks on, but they’re studying the bugs out west. You know, that’s a big thing they’re trying to document and they’re doing a like I think you call it bug fest. I think bug fixes has come out. So yeah. So they got a little event there and that’s out I think that’s out of Craig too or in that area. 00;59;24;28 – 00;59;25;05 Drew Evans Right. 00;59;25;05 – 00;59;38;18 Dave On. So they’re going to have I think I think there’s going to be some good speakers there covering that. But I think that’s a big part of it. But maybe maybe on the next one, we’ll dig into some more of this, Drew, and we’ll talk more about the maybe some small mouth bass. But yeah, this has been awesome to see. 00;59;38;18 – 00;59;44;10 Dave Appreciate all your your wisdom here and we will be sending everybody out to house to fly and thanks again till the next one. 00;59;44;21 – 00;59;53;17 Drew Evans Yeah thanks Dave it’s it’s been awesome to be on and like I said last hour, it’s one of my favorite resources for learning about sports. So thanks for doing what you do. 00;59;53;29 – 00;59;55;11 Dave Sweet man. I will talk to you soon. 00;59;55;23 – 00;59;56;22 Drew Evans All right. Thanks, Dave. 00;59;58;20 – 01;00;14;10 Dave There you go. Lots of calls to action for you today. Check out the video. We talked about that today. Lots of video action. If you want to take this next step further, you can check out there Carpe Clave of the last year. And just check in with Drew if you haven’t yet. Give him a shout, checking in with him on Instagram. 01;00;14;20 – 01;00;37;07 Dave Well, I’m know you heard this podcast. We got a big, big month coming up here. July, really big month coming up. Hope you are getting a chance to enjoy it. Check in with us at five swing dot com slash pro and we are going to be launched in about five swing pro very soon. This is your chance to get access to masterclasses, webinars and the community and take your fly fishing to the next level. 01;00;37;07 – 01;00;52;10 Dave This year, White fly swing pro It’s happening right now. All right, I’m going to get out of here. We got a bunch of podcasts in the queue getting backed up so we get to get those knocked out today. I hope to see you soon. And I hope you’re having a good afternoon, evening or morning, wherever you are on this planet. 01;00;52;10 – 01;00;58;09 Dave And we’ll talk to you and see you on the next episode. Thanks for listening to the wet fly Swing fly fishing show. 01;00;58;16 – 01;00;59;21 Drew Evans For notes and links from. 01;00;59;21 – 01;01;10;01 Dave This episode, visit Wet Fly, swing, Dotcom.

Conclusion

From Idaho’s legendary steelhead rivers to local carp flats and tropical bonefish destinations, Drew Evans demonstrates that great fly fishing isn’t defined by geography—it’s built on transferable skills. By improving your casting, understanding your equipment, and embracing overlooked fisheries, you’ll be better prepared for whatever adventure comes next. Whether your next trip is across town or across the ocean, the lessons in this episode will help you fish smarter and with greater confidence.

     

Eastern Idaho Stillwater Fly Fishing and Fly Tying with Paul Bowen (Traveled #49)

Eastern Idaho Stillwater

Episode Show Notes

Paul Bowen has spent over 50 years fly fishing and tying flies throughout eastern Idaho. From the South Fork of the Snake to Henrys Lake, Hebgen Lake, and a variety of lesser-known reservoirs, he’s developed a reputation for effective stillwater patterns and thoughtful fly design. This conversation covers his favorite lake tactics, fly modifications, and the long-running Eastern Idaho Fly Tying Expo.


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Eastern Idaho Stillwater

Show Notes with Paul Bowen on Eastern Idahol Stillwater Fly Fishing and Fly Tying

About Paul Bowen

Paul Bowen is a lifelong fly angler, fly tier, guide, conservation volunteer, and educator based in eastern Idaho. He has spent more than 50 years fishing and tying flies throughout the region, with extensive experience on the South Fork of the Snake River, Henrys Lake, Hebgen Lake, and numerous other stillwaters.

Over the years, Paul has guided for respected operations including Henry’s Fork Anglers and South Fork Outfitters while remaining deeply involved with Fly Fishers International, Trout Unlimited, and the Snake River Cutthroats chapter. He continues to teach, tie flies, and participate in the Eastern Idaho Fly Tying Expo each year.

Eastern Idaho Fly Tying Expo and Why It Matters

Paul has been involved with fly tying demonstrations and educational events for decades, including Fly Fishers International conclaves and regional expos. This year’s Eastern Idaho Fly Tying Expo features his PMD emerger on the event pin, a fly based on the Quigley Cripple but modified with his own materials and design choices.

The expo combines fly tying, casting instruction, destination presentations, youth education, workshops, conservation fundraising, and vendor exhibits. It has grown significantly over the years and now attracts fly fishers from across the West.

The PMD Emerger and the Power of UV Materials

Paul’s featured PMD emerger began as a Bob Quigley Quigley Cripple pattern but evolved through years of experimentation. He replaced the original elk hair wing with CDC, added goose biot for the body, and incorporated UV Crystal Flash into both the trailing shuck and body.

One of the biggest themes throughout this conversation was Paul’s belief in UV materials. Fish can see further into the ultraviolet spectrum than humans can, and he has repeatedly found that UV-enhanced flies outperform otherwise identical patterns.

Paul’s PMD Emerger Materials:

  • CDC wing
  • Goose biot body
  • UV Crystal Flash overlay
  • UV Crystal Flash trailing shuck
  • Quigley Cripple foundation

Stillwater Fishing in Eastern Idaho

When Paul talks lakes, he’s referring to places like Henrys Lake, Hebgen Lake, Mackay Reservoir, Chesterfield Reservoir, Daniels Reservoir, and several smaller waters scattered across southern Idaho. Many of these fisheries offer excellent chironomid, leech, and scud fishing throughout the season.

Unlike river fishing, Paul’s stillwater approach centers on depth control. He commonly fishes three flies under an indicator, allowing him to cover multiple feeding zones simultaneously while targeting suspended trout.

Typical Stillwater Setup:

  • Bottom fly: balanced leech or micro leech
  • Middle fly: chironomid
  • Top fly: chironomid, bloodworm, or scud

Key Waters Mentioned:

  • Henrys Lake
  • Hebgen Lake
  • Mackay Reservoir
  • Chesterfield Reservoir
  • Daniels Reservoir
  • Treasureton area reservoirs

Chironomids, Leeches, and Finding the Right Depth

One of Paul’s most effective stillwater systems starts with a fish finder. Rather than guessing where trout are holding, he locates fish and adjusts his indicator depth accordingly.

Once anchored with both bow and stern anchors, he methodically covers water around the boat, casting indicators out and slowly retrieving them back. If fish are suspended at ten feet, that’s where the flies stay.

Paul’s Chironomid Sizes:

  • Size 12
  • Size 14
  • Size 16
  • Size 18

Favorite Stillwater Flies:

  • Balanced leeches
  • Micro leeches
  • Chironomids
  • Bloodworms
  • Scuds
  • Frenchie Chironomid

The Thin Mint Leech and Why Small Tweaks Matter

The Thin Mint Leech remains one of Paul’s confidence patterns. While it resembles a Woolly Bugger, it incorporates three distinct tail colors including mint green, black, and brown, creating a unique profile that trout often respond to.

Paul frequently modifies established fly patterns rather than inventing entirely new ones. His theory is simple: heavily pressured fish see the same flies repeatedly. Sometimes a subtle color change, a different bead, or a small amount of UV material is enough to trigger strikes from fish that have already rejected more familiar offerings.

Favorite Bead Colors:

  • Chartreuse
  • Fluorescent orange
  • Fluorescent pink
  • Black
  • Brown

Growing Up Around the South Fork of the Snake

Paul’s fly fishing journey started in the late 1970s after buying an inexpensive fly rod and a handful of flies from a sporting goods store. A friend convinced him to skip the large flies he was accustomed to using with spinning gear and instead start with size 16 patterns. That advice changed everything.

Not long afterward, he received a beginner fly-tying kit and taught himself to tie Adams flies using a simple instructional book. Decades later, he’s still tying, teaching, and experimenting with new patterns.

Paul’s Early Fly Fishing Setup:

  • Budget fly rod and reel
  • Level fly line
  • 3-pound leader
  • 12 flies
  • Size 16 Adams patterns

Conservation, Fly Fishers International, and Trout Unlimited

Paul is a life member of both Fly Fishers International and Trout Unlimited. Through organizations like the Snake River Cutthroats chapter, he has participated in stream restoration, tributary improvements, roadside cleanups, and conservation projects throughout eastern Idaho.

The Eastern Idaho Fly Tying Expo helps support these efforts by generating funds for restoration materials, fencing projects, and ongoing fisheries work. The event also continues a tradition that traces back to the early Fly Fishers International conclaves that helped shape fly fishing education across North America.

Five Flies to Fish Eastern Idaho Lakes This Year

When asked to narrow it down, Paul pointed anglers toward a handful of proven stillwater patterns that consistently produce on waters throughout the region. If you’re planning a trip to Henrys Lake, Hebgen, Mackay, or the surrounding reservoirs, these flies belong in your box.

Paul Bowen’s Must-Have Lake Flies:

  • Micro Leeches
  • Full-Size Leeches
  • Chironomids
  • Bloodworms
  • Scuds

Typical Sizes:

  • Size 12
  • Size 14
  • Size 16
  • Size 18

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Full Podcast Transcript

Episode Transcript
WFS 944b Transcript 00:00:00 Dave: You can fish the same water for years and still feel like you’re only scratching the surface, because sometimes the difference isn’t where you’re fishing, it’s how you’re looking at what’s right in front of you. Today, we’re sitting down with a guy who’s been tying flies and fishing for over fifty years, right in the heart of eastern Idaho, with a South fork of the snake basically in his backyard. And when someone spent that much time on the water and at the vice, you start to see the little things that most people miss. This is the Traveled podcast series where we bring you the best places to fish in the West, and the stories of how this region became what it is today. In this episode, Paul Bowen is here and he’s going to break down everything from Stillwater tactics to fly design and what’s really happening behind some of the most effective patterns out there. Today, you’re going to hear his three fly chironomid setup he uses for covering multiple depths at once. What makes the Thin Mint Leech so effective, and how he modifies it to meet his needs? How you’ve material can trigger fish in ways that we don’t fully understand yet, And what’s really going on at the Eastern Idaho Fly Tying Expo and why it’s more than just tying flies. This episode is presented by Visit Idaho and Yellowstone Teton Territory, home to some of the most diverse and wild trout waters in the West. All right, let’s get into it. Here he is, Paul Bowen. How you doing, Paul? 00:01:19 Paul: Very good. It’s a good day. 00:01:20 Dave: Yeah, yeah. It’s great to have you on the show here. We’re going to talk, uh, a little fly tying, a little fishing. We’re going to get into what you do out there and kind of the eastern Idaho area. We’re going to talk about the the expo that’s coming up, uh, the big fly tying expo, uh, East Idaho Expo. And so we’re going to kind of dig into all that. And I know Stillwater, we just had an episode, uh, Phil Roy, our lateral zone host, just did an episode on Henry’s Lake. So I’m sure you’re familiar with that, uh, you know, that lake, but, um, but take us back real quick on fly fishing. Have you been, uh, you’ve been doing tying in fishing for quite a while. 00:01:54 Paul: Yes. Uh, probably over fifty years. 00:01:59 Dave: That’s a good chunk. What is your home water now? Are you you’re in kind of the Rexburg area. What is the. Would you say is it more Stillwater or river fishing? 00:02:08 Paul: It’s plenty of both. I the South Fork of the snake River is in my backyard. 00:02:14 Dave: And then at the Tying Expo, which is coming up. Actually, this is coming up this weekend as we’re talking here. What are you going to be focusing on at this event? For people that show up and want to see, see you tie in. 00:02:29 Paul: Okay, I’m going to be tying two days both Friday and Saturday. On one day I will be doing a lake patterns Chironomids leeches the other day. This year we have a we have a pin that they give out each year at the expo, and there’s a fly on that. And my fly is a featured PMD merger. And that’s the artist rendition on the pin we’re giving out this year. 00:02:56 Dave: So there you go. Pmdd merger. And is that fly? I guess we can look up the pin. We’ll try to get a photo of that in the show notes. But is that something that you created a long time ago or more recently? 00:03:07 Paul: Uh, I’ve been fishing it for quite a few years. It’s a it’s not original to me. It’s a Quigley cripple that’s been highly modified because a lot of different, different materials, but the basic design is a Bob Quigley Quigley cripple. 00:03:23 Dave: Maybe you could describe that. What is the Quigley uh, that that was a pretty unique pattern. What? Describe that one a little bit. 00:03:29 Paul: Yeah. Bob, when he tied that, he tied it with, uh, a forward facing elk hair wing. And then he had a hackle right behind that with a small dubbing ball behind that. And the body was done with, uh, uh, just pheasant tail. And then it had a trailing shackles. Ellen trailing behind it. 00:03:51 Dave: Yeah, exactly. So and then your pattern. How is it different than that one? 00:03:56 Paul: It’s different that my long trailing chuck also has one strand of UV crystal flash in it. The body is a goose biot, kind of a rusty spinner color. And then that UV crystal flash is also wrapped over the top of that. So there’s a little purple UV highlight to that. That’s probably one of the things that’s most unique about it. Instead of instead of the elk hair wing, minus CDC. 00:04:22 Dave: Oh, and CDC. Okay. And what is the UV? Is that something? Describe that. What is the UV? There’s is that give it a different look under the water. 00:04:31 Paul: Yes. It’s, uh, I mean, I’m a big fan of UV stuff in flies for some reason. Well, fish can see into the UV spectrum and the ultraviolet spectrum further than we can as humans. And for some reason that UV seems to trigger and make a lot of difference. I’ve tied them both ways and the UV works the best, triple hint when the light hits it just right, you know? 00:04:56 Dave: Yeah. Is that UV? Is there a time of day or you know that that is going to work better? Or, you know, when you’re using UV type materials? 00:05:04 Paul: Well, usually efficient for PMD. So it’s kind of a ten to four o’clock pattern. Yeah. That’s when you’re fishing them. 00:05:11 Dave: Yeah. Ten to four. Okay. And on the lakes what are some of the common is, is Henry’s the big one out there that you’re fishing or are there. 00:05:18 Paul: Is probably the closest one to my house, but also Hebgen Lake there in Montana. And then we have some in southern Idaho down about a two hour drive from here. There are several other lakes are smaller lakes, Chesterfield, Daniels. Some people have heard of those, uh, treasure like that, and also Mackey, which would be out west. Mackey reservoirs, a place I spend a lot of time on. 00:05:44 Dave: Yeah. And there’s a bunch out there, right. If you if you go out there, there’s a ton of reservoirs out in that in that area. 00:05:49 Paul: Yeah. Like I say, down south, especially toward the Utah border. And there’s a lot of them. Most of them are small irrigation reservoirs, but they’re fish and fish really well. Mackey’s a larger reservoir. 00:06:01 Dave: And what about Chesterfield? I’ve heard of that one before. Is that a is that a small or big one? 00:06:05 Paul: Uh, it’d be a medium size. It’s not as big as Mackey, but it’s a lot bigger than Daniel’s or, uh, Treasure and Hawkins. 00:06:12 Dave: Nice. What? On your flight timing. When did you start doing the, um, the shows or when did you start getting. Was there a time where you kind of started getting serious, or was this like a slow evolution where you started doing the shows? 00:06:23 Paul: Oh gosh, it’s been a long time. I’m a life member of the was it the Federation of Fly Fishers? It’s now Fly Fishers International, and they used to have a conclave, a week long conclave every year. And I started tying for that. So I doing some programs there and I’d done that for well, since my kids were little tiny kids. Yeah. 00:06:46 Dave: That’s it’s been a while. 00:06:47 Paul: Thirty four years probably. 00:06:49 Dave: Okay, so you’ve been with FFI for like forty years. 00:06:52 Paul: Yeah. Or longer and Trout Unlimited as well. I’m a life member also to you. So. And what’s the connection with the Idaho Falls Club? We have a local FFI club here in Rexburg, but then the life members of both of those organizations. 00:07:08 Dave: Yeah. In Rexburg. So you have an FFI. And the difference between because we hear about FFI and to a lot, you know, they’re similar in some ways and they’re doing a lot of great stuff. Do you see a lot more similarities or differences between the two groups or in what you do with them? 00:07:23 Paul: A little difference in them. But basically the same objective is conservation oriented, you know, and, and education. And both of them do a lot of educational work. And just like the expo, that’s what it’s there to educate people in fly tying. There’s a lot of destination programs and there’s all kinds of commercial booths and that kind of stuff. So. 00:07:43 Dave: That’s right. Because the Idaho has grown a little bit over the years. Right. It feels I feel like it was it’s there’s more vendors now. Do you notice it when you sit out there? The difference between what it’s like now versus back in the old days. 00:07:54 Paul: Oh, absolutely. Rexburg, when I grew up, was a town of about, oh, probably eight thousand people. And now there’s twenty five, thirty zero zero zero plus. BYU Idaho is there. That’s got about another twenty six zero zero zero students to add on top of that. So it’s it’s got quite a bit bigger. Yes. 00:08:13 Dave: Oh yeah. Right. Yeah. So BYU-Idaho is in Rexburg. 00:08:17 Paul: Yes it is. 00:08:18 Dave: Oh okay. I didn’t know that. Yeah. Gotcha. 00:08:20 Paul: Idaho Falls has grown the same way. You know the Idaho National Laboratory, uh, out on the desert there really made Idaho Falls grow. So it’s it’s more than doubled in that same amount of time. Makes the streams more crowded. But that’s okay. 00:08:36 Dave: Does it? Yeah. Are you noticing that a little bit? The streams are a little bit more crowded than they used to be. 00:08:40 Paul: Yes. 00:08:41 Dave: Yeah. I guess that’s kind of everywhere. That’s just part of the part of the thing. And but at the show you are getting for sure. Like describe that a little bit. Like the show. Were you there last year in twenty twenty five? 00:08:52 Paul: Oh, yes. 00:08:52 Dave: What was that show like? How would you describe that? Do you come in there, you ty for a couple days, people come through. Maybe describe your experience at the show. 00:09:00 Paul: Well, the way it’s set up, there’s a lot of commercial booths around. It’s in a bigger event center. And then these tables are set up at any given time. There’s probably seventy five to one hundred tires tying. 00:09:14 Dave: Yeah, there’s a lot. 00:09:15 Paul: Of tables and there’s usually three shifts during the day. So you have three different time periods. And they then they change another tires. Along with that, there’s a lot of destination programs that people can go to, and there’s a fly tying theater, which is just a place where one tire sets for an hour and tie, specifically those kind of things. And workshops. There’s a lot of workshops. Some of them are done with casting all kinds of different types of fishing, fly fishing workshops, plus a lot of youth youth area where they take young kids and they can sit down and tie their first fly. And so it’s just a big educational thing. All the commercial stuff, right? 00:10:00 Dave: Right. And the profits to these go to the FFA. Is that how it works out there? 00:10:05 Paul: Actually this would be this is a two club. Well it’s a two and FFA both snicker cutthroat. But we do a lot of conservation projects. And the money goes to pay for the materials for fencing and styles stuff that we do you know. 00:10:20 Dave: Yeah. What are some of those things that you’re doing? So you’re out there doing some of the conservation work, or you guys do a meet ups and things like that out there in the area? 00:10:29 Paul: Yeah, we’ve the clubs have been ongoing. The snake River cutthroats have been doing a lot of work on tributary streams to the South Fork, uh, stream restoration projects. Of course, everybody kind of ends up with a roadside cleanup every year. And those are some of our biggest things. We’ve done some out towards salmon on some of the steelhead rivers out there, too. In conjunction with Forest Service. And but there’s it gets all over this air general area. There’s a lot of different projects that we do every year. 00:10:58 Dave: So basically conservation education and people that attend the show, that’s kind of, you know, what they’re going to be supporting all that, you know, the local populations of fish. And in that area, what is the, you know, again, at the show, we’re talking tanks. Let’s go to Stillwater’s a little bit. What are your go to Stillwater patterns for fishing? And would you say whether you’re fishing Chesterfield or Henry’s, you’re going to have the same patterns in your box? 00:11:23 Paul: Well, yes, my box is a bag that’s probably got two hundred dozen flies in it. 00:11:28 Dave: Oh, really? Yeah. 00:11:30 Paul: And when I go out on the river, I’ve got two. One with streamers and one with regular flies that are the same way. 00:11:36 Dave: So how do you fish? Uh, like, let’s take it to Chesterfield. What is your boat? Are you using a boat out there or what is your craft? 00:11:43 Paul: I use a boat. Yeah. For years I have a drift boat that I float the rivers with. And I just had a motor on that, that I do. But I just bought a new bass tractor. So I’m going to be using a little bigger boat this year, especially on the bigger lakes like Henry’s and Hebgen Lake. Uh, the little five horse motor doesn’t kick you around very fast. This bass tractor will work a lot better for just for the lake. It’s about the same size. 00:12:08 Dave: Yeah, you have a boat with a decent sized motor on it. 00:12:10 Paul: Yeah, it’s got a fifty horse motor on it, so it’ll move around. 00:12:14 Dave: Nice. Yeah, I’ve heard that on on especially Henry. Some of those like you can get some weather changes pretty quick in there. And the lake can get kind of kind of big. 00:12:21 Paul: Oh yes. And Mackie and Hebgen. 00:12:24 Dave: Yeah. All of them. 00:12:25 Paul: All. All three of them. Can you the smaller ones don’t get as big a waves, but they just get too nasty to cast, you know, when the wind comes up. 00:12:32 Dave: Oh, okay. Okay. And, and what is your selection of flies that you’re going to be tying at the show that you’d probably be using out there on these lakes. 00:12:39 Paul: I’m going to be doing some micro leeches and some full size leeches, and I’ll do several different chironomid patterns bloodworms some that I’ve come up with my own modifications. And there’s just a lot of the ones that are it’s Toronto ones are crazy. You know, if we fish, Toronto was under a strike indicator. Uh, specialized leader actually fished three flies usually. So I’m fishing three different depths. It’s a lot different than what you fish on a river. 00:13:05 Dave: Yeah. It is. So you’re doing indicator with the corona and three different chironomids. 00:13:10 Paul: Sometimes three chironomids. But I’ll probably have a leech of some kind, a balanced leech or a micro leech on the bottom. And then the other two upper flies would be different chironomid patterns or bloodworm and a common, maybe a scud. Now fish are sinking line with a with a stripped leech, and then maybe trail it with a scud behind it. You know, a lot of times. 00:13:32 Dave: Yeah, definitely. So if somebody was going to meet you at the show and when they’re going there, is it typically you’ve got, you know, hundreds of tires, and then people are just kind of filtering through, sitting down in front at a chair watching you tie. Is that kind of how it looks at the show? 00:13:46 Paul: That’s exactly what it’s like. Yes. 00:13:48 Dave: Yeah. And are you when you were, you were there. Are you tying a couple of patterns? Are you sitting there tying, filling your box while you’re there? 00:13:54 Paul: Oh, you give away a lot of flies. 00:13:57 Dave: Yeah. You do. 00:13:58 Paul: Awesome. For iron boxes. Maybe for display for them to look at too. But while I’m tying. But they’ll watch me tie a pattern. I’ll tie one pattern for maybe a half hour or forty five minutes, and then switch to a different pattern and just keep doing it. If I have any extras, I bring them home, put them in a box. Yeah, but a lot of them are just giving away. 00:14:16 Dave: Okay. And what is on that? Maybe take us to one of those chironomids you’re going to tie. What is that? Are these name patterns or just kind of your own creation, you know, variations of other patterns? 00:14:27 Paul: Um, I remember variations of other patterns. I use some that are well known, like, uh, Lance Egan’s Frenchie Pyramid. It’s a good pattern. I used his. You know, if you know Lance. 00:14:39 Dave: Yeah. Oh, yeah. The French, the Frenchy. 00:14:41 Paul: Yeah. It’s a it’s a Frenchy. Corona is what he calls it. This was the one pattern that I use, but it’s one of his patterns. Okay. All kinds of most of the balanced leaches and Chromas, even Bloodworms and Bloodworms was just red worm. But they’re tied in so many different variations. And I have probably five or six different variations and sizes in my box, you know, that I’m using. 00:15:06 Dave: So yeah. What is the tip on those? What’s your variation sizes? How small and how big are you going on? Say that Frenchy, that Lance’s pattern. 00:15:14 Paul: About a size fourteen and that Frenchy. I tie a lot of size fourteen Scud hooks. So they’re smaller, you know, body style on them that size, sometimes sixteen, sometimes down to eighteen, uh, sometimes a two x long curved shank hook, you know, which is a big one. They call those bombers in Canada, but we don’t have any of those great big midges here. Most of them are smaller. So they’re in that, uh, I’d say eighteen to twelve size mostly what we time. 00:15:46 Dave: Yeah, eighteen to twelve. That’s typical size. Okay. And those, those Canada, those bombers, those up there like bigger, bigger than a twelve up there. 00:15:54 Paul: Yes. They are, they come over ten. You know, they’re an inch, inch and a half long. So that’s a big midge. 00:16:00 Dave: Yeah. I see the, uh, fly fish food has a tutorial for the Frenchie aka Silver Lancer. Is that the one? The Stillwater Slayer? Yeah. 00:16:10 Paul: Yeah, that’s that’s the one I that’s effective. I don’t know why it doesn’t look like anything like a Corona, but but it works. Yeah. 00:16:16 Dave: And how is that one different than your typical Frenchie or is I guess the Frenchie has a lot of variations, but. 00:16:22 Paul: Oh, Frenchie is more of a nymph pattern for rivers and basically what it was designed for. But like I say, it works there and some of the patterns will work good in in Stillwater as well as the rivers. You know, it’s just some days fish just eat what they want to eat because it looks different. But things like the thin mint, you know, you’ve probably heard of the good leech pattern. I tie a lot of Thin Mints and trail scud behind it. And that’s again, that’s fished usually on a sinking line, but you can tie a I tie a micro version of that same basic idea, but it’s got different colored hackle and stuff on it. But it’s a small, I don’t know, about a size fourteen jig hook, you know, and so that’ll be right. That’ll be my point. Fly down below and it’ll take some days. They like it, some days they don’t. They like bead. Some days they like orange beads. You know, fish are fickle and no two days are the same. 00:17:19 Dave: Yeah. How do you decide on the bead color? Do you have a favorite color on the beads? 00:17:23 Paul: I think chartreuse is probably the most effective, but there are days when that fluorescent orange or a fluorescent pink or just a plain black one or brown one. They don’t. Don’t need that hot color. So just every day is a different day. Yeah. That’s why we keep fishing. If we ever get out, we quit doing it. 00:17:43 Dave: Exactly. Yeah. Just mix it up. Is that pretty much, you know, however you feel that day. I guess chartreuse, if that’s a good color, start there. And if that’s not working, switch it up on. And would you be doing that on the thin mint. Would you be putting different colors on that pattern? 00:17:56 Paul: Yeah, that same idea. I have those you know, it’s basically a woolly bugger, you know, thin mint, but it’s sometimes just a plain old black wooly buggers. A good leach pattern, you know, works fine. 00:18:07 Dave: Yeah. What makes it a thin mint? I’m looking at a pattern here. It’s got like a olive tail mixed with a brown marabou tail, and it looks like a woolly bugger. What makes it a thin mint versus a woolly bugger? 00:18:18 Paul: Well, it’s got three colors in it, actually. It’s got a mint green color, a black and brown. So there’s three colors stacked in the tail and then, uh, a peacock body, some kind of peacock herl. But I use peacock, uh, ice dub. A dubbing loop is what I use. It’s a little brighter. 00:18:38 Dave: Oh, you use Ice dub for the body instead of peacock? 00:18:41 Paul: Yeah, but in a dubbing loop, so it’s still tight. And then a hackle like you would a brown hackle. Brown hackle. Yeah. Just like you would a regular woolly bugger. 00:18:51 Dave: Yeah. Regular. Okay. I’ve heard um do you know, I mean you’ve I’m sure you know of Bill shish very well. 00:18:57 Paul: I know Bill very well. 00:18:58 Dave: Yeah. I’ve heard some good, uh, good things about Bill. He um I’ve heard that he ties a lot of his or some of his patterns of like these, these buggers type with a much shorter hackle wrapped, right. Instead of a normal size, it might be a couple sizes small. Do you find that that’s something you’ve seen or you do out there? 00:19:15 Paul: Yeah, I do, I do a lot of that, in fact, for Henry Lake. And I don’t know why. That’s why we where we use them the most. I’ve used them in Chesterfield like that or to Mackey. But actually it’s just, uh, like a size sixty fourteen or sixteen saddle hackle. So it’s not tapered, it just goes around and you use crystal chenille, you know, underneath it and they’ll tie it still basically a bugger pattern. But, uh, I don’t know why, but it works. Copper coloured ones work really good, you know, in the fall on Henry Lake. 00:19:45 Dave: Oh the copper do. 00:19:47 Paul: Yeah. 00:19:47 Dave: Nice. So that says so. Something about in that hackle. Why do you think that shorter hackle works better than say a longer. It’s your typical if it was a size you know. Twelve just having the normal twelve hackle versus say a six size sixteen hackle. Why do you think that shorter hackle works. 00:20:03 Paul: Can’t know. I just know that it does. 00:20:05 Dave: It does its bill. Yeah. Goes back to yeah. So and Bill bill actually wrote a book right on Henry’s Lake a while back. 00:20:11 Paul: Yeah. Bill’s got a little book on it. It’s a little outdated, but it’s still a great reference material. I’ve got one back in my flatiron room. 00:20:19 Dave: Yeah, that’s a good one. Okay. And then on the, um, the thin mint, do you know, I’m not sure who tied that. Is that a pattern? I feel like you’ve got the bugger, but you know, at what point does that bugger become the thin mint? What do you think? Or the thing that makes it so unique that it kind of gets its own name? 00:20:35 Paul: Mostly the three colors in the tail and that mint green. I think that’s what they named it as. It’s got that thin mint colored green in between the black and the brown. 00:20:46 Dave: Yeah. And do you know who tied that one? 00:20:48 Paul: I do not. I should know, but I don’t. It’s been around for a long time, though. 00:20:53 Dave: It’s been out for a while. 00:20:54 Paul: Yeah. 00:20:54 Dave: Okay. Yeah, we’ll look that up and see if we can track that down. But, um. But yeah, I think it’s cool. I think these little subtle changes in a fly, right can make a big difference. I feel like that’s, that’s kind of the fun thing about fly tying is you could take a pattern, you know, a standard pattern, you name the pattern and tweak a few things on it. And it can be, it might work, you know, better, right? I mean, how do you decide that when you’re sitting there tying, you’ve got maybe this pattern like the Frenchie or some known pattern that’s been fished. How do you decide what to tweak on it? You know what I mean? Like, like change of color here. Do you just is that just a free flowing kind of artistic type thing or what’s your take? 00:21:28 Paul: Yeah, that basically, but I modify, I tie a lot of standard patterns, but it’s my own version of it. And the reason I think that they work really well is because people go out and especially guides, you know, are using the same stuff out of the fly shop. Most fish see thousands of that pattern, sometimes a little subtle tweaking. It makes all the difference in the world because fish will eat it when they. And I’ve seen that before, I’m not going to eat that, you know? 00:21:56 Dave: Yeah. Right. It’s just a typical like a, a brown woolly bugger that’s just got a, you know, it’s just brown versus say a thin mint, which has definitely a different color. And peacock obviously makes it look flash different in the light. Or like you said, UV, UV materials can give it a different spin. Yeah, yeah. That’s cool. Okay, so we talked to the Thin Mint and then you mentioned the Chironomids. So is that going to be your focus on the first day as tying those kind of two styles. 00:22:22 Paul: Yes it is. I’m going to think I’ll do the coroner and the leeches first. I’d tie a coroner. That’s a. I’ve seen it before from people up in Canada, but it’s. Again, I’ve modified it a little bit, but it uses a, an antistatic bag material, abs, they call it for a base and then it’ll be ribbed with a, a brown or a wine colored wire. And then the uses a brown bead because most of Toronto woods have a brown head. And I put the gills, you know, on it, the white breathers on the front of it. But it’s, it’s done just a little bit different than that. But that’s most of the the general coroner, if you see pictures of most of them are not. They’re silvery color with a definite brown in the joint and the head’s usually brown. And then those, the wing pads are very dominant on them, and so are the gills on the fronts. You know, those breathers. So so I put those on there and it’s usually coated with a UV resin, but the abs is not as bright. But it’s not like silver flash, for instance. It’s too bright. It’s too, too much silver mylar. The abs is just a little bit crazy, you know, it just a little subdued and looks more like the naturals. 00:23:39 Dave: It does. Okay. And is that typically the fishing you’re fishing the chironomid with? Uh, under an indicator? Is that your typical, uh, way you do it? 00:23:49 Paul: Yeah, it’s under an indicator. 00:23:51 Dave: Yeah. Cool. Give us a little heads up on what else. So on day two, what are you going to be tying their day two? 00:23:57 Paul: I’m gonna be tying that most of the day. I’m just going to tie that, uh, emerger because that’s because that’s what the pin is. That’s what the logo is for this year. 00:24:06 Dave: Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. And that’s the merger. That’s the Quigley cripple. Uh, variation. 00:24:11 Paul: Yes. I’ll probably try that for the three hours that I’m dying. Okay. Get a lot of those away because some people want the actual fly to go with their pen, you know? 00:24:20 Dave: Oh, sure. Sure. Yeah. You’re gonna be okay. And the Quigley crippled. Describe that again. Did you know it was Bob Quigley? Was he from that area? 00:24:27 Paul: No, I don’t know where Bob lived. Sure, but he’s a I know the type. You know, he tied all the things right. 00:24:33 Dave: He’s. He tied a few different patterns, including the the Quigley, I feel like is the one that’s kind of the most popular famous pattern. 00:24:40 Paul: It is. Yeah. It is. You know, Mike Lawson and Rene Hair. Those guys have modified it slightly to to they call it the Henry’s Fork cripple. But it’s, you know, very similar to what I do. But I was doing it before they were so. 00:24:55 Dave: Oh, okay. 00:24:56 Paul: It’s the same kind of a thing. We all just. This area has a plethora of some of the finest tires in the world, you know, names like Renee Harrop and Mike Lawson and those guys, you know, they’re they’re all right in this area. 00:25:13 Dave: Yeah. That’s right. Yeah. Renee and Mike and. Yeah, lots. You got a ton of people. That’s the cool thing about it. It feels like that part of the state really. The region is just it’s loaded right with. And I guess that’s because you’ve got these famous waters right, right out your back door. You mentioned the South Fork of the snake and all those areas. 00:25:29 Paul: That’s a lot of it. You know, Mike and Renee are both good friends of mine. I’ve known them for many years. And in fact, I guided for part time for Mike for a while. 00:25:37 Dave: Oh you did? 00:25:38 Paul: Yeah, I was I retired from the body Shop after forty years and I was selling real estate. He called and said, well, can’t you take some extra trips when I. Yeah. Overbooked. And I said, well, I’ll try. It just depends. So they call me the night before and it depended on what my schedule was for the next day. If I could go, I’d go cover. I did the first three or four years with him and. 00:25:58 Dave: Were you fishing the like the South Fork or. 00:26:01 Paul: At the time he was running South Fork Lodge and Henry’s Fork Anglers. And so I was licensed on both of those rivers. It just depended on which shop needed me. And I’d go to either one nameplate because I could just put on those screws on the side of my drift boat, because you had to have to have a name on it, and it’d either be Southfork Outfitters or Henry’s Fork Anglers, just because everyone I was guiding for that day. 00:26:25 Dave: There’s a place where every bend in the river feels like it’s been waiting for you. Where the air smells of sage and pine and trout rise beneath the shadows of the Tetons. That places visit Idaho’s Yellowstone Teton Territory, the heartbeat of fly fishing in the West. From the legendary Henrys Fork to the winding South Fork of the snake. This is where big fish and bigger stories live. You’ll find endless waters welcoming towns and locals who still wave as you drive by with drift boat in tow. This is your starting point for world class fly fishing, year round recreation, and wild country that stays with you long after you’ve packed up your gear. Check it out right now that’s wet fly swing dot com slash Teton T e t o n. Visit Idaho for yourself and support this podcast while you go. How would you like the guiding? Did you enjoy the guiding? 00:27:16 Paul: Yeah, it was fun to try for a while. I wouldn’t want to make a living than doing it. I like to fish too much. I can’t imagine babysitting every day for all summer long. 00:27:25 Dave: Yeah, yeah. It’s hard. It’s a hard job. The guiding is not. I mean, those guides are amazing because they’re they’re doing something that’s not easy to do, right? 00:27:33 Paul: There’s a lot of hard work. Yes it is. 00:27:36 Dave: Yeah. You’re dealing with a lot of different personalities. And then you got to then you got this thing. You got to try to get fish on the line, which is not always a for sure thing, especially I feel like lake fishing. Henry’s I we hear about this, how tough it can be. It can also be really great. Do you feel like overall, what is the. Are there are the lakes out there pretty. Would you say challenging to fish or you know, is Henry’s the most challenging. 00:27:59 Paul: Henry’s has not fished well the last couple of years and I don’t know exactly why. I don’t know when they do their gills sets, you know, to do their populations. The populations have been off for the last two or three years. And so there’s something going on there and they’re still, you know, there’s fishing games, working at it hard, trying to figure it out and try to compensate for it. But it’s just it’s been a tough place to fish the last two or three years. Hebgen is pretty much the same always, but it’s a big lake. There’s a lot of water. It’s, uh, it’s probably two or three times the size of Henry’s Lake. 00:28:35 Dave: Yep, yep. And, and the patterns that we were talking about, the I mean, that’s the thing about the lake fishing. It seems like it’s not on the patterns. It’s not rocket science, you know? Do you think the pattern how critical do you think the pattern is to success out there on these lakes? I guess if the highly pressured lakes, it probably is really important because you’re you’re making yourself stand out. What’s your take on that? 00:28:54 Paul: Well, again, it depends on the day. Yeah. This pattern work today probably won’t work tomorrow. You’re probably gonna have to find a different one. 00:29:03 Dave: Right, right. 00:29:04 Paul: But generally speaking, there’s a few patterns that they’ll, you know, you can always catch a few fish on You just fish until you, you know, you give it fifteen twenty minutes. If you don’t have any luck, you change. 00:29:15 Dave: Yeah. Is that how you do it? So you give it fifteen twenty. And if you’re not getting and you know, because you know the techniques you’re doing work. So if it’s not happening, either the fish aren’t there or it’s the fly. And how do you know that? How do you determine whether maybe you’re in a place where the fish aren’t there versus say, the pattern’s not working. 00:29:31 Paul: Called a fish finder. 00:29:32 Dave: Oh, there you go. That’s it. Yeah. So you use a lot of tech. Is that the key. 00:29:37 Paul: Find the fish in depth so you can see well these fish are holding ten feet. You know you might be in twenty feet of water but the fish are all ten feet. So you set that indicator. So you’re fishing ten feet. It kind of gives you an advantage that way. 00:29:52 Dave: Yeah it does. Do you guys do more? Are you anchoring up in spots or are you like drifting? What are you doing when you’re doing the indicator. 00:29:59 Paul: Indicator on a lake? I’m anchored on both ends of the boat to the wind move you around. You’re not spinning. So you got a front and a rear anchor, and then you just. Usually I cast out with an indicator. I’ll cast it out thirty, forty feet maybe, and then just very slowly walk it back, you know, the hand would retrieve or something or twitch it a little bit and then let it set you just so you’re covering a lot of water, a lot of area that you’re coming back. If stripping, you know, you’re casting way out there and then letting it sink and then you’re stripping it back, you know, either slow with different retrieve speeds and until you find what they like that day, right? 00:30:39 Dave: So anchor up. So you got your two anchors. Well, first you find you have your fish finder. So you find a spot that, you know, there are fish there, anchor up, and then you just sit there on that spot and you kind of find, try to get to the right depth. And then basically, yeah, you can fan cast your way and cover all the water around you. Is that how you do it? 00:30:56 Paul: Yes. Yeah, three hundred and sixty degrees. You know, you’re working your way around and both sides of the boat. And, and if you’re there for, you’ve been there for an hour or an hour and a half, and you still haven’t caught any fish, even though there’s fish there. You go find some happy fish somewhere, right? Because sometimes they’re just not willing to eat. 00:31:16 Dave: Right, exactly. And are most of the lakes out there, you know, boat wise? Are they decent size? So most people have motors out on these boats or on the lakes. 00:31:24 Paul: Yes. But there’s a lot of people in just kick boats. And a lot of the kick boats have got electric trolling motors on them now to get them out there, you know. 00:31:32 Dave: Yeah. Is it busy at the boat ramps occasionally. If you get out there, you know, like you hear some of these rivers in Montana where there’s a lineup of boats putting in. Is it kind of like that at some of these lakes? 00:31:43 Paul: Not very often, but, uh, that you have to wait. You know, you might be there might be three of you trying to put in at once. And so you have to wait for somebody else to get in here. Well, you’re all breaking up. 00:31:53 Dave: That’s it. Not too bad. What about your, um, just going back. It sounds like, you know, pretty much everybody out there. What was it like? You know, when you take us back to that, when you got started, did you start tying flies or fly fishing first? Do you remember that? 00:32:06 Paul: I was actually living down in Pocatello at the time when I decided I wanted to take up fly fishing, and I had a had a friend that run the sporting goods department at Montgomery Ward’s, and I knew he’d done a little bit. So I bought a bargain reel. I think I got eight dollars for the rod and reel and bought a line. I didn’t know anything about matching. I didn’t know anything about what I was doing. I just it was a level line. And who knows whether it was even the right size or not. But I went to him and I says, what flies do I need? And I says, I want to buy just a dozen flies. And he says, well, what size do you want? And I says, well, I don’t know, sixes or so I that’s what I use for spinner and worm, you know. All right. He says, well, he says, I wouldn’t do that. He says, if I were you, I’d tie you some small ones. And I says, well, what size do I want? And he says, sixteen and I says, sixteen. How can I ever hold a fish on a sixteen, right? But anyway, I listened to what he said and I bought twelve flies, twelve different patterns, some three pound test leader and I headed out to the Portneuf and went fishing. You did? I wasn’t a very good instructor back then. Yeah. 00:33:19 Dave: But you got started, right? 00:33:21 Paul: I started and I and the flies were, I thought, expensive back then. They were probably thirty five cents or something like that, you know, but. 00:33:29 Dave: Yeah. 00:33:29 Paul: Right. But anyhow, I, my, I had a friend that I fished with and our wives bought us a, a cheap fly tying kit for Christmas that year. And I had a brother in law that lived in Idaho Falls who was a, I knew was a fly tyer and fly fisherman. I went and talked to him. He gave me a little book. It’s called A Tie Your Own Flies. It was just a little thin paperback book, and I went and taught myself how to tie a size sixteen Adams. 00:33:56 Dave: There you go. 00:33:57 Paul: It wasn’t long before you taught me some of those, too. And so I work in a little commercial thing in and out of my house, you know. 00:34:06 Dave: Oh, you did, so you did some commercial. 00:34:08 Paul: So I, but I started with size sixteen flies. Well, that teaches you a lot. That stuff’s a lot harder to tie than size six wooly buggers, you know. 00:34:19 Dave: Yeah, right. 00:34:20 Paul: And I did that cause I was down in nineteen seventy seven. I moved back to Rexburg, back where I was from right after the Teton Dam broke and had the flood. And I tied a little bit commercially here off and on for different people. And it’s just just evolved. I’ve just been doing it for over fifty years. Like I say, that was a long time ago when I started. 00:34:41 Dave: Yeah, that was that was fifty. Yeah, that was definitely a nice chunk of time ago. And so the Teton Dam, yeah, we’ve heard about that was Rexburg, the town that got kind of wiped out from the dam. 00:34:50 Paul: Yes. 00:34:51 Dave: Oh, wow. Yeah. So your hometown where you grew up got wiped out. 00:34:54 Paul: Yeah. Like I said, I didn’t really grow up in town. I live about eight miles out of town, like I say, right on the banks of the South Fork of the snake River. In fact, I bought two acres of my dad’s farm and built a house on it so that I’m right back where I was born and raised. 00:35:07 Dave: Oh you did? Yeah, yeah. Gosh, yeah. That Teton Dam was quite a thing. And pretty much to this day, now it’s just been free flowing right since that nineteen seventy six time. 00:35:16 Paul: It has. There’s a lot of talk about putting it back in again now, but I don’t know how that’s going to happen. But maybe. 00:35:23 Dave: Yeah. It sounds like it’s a pretty cool river as it is free flowing. Is it one of the only free flowing streams kind of out there? Most of them have dams, right? 00:35:31 Paul: Yeah. All of them. I mean, the South Forks got the Palisades Dam on its huge Henrys forks, got Island Park Reservoir and Henrys Lake on it. But that’s at the very headwaters. And it’s so they are freestone streams. Henrys fork is kind of unique because it’s kind of it really is a huge spring Creek because there’s like the Buffalo River that flows into. It is entirely spring fed and. And Big Springs is the headwaters running into Highland Park Reservoir, and Henry’s Lake has a lot of springs, so it’s more of a hybrid Spring Creek and Freestone than it is a. Like the South Fork of the tree of a Freestone stream, you know, would be classified as such. But the fall River is one that you probably never heard of. But it’s no. There is one small lake way up almost on the park boundary of Yellowstone Park. It’s just a small lake, but it’s just for irrigation storage and it doesn’t affect the flows much. So it’s pretty much a natural flow. River. The Teton, of course, is all natural flow as it goes. 00:36:39 Dave: Yeah. What was the, uh, you’ve done some workshops at the expo. Is that something you’re doing this year? 00:36:44 Paul: I’m not this year. Last year I worked my tail off. 00:36:47 Dave: What did you do last year? What was the workshop you did last year? 00:36:50 Paul: Yeah, it was just fly tying workshop I think we created in that two hour period. We probably did eight or ten patterns. You know, they were intermediate to advanced tires. They weren’t beginners. 00:37:02 Dave: Okay. So the difference on the workshop is you have the like just for those that haven’t been there, you’ve got all these tires that are out there on the floor where you’ve got hundreds of tires, they can come and just sit down next to you. And then you have workshops which are more focused for like, uh, you know, intermediate level where you sit down with people and show them how to tie these flies. How is it? What’s the difference between like that workshop and just sitting on the floor and watching people? 00:37:24 Paul: Well, it’s a classroom for one thing. They’ve got their own fly tying vise. They’re usually everything’s projected up on a screen behind me or a big TV or screen, so they can see what I’m doing. And we just take them step by step through the flies. I mean, that’s one way that’s done. I’ve done them on just South Fork patterns before, and there’s several different types of workshops like that. People do all kinds of things like that. And so they’re that way. Some of them are two days long. Some of them are only just half a day, you know. Four hours. And that’s the type of workshops. That’s what I did last year, was just it was just multiple patterns. But we went through, I think, eight or ten patterns in the four hours that we went through. And some of them get it and some of them was over their head and but they we got the idea. 00:38:12 Dave: Yeah, they got the idea. Exactly. Yeah. I’m looking at the, uh, some of the workshops here this year. It looks like there’s a women’s workshop, a tying workshop, which sounds like that’s what you were doing. They got, um, Scott Sanchez who will be there. He’s been on the podcast, um, and then some casting workshops, fishing. Yeah. So I mean, pretty much a little bit of everything. Even Brian O’Keefe’s going to be there doing a photography session. 00:38:32 Paul: So yeah, we do a lot of also besides the workshops, there are destination programs. They’re usually an hour long. You know, it used to be Scott goes, now it’s all, you know, done with computers and projectors, but it’s, uh, and I’ve done a lot of those over the years, both at the conclaves and yeah. 00:38:50 Dave: So like fishing, like if you wanted to fish Henrys Lake, you would do a session on. Here’s what it’s going to, what it’s going to be like. 00:38:57 Paul: Or the South Fork or you’re doing, you know, just there’s, there’s all kinds of destination stuff, people coming in for this because it’s a pretty big event. Now they come in from there might be they may have a fly shop or a outfitting business in Alaska and they’ll come to Alaska program or, you know, there’s anyway that type of destination stuff. And people can go to those. There’s, there’s, they change every hour, you know, all through the day they can do. That’s the other things they can do. At the expo, Moscow kind of came out of the Federation of Fly Fishers used to have that conclave. It was for a week. And they that’s what they do there. And all the commercial stuff and tires and all these programs and work and stuff. And, uh, t u group there in Idaho Falls decided they’d do. And in fact, I think they called it a mini conclave. The first one they did. And instead, rather than an expo. But it really originated in Idaho Falls. That’s where it all started. 00:39:55 Dave: Oh, it did like the first one. 00:39:57 Paul: First one? Yeah. And now there’s a lot of, you know, one in Utah, there’s one in Boise or, you know, they’re all over now that they’re doing this same thing patterned after what we did there. 00:40:07 Dave: Oh, right. So East Idaho, so the east and it’s the thirtieth annual this year. So if you if you go back, that puts us into what does that put us into the whatever the date there thirty years ago. But it’s. So the first one was back in thirty years. Is that kind of where we’re at? That was the first conclave or before that? 00:40:24 Paul: That’s correct. Well, the conclaves have been going on before that with the Federation of Fly Fishers, but they were a week long and where this was just a one or two day event, you know, these X. So it’s a mini version of what the conclave used. 00:40:38 Dave: I see. And the conclave. So you went to some of those conclaves. 00:40:41 Paul: Yes. I did programs there and I tied flies. And yeah, I used to take my family to it Trying to teach my wife how to fly fish. And you know, you can only do so much tracing your own life and that Lee and Joan Wolf put on a school for three days. And I put her in that, and that really polished her off. She can handle a fly rod real well now. 00:41:02 Dave: Oh, she went to she went to Joan’s school. 00:41:04 Paul: Yeah. I put her in that school. 00:41:05 Dave: Oh, cool. 00:41:06 Paul: But my kids in what they call the youth conclaves all week long, they were doing little classes on entomology and fly tying and casting on the streams, and they’d seen some bugs and, you know, so that’s how my kids grew up too, was going to those each year. 00:41:22 Dave: Yeah. And then the conclaves, what happened? They just slowly they phased out and went to these expos. Is that kind of was that a quick transition there? 00:41:29 Paul: I think it kind of did. It slowly phased out. I can’t I kind of quit going to them because I’d been so many years and and they were good because they brought in big names. You know, I, I met Lefty Cray and Gary Borger and Gary Lafontaine and Mel Krieger. 00:41:44 Dave: And where were those conclaves at? 00:41:46 Paul: Those were held all over the West. Yellowstone was where lots of them were done. Then they moved the headquarters to Livingston, Montana, and it was done there. And then as the thing got bigger and bigger, they started doing them all over the United States. They’d do them back east one year, and then they’d do them out west another year. And. But they’ve completely quit doing those now. They, they do a lot of stuff with the certified casting casters. In fact, I was one of the first two certified flight instructor flight instructors. 00:42:16 Dave: Oh no kidding. 00:42:17 Paul: The FFA program, me and a lady guide from Montana were the only two that passed the class. Mel Krieger that class that year. 00:42:26 Dave: Oh really? 00:42:27 Paul: We were the two that passed, and the rest of them had to come back another year to work on it a little bit. 00:42:32 Dave: Yeah. What year was that when you passed your class there? 00:42:35 Paul: Yeah, I can’t remember. 00:42:36 Dave: Somewhere in the eighties. 00:42:37 Paul: A long time ago. That was when the conclave was in Kalispell, Montana that year. 00:42:42 Dave: Okay. Kalispell. Right. 00:42:44 Paul: That’s where I was at. now there was a board of governors in these different. They were all over in the United States teaching these things. But that’s where they’d go. So these kind of shows and stuff. Certified people and you could go do it. And it’s expanded now into the Spey casting and and there’s master series and stuff. I, I don’t, I quit paying the dues every year and to certify. 00:43:06 Dave: Yeah. 00:43:07 Paul: The idea was that it was like a golf pro. They get people so that everybody was teaching kind of the same type of thing. That was the idea behind it. So we were teaching hit and miss kind of stuff. But it was, you know, casting clinics over the years and stuff around here for our local club. 00:43:24 Dave: Yeah, it makes sense. And, and so now it’s pretty much the smaller events. 00:43:28 Paul: It’s kind of taken the place of the conclave. And like I say, the fly Fisher International doesn’t do that anymore. Don’t do those conclaves anymore. But it’s got to be a worldwide organization now. And they just do lots of different things. But their biggest thing right now, like I say, is these casting instructors and those kinds of things. 00:43:48 Dave: Yeah, that’s the big thing. Yeah. It feels like right now FFI is yeah, the casting certification is huge. And then they’re still doing lots of education and conservation, right? That’s a big part of it. But yeah, and that’s what when you go back to the Mountain American Center right here, the Idaho Fly Tying Expo, it’s like you said, it’s Trout Unlimited and FFI, it’s a co almost co-branded kind of event or it’s supporting both. 00:44:09 Paul: Yeah it is because they’re both of them. Like I said, your expert club is just FFI, but the Idaho Falls one is T u and FFI and I’m like members of t u and FFI. So like I belong to both of them automatically. 00:44:24 Dave: Yeah. You’re part of them. Yeah. You can’t get out, right? You’re a lifetime member. You’re in it. Well, let’s take it out here quick with our kind of our tips and tricks segment. And today we’re going to be focusing, as we mentioned, the East Idaho show. We’re going to hopefully get people fired up to attend if they’re out there. But it’s in Idaho Falls. So Rexburg, Idaho Falls, how far is that from you? From where you live there. 00:44:44 Paul: To just over twenty miles from Idaho Falls? 00:44:47 Dave: Yeah. Twenty miles. Okay. And do you find people are coming in just from the surrounding, you know, Idaho kind of the you get a mix of people coming from outside of Idaho there. 00:44:56 Paul: Yes. In fact, the tires will be on a. Utah to curb on the other side of the state. Boise. But sometimes from California. Yeah, we we have some big name tires that come in. Scott Sanchez of course, he’s out of Wyoming and out of Jackson area. And so, you know, Colorado and it’s it’s a big deal. 00:45:18 Dave: Yeah. It is. And like you said, it’s the first. I mean, this was what you’re saying is this East Idaho show is essentially a one of the first of these of its kind when it started. 00:45:28 Paul: Yeah, it was one of the first, if not the first one that was done on this smaller basis like that. Well, we did a conclave, an EF conclave in Idaho Falls one year. We sponsored the whole thing. 00:45:42 Dave: Yeah, and that’s the snake River. Snake River cutthroats is kind of your, uh, the nonprofit local chapter. 00:45:47 Paul: Yes. 00:45:48 Dave: Snake River cutthroats. Okay. And, uh. Well, we’ll have a link out to the. It looks like it’s s r c expo dot org. Um, and that’s, I guess, snake River cutthroats expo dot org. That’s it’s got everything updated. I can see that on the site. What are your. Let’s take it back to the flies as we go out and take it out of here. Give us a pattern. You know we’re going to be heading to fish that area this year. What are like maybe five patterns that you got to have to fish. You know, some of those lakes out in that area. 00:46:14 Paul: Lakes you’re going to want micro leeches as well as full size leeches and chironomids. 00:46:20 Dave: Yep. Any size like you’re saying twelve to eighteen. 00:46:23 Paul: Yeah. Twelve to eighteen sixteen and fourteen is probably the the most common. Bloodworms. You’ll want Scuds. You want that basic that’ll cover the lake stuff for the rivers. You know, you’re going to want to have your typical all your Pmdd patterns. You’re going to have green drakes, grey drakes, the big mayflies. We have those here and all kinds of streamers. You know, these big rivers out here, this big Western rivers are great for streamers fishing. 00:46:55 Dave: Do you do more of the streamer fishing on your rivers or more, or you mix up a little bit? 00:47:00 Paul: Uh, I’m going to be mixed up a little bit. I may start early in the morning with a streamer, and as the day warms up and the hatches start, then I’ll switch to dry flies or nymphs, and I’ve usually got three rods rigged up in the boat at the same time. So I just switch. 00:47:14 Dave: Right. And you got the new boat. So this is a brand new boat that you’re the first time you’ve used it out there. 00:47:19 Paul: Yeah, I used it just one day. I put it on the water, but the motor’s not broke in yet. So I’m planning to go again Thursday this week. So. 00:47:26 Dave: Oh cool. What was your boat before. So you had a drift boat before this. 00:47:29 Paul: Yeah, I drift boat that I used. I had another friend that had another boat with a thirty five horse. You know, I Faced with him a lot, but I just decided I’d try to get me a regular lake boat as well as the drift boat. 00:47:43 Dave: Yeah, and the lake boat that you got. Remind us again, what’s the style or the company? 00:47:47 Paul: It’s, uh, call it a bass tracker then by Bass Pro. 00:47:51 Dave: Okay. Yeah. So it’s got a little cut. It’s got a V cut in it and it’s kind of made for lakes. 00:47:57 Paul: It’s great. Flat bottom. 00:47:59 Dave: Does it have a standing platform on it so you can cast off of the deck. 00:48:03 Paul: Yeah. Both front and rear. 00:48:04 Dave: Oh it’s got. Yeah I see it now. Okay. Yeah. It looks sweet. Wow. And it’s got like a what, eighteen foot or sixteen foot. 00:48:10 Paul: It’s sixteen. That’s the exact same size as my drift boat basically as far as the side. 00:48:15 Dave: But oh it is just different. It looks way. I mean I’m a drift boat guy, so I know, I know drift boats are great because they’re kind of the they’re like the Swiss Army knife of boats, right? They can kind of do everything. But you know, specializing this. I could see it’s got the decks. It’s got a seat up there. I mean, you’re comfortable, you’re up on top. You can see better. I mean, when you fish out of it, you must be excited because this is probably going to be a game changer, having better visibility and all that stuff. Or what are your thoughts? Or is it more comfort? 00:48:41 Paul: Yeah it is. It’s like I say, the one I’ve been fishing. My friend has the one that I’ve been using, but it’s a, it’s a V haul, but it’s all open and it has a, you know, flat areas to where you can stand to fish. So it’s just a modified version. It’s a little higher platform than. 00:48:57 Dave: Yeah, yours is decked over. You have those, you have the higher decks right where you’re sitting. Cool. Well, that’s, that’s the boat. We always love a little boat talk. What about your vice? What do you tie in there? Do you tie with one vice? Have you been using the same vice for years? 00:49:09 Paul: Well, yeah, I have three vices, but what’s your. 00:49:12 Dave: What are you using at the show? 00:49:14 Paul: Regal vice, when I’m tying great big streamers. Because nothing that holds a hook like a Regal Vice, it just does. But I tie most of the time on a barracuda. 00:49:25 Dave: Is that the name of the brand, or is that a style? 00:49:27 Paul: Uh, it’s one of the models of it. 00:49:29 Dave: It’s a oh, of a yeah, I see it. Yeah. Dynacin the Dynacin barracuda. 00:49:33 Paul: Yeah. now I’m brain dead here this morning. 00:49:35 Dave: Yeah. No, we got it. 00:49:37 Paul: A seventy seven year old man, you know, his memory’s not as good as it used to do. 00:49:40 Dave: That’s right. No, I have a Danny King. Those are my two two Diana King and Regal. But, yeah, Diana Kings are great. So you got you got that. And then, um. And then what about the show when you go out there, are you, uh, are you going up tie in for the day? I guess it’s just a two day event. So you arrive, you tie Friday. Is it Friday and Saturday? Is that typically how it works? 00:49:56 Paul: Yes, it’ll be Friday and Saturday. And I think I’ve got a I think there’s four sessions during the day. And so it’s the mid or the late morning session. So like like ten to one or two or something like that. 00:50:08 Dave: Okay. And what about if we were going to be attending the show, we were going to be looking for some dinner in the evening. Do you have any recommendations on where we’d go out there in that area? Is there some good restaurants? 00:50:18 Paul: Yeah, there’s some very good restaurants. Idaho Falls has a plethora of restaurants of all types and sizes. The banquet is Saturday night. If you can get tickets for the banquet, that’s. 00:50:28 Dave: Oh, the bank, the banquet at the show. At the event. 00:50:31 Paul: At the event? Yeah. 00:50:32 Dave: That’s what you’d recommend. Yeah. Get tickets for the banquet. 00:50:35 Paul: I’m eating. That’d be good. And then you can get in on the auction items. And that’s the other thing. During the day, there’ll be a lot of silent auction stuff and people can do besides the commercial booths, you can do stuff like that all day long. 00:50:48 Dave: Amazing. It sounds like a great event. I’m excited. Are you are you planning on continuing to go? Uh, you know, in upcoming years as well? 00:50:56 Paul: Yeah, probably for foreseeable future. I think of the thirty years I think I’ve only missed like twice or three times. 00:51:04 Dave: That’s cool. 00:51:05 Paul: I saw the first one. 00:51:07 Dave: Yeah. What is it when you go there, what do you love most about these. Going to these tying these just the event in general. What do you love about them. 00:51:14 Paul: A lot of us seeing a lot of people that you know, you only see there, you got acquainted with them and they come back year after year and make those acquaintances. Those are fun. And it’s always good to see the new equipment, you know, that comes out and there’s a casting pond, you can try a new rod, whatever you want to do. That’s my thing of it. You know, I do it all. Sit down. And, you know, I’ve never met anybody I couldn’t learn something from yet. So it’s good to sit down in front of a tire and watch him and pick up another technique or two. 00:51:41 Dave: And definitely, yeah, lots of good tire. And there’s going to be a lot of the we’ve had quite a few of them on the podcast, but there’ll be a mix of people tie in from not just for that area, right? Like you said, there’ll be tying patterns from all over the region. 00:51:54 Paul: Oh, yeah. There are you may have people trying Atlantic salmon flies, you know, for flight and, and watch them do that. There’s there’s everything you can imagine. 00:52:05 Dave: Yeah, it’s all there. Cool. Well, this has been this has been great. Paul. We’ll send everybody out to, um, we mentioned it before s r c expo dot org. And, uh, and they can take a look and connect with you there at the show and, and all the other great tires. So we’re excited for this. I appreciate your time, Paul, and we’ll look forward to hopefully meeting you in person and see you at the show. 00:52:25 Paul: Okay. Very good. Thank you. 00:52:28 Dave: I hope you enjoyed that one. If you want to connect, uh, with the fly tying Expo, you can go to Expo dot com. And better yet, put on the calendar for March and plan on attending. You can see Paul in person and some of the other great fly tyers that have been at the show that are going to be there this year. So please do that and mark your calendar for March and, uh, and check it out. Snake River cutthroats, the Expo. It’s a good one. I want to let you know that you can check in with me anytime. Send me an email Dave at web dot com. I always love to hear from either new listeners or people I haven’t connected with in a while. Let me know you heard this podcast. Would love to hear if it was helpful. And I want to thank you again for tuning in today. And we’re going to get out of here. I hope you get a chance to explore some new waters and experience that road less traveled. We’ll talk to you then.
Eastern Idaho Stillwater

Conclusion with Paul Bowen on Eastern Idahol Stillwater Fly Fishing and Fly Tying

This episode is a reminder that even after fifty years on the water, there is always something new to learn. Whether it’s a small material change, a new chironomid variation, or a conversation with another fly tier, the pursuit never really ends.

If you’re interested in stillwater fly fishing, fly design, or connecting with some of the best fly tiers in the West, this conversation with Paul Bowen offers plenty of ideas to take back to your own waters.

     

944 | Water Master Rafts with Rich Stuber – Lightweight Boats, Bitterroot, River Access

Some rivers don’t reward bigger boats. They reward smarter access.

Water Master Rafts have built a reputation for helping anglers reach water that bigger boats often can’t. In this episode, Rich Stuber joins me to share the story behind the company, how he went from employee to owner, and why portability has become such a big part of the way many anglers fish today.

We get into what makes Water Master boats different, from their unique design and welded construction to rowing, fins, stability, and fishing rivers solo. Rich also shares some insights from his home waters in Montana, including the Bitterroot River, Salmonfly season, and a few surprises showing up in the fishery these days.

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(The full episode transcript is at the bottom of this blogpost) 👇🏻

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Show Notes with Rich Stuber on Water Master Rafts

Rich Stuber joins me to talk about the evolution of Watermaster, the unique design behind their boats, and how anglers are using them to access skinny water, remote tributaries, mountain lakes, and technical river sections.

We get into rowing, fins, stability, whitewater performance, and why Watermaster has built its reputation around durability and safety.

We also cover Montana fishing, the Bitterroot River, Salmonfly season, and why northern pike are now showing up farther upstream than ever before.

Rich Stuber’s Water Master Story

(00:01:17) Rich didn’t plan on owning a raft company when he graduated from the University of Montana with a business degree. A friend told him about an opening at Water Master that combined business and fly fishing.

What started as a job quickly turned into a long-term opportunity. Rich spent the next five years learning every part of the business before purchasing the company in 2006 and launching Big Sky Inflatables, the home of Water Raster Rafts.

Today, the company operates out of the Bitterroot Valley, where customers can stop by, tour the facility, and see how the boats are assembled.

Watch this YouTube video on the Water Master Story:

Water Master Rafts

(02:46) Rich explained that their boats are designed to be lightweight, durable, and easy to transport. Their boats give anglers access to water that can be difficult to reach with a traditional drift boat or raft.

The Kodiak and Grizzly

The Grizzly is Water Master’s original design and dates back to the late 1980s. It’s the smallest and lightest boat in the lineup, making it a great choice for anglers who want something they can pack into mountain lakes, travel with, or keep ready for spontaneous fishing trips.

The Kodiak was developed later and quickly became one of Water Master’s most popular models. It only weighs a few pounds more than the Grizzly but offers more room for gear, greater carrying capacity, and larger tubes that help it ride higher in the water.

Both boats feature Water Master’s signature open-bow design, which allows anglers to use fins for better control and easily step out to wade fish when they reach a productive gravel bar.

The Bruin

For anglers who want more space, Water Master offers the Bruin, a larger raft designed for one to three people. Rich says it gives you the feel of a bigger boat without the weight and hassle that usually comes with it.

Some of the key features include:

  • Lightweight design at about 135 pounds fully rigged with frame and oars
  • Self-bailing system rated for Class IV whitewater
  • Room for extra gear, coolers, and additional passengers
  • Stable platform that makes it easier to stand and cast

One feature Rich highlighted is the independent drop-stitch floor. Unlike many rafts that simply place a floor on top of drain holes, the Bruin’s design moves water out quickly while keeping the standing area dry. The floor also sits level with the tubes, helping the boat stay efficient and responsive on the water.

Rich compares it to a sports car: lightweight, quick, and built to handle a wide range of conditions.

Take a look at the video of the Water Master Bruin:

All Water Master boats are rated for Class IV whitewater, including the Kodiak. Rich says the biggest factor isn’t the boat, it’s the person rowing it.

Water Master Rafts: Built to Last

(00:19:12) Rich says one of the biggest differences with Water Master boats is how they’re built.

Instead of glued seams, Water Master uses thermal-welded seams. The materials are fused using heat and pressure, creating a bond that’s designed to last for years of use.

A few things Rich highlighted:

  • Thermal-welded seams instead of glue
  • Polyester fabric for added tear and puncture resistance
  • Minimal stretch, creating a rigid and efficient hull
  • UV-resistant material to help prevent fading and wear
  • Lifetime warranty offered since 2006

To back up his point, Rich still fishes from one of the first boats he built more than 20 years ago.

Watermaster still builds and assembles every boat in Stevensville, Montana. If you’re passing through the Bitterroot Valley, you can stop by the shop, check out the showroom, and see where it all comes together.

More Than Just a Fishing Raft

Rich says Water Master boats are used all over the world, from Canada and Japan to New Zealand, Europe, and Australia.

Part of the appeal is their versatility:

  • Small enough for ponds, lakes, and backcountry waters
  • Capable of handling rivers and bigger lakes
  • Compatible with fins, anchors, and even small motors on larger models
  • Popular with anglers, duck hunters, and outdoor adventurers

The Kodiak and Grizzly can be packed into a backpack along with the oars, seat, pump, and other essentials. Once inflated, the built-in handles make them easy to carry to the water.

Water Master Rafts

Is Water Master a Good Boat for Beginners?

Rich said the Kodiak and Grizzly are often the easiest boats for new users to feel comfortable in.

A few reasons why:

  • They’re stable. Rich said you can lean over or even sit on the side tube without feeling like you’re going to flip.
  • They’re durable. Bumping rocks, sticks, and other obstacles isn’t a major concern.
  • The rowing system is simple. The fixed-pin setup keeps the oars in position and removes much of the learning curve.
  • They track well in current. Unlike some boats that constantly want to spin, the Kodiak and Grizzly stay on line and are easy to control.
  • They’re easier to manage in the wind. Rich says the low-profile design and larger footprint help keep the boat from getting pushed around compared to higher-riding boats like some pontoons.

For Rich, that all adds up to one thing: confidence on the water.

Why Doesn’t Water Master Use More Rocker?

Rich says Water Master designs its boats around fishing first.

Instead of using aggressive rocker like many whitewater-focused boats, Water Master keeps more tube in contact with the water. According to Rich, that means:

  • Better tracking
  • More stability
  • Less draft in shallow water
  • More control while fishing

As he put it, more contact with the water generally means more stability and more control.

Rich Stuber - Water Master Rafts
Rich Stuber – Water Master Rafts

What’s the Best Way to Learn to Row?

If you’re new to rowing, Rich recommends starting on stillwater or a slow-moving river before tackling bigger water. His biggest piece of advice is to learn how to back row.

When an obstacle shows up downstream, most people instinctively row toward it and try to outrun it. Rich says that’s exactly what you don’t want to do. Instead, point the boat slightly away from the obstacle and start back rowing to slow yourself down and give yourself more time to react.

He suggests practicing around imaginary obstacles until it becomes second nature. As Rich puts it, there’s no need to panic and start rowing as hard as you can. Just take smooth, solid strokes and stay in control.

What Do People Get Wrong About Water Master Boats?

According to Rich, most misconceptions come from the fact that Water Master boats don’t look like other rafts. The design can seem unusual at first, but it’s built around stability, portability, and fishing performance.

Price is another question he hears often. While Water Master boats sit at the higher end of the market, Rich says the welded construction, lifetime warranty, and long-term durability set them apart.


Connect with Rich Stuber

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WFS 944 Transcript 00:00:00 Dave: Some rivers don’t reward bigger boats, they reward quieter access. Today we’re talking about lighter rafts, skinny water, technical floats, and the kind of access that changes the way you fish a river. Rich Stuber from Watermaster Rafts joins us today to break down why more anglers are moving to smaller, more portable setups that let them reach water most people never touch. Rich is going to share the story behind Watermaster, how he bought the company back in two thousand and six, and why their boats are built completely differently than most inflatables on the market. This is the Wet Fly Swing podcast, where I show you the best places to travel to for fly fishing, how to find the best resources and tools to prepare for that big trip, and what you can do to give back to the fish species we all love. In this episode, Rich is going to talk about the rocker and why the rocker design can actually hurt a fishing raft. We’re going to find out how anglers are fishing rivers hands free with fins. This isn’t just Stillwater. We talk about that today. We’re gonna find out why stability matters more than speed on moving water and the advantages of low profile rafts in heavy wind. Plus, we’re going to get into Salmonfly season floating Montana tributaries and how Pike are showing up on the Bitterroot River. You can find Rich at water Masterrafting dot com. Here he is rich Stuber. How you doing, Rich? 00:01:17 Rich: I’m doing well. 00:01:18 Dave: Great to have you on here today. We are going to get the story, a little bit of the story, the products and everything you have going. We’ve seen you out there for quite a while. You’ve got a product that works really well and we’re going to get the details on it. I know steelhead anglers, but really I think you kind of cover it all. So we’re going to touch on that and see what else we can do to get people geared in here. So start us off a little bit with your connection to Water Master. How did you first come into working with this brand? 00:01:45 Rich: I goes back to two thousand and one, and I just got out of college, University of Montana, and had a business degree and got, you know, your typical first job out of out of college. And it wasn’t super fun. Um, and a friend of mine just said, hey, I’ve got this opening at a place I work at Watermaster. We make rafts. Um, I know you’re a fly fisherman. Might be kind of cool. I was like, I’ll, I’ll do it. Yeah, sounds like fun. So I ended up working there for five years. Um, and then in two thousand and six, I ended up buying out the company, buying out all the inventory and all that and starting big Sky inflatables, home of the Watermaster. Um, and I’ve been doing it ever since. Uh, I’ve since moved from Missoula down the Bitterroot Valley to Stevensville. Um, have a nice big shop and showroom and everything right on my property. Uh, so that makes it really nice and close to home, but far enough away. Um, you know, so in a beautiful spot. So not too bad. 00:02:46 Dave: Yeah, not too bad. That’s cool. And what is it on? Maybe for those that are new to this that haven’t seen your boats out there, describe how maybe they’re different than some of the other rafts and things floating, you know, vessels that are out there. 00:02:59 Rich: Yeah. So I mean, we’ve got two featured like designs. We’ve got the smaller, uh, Kodiak and grizzly, the packable go in the backpack breakdown. Um, you can travel with them, fly with them, throw them the trunk of your car, um, just hassle free. And if you’re fishing by yourself, it really does just allow you to, to get into places that you wouldn’t otherwise with a big boat, with a trailer draft. So and then we have the Bruin, which is the bigger two to three person raft, the frame, um, again, lightweight one hundred and thirty five pounds all in, um super durable. So what we offer and what we always focus on is a combination of, you know, whitewater rugged durability, um, longevity, um, combined with, um, like adventure type rafts in a way that, you know, the raft isn’t what’s holding you back. So everything’s portable, everything’s, um, lighter weight, Everything’s easy to set up. So we try to make everything very convenient because again, more and more people on the water these days, it’s harder and harder to find a place to to fish, to get a spot, to get a float without thirty boats, putting it in front of you. And so with our boats, all of our models, it really opens up the access. And a lot of folks, you know, a lot of products out there claim access. But when you’re dealing with, let’s say the Kodiak, that’s twenty seven pounds and, you know, thirty two with a set of oars and a seat on it, you know, it just takes nothing to carry that in wherever you want to go. Uh, and even the brewing at one hundred and thirty five pounds, you know, it can be out of the back of your truck or off top of your car and, and down a hill. And, you know, it just opens up a lot of, lot of areas, a lot of spots that, you know, reduce people. 00:04:42 Dave: That’s cool. Is the Kodiak, and that’s the one I’m looking at now is the Kodiak the same basically model that was out there, you know, even before you took over the company. 00:04:52 Rich: Uh, so no, the grizzly is the original grizzly is the smallest of the boats we make. It’s the lightest. That’s the original design actually, going back to the late eighties, um, before my time. Um, but when I started there, that was when the Kodiak was really, um, conceived and then became really the, the forerunner in a way, because it only weighs four pounds more and it offers a lot more room for gear, a lot more, uh, weight capacity to take advantage of that space. Um, bigger tubes and more tube on the water just means it draws less water. So it actually sits up higher in the water and draws less than the grizzly. The grizzlies is great if you’re weight conscious. If you’re packing this in, want to do some mountain lakes, you know, want to just throw it in your RV and travel across the country and have something with you? The Grizzlies is awesome. All of our boats are really focused on stability and durability, because safety, I think, is should be the number one concern when you’re creating a boat. Um, you know, water isn’t anything to mess with rivers, lakes, current wind, you know. 00:05:59 Dave: Right. Yeah. Whitewater. 00:06:02 Rich: Whitewater, even just a downed tree in a in a mild river, um, can be a problem and can get people hurt if you have, you know, a boat that isn’t, say, stable enough or runs into it and a little branch pokes a big hole in it. Sure. Um, you know, all those things have to be taken into consideration. You know, and then there are small ones with the open bow there. They allow you to wade fish, which I think is something that, uh, is invaluable that you can float. And when you get to a gravel bar, you just stand up. 00:06:31 Dave: Oh, yeah. Describe that. Is that on the grizzly end? Both. 00:06:34 Rich: And the Kodiak and the. 00:06:36 Dave: So so basically has described that a little bit because I think most a lot of people think of rafts as just. Yeah, there’s a solid bottom. Maybe it’s. Self-inflating. Yeah. 00:06:42 Rich: So the Kodiak and grizzly is your, you know, your oval shaped. Oh, there’s no u shape or Pontoons. It’s a complete, uh, oval, and it keeps contact with the water the entire time. We don’t use rockers. We don’t lift the tubes up out of the water. We actually make them bigger at the bow and the stern. So the most buoyancy on the Kodiak is the very point, you know, fore and aft. So what that does is the front. You have the buoyancy when say you’re breaking waves, that kind of thing. You have that buoyancy to lift you out of the water. And then of course, on the back, you want that extra buoyancy because that’s where you’re throwing your gear, you’re hanging an anchor system, um, all that kind of stuff. And then again, having the open bow. So basically you sit on a board, um, and behind you is a deck space. You know, it’s all solid in the boat. Um, there’s no holes for things to fall through. So you can throw your gear behind you and it’s safe. Um, there’s a nice soft seat you sit in, but the front is open. Um, from where you’re sitting forward to the inside of the tube is open, uh, allows you to use fins so that you can float and fish, uh, whether you’re in a lake controlling, you know, battling the wind and keeping your direction, or if you’re in a river and you’re using it to manipulate currents so that you can, you know, keep your angle, your distance and speed to the bank. 00:07:58 Dave: So some people use fins in a river to as you’re floating down. 00:08:01 Rich: I don’t leave home without them. No, it’s one of the. Yeah. One of the things that’s probably the least known, I guess we make a big point of letting people know. But, you know, I guess there is some concern when you think about I’m going to put my legs down in the river, but of course, you have to know your river and you have to look downstream. You have to be aware. Um, but believe it or not, your fins, usually if it touches something, your feet are up pretty quick. Yeah. Regardless. And you’re not, you’re not wearing them through like whitewater. You’re not wearing through obstacles. 00:08:30 Dave: No. So you could literally, I think if I go back to like the dry dropper, right? Montana is known for dry dropper, right? And usually it’s one person rowing and one person with the rod in this situation, are people doing this where they got their fins and their dry dropper floating down the river with solo. 00:08:44 Rich: Exactly. And so the whole idea is hands free fishing, which has actually been like one of the taglines for water masters since the very beginning, was this idea that you could control the boat while it’s floating. Um, and what’s, what people don’t understand is you’re not actually kicking to propel the boat back upstream and slow it down. No, you’re actually changing the current by just manipulating. So basically what I do is I put my foot kind of under the seat and I scoop up water. So envision yourself riding a bike backwards. Yep. Um, and just that movement turns that current. It flips the current and basically creates what’s like an eddy under your boat. And that’s what makes you slow down. Um, so it’s a lot less effort. You’re not kicking and, you know, trying to slow down and just pointing your toes and kicking like you’re swimming, you’re actually just scooping up water. And that change in the current actually slows the boat down. And then of course, you can keep your angle by little right and left kicks to make sure you got your forty five degree and a couple big kicks. If I’m getting too close to the bank. Um, and the beauty is, is once you get it down, all your real goal is, is to match the speed of the current. So I’ll throw a dry dropper out there, I’ll throw a good mend in it, and then I’ll float with that thing for fifty one hundred yards. Sometimes if I don’t run into some weird current. Um, and I don’t think you should pull the fly off the water if you’ve got a good drift, it’s where you want it to be. And, uh, you’re, you’re just floating with it. So let it go. Let it hunt. 00:10:09 Dave: Right. Wow. 00:10:11 Rich: Yeah. 00:10:11 Dave: That’s huge. That’s huge. Yeah. So if you’re solo and I can imagine being able to, like you said, get in some of these areas maybe that are above where bigger boats can’t get to, you know, is that something where people are able to do that to get these things in like upper rivers or, and do the same? 00:10:24 Rich: Absolutely. Yep. Tributaries, upper rivers, you can get to places that, you know, have a diversion dam that’s nasty, but, you know, pick up your little lightweight raft and walk right around it, drop it in on the other side and continue your float. Um, a lot of people like it just for the, for floating somewhere they’re not familiar with, because then now they can go in there and know, gosh, worst case scenario, you know, all the backpack rolled up on the back of the boat, I can just fold it up and hike out, you know, I mean, literally worst case scenario, if the river gets too bad, maybe I didn’t know something was there. Um, at least you know you’re not locked in. I mean, a big raft, a drift boat. Boy, you got to know where you’re going. You’re not just dropping in and portaging and Portaging. 00:11:06 Dave: Is the real deal. Yeah. When you’re when you’ve got a big boat, that’s not good if you run into a log or something like that. 00:11:12 Rich: Exactly. Yeah. So and then just little things like even here on the Bitterroot, there’s a couple put ins that are only two miles probably from the actual put in, but you got to hike in, you gotta hike through trees, you know, probably eighth of a mile, quarter of a mile and set up on the bank. Um, but I’m two or three miles of river down from the massive put in. So if I get in there in the morning, I don’t see anyone the rest of the day because they’re all behind me. Um, wow. You know, I’m just in front of them, So as long as I don’t dally, I pretty much have the river to myself. 00:11:43 Dave: You’re going. And so you’re. You said so you’re south of Missoula now, or where are you? 00:11:49 Rich: South of Missoula and Stevensville. Um, we’re rural, so we’re, you know, zip code of Stevensville. If you come visit, make sure to use your smartphone. 00:11:58 Dave: Yep. Right. Yeah. You’re you’re out there. 00:12:00 Rich: But yeah, up on the bench. Beautiful spot. 00:12:03 Dave: Yeah. But you’re right in the mix of it still. Yeah. All the big rivers. 00:12:06 Rich: Yeah. And we still have the the factory of all the welders. And you know we’re still assembling product right here. 00:12:13 Dave: Right. That’s the Bitterroot that runs kind of south. Or where is it running north. 00:12:17 Rich: To south from Missoula down, you know, to where you got the West Fork and the East Fork of the Bitterroot past Darby and all that? 00:12:25 Dave: Yeah, right, right. Right on. Okay. So the. 00:12:28 Rich: River. Yeah. 00:12:29 Dave: Yeah. No, the Bitterroot is one I haven’t been on. We’ve heard a lot about it. And is it similar to a lot of the other rivers, the Clarks Fork and kind of some of those other rivers out there? 00:12:37 Rich: Know it’s different and that’s why people are unfamiliar with it. I say, go float the Clark fork. You know, if you’re not a strong, um, rower or if you don’t have the proper boat. I mean, sections close to Missoula are fine, but the farther you go south, the trickier it gets. Just because there’s an awful lot of downfall. Sweepers, logjams root balls. Um, and it’s really windy and come around the corner and be like, oh my gosh, you know. So definitely not a river. You just jump in an inner tube and. Right. Yeah. You gotta, you gotta. Yeah. Yeah. People try it, but it usually doesn’t end well. But yeah, it’s, it’s different. The Clark fork is definitely bigger and, and, uh, you know, more wide open, not the, but the bitterroots. It’s different every year. Um, if we actually get a good runoff, it can be completely different year to year. 00:13:26 Dave: If Belize is on your bucket list for a trip, take a look at Blue Bonefish Lodge. You’ll be fishing more than four hundred square miles of flats right along the Belize Barrier Reef, clear water and endless opportunity. They offer all inclusive packages, whether you’re focused on fishing every day or planning a trip with the family. You can learn more right now and start planning your trip at Blue Bonefish, Belize dot com. That’s Blue Bonefish, Belize dot com. Check them out right now. When it comes to high quality flies that truly elevate your fly fishing game, Drift hook dot com is the trusted source you need. I’ve been using drift hooks expertly selected flies for a while now, and they never disappoint. Plus, they stand behind their products with a money back guarantee. Are you ready to upgrade your fly box? Head over to Drift Hook dot com today and use the code swing at checkout to get fifteen percent off your first order. That’s drift hook d r I f t h o o k dot com. Don’t miss out. So yeah, so those are basically you mentioned the, you know, the open bottom, which is pretty unique. You know, I think there’s a lot more rafts that don’t have that. But but you guys also have the the other the Bruin, right. Is that one that came in more recently or talk about. 00:14:41 Rich: Yeah. So the Bruin came out full online in seven or seven years ago. Um and yeah, we wanted something bigger. We wanted to offer something that, you know, not everyone wants to be in a boat by themselves or they want to take someone, um, that doesn’t necessarily want to just be in a single person. They want to get up higher, maybe stand up and cast and, and that kind of thing. You can bring the cooler you got, you know, it’s that bigger boat feel and the advantages of heaven, uh, a bigger boat. But what it really offers is the space of a bigger boat. You know, it’s got, of course, the signature stability and all that stuff. Um, but it’s only, like I said, one hundred and thirty five pounds. That’s frame raft and oars. Um, and I mean, the raft itself only weighs sixty pounds. It’s self-bailing full class four whitewater, uh, Certification. You know, it’s it’s been tested numerous times. Some pretty wicked stuff. And we have a drop stitch floor. So it’s a like a stand up paddle board, essentially. Um, but what’s really unique about ours compared to a lot of our competitors is that ours is an independent floor that’s laced in to a flange that’s on the boat. And what that does allow for a very high volume of water to go out very quickly. But at the same time, it keeps the water. There’s no water up on the floor. So you stay dry. It stays in the channel. Um, but if you take a ten foot wall of water, it’ll leave the boat as quickly as it comes in. Um, there’s a lot of boats out there that have a drop stitch, but they’re kind of just laying on top of a standard floor with some drain holes. Um, and those are very slow. It takes a long time to get water out of those. You wouldn’t want to, you know, take on too much water. Um, because it wouldn’t be able to keep up. So ours is nice. Plus with that drop stitch, like I said, it’s super easy to walk around on. Um, we’ve got a suspension system that actually senses the floor up in its highest position. So it actually matches exactly the tubes. So it allows for all that buoyancy without any drag. Um, so the floor isn’t any farther down than the main tubes. Um, and it’s not sitting up high enough to where you’re not taking advantage of the buoyancy. So it makes it very, very efficiently, very quick, like a sports car. 00:16:52 Dave: Mhm. Gotcha. Yeah. That’s awesome. So you mentioned Whitewater a few times. The, the one, the smaller ones, the Kodiak. So those go through, you know, some pretty decent sized. Is there a level because I think we’re getting ready to kind of drop into some class four stuff this next week. Is there like, what does that look like? 00:17:10 Rich: And the they’re they’re the raft itself is rated for class for all our boats are rated for class four. Um, the caveat of course is who’s rowing the boat, right. 00:17:20 Dave: Yeah. That’s a good caveat. 00:17:22 Rich: Just be knowledgeable. If you’re a good strong rower, you wrote a lot of boats, you’re going to be able to take this thing any through any of that stuff. Um, like I said, the stability because we make, you know, for a wider boat, the Kodiaks four feet, four inches wide with sixteen inch tubes. I mean, it’s huge tubes for a little boat like that. Um, and then you have that lower center of gravity that the seat board is just above the mid seam, um, about an inch and a half. So you’re down a little bit lower. And so it makes just for a super stable raft. And again, there’s so much buoyancy. Um, I always joke with people that it’s kind of like when you’re a kid, try to hold that beach ball under the water in the pool. It’s really hard. Yeah. Um, and so again, we go back to the biggest tube on the Kodiak is at that point, um, when you hit whitewater and you hit a rapid, that buoyancy of that tube is what’s actually going to push the boat out of the water, because that’s not going to stay under water, you know? Um, that’s coming up first. And so that’s the front of the boat. That’s what you want to come up first. So we’ve got some cool videos on our website. Oh, you do show that. 00:18:29 Dave: Yeah, yeah. We’ll take a look at the videos. We’ll get some links out to those videos. That’ll be awesome to follow up on that. Um, so yeah, it’s pretty much, I mean, like you said, I mean, these boats have been around a long time. They’ve, uh, produced, you know, for you guys, what’s the and you mentioned the Bitterroot, have you, you’ve been a fly, uh, angler for a while. 00:18:45 Rich: Yes. Yeah. I mean, I grew up in Montana. I’m a native Montanan. You know. 00:18:50 Dave: Everybody fly fishes, right? Montana kind of everybody’s. 00:18:53 Rich: Yeah, yeah. And of course, you grow up throwing worms and bobbers and lures and, you know, you graduate and you find out that it’s funner than staring at a bobber to, to fly fish. And you’re like, this is cool. Yeah. Yep. Uh, I went to college in Missoula, so yeah, I’ve been here and fly fishing is a big part of it. 00:19:12 Dave: That’s sweet. Well, what you know, as far as what we’re looking at here on the boats, we mentioned a few of the models. What else should we know about the, you know, kind of the water master that we haven’t covered here today. 00:19:24 Rich: Um, you know, the design we’ve talked about and stuff like that. The biggest thing, you know, that is really is the construction. Um, there’s no one that really quite does anything like we do. All of our seams are thermal welded, which means we put them between two steel wheels under pressure at a thousand degree air, and they melt together and they come out welded on the other side. Um, the rest of the industry is gone to gluing. And gluing is fine for a short amount of years. Um, and then they start depending on how hard you use it and how much exposure it gets, um, that can start breaking down and, you know, that’s evident in the warranty we offer a lifetime warranty we have for since two thousand and six. Um, we back our product because we overbuild it, we know that it can hold up, we know the fabric can hold up. Um, even speaking of fabric, ours is unique from the rest of the industry because we use a polyester as opposed to a nylon fabric that’s in the PVC. Uh, polyester. Not only is more puncture resistant and tear, um, you know, the tear strength is unbelievable. Um, but really importantly, it doesn’t stretch at all. So when our raft gets two and a half to three psi, it’s hard as a rock. Oh, you’re not putting any pressure on the seams because you’re only at three psi. But the boat itself is very hard. And that’s um where many, many years ago we had to have this made and we still have it custom made because of a frameless design. You have to have a, you ever have to have rigidity somewhere. Um, and so you can’t just rely on the oarlock base on a soft tube. It’s got to be rigid. So a two and a half, three sires are literally rock hard. Um, and that’s what makes it just roll more efficiently and stuff like that. Uh, our fabric has a UV blocker in it, which is unique to PVC as well, which really allows them to hold up and not fade and not dry out. Um, my boat, the first one I ever built on the welder back in two thousand, probably three. Um, they finally let me build one and I got to keep it. It’s definitely not as nice looking as they are now. Oh my gosh. Um, look like someone was drinking on some of those right. Those seams. But yeah, I’m still using it and it’s twenty six years old, you know, so that’s awesome. 00:21:39 Dave: Yeah. You’re still using that same boat that you made your first boat you made. 00:21:42 Rich: Absolutely. 00:21:43 Dave: And you guys make all your boats there in Montana. 00:21:46 Rich: Yeah. Right here in Stevensville. Yeah. And people can come in, they can see our shop set up and we’ve got a showroom. 00:21:52 Dave: Oh you do? Oh, sweet. Okay. Yeah. There you go. So that’s a nice trip we can make down there. If we’re heading through Missoula. Just take a head south out of Missoula, right? 00:22:00 Rich: Yeah. The Bitterroot Valley is beautiful. It’s worth the drive. 00:22:03 Dave: What is that on the Bitterroot? So it feels like you hear about that, but there’s a bunch of other rivers out there, too. Does the Bitterroot maybe not get as much pressure as some of these other rivers, or describe that what your take is on? And is that the river you’re fishing? 00:22:15 Rich: Oh, it gets as much pressure. Yeah, it’s just not as big. So that, you know, um, the Clark Fork and the Blackfoot are nearby. Of course, we’ve got Rock Creek, which is more of a wade fishing river most of the year. 00:22:28 Dave: Um, but you could take your boat down rock, could you, in the spring? Could you do people. 00:22:32 Rich: In the spring? Mhm. Absolutely. Uh, which is awesome because you can just row it. And then as soon as you get to like one of those little mellow spots where you want to fish, you just stand up. And if you slip or something, you’re back in the boat. You know, you’re not, you’re not going in. So yeah, it can be a pretty cool boat for that again, requires just being a good rower. But um, it’s tricky. It’s fast. Um, but definitely doable. Um, and then yeah, then you’ve got the Missouri is a couple hours away and if the river’s here blown out or it’s not fishing, great. Then everyone heads over there. Um, but lots of options. I mean, I can get to the, the big hole in the Beaverhead in three hours. So. 00:23:13 Dave: Right. You’re right there. Yeah, you’re right in the middle of it. What is the since you started with water master, say the last twenty years or so, has the Bitterroot changed much over the years? As far as you know, fishing or. 00:23:24 Rich: Well, I think like I said, it changes every year. 00:23:27 Dave: Yeah it does. 00:23:28 Rich: So absolutely, it’s it’s in a totally different river than I first fished. 00:23:33 Dave: You mean just because of like changes in water flows and things like that. 00:23:37 Rich: Water, the channels, how it just changes different. You know, like I said, every you can’t say go left all the way. You know, it changes after a runoff. Now it’s left, right, left, right. Um, so yeah, you have that first float. If you haven’t gotten too low down from someone else, you gotta have heads up and be careful in a section. And, um, fishing’s harder, but there’s a really big fish in there. Um, not quite the numbers, but there are some big fish and it’s just like I said, it’s fun to fish that technical, um, type stuff. 00:24:08 Dave: Browns and rainbows. 00:24:10 Rich: Browns and rainbows. Yeah, yeah. You’ll get, you’ll get cutthroat. You’ll get whitefish and Um. Pike. Now, unfortunately. 00:24:18 Dave: Pike. 00:24:19 Rich: Yeah. Pike. Have moved all the way up into the into the Bitterroot. Up past, uh, Florence, even probably close to Stevensville. Yeah, as far as I know. 00:24:28 Dave: Have you ever caught a pike? 00:24:30 Rich: Oh, yeah. Oh, I have my pike rod. 00:24:33 Dave: Oh. You do? Oh, wow. So it’s that good? 00:24:34 Rich: Yeah, yeah. And you’ll see those slews and. Oh yeah, you get them to forty plus inches. Insanely. 00:24:40 Dave: Oh, yeah. 00:24:41 Rich: Yeah. Wow. And, you know, it’s just one of those things. Unfortunately, because of, uh, game waste, you have to let them go. But, uh, they eat a lot of trout. So it’s kind of one of those things. Um, so, but it is what it is. It’s the, the ecosystem as it stands. So I’m going to just go out and fish for him and have fun. Just go for it. 00:25:01 Dave: Yeah. No, it’s it’s pretty. I mean, we’re heading up north to like northern Saskatchewan to fish for some big northern pikes. Right? That’s the crazy thing right there, right here in the backyard. You know, they’re right here in Montana. 00:25:12 Rich: They are. Absolutely. Yeah. 00:25:15 Dave: What’s the, um, what is the salmonfly? Does the Bitterroot get a good sand fly? Hatch. 00:25:20 Rich: It does. Yeah. Yeah. There was, you know, farther south. Um, even more so, I think. But yeah, the bitter gets a good salmon fly hatch. You just have to catch it. Right. 00:25:30 Dave: When is that. Is that typically in June or when does that start. 00:25:32 Rich: Yeah. But with the weather we’ve been having and the. 00:25:35 Dave: The yeah. 00:25:36 Rich: It’s warm lack of a real winter and it’ll I want to keep tabs because you never know. It just may not be on schedule. 00:25:42 Dave: It might be a little earlier. Yeah. I know we’re we’re ahead and it’s definitely going to be earlier this year than, than normal. Um, yeah. 00:25:49 Rich: So and I know there’s already salmon flies down someone fishing on the big hole. I believe they already saw them down there. Um, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s happened or already happened. I just haven’t heard about it. 00:26:02 Dave: Right. Yep. Exactly. Is that what, uh, are you kind of fishing a lot throughout the year? Are you working more? What’s your are you still getting out a lot? 00:26:09 Rich: Oh, no, I do my best. But it is the the downfall of, you know, running a business and all that. I live vicariously through my awesome customers and. 00:26:19 Dave: Right. 00:26:20 Rich: And I do get out, but, um, try to get out at least on one good trip a year and do something fun and then, uh, try to hit the Bitterroot any chance I get. Um, we do deserve a water master day here real soon. I know Andrew works here. Has been chomping at the bit for one of those days. 00:26:38 Dave: That’s awesome. 00:26:39 Rich: Where boss says, let’s go. 00:26:41 Dave: Right. Are you guys selling these boats? I mean, I know when the first time I saw them, I think it was a steelhead angler that was floating on them. But do you guys sell these all over the country? Is there like kind of cover it all? What’s your. You mentioned Stillwater. Do you just kind of cover all the categories we do? 00:26:55 Rich: Yeah. I mean, I think the water masters are so versatile that, um, and we do, we sell them nationally, we sell them internationally. Um, I’ve got a massive market up in Canada. They do, I do really well, some really good dealers up there. Um, and in the provinces. And then, you know, we, I’ve shipped them to Japan this year already. New Zealand, um, over to Europe and Australia and stuff like that. So yeah, they’re out there more than you know, but they’re so spread out. Maybe you just don’t see them as often. But yeah, we’ve, we’ve sold these things everywhere. Um, they’re great for smaller ponds because they’re just lightweight. You don’t have to have a big boat for something that small, but it gets you off the shore, allows you to, to use fins and, and not you sit there and mess with an oar or paddle on a kayak or something like that. It really allows you to control the boat and deal with the part that you’re there for, which is fishing. You’re not there to paddle and, you know, deal with with a boat, you’re there to fish. So, um, and then you can go to the big lakes, you can even put a little electric motor on or even a gas on our bigger one. 00:28:02 Speaker 3: Oh, wow. 00:28:02 Rich: And zip around on lakes. Um, the Kodiak and the grizzly even have a bottom. That’s an accessory you can slot, you can slip on allows you to do some sight casting and lakes and stuff like that. Allows me to take my kiddos that are, you know, nine years old. I can throw them in the front with me in the Kodiak and putter around on a lake, you know? So yeah, we’ve got lots of versatility with our accessories and our setups. Um, so yeah, I think they kind of fit a lot of things. I mean, I have duck hunters. Duck hunting is. 00:28:31 Speaker 3: A duck hunting. 00:28:34 Rich: People like to use them for their decoys. So their dog on it. 00:28:37 Speaker 3: Right? 00:28:37 Dave: Yeah. Duck hunting would be awesome. Definitely. Yeah. Because it just gets you those places that, you know, putting in a boat, whether that’s a hard boat or a raft, it just takes some work. You know, you got a trailer, but this thing can literally fold up and it sounds like these smaller ones, the Kodiak people just roll them up and throw them in their packs pretty tight. Is that how they do it? 00:28:53 Rich: Oh yeah. It comes with a backpack that everything fits in there. The oars, seat pump, patch kit, the boat, um, your fins, if you get an anchor system, I mean, it fits about every. It wouldn’t fit the boat bottom. It’s about the only accessory that won’t fit in that bag with the boat. 00:29:08 Dave: Boat does it? And does it have a when you’re when it’s inflated, is there like a backpack straps out there or do you have. Do you carry it? How does that work? 00:29:16 Rich: No, once it’s inflated, if you look at. If you get a chance to look at it right inside the tubes, right next to the where you’re sitting. 00:29:23 Dave: Mhm. 00:29:23 Rich: There are two handles. And so what you do is you stand up, you face the back of the boat, you grab those handles, just pick up the boat and start walking. 00:29:31 Dave: Oh yeah. Right. That’s right. So it’s easy. You got the handles. 00:29:34 Rich: Yeah. So that’s the easiest way. Some people, if they don’t have a lot of gear, will just kind of pick it up and kind of put it on their back. But, um, I like to just pick it up by those handles. It’s really well balanced. So it doesn’t feel like the front wants to come up too high or the back, you know, it’s pretty well balanced there. Um, allows you to put a little gear there while you’re carrying it. So, but they’re durable if you just need to drag it down to the shore, you know, as long as it’s not going over nails and broken glass, you’ll be fine. 00:30:01 Dave: Right? Quick shout out to today’s sponsor AV C Rigg. They are the team in Loveland, Colorado. Turning regular vans into full blown adventure machines. Looking for a full build from the ground up, or just their killer aluminum cabinetry and storage systems? AV C Rigg helps you create a setup that’s lightweight, rock solid, and built for life on the road. Perfect for anyone chasing fish and wild places. And here’s the best part. They’ll be at the Denver Fly Fishing Show so you can step inside their rigs, meet the crew, and see what makes their work so dialed in. Stop by, say hi, and let them know you heard about them on the Fly Fishing podcast. And if you want to learn more right now and start planning your dream rig, go to av rig dot com. That’s AV C rig dot com. Albert Victor Conrad rig dot com. AV rig. Check em out. Now what if you have somebody that’s coming in and maybe they don’t have a ton of experience, or maybe they’re brand new, they’ve never really floated. Is this something where what would you tell them? They’re interested and they can see the benefit of this, you know, is there like, oh yeah. 00:31:06 Rich: Yeah, this is the perfect boat for someone because it’s, it’s going to give them a few things. For one, it’s going to make them feel comfortable and confident. Um, as soon as you sit in a Kodiak or grizzly, you just, you feel the stability. You’re like, okay, you put your hands on the tubes. You’re like. 00:31:20 Dave: It’s not like a, I always go to the kayak or canoe. It’s not like that at all. Right. Where you got to be careful. You can tip the thing. 00:31:25 Rich: Not at all. I can lean over. I can actually sit on the side tube and it’s not going to flip the boat. Uh, it’s just too stable for that. So, you know, it gives you that confidence that, okay, I feel good, I feel confident, um, you know, the knowledge that the boat is tough enough if you hit a rock or a boulder or a stick, you’re fine. You’re just going to bounce off of it. Um, you know, our, our material is insanely durable. Uh, it’s going to take a lot more than that. So just getting comfortable in that regard and then having the fixed pin system takes a lot of the thinking out of rowing. So, um, with the Kodiak and the grizzly, we don’t have an open or lock All-ACC system. We have what’s called a fixed pin system, which is where you have basically a bolt on your lock and then the cap, and then there’s a hole in the Or, and you put the the bolt through the or and put the cap on. And then, um, so when you grab the oars, it rotates out and allows you to use them. And then when you don’t want to use them, it allows you to lay the oars flat on the tube and get out of your way. So they’re not hanging in the water, you know, which is always going to be dangerous. Um, and they’re out of your way here. When you’re casting, we want to keep it clean and clear and try and keep you from having that headache of untangling or undoing that hookup. Every cast. Um, but it’s just really nice because again, for a beginner, if you think about a bigger raft, you have to learn to feather, you have to open or lock. Um, you know, there’s a lot of different things that you have to, to deal with because that or moves so freely in the oar lock. Um, you know, I’m rowing, I might forget I don’t have that pin system sometimes even in the brewing, because it has the open or lock style. And, uh, all of a sudden the Or is sideways, you know, and it’ll hit the water. It just cuts through it a million miles an hour. I’m like, whoa, you know, um, where’s that going to happen in the Kodiak or grizzly? The oars go in in ninety degrees and they, you know, you just push or pull. That’s really all you have to learn. Um, they draw very little water because of our design, because of all that buoyancy, the big tubes and all that contact, it sits up really high. I mean, I think the Kodiak with me sitting in it, I’m a big guy, um, at like two hundred and thirty five pounds. Uh, and then my gear on the back and I’m drawing three to four inches max of water, um, which allows it to row faster, allows it to be more efficient. Um, tracks really well and current. You can kind of just let it go pontoon boats and open end boats. They really like to spin anything with a rocker or no contact. Basically at the front is going to want to spin. And so our tracks way more naturally. 00:34:00 Dave: So this thing kind of stays it tracks absolutely. 00:34:03 Rich: Because it has that contact. It’s very similar in a way to a drift boat. Drift boats use a big flat, buoyant surface area, and they use all that contact to create that buoyancy to keep the boat up higher so they draw less water. So again, um, a lot of the competitors out there have that design and fortunately the rafts are too short. That leaves too much too little tube on the water. Um and so they draw just a lot more, uh, like I said, even the Bruin at one hundred and thirty five pounds, two people in gear, you’re pushing more closer to five, uh, up to six maybe. And that’s still for boat. That big is nothing. 00:34:41 Dave: No. What are some what a bigger boat. What’s a boat that draws a lot of water? What would it draw? 00:34:46 Rich: Uh, I mean, I have a thirteen foot, like, you know, fishing raft, nice little just, you know, a guides raft in here and that’s probably pushing twelve, you know. 00:34:57 Dave: Yeah. Twelve. Like double over double. 00:34:59 Rich: Yeah. Oh, yeah. 00:35:00 Dave: Wow. Yeah. That is a lot. 00:35:01 Rich: Yeah. Just because of the it’s the weight buoyancy combo. So, um, it’s a fishing style, you know, big or big raft. So they have the rockers on each end. So once you pull that tube off. Um, and again, same with, with all rockers, as soon as you bring that tube off the water, you don’t have buoyancy anymore. It’s just, it’s basically there in case you hit a big wave and it’s a kicker to kick you out of a big wave. Um, you know, our boats are all really keyed into the fishing aspect of the design. Um, and I’d rather have a boat that tracks better. I’d rather have a boat that draws less water and is more stable and that kind of thing. Yeah. Um, because I’m fishing out of it. 00:35:39 Dave: Yeah. And your boat isn’t, it’s not like, you know, you’re taking this down the Colorado River. It’s like constant whitewater. You’re kind of using it. People are mostly getting these boats because they want to fish, right? That’s usually exactly yeah. 00:35:49 Rich: Fish and recreate and, you know, go places, you know, and again, it’s ready to class for. But yeah, you’re not going to see this in as a bunch of them going down, you know, the gorge, you know, all the time just because they’re gonna, they’re gonna pick a more whitewater design boat, which is much bigger. Um, and then when you have that much weight on the water, you do have to lift the ends out a little bit. Um, but if you look at even the big boats and the Grand Canyon, even the big twenty four foot, whatever, they don’t have hardly any rocker. 00:36:18 Dave: Oh they don’t. Oh yeah. Those big gear. And even the ones like the middle fork of the salmon, what do they call those boats, the pack boats. Right. Those, I think the same thing. 00:36:26 Rich: On the water because they need that buoyancy. They need that weight capacity and they need that that lower drop. 00:36:32 Dave: Same thing. So that’s the whole idea. It’s literally getting more surface area on the water gives you more stability for more everything. 00:36:37 Rich: More stability, more control. Yeah. 00:36:40 Dave: And the only thing it doesn’t give you is, I guess they put that rocker because it blocks some waves. Is that the main reason you get a rocker on the raft? 00:36:47 Rich: Because what do you mean? 00:36:48 Dave: Yeah. Like some of these rafts. You see a big the bow comes way up and the, and the stern. spring, right? That’s that’s mainly because they want to keep water out of the boat. Is that why they’re doing that? 00:36:57 Rich: Um, you know, I do think that a lot of things when it comes to design, especially in the watercraft industry, is things, I mean, the rafting end of it, I guess, is I think everyone’s just trying to scale down bigger boats. Um, and so scaling down a raft and making it just shorter, um, but keeping the same steep rockers that you would in a longer raft. You’ve messed up the equation because the distance between the two rockers now is too short. You’ve taken off too much two. So if you’ve got a thirteen, fourteen foot, um, you know, big raft, um, it still has a lot of tube on the water because it’s fourteen plus feet long. Um, and so you’re, and again, it’s drawing more anyway, but it, you know, they do have more tube. So yeah, a lot of the competition. Um, and then keep in mind too, a lot of the competition are the rafts aren’t really a new idea. They’re. An inflatable canoe has been around for a very long time, which is kind of what a lot of the designs have been based around. Um, you know, the, the skinny, you know, smaller tubes, steep rockers. Um, those are an inflatable canoe. They’ve been around for a very long time. 00:38:14 Dave: Oh yeah. Yeah. It’s inflatable canoe like the, uh, I can’t remember the brand, but there’s a brand out there that has. It’s basically. Yeah, it looks like a canoe. It’s a kayak. But those things do well in the whitewater. Right. But they’re, but they’re not as stable. 00:38:24 Rich: Yeah. The problem is, is, is the competition is putting frames on it. And so now they’ve. 00:38:29 Dave: Oh, wow. They’re putting frames. 00:38:30 Rich: The center of gravity. And so you’ve, you know, um, so it’s just some of the competitors. So yeah, just I don’t like the idea of rockers on a smaller boat because especially a fishing raft, because you’re just, you’re taking away all that buoyancy and that contact for no real return because you’re not out there breaking giant waves. No. You know. 00:38:49 Dave: Sense. Yeah. 00:38:50 Rich: So and even if you look at a boat that’s rockered, if you stand in front of it and look dead center at it, you can see basically it creates a wall. So the tubes come up and you’ve got that floor and you’ve got almost a flat surface you’re pushing into, as opposed to if you look at the front of a Kodiak or a Bruin, you’ve got this bullet shape with the extra buoyancy at the bullet. And so it’s always going to be cutting through the water anyway. 00:39:15 Dave: Does that help? I know one thing with RA when you compare rafts to a drift boat, um, is that the wind. Right. The wind comes up. Does your boat. How does it do on the wind? 00:39:24 Rich: Well, again more contact. Yeah. Bigger footprint. You’re not going to get blown around. And like the Kodiak and the grizzly are awesome because the, the they’re so low profile. I mean, you’re literally because you sit down a little ways. Um, you’re just really low profile. I remember a long time ago when pontoon boats were all the rage. Um, yeah, they were horrible in the wind win because you didn’t have very much contact, because you had these rockered pontoons on one on each side, and then you were so high that you were like a sail. So if the wind came, you were you were gone. You’re toast. You were trying to get back to the right shore, right? Whereas we have this big footprint that holds you on the water, and you have this low profile so you don’t get blown around as much. 00:40:07 Dave: So yeah. Wow. That makes sense. Um, you mentioned kind of what we mentioned somebody getting started. If somebody was going to be learning to do this right, learning to row, where would you direct those people? Like they’re new to it to get up to that level, to feel like they’re good enough to take it out down the river. 00:40:24 Rich: Yeah. So I mean, ideally, you’re always going to try and start on like Stillwater. Yeah. Or like, if you’re next to a big old, really mundane light river that you’d hop in in a float tube, you know, um, starting Stillwater just to get the pushing and pulling, you know, not getting the oars to go at the same time feeling really comfortable cruising around a lake. Back rowing is what I would recommend doing the most of, because once you get to a river or back, rowing is going to be the most important thing that you learn because anytime there’s an obstacle downstream, you want to aim the boat at it with a slight angle away, and you want to start back rowing to give yourself more time to get away from the object. You don’t want to speed the process up by rowing forward towards the object. So you slow the boat down and you slowly angle it away from whatever object it is. And so starting, like I said, in a lake or a really easy river and like pretend, you know, hop in a like, I know that, um, I’ve got people in the Yakima, um, some friends that actually, I think Joe at Red fly shop did a video on, on just like pretending, hey, there’s a boulder right there. What are you gonna do? You know? And you’re in a river that’s barely moving, but it’s moving enough that you can practice that idea of get the boat, get the back end a little way, you know the direction you want it to go slightly angled and then just start doing back row. 00:41:49 Dave: Yeah. 00:41:50 Rich: You’ll see yourself just slowly move to the side of it and you’ll have more time, you know, to get away from it. So I take people out a lot of time and I’ll give them that whole lesson. And then the first obstacle they come to, they point the boat away from it, and they just start rowing forward like they’re going to try and outrun it, you know? That’s right. They get to it so much quicker, you know, that you didn’t give yourself any time to avoid it. So yeah, so that would be my suggestion. Just start slow. Um, but if you’re going to do rivers, just really practice that back row, set yourself up on even an imaginary object and just, you know, have control, take good solid strokes, no reason to freak out and just start paddling as hard as you can just one after another. Solid strokes. What’s nice about our design too is is with a rocker every time you um, or a pontoon boat with the open ends. Any of those designs. Every time you row, the back of the boat dips down. Or if you’re rolling forward, I guess the front and the front of the boat comes up and where ours doesn’t, I’ll go back again to the fact that we maintain that contact in the biggest tubes on the water. So when I’m back rowing, it takes an awful lot of talk to push that tube down. And so now I get a lot more efficient rowing, because when I heave and ho on those good solid strokes, the boat is not dipping down. It’s not changing position on the water. Um, it maintains that position on the water because I’m not, I can’t row hard enough to push the back of the boat down. Whereas if there’s a rock or you have a natural leverage point, obviously where it can lift up in the front, down in the back. 00:43:29 Dave: That makes sense. Yeah. And I, well, I’m looking there’s a video here. You mentioned Reds fly shop, Joe. He’s got a, I think probably a couple videos on the water master here. One he’s fishing out of. Yeah. 00:43:39 Rich: They’re amazing. Yeah. They’re on the Yakima River in Ellensburg. If you’re anywhere near them, check them out. Knowledgeable? They know the Watermaster, that’s for sure. 00:43:48 Dave: There you go. Cool. This is great. Okay, so and what about on the other end? Maybe some, you know, do you get some misconceptions from people out there when it comes to rafts or your wraps out there? Or they think one way and maybe they’re not quite right. 00:44:00 Rich: Uh, usually after like actually discussing like why we do what we do and why the design is what you. 00:44:08 Dave: Mean, like with the, with the open, with the flat and the open, like you’ve been describing the open bottom and stuff. 00:44:12 Rich: The open front, the no rockers, that kind of thing. Yeah, yeah. I think the biggest misconception is just that everything else doesn’t look like this. 00:44:21 Dave: Yeah. 00:44:21 Rich: You look at every one of our competitors, which is the small boats and the larger two person boats. Um, not a one of them looks anything like our boat. And so I think that’s the misconception is that it looks so different. Um, but we’ve been around this time. It’s not a new design. We came up with it, you know, and I won’t take the credit. I wasn’t around the grizzly came about. So the initial concept, um, but we really, we’ve gone a long ways with that same, all the advantages of that concept. And we’ve expanded on that with the, with the other models. Um, but again, for the fishing world, for fishing, whether it is small ponds, lakes, bigger lakes, because again, you have a motor yacht. Um, and then rivers, you know, rivers, just the access, the, you know, not having to have your traditional boat launch or trailer, um, you know, for the fishing side of it. Um, the only I guess people, the price would be. So we are the higher end price. Um, but again, lifetime warranty assembled here in the US welded seams and, and to me, I’d rather spend more on a boat that is going to take care of me when I’m in the river and I hit something or I get turned sideways on a boulder or whatever happens. Um, water is water power. Water is going to be crazy sometimes, and I don’t want to worry about the boat being what gets me hurt, you know? So I want this quality. I’ll use a Cabela’s fly rod before I’d be in a cheap boat. 00:45:48 Dave: Right? 00:45:48 Rich: Right. You know what I mean? Yeah. Um, so you know price actually it they aren’t for what we do. I believe they’re cheap for the amount of work. If they could come in here and watch us. Yeah, they’d be like man, you should charge more. 00:46:01 Dave: But that’s right. 00:46:02 Rich: But we want to stay relevant. We want to make sure that, you know, everyone that can. I don’t want to be so overpriced that, you know, we’re catering to a very small, you know, sure. Wealthy people. I’d like to have everyone have a chance in the water, master. So we try to stay relatively low as best we can. 00:46:19 Dave: Nice, nice, good. Well, let’s take it out of here just with our tips and tricks segment here. We, uh, you mentioned a little bit at the bitter. I’m always interested. It sounds like, you know, that’s a river we haven’t been on. I’d love to get out there. If somebody’s fishing here, it sounds like maybe you’re not guiding and doing all that stuff, but what are you telling somebody? If they’re new to the Bitterroot and they’re thinking they want to get out there and have more success. 00:46:38 Rich: If they’re new to the Bitterroot, I absolutely say they should be contacting a fly shop for advice. Now, I’m not saying you have to book a guided trip by any means, especially if you’re a efficient rower. Yeah, whatever. 00:46:51 Dave: Yeah. Let’s say, let’s say they let’s say they have one of your boats. They’re pretty good at rowing and they’ve done it, but they’re new to the Montana is there’s quite a there’s a few fly shops right there in Missoula. Right. Is that those the closest area? 00:47:01 Rich: Yeah. And I would just contact them. You know, they’re all great. I mean, I really have not there’s not a bad shop. 00:47:07 Dave: Yeah. How many shops are there in Missoula? 00:47:09 Rich: Oh, geez, I don’t know. Probably four or five. Five. Yeah. You know, I would recommend grizzly hackle. Yeah. Grizzly hackle shop. Uh, Brazilian angler is a great shop. Kingfisher is a great shop. Um, yeah, some really good ones. Uh, there. So, um, I would just call, just say, hey, I want to float the Bitterroot for one. Is there a section? Here’s my kind of level. Um, what do you think there? Especially like grizzly hackle. They’ve worked with us a lot in the past. They’re not going to, you know, they’re going to be happy to to help us. Or if there’s a section you really have in mind, say, hey, is there anything deadly in there? Because they’ve had guides on all those sections and they’re going to tell you, hey, don’t do that. Float or stay, River left the whole way. Don’t break. Right? 00:47:51 Dave: Because that happens all the time. I mean, all around the country, right? A log gets knocked down on a Sunday. You come around the corner, you’re like, oh. 00:47:56 Rich: Yeah. 00:47:57 Dave: Yeah. 00:47:57 Rich: And that’s the tricky part about the Bitterroot. Now the Clark fork again, that’s different. 00:48:01 Dave: Yeah, it’s. 00:48:02 Rich: Bigger as long as you if you’re, if you’re a decent rower and you know what you’re doing, the Clark works great. Most I mean, of course, there’s a couple sections way down that are whitewater sections, but you wouldn’t be fishing those anyway. Um, but yeah, yeah, I would definitely, uh, just contact fly shops if they’re new for sure. 00:48:19 Dave: Yeah. The Grizzlies. Great. And I know when we first went to Montana many years ago, we always stopped the grizzly hackle back. And this is way my high school days. 00:48:27 Rich: Yeah, been around a while. 00:48:28 Dave: They’ve been around a while. Yeah. 00:48:29 Rich: Actually all three of those shops I’ve named, I mean I started moved to Missoula in nineteen ninety three, and I’m pretty sure they were all. 00:48:35 Dave: Oh, that’s. 00:48:36 Rich: Cool. 00:48:37 Dave: Yeah. That’s when we were we were coming through there in ninety three. That’s awesome. 00:48:39 Rich: There you go. 00:48:40 Dave: So, so ninety three. So and a couple random ones before we get out of here. I always love this. You know, Montana, again, it comes down to for those people who haven’t been to Montana, how do you describe it? There’s there’s a bunch there’s always there’s a new movie, right? There’s these shows out there. What is it about Montana that, uh, you know, how would you describe it? 00:48:57 Rich: It’s nothing like Yellowstone, except for the mountains. 00:49:01 Dave: Oh, right. Yellowstone. Yeah. That’s right. Yeah. And I haven’t seen that yet. Yellowstone is one of the. 00:49:06 Rich: Just to everyone. Yeah. Everyone likes that. Show that we are not like that. 00:49:09 Dave: What about the what about the Madison? Have you seen that show? 00:49:13 Rich: I have not yet. No, but, um. Yeah, I’ll check it out. 00:49:17 Dave: I heard actually, you know who I heard, you know, um, is Mike Lawson was on the podcast and he mentioned that Madison was, is a great show. He’s like, you gotta, you gotta watch it. 00:49:26 Rich: I’ll check it out. Yeah. 00:49:28 Dave: I was the same way because I was kind of like, yeah, I’m not quite sure. And then I actually watched kind of, I guess just started watching the first episode and yeah, it’s pretty good. It’s pretty. 00:49:36 Rich: Good. Okay, I’ll check it out. I can’t remember the name, but somewhere at the trade shows that I hang out with said that they did a little bit of the fly casting lessons and stuff for that. 00:49:46 Dave: Yeah, yeah. Gotcha. That’s it. So so what is your what is your you haven’t seen that. What’s your, uh, when you’re not working, what’s your media? Are you watching movies? Music? What are you, uh. 00:49:57 Rich: Music. Uh, me and my wife, we’re lucky with three kids. Get a episode of a TV series on. Yeah. Um, yeah, that’s the extent of it. And then, uh, catch a little bit of news as much as I can stand. And then. 00:50:10 Dave: Right. 00:50:12 Rich: Yeah. Busy. Super busy. I got kids that are in baseball and rock climbing, and I got a senior in high school graduates three weeks. He’s going to college at Boise State. And so lots going on. Yeah. Cool. 00:50:27 Dave: Awesome. Well, Rich, this has been great. I think we could probably leave it there today. And definitely if anybody wants to connect with you, we’ll send them out to Water Master dot com and they can pick your brain on any other questions. But yeah, man, thanks for your time today. We’ll talk to you soon. 00:50:39 Rich: Yeah. Thanks for having me. 00:50:42 Dave: All right. If you get a chance, check in with Rich, find out what they have to offer there. Anything we missed? Water master rafts. You can check in with them right now. Let them know you heard this podcast as well. All right. I want to let you know if you’re interested in Belize, if that’s on your bucket list or if you’ve been there, you want to go out with the wet fly swing crew, check in with me, Dave at swing dot com. We’re putting together some good stuff here. Excited for Belize this year? Please check in with me and I’ll get you some details on that. Dave swing dot com. If you are a pro member, you get access early access. So please, if you’re in pro or you want to access pro, check in with me as well. You can go to swing dot com slash pro to join. And we’ll let you know how to get in on our next cohort, which is going to be happening with the boot camp. The boot camp is right around the corner as we speak. If you’re interested in that boot camp, this is a bunch of great master classes free online, and it’s our chance to share a little bit inside. Look at wet Fly Swing Pro. All right, time to get out of here. Hope you’re enjoying this one. Hope you have a great afternoon, a great evening. If it’s morning, maybe you’re on the river. Maybe you’ve downloaded this podcast potentially, if that’s you and you’re listening right now and maybe you’re in a water master would love to hear from you. Check in with me, Dave at web dot com. And if you are someone else that’s never checked in, please do that. Always love to hear. If you’re listening to the podcast and what we can do to make it better for you. All right. Thanks again. We’ll talk to you soon. 00:52:04 Speaker 4: Thanks for listening to the Wet Fly Swing Fly Fishing Show. For notes and links from this episode, visit wet fly dot com.

 

Water Master rafts

Conclusion with Rich Stuber on Water Master Rafts

I always enjoy a good boat conversation, and Rich brought plenty of insights in this one. If you’ve spent time fishing from a Water Master, or you’re thinking about adding one to your lineup, let me know what you think.

     

943 | Traditional Wet Fly Fishing Secrets from Davy Wotton

In this episode, Davy Wotton discusses why many anglers are missing fish before their flies even land. While most anglers focus on casting farther, Davy argues that shorter, more controlled casts in traditional wet fly fishing often result in better presentations and more fish caught.

Davy details his “clockface” method for fishing wet flies and explains how to effectively fish upstream, across, and downstream on the swing. He also compares traditional winged wet flies with North Country soft hackles—both of which are commonly used in traditional wet fly fishing systems. Additionally, he shares specific fly patterns that anglers can start using right away.

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(The full episode transcript is at the bottom of this blogpost) 👇🏻

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Davy Wotton on Traditional Wet Fly Fishing
Photo via https://www.davywottonflyfishing.com/galleries

Show Notes with Davy Wotton on Traditional Wet Fly Fishing

Davy Wotton is a respected fly fishing guide, author, and instructor known for his expertise in traditional wet fly fishing and wet fly presentation techniques. Originally from Wales, United Kingdom, he has spent decades teaching anglers and refining traditional wet fly fishing methods for both rivers and still waters.

Davy is widely recognized for helping preserve and modernize classic wet fly approaches, making traditional wet fly fishing practical and highly effective for today’s anglers.

Better Presentation and Natural Drifts on Traditional Wet Fly Fsihing

[00:02:03] Davy explains why presentation matters more than simply covering water. In traditional wet fly fishing, success often comes from matching the natural drift of insects rather than forcing long casts or rushing the presentation.

[00:12:59] He also breaks down his clockface method, focusing on fishing between 12:30 and 2:30 for the most effective upstream presentation. Davy shares why anglers often miss fish by fishing too fast, reacting too quickly to strikes, or repeatedly casting over the same water instead of moving downstream and covering new water.

You can watch the video of Fishing Wet Flies in the “Traditional Style” with Davy Wotton here.

Davy Wotton’s Traditional Wet Fly Approach

Davy explains that traditional wet fly fishing is built around presenting flies in a way that closely matches how natural insects move in the water. Rather than relying on long casts or fast retrieves, he focuses on controlled presentations, proper drift, and understanding how fish react to different fly movements.

Covering Water with the Clockface Method

Davy explains how to systematically cover water when practicing traditional wet fly fishing with wet flies upstream. Instead of making long casts right away, he starts with short presentations close to the bank and gradually increases distance while maintaining a natural drift.

This method is especially effective in traditional wet fly fishing because it ensures every section of water is covered without spooking fish.

Winged Wet Flies vs North Country Soft Hackles

Davy breaks down the difference between traditional winged wet flies and North Country soft hackles within traditional wet fly fishing systems.

Traditional winged wet flies use more structured patterns that can imitate insects or act as attractors, while North Country soft hackles are sparsely dressed flies designed to move naturally in the current.

[39:03] He explains that soft hackles often perform best in traditional wet fly fishing when fished upstream, where the current activates the fibers naturally. Traditional winged wet flies can also be fished upstream effectively, offering more versatility depending on conditions and fish behavior.

The Right Rod for Wet Fly Fishing

I also wanted to ask Davy on gear, especially the rods he likes for fishing wet flies. Davy’s answer was pretty simple:

“the right rod makes controlling your flies and making slower, more open casts a whole lot easier.”

A few of the rods and setups we talked about:

  • Medium-action rods with a soft tip
  • Euro nymphing rods, which Davy says work surprisingly well for wet flies
  • 10-foot to 10’6″ rods as his preferred all-around length
  • 11-foot rods for even more line control
  • The APGA Prestige X rod series that Davy helped design
  • Rods from Hardy, Orvis, and Sage that he also enjoys fishing

One of the biggest takeaways here is that wet fly fishing isn’t about casting as far as possible. It’s about line control, natural presentations, and using a rod that helps you slow everything down.

Davy shared a piece of advice from John Hazel: “make the right cast the first time. A good presentation sets up everything that follows, and it’s something every angler can continue to work on.”

John Hazel at the Deschutes River Fly Shop a Deschutes
Photo by Mark B. Gibson of Columbia Gorge News

You can check John Hazel of Swing the Fly Shop here.

Choosing the Right Rod for Wet Fly Fishing

[00:58:13- 01:11]When I asked Davy about rods, he emphasized that rod action and line control matter more than casting distance. He would prefer longer, medium-action rods with soft tips, including Euro nymphing rods, 10- to 11-foot rods, and the APGA Prestige X series he helped design. He also mentioned rods from Hardy, Orvis, and Sage. If you’re wondering how the right rod can improve your wet fly presentation, Davy now shares plenty of practical insights in this episode.

Why Stealth Matters More Than You Think

[01:11] One of the most interesting parts of this conversation was hearing Davy explain how often anglers spook fish without realizing it. From fly line splash and rod shadows to poor presentations, small mistakes can make fish aware of your presence long before they see your fly.

[01:30] We also get into leader design, why Davy avoids loop-to-loop connections, and how a simple, streamlined setup can improve presentations. If you’ve ever watched fish refuse your flies and wondered why, this section of the episode offers some eye-opening insights that could change the way you approach the water.

Controlling the Swing and Hooking More Fish

One thing that really stood out to me with Davy was how many fish we lose simply because we react too fast to the take. In this episode, he shares a few simple adjustments from slowing the swing to adding a little slack that can help you hook and land more fish, and honestly, it might change the way you fish wet flies.

Muddler Daddy used best for Traditional Fly Fishing as per Davy
Muddler Daddy used best for Traditional Fly Fishing as per Davy photo via https://bannvalley.net/products/muddler-silver-daddy

Davy on traditional wet fly fishing
Davy showing off his catch of the day using his traditional wet fly fishing method.

If you want to connect with Davy or learn more, here’s where to find him:

Website: https://www.davywottonflyfishing.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/david.wotton.16/

Email: davyfly@ozarkmountains.com

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Full Podcast Transcript

Episode Transcript
00;00;01;29 – 00;00;28;11 Dave The biggest wet, fly mistake has nothing to do with the flies. It happens after the cast, and according to Davie Walton, is the reason many anglers missed fish. Lose fish or never get the take in the first place. Today debut Walton returns on the podcast. He’s going to break down the finer points of traditional wet fly fishing. We get into presentation land control, fly selection, leader design, casting and why the way your fly moves to the water often matters more than the pattern you tie in your leader. 00;00;28;18 – 00;00;44;28 Dave This is the Wet by Swing podcast, where I show you the best places to travel to for fly fishing. How to find the best resources and tools to prepare for that big trip and what you can do to give back to the fish species. We all love. In this episode, Dave is going to break down the Clockface method and how he uses this to fish upstream. 00;00;45;02 – 00;01;04;14 Dave To fish whet flies effectively. We’re going to talk about fishing upstream, fishing across, fishing down on the swing. We can find out about the difference between traditional winged wet flies and the North country soft tackles. We’re going to talk about flies in the flies. You need to get started today. And also how to control, drag and maintain proper fly separation. 00;01;04;14 – 00;01;21;23 Dave That’s a big one we use in a team of flies. We’re going to describe that two, three, four and maybe even five flies or more. And the casting mistakes that lead to constant tangles and what you can do to change that. We’ve got some good stuff going. We’re also going to be talking about a potential trip with TV and a boot camp. 00;01;21;23 – 00;01;30;20 Dave So if you want to check in with him, you can go to https://www.davywottonflyfishing.com/ right now. Here he is, Davy Watton. How you do, Davy? 00;01;31;03 – 00;01;34;02 Davy I’m doing fine. It’s great to be back with you again. 00;01;34;12 – 00;01;49;05 Dave Yeah, this is exciting. We’ve we’ve recently, you know, we always have people asking about fly fishing and, you know, I’ve had some people in our group asking about that again. And you’ve been on the podcast. We have some links in the show notes. We did some great episodes in the past. We’ll have links so people can check that out. 00;01;49;05 – 00;02;02;19 Dave But today I think we’re going to take it back and maybe take it up a level, you know, start with the basics, but get into some higher level stuff here. On what fly fishing. But maybe first off, before we get there, give us an update. What’s been going on with you the last three years? Anything new out there in your neck of the woods? 00;02;03;01 – 00;02;39;14 Davy Well, as you well know, you know, I go to and have the fly fishing schools here on the way. We were primarily here in Arkansas. But of course, I get booked to go around the country and do programs. And a lot of the requests are related to the understanding of fly fishing. And as you know, and most others probably do, that originates from the United Kingdom pretty much, you know, And so there’s a lot of product discussions here, you know, with the different groups that are on Facebook related to fly fishing or fishing type of spiders and this, that and the other. 00;02;39;14 – 00;03;04;24 Davy And I can only just say that, you know, there’s a significant greater interest today than there certainly was a few years ago. One reason for one reason or the other. And I think that’s more obviously too, related to the social media that’s in our boat. People are aware of it and have an interest in it and whatever it is related to the timing of the specific flight patterns or the techniques information. 00;03;05;16 – 00;03;19;25 Davy But I still think that in respect of everything else, you know, that is still somewhat a little not quite understood here. You know, in America what that’s all about in that sense of the word, as far as the way I can explain it. 00;03;20;07 – 00;03;39;09 Dave Yeah. So people don’t quite get the wet fly. I mean, I think that some people, you know, there’s probably confusion on, you know, swinging wet flies or, you know, different styles of life. Maybe you can. How would you explain that to somebody who’s listening now, who’s new to it? What would be your how would you describe you know, what you do with wet fly fishing versus, say, other types of what? 00;03;39;09 – 00;03;39;27 Dave Fly fishing? 00;03;40;08 – 00;04;12;25 Davy Okay, so let me put it in this respect. So what fly fishing by definition of how it is understood from the countries of my origin, Obviously being United Kingdom is the definitive style of fishing which generally relates to the fishing of usually motorboat flies, two, three, four and sometimes even more than that which refused historically, in the past, I wouldn’t suggest you go much more for incidentally, but that relates to the different kind of water. 00;04;12;25 – 00;04;28;25 Davy So you have to look at our fishing, which is a specific technique used on Stillwater’s more than anything else, where you would fish flies in front of a drifting boat downwind and draw those flies back to you relative depth and speed depending on the prevailing conditions. 00;04;29;02 – 00;04;33;01 Dave That’s right. That’s what’s like the drogue using the drogue anchor system. Right? You’re drifting. 00;04;33;15 – 00;05;08;23 Davy Okay, So you mentioned that. So a drug is really a means that can slow your boat down on that downstream drift. But you only use that in in situations where your boat is moving so fast that you can’t really cover the line back toward you and push those flows in an appropriate manner. Let’s put it like that. And so what I’m trying to say is that just for example, you can still 30, 35 feet of line in front of you in a boat you scripted down so fast you can scrape those flies back fast enough to contain or maintain, shall we say, control of those flows. 00;05;09;00 – 00;05;29;28 Davy So the drogue would slow you down and you don’t necessarily need that if you go to a fairly low window or a light bridge, you don’t need that. So in that respect, as far as looks efficient, objectively what you are doing, you are showing the team of flies downwind to fish that are generally moving up towards you. Okay? 00;05;30;08 – 00;05;54;10 Davy Now if you are fishing rivers, streams or creeks, call it what you will. There would be a difference to fishing saying, you know, it’s fairly small creek with shallow river water where upstream techniques are the most appropriate way to fish where it flies. Let me just say this to you also. You know, when I was first teaching my great friend Dave Whitlock went fly fishing. 00;05;54;24 – 00;06;24;13 Davy He could never understand why I would tell him there’s a difference between. But we considered to be a fly to his way to think. And it was a stunt fly regardless of what it was. Okay. And I told him, I said, Hey, Dave, you know, for us guys in the UK where fly fishing relates to specific type of fly, I typically, whatever it may be, a wing work fly or whatever it is, you know, as opposed to just a fly by definition. 00;06;24;25 – 00;06;53;17 Davy Oh yeah. He says, what I don’t quite understand now. I said, No, because you weren’t. You know, obviously brought up an environment where for hundreds of years that’s the terminology of it, you know, this traditional bat fly fishing. So that said, typically, let me put this in this perspective. The nature of the particular water that you are fishing as a relationship to the technique that is most appropriate for that particular type of water. 00;06;54;03 – 00;07;20;28 Davy So if you are fishing a far shallow, rocky stream refugee water system, which is kind of typically in the North Country area, the best approach is to present those flows upstream. It’s fish, those kind of flies downstream. Well, guess what? That generally is small boys. That’s right. Yes. The flies moves so fast, whereas fish in those water environments are typically looking for whatever’s coming toward them above them. 00;07;21;01 – 00;07;45;27 Davy And so if you flies are presented above that fish and they come down toward the fish, that’s more natural trout. The fish would say, I’m not afraid or your artificial. Now, if you take a big river like where I work here. So the prevailing conditions are very much again related to the best approach so far as fishing by definition, what flies. 00;07;46;09 – 00;08;16;06 Davy So when we are very shallow water generations, which is what we define here as minimum flow, upstream presentations can be the most efficient, an effective way to catch those fish in the prevailing water that you’re fishing, i.e. fairly shallow, fast Rocky River process. On the other hand, when we have high water situations, you don’t have that kind of water, obviously, because the higher levels of water just eliminate that kind of water. 00;08;16;24 – 00;08;41;18 Davy So your approach then would be different. And depending when you are drift fishing in a boat or your weight fishing, which may I have some limitations based on the levels of water upstream fishing, the point that drift mode still can be very, very productive. On the other hand, you may well find that occurs more across stream and downstream is more effective. 00;08;42;06 – 00;08;50;01 Davy And so depth and speed of water as a relationship to the best approach, regardless of whatever water, fishing, fishing. 00;08;50;01 – 00;09;09;24 Dave Right. So what you’re saying is the wet fly fishing is more about the flies are a really important part of this. Like if you’re using a certain type of fly, whether that’s a soft tackle or a wing, the wet fly that determines whether you’re wet fly fishing, is that more important to the flies or fishing versus say, I don’t know any other parts of the process? 00;09;09;24 – 00;09;36;00 Davy Okay. That is very big question. The first thing that I personally take into consideration, obviously, is there any activity in other words, other folks about on or near the surface of the water? And if there are I know some of interest from fish, then it is more appropriate to use flies that have in some cases, but not always some representation to that species. 00;09;36;26 – 00;09;59;04 Davy And if you have fish that are fisheries seeing on or near the surface, it doesn’t matter really, you know what that fish in on emerges, dries or spent or whatever the case may be. It is more appropriate, in my opinion, to fisheries flows more upstream and in a dead mode, because that’s the way the fish expect to see those flies. 00;09;59;26 – 00;10;21;19 Davy Naturally, if you catch the cross stream, a new fish flies across and back towards you. You’re moving flies at a speed that is totally unrelated to the natural insects that those fish are feeding on. Now, I’m not saying it won’t catch fish because as we all know, I don’t matter what you chuck that river or whatever at some point of time to catch fish. 00;10;22;06 – 00;10;46;09 Davy But there’s a there’s a logical basic approach that would generally catch you more fish and get more interest from those fish. So if you fish more than upstream, that drift mode, so to speak, know what I’m talking about? It says if you assume if you look directly upstream that to be 12:00. Okay. And we take what we call relative degrees of angle like paging Fantail. 00;10;46;16 – 00;11;17;29 Davy So like 12:00, 1:00, 2:00, 3:00 directly across stream, I would want to fish my flies in that region of between, say, 1232 to 30. That gives me the best presentation so far as they drift in. Those flies are concerned. If, of course, you control the drift and those flies appropriate to what is likely to be seen by fish with the natural insect, if you fish more across stream, you’re inducing fish to chase or flies. 00;11;18;08 – 00;11;43;20 Davy And that’s very different. No, I’m not saying that you won’t catch fish by doing that because you will bite. You will also lessen the chances of catching more fish. And the reason being is because and this is a very common mistake that I see often with the students, the reaction to failing to take is a very different one to visually seeing it. 00;11;43;21 – 00;12;07;08 Davy And that’s so important in right fly fishing. If you react to, shall we say, feel in a tight beard. So you would lose a lot of fish because your tight lining those flies to those fish. Whereas if you can fish across and down with the more slack in approach, the fish can take that fly and not feel instant resistance. 00;12;07;08 – 00;12;27;16 Davy And that gives you a better option to simply just raise the road and set the hook and that fish and it don’t get off. Not only that, if you have a habit of stripping the place too fast, you get a lot of chases. In other words, facial trace. And it don’t take long before a couple of facial whatever in that area. 00;12;27;22 – 00;12;52;03 Davy They ignore you because they’ve seen you do that two or three times, whichever the case may be. So in order to improve your odds, you’ve got to move. So you make three or four cars, so to speak. You walk downstream another three or four yards and you do the same thing again. In other words, you don’t continuously keep fishing and pounding over the same section of water because ultimately, why is fish up? 00;12;52;21 – 00;12;59;15 Davy And it’s what I call Dave, the heron stance. In other words, I’ve watched people do that for an hour. 00;12;59;26 – 00;13;01;10 Dave All right. In the same spot. 00;13;01;18 – 00;13;02;16 Davy Yeah. Yeah. 00;13;02;26 – 00;13;19;12 Dave You want to move? You want to cover the water, like, systematically. How would you break that out? Let’s just take it to that. That riffle, that kind of faster water. How do you how do you break that down? Do you break that down into little you know, meter sections and try to cover everything there? How do you know where not to cast when you’re fishing? 00;13;19;12 – 00;13;49;14 Davy RIFFLE okay. The answer to that one, it saves both the pole observation. That’s the most important thing when you’re fishing more. And then upstream mode that may or may not be a hatch doesn’t make a lot of difference for fishing in fairly shallow water like that. My main water up to possibly about two feet in depth. You know very well that those fish are going to be facing upstream and they’re going to be looking for whatever boats or whatever is going to be moved down toward them. 00;13;50;02 – 00;14;14;03 Davy You then have to develop the the knowledge and the skill just to read water. You know, how water structure moves around structure, which gives you the indication of the best possible where those fish are likely to be. It’s not really just a question of checking the flies upstream and downstream and open efficient areas sees them. There’s a lot more to that. 00;14;14;03 – 00;14;41;05 Davy You know, and it’s based on experience for anything. So the easiest answer to give you is this Under those circumstances, you’re going to be progressing upstream, you know, walking downstream. And the thing that you must always consider is this, as you well know, many, many cases, fish are a lot closer to that bank. They think they are they’re not out there ten, 20, 30, 43 or more. 00;14;41;05 – 00;15;02;02 Davy A lot of fish are very, very close to the banks. So therefore, your most logical approach is to fish water close to yourself, which of course is going to be upstream anyway if you’re fly presentation as opposed to casting whatever line four line you think you need to think there’s what you’re going to do is line fish. 00;15;02;15 – 00;15;13;01 Dave So how far when you’re when you’re let’s just say you’re on that roof all you’re casting upstream, what’s your typical distance of your cast as you’re working your way? And and are you then working your way upstream as you go? 00;15;13;13 – 00;15;36;09 Davy Absolutely. Let me tell you, first and foremost, I use fairly long lead systems, you know, way more than ten for because I want the flies on the surface of the water, a no fly line. That’s interesting. So I try to explain this to people in this respect. So if you were fishing dry flies, you visually see a fish come to the surface to take the flies. 00;15;36;09 – 00;16;03;08 Davy But when you’re efficient, subsurface flies, you don’t. So your reactions are related to something visual, i.e. you see some disturbance in the surface of the water. You see your line momentarily stop. There’s various things that you should have focused an observation to tell you that a fish is take your flies. But going back to the approach which is generally done upstream, showed you fish close water first. 00;16;03;08 – 00;16;23;00 Davy So assuming we’re looking directly upstream and also we have to consider, are you fishing off the bank or you in the water? See what I’m saying? Yeah. So you can actually be a certain distance in the water where you can fish both left side and right side of your position because you’re that far out in the stream. But you might not be able to do that. 00;16;23;00 – 00;16;52;08 Davy You may be restricted to fishing off the bank. Therefore, what I said a little earlier on, if you assume 12 is the more direct upstream position from where you are, you do not want to cast your flies directly straight upstream, regardless of whether you’re on the bank or in the river. And the reason for it is this If you do that, then if you’re fishing a team of flies, they cannot all be visually seen by those fish. 00;16;52;20 – 00;17;31;12 Davy So therefore your cost angle should be and assuming where looking upstream left side, you make a presentation at least 1230 if not 1:00 So when the flies track downstream, they’re at relative distances from each other. In other words, if we use in a system where I flies, just faced about 25 inches to 30 inches, which ideally they should be, they for a fish, a relative position can be maybe looking at the top, drop a fly, come in or make drop of fly or the tail fly coming within that margin of six feet if all of me. 00;17;31;18 – 00;17;32;23 Dave Yeah I get makes sense. 00;17;33;03 – 00;18;02;15 Davy Okay. And that’s that’s very important because you’ve got to cover the water in such a way as that you’re positioning your flies in a manner whereby fish at different positions, easily able to see them in a few course more directly upstream. That’s not the case because the flies track back down to one through three. So if you were to rig up a system with three dry flies, that’s the easiest way to explain it. 00;18;02;29 – 00;18;22;28 Davy And you catch those three dry air flies directly upstream where they’re all going to come. But downstream in a line, Right. Whereas if you relatively change the angle more to 1:00 or thereabouts, then those flies are spaced apart, but they efficient at different ranges from each other as they track downstream. 00;18;24;26 – 00;18;42;01 Dave Pescatore on the Fly offers a full range of fly fishing gear for any angler at any budget with premium rise delivered directly to you, The RG six is the most packable high performance fly right on the market, performing like a four piece ride, but with unmatched portability in six pieces. And you can get 10% off your next order. 00;18;42;01 – 00;19;18;22 Dave Right now if you use the code wet fly swinging at pesky door on the fly ecom never fly without your G six Discover the El Rey series and more at Pescatore on the fly dotcom experience the waters of Bristol Bay at Togiak River Lodge, where fly fishing meets Alaska’s rugged beauty. This is the place to complete the Alaska Grand Slam with all five salmon species, rainbow trout, arctic char and more, Where each day offers a new Alaskan adventure, you can visit Togiak Lodge scheme right now to start planning your Bristol Bay experience with Togiak River Lodge. 00;19;18;22 – 00;19;37;06 Dave Well, this is really good to clarify that because I think like I was out fishing this weekend and I was fishing the the salmon fly hatch, you know, and I had a I had a big giant, giant chubby Chernobyl on. And then on the drop or off that about three feet, I had like a Euro nymph. So I was kind of a and what I was doing was catching I was finding these seams and I was casting directly upstream. 00;19;37;13 – 00;19;52;02 Dave I had these spots where I was kind of thinking, okay, that’s where the nice fish would be. And I was casting right up into that seam and it was kind of coming straight back to me almost. So I was stripping it in like towards me as it came. So in it worked. I definitely got some nice fish. But what you’re saying is you don’t want to do that. 00;19;52;02 – 00;19;58;00 Dave That’s not something you don’t want to like have it straight up above you and stripping it as you come. You want to have it more at an angle at your 1:00. 00;19;58;09 – 00;20;27;23 Davy Okay. So right, what you were doing is a very different thing as opposed to, say, fish in three soft tackles, which everyplace maybe those flies, you typically don’t straight back towards you. I’m not saying that sometimes they won’t catch a fish because I know it does, but typically, oh, manner of presentation is to fish. Those flies do not upstream they drift mode, which is pretty much related to the natural stream drift as a fish would see a natural insect coming down towards it. 00;20;27;29 – 00;20;55;16 Davy Okay. And that requires a lot of road control as well as your left hand. And that’s so important to as far as the tightening sufficient is concerned. So my general approach would be to work my way upstream in what we call Paging Fantail and other words, I make my first presentation fairly close in that say with the the tail fry, probably not much more than about 815 feet away from it. 00;20;55;29 – 00;20;59;01 Dave Okay. And your leaders, 10 to 15 feet long, typically. 00;20;59;21 – 00;21;01;25 Davy More like 12 to 15 feet. 12 to. 00;21;01;26 – 00;21;02;14 Dave 15. Okay. 00;21;03;02 – 00;21;25;18 Davy Now, if we’ve made our initial presentation, shall we say the degree of angle of at, say, 1:00 and we tracked those flies back to a position more or less just to the right side of us. We pick that up, we make that presentation again. So we’ve covered that section of water. Then what we do without moving upstream, we increase the distance. 00;21;25;18 – 00;21;56;14 Davy So we take off two or three yards alone and we make that presentation initially again at say, a 1:00 position. We’re now tracking those flies at a greater distance than what we did in the first place. That then requires control of your line. Guess what? You get drag and you fly as gate drag downstream. So objectively you’re going to have to make some control of your line five folks, You have managed to maintain those flies tracking without drag. 00;21;57;20 – 00;22;16;25 Davy Okay, so we don’t get no response. Then what we do, we increase the distance again, so we make the initial presentation and gain the degree of angle of 1:00, but we now exceed in the distance. So what you are in effect doing is, is progressively covering water in different segments. 00;22;17;08 – 00;22;27;02 Dave Yeah. So you’re starting out at 15 feet if you don’t get anything and then you cast out another five feet, now you’re at 20 feet and then you’re at 25, that sort of thing, until you get out to a certain length. 00;22;27;17 – 00;22;28;16 Davy That’s correct. 00;22;28;28 – 00;22;29;21 Dave Yeah. Okay. 00;22;30;03 – 00;22;54;08 Davy So if you wish to draw on a piece of paper, figuratively speaking, shall we say, I’m I’m standing on the bank and I’m looking at and if you draw a clock face like 12:00, 1:00, 2:00, 3:00, then if you’re in the same position and you directly cast a line at 1:00 position, you’re gradually increase distance as you cause upstream. 00;22;55;00 – 00;23;23;29 Davy And so you bring your flies back down stream more and that they drift mode to about 3:00 and then you proceed again doing the same thing. In other words, you start short line increase, increase, increase. If you and I see people do this all the time, the first thing they got to do is rip off line and start checking out 2530 feet line well before you line fish renew and your flies. 00;23;24;19 – 00;23;53;02 Davy And the other thing that’s really, really important is that those flies track downstream, separated. In other words, when you make that presentation, the tail fly is the furthest fly away. And the mate dropper is between it and course and the top drop or flight. So what I’m trying to impress upon people is there has to be a visual separation of those flies as you track those. 00;23;53;02 – 00;24;11;14 Davy Right. That drift from upstream to an across stream presentation. If you do not control your fly fly and you let drag on the line to interfere with that, it will directly pull those flies back downstream in a direct line facing upstream. And that’s not what you need to do. 00;24;11;24 – 00;24;13;13 Dave No. You want a dead drift? 00;24;13;26 – 00;24;50;00 Davy Yes. And I think one of the more difficult things for for persons to get is that is to maintain the drift that those flies separated. So if we have having our flights separate by 25 to 30 inch margins, then they’ve got 50 to 60 inches of separate. And that’s the important thing. And tell you an interesting thing about that is that you will often find at times if you have three different flight patterns, that is one particular flight that those fish hit. 00;24;50;23 – 00;25;10;09 Davy Whether or not they see the other two flies, I can argue whether they do or they don’t. I think that a lot of that is related to the level of that that those fish are up. So, you know, if that close to the bottom feeder water or that just a little subsurface, which is the case by the, you know, more shallow zone. 00;25;10;24 – 00;25;39;15 Davy My view about that is this if you’re fishing for shallow drift water upstream, it’s one fly that they’re likely to say a note or three, let’s put it like that because of the manner of those flows come down to the fish. So that’s always fascinated me about that. You know, why do fish do that? But they do. There’s one particular fly they can do, and it may well be the fly that’s on your top drop or the fly that’s close to you. 00;25;39;15 – 00;26;03;21 Davy It may well be the metro, but it may be the tail fly. But you’ll often find in many cases that is the case, that they choose to take one of those flies. And whether it is because they’re line that there’s fish or lying there, it’s the fly they see first, or they just ignore the others. That’s it’s very hard to know because you can’t get them to give you an answer why they did that. 00;26;03;27 – 00;26;22;02 Dave No, no. Yeah, that’s right. Okay. And you mentioned so let’s just take it to the hatch versus no hatch. So if you come to a river to say we’re on the white or any river around the country and you’re fish whet wet flies and there’s nothing going on, you know, you’re out there, maybe it’s, I don’t know, midday or something, but there’s no bugs. 00;26;22;09 – 00;26;29;06 Dave Describe that. How are you fishing that differently than if you like? What would you be putting on? Do you have a set of flies? Like if there’s nothing going on? 00;26;29;19 – 00;26;55;02 Davy That’s a good question. So there are a lot of things that have a relationship to that. If that’s why I couldn’t explain it. So water temperature is a big related factor to that, because as we know, water temperature is very much related to hatches, both the first sink. So if we take the early and our river is a little different because, you know, being a tail, water is more of a concern. 00;26;55;02 – 00;27;29;00 Davy The first water pipe was concerned. So if you had fish, you’d say some of the kind of award boaters that you fish out there in use during the early months of the year that water is cold, right? Whereas I don’t have that. So therefore, you know that fish are not really look at maybe you get some blue we don’t have planters or midges or something like that, you know, but if you have no obvious knowledge or something is telling you, you know, this is what the fish are interested in, you can use flies that would promote interest, in other words. 00;27;29;17 – 00;27;56;18 Davy And that’s also a kind of a question where you would go with that. So is your choice going to be, for example, North Country So self cycle flies, which are consistently good fish catching flies or under pretty much any city station? Or are you going to choose to use when wet flies? I can only tell you that, you know, from my own point of view, it’s 60 years or more of experience doing that. 00;27;57;02 – 00;28;24;17 Davy If somebody was to generally ask me a question, well, what three fries or four flies should, I could give them an answer to that. That I would suspect those flies under the prevailing conditions based on. I had the knowledge of the kind of water they were fishing, what might work. So, for example, you’d have flies, which would have not necessarily insect related, but would have more say, attractiveness to them. 00;28;24;17 – 00;28;30;19 Davy So a typical example would be when we assume we were still fishing upstream, right? Yeah. 00;28;30;25 – 00;28;31;04 Dave Yeah. 00;28;31;10 – 00;28;54;04 Davy Okay. So classic traditional, soft. I flies. I know a lot of people like a partridge in orange and I guess it’s ironically enough, it’s not a fly that’s on my top ten list, I can tell you that. So I would use flies that have more bulkiness to them. So for example, like a partridge in has zero to me. 00;28;54;04 – 00;29;17;28 Davy I think that’s absolutely one of the best flies that’s out there. I might use a fly that is, they may leave of, say, a beetle pattern like a black and peacock spider or something like that, you know. But I might also incorporate on that team of flies a fly like, for example, a Silver Impact or Awakenings. Fancy because they’re attractive flies, you know, because for one reason or the other. 00;29;18;15 – 00;29;34;00 Dave You just reminded me because the episode we did and we’ll have a link in the show notes this December 20. It’s amazing it was been that long, but we did an episode in 2020 December, episode 174, and in that episode we have a list. We put actually put top 20 flies from Davey. 00;29;34;00 – 00;29;34;29 Davy Oh, yeah, that’s right. 00;29;34;29 – 00;29;50;10 Dave Yeah, yeah. So we have 20. So I’m going to we’ll have a link to that. But you know, I think we put in, I’m not sure if this is exactly the top, but you had the march brown winged or soft tackle. The hairs are wing, the black gnat, the blue done da Cahill led coachman, coachman like Cahill paddy. 00;29;50;16 – 00;30;00;27 Dave So I’m not sure. And we talked about a whole list of those. The Alexander in there. Now, is that list still do you think that’s a good solid all around list or there some other ones we should be thrown to That. 00;30;01;12 – 00;30;20;20 Davy Is again with reference. Yes, I if you wish to ask me this question by choice for what I use. So if you’re relating that more to what we call the soft called spider fly patterns, I could give you ten flies. That would be pretty much, I guarantee you, in any river, one or more of those flies will catch you fish. 00;30;21;08 – 00;30;49;29 Davy On the other hand, if you wanted to relate that more to the traditional way it flies. And incidentally, that’s another factor which is little and just not so understood here is that and we already just discussed, say, a while back the tradition or traditional that flies insofar as we understand it in UK essentially winged where it flies and they could be attractive flies or deceive or flies or whatever. 00;30;49;29 – 00;31;09;05 Davy So if we look at, for example, the butcher, I mean that’s definitely an attractive fly. There is nothing in a river that looks like a butcher. It’s a silver bodied fly with a Black Hawk, and it uses the blue colored feathers of the top of an allowed wing and a red tail. 00;31;09;14 – 00;31;17;17 Dave Okay. And red tell it’s got the blue wing, it’s got the silver body and the red tail. So that’s that’s an attractive pattern with a wing. 00;31;18;02 – 00;31;20;27 Davy And we would define that as a traditional white fly. 00;31;21;10 – 00;31;31;23 Dave Right. And that’s a traditional UFO because it has mainly because it has a wing. Like I always think of it, I’m pretty basic, but I always go back to the winged you know, we mentioned the coachmen, you know, the style. It’s like a duck. We Oh. 00;31;31;23 – 00;31;32;09 Davy Yeah, yeah. 00;31;32;09 – 00;31;41;01 Dave And so you’re saying traditional wet flies have they have the wings and now is North Country style. How is that different than the traditional winged wet flies? 00;31;41;06 – 00;32;12;05 Davy Okay, that’s an interesting question. So right now there’s a significant amount of interest on the groups on Facebook related to the North Country style. I that are flies that have their so-called, you know, origination in that particular geographical part of the United Kingdom. And there’s a lot of history related to that. There’s no question of a doubt that there is and there are many, many variations of those flies and that some of which also sport wings. 00;32;12;05 – 00;32;33;25 Davy But I don’t I try to confuse you other listeners, but, you know, as far as, you know, ringway flies are concerned, many of those would be termed as flies that are used more so in lots of fashion or lakes or stillwater’s, I suppose. But let me just say this from a personal point of view. They’re as good as effective. 00;32;33;25 – 00;32;57;06 Davy Fishing flies on rivers of creeks and streams. Let’s put it like that. So let me give you a really good classic, typical example of that. The standard in Victor, the Silver Victor is a version of it is a hell of a damn good fly to use in a situation, particularly, for example, when kites are hatching that is ahead of a good flight. 00;32;57;22 – 00;33;24;07 Davy Then of course you’ve got flies that are more, shall we say, caricatures of naturals. In other words, you take, say, for example, a much brown, a right wing great front or wing has air, for example. There all flies that have certain intrinsic values to promote fish, to take them, let’s put it like that. Whereas in the North Country style flies, there are so many variations. 00;33;24;15 – 00;33;32;04 Davy I imagine a lot of people obviously are familiar with The Partridge in Orange, and they are familiar with, say, like the snipe from purple. Okay. 00;33;32;14 – 00;33;36;29 Dave So that’s a North country. So the partridge in Orange is a North Country style fry. 00;33;37;00 – 00;33;37;13 Davy Yes. 00;33;37;20 – 00;33;38;13 Dave Yeah. Okay. 00;33;38;26 – 00;33;43;20 Davy And like I said, you know, a snipe from purple is another classic snipe. 00;33;43;29 – 00;34;00;25 Dave Okay, So that makes sense. So it’s basically and I know there’s probably some variation in overlap, but for the most part, the winged whet flies, you know, traditional wet flies are they have the wing, the North country style are more the parts of Georgia where it’s just like the I call tackles you know just the soft tackle flies. 00;34;01;12 – 00;34;28;12 Davy Let me tell you this. You know soft serve type or so some people referred to, they’re more spider flies. Okay, So let me just say this. If you have an interest or understand the historical aspects of it and you look at how flies were tied back there in the 17, 1800s, they’re pretty heavily shackled flies, whereas most people look, oh, a spider fly is very sparsely wound, tackled. 00;34;28;12 – 00;34;47;29 Davy Right. And both have their place. So my view about that is this based on thousands of years of experiences that the more sparsely heckled flies. I by definition, because the more spiders are, the more suitable for us to use more So in upstream, they drift. 00;34;48;11 – 00;34;49;15 Dave Oh, okay. 00;34;49;22 – 00;35;14;25 Davy As opposed to across and down because you have a fly that may be have one turn or tackle. I mean, there’s graves small amount of echo fiber on that fly. If you fish that fly like that downstream and across and I ain’t Tony won’t catch fishes sometimes but it’s a different presentation of that fly and same boat of fish, and that’s really what matters. 00;35;15;03 – 00;35;39;24 Davy Whereas if you fish fry upstream, then the natural movement of water will animate those hackles where we presume across and downstream we pull them back or against current. Well, guess what? Those echo fibers are pretty much going to shut down close to the fryer, the body, and it’s kind of like pulling upstream a nip, if that’s the way to explain. 00;35;39;24 – 00;35;40;20 Davy That would, too. 00;35;40;20 – 00;35;41;02 Dave Okay. 00;35;41;14 – 00;36;10;03 Davy All right. So Wing where it flies almost certainly can be extreme. Many effective fish that drift upstream. And some of those I just mentioned to you that, you know, typically emerge brown or wing bent heads there and or an Invicta flies like that in relatively small sizes and that’s another thing the size of the fly I use it based on the prevailing conditions at that time. 00;36;11;00 – 00;36;32;14 Davy In other words, if you fish flies that are too large or too big, you may have very negative results from it for one reason or other. So as we know, you know, the natural insects that fish feed on in our river systems are relatively small by comparison. And that’s obviously you’re dealing with something like a stone flies or whatever. 00;36;32;14 – 00;36;58;12 Davy But for the most part of it, most natural fry is fish, see? And that could include crustaceans too. You know, big Scuds or so bugs are somewhere in a ballpark or in a regular hook size, I bet a size 14, if not smaller. You know, I’ll give you a typical example. This last week or so here, there was some really good surface activity of the trail here feeding. 00;36;58;27 – 00;37;30;05 Davy And mostly they were feeding on midges and small species of carriers and ants. There was a good fall of ants and the way that I was able to get the customers to catch those fish were size 18 flies. So if circle flies to six X incidentally, and that’s another thing of consideration, Dave, is that the diameter of the line that you’re using by definition X factor, whatever, can make a big, big difference. 00;37;30;06 – 00;37;30;20 Dave You can. 00;37;31;13 – 00;37;36;17 Davy Well, yeah, no, I knew that so far. We used our name fishing is concerned too. 00;37;36;22 – 00;37;39;12 Dave Yeah. Yeah. We were using five X on that day. 00;37;39;27 – 00;37;49;15 Davy Yeah. There you go. I mean, and as you well know, in this river system, you can often encounter some pretty bloody big fish because the whale is known for. 00;37;50;16 – 00;37;55;04 Dave Where it is. Could you, if you got into a big fish, can you land a big fish on that. 00;37;55;04 – 00;38;32;08 Davy Six X Depends on the anglers ability. Absolutely, yes. Assuming that the rods in an integral part of what five feet to, you know, and then if you have a very stiff action rod and you’re used in six X, Well yeah, I don’t take too much for your bus to mouth, but if you use that a much softer action rod where you’ve got the flexibility to absorb the shock of the fish moving around or whatever, and you play the the out so that you have seen around here up to 86 seven £8 co on six day flowing. 00;38;32;18 – 00;38;51;03 Dave Yeah that’s it. Okay this is great. So I think going back to what you said, so I think we’re getting the picture here a little bit. So the you got the different soft tackles but you also have how you tie them, whether they’re tied sparsely or heavy. And there’s certain situations where, you know, you might want to fish like you’re talking about upstream and a cross sort of thing. 00;38;51;03 – 00;39;03;28 Dave Now talk about this. When are you ever fishing downstream in a across, you know, like casting out or letting this kind of go down if there’s no if it’s swinging, but down across and then down below, you are is there any water types where you’re fishing like that. 00;39;03;28 – 00;39;27;27 Davy Oh, yeah, absolutely. Of course. I mean, the initial question was obviously approached with an upstream method, which I had a choice is my way to go, assuming the water conditions allow me to fish that way. And of course, on the downstream presentation. Well of course your what you’re basically doing as as we well know is you’re swimming or fly if that’s the term you want to use. 00;39;28;07 – 00;39;54;06 Davy But essentially what you’re doing, you’re presenting your flies across a wide stretch of water from the initial point of time where you made that presentation and you’re bringing them back to it downstream on the hanging angle and there’s no doubt that fish will trace flies. They knew all end up probably hook and some doing that. But unless you really do that in a more controlled manner, you will lose a lot of fish. 00;39;54;10 – 00;40;15;15 Davy And that’s a common thing that questions. I get, you know, an email response. You know, I’m fishing downstream and I and I had about seven or eight fish and I lost everyone. And I know the reason why they are is because first and foremost, they’re reacting to visual relief. I’m sorry, they’re acting to fill in the take of the fish. 00;40;15;15 – 00;40;19;25 Davy And guess what your natural instinct is when you do that, you’re going to raise that rod, right? 00;40;19;25 – 00;40;20;21 Dave Yeah. Set the hook. 00;40;20;26 – 00;40;30;04 Davy Yeah. And so basically pulling the fly straight out of that fish’s mouth. So you’ve got a limited amount of penetration of the hook and whatever, you lose the. 00;40;30;08 – 00;40;44;22 Dave Right. That’s a good point. You know, and again, I’m not you’re the master on the wet fly today, which is over time. But I’ve done a lot of steelhead fishing, which is a lot of the wet fly swinging right swing flies. And the thing you know about steelhead is you don’t set the hook for the most part. You let this thing swing. 00;40;44;22 – 00;40;50;21 Dave And if the fish take, they take it. Is that kind of the same thing with what you’re talking about, how you would do it with wet flies, with how you do it. 00;40;50;27 – 00;41;13;04 Davy All right. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You know, it’s the same as for, you know, I’ve got a lot of landings, seven in my life as well. I’m fortunate. No, here in Arkansas, but in the rivers back home. And the last thing you ever do is react to the fact that you failed that take or that fish. You have to give that fish some time to turn on that fly, Right. 00;41;13;05 – 00;41;20;05 Davy And then you just raise the road and tighten up the boat. And that’s the same as wet fly fishing. No different. 00;41;20;17 – 00;41;31;23 Dave Cool. Okay, so we got that. So in is that across the board where fly, whether you’re fishing upstream or across or down, is it always the same there. You always want to do that type of you’re not trout setting ever. 00;41;32;05 – 00;41;43;09 Davy So when you’re fishing upstream, remember this as soon as the fish takes to fly, it’s going to feel resistance. But the fly is being pulled back toward the fish’s mouth, right? 00;41;43;18 – 00;41;44;14 Dave Yeah, it’s setting it. 00;41;44;23 – 00;42;06;14 Davy And so in that situation, as soon as you say an indication of the fact that the fish just taking the fly and it could be just a surface disturbance and a lot of people know that. Oh yeah, But oftentimes the fish is your fly bait. You don’t necessarily see any indication by the line stop in a way to the case. 00;42;06;14 – 00;42;27;21 Davy May be that’s real quick they’ve been known faded the water so the faster the speed of the water is the more if you like to put it take indication is seen because as soon as the fish take the fly, boom, there’s resistance and you see your line stop or whatever the case may be. And as simply all you do is you just raise that rod. 00;42;28;11 – 00;42;54;01 Davy And if the water is much, much slower, then again, it has to be a visual indication that the fish has taken the fly. And that’s where intense focus is so important. And it’s very much the same kind of scenario is when you’re, you know, fishing. You have to focus on a point where you can visually know a fish is taking your fly and then you raise the rod and it’s more or less the same thing. 00;42;54;22 – 00;43;19;04 Davy And I think that based on the thousands of hours I’ve watched people do it, no, teach them to do it. They don’t see it because that is and I try to explain to them, if you had a dry fly on the surface, you would instantly see the fact that they had fish rows and took your dry fly. Well, you’re not fishing to dry fly your fish in a the subsurface. 00;43;19;04 – 00;43;42;05 Davy So your indication is based on what should the furthest visible point you can of your line or leaders. Just a more than anything else. And that’s that’s the only indication you’re going to get that I will admit they are sometimes you know particularly with larger brown trout, they will take that fly. I never move away with it really, really fast. 00;43;42;05 – 00;44;18;26 Davy It doesn’t matter what they you know, they move out to the right or left or actually move upstream and you can not really not know that a fish took that fly. That’s right. Explain it to you. Now, regarding across and downstream, once again, we’re dealing with the situation looking at the clock face. So if we make an initial presentation, say, about 230 thereabouts, we can by means of line control, did drift those flies for quite a considerable amount of time at a distance away from us which is more across stream. 00;44;18;28 – 00;44;41;20 Davy And the day we did data on weight for efficient techniques, it will show how that’s done and it requires an upstream end of the line to create what is by definition, L-shape, if that’s the way to explain to you. So we’re kind of constant across stream. We presented our flies, but what’s going to happen if we don’t do anything? 00;44;41;20 – 00;45;02;24 Davy Because what can’t interface with the drag on your flow line and all of a sudden your fly is they speed up and you start getting pulled downstream in a straight line as opposed to fish in a cross stream one, two, three separate, and they drift it down. So we have to make an upstream presentation to create what we call the L-shape. 00;45;02;24 – 00;45;34;07 Davy So the further part of your L-shape is your your class, the flow is incidentally, that’s the term we used and you can surprise. That’s a team of flies. There’s not the physical aspect of the flight cast in that sense. So you’ve made the initial presentation upstream. Instead of you have done that, you throw an upstream mend. If that’s explained one to I knew then track that with your rod downstream and allowing those flies to drift. 00;45;34;08 – 00;46;03;11 Davy No that comes obviously a certain point based on the length of line that you’ve got out that your flies will start to swing. In other words, the flies start to swing and move downstream. Now what you must do then is to control those flies across stream. And you do that by bringing the rod. Assuming we’re on this side of the river, you’re bringing the rod to the right, and that allows your flows to track across the stream once again separated. 00;46;03;29 – 00;46;26;06 Davy Now we can slow that down so we can make another across stream bend that slows the drift of those flows down and you can keep doing that and actually fish very, very slowly as opposed to them just getting dragged away. Dams in their cross stream really, really fast. And that also is another aspect of efficiencies. First hook sameness, concern. 00;46;26;23 – 00;46;46;12 Davy I never fish or tight line, if that’s the way to explain it. In other words, I don’t have a direct link. So for example, you were fish in a worry about that, right? And you strip, in fact your fish in a tight line and then work five fish and that’s the last thing you want to do. You always want to have kind of slack line. 00;46;47;18 – 00;47;07;04 Davy It’s what we call the angle of hang of the red tape to the surface roll with your line and kind of like what you would discussed in there regarding fishing for steelhead. You know, you’re generally not fishing the direct high tide line, so to speak. So the advantage of it is, of course, that a fish can take the fly. 00;47;07;18 – 00;47;37;09 Davy You should be able to see the movement of the line as the fish has taken the fly and then all you’ve got to do is just raise the rod and you should have your fish firmly hooked. Whereas no, no, you never point your roadtrip at the like never. Because if you do that, you’re tight lining, okay? Because you don’t have any slack line or what we call triangle of hanging from the road tip to the surface of the water. 00;47;37;22 – 00;48;06;11 Davy That’s important. The only thing I can tell you further about that is that a lot of it is inexperience, you know, knew exactly how to fish the pace of the flies to induce a fish to take them. If you fish them too first. Yeah, you may. I’m not saying you might not catch swordfish or so, but you will also reduce the chances of catching more because you get fish chase that follow you across stream and then back off. 00;48;06;26 – 00;48;33;20 Davy Okay, So the more you can fish those flies in a controlled manner. I know what I define more as an animated manner. The more likely you are to induce fish to take your flies. And obviously what may or cross in downstream mode progression is generally downstream. And so what you should be doing, Dave, is this you should never really fish over same water three or four times. 00;48;34;05 – 00;48;56;27 Davy So if we assume, for example, just assume this just sticks to the extent of a tail fly is 20 feet below us. You’ve already fished the water from where you’re standing across and back towards you in that first 20 feet. Well, there’s no point in continuing fish in net again, because you already did it. So what you do is you progress downstream. 00;48;57;14 – 00;49;17;14 Davy So you’re presenting your flows to those fish in a section of water. They have not previously seen them. That’s the trick to it. So a couple of yards probably is not going to make any significant difference. It’s more than that. You just have to keep working your way down. And it is the same when you fishing for steelhead and salmon. 00;49;17;22 – 00;49;19;27 Davy You tell your flies to new fish. 00;49;20;08 – 00;49;30;18 Dave Yeah, you’re covered in the water. How do you describe your the setting up the leader with the flies? And when do you when do you choose to do two versus three versus four flies? 00;49;30;18 – 00;49;38;16 Davy Well, okay. When I was obviously in my homeland. So then why was there no you know, would be typical. We would fish for flies. 00;49;38;28 – 00;49;54;06 Dave And that makes sense because for flies it just seems like, well, you just cover in more of the hatch or the bugs. Right. You got a bunch that maybe describe that of those four flies back when you’re fishing the traditional you know, what were those flies? Were they all different types or describe that a little bit. 00;49;54;13 – 00;50;15;18 Davy Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Let me explain this before you go any further. First and foremost, in Water river systems back in the United Kingdom, we’re only fishing for brown trout. The rainbow trout are not stocked in the rivers there. There’s one exception up there in a particular area where there are some rainbow trout that actually spawn in that particular river. 00;50;15;18 – 00;50;42;19 Davy But that’s just one exceptional case. So for the most part you are fishing waters that are containing indigenous brown trout, sea run browns. I see trout and salmon and grayling. They’re the four major species you catch in waterways over there. But so far as the trout fishing is concerned, yes, pretty much your fishing for brown trout and you’re not fishing for rainbows. 00;50;43;00 – 00;51;09;03 Davy So the number of fish per month is generally significantly less than, say, for example, my river here or for that matter, anywhere else for rainbow trout intensively stock. And the reason why I generally don’t fish for flies here, I can tell you is this is because you can believe this or play this note, but there are be times you hook free of damn rainbow trout at the same time. 00;51;09;10 – 00;51;10;01 Dave Oh wow. 00;51;10;16 – 00;51;22;01 Davy And sometimes for That’s crazy. I know. And so, in fact, at times I will actually even go back down to two flights instead of three. Right. Be honest about it. 00;51;22;08 – 00;51;22;22 Dave Yeah. 00;51;23;02 – 00;51;44;10 Davy The thing about it is this is why use fruit flies and there’s different discussions and arguments about that. You know, is it beneficial or it’s not? Well, there are times, to be honest about it. Even in upstream fish now, only fish one fly. And there are reasons why I would do that. First and foremost, I can be extremely accurate in my place. 00;51;44;11 – 00;52;04;04 Davy My my flies. It needs to go in the evening. If I’ve got three flies, I can position those fly as where I want them. So if I want my meat drop a fly to be at a certain place, I can present it. So it’s set by eighth place. But there are times when a single fly is actually a little more preferred to be honest about it. 00;52;04;24 – 00;52;06;11 Davy For one reason or the other. 00;52;06;28 – 00;52;12;28 Dave It seems to me like one thing would be to the single fly would be not getting tangled up. Right? And not having then. 00;52;13;12 – 00;52;34;02 Davy Where I go to rid of a very different thing here, I would tell you, no, I know. That’s another thing. I get a lot of email correspondence or people call me, Oh, you know, I tried this wet fly fishing stuff and I keep getting tangled. Well, the main reason for it, period. End of story, is casting. 00;52;34;11 – 00;52;41;11 Dave Yeah, it’s casting. You’re not good enough at your casting because if if you’re doing a decent cast, you shouldn’t be getting tangled with two flies or three flies. 00;52;41;28 – 00;53;10;04 Davy Correct. And so if you are consistently getting tangled, which of course is obviously extremely frustrating because you’re spending half your day untangling in retirement or whatever, you are not fishing, okay, because you’ve got that issue going on with you. So you’ve got two choices, but the one is you go back to square one and learn to try to perfect your position skills a bit better. 00;53;10;25 – 00;53;38;25 Davy What I do know is that, you know, when you have a customer or whatever fish for a lot of years and they develop these inherent bad votes, it’s almost impossible to eradicate them as much as you try to tell them what they’re doing wrong and what they need to correct it. Yeah, they may try to attempt to get it right there and then but I guarantee you they will revert back to the bad habits that they previously thought. 00;53;38;25 – 00;54;06;16 Davy It’s very, very difficult to eliminate that. So you have a couple of choices. One is you well, let’s go back some first and foremost the rod. All right. So for this style of fishing, you certainly do not want a fast action rod. That’s the first thing. The ideal rod is what we consider to be a good mate. Flex action with a soft tip to it, in other words. 00;54;06;27 – 00;54;26;06 Davy And there’s lots of reasons for that. David. And the primary one is that it facilitates generally a better, slower casting stroke that’s so important. You know, fishing three or four flies, you need a much wider open loop on the casts, either on your back to your forward curve. 00;54;26;16 – 00;54;31;29 Dave So you’re not casting like that tight loop the super tight fast. No. Oh, all right. Yeah. Gotcha. 00;54;32;11 – 00;54;43;26 Davy Any flies should land on that surface of the water. Like fizzle down. There should be no just surface to surface disturbance when those flows land. 00;54;43;26 – 00;55;05;12 Dave Check out Jackson Hole Fly company today. Premium fly gear straight to your door without the premium price Jackson Hole fly company designs and builds their own fly rods, reels, flies and gear delivering quality you can trust at prices that let you fish more and spend less. Whether you’re picking up a fly rod for the first time or guiding every day, they’ve got what you need. 00;55;05;24 – 00;55;29;10 Dave Check them out. Right now. That’s Jackson Hole Flight Company Dotcom. Jackson Hole. Flight Company. Dotcom. Let onto Mark Lodge, give you the Montana fly fishing experience. You deserve the gin clear waters of the Missouri River, offer a world class experience with one of the finest rainbow trout and brown trout fisheries in the world. Whether you’re a seasoned angler or new to the sport, their family of guides will tailor a trip just for you. 00;55;29;11 – 00;55;42;25 Dave You can head over to onto Mark Lodge, XCOM to Fish, one of the great trout streams in the country. Are you fishing it like you’d be fishing like a dry, almost like a dry fly. Right? You want to land it soft so it doesn’t even. 00;55;42;29 – 00;56;08;28 Davy Yeah. Ironically, you just said that, which is just what I was going to say. So as a good exercise for any of the listeners here is this tie on three dry flies as you would make up a white flag cast or system. And I want you to present those dry flies in a manner as you would or should be cast in three right place. 00;56;09;19 – 00;56;34;27 Davy So if you are ending up pangolin, then you sure as hell will tangle up fishing. We whiteflies that’s it. And that’s is incidentally is also a really good lesson or instruction to learn insofar as upstream fishing is concerned. Fish three dry flies not necessarily big flows, you know, maybe a size 14 or something like that. And then they can be simple. 00;56;34;27 – 00;57;01;15 Davy Just tackle flies wherever and present those flies in an upstream mode of presentation without a obviously tangling them. But you can watch how those flies track a drip and that is more or less the same principle of how you control your fly as if you were fishing subset of fish flies you cannot see. And that’s another scenario that would also relate more so to fishing across stream. 00;57;02;02 – 00;57;25;06 Davy And I really put a dead drift mode to start with an impatient watch. Those flies are your flies skated really, really fast on the surface. When you control the flies coming back toward you or are you controlling your flow aligned in such a way that obviously the flies are moving across, but they’re not really dragging in other ways. 00;57;25;19 – 00;57;29;28 Davy Great. And that big skating surface disturbance, right? 00;57;29;29 – 00;57;37;05 Dave Yeah. Yeah. You don’t want it to skate. You don’t want to you’re not skating fly or you want it to dead drift and just dead drift down. 00;57;37;18 – 00;58;00;28 Davy Yes. Without adverse drag. And oftentimes, like we’ve already discussed, you know, you get interested in the fish, but if you have the swinging way too fast, you’ll get a lot of takes, But you won’t get hooked fish. You’ll get that pluck. Oh, yeah, Yeah. Well, you know, the fish trap apply. How the hell did I not? It hooked well, because instantly the fish cried. 00;58;00;28 – 00;58;13;10 Davy They filled out resistance, man. Spit it out. So going back to the issues of the casting process. Yes. The rod you use is important, in my opinion. Yeah. 00;58;13;10 – 00;58;21;26 Dave And what rods do you like? I’m just curious on your rods. Do you have a certain type of rod that’s that medium soft tip action, like a brand or type? 00;58;22;03 – 00;58;27;02 Davy Oh, yeah. You know, there’s a lot of damn good product out there to it. 00;58;27;04 – 00;58;42;06 Dave Yeah, we just set up so with a guest this week and he was saying, you know, there’s not a bad rod out there, right. They’re all pretty good these days, right. But there are differences in action, right? There’s really super fast action. There’s slow action. So there is a big difference in the action and how soft the tip is, though. 00;58;42;21 – 00;59;05;06 Davy 100%. Yes. There’s no question without the action of the road you use has to be related to the technique of fishing that you’re using at time of provisions. No, I know you know, as you well know, a used stone in fishing. Now, today, it’s pretty much obviously longer rods and like action rods, whatever they be, you know, 3 to 3 weeks reach each other, the occasional bait. 00;59;05;15 – 00;59;14;10 Dave Right. And soft tips. Right. And soft tips. And I don’t know how you the. Yeah, I’m not sure you know how a euro sniffing rod would be different from the rods that you like to use for wet flies. 00;59;14;19 – 00;59;24;09 Davy Yeah, cause I’ve got €8 rods as well myself. And actually, they they work pretty damn good for fishing. More rupturing most with fed websites, no doubt. 00;59;24;10 – 00;59;29;15 Dave Better with those euro rods that you have be considered a medium action with a soft tip. 00;59;29;28 – 00;59;52;26 Davy Oh yeah, that of course. But the slower action of the rod generally will force you to make a slower casting stroke. That’s the thing. Where’s the fast action road? That’s not the case. So that’s once again is an important thing. The road action itself has to allow you to make slow open loop casting. Sharp. 00;59;53;04 – 00;59;54;20 Dave Yeah, which is what you want. 00;59;55;00 – 01;00;11;16 Davy 100%. The next thing, aside from an ability to to to catch well which is causing you tangles is how you make your systems up in other words, but section the system to these sections of your flies. 01;00;11;24 – 01;00;15;09 Dave Oh right. Yeah. The transfer of energy that’s a big part of this on your leader. 01;00;15;19 – 01;00;39;16 Davy Absolutely is the transmission. So let me just say about flow lines the first thing before we get to that. So hundred percent, my preference is to use double take of flow line profiles and a lot of reasons for that. First and foremost, you know, in my early days after the use of Silk Lines, you know, double type of lines were really popular, you know. 01;00;39;28 – 01;00;47;02 Dave Yeah, they were, Yeah. In the eighties, right. The eighties then at some point wait for just took over But double tapers were very common back in the day. 01;00;47;15 – 01;01;24;08 Davy Yeah. Now I see that call in they’re just reintroducing a new date line Now let me tell you the advantages or against the advantages for the use of a double tape, a line generally speaking, or a long belly, if that’s the way train, what is that overall turnover, A better presentation values. The disadvantages of a way forward line is essentially that you’ve got a heavy section of line forward and it’s more difficult to control your trips with that adverse drive with a way forward line than it is to double taper line, right? 01;01;24;08 – 01;01;34;04 Davy Not only than a d t line. You you can pick up a hell of a length, longer length of line without having to recover line back towards you. 01;01;34;11 – 01;01;40;19 Dave Yeah. It’s easier, guys. The more you think about it, the more you realize the double taper line has a lot of advantages for trout fishing. 01;01;40;27 – 01;02;04;09 Davy Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, certainly for dry fly fishing and what we’re talking about here, weight flights and techniques and even for that matter, nutrition techniques, you know what I’m saying? And I think that, you know, for a lot of people, whether they like to admit it or not, the fact that they’ve got a heavier weight section of weight forward line enables them to cast a little easier. 01;02;04;19 – 01;02;21;25 Dave Right. Going back to the steelhead analogy in the spey, it’s the same thing. It’s like, you know, back in the day, everybody had long Bowie lines. That’s all there were. You had to be a great caster as soon as they started their on these things down to super short. Skagit cast for you know these spare rods for now anybody can pick up speed casting in a day. 01;02;22;04 – 01;02;23;15 Davy Oh my. Yeah. Yeah I know. 01;02;23;21 – 01;02;33;27 Dave Right. It’s almost the same with with the weight for like the weight for line. If you’re a brand new caster, it’s probably going to make it easier for you to to pick it up. Well, I don’t know if it’s better, but that’s probably true, right? 01;02;34;15 – 01;02;43;25 Davy Insofar as the general definition of casting, it’s easier for a person because whether the weight forward line relative ranges is a double taper. 01;02;43;25 – 01;02;45;07 Dave Right? That’s it. 01;02;45;24 – 01;03;08;23 Davy You know, and when you think about it, you know, generally when you’re wet, broke, fishing techniques, whatever, unless you’re on a like where you can, you may be casting a considerable distance on a river system. You generally don’t need great distance, but what you need is the best controller line that you can have that’s so important, how you control the flies and animate them. 01;03;08;23 – 01;03;13;02 Davy So 100% double four lines, in my opinion. 01;03;13;10 – 01;03;29;11 Dave But no, it makes sense. That’s more because you’re you’re talking about controlling the fly line, right? That’s like and the fly and everything. And some of these things, like if you’re just swing flies, you don’t have to have a lot of control. You’re just letting it swing down, but you’re with wet flies. You really need to make sure you’re getting a dead drift. 01;03;29;11 – 01;03;33;15 Dave You’re not getting drag, and a double taper just gives you more control over that system. 01;03;33;24 – 01;03;52;10 Davy Absolutely. It yes, It’s easier to mend the line with the thicker diameter line closer to you than it is a thin piece of running line. I can tell you what you’re trying control the forward weight section of that line and drift below slides in a better and appropriate manner, no doubt about it. 01;03;52;22 – 01;04;05;19 Dave Right. Okay. So this is good. We got some big so the double taper, we’re going to have to buy a new flat line now. That’s okay, though. We let we like, get new lines and then talk about the rod. What is do you have a rod Like a like what is the rod? Do you have. Some older rods, newer rods. 01;04;05;19 – 01;04;15;05 Dave What’s the brand like you might want to go get. Yeah. So maybe want to go get a rod right now. That’s a good rod for wet fly fishing that has that soft mid-section. What would that be? What would be one? 01;04;15;22 – 01;04;40;27 Davy Okay, well, I actually designed a rod with this. No big company in the United Kingdom and the rod I work with them to do the day we want and wait lightning rod, so to speak. That’s a good general purpose rod for poor wet fly fishing. But the upper class of their rods, which is known as the prestige of excess, there is that ten foot and 11 foot rod. 01;04;41;10 – 01;05;02;24 Davy In my opinion, the superb rod. But then I have to, you know, I kind of argue that, you know, I have some beautiful Hardi rods, I’ve got some nice oil based rods and I’ve got some nice sage rods. But I think with all due respect, you know, the broad is an integral part of, of you, you know, particularly with that style of fishing. 01;05;03;04 – 01;05;27;04 Davy It has to be, you know, it’s hard to explain that one. But you know what that road enables you to do. And I think it’s not so much confidence in that respect to the word is simply that that it’s like everything else. Dave, You know, we used our new fishing. What you find a rod that really suits, shows your style and technique of fishing and you stick with it. 01;05;27;08 – 01;05;50;13 Davy And I think that’s the same with the wet fly rod too, because once again, you know, I get the customers that commonly know what. I’ve only got this rod. Well, yeah, they say we’ve got a five foot ten, ten foot rod, but it’s a very fast action rod, and they very soon learn that by using a rod that I would get them to use as opposed to the one that they use. 01;05;50;13 – 01;06;10;10 Davy And those are very they difference in support what they can or they can do with their own. But and that’s not to say, you know, you can’t use that road to catch fish. I’m not this arguing about that. What I’m saying is that you have the right rod that’s appropriate for the style and technique fishing that you wish to do. 01;06;10;19 – 01;06;11;26 Davy It makes a difference. 01;06;12;07 – 01;06;21;26 Dave Yeah, it does now. And I’m looking at some of these A.P. rods. There’s a bunch of them on here. The And then what would be the length? What’s your length? The rod you like and wait for fish and maybe your home water or just in general. 01;06;22;14 – 01;06;25;00 Davy What minimum time? Four or ten for six. 01;06;25;02 – 01;06;27;25 Dave Yeah. So you like the ten foot, Ten foot six weights. A good rod. 01;06;28;02 – 01;06;28;24 Davy All right. Length. 01;06;29;03 – 01;06;33;03 Dave Yes. Okay. Or ten, six. Right. So you use a long. Yeah. Or ten foot. Six inch. 01;06;33;15 – 01;06;35;14 Davy Yeah. And 11 further times. 01;06;35;21 – 01;06;36;28 Dave Oh good. Okay. Yeah. 01;06;37;14 – 01;07;00;29 Davy And the thing about it is this the techniques of fishing, this style require a length of rod. I’m not saying you can’t catch your fish using a eight foot six or a nine foot rod, but the longer the rod, the more line control you have and the more control you have over those flies. So you can eliminate last line on the water types. 01;07;01;14 – 01;07;31;27 Davy And more importantly, is that the combination of the effectively fishing flies, be they upstream slightly across or downstream, is relative to a length of rod, weight of line and control of your left hand of that line. So there are certainly covers or retrieves that we defined as them on how you control that line with both your right in your left hand. 01;07;32;07 – 01;07;58;16 Davy So for example, let me give you the scenario. So if we cast upstream, say, somewhere between the one, 2 to 3 position and we have a long, long rod, we can keep a lesser amount of flow alone off the surface of the water. But not only that, it’s easier to control those flows in that data tape mode. If you try to do that with a short road, it’s not as easy. 01;07;58;16 – 01;08;13;01 Davy Like as you got more far along on the water in front of you, okay, or slightly across from you. So the lengths the rod will make, you know, historically ago they use rods up to 15, 16 feet. 01;08;13;05 – 01;08;20;25 Dave Oh, wow. So they did so back in the in the UK in the old days they would have long rods for trout fishing for this style of wet flies. 01;08;21;08 – 01;08;22;14 Davy Yes, absolutely. 01;08;22;21 – 01;08;25;26 Dave Oh, that’s cool. I two handed rods. Were these like double handed rods? 01;08;26;07 – 01;08;29;11 Davy No. Single handed. 01;08;29;11 – 01;08;32;29 Dave That would be hard to hold a 15 foot or 14 foot single hand rod out there. 01;08;33;12 – 01;08;42;23 Davy But you’ve got to remember that I will tell you from experience that there is a lot of weight toward Rod like that because they they were made from different combinations of different woods. 01;08;43;02 – 01;08;48;20 Dave Right? Yeah, I was back before we had like graphite and graphene and all this other light stuff, right? Super light stuff. 01;08;49;03 – 01;09;06;17 Davy That’s made a hell of a difference, I can assure you. And you know yourself, if you a year old new fish, I mean, you’ve got a long arm holding out a rod. You know, if you had a lot of weight, you wouldn’t be doing that for very long because they you know, it’s an it’s the same, you know, really with the fly fishing. 01;09;06;29 – 01;09;28;06 Dave And I’m starting to hear, you know, what it sounds to me like and this might be off a little bit, but it sounds like the wet fly fishing is is almost a combination of of dry fly fishing in your own right, because the dry flight, you’re trying to do the same thing. You’re trying to dead drift like you would a dry fly but you’re using a long rod and techniques kind of like your own huffing right where you’re trying light leaders and all that stuff is that makes sense. 01;09;28;06 – 01;09;31;26 Dave Is that kind of a combination of the two? The dry is in some extent. 01;09;32;07 – 01;09;56;22 Davy You’re kind of more or less fly about that when you know, when you think about it in this respect. So for example, dry fly fishing demands essentially that the flies track downstream in a mode which as close as possible to a natural fly. Then when you use stone in fishing, as is called today, which is for my case, is not the new because we were doing that years before it ever go across there. 01;09;56;22 – 01;10;36;13 Davy But essentially what you’re doing, you’re tracking your flies in a manner where you can as close as possible, represent your artificial in the same of fishes, the natural. Okay. And so what you said, those kind of about close way of thinking of it if that in that respect to the word insofar as a flies concern is certainly more than upstream that drift or cross stream that drift mode, whichever the case may be, that you were doing the same thing, you want those flows to be present, need to the face of that fish in a manner which they seemed to be of a more natural approach of a natural in, say, coming down toward them. 01;10;36;13 – 01;11;03;21 Davy And that’s that’s very true insofar as the cross so downstream. Well you know there are very few insects if at all that swim across stream pace like that. Maybe there are few bugs that do it. You know, for example, dams or fly nymphs, you know, they swim across stream pretty bloody quick, you know, And, you know, you get situations, for example, where you get boats wind down the water, you know, a big upstream window, something. 01;11;04;05 – 01;11;17;21 Davy And this is hatching, well, guess what? You know, they get subjected to how the wind moves them in that respect. Word and I’ve seen fish really can come out and slash their side of whack. You know it hit them like that. 01;11;17;25 – 01;11;31;07 Dave Right. What if you’re in a situation where you’re we’ve been talking a lot about riffles and maybe glides and stuff. What if you’re in a pool like, almost like a slow moving pool? How would you you know, is that fish a lot different than what we talked about today? 01;11;31;19 – 01;12;08;27 Davy Oh, yeah. You know, I always look at it in. This respect, regardless, is that I need to put myself in a position first and foremost, the fish don’t know I’m there. So if you are a fish in a fairly slow section of shallow water, they are taught that the fish are in the left side directly of, you know, you, that you create issues in that water, whether it’s by standing in the water, you know, you you create pressure waves that go downstream and a cross stream and fish senses become aware of it. 01;12;09;10 – 01;12;45;14 Davy You know, your fly line hit the surface of the water verge so many different that can spook space. And whatever the case may be, though, my objective is always to be in a position where whatever I am doing, I’m less likely to make fish aware of the fact that I am there. And so in extreme circumstances, such as what you’ve just suggested, I may use an exceptionally long meter system, 15 feet or more, maybe 18 feet wide, because I want the furthest, most visible distance of flies from that fly light or any other thing they may say. 01;12;45;14 – 01;13;06;14 Davy Even your rod movement can create a shadow in that water based on certain atmospheric things like that. And, you know, it goes. I wonder. I notice fish. Sure, I can see them, but I can’t catch them. Well, yeah, it’s not always the fly. That’s the reason why you’re not catching the fish in most cases. A lot of the reasons I see what you’re doing. 01;13;06;23 – 01;13;13;28 Davy In other words, the fish have become aware of the fact that you are. That they knew when the only person has been there to catch it’s. 01;13;14;17 – 01;13;21;28 Dave Yeah. How long is that take? What if surveys fish of that water before you? How long does it take before that nice big fish out there is settle down and ready to go. 01;13;21;28 – 01;13;31;07 Davy Oh I can’t really answer that question because I’ve gone to sections of water that somebody beat up before I go fire. Right. 01;13;31;16 – 01;13;33;24 Dave Yeah. And you’ve got fish right behind them. 01;13;34;04 – 01;13;54;12 Davy Yes. Because my approach is different to what they would do doing, you know, they slash and crash the water and rip the flow off the surface of the water. The cask goes down in a jumbo bloody mess that the end of it, which are the case may be, Well you know what you going to make fish wise up to the fact that you are there very, very quickly you know. 01;13;54;12 – 01;14;20;08 Davy And so those fish, even though they’ve wised up to what the person prior to you is, weighs them up to, there’s no look into fade, you know, unless they really, really spoke to a friend’s boat. If you thereafter present flies in such a manner that you’re not going to make them aware of the fact of your presence, there’s a very good chance you will catch those fish. 01;14;20;08 – 01;14;28;05 Davy So I discussed, you know, choice approach. We show the case may be choice, supply lines and later systems. 01;14;28;10 – 01;14;33;08 Dave Yeah. And leaders that’s the last that’s the big expert right. The leaders are pretty important to this this system. 01;14;33;20 – 01;14;56;01 Davy For many, many reasons. First and foremost, we’re aware of it. I know in some states you can’t use free flies. For example, in Montana, you and I find that’s an on ridiculous, stupid rule. But I think the reason they have that is so people can’t use treble hooks all by one hook, you know, in three separated flies on single hooks. 01;14;56;14 – 01;15;27;17 Davy Well, whatever, you know. Okay. So you have two choices. I always learn to build my latest systems historically, you know, going back there in the in the 1960s, the way I did it, and we use maximum a line at that time to do that. And now my choice is use amnesia, because I really like that. So the important thing is that you have a really good transition from the flow line to the section that said I absolutely dislike loop connections. 01;15;27;21 – 01;15;29;08 Dave Okay, so no loops. 01;15;29;08 – 01;15;48;13 Davy No, I don’t like the hinge point. And not only that, you know, a lot of techniques, the junction of those two loops creates wake on the surface, the water. And that’s the last thing you really want because once again you’re likely to wise fish up of your presence what you’re doing. So we don’t want that. 01;15;48;23 – 01;15;52;28 Dave Okay, So just use a nail. Not what do you use to tie your leader on to your five line? 01;15;53;10 – 01;16;13;17 Davy No, I don’t use a now note. I use that they call it by different names of like a snood. Now, essentially all you do is you hold your S.O., your data against your fly line. You take three or four turns over the fly line. And in between loop and you pull those loop turnovers closer together, tighten them up and that’s it. 01;16;13;17 – 01;16;16;23 Davy Done. I’m doing my hand in like a minute real fast. 01;16;16;27 – 01;16;20;03 Dave Oh, really? What is that one called? What? What’s the. It’s got a few different names. 01;16;20;09 – 01;16;23;09 Davy It’s name Node by different names. You know, like. 01;16;23;22 – 01;16;26;14 Dave This isn’t the Davenport, right. This isn’t the Davenport though. 01;16;26;14 – 01;16;36;29 Davy No, no, no. That’s a connection from the from the your ticket database. Are you familiar with what they call Spader and hoax? In other words, the hook that has no eyes? 01;16;37;04 – 01;16;39;15 Dave Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. There’s no. I write exactly. 01;16;39;29 – 01;16;57;02 Davy The same note you use for it. In other words, you hold the line in going to shrink the hook to form a turn round loop and. Then you take your line over the hook. And in between that piece of line that you’ve got laid along the side of the hook, three or 4.0. 01;16;57;02 – 01;16;58;10 Dave Is it called a snell knot. 01;16;58;16 – 01;17;00;18 Davy Yeah. That’s another name for it. Yeah. 01;17;00;19 – 01;17;03;22 Dave Yeah. And he’ll tell the Snell not. Yeah. Okay. 01;17;03;27 – 01;17;13;13 Davy That it’s a very, very small. No connection. It takes a little practice for people to get to know how to do it. But I can do that my hands and really fast. 01;17;13;20 – 01;17;26;19 Dave Well, throw a video in the show notes so people can take a look at the Snell. Not so that’s good. So basically you minimize the knots in on your leader. Talk about that. What is the diameter of the butt you’re using for your amnesia? What size or diameter. 01;17;26;19 – 01;17;56;01 Davy Okay, so I work on this basic principle three to the three foot, two foot, one foot or 1 to 2 foot. So on a typical, say, four weight line oh five, wait for that better. I’m going to use approximately about a £20 of three foot. Then I’m going to use about a two foot section of 15, and then I’m going to add to that about another one or two feet of ten or £12 break and strain amnesia. 01;17;56;01 – 01;18;18;01 Davy To that I get my leader. And the thing in in most situations where what fly fishing is concerned is that you use the same diameter of line throughout the entire system. So if I’m going to fish, for example, five eggs, I’m going to run off the end of the section I about two foot, maybe a little more than that. 01;18;18;20 – 01;18;47;14 Davy And that would be a position generally of my first drop. I may go to three on that, but I’m just going to give him the general assumption of that. From there on, you want a minimum of 25 to 30 inches based part of the knot connection. So in other words, top dropper, minimum 25 inches from eight to the next connection line, a middle dropper. 01;18;48;03 – 01;19;02;09 Davy And believe me, Dave, I’ve I’ve used every damned connection you can think of so far as droppers. And I will still go back to this that a three or four turn so does not grow cannot be beaten. 01;19;02;16 – 01;19;07;27 Dave Yeah. Surgeons. That’s pretty, boss. It’s easy right? It’s easier than everything and it works and it’s strong and it’s. Yeah. 01;19;08;13 – 01;19;10;16 Davy If you tie it correctly. Yeah. 01;19;11;00 – 01;19;18;03 Dave And then you tie the tag in. When you tie you use the tag in for your flight, for your job to use the one going up or down. Which one are you using. 01;19;18;13 – 01;19;19;12 Davy Never above. 01;19;19;21 – 01;19;21;18 Dave Never about. So it’s the one going down. Okay. 01;19;22;00 – 01;19;47;11 Davy So let me explain this one so the listeners can understand this. So if, for example, when we came off the boat section, just say we came up, there was £6 line and we added to that £5 line and our dropper would be the £6 line because it is the lower drop. I’m sorry the lower tag after a stroke just now is tied for of me. 01;19;47;19 – 01;19;56;04 Dave Oh I see. Yeah. Is that maybe a lower one. Right. So it’s partly because of the angle of it, but it’s also the size of the damage you get the smaller diameter for your fly. 01;19;56;20 – 01;20;11;22 Davy Well, let me just put it this way. If you tie a surgeon’s knot and you got two tags, if you pull on the upper tag, you are pulling really seriously against that. Not if you put it on the lower tag. You’re pulling it away from the knot. 01;20;11;22 – 01;20;18;25 Dave Okay. So it’s so it’s actually stronger to to use the lower 100%. Okay. So there you go. So that’s a big part of it. 01;20;19;07 – 01;20;26;20 Davy Let me ask you this and our viewers tying the connection, say, for a drop from when you were you knew fishing. What would you know what you used to do that. 01;20;27;00 – 01;20;41;13 Dave For the dropper? Well, I’m a totally different style. I’m like a blood knot guy, so I know the surgeon. But I need to revamp my whole system to do this. And I’m not sure. And I don’t I don’t do much zero anything either. I usually yeah, I’m kind of a blood knot. Yeah. I don’t even know what I would use for. 01;20;41;13 – 01;20;54;19 Dave I’ve done traditional like in the past I used to do, I don’t know what even they call it, but my dropper would be I would do a dropper not off the knot but off create a dropper loop. Right. Do I can’t hear what you call that, but I would create a drop her off of the leader itself. 01;20;54;28 – 01;21;03;16 Davy Okay, let me just say this. The last thing you want to do when you’re fishing droppers like that is overcomplicated system, right? 01;21;03;16 – 01;21;07;14 Dave And the knots, Right. The less knots you have, the better it is. The fish aren’t disturbed. It’s better all. 01;21;07;14 – 01;21;19;28 Davy Around. And. Yeah, well, that I. You’re less likely to break off too, you know so blood now it’s in my opinion and I don’t get me wrong you know I used to tie those things, but I to me they’re a pain in the ass. 01;21;19;29 – 01;21;25;09 Dave Yeah, they’re harder. Harder to tie. They are. They are they as strong as the surgeon’s not or similar? 01;21;25;22 – 01;21;33;18 Davy You know, I’ve been asked that question lots of times before, and I can honestly say whether or the other is I, to be honest about it. 01;21;33;25 – 01;21;50;08 Dave I know I’ve caught £20 steelhead before or not even not quite 25, but big fish on you know, with blood knots, you know, same thing I use maxima blood knots, you know, £8, £12. Right. So I feel like they’re strong. But again, it’s depending on how you tie it. Right. If you don’t tie it right. 01;21;50;20 – 01;21;56;29 Davy The thing about this, Dave, is that if you’re fishing for fish like steelhead, you’re not using five eggs line. 01;21;57;09 – 01;21;58;23 Dave No, you’re not going. 01;21;58;24 – 01;22;07;17 Davy That’s the thing. Know so blood not so easy to tie in heavier diameter line than they are in, you know, five or six. Six. 01;22;07;18 – 01;22;22;16 Dave Yeah. Okay. Well well, tell me this before you take it out of here in a little bit. The the LiDAR system I got from the star. So you got the line, you tie the knot, you got the three for the £20, two for the 15, you know, one foot of 10 to £12. Then from that, what are you taking from there. 01;22;22;16 – 01;22;26;27 Dave What’s the first thing down to your first dropper. Is that What would that be. How long would that be. 01;22;27;08 – 01;22;29;08 Davy About 18 inches to two faith. 01;22;29;17 – 01;22;36;27 Dave Okay. 18 to 2. Yep. And then And then after that, then you’re going 25 inches between each year flies until you get to your minimum. 01;22;36;27 – 01;22;38;14 Davy Don’t get closer than that. 01;22;38;14 – 01;22;40;19 Dave Oh, minimum. Right. So what would be the maximum. 01;22;41;01 – 01;22;44;21 Davy Oh, I’ve used separations in the past up to about four feet. 01;22;45;00 – 01;22;46;24 Dave Oh, wow. Okay. I see. A lot bigger. 01;22;47;05 – 01;23;14;29 Davy Yes, but tell me that is only the case if I’m fishing more upstream techniques as opposed to across in downstream techniques. In other words, upstream to accommodate more, they drift techniques. So the next thing, assuming you’ve did that, what I’ve just suggested is that are you going to animate your fries? What I mean by that is are you going to create some movement to the flies other than a jet mode? 01;23;14;29 – 01;23;40;28 Davy Well, let me tell you, in order for you to effectively do that, your upper drop has to be for significant length. And the longer that dropper is, the more efficient you can work or top drop a fly. So what you have to remember or take into consideration is as you raise that rod, you draw those flies up to or near the surface of the water. 01;23;41;23 – 01;24;07;10 Davy And if you have a very short dropper, you have no choice but to track the line that’s above that dropper on the surface of the on or below the drop. Incidentally, on the surface of the water, if your dropper tag is too short. In other words, if you’ve only got like, say, three or four inches, it’s not long enough if that tag is No. 01;24;07;18 – 01;24;31;20 Davy 6 to 8 inches, you can keep that fly visual to the surface with that no on above or below it on the surface. So the length of the dropper tag is very important insofar as how you can animate that top drop the fly and by virtue of the animation, what you are doing is creating an inducement to those fish. 01;24;32;01 – 01;24;52;08 Davy So for example, if we wanted to kind of imitate sight, for example, I used a cat as fly as an example they movement or that carries fly and it could be a nova positive female. You know, I think as they typically they move upstream and they do that instantly. But nevertheless they’re on and off the surface of the water. 01;24;52;09 – 01;25;26;24 Davy Right. And as we know, oftentimes that to promote a fish to come out of whack and here you’ve got that big splash. And sometimes I’ve seen them actually grab those flies when they’re actually in the air above the surface of the water to come out to get them. And what you’re aiming to do is is to imitate that in the manner in which you do It is, of course, to have that fly in a position where on a longer drop or length you can animate that fly and that requires control of your right hand in your left hand, and you pretty much get that fly to dance on the surface. 01;25;26;24 – 01;25;38;20 Davy Some people call it dabbling. There’s lots of analogies you can use for it, but essentially what you are doing, you are imitating as close as you can. How the fish see that natural swell? 01;25;38;28 – 01;25;44;16 Dave How are you doing with your rod? Or are you just kind of jigging your rod like up and down a little bit? How would you describe that. 01;25;44;16 – 01;26;10;00 Davy Yes or no? It’s hard to explain this one, too. So let me just explain it this way. So, for example, a line is in front of us on the surface of the water, and our road is that our parts, many say about a ten foot. And the big mistake people make, incidentally, is that they bring that rod too far back then if you bring the rod too far back, you’ve got nothing left with the right to work with it because you’re too far back. 01;26;10;13 – 01;26;31;17 Davy So just assume that we’ve got that rod at about a 1010 foot six. A scoop may attempt have passed in position and everything, So no, no straight line. No. If we take our left and and we print them out as close to our butt ring and we pull that left hand down without moving our right hand with a rod, what are we doing? 01;26;32;10 – 01;26;35;11 Davy We’ve drawn the line and it flies back towards us. Right? 01;26;35;19 – 01;26;39;01 Dave Right. Yeah. You’re kind of stripping. So you’re saying you’re stripping a little bit or. 01;26;39;09 – 01;27;04;02 Davy No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Stripping it. No. Well, how narrow that. About a 10:30 position. Okay. We get the flow line with our left hand roughly where the third section is and we draw that line slowly. What you then do is what you draw the flies back towards you. But if you do it at the right place, you will cause that top drop of fly to come to the surface. 01;27;04;02 – 01;27;29;14 Davy They move on that surface as you’re coming back towards your base. What I’m trying to explain to you, if you incorporate that with your right hand movement, in other words, there’s just say we start the rod and say 9:00 and we do the same thing. We greatly moving the rod up and drawing down with the left hand, accelerate the movement of the line and the flies coming back towards us. 01;27;29;17 – 01;27;52;23 Davy Right? And so the the skill of the is is to maintain and it takes a lot of practice to do it to maintain that fly. The top drop applies working in the meniscus in the surface, oil on and off without any line above it or below it, visual to the fish because it’s not on the surface. The water. 01;27;53;11 – 01;28;21;25 Davy If you drag that fly back and you don’t have animated of that drop, guess what? You create a lot of surface disturbance from the line that’s above it and below it. If you do it skillfully, you can animate the second or the mid drop a fly by the same means. So we’ve reached the point where our top drop from fly is no whatever, a foot or two feet above the surface of the water. 01;28;21;25 – 01;28;26;04 Davy But we now animating by the same means our mid drop of fly. 01;28;26;11 – 01;28;29;04 Dave So you’re animating both those flies at the same time. 01;28;29;14 – 01;28;31;01 Davy No one out the other. 01;28;31;01 – 01;28;33;17 Dave Okay, so you do the top one, then you go to the other one. 01;28;34;00 – 01;28;56;03 Davy Yes. Because the separation of distance from the top drops to the middle drop of fly is very, very difficult to get Both of those two flies doing the same thing. You can only do one at a time. And once again, the length of the drop on your middle dropper standard fly is the same. You don’t want short dropper lengths. 01;28;56;19 – 01;29;00;22 Davy The longer the drop, the length that you can handle, the better. 01;29;00;22 – 01;29;10;03 Dave I think what dropper is one thing I wonder about is if they get too long, does it ever start getting wrapped around your leader? Or how long would be too long for a dropper tag? 01;29;10;03 – 01;29;38;17 Davy Okay, so the definition of the term, the catch the flies is the section of line from your section, so to speak, of the three flies. That’s code terminology, as we call it, a class, two flies, so to speak. Or you can call it your team of flies, whichever you want. All right. So the question you just asked, once again, we go back to your casting skills where. 01;29;39;02 – 01;29;40;00 Dave It’s back to the cast. 01;29;40;00 – 01;30;05;28 Davy Yeah, right. The long tail, the drop is you have the more like me, you get tangles. Now there’s a difference in as far as the tangles is concerned, just because that fly is somewhat twisted around the line. In other words, it’s not noted. Don’t worry about that too much because for the most, when those flies land on the water, the physical weight of the flies will actually drop down. 01;30;06;06 – 01;30;17;27 Davy And that doesn’t happen. However If you are one of those that throw your flies out and they land in the jumbled mess. Well, because the first thing you do right. Yeah. 01;30;18;00 – 01;30;19;08 Dave Is fix your nest. 01;30;19;08 – 01;30;21;22 Davy You probably. Yeah, you’re probably screwed up. 01;30;22;01 – 01;30;32;09 Dave That’s what John was saying. The Hazel, he we were talking about steelhead fishing, but it’s the same thing. He said, You know what? If you have two men just to fix your line, you know, you’re probably not doing a good cast, you know? 01;30;32;11 – 01;30;32;25 Davy Yeah, Yeah. 01;30;33;06 – 01;30;43;04 Dave Right. You need to make the good cast, and then you, man, you men, depending on what you need to do, right, You want the cast to lay out there perfectly so. So I think we could all work on our cast, Right? That’s something we could all practice. 01;30;43;20 – 01;30;44;24 Davy Who said that to you? 01;30;45;00 – 01;30;49;21 Dave John Hazel at the Deschutes River. Fly Shop a Deschutes. He’s The Deschutes Angler. 01;30;49;28 – 01;30;58;12 Davy I would agree 100% with that. If you don’t make the first course the right one, you’ve got a problem because you’ve got to you’ve got to correct what you the mistake you’re made. 01;30;58;17 – 01;31;11;29 Dave Yeah. You don’t want to start with having to correct your cast before you even start fishing the fire. Right. You want to be able to make the cast as you want to make it. So. So it’s the same thing here. You what you’re saying is you if you make a good cast, those team of flies are going to drop down perfectly into the water. 01;31;12;07 – 01;31;42;08 Davy If you do it perfectly, 100%, perfectly. Everything should lay out in it and you should see those flies. Clap the water, pop top up. One, two, three. If you don’t see that happening, I’m not saying it’s screwed up, but the chances are it is. And so obviously you’ve got to bring everything back and check it. So I do know that one of the questions I get out of frequent is, Oh yeah, well, my flies tangled around the leader. 01;31;42;17 – 01;32;08;21 Davy Well, by what definition are they tangled? Are they not made up or whatever? Yeah, of course that’s a problem. But just because the line is slightly twisted around, don’t worry about that, You know, because under normal circumstances, your flies will swim. And even when you are retrieving the flies back, you’re animated in that top dropper. I can tell you now that generally speaking, it’s not so much an issue. 01;32;09;08 – 01;32;19;29 Davy You can jiggle your rod tape to some extent and shake it and come off. But don’t worry about that too much. If they know it up or whatever. Yeah, okay. That’s the point. 01;32;20;09 – 01;32;26;00 Dave And what’s your longest length of leader of your tag? Do you put on the dropper do you think. What’s your typical. 01;32;26;13 – 01;32;29;29 Davy Are you are saying the length of the types I use for my droppers. 01;32;29;29 – 01;32;30;27 Dave Yeah. Yeah. 01;32;31;05 – 01;32;35;04 Davy Okay. So minimum usually for the top dropper is going to be six inches. 01;32;35;16 – 01;32;36;14 Dave Okay. And then what’s. 01;32;37;13 – 01;32;40;09 Davy Oh, I’ve gone up to a 12 foot before now. 01;32;40;16 – 01;32;42;10 Dave A foot. So 6 to 12 inches. Okay. 01;32;42;26 – 01;33;16;01 Davy There’s certain techniques that I would deploy based on how I see those fish reacting. You know, sometimes fish I give you an example. The first time I ever showed dive weight, low weight fried fish, and because it fascinated them, you know, how you could fish with three or four flies like that and the way we were on the river, I knew that where I was, that there was some chances of some pretty decent brown trout in that area. 01;33;16;01 – 01;33;37;29 Davy And I told Dave, I said, you know, I do not want anything other than that, Floyd, to be seen by those fish because I didn’t want to disturb the surface for my the other. So it was a short line cast and we’ve just the neatest system. In other words, the flies no no fly alone and I a fly which is one of my patterns coated mostly daddy on the top dropper. 01;33;38;17 – 01;34;12;15 Davy And it’s a fly that makes a lot of good disturbance the surface movement you know, which is often the main to get Fish’s attention. They see that surface movement and I’m not joking. I was about six foot away when I was about to draw that fly off the water, but I tracked it across the surface and this brown trout, it was over £6 come out, hit that, fly, and he couldn’t believe that a fish like that would come up and take a fly like that back close to the shore. 01;34;13;15 – 01;34;27;19 Davy And Davis said, You know better than that because you know that you know where those brown trout are concerned. They’re very different to Rainbow trout in the way they react is not really going about that, in my opinion. 01;34;27;29 – 01;34;32;06 Dave Right. They’re more aggressive. Are they more aggressive in general? More predatory. 01;34;32;25 – 01;34;51;29 Davy They’ve got that instinct, too. But I think that they’re more I had to explain that one to. I think that they’re more tuned in to seeing how natural insects move in water. And, you know, when you track a fly like that across the stream is something of a brown job. Mo, you get his attention, You know what I’m saying? 01;34;52;02 – 01;35;19;23 Davy Yeah. And so that fish just came out that close. What black fly And what he couldn’t believe was that a fish of that size would come out and take a small fly like that that close to the shoreline, even though we were stood there. And the reason being was like what it saw. But you know what? That fish was so damn focused on that fly, it pretty much ignored us got. 01;35;20;05 – 01;35;22;26 Dave And the mother daddy is like a what is it? 01;35;23;02 – 01;35;27;03 Davy It’s like it’s a fly that really kind of imitates a crane. Fly? 01;35;27;10 – 01;35;37;07 Dave Yeah, it can fly. It’s got long. It’s got like deer. It’s muddled right? It’s got a cut hair head and then it’s got some deer hair and it’s got long, long legs kind of come back. 01;35;37;17 – 01;35;43;29 Davy Yeah, it’s absolutely one of my top flies to. Attract fish and get them to table. 01;35;44;11 – 01;35;49;25 Dave I mean, it looks like an amazing fly. So that’s a fly that you use as more of an attractor. How would you typically fish that fly? 01;35;50;16 – 01;36;16;22 Davy You can use the word attractor if you like, but I do know for thousands of fish I’ve caught with that fly that the animation of that fly just has an intrinsic value to get a fish’s attention. Obviously, I don’t know if a fish seems oh yeah, that’s a crazy frightened fly or whatever, but termination thing also, you could do exactly the same thing if you use the now. 01;36;16;22 – 01;36;38;23 Davy Okay is in other words, we are not used in introduced a wing went fly or soft tack or use in an elk carries and you can animate that fly through and on through the surface boom like you would that a day because once again you’re used to the fly that’s got some intrinsic value to the fish is perception of being a natural insect. 01;36;39;11 – 01;36;59;01 Davy And by virtue of the marriage that you present in fish, it, there’s just something about the way that you do that that gets a fish’s attention to me. Brown trout. So now I was going to mention this too, that so far as upstream fish and kind of right to make that top drop of fry coming back towards you. 01;36;59;01 – 01;37;31;15 Davy Absolutely. You can. If you’ve got really good control of rod line and arm movement. So by raising the rod and once again using your left hand to draw the line, you can actually bring that fly to the surface and track it back. And don’t forget, we’re not fishing directly upstream of us with fish, you know, are relatively we can track that flow back and that can be an exceptionally good way to induce fish to take your fly, even though that fly is upstream of you or not, across or down, so to speak. 01;37;32;01 – 01;37;55;04 Davy And so there are a lot of techniques, more so than people really realize that I’m fishing. That flies across as a downstream swing, but they require more scale and technique to get them to work for you. And that and that’s you got to put the time in. And I think for the most part you’ve got to be taught and shown how to do it well. 01;37;55;04 – 01;38;10;22 Dave And that’s why I’m glad you went to that, because I feel like, you know, these podcasts are always amazing, you know, And I think we took a really good dive into today. But the next step really is, you know, the next step is to get out with you on the water. You know, I feel like doing and you do have some schools and stuff maybe as we take it out of here. 01;38;10;22 – 01;38;17;24 Dave Talk about that. Where can people where do you have gone? Can people track you down? Can they actually get on the water with you? Describe your program a little bit. 01;38;18;09 – 01;38;47;04 Davy Yes. So if any person wants to come in, learn more about the skills of website vision. Yeah. So, I mean, they’re most welcome to get in touch with me. But what I will say is that one day is not good enough because most people have got other, you know, issues. Suppose they’ve been one of them. And, and to be honest about it, Dave, I would say that is the number one issue that’s problematical more than anything else. 01;38;47;04 – 01;38;48;23 Davy Totally. Yeah, absolutely. 01;38;49;06 – 01;39;02;08 Dave Yeah. How many days is the would you recommend is like would three days be enough to come down there and do it. Yeah. Let’s say we were putting together a school with you, you know, and we were going to bring some listeners down. Do you think three days on the water would be good? 01;39;02;27 – 01;39;20;07 Davy Yes. And so my customers, they come for longer periods and that the one thing, as you well know here I have to deal with a tale water and so that at times can preclude great fishing accessibility because of the high water situation. 01;39;20;20 – 01;39;24;12 Dave How do you do that when you can’t wade fish? Do you have a boat or do you do this off the bank? 01;39;24;12 – 01;39;44;00 Davy Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, of course so what I did when I first came here, you know, other than a few people I knew to swim some stuff I was or whatever I thought how, you know, I have to kind of adapt techniques here where it’s wet fly fishing, so to speak. Fishing. Whenever a team of flies can be practiced from a drifting boat. 01;39;44;23 – 01;40;09;06 Davy And it didn’t take me long to figure out how to do it, to be perfectly honest about it. So really what you’re doing is, is, is that you obviously downstream drift fishing and the speed and pace of the water is somewhat relative to it. But nevertheless, what you’re doing essentially is you’re still fishing a team of flies. But obviously when you’re drift fishing, you you’re not fishing upstream. 01;40;09;06 – 01;40;38;05 Davy So you’re fishing techniques which are more across and back towards you more than anything else. So typically, Dave, what we’re doing is we’re casting to the bank and working out flows back across stream towards us. And so in that respect, based on depth and speed of water, I know I will be honest about it. You know, if we’ve got exceptionally high water and it’s really ripping down through there, God knows what you know, it does make life difficult for fishing, but it’s going to take place. 01;40;38;05 – 01;40;50;01 Davy I’m not saying you can’t catch fish doing it, but it’s if it’s a day where you want to, you know, probably catch more fish, then the odds of that technique working that remote, so to speak. 01;40;50;01 – 01;40;53;26 Dave So what type of boat are we using here? What’s the boat that you’re out in? 01;40;54;12 – 01;40;59;19 Davy Oh, it typical White River boats we use, they’re they’re on or on 21 foot six months. 01;40;59;24 – 01;41;12;07 Dave Yeah. So you use in the typical White River. So. So that’s the boat that we’ve heard about those before. This is the white riverboat, the long boat. You’re so you basically are you doing a mix of like half your time on the boat, half walk and wait. 01;41;12;21 – 01;41;42;23 Davy Yes. If I’ve got the right white border conditions, I use that boat, obviously, to access places where you can’t obviously won’t get access to it. So you get to places where pretty much you might be by yourself all day because it’s strange enough, the access, you know, so far as walking Wade here is even though you’ve got 100 miles of river on this river of few and far between, and most of those generally relate to where the public up this boat ramps are or somewhere within that region. 01;41;42;23 – 01;42;06;09 Davy You can walk maybe upstream or downstream to some extent, but there’s a hell of a lot of areas in that river, you know, around islands or whatever the case may be, that in order to access those, you would need a boat to do that, so to speak. So in the case of the drift fishing, I use primarily three lines and let me just say this to that. 01;42;07;06 – 01;42;16;05 Davy The second most important line, anybody that enters into the world of, you know, fishing web is that you must own is an intermediate. 01;42;17;01 – 01;42;17;19 Dave Intermediate. 01;42;18;01 – 01;42;38;12 Davy That that’s a line that sinks that roughly one or two inches per. Okay. There are some occasional times I might use a stroke section sink tip that can be very effective. And there is another line that’s actually in between the dry line and the intermediate, which called a hollow line hover. 01;42;38;12 – 01;42;38;26 Dave Right. 01;42;39;05 – 01;42;43;18 Davy And that’s a line which has to be more developed for Stillwater fishing. 01;42;43;28 – 01;42;56;02 Dave Yeah. And that’s what comes back. I know Phil Roy, he’s done a recent podcast where he, he talks a lot about these same lines, the hover, the intermediate, the dry line. Those are really good still. But so what you’re saying is these are also good river lines to use. 01;42;56;11 – 01;43;24;19 Davy Oh, yeah. Let me tell you the two most important lines that you should have a a double type of floater, an intermediate and the intermediate line. Of course, it generally is more for a cross and downstream technique where you want to be deeper in the water. There may be some situations I know you might find this strange to believe it, but I’ve actually used intermediate lines for upstream fishing as well, particularly. 01;43;24;19 – 01;43;45;09 Davy Wait, I got really adverse wind conditions, you know, the physical way, a boat line in itself, you know, it can hold my fly is better in the drift and I have little more control in that sense word but they’re the two most important lines and you want ideally a intermediate we kind of go on flow means they’re the two most important lines. 01;43;45;25 – 01;44;22;18 Davy The only thing is for the intermediate. To the best of my knowledge, you cannot get that line in a date profile, but you’re most likely across and down. That’s not so much the issue, but they’re the two most important that you need. And so but going back to what we were talking about a little earlier and, you know choices apply some is the other so the way I would kind of put it is this is that if you’re fishing more in an upstream dead drift mode where you’re not so much an animate in the flow is because something typically do more across to slightly downstream. 01;44;23;11 – 01;44;52;13 Davy You want fairly sparse flows that no heavy flows. Let’s put it like that because you’re trying to really imitate, you know, natural food sources in the river, which are relatively small. So flies like we’ve already talked about. They, you know, whether you use a snow table, which is a great thing to use in blowing dolly pouches. Incidentally, I know a lot of people like the partridge, you know, and strange enough note, one of my favorite phrase, but, you know, it’s called flies, you know. 01;44;52;21 – 01;44;53;15 Dave Yeah. Sparse. 01;44;53;25 – 01;44;54;09 Davy Yeah. 01;44;54;17 – 01;45;02;22 Dave That’s cool. Yeah, I think the sparse I love we covered that section earlier about that because I think that’s a big part of it, right? The how heavily are you dressing the flies is a big part. 01;45;03;02 – 01;45;21;14 Davy Yes. Because I think they they animate better in the water. I mean, I think that’s so important, you know, and bugs don’t come downstream in a direct straight line. I mean, that’s a fact. You know, the underwater movements in the in the current seems to jet over structure. They move those around you know so. 01;45;21;14 – 01;45;26;29 Dave And they’re swimming, too. Right. And they’re getting tumbled down and swimming and they’re always moving. They’re never like in a straight line. 01;45;27;10 – 01;45;53;24 Davy Yeah. You particularly when you’ve got, you know, insects out there emerging regardless of whether cats or mayflies or betas, whatever the case, they’re moving in such a way. Is that a the current is moving downstream, but they’re also ascending near to the surface as they do that, you know, so and so fish naturally see those bugs, you know, And, you know, a lot of times we well know, you know, they’re more inclined to take the emergence approach to the surface flights, particularly in really big hatches. 01;45;53;24 – 01;46;24;06 Davy You know, what do you want to keep coming up and wasting their time grabbing something off the surface? They can stay somewhere in that water column and grab them as they’re coming down towards them, natural insects. And really you’re trying to imitate similarly the same thing when. You’re fishing your wet flies upstream, particularly as far suppose subtitles. Now insofar as downstream fishing is concerned you can use off tackles, don’t get me wrong, but you sure as hell are native fishermen, no matter where they’re not being dragged. 01;46;24;08 – 01;46;47;29 Davy You know, they’re. They’re more, you know, subject, even though you obviously get a progression where you you can’t fish further down than your line extension is allowing you to do it. Believe it or not, if you really do it correctly, you can actually animate those flies, even though this may be slightly moving across toward you by maintain your line in different ways to slow that drag on, that drift down. 01;46;48;00 – 01;47;15;11 Davy That’s that’s very, very important. And eventually you get to a position where your flies are obviously directly downstream on what we call the tangle. And oftentimes when they reaches that point, all of a sudden whack the fish hits you. So inevitably, what they have done they followed those flies and tracked them across stream. And all of a sudden there they see those flies just hanging downstream, wiggling around. 01;47;15;11 – 01;47;33;20 Davy In that time, and they come out and work it, you know, And you always want to be prepared for that because sometimes that can be a pretty bloody good fish that does that, you know? And so that’s what we call the dangle once again. Once again, you have to control yourself. Not right. 01;47;33;26 – 01;47;36;26 Dave WAKEHAM Yeah, that’s the dangle that’s the dangle. 01;47;37;08 – 01;47;46;22 Davy So I always keep I always keep a flat select section of line below my index finger, which is holding the line against my guard. Oh you. 01;47;46;22 – 01;47;49;00 Dave Do. So you keep, you have a little loop in there. 01;47;49;13 – 01;47;49;26 Davy Yes. 01;47;50;12 – 01;48;09;01 Dave This is really interesting because this goes back to again, there’s a lot of similarities with steelhead, Atlantic salmon. There’s a big debate in steelhead fishing especially. Do you hold a loop or do you not hold a loop? Right. You just keep it tight. And I’ve always been a loop. My dad taught me to hold a loop for steelhead, always have a loop, and I feel like it gives you a little like a shock loop right before they hook up. 01;48;09;01 – 01;48;12;18 Dave Describe. Describe why you hold a loop there under percent. 01;48;13;06 – 01;48;15;05 Davy That’s exactly the reason why. 01;48;15;05 – 01;48;15;26 Dave Same reason. 01;48;16;04 – 01;48;40;26 Davy Yes. So when the fish types that fly, I see that draw that line and I can just let that line just generally release onto my index finger. And then I just experience of course, I just know what point of time just to clamp that line to the board and just literally Hogan Rod and because that fish is turning away from you, inevitably hook yourself. 01;48;41;14 – 01;49;02;02 Davy That’s what it amounts to as opposed to just setting a record. But yeah, I see people do that drive, fly fishing, you know, things like I know a fish on a dry fly downstream, absolutely nothing wrong with it can be the most deadly way to catch a fish on a draw. There’s no argument about that. But guess what? 01;49;02;22 – 01;49;11;28 Davy You can’t have a direct pipeline. You’ve got to allow that fish to take that fly in its mouth before you turn. Yeah. 01;49;12;08 – 01;49;31;00 Dave Yeah. This is great. Well, David, this has been awesome. I feel like we got to definitely follow up with you here. And I think that I think the next step might be a maybe either a boot camp or on water, you know, in person. So I think today we all leave it here and we’ll definitely send everybody out to Davey What and fly fishing dot com if they want to connect in and yeah let’s keep in touch here. 01;49;31;00 – 01;49;35;25 Dave Maybe we could talk about putting together a trip and get some people down way, you know, in the coming years. Does that sound like a plan? 01;49;36;09 – 01;49;46;15 Davy Fantastic. Yes. And if any of the listeners want to get in contact with me, I spent probably half my day back. Right. And responses back to the great book. 01;49;46;25 – 01;49;50;22 Dave So they can track you down on Facebook, right? They can track you down there on Facebook as well. 01;49;51;03 – 01;50;08;14 Davy Yeah. Just go to my website and email me or something, you know, because, you know, really what we’re kind of covering here in our discussion today is just a really good overall picture of what fly fishing. I don’t have to tell you, there’s a lot more to it than that, you know? 01;50;08;25 – 01;50;23;15 Dave Well, that’s what’s great. I feel like any great podcast that we do it actually a lot of new questions or more questions that we need to answer, right? That’s the great thing about this is that there’s plenty we need to follow up with. So so until the next one. Davie, thanks for your time and be in touch. 01;50;23;28 – 01;50;28;00 Davy Thank you, Dave. I enjoyed it very much. 01;50;28;00 – 01;50;49;14 Dave A big thank you to Davy for doing another episode on this podcast. I hope you enjoyed that one. If you get a chance, please follow Davey, check in with him on Facebook. Let him know you heard this podcast and go to Dave. What and fly fishing icon as always, we got some good stuff going this week, the Stillwater School with Phil Roy in the in Henry’s Lake is open right now. 01;50;49;14 – 01;51;08;15 Dave If you want to get support you can go to RFI swing dot com slash Stillwater School sign up there and we’ll follow up with you on details like, you know, on availability. This is a big one. We’re going with one of the best out there, the Stillwater School. Henry’s Lake doesn’t get any better than that. We’re also going to have Darren Huntsman on this year and at the Lodge and the crew, it’s going to be a great trip if you’re interested. 01;51;08;15 – 01;51;25;02 Dave If you ever thought about Up and you’re Stillwater game, now’s the time to get on it. All right. This week we’ve got water master. If you’re interested, Watercraft, we’ve got a boat that’s been doing great things for years. We’ll talk about the water master this week with Rick, and I’m going to leave it there because we got to get on to the next one. 01;51;25;02 – 01;51;42;12 Dave Got a big episode with Will. I’m going to be working on here coming up next. So I appreciate you for stopping in today. And I just want to say, I hope you have a great a great morning. Afternoon. If it’s evening late in the night, early in the morning, mid afternoon. I appreciate you for stopping in and I hope to see you on the next episode. 01;51;42;12 – 01;52;00;05 Dave We’ll talk to you then. Thanks for listening to the wet fly Swing fly fishing show for notes and links from this episode, visit Wet Fly, Swing, Dotcom you.
Davy Showing off the trout he caught using his traditional wet fly swing approach.
Davy Showing off the trout he caught using his traditional wet fly swing approach.

Conclusion with Davy on Traditional Wet Fly Fishing

Davy highlighted that successful wet fly fishing is less about the fly pattern and more about presentation, line control, and covering water effectively. By making a few adjustments to your technique, you can increase your chances of getting more takes and landing more fish.

What’s one wet fly technique from this episode you’ll try on your next day on the water?

     

942 | Steelhead Migration and Satellite Tagging with Matt Thornton from The Wilderness Calling

steelhead migration

Episode Show Notes

Matt Thornton is a guide, conservation advocate, and founder of The Wilderness Calling. His nonprofit is using satellite telemetry technology to track steelhead migration after they leave freshwater and enter the ocean.

The goal is simple but ambitious: build a clearer picture of steelhead migration routes and gather data that could help inform future conservation efforts throughout the Pacific Coast.


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steelhead migration

Show Notes with Matt Thornton on Steelhead Migration

About Matt Thornton

Matt Thornton is an Oregon-based fly fishing guide, conservation advocate, musician, and founder of Wilderness Calling.

After years of guiding in Alaska and throughout the Pacific Northwest, Matt launched Wilderness Calling to support steelhead migration research through satellite telemetry. His goal is to bring anglers, scientists, and conservation supporters together to better understand what happens to steelhead after they leave freshwater.

His work combines guided fishing, nonprofit leadership, scientific collaboration, and community involvement around one of the biggest mysteries in fly fishing.

How Wilderness Calling Started

The idea behind Wilderness Calling came from conversations Matt had while guiding in Alaska. Many of his clients were successful business owners looking for meaningful conservation projects where their support could make a direct impact.

At the same time, Matt had connections with fisheries biologists working on emerging telemetry technology. When he learned that satellite tags originally developed for sharks and tuna had become small enough for steelhead, he realized there was an opportunity to answer questions anglers have been asking for decades.

Key takeaway:

  • Steelhead ocean migration remains one of the least understood parts of their lifecycle
  • New satellite technology is making ocean tracking possible
  • Wilderness Calling was created to help fund and support that research
steelhead migration

Tracking Steelhead in the Ocean with Satellite Tags

The tags record depth, temperature, speed, acceleration, light levels, and location data while the fish is in saltwater. Once a programmed time period ends, the tag releases from the fish, floats to the surface, and transmits the collected data through satellites.

The process is complex and expensive. Each satellite tag costs approximately $5,000, which is one reason so little steelhead migration work has been completed to date.

The tags record:

  • Water depth
  • Temperature
  • Swimming speed
  • Light levels
  • Acceleration
  • Location data

One of the first tagged fish from Oregon traveled roughly 300 miles after leaving the Nehalem River, providing an early glimpse into migration behavior.

steelhead migration

Building a Steelhead Migration Map

Matt’s long-term vision is to help create a complete migration map for West Coast steelhead populations.

As more fish are tagged, researchers may eventually identify consistent travel corridors in the ocean. Those corridors could support future acoustic receiver networks that would dramatically reduce tracking costs and increase the amount of available data.

The project is still in its early stages, but Matt believes the next three to five years could provide the foundation for a much better understanding of where steelhead spend their time once they leave freshwater.

Project goals:

  • Track migration routes throughout the Pacific
  • Identify common travel corridors
  • Support future acoustic monitoring systems
  • Improve conservation planning

Funding Conservation Through Fishing Trips

One of the most interesting aspects of the project is how fishing trips help support the research.

Matt offers guided steelhead trips where anglers may have the opportunity to participate directly in tagging efforts. If a fish is successfully tagged, participating anglers receive credit in the scientific work associated with the project.

For many guests, it creates a deeper connection to the fish and the research itself.

Conservation fishing opportunities include:

  • Guided steelhead trips
  • Tagging participation
  • Scientific project involvement
  • Direct support of migration research

Lessons from a Great Oregon Steelhead Season

Matt described this past season as one of the best winter steelhead years he has experienced on the Oregon Coast. While conditions certainly helped, he emphasized that success often comes from understanding how fish move through different river systems and adapting daily based on water levels, clarity, and weather conditions. Rather than committing to one river, Matt evaluates conditions each morning before deciding where to fish.

Factors he watches daily:

  • River levels
  • Water clarity
  • Weather systems
  • Fish movement
  • Fishing pressure

Covering Water Versus Fishing the Fly

One of the most valuable conversations in the episode focused on Spey fishing strategy. Matt believes many anglers overthink the process. While presentation matters, the biggest factor is often simply putting the fly in front of enough fish.

At the same time, he stressed the importance of staying engaged throughout the swing. Small adjustments in pace, angle, and presentation can make a difference, especially when working through prime holding water.

Matt’s approach:

  • Stay engaged with every cast
  • Visualize the entire run before fishing it
  • Focus on efficient presentation
  • Cover water thoroughly
  • Slow down in the most productive zones

Alaska, Spey Fishing, and Crystal Creek Lodge

Matt spends his summers guiding in Alaska at Crystal Creek Lodge, where guests target rainbow trout, salmon, and a variety of other species throughout Bristol Bay.

When he’s not chasing big rainbows, he continues looking for opportunities to swing flies for salmon and steelhead. Even after years of guiding, Spey fishing remains one of the parts of fly fishing he enjoys most.

The Struggle Is Reel Podcast and Life Beyond Fishing

Outside of guiding and conservation work, Matt co-hosts The Struggle Is Reel Podcast alongside Eric Leininger and Zach Carothers.

The show blends fishing, outdoor culture, and plenty of humor while giving listeners an honest look at life inside the fly fishing world.


You can find Matt on Instagram @the_wilderness_calling.

Visit their website at thewildernesscalling.org.

steelhead migration

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Full Podcast Transcript

Episode Transcript
WFS 942 Transcript 00:00:00 Dave: The biggest mystery in steelhead fishing isn’t how to catch them, it’s where they eventually disappear to. Today, we’re going beyond the river into the part of the journey nobody really sees. We’re talking steelhead migration, satellite tagging, Alaska guiding. And what happens after these fish leave the freshwater. We all know this is the Wet Fly Swing podcast, where I show you the best places to travel to for fly fishing, how to find the best resources and tools to prepare for that big trip, and what you can do to give back to the fish species we all love. Matt Thornton is here from the wilderness calling a guide and outfitter around the country. He’s building something that’s starting to answer one of the biggest unknowns in fly fishing, where steelhead actually go once they hit the ocean. Today, we’re going to find out what it takes to tag steelhead with satellite receivers and how that all works. What early tagging data is starting to reveal about steelhead migration, and how his guide trips are being used to fund this research. Plus, we’re going to get into a little fishing. The difference between covering water and actually fishing your fly. Plus, Matt is going to talk about how he approaches steelhead on the swing and what you need to pay attention to. All right, here we go. Matt Thornton you can support him. Get a guide trip. Find out all the information right now at the wilderness calling dot org. Here he is, Matt Thornton. How are you doing, Matt? 00:01:16 Matt: Hey. Good. How are you, Dave? 00:01:18 Dave: Great, great, great. This is this is going to be a fun one. I always love these episodes where we have a ton to talk about. You’ve got a, a nonprofit that’s super interesting where you’re tracking steelhead migrations. I don’t even know all the details. We’re going to talk about that. This thing that sounds like it’s taking over, you know, maybe your, your life and you also are a guide. We’re going to talk about that a little bit for steelhead. It sounds like Alaska, all the good stuff. But take us back real quick. Let’s go right into the wilderness calling. How did this idea come to you? Because I know for me, I always think about steelhead. That’s one of the questions that come up. You know, you’re fishing and you’re like, okay, we know these salmon are kind of going out here, but the steelhead feels like nobody really knows where they’re going. Is that was that kind of the the focus of this thing or talk about how it came to be? 00:02:02 Matt: The idea behind it really came from sitting in boats in Alaska with billionaires and millionaires and multi-millionaires, and hearing these guys be like, man, I own a bunch of businesses and I’m getting absolutely robbed this year. You know, there’s so much money I have to give to the government, and what a bummer that is and all this kind of stuff. And you know, my little my little hamster on the wheel started running and going like, man, like, what if you, uh, you know, helped to like allocate some of those funds towards fish and fisheries since, I mean, that’s a lot of what we do out there anyways, right? Is we introduce people to the place and the sport and they fall in love with it. And, you know, next thing you know, they’re spending more time out there and, and, you know, at the end of the day, more resources would be great, right? So that was inception. And then prior to that, I had dated a woman. I had moved to Alaska from from Portland, Oregon, here where I live. I had moved up there with a woman that became a fisheries biologist and, um, uh, got accepted to UAF. And so, like, we lived in Alaska for a couple years together. And, uh, that was where I met some of the guys who are like the postdoc, um, brains, uh, behind this project. And I called, you know, like, I’m like, oh, man, I really should get into conservation, right? I’ve got these like, you know, multi millionaire billionaire dudes with right way too much money being like, man, what am I going to do with all this cash? So the government doesn’t eat it? And I’m like, okay, so I call my buddy Kevin. I’m like, what are you guys, you know, Kevin Fraley’s awesome postdoc guy, fisheries biologist. I’m like, what are you guys working on? You know? And he’s like, oh, minnow traps and, um, you know, coverts and stuff like that. But the coolest thing that we’re working on is, uh, we took the tags that we’ve been putting on sharks and tuna for all these years, and we made them small enough that you could put them on anadromous fish. And, um, you know, you should check out my buddy Michael’s study, which I did. Michael Courtney is like the foremost telemetry science scientist in the world for freshwater fish. Um, and he did a study on the Seatuck River up in Alaska where he tagged, uh, sixty, I think it was like sixty three fish for a Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. And like, when I saw that paper and what was possible, how you can like track ocean migration routes of spread, I was like, whoa. And like, and then you’re exactly right, Dave. You’re like, as an angler, you’re like, you know, I wonder where these suckers go when they go back out, right? You know. 00:04:36 Dave: Because that’s a part that’s a big part of it because you know, something’s going on, you know, ocean conditions changing and stuff like that. But there’s also fishing. You know, you look at the Chinook fishery, we’ve heard a lot about the the trawlers and stuff, but I mean, we’ve got protections on our waters. But when they get out to the ocean, right, there’s some stuff going on out there with harvesting that might, we might be able to make a change. Right? 00:04:55 Matt: Absolutely. And it’s I mean, it’s a I love that I’m a part of a community that’s so active in conservation. You know, that’s just who we are as anglers, right? It’s like built in and but there’s so much on, on, uh, freshwater, you know, and, and what’s happening here, like dams and stuff. I love the Kalama thing, you know, all this stuff. The Elwha was cool to watch, but, you know, there’s less of a spotlight. I’m not going to say no one because there’s some there’s some folks that have come before me that have put in some good groundwork here, but it’s less studied. 00:05:26 Dave: And that’s because because salmon are always, you know, Chinook is number one. You know, the salmon get the love because they’re the the big fish, right? Steelhead aren’t as as good of eating as Sam is that kind of why why it’s not hasn’t been studied as much. 00:05:40 Matt: Yeah. I mean, I really do think it comes down to commercial viability. Man. At the end of the day, unfortunately, it’s just like everything else that we touch. It’s like, can we sell it? Do we buy it? You know, because we tried actually like two years ago, we tried for a, we tried for a federal grant and we found out that steelhead are not a federally managed stock, and therefore we weren’t qualified for that, for that grant. I was like, what? They’re not like, no one in the federal government is managing this. Like no one cares. I’m like, no, man. Like, they don’t know. Yeah. 00:06:13 Dave: Unless it’s a ESA listed fish. They don’t really have. Yeah. Wow. So that’s it. So you guys got maybe describe, uh, you know, kind of and we’re going to get into some fishing too for people listening, you know, we’re going to definitely talk a little fishing. 00:06:25 Matt: Yeah. Well, we, we still love fishing. 00:06:28 Dave: Yeah, yeah. We’re going to talk about that. But tell us about the, uh, telemetry and stuff, how that works, how you track because kind of there’s a thing there, you know, you’ve got this thing that’s out there, how do you, you know, batteries and all this stuff describe that and what you’re doing, what the project is now, what it could be in five years. 00:06:43 Matt: It’s not easy. I, I’m one of these guys that just kind of does stuff and then later goes like, oh, yeah, right. 00:06:52 Dave: Yeah, let’s do it. Let’s just jump in. And then you realize, man, there’s actually, it’s like going to the moon. It’s like, oh, this is, this is not going to be easy. 00:06:58 Matt: Yeah. I mean, I literally learned sink or swim style. So that so that’s congruent with the rest of my life. And, uh, yeah, so it’s telemetry. Science is no joke, man. It’s really, it’s really difficult. So the way these tags work is that they record depth, temperature, speed, light, uh, acceleration and location. So I will like, I just put ten tags out this year, right? We have sixteen tags out total. We have, uh, the first tag that was ever, uh, deployed and successfully like recorded information in Oregon. And now actually we’ve got a couple of them. I just got, I’m getting, I’m getting data back right now. There’s a tag that’s sitting in the ocean. I’m not going to say where. Yeah. 00:07:44 Dave: Right. 00:07:45 Matt: But there’s one that’s transmitting to me right now. And so the way it works is I’ll catch a fish in um, in the, uh, river and we’ll put the tag on. It’s about a three minute process. If you’re, if you’re quick, you know, and um, once that tags on, it’s in sort of like sleep mode. And, uh, once the fish hits the salt water, it triggers like a countdown on that tag, um, for the burn pin to release. And when the burn pin releases, the tag floats to the surface and feeds me all that data. Does that make sense? 00:08:24 Dave: Yeah, yeah. Describe that again. So you put the tag in and once it hits salt. So the estuary once it hits the estuary because there’s some salt. Or is it a certain amount? 00:08:31 Matt: It’s a certain amount. So I had to take a salinity rating. 00:08:34 Dave: So you want it to go when it hits when it’s actually going out of the estuary into the ocean, kind of. Or when does it hit? 00:08:39 Matt: Yeah, yeah. You want it to turn on when it actually gets to the ocean. There’s a, I mean, basically, like we already know the freshwater roots of the steelhead, you know. So we don’t need any more data there. 00:08:51 Dave: Although we don’t know exactly kind of how long they’re staying or maybe. I mean, yeah, that’s the thing like fish and it kind of and some of these fish. Well, we can talk about that. But so it hits the salt water, you know, what’s going on and then what? And then you can track it from there to where it goes. 00:09:07 Matt: No, I wish it was live. I wish it was like, find my phone. That would be really cool. But it’s not. It starts recording when it hits the salt. And most of my texts are sixty, uh, to ninety to one hundred and twenty days are like most of the tags. Like I had, you know, uh, three at sixty three at ninety three at one twenty this year that like I programmed, um, the interval for how long it records. See, this does get real complicated real quick. Um, how much it records, uh, depends on how long you set it right. But eventually, uh, either the animal will get eaten, um, and the tag will float to the surface, or the countdown will end. Say it’s a sixty day tag and it hit the salt sixty days ago. Now the burn pin, which is kind of like a fusible link. Okay. Think of it like like a fuse that like, gets hot and burns out. And now the tag floats to the surface. The tag has an antenna on it. The antenna transmits to Argos satellite. And I start getting emails saying like, hey, I’m over here. And here’s the information that I recorded while I was going. 00:10:14 Dave: Right. So basically what you’re getting is when that tag floats up, I mean, the fish gets eaten. What if the fish doesn’t get eaten and comes back to spawn another year? 00:10:25 Matt: Then great. Then awesome. You know? 00:10:28 Dave: And are you able to track that? 00:10:29 Matt: No, because well, I mean, I did put a two hundred and forty day tag on this year. 00:10:36 Dave: But that’s the limit. That’s the challenge here is radio tags have a battery and there’s a limit on how long it can go. Right. Is that your biggest limiting factor for that. 00:10:45 Matt: That and just you can’t get the damn things to stay on a fish that long. 00:10:49 Dave: Oh, and where does it go on the fish? 00:10:51 Speaker 3: It goes on the dorsal. 00:10:52 Matt: Like around a little bit behind and below the dorsal. Um it weighs seven grams. It is two percent of the animal’s body weight, roughly two percent. 00:11:03 Dave: So it doesn’t affect it doesn’t make it a more of a easier for the predators to get. It’s not not doing any of that. 00:11:08 Speaker 4: I mean, I think. 00:11:10 Matt: It probably doesn’t help. Right? Yeah. Right. If you’re running away and even, you know, if I still have two percent of my, uh, body weight, you know, on me at night. 00:11:22 Dave: It’s like wearing those basketball heavy shoes. You know, when you’re trying to jump, you’re like, damn. You get used to it a little bit, right? 00:11:29 Matt: Right. Yeah. So so yeah, it probably doesn’t help them to have the pack on them. But, you know, at the end of the day, I think having this information for future generations is gonna be a big net positive. You know, and the fact that we don’t know is just mind boggling to me. I’m like, what? Like, we can, but we don’t, you know? 00:11:47 Dave: Yeah. We don’t. So out of the date and it sounds like it’s fairly new, but what have you seen? Like, where have these fish gone? Where are they heading? 00:11:53 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:11:54 Matt: So really not enough to like, I don’t have enough yet to like make any sort of, you know, statements about, about that. But I can tell you like, you know, if you look up, uh, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management study the seatuck. Uh, Michael Courtney study, you can see those fish traveling right along the Aleutian chain. And we already sort of knew that, like Alaska and Japan were kind of the two destinations where, um, we had like mark recapture stuff going on studies from like the eighties that where they just tried to like follow the fish around in ships and they put, um, you know, mark recapture tags on, on steelhead. And there was some, you know, kind of anecdotal evidence as to where they were headed. There just wasn’t any sort of exact migration routes. 00:12:41 Dave: Now, you guys are obviously early on in this. Where do you think this could go? As you look out, just maybe, you know, again, look at the ten year or more. You know, what would you love to see? What’s your vision here? 00:12:52 Matt: Okay, dude, this is this is cool. So what I’m learning about telemetry science is that, like, what we could do is build a map of the West Coast. Somebody tried this out of Monterey Bay aquarium out of California. And so they’ve got like, I think they put like six tags out. By the way, the tags are five grand a piece. Wow. They’re ungodly expensive. And it’s not, it’s not cheap to do this. So we, we could potentially have live real time data of where steelhead are going when they go in the ocean. We can right now only apply satellite tags, but we could apply acoustic radio tags if we knew where to put the radio towers. So if we get like a real consistent line where the fish are traveling, then we can throw radio towers in. Suddenly the tags are only two hundred bucks instead of five grand, right? 00:13:48 Dave: And just like they go through, you can see them going through the dams of the Columbia. It would be the same sort of thing. 00:13:52 Speaker 3: Exactly. 00:13:53 Matt: Yeah. Like every time it goes through it blips. Right. And then, you know, so yeah, that would be cool, I think, you know, but let’s right now, I just want to work on building the West Coast map. Michael’s doing Alaska and he started doing like Prince of Wales Island. And you know, he’s kind of he’s kind of migrating south. And then we’ve got this and we’d love to do Washington, you know, but I think it’s going to take us three to five years to get this study to where we’re like, okay, let’s, you know, we can sign off and say like, yeah, we now have a map of ocean migration routes. 00:14:26 Dave: That’s it. That’s awesome. And this is all the wilderness calling dot org is the place people can go. And what could people listening now, how could they help your, you know, your, what you have going here? 00:14:35 Matt: Oh man. Uh, so donate, you know, donate, donate, donate. five thousand dollars. A tag is not cheap. And then there’s a list of community needs on the website. I encourage everyone to watch our our short film that we put out. Sean Burke created a little short film about the origin story of the org. And then just getting involved, man, we’ve got monthly meetings and we’re always looking for new members and new volunteers. Um, we’ve got yeah, like I said, a list of community needs. That’s, that’s significant as, as you kind of get into the org building stuff, there’s a lot to do. So I need help. 00:15:14 Dave: Perfect. So we’ll send everybody out there to take a look and ask you questions on, on all that. And but yeah, let’s hear about on the guiding your, it sounds like you’re getting ready to head up to Alaska. That’s always a big place for us. We’re always thinking about what’s your program, I guess, and steelhead fishing. Is it over for you now on the coast? Maybe talk about that. Where are you fishing right now? And I’m not sure if you even have any openings for next year, but what’s that look like? 00:15:35 Matt: Yeah, man, I am sick of fishing. I hope I never go again. 00:15:41 Dave: Really? 00:15:42 Matt: No, no, but okay. But I did have, like, a rodeo of a of a season. I moved out to the north coast and lived on a river for for a few months. Um, which is great. You know, this is normal. This is par for the course for me. I’m, I’m, uh, twelve years into my career in Alaska, so, but I haven’t been doing steelhead as aggressively as, as this last year is really like when, um, the most bookings I’ve ever had. And, you know. 00:16:12 Dave: This episode is brought to you by AVC rig adventure vehicle concepts out of Colorado. These guys build next level adventure vans designed to help you explore farther and stay out longer. Are you dreaming of a full van build? Or maybe you just need the best aluminum cabinets and storage for your DIY rig? AVC rig makes it easy to turn your vehicle into the ultimate mobile base camp. You can check them out right now at ABC dot com, that’s a v c rig dot com. Trout Routes by Onyx is built for fly anglers who want better Intel without spending hours digging for the information. You’ll get access to public land maps, stream access points, regulations, and even road and trail maps all in one place. It’s become my go to app for scouting new trips. You can check them out right now. Go to fly dot com slash routes and download the app today. Now I’m looking at your website. People have to go here because the wilderness calling dot org, at least right now when we’re speaking, this might change, but you’ve got this video of two steelhead spawning. Yep. And they’re holding their and they’re just I mean just watching them. Right. I could just sit here for an hour just watching. 00:17:23 Matt: Isn’t it cool man. Yeah. 00:17:25 Dave: And now is that a is that a repeat? What what timeline is that repeating on? How long is that clip? 00:17:30 Matt: I think we’re about, uh, 40s or something like that. 00:17:34 Dave: It’s cool because you even see the the scrapes, you can see the air bubbles coming out of his breathing. You can see the scrapes of the the female. And then the female takes off and then the male takes off. Right. And then that’s it. Yeah. I mean, and oh, and then they come back and then and then it wraps around and there they are. That’s pretty sweet footage, man. 00:17:52 Matt: Yeah, yeah. So my friend writer likes to, uh, freshwater snorkel. So we went out to, uh, the coast there and. 00:17:59 Dave: Yeah. That’s great. Are you working with, uh, you’ve been in touch with John McMillan. No, no you haven’t. You should definitely connect with John. He is. John is the guy. He will be all over this stuff and really help you out. He’s, uh. 00:18:11 Matt: What are the chances of an introduction, Dave. 00:18:13 Dave: Oh, yeah. Yeah, one hundred percent. He’s he’s like, uh, you know, he was working with t u and, um, I’m drawing a blank on the conservation group he’s with now, but he’s, uh, just doing sweet work. He’s, but he, what got me thinking is that he does if you go to his Instagram and again, my old age has drawn a blank. I’ll get it here. I’ll have links to this. But he has videos. He’s a big snorkeler. He does freshwater snorkel all over the place and he’s got tons of video tons, but he’s just super cool, dude. So I’ll connect you with him. Definitely. 00:18:41 Matt: I would love that. You know, the speaking of like, kind of like fishing and the freshwater. So writer my, my bro that does the freshwater snorkel. Like, I mean, you swing flies, right? You know, like, and this is kind of the data where I’m like, okay, man, I think one in fifty for winners. 00:18:59 Dave: Oh, really? One in fifty. 00:19:00 Matt: Yeah, yeah. But I don’t know. But I know this. I’ve been out there with writer and like swung around and been like, dude, I’m on it. Like my cast is perfect today. I like know where these fish hold. I know each boulder in this run and I like put that fly where it needs to be to get bit. And I’m like, writer. There’s no, there’s nobody home today because I nailed it, you know, and then he’ll go and snorkel it and he’s got like the GoPro and he like ends up with a big smile on his face and shows me Eight fish. 00:19:33 Dave: Yeah. Eight fish. 00:19:34 Matt: Yeah. And I’m like, what? Dude, there’s eight in that run. Like they’re all in there. Just, you know, they see your fly and they’re like, nah, I think I’m good. 00:19:43 Dave: That makes total sense. That makes yeah, there’s so much there that like, yeah, well, I just found it too. And it’s John McMillan go to at rainforest underscore steel. 00:19:53 Matt: Okay, cool. 00:19:54 Dave: Yeah. So tech and then he’s also he’s with the conservation angler. 00:19:57 Matt: Oh, nice. Yeah man. They do great work. Yeah. 00:20:01 Dave: Yeah. And he’s, he’s definitely an all star. He’s, he’s got some good stuff. So cool. So that’s John. He’s been on the podcast to a number of times. We’ve talked to him on on stuff. So that would be good. But but yeah, so your program is so you’re out on kind of the northwest. Are there rivers that you’re fishing that are there people are knowing about? Is that something you could give a highlight or these kind of secret rivers you’re fishing out on the coast? 00:20:23 Speaker 4: I mean, I try not to. 00:20:24 Matt: Talk too much about them, but let’s just say like the North Coast territory and all the like, you know, the big ones that I’m cool with is like the Wilson and the Trask. Um, and then there’s like three other rivers in there that all go fish and, um, yeah, my deal with my, my guests when they come out is, you know, I’ll fish anywhere within two hours of Portland where I think will best catch a fish. So during steelhead season, I’m up at, you know, three thirty or four every morning. I’m looking at charts. Everybody wants to know where we’re going. And I refuse to tell them, you know. Right. 00:21:01 Dave: So you don’t tell them. So this is like like blindfold to get to the spot. Yeah. 00:21:05 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:21:05 Matt: That and I don’t know, man, I don’t know until maybe six, ten hours before we go because it’s like when, you know, I chased him by my like on my own for many, many years and like, I realized like, yeah, dude, it’s, it’s so conditions based and like, this is how I do it. I wake up that morning, I look at all the charts and I go to the best spot, you know, so when my clients come and they want to get one, I’m like, duh. I show up on the North coast and I’ll tell you, you know, like, I’ll send you a text. We’ll get up early, you know. 00:21:35 Dave: That’s cool. Yeah. So late in the season, is there anything you’re fishing? You know, right now it’s as we’re talking, it’s almost may. Are there any things on the coast you could fish, you know, because fish are obviously spawning in some areas. Is there still places where you can find fresh fish? 00:21:50 Speaker 4: Uh, Wilson’s. 00:21:51 Matt: Got a summer run. I’m kind of done, man. Like, even like mid April seems to be pushing it out there. So, but I, I fished up till like April twenty, I think twenty second was when I got the last tag on this year. I put in ten tags on fish in the, in the fresh water was like, that was a challenge, man. It was like one of the coolest things that I’ve done. And I, you know, the clients got a few of them, but we. 00:22:16 Dave: Oh, really? 00:22:17 Matt: Yeah, yeah. But we got to the end of the season and it was like, well, dude, we still got four tags. 00:22:23 Dave: Yeah. Well, so you got ten tags. And the interesting thing about this, it sounds like it would be really cool to be on a trip with you just to be able to tag, you know, a fish or have a chance to. Do you feel like that’s something you’re going to keep doing? Uh, you know, fishing for the tagging. 00:22:36 Matt: Yeah. So this was, you know, in a lot of ways, this is the, as guides, like, you know, we designed trips, right? And this was the coolest trip that I’ve ever designed. When you have to get government permission to like, do the, the trip, right. You know, you’ve reached the next, you know, you’re cutting red tape just to like accomplish the thing. Um, so yeah, and like the, you know, I guess the fly or the, the bait that I can dangle that, that other people can’t is that, you know, like, sure, you maybe have have traveled, you know, my guys from Alaska, it’s like they get to fish and do whatever they want. They can go wherever they want. You know, they got private jets and stuff like that, but most of them haven’t had their name included in a scientific paper. And they will if they come fishing with me and we catch the right fish and we’re able to tag it, they get credit for that, you know? 00:23:26 Dave: That’s awesome. So is that the it seems like yeah, that would be a cool way to do it is actually, you know, I think about it like you’re guiding, you know, you bring these guys on maybe who have some cash, they get to experience what you’re doing. And I’m guessing they would give more money to be like, hey, I’ve got, I’ve got a stake in this game now. I’m catching the fish. It’s tagged. It’s out there. I want, you know, I want this to succeed. Is that kind of your how you see it too? 00:23:48 Matt: Yeah. Yeah. That’s the vision and it’s worked a few times. It’s not exactly how it’s worked out. Like we ended up, you know, working with smaller clubs and stuff like that to get funded. But definitely there’s been a few like private donors that were. And it’s like, so all the fish are hens. We don’t tag bucks. Hens are more likely to, to head back out right after they’re done spawning. And so we’ll name them after like, uh, you know, the guy’s wife or something like that. 00:24:15 Dave: Oh really? 00:24:16 Matt: Yeah, yeah. So like, or like we had Fort George, uh, brewery sponsored a tag last year and we called the Kelt that was most successful. Georgette and made a little illustration of what happened with their fish that they were able to share. 00:24:30 Dave: Oh, cool. How was it successful? How was that one the most successful? 00:24:34 Matt: It just it made it thirty days in the saltwater and, uh, gave us the most data about the migration route, you know? 00:24:43 Dave: How far did the furthest one migrate? Did it go three hundred miles? Three hundred miles? So three hundred miles. This is the one coming out of Alaska or where was it coming from? 00:24:51 Speaker 5: It just we. 00:24:52 Matt: Tagged it on the Nehalem River and it went up near forks, Washington. 00:24:57 Dave: Oh, yeah. So it went up to forks. Yeah, yeah. There you go. So it’s heading north at least to the start of its journey. 00:25:03 Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah. Although I will say. 00:25:05 Matt: There’s been some other tags that we’ve put on that seem to like show them going left out of the rivers too and heading south. So you’re just like, it’s inconclusive as of yet. 00:25:15 Dave: Yeah. You hear some of this. We’ve done a few episodes on The rogue and you know, as the steelhead numbers have been up and down, you know, we’ve been kind of asking like, okay, how’s it going? It sounds like the rogue in that area down there has been a little more stable. Maybe. I’m not sure if that’s totally true, but it sounds like from the guys it has been. Do you feel like that whole area down south, Northern California is like totally different than the North coast up in Washington and everything where they’re going. 00:25:37 Matt: Uh, yeah, I do, I do, I have noticed that it seems like if they’re having a good year, we’re having a bad year and vice versa, you know, and so that’s one of the things that like we’re all super curious about. It’s like, oh, I wonder what’s going on in the ocean that’s making that happen. You know, is there a current or something like that? Because like, it seems pretty obvious to the guide community that that’s like a theme, right? Like, oh, South Coast is ripping this year. That means North Coast is going to be a little bit of a bummer, you know? Okay. 00:26:08 Dave: Yeah. 00:26:08 Matt: So yeah. And vice versa, you know, um, like I heard they had like a mediocre year this year where we just, we had them. 00:26:16 Dave: Did you, you had a good year this year. 00:26:18 Matt: Oh my God, man. It was, it was the best year I think I’ve ever seen out there. Dave. 00:26:24 Dave: No kidding. 00:26:24 Matt: Yeah, yeah, it was nuts, man. 00:26:26 Dave: Wow. Now, were the conditions good for. Is that part of it? 00:26:29 Speaker 6: Yeah. Conditions were decent. 00:26:31 Matt: Yeah. They were, they were pretty good. We had a good you know, we had good movement on water levels and good storms and stuff all year. I ended up canceling five days, I think, out of the season. But the rest of them, um, I fished and yeah, there was one good like blowout, you know, storm. And so yeah, it was lights out, man. And really like, yeah, like the, in the end of the season was so good, man. Like that, that last like two weeks or whatever. Once everybody left off for kings fishing. 00:27:03 Dave: Oh, is that what happens? 00:27:04 Matt: Oh my gosh. Yeah man. Like yeah, there’s like a certain time where it’s like the first Kings come in and then like everybody on the all the gear dudes just bail. We man the river. We got it, dude. We got the place to ourselves, you know. 00:27:18 Dave: Well aren’t the aren’t they with the gear isn’t like, for example, the Nehalem isn’t that mostly wild fish there? Or you get some hatchery fish there. 00:27:26 Matt: Yeah, yeah, the North Fork has the hatchery, but the main stem where I fish. But that doesn’t keep anybody. And dude, I gotta just put this out there right now. I’m not an anti gear dude. I think it’s rad that people go fishing. My whole mentality is like, hey man, they’re not doing meth. You know, like they’re not not like breaking into my house, you know, like, yeah, it’s a bummer to have have, you know, your your favorite run get bobber dogged, but it is what it is, man. I’m glad people are getting outside, you know? 00:27:59 Dave: So yeah, that makes sense. So that’s the program here. And then you’re heading up now. Do you go up to Alaska and have you been guiding. Where are you heading up to there. 00:28:07 Matt: Yes, sir. Uh, so it has been, uh, twelve years that I’ve been working up there. I worked on the iliamna side of things for a bunch of years, and then three years ago, I moved over to the knick knack area. And so I’m on the knick knack. I’m at Crystal Creek Lodge. It’s a fantastic program, super fun place to go fishing, you know, obscenely cost prohibitive to fish. 00:28:33 Dave: Yeah, it’s a lot. 00:28:34 Matt: At Crystal Creek. 00:28:35 Dave: Yeah. What’s it like? Is it closer to fifteen thousand dollars or closer to to ten? Is it in that range? 00:28:42 Matt: Uh, it’s twenty. It’s twenty grand a week right now. 00:28:44 Dave: Oh, wow. Twenty grand? 00:28:45 Matt: Yeah, yeah. So we got we got seven airplanes and we got probably thirty jet boats littered around. And like, you know, we just it’s like exceptional. Yeah. 00:28:56 Dave: And people are coming for the, the big rainbows for the most part. 00:28:59 Speaker 6: Yeah. 00:28:59 Matt: But you know, we’ve got all the salmon and stuff too. Man, I’m actually getting excited. Um, you know, we do a lot of pro trolling out on the, on the Nasdaq. And when I’m not mousing for rainbows up the American, I go over to, to the NAC. It’s like if you can’t fly out and I like, you know, this year I went to the sportsman show and got all sorts of fun pro trolling stuff. I’m like, I’m getting into it, dude. Don’t tell anybody, you know? Right. 00:29:25 Dave: Yeah. You’re doing it. 00:29:26 Matt: Yeah. I even got one of those little cameras that, like, you can film the bite, right? Like it like. 00:29:30 Dave: Oh, right. 00:29:31 Matt: Goes on the line. And then. 00:29:33 Dave: Yeah, that would be cool to have on the end of a fly to see that. 00:29:36 Matt: They’re big cameras. I don’t know if we can make that happen, but yeah, we could try. 00:29:41 Dave: God that’s cool. So what about Chinook? Are there any Chinook fishing? Is that on up there? NAC. NAC yeah. So that’s not hasn’t been closed because we’ve heard about some of these Chinook closures down in Kenai and stuff. 00:29:52 Matt: Totally. Yeah. No, NAC is still open. Um, and the Noosh is, is like the other one that we fish a lot. And right outside my front door at Crystal Creek is a small creek. I’ll just not name it. But, um, but there’s a little creek that you can go up and swing flies on and it’s, it’s awesome. It’s a super fun place to go fishing. So I’m excited about that. I’m, I’m like eight years in on the spey rod, I guess nine years now. And it’s still it’s still like my my fun time, you know, and like. 00:30:23 Dave: You still learning. 00:30:24 Matt: Yeah, yeah, one hundred percent man. Yeah. I think every time I go fishing, I’m still learning, you know? But learning to teach it too has been interesting and fun, you know? So I’m looking forward to getting back up there and, and trying to talk clients into learning Spey and taking them out and swinging up. And, you know, it’s a blast. 00:30:42 Dave: Going for it. Well, when you’re down in on the coast, back to the kind of the lower forty eight on the swing and talk about that. What is the the program you’re doing there, you guys, it sounds like you’re fishing up through mid-April. Are you guys fishing? Maybe describe the what you’re using rods and kind of gear lines this year? Typical stuff. I guess it depends on flow a little bit. 00:31:01 Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, it sort of depends on flow. 00:31:02 Matt: But I think you can get away with, um, you know, ten feet of T11 and Skagit line for like most things, you know, um, my, my go to rod is a, uh, thirteen three Bula G2 platinum. I became a Bula pro after the first time I fished that rod and like, have just been like, super into it ever since. It’s a great teaching rod because it’s a little bit slower. It’s still a quick rod, but it’s got some finesse. And like, you know, I just feel like the level of feedback that I can get and my clients can get from it. Like if you, you know, think about making a wrong cast it, the tip wiggles, you know, how those things feel, you know, so yeah, so, but like, you know, when I’m fishing out there, I, I mostly kind of focus on like, okay, where do we think there’s a fish today? And how are we going to show that fly to that fish, you know, and sure, there’s some like, you know, you can get kind of precise about how you’re going to show the fly to the fish. But mostly it’s just like, let’s get the fly in front of the fish and then let’s cover what like the Nehalem, uh, is one of those rivers That’s got so much good water, so much good fishy water. Like the traffic is a little different, right? Like Trask has these little funnels and I can like show up and be like, yeah, man. Like there’s a ten by ten square where like, I’m almost certain there’s a steelhead, you know? 00:32:30 Dave: Yeah. But it’s different. It’s not like a big, big, long run. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:32:36 Matt: And the halem, I’m just like, okay, like yard it out there, man, and start stepping, you know, because yeah, we’re just the name of the game today is cover water and, uh, you know, let’s, let’s find one. Right? 00:32:48 Dave: So that’s right. So you’re pretty much just getting on the they’re just. Yeah. Fishing, swinging flies. Get your tip pretty standard what you’re doing there and, and just casting step and swing it any what’s it like, you know, down there, like any little micro tips you would throw in there when people are swinging, I feel like sometimes you get stuck in this thing of just, you know, swinging the same thing without fishing the fly. What are you telling your clients if they’re in that zone? 00:33:11 Matt: Oh, yeah. man. I mean, in some ways it can be kind of good, right? To just shut the brain off. And just because I think with swinging, I think a lot of us overthink it, you know, and it’s just like, it’s a pretty simple game, you know, like, yeah, I mean, you learn that trout fishing, it’s like, oh, you swung a soft tackle and it worked. And like, now you kind of got, you’ve got some feedback, right? So but with winter steelhead, it’s definitely different, you know, trying to get that fly to slow down enough to make a fish move. And I think really like, for me, it comes down to like every little situation is different. Um, let’s stay engaged and try to, yeah, just try to be fishing that fly to a fish all day. I’m just using my imagination all day, man. 00:34:00 Dave: Stonefly nets, builds handcrafted landing nets that are as tough as they are beautiful. They’re shaped, sanded, and finished by hand from premium hardwoods. You’ll feel the difference the moment you land your first fish light in the hands, strong at the hoop and made by someone who knows what it means to earn your trust. You can head over to Stonefly Nets dot com right now and see what they’ve got in the shop today. That’s Stonefly nets dot com. When it comes to high quality flies that truly elevate your fly fishing game, drift hook dot com is the trusted source you need. I’ve been using drift hooks expertly selected flies for a while now, and they never disappoint. Plus, they stand behind their products with a money back guarantee. Are you ready to upgrade your fly box? Head over to Drift Hook dot com today and use the code swing at checkout to get fifteen percent off your first order. That’s drift hook. D r I f t h o o k dot com. Don’t miss out. Are you mixing like being. I think like you got this big run. You know, it’s one hundred yards long and you’re like, all right, I’m gonna start at the top. I’m gonna fish down, you know? But within it you could mend upstream. You can mend down. You can maybe as it goes into the current right. make it speed up. Those are little mini adjustments you could do. Do you think that’s a good thing to be mixing up or just would it be better just in that whole run? Just stay with that same swing. 00:35:19 Matt: Anything that keeps you casting, right? But in my mind, there is a pace. There’s like a, like a cadence to the swing that gets bit. There’s like a certain pace. It’s somewhere between walking and jogging. There’s a swing, there’s like a pull on my line that I can feel. And I feel like if you do this enough, all of us that do this enough, you can feel it, right? You step into that section of the run and you’re like, okay, like I was maybe going to get bit up. Like if it’s gonna happen, it’s gonna be now, you know, and you take your, you know, whatever, two, three steps. And, you know, I tend to slow down a little bit in those really kind of juicy zones. And, uh, yeah, I don’t know. In the best of all worlds, I’ve got two of the best runs on the Nehalem right in my backyard. 00:36:09 Dave: So you live up there too? This is the place you’re at now? 00:36:12 Matt: Yep. Yeah. Which is also kind of forming into a lodge that we can we can use to come. In fact, I’d love to have you out, man. I don’t know what you’re doing here, but you should come. You should come fish. 00:36:23 Dave: Yeah, we’ll definitely, definitely put this together. 00:36:26 Matt: Yeah, yeah. So you know. Yeah. Not to not to divert from from the fish talk. Right. 00:36:32 Dave: Well I think there’s a chance. I think obviously, you know, there’s probably some people listening that would love to help with the non-profit, you know, maybe getting them out on the river. And I know obviously steelhead and swing and flies, people are interested in learning about that. So this is great. 00:36:45 Matt: Yeah, yeah. No, this is like a perfect opportunity to and you get to marry like a meaningful act of like doing conservation work with, with fishing. Right? So, but yeah, I try to envision especially particularly those two runs that are in the backyard all like fall asleep thinking about how can I swing that perfectly, you know, and at what level, you know. So in a lot of ways, Spey fishing for me is about doing something, this one thing really, really, really well. And you know, there’s, there’s layers to that onion. And one of those layers is, you know, you ask like, do you men, do you, you know, fly first? Um, you know, all that kind of stuff. Like that’s, I love the idea of like sitting in the morning and visualizing before I step in to the water, the whole dance all the way through the run, every cast, what angle it needs to be to be the most efficient to get that fly fishing as soon as possible. Yeah, man, I live and die for that, right? 00:37:50 Dave: Yeah. There’s the whole there’s that whole thing on that river. Is there a flow? What’s too low of a flow to. Actually, I’m not sure if you’re floating it, but if you were going to float it, I mean, you can get down can you can float that pretty low because it’s big, right? 00:38:02 Matt: Yeah, totally. Yeah. It’s one of those ones where it’s just like if everything’s gone low and clear, then, um. Then stay out of my river. No. Yeah. 00:38:11 Dave: That’s right. It’s still, it’s still fishing, but. 00:38:14 Matt: It’s definitely one of those places that you, you know, a lot of people go as things tend to get low and clear and yeah, I say, you know, three and a half at three and a half feet like you probably, I mean, but you can just keep, you know, it’s that’s anybody anybody’s call. 00:38:29 Dave: And you’re do you do a raft or you float in a raft or drift boat. 00:38:32 Matt: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got one of those net slipstreams. It’s awesome man. 00:38:35 Dave: That’s awesome. God that’s great. Yeah. It’s, uh, the raft. I’m, I’m actually in the market for a raft right now, and, um, there’s a lot of options, you know? I mean, the last raft I had, it’s like, okay, there’s, there’s a ton of options. And I’m like, man, I’m not quite sure. You know, I’m testing out some. But yeah, the interest, it’s hard to go wrong with them. I mean, they’ve been in the game so long, they’ve got just tons, right. Tons of great stuff. 00:38:56 Matt: Do you fish out of the boat? 00:38:58 Dave: Um typically no. Typically this would be more of a like a, the most. Well, it’d probably be if I got it, I’d do a little more fishing out of the boat. But no, not. I’d be thinking this would be more like a Deschutes multi-day. Like have the kids. The kids, you know, and the wife could take, you know, the gear boat down, right? Teach the kids how to run the boat, that sort of thing. 00:39:17 Speaker 8: Dude. That’s awesome. 00:39:18 Matt: I’m stoked for you for that, man. Are you guys. You think you’re gonna do like Trout Creek to to hair foam or something like that? Or are you going to do the white horse and all that business? 00:39:28 Dave: Yeah, yeah. That’s the thing we’re definitely that is on the the next thing is to get the white horse. That would be my ultimate when I the day that I see, you know, one of my daughters rowing through white horse, I’ll be happy dude. 00:39:40 Speaker 8: Yeah, totally. 00:39:41 Dave: That’ll be a happy day for me. 00:39:43 Matt: That’s amazing man. That’s so cool. Yeah. Um, you know, I, I got a lot of friends that like have families and like homes and stuff like that. And they’ll, they’ll like, hit me up and be like, man, like, look at you with your, you know, you’re in a bush plane and you’re like flying around like, I’m so jealous. Like I have to be in this office or whatever. Dude. It’s the opposite for me. I’m jealous of guys like you that, like, put in the work and have like an awesome, you know, a family and, and are able to like experience that whole thing. So that’s cool, man. I hope, I hope that’s a, what do you, when do you think they’re going to be ready for it? 00:40:18 Dave: Well, it’s, it’s interesting. It’s an interesting question because I remember when I grew up, it was totally different. And I grew up with, you know, a dad who I learned I was down the river when I was five. I was literally going, I remember the rapids as a kid being like, oh my God, I’m scared. I don’t want to go through that rapid. And my dad was like, all right, get in. We’re going. 00:40:36 Speaker 8: Yeah. 00:40:37 Dave: You know what I mean? Yeah. And then I was rowing the boat when I was twelve. I was rowing the boat down the river, you know what I mean? And my brother, that was the funny thing. So I always go back to my brother because my older, older brother went through Whitehorse the first time. This is a crazy story for me. But he was thirteen when he took my uncle through Whitehorse. 00:40:55 Matt: Nice man. 00:40:56 Dave: Right? And I’m like, my daughter right now is almost fourteen, so she’s not even close to that level. But sure, you know, the days were different, but I. But I feel like, you know, it’s just it’s everybody’s got a different thing. But I think that, you know, you plant the seed with the kids and then they, they might forget about it. But I think eventually they remember and they probably. 00:41:14 Matt: Do they enjoy it or is it like, oh, dad wants us to go fishing again? 00:41:17 Dave: Oh, no, no, they’re they’re, they’re not like the hardcore anglers, you know, but they can cast and they can do it. They’re more like just the outdoor stuff. They love the river trips. 00:41:26 Matt: General outdoor. Yeah. Love. That’s awesome. 00:41:30 Dave: Totally. No, I mean, I think we’re all in it for the same, you know, the same game. And I feel like the grass is always greener as part of the thing, right? You’re like, okay, I’ve got this. And I’m like, oh man, I want to be just living up in Alaska. You know what I mean? Because, because what you’re doing is, man, I mean, think of that man. You know, most people, a lot of people don’t have twenty K for a trip and you’re just doing that. That’s your daily, right? You’re up there. 00:41:51 Matt: Yeah, totally. No, I definitely, in a lot of ways fell ass backwards into a really gorgeous life and lifestyle, you know, when, when like billionaire kids are like, you know, you hear from them being like, yeah, man, I did it wrong. Like, I should have been a guide, you know? 00:42:10 Dave: Right. 00:42:11 Matt: Like, okay, my quality of life is pretty good. Yeah. 00:42:15 Dave: Like, yeah. That’s it. Well, you know, again, it’s money is life is short. And, you know, you got one time to do it and like, hey, you could be a billionaire, but when you die, that money is not, it doesn’t matter. 00:42:26 Matt: Totally, totally. Yeah. The experience is really valuable. I’m pretty sure I would be doing the same thing that I’m doing now if I had a trillion dollars. 00:42:36 Dave: This is awesome. Well, tell me this. I want to hear because obviously we’re on a podcast here. You are in a podcast too. You’re part of this podcast. The struggle is real. Talk about this because it feels like what we’re doing now is kind of what you guys do. But talk about this podcast, how did this come to be and who are? And we’ve had Eric on, he’s been on in the bucket or in the bucket series that we have going. But talk about what this is. 00:42:56 Matt: Yeah. So it’s, it’s a fish and efficient podcast that’s not really about I mean, I wouldn’t say it’s not about fishing, but it’s not about fishing that much. It’s a it’s us goofing off and chatting. And, um, it’s the realest of the real. It’s a lot of like, uh, what’d you throw a temper tantrum about this week? You know, tends to be the topic of conversation, but in a fun and funny way. And it’s with Eric Linenger and Zach Carruthers, and we’re starting to kind of branch out and do guest. Um, the inception of it was from Eric who did, uh, Friday night flies from northwest fly fishing outfitters for a long time. Man. I think he was like nine years of, of Friday night flies like never. I never had a Friday night, you know, because he was, he was busy doing F and F, which was, dude, I, I don’t know if you, I’m sure you tuned into like, those things are awesome, you know? Um, so he did that and then it was like, okay, I’m kind of like, I want my Fridays back, but I’m not done talking about fish and fishing. And so here we are with the struggle is real and it’s like it’s one of the highlights of my. I drove back from the coast like probably ten times this year to do the pod. 00:44:07 Dave: To do it. 00:44:08 Matt: Yeah. Because it’s that much fun. Do you need to be back to Portland for anything? No, but I do need to go like I do want to go hang with the boys. 00:44:15 Dave: That’s cool. So you would go in go in just to do the podcast for the most part. 00:44:19 Matt: Oh yeah man. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I. 00:44:21 Dave: Would. 00:44:22 Matt: Do some other stuff while I was around Costco and stuff like that. But yeah, it was a lot about joking around with the boys. Early morning. Yeah. 00:44:30 Dave: Yeah. How many like when did this, uh, how many episodes do you have out there and how often do you do it? 00:44:35 Speaker 9: I think we’re on. 00:44:35 Matt: Episode twenty nine, you know, and, uh, yeah, we’re looking forward to doing more. 00:44:40 Dave: Yeah. Do you do it every, every when does it go live? 00:44:43 Speaker 9: It should be like a weekly. 00:44:45 Matt: We’re we’re trying, you know, it’s what you want to balance. You don’t want it to become a job. Job. I’m sure you identify with this, Dave. Yeah. Yeah man. It’s enjoyable. But you know, it can also be kind of a lot. So we’re trying to just kind of like, you know, keep an even one a week pace and, and, and keep it fun too, you know. 00:45:04 Dave: That’s right. Where would we go to, to find it right now? I guess just the struggle is real. 00:45:09 Speaker 9: Yeah. 00:45:09 Matt: The struggle is real. R e e l um, on Spotify, Apple Music. If you go to our Instagram too, it’s like t s I r or something like that. 00:45:18 Dave: So there you go. So the struggle is real r e e two e is not so real. Yeah, real. There you go. So cool. Yeah. You guys got some? Yeah, definitely some, uh, some good content here. And it looks like you’re popping out regular episodes. So this is good. So we’ll definitely follow that podcast and have a listen here. Well, tell me this as we, you know, start to think about taking out of here a little bit. What’s the, you know, what you have going, what do you want to leave people with today? You know, just we talked about the nonprofit, you know, we talked about some next steps. What have we missed today? 00:45:48 Matt: Uh, the big thing, Dave, is like, if you want to do conservation and fly fishing. There’s a couple things. One, I want you to everybody to know that I’m just some dude, you know, like I am a high school dropout. Yeah. You know, I, I started working construction when I was fifteen, and I’ve been able to cobble this thing together. We raised forty grand last year, man. We’ve so far put sixteen satellite tags, the most anybody’s ever put on on steelhead in Oregon. We’ve been the most successful. I’m just some dude that like really cares about the subject. And, and so yeah, I want, I want people to kind of take away for them to be like, yeah, I can also do that, you know, and yeah, please, please hit up my website. Please reach out to me. I want to plug you in. Um, there is a lot to do, you know, if you want to book me and come fishing or Zach, Zach or others is also on my board and a trained tech. Um, so you could book Zach or me this year and that’ll, that would be super helpful that would, you know, give us another opportunity to go fishing, pay our bills. No one’s getting paid from the wilderness dot org, you know. So in order for us to stay alive, book us. Let’s go swing up a steelhead. Let’s put a tag on it. Let’s discover ocean migration routes. We’re going to start like on February. Probably February first this year. And I’ll have um, an opportunity to sign up for week long’s that have there’s a chef Shannon Feltus will support that. Um, so you could just come out and just, you know, plug and play. It’s make it easy, like come out for a week, you know, go fishing, um, hang with Zach and me and catch fish and get fed and, you know, have a good time with it. 00:47:34 Dave: That’s awesome. Yeah. So you got this full thing. We mentioned it before the wilderness calling dot org or dot com. Either of those places. 00:47:42 Speaker 9: Yep, yep. Either one. 00:47:43 Matt: Just reach out, man. I, you know, people are going to email me and I’m going to go like, yeah, let’s get on a phone call. You know, that’s usually how I’m, I’m a big audio guy, you know. 00:47:53 Dave: Oh, you are, you’re big. Yeah. You want to talk to somebody? 00:47:55 Matt: Yeah, man. I want to get a feel for him and stuff like that. Yeah. So. 00:47:59 Dave: Yeah. Good. And Zach, we’ve mentioned on in the bucket they talked about that but he Portugal the man which was a is it Grammy. Grammy Award winning. 00:48:07 Matt: Uh yeah. Grammy Award winning band. He was in another band called anatomy of a ghost that my bands used to play with. 00:48:14 Dave: Okay, so you were in a band, too? 00:48:15 Speaker 10: Oh, yeah. 00:48:16 Matt: Yeah, man, I’ve been. 00:48:17 Dave: Playing. 00:48:17 Matt: For twenty five years. Yeah. Same thing with, uh, the, uh, biologists that wrote all our project proposal for, um, for the wilderness colonies and this band called, uh, the builders and the butchers, which is prolific and like their tours in Europe here in a couple. 00:48:30 Dave: Really? 00:48:31 Matt: Yeah, man. So it’s like we’re all, we’re all musicians. And I think that’s part of like, what allowed us enough time to be able to like, do something like this. 00:48:40 Dave: God that’s crazy. What was your, um, what did you play? 00:48:43 Speaker 10: Uh, I play bass. 00:48:44 Matt: Yeah. And, um, you know, just been in like punk and hardcore bands for, for like twenty five years. Yeah. 00:48:50 Dave: There you go. Yeah, punk. The more I’m learning about music, mostly just from talking to people through here, it feels like punk is something I missed out on. I should be listening to more because it sounds like it’s a pretty cool genre. 00:49:01 Matt: It’s not too late, Dave. 00:49:03 Dave: It’s not too late. 00:49:04 Matt: I got a show at High Limit Room on May twenty sixth. 00:49:08 Dave: Oh, really? 00:49:08 Matt: Come on out, my friends will give you a black eye. It’ll be a blast. 00:49:12 Dave: Oh, good. Good. So, May twenty six. All right. Good. This is in Portland. 00:49:16 Matt: Yeah. 00:49:17 Dave: Nice. All right. Good. That’s awesome. Yeah, I think that. So you’re still going. So you’re still in the band. You’re still guiding. You still got the you got all this going. 00:49:23 Matt: Oh, yeah man. Yeah. I juggle things. Like I said, I, I tend to just bite off more than I can chew and then chew it. Yeah. 00:49:30 Dave: That’s perfect. Good. Well, well, like we said, well, we kind of touched on a few of these items today. We’ll send everybody out to the wilderness calling dot org if they want to connect on trips or really just help you out with your program here at the nonprofit. Um, but yeah, man, this has been great. I really appreciate the time and definitely looking forward to getting on the water someday with you. And we’ll be in touch. 00:49:49 Matt: Would love that, Dave. Thanks. 00:49:51 Dave: All right. If you get a chance. Uh, your call to action today. Check in with Matt Thornton, the wilderness calling dot org, and definitely check in with him on trips if you want to support this great program he has going. Understanding where fish are going is critical to making sure they come back and survive. So we can all experience more of that amazing chrome action on the water. If you want to check in with us anytime, Wet Fly Swing Pro is usually the best place if you want to join a community there that’s thriving, that’s building trips together, that’s answering questions, that’s holding you accountable to make sure you experience your best trip this year. Check in with Wet Fly Swing Pro that’s wet fly swing dot com slash pro. Sign up there and I’ll let you know when we open this thing up for our next cohort, which we’re going to be doing soon. You can check in with me anytime. Also, Dave at webplace dot com would love to hear from you if you’re new to the show or if you haven’t chatted for a while, send me an email Dave at web dot com. Always love getting feedback and listening to new hearing from new listeners or people I haven’t talked to in a while. All right. That’s all I have for you. I hope you enjoyed that one. We are going strong here all summer long, so if you get a chance, definitely check in on the next episode. Hope you’re having a good day and hope you have a great afternoon evening. And if it’s morning, if it’s early in the morning, maybe it’s late in the morning and you’re just sitting there enjoying a cup of coffee, listening to this episode, thinking about what you can do to give back to steelhead. You just heard one thing today. Right now you can find out more information, hit that right now and and check in with us. Thanks for your support. We’ll see you on that next episode and we’ll talk to you. Have a good day. 00:51:24 Speaker 11: Thanks for listening to the Wet Fly Swing Fly Fishing Show. For notes and links from this episode, visit Wet Fly swing dot com.


Conclusion with Matt Thornton on Steelhead Migration

The more we learn about steelhead migration, the more important this work becomes. Matt Thornton and the team at Wilderness Calling are helping push that understanding forward one tagged fish at a time.

Whether you support the research, book a trip, or simply follow the project, this episode is a reminder that anglers can play an important role in conservation while doing what they love most.

     

How to Plan the Perfect Montana Fly Fishing Trip with Kathryn Bartlett of Gallatin River Lodge

Episode Show Notes

A successful Montana fly fishing trip isn’t just about choosing the right river—it’s about building the right experience. Kathryn Bartlett, General Manager at Gallatin River Lodge, shares how thoughtful planning, flexible scheduling, great guides, and a comfortable home base can transform a fishing vacation into something much bigger. For anglers looking to explore Montana’s legendary waters while still enjoying everything the region has to offer, Gallatin River Lodge provides a unique starting point.

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(The full episode transcript is at the bottom of this blogpost) 👇🏻

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Why the Best Montana Fly Fishing Trips Start Months Before You Arrive

(21:25) Kathryn’s biggest piece of advice is simple: don’t wait. Many anglers focus on booking flights and accommodations first, only to discover later that guide calendars are already full. Since guides can only take one boat per day and prime dates disappear quickly, planning ahead can make the difference between getting your dream trip and settling for what’s left. The good news? Even a few months of lead time can open up plenty of opportunities if you’re flexible.

The Secret Isn’t Choosing a River—It’s Letting Conditions Decide

(10:32) Most anglers arrive in Montana with famous names like the Madison, Yellowstone, or Gallatin already on their bucket list. But Kathryn explains that one of Gallatin River Lodge’s biggest advantages is flexibility. Instead of locking guests into a single fishery, guides can choose the river that’s fishing best on a given day. Water conditions, weather, runoff, and temperatures all play a role, and being willing to adapt often leads to a much better experience on the water.

More Than a Fishing Lodge

(14:00) Gallatin River Lodge was originally built around fly fishing, but over time it evolved into something broader. Today, it’s common to find anglers swapping stories about trout on the Yellowstone while couples celebrate anniversaries nearby or families visit Bozeman for college tours. Kathryn shares the story behind the lodge, including its fly fishing roots and how the property has remained true to its original purpose while welcoming a much wider range of guests.

Why Yellowstone National Park Should Be Part of Your Trip

(31:11) For many visitors, Montana starts with fishing. But Kathryn believes Yellowstone National Park deserves a place on every itinerary. Located within reach of both the north and west entrances, the lodge provides a convenient home base for exploring one of America’s most iconic landscapes. Whether guests choose a guided tour, a self-guided drive, or even a fishing trip inside the park, Yellowstone adds another dimension to a Montana adventure that extends beyond trout streams.

The Montana Mistake First-Time Visitors Always Make

(39:01) Montana looks manageable on a map—until you start driving. Kathryn laughs about how many visitors underestimate the size of Big Sky Country and try to squeeze too much into a short trip. Glacier National Park may look nearby, but it’s still hours away. The lesson is to leave room for flexibility, build extra time into your itinerary, and embrace the slower pace that makes Montana special in the first place.

Come for the Fishing, Stay for Everything Else

(34:23) Fly fishing may be the reason many guests arrive, but it’s often not the only highlight they remember. Kathryn shares some of her favorite Montana experiences outside of fishing, including alpine lake hikes, Yellowstone adventures, breweries, horseback riding, whitewater rafting, and local attractions around Bozeman. Her philosophy is simple: come for the fishing, but leave enough room in the schedule to discover everything else Montana has to offer.


Resources Noted in the Show

Follow Gallatin River Lodge on Instagram 👉 @gallatinriverlodge
Visit their website at GRLodge.com

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Full Podcast Transcript

Episode Transcript
00;00;02;01 – 00;00;25;18 Dave A solid trip means things went fine. A great trip happens when a few key decisions actually line up. Today we’re laying out that step by step. What actually goes into building a fly fishing trip where the days feel right, the water lines up and you’re not figuring it out as you go. I’ve got Katharine Bartlett from the Gallatin River Lodge on the podcast today, and we’re walking through what it really looks like to plan a montana fishing trip. 00;00;25;27 – 00;00;39;24 Dave From the first call all the way to the last evening back at the lodge. This is the Wi-Fi Swing podcast, where I show you the best places to travel to for fly fishing, how to find the best resources and tools to prepare for that big trip, and what you can do to give back the fish species. We all love. 00;00;40;04 – 00;00;57;13 Dave Catherine Bartlett is here and we’re going to find out what a full day looks like when it’s all down in from the early start to the post fishing reset. We’re going to find out how to match the right guide to your experience level and avoid a lot of guessing and some of the small planning decisions that can actually change the entire trip. 00;00;57;26 – 00;01;18;01 Dave Plus, we’re going to find out how to build a trip that mixes fishing. We’ll talk about the different rivers in this area Yellowstone, the Madison and everything Montana has to offer. On top of that. This is the Montana checklist you’re looking for. Let’s find out how to do it. Here she is, Catherine Bartlett. You can find her at G r Lodge Tor.com. 00;01;19;11 – 00;01;20;03 Dave How are you doing, Catherine? 00;01;20;12 – 00;01;22;17 Kathryn Bartlett Doing great, Dave. Thanks so much for having me. 00;01;22;24 – 00;01;37;02 Dave Yeah. Yeah. This is going to be a fun one. I think that you’re definitely in a place. The Gallatin River Lodge. You guys are, you know, obviously the Gallatin River. You’re right in the heart of Montana and some of the most famous water. So we’re going to hear it talk about that and maybe help somebody put together a trip this year. 00;01;37;02 – 00;01;51;26 Dave I think you also have, you know, at the Lodge a little bit different take on how you do it. So this is going to be exciting to kind of build out a trip, Roy, today. But but before we get there, maybe take us back on your background. How long have you been connected to the lodge there and kind of how did you get into it all? 00;01;52;12 – 00;02;30;13 Kathryn Bartlett Yeah, so I’m the general manager of the lodge. I oversee both the lodging side, our restaurants, and then just the property itself. We’ve got about 20 acres tucked back by the Gallatin River outside of Bozeman, and I’ve known about the Lodge for a long time. I used to dine in our restaurant just as a guest. Christmas Eve was like always the place to have a beautiful holiday meal and then started on staff here about I’m going in my fourth year, so I really have kind of seen the property and the the lodge from both sides that as a guest and also from behind the scenes. 00;02;30;26 – 00;02;44;16 Dave That’s amazing. I love that. Yeah, I think having those places so you’re there and like holidays or whatever, go out and you’re on the the river when you’re at the lodge. So you have 20 acres so you can go out, the river’s there and people can actually fish. Or what does that look like for the fishing. 00;02;44;23 – 00;03;07;12 Kathryn Bartlett Yeah. So we are located, I would say near the Gallatin River. You can see the tree line and where the river kind of snakes through our neighbors property. So we we don’t have direct property access, waterfront access, but we do have public fishing access on the Gallatin that’s just up our dirt road right there, right there about 5 minutes. 00;03;07;12 – 00;03;26;17 Kathryn Bartlett And then we work with a neighbor of ours who does have access. If you’re interested in walk wading, our section of the Gallatin, which tends to be very shallow, is not and not a real great float section. But if you’re going to go with a guide, we can get you on our particular private section of the Gallatin. 00;03;26;28 – 00;03;44;20 Dave A Cool. Yeah, we’re all talk about that. We’re going to have some more podcasts on kind of some of your guides and how that works, but I think it’s really great. I mean, you’re right there, obviously in the heart. And I think today we’re also going to announce we’ve got a kind of discount code swing ten. Yeah. Where people can get 10% off if they want to book. 00;03;44;21 – 00;03;56;27 Dave And we’re going to talk about that. I think we’re going to kind of build out, you know, a trip here, you know, because I think a lot of people are wanting to go to Montana. I mean, we talk to them all around the country, you know, really all around the world. You know, people are interested because it’s kind of that place. 00;03;57;09 – 00;04;12;09 Dave Yeah. And so we got an opportunity there and we could talk more about what this looks like. So maybe just start there. If somebody’s coming in, I’m picturing somebody who maybe is out there for not just a day or two. They’re out there for a while and they’re stopping by. Who are the folks that are coming in through your lodges? 00;04;12;09 – 00;04;15;03 Dave It just it’s not just fly fishing, folks. I’m guessing. 00;04;15;18 – 00;04;39;04 Kathryn Bartlett It’s not. But we do have a good majority of people that come through to fly fish. And I think you said it really right. There’s so much to explore in and around us that it’s you know, of course, we love the one night stays. But to really get the most out of your trip and exploring this section of Western Montana and the most out of your fishing trip, it’s best to allow, you know, three or four or more days. 00;04;39;14 – 00;05;00;20 Kathryn Bartlett And that’s just to get you on the rivers that are fishing the best given the conditions each day, which can change drastically. You know, yesterday we had a beautiful spring, spring day. And then this morning I woke up to eight inches of snow in my backyard. So crazy things can fluctuate drastically around here. And that’s just kind of the mountain west and we’re all used to it. 00;05;00;20 – 00;05;19;00 Kathryn Bartlett But, you know, that applies to fishing conditions. And it’s peak season for fly fishing out here is the summertime. But those that know I think know that it that’s probably not even the best time to fish it’s it’s better to come maybe in that pre runoff section which you’ll do about next month in May or even come into the fall. 00;05;19;00 – 00;05;43;03 Kathryn Bartlett Our falls are getting longer out here in Montana and we love fall fishing trips. The waters in air a little cooler. You don’t run into any huge our closures or low water levels that kind of limit your where you can fish. And so while my fishing guides will always tell me they will take anybody any time of year, even if there’s snow on the ground, they love to get out there no matter what we you know, if you want to. 00;05;43;16 – 00;05;54;26 Kathryn Bartlett The insider personal opinion is the best time to fish is early spring. Well, I guess it’ll be late spring for most of the world. And then the fall time is really beautiful. 00;05;55;11 – 00;06;10;25 Dave That’s right. Yeah. And then eventually somewhere and whenever that is, when the winter starts, things start getting a little colder. And I’m sure there’s still some people fishing out there during the winter months when you get some nice days. But are you booking throughout the whole year? If somebody came in in January, we used to have availability there. 00;06;10;25 – 00;06;31;13 Kathryn Bartlett We would, yes. The lodges open all year round as well as our fishing guides are taking people fishing all year round if there’s interest, especially like winter, like we just had that was so mild, we barely had any snow. Our temperatures stayed very manageable and none of those super frigid -20 degree weeks. And so there was a lot of good winter fishing. 00;06;31;13 – 00;06;36;27 Kathryn Bartlett I would, you know, drive by the rivers and see people in there. So it’s definitely doable at any time of year. 00;06;37;07 – 00;06;49;20 Dave Yeah. And I think we’re going to have Ryan Kurt is going to be on he’s one of your guys maybe talk about that. Who are some of the guys? If we were coming in there, let’s just say it was going to be a fall trip and we were talking to you right now, like putting something together. What would that look like? 00;06;49;20 – 00;06;53;20 Dave Would you connect us with a couple of guides or. Yeah, describe that. 00;06;54;00 – 00;07;12;04 Kathryn Bartlett So fishing is booked directly through the guides in their availability and their calendar, but we definitely connect you with the right guide for you, Whether you are an experienced angler looking for something more technical or you’re novice and you just you want to do it as part of your vacation and you want to have some fun, Those options are there. 00;07;12;04 – 00;07;35;24 Kathryn Bartlett Some people are really into float trips. That’s, you know, our rivers out here are super wide. So floating the Yellowstone in the Madison is the other way to do it. You can certainly float sections of the Gallatin as well, but a lot of that is more weight walk. So we kind of talk to you in terms of what style of trip you’re looking for, and then we connect you with our very short list of guides that we’ve been using for 20 years. 00;07;36;06 – 00;07;54;12 Kathryn Bartlett And so, you know, one of those guys, his name is Ryan, and he has his outfitters license and really holds the hand of the fly for sure. Who’s looking to come out here in terms of getting them set up with the right fishing licenses and gear. And you’ll pick up and drop off points and shuttling the raft and all of that is taken care of for you. 00;07;54;12 – 00;08;03;23 Kathryn Bartlett So you just have to say, hey, I want to go fly fishing. And then we put it put the puzzle pieces together to make that happen for you in a very seamless way. 00;08;04;09 – 00;08;21;09 Dave Yeah. And is it at the Lodge? Is it kind of a describe the differences between maybe what you do in some other places, you know, inclusivity or, you know, what you offer there? If we were coming in, let’s say we were going to be there for three days in the fall, we’re going to we want to fish maybe three days with some guys and then do a few days on our own. 00;08;21;18 – 00;08;28;01 Dave Yeah. What would that look like if we were talking to you? What would we get there? You know, the night before, talk about food and kind of all that stuff. 00;08;28;13 – 00;08;45;15 Kathryn Bartlett Absolutely. So, I mean, just from the get go, we offer airport shuttle. We but we’re not that far, which is really nice are one of our biggest amenities is the proximity we have to Bozeman and so you don’t have to go far after traveling to to either get on the water or to find your accommodations. 00;08;45;22 – 00;08;47;10 Dave How far is it from Bozeman? 00;08;47;12 – 00;08;49;07 Kathryn Bartlett We’re about 10 minutes from the airport. 00;08;49;08 – 00;08;50;29 Dave Oh, that’s amazing. Wow. 00;08;50;29 – 00;08;56;21 Kathryn Bartlett Yeah. And 15 minutes from Bozeman 22, like the real heart of downtown. 00;08;56;21 – 00;09;00;14 Dave You’re still in Montana. This is not this is not New Yorker, California, right? 00;09;00;22 – 00;09;07;13 Kathryn Bartlett Absolutely. Yeah, we’re going to. But we’re going to pick you up in our King Ranch Ford F-150 truck and bring you out to the lodge. 00;09;07;17 – 00;09;08;00 Dave Nice. 00;09;08;06 – 00;09;27;09 Kathryn Bartlett We’ve got plenty of space for all of your gear, and then we’re going to get you settled into your room. I definitely would arrive the night before fishing trips generally start our days. Fishing start pretty early, so we want to get you in and settle and get everything sorted out and start you off with a fantastic meal. That’s one of our biggest draws. 00;09;27;09 – 00;10;04;23 Kathryn Bartlett We have a very amazing culinary team and executive chef that is classically trained but delivers a really fun kind of fusion of Mountain West with his southern heritage. So we have a great restaurant that’s very approachable. Highlights The best that our local farmers and ranchers and waters have to offer. And we have an award winning wine list, and we’d love to open a beautiful bottle of wine and have you all take in a sunset and really kind of settle into all that Montana has to offer from a very visual, beautiful, relaxing point of view. 00;10;05;06 – 00;10;12;01 Dave That’s amazing. And then and then we’re getting ready to go the next day, meeting the guides at the lodge there and then head out. 00;10;12;11 – 00;10;32;10 Kathryn Bartlett Yeah, the guides will come directly here to the lodge and load you up. They’ll take care of lunch. We’ve got a continental breakfast for fisheries. That is a great option that’s delivered to your room the night before. So that is available for everyone that stays in the lodge if they’re interested in that. And then you get to take our fishing. 00;10;32;10 – 00;10;55;05 Kathryn Bartlett And it is really kind of a day of surprises because until you connect with the guide and he kind of meets you and again talk through what you’re looking for, some of that happens offline in messaging back and forth. But prior to arrival. But you don’t necessarily know you’re going to see Yellowstone until you’re going to head that direction that day, unless you know you want to fish that no matter what. 00;10;55;05 – 00;11;05;12 Dave So right. Unless you’re thinking like, hey, I I’ve always wanted to fish the Madison River, right? And so then they can probably make that happen. But but other than that, it’s going to be on conditions, right? Whatever. River fish fishing the best. 00;11;05;18 – 00;11;25;24 Kathryn Bartlett Yeah. And that’s something I think that’s really unique for us. And other lodges are kind of confined to fishing. Maybe just the stretch of water that they have or that they’re they’re only on one river or one location. And so we offer a lot of flexibility. And we understand that like the most important part is experience from start to finish. 00;11;25;24 – 00;11;40;22 Kathryn Bartlett And we want to make sure that that experience is is what you you know, what you’ve gotten to do and it’s what you’re looking for. We want you to be successful. Fishing is fishing, not catching. So it’s not always a guarantee, but we want to make sure that we set you up for success in the best way possible. 00;11;41;03 – 00;11;56;04 Dave And so you have a little it sounds like a mix of you’ve got breakfast and I’m guessing the lunches are probably covered by the guide. Do people also I know I hear from listeners sometimes where they’re thinking, oh man, they’re not too concerned with all the amenities, right? They just want a place to stay. Do you offer that? 00;11;56;04 – 00;12;01;12 Dave Is that something where people could just get a place or is dinner always covered and breakfast kind of always covered as part of this? 00;12;01;28 – 00;12;26;06 Kathryn Bartlett No, the answer your question is yes, we do offer that. So we have kind of two main styles of of room types. Essentially, we have our our standard rooms that are really designed for the person that’s not going to spend a lot of time in their room at the lodge. They’re a little bit smaller in square footage. They have all of the comforts of home, you know that you want very comfortable bed, nicely appointed bathrooms and upgraded or remodeled spaces. 00;12;26;15 – 00;12;35;00 Kathryn Bartlett But it’s they’re not going to be your amenity focused stay rooms. Those are great for people that are doing you know the all day fishing trips and they just need a great place to land. 00;12;35;06 – 00;12;46;01 Dave Yeah I can imagine if it was like, you know, somebody here that maybe they had a little camper or something. They were doing a lot of road tripping, but maybe they wanted to get a, a nice bed or, you know, for a couple of nights. Right. A little break in between their big trip. 00;12;46;04 – 00;13;05;24 Kathryn Bartlett Yeah, absolutely. A little bit of R&R having been on the road or certainly our second style room is what we call our main lodge suites. They’re going to be our main building and they are a little bit bigger. They have a few more amenities in room. They’re great for the couple that’s here to stay. They offer kind of the best of both worlds of the lodge. 00;13;06;07 – 00;13;25;03 Kathryn Bartlett And, you know, our clientele and our guests that come through are very diverse. We are not just a fishing hut for the guys trip to come out and fish, but we’re a great place for couples to come in and either fish together or one person is fishing. The other person staying back that day, having a little rest and recharge day. 00;13;25;14 – 00;13;45;03 Kathryn Bartlett You know, we cater to groups, so but in a way that everyone should have their own space at the end of the day, we’re not a bunkhouse, but we definitely have entertained many fly fishing groups to come in and it’s a great place. Everything has everyone has their own space, but it’s still elevated and approachable and people can have a really good time. 00;13;45;15 – 00;14;00;07 Dave That’s cool. What is the. So we kind of got a good start here, I think, on you know, what you offer, what this experience is going to be like. Do you know a little bit Can you take us back on the history of the lodge? Is it, you know, who founded it more as a lodge or what? You got a little background there? 00;14;00;15 – 00;14;25;21 Kathryn Bartlett Yeah. So the land was originally built in 1999. It has been was originally built for an outfitter and him and his wife started their outfitting guiding business and they were just looking and bringing their clients in, having them stay, taking them on trips out of the lodge. And it was really built. The foundation of the lodge was built around fly fishing trips and what that would look like. 00;14;25;21 – 00;14;32;21 Kathryn Bartlett I think the joke is that he wanted a place where his wife would want to go on his fishing trips with him. 00;14;32;25 – 00;14;33;10 Dave He had, yeah. 00;14;33;24 – 00;14;58;21 Kathryn Bartlett So he built a great restaurant and a lodge that was very comfortable. And then just through the years of running, that is more of a seasonal business. And unfortunately, he passed away suddenly. And so his widow decided to sell the business to our current ownership. So we’re privately owned and current ownership just has this desire to keep it a very authentic, true to form. 00;14;59;00 – 00;15;16;08 Kathryn Bartlett Lodge We have expanded, you know, post-COVID world a little bit to cater to not just fly fishers. So, you know, you could be at the bar and sitting down and talking about the rainbow trout you pulled out of the Yellowstone and the next to you there could be a local couple in it, you know, dining for their 50th wedding anniversary. 00;15;16;08 – 00;15;30;17 Kathryn Bartlett And on the other side of you is a father and son, and they’re out looking at MSU for college tours. So there is a vast variety of people that come through, which is kind of fun. I think that the more people you meet when you travel, the better your experience. 00;15;30;17 – 00;15;49;06 Dave Yeah, I agree. I agree. I think that’s just adds a little bit more to the experience. You know, it’s not we’re we’re not all here just for fly fishing. Right. I think that’s obviously a big part of what a lot of us are coming for. But but yeah, there’s a lot more. And it looks like even at the I’m just looking at your website, there’s some great video there and you have the the logo. 00;15;49;06 – 00;15;53;15 Dave The logo is good to describe that it was that is that a logo and your logo or. 00;15;53;24 – 00;16;31;19 Kathryn Bartlett Our cowboy fish is is beloved he doesn’t have a name although we always joke that we should name him. I don’t have a lot of history on that. It is it’s been the logo of the Lodge since its inception and so we have always had that cowboy riding, riding the fish, but we think he’s pretty fun and kind of really embodies where we are in Montana in the best of those kind of worlds, that western Wild West kind of bronco, Western style, but incorporating the fly fishing, which is is such a big thing out here in western Montana. 00;16;32;01 – 00;16;47;17 Dave Yeah, it is. Yeah. That’s it’s definitely, definitely a big hub. You see lots of boats driving around the town and what is Bozeman? So you’re right there. You must spend some time in Bozeman. How has that been? Have you been there for a while? Have you seen the the changes in that town over time? 00;16;47;27 – 00;17;11;03 Kathryn Bartlett Yeah, I don’t think I’ve been here a while, although I’m going on seven years in Montana, but even in my that’s a relatively short amount of time. Bozeman has, you know, experienced so much growth and a lot of it is really good. A lot of it is really needed. And town is definitely growing towards the lodge. So it’s filling in the farms and things like that are filling in a little bit around us. 00;17;11;03 – 00;17;32;02 Kathryn Bartlett But we are we’re protected by conservation easements and some other land. I, I guess grants and some things that are in protected wildlife zones. So while Bozeman is expanding, we have the gem of a spot to be like, Well, ours is never going to change. Our view is not the the way the river flows through. 00;17;32;08 – 00;17;37;29 Dave You’re not going to have a bunch of new skyscrapers on the river or even probably near in the floodplain. I’m guessing. 00;17;38;11 – 00;17;57;28 Kathryn Bartlett We’re not. No. Which is pretty special. And I think that the growth is bringing a lot of like new people to experience Montana, a lot of new fly fishing, people that are interested in the sport or the pastime. We do see a lot of novices come through the lodge because it is a great place to get your feet wet with it. 00;17;58;08 – 00;18;14;24 Kathryn Bartlett Staying in Lodge doesn’t take a commitment to fly fishing in a way that like a fish camp would. And with our proximity to Bozeman, you can still like, you know, you can still go into town for dinner, you can still go explore downtown Bozeman and see the shops and that kind of thing. And so it’s a really comprehensive trip. 00;18;15;10 – 00;18;24;12 Dave So tell me and there is a new I’ve been hearing about a new show, I guess it’s a TV show or is it the Madison? Isn’t there a new show that’s being heard about this? 00;18;24;12 – 00;18;40;04 Kathryn Bartlett I have not watched it yet, but yeah, it’s they were shooting it here and they’re doing some B-roll shooting in town and nearby last summer. And so I’ve not had a chance to see the pilot. Have you watched it? 00;18;40;09 – 00;18;56;08 Dave No, but I’m it’s on the list because I’ve been hearing a little bit more about it. We always go back, you know, a river runs through it. Was this the most famous flatfish right back in God? It’s amazing. 93, right? Many, many years ago. But it had a huge impact. And I’m starting to hear some people maybe talking a little about their thinking. 00;18;56;08 – 00;19;09;06 Dave This show might also. So I’m going to have to watch it because it sounds like it’s got a lot of fly fishing in it potentially. But yeah, I haven’t really seen the I don’t know if it’s had I don’t think it’s had the big impact, like a river runs through it quite yet. 00;19;09;20 – 00;19;33;06 Kathryn Bartlett Certainly I think that we’ll see how it if it takes off. We definitely felt a little bit of a bump from Taylor Sheridan’s the Yellowstone show. Everyone knows that one and how we we get calls sometimes. It’s pretty funny. People are like, Oh, I want to come out. We haven’t gotten a call like this in a while, but when it was at its peak, it was like, I want to come out and see the the Yellowstone Ranch from the show. 00;19;33;07 – 00;19;54;11 Kathryn Bartlett And, you know, people call in wondering how far that is from the lodge. And I think that that actual ranch was in like Utah somewhere, so. Oh, it is. Yeah. Oh, right. It was always really funny. But I hope that that show does well. I think that it, you know, it’ll Taylor Sheridan is a great storyteller and there is something very therapeutic about fly fishing and I’m just about being on a river. 00;19;54;24 – 00;20;11;16 Kathryn Bartlett I think that everyone would agree that there’s there’s a peace and serenity to be found when you’re when you’re doing that and you’re near the water. And it’s a special kind of activity to be so in tune in so close to to nature that I think people really enjoy. 00;20;11;27 – 00;20;26;01 Dave Yeah, yeah. I think what I love here and I’ve done so many of these podcasts is there’s just a lot of different levels. You know, there’s different levels of, you know, from, like you said, somebody just starting, there’s somebody who’s been doing it a while and then maybe they take a deep dive into a specific type of fishing, right? 00;20;26;02 – 00;20;42;15 Dave Fly fishing. Maybe. Maybe they’re into understanding all the bug hatches and they’re getting really nerdy and you could take it as deep as you want. Or you can stay on the surface and just go fishing. You know, like we talked to a while back is pretty awesome. I always love to highlight some of our past episodes. The Fonz, Henry Winkler, back in again. 00;20;42;16 – 00;21;01;26 Dave You know, dating myself back in the eighties, you know, the Happy Days TV show. Well, he you know, the Fonz is is a big fly angler, but he only fishes like once or twice a year. And so I feel like there’s some of these people out there that are just, you know, that’s all they have time for, you know, But they still love it probably just as much as, you know, any of us, you know, getting out and they get one shot. 00;21;01;26 – 00;21;16;25 Dave So so I kind of want to talk about that. You know, today as we think about organizing a trip. Right. I want to maybe help somebody line something out. So if we kind of take this idea of maybe I’m sitting here with, you know, a couple of people are thinking about putting the trip together, what’s the first step there? 00;21;16;25 – 00;21;25;14 Dave You’re telling somebody to to get ready for this? You know, I guess I guess you have timing. What’s your advice? If somebody calls up and says, I want to I’m heading out to Montana, where do I start? 00;21;25;27 – 00;21;46;21 Kathryn Bartlett Absolutely. My advice would be to to get on it early. Don’t wait. If you’re interested in fishing and come to mind for that, I would say don’t wait, get it on the books and then let the puzzle pieces kind of fall into place as you get closer. That being said, we’re a small lodge, which makes us great and makes us intimate and cozy, but we do fill up. 00;21;47;25 – 00;22;07;29 Kathryn Bartlett And so we’re looking at really great occupancy going into the summer, which is going to make for a great a great time. But not only do hotels and accommodations fill up, but fly fishing guides. They can only take one boat a day and there’s only so many. And so if you’re interested in booking with a guide, that’s step two. 00;22;07;29 – 00;22;28;07 Kathryn Bartlett So once you get your accommodations, that will get you, you know, connected in with your guide as quickly as possible. We want to get on his calendar and make sure that your your boat is reserved. And then from there, we kind of look at what other activities you want to do and you know, how many days you have and how many days you want to spend fishing. 00;22;28;17 – 00;22;39;01 Kathryn Bartlett And if you want all those days to be the same, or if you want to vary them, and we work with you and your guide with that. And then from that point, you’re you’re sitting pretty. Pretty. 00;22;39;07 – 00;22;55;24 Dave Yeah. Those are the big things that you’re looking at. Let’s just say, you know, as we’re talking here, May is right around the corner, but let’s just say next year, you know, you’re planning your trip about a year out. You know, you say it’s for the summer. You know, it could be again, I think if regardless, they could still call you, check with you U.S. on availability. 00;22;55;24 – 00;23;01;07 Dave Right. But as far as planning, probably a year is a good chunk of time to be thinking out. 00;23;01;07 – 00;23;18;26 Kathryn Bartlett A year is plenty. I mean, I think six months is great, too. Okay. Six months. Yes. Even if you’re in the saying I mean, we’re in it’s a mid April right now. I just spoke with Ryan the other day and he’s got availability still in July and August. So this year is not totally out. Okay. It’s more limited. 00;23;18;26 – 00;23;36;04 Kathryn Bartlett You don’t have your choice of all the dates. Right. They’re certainly available. You can figure something on to do that fall fishing is because of its popularity is actually a little bit more booked in the end of the summer right now. So if you want that peak fall time, maybe maybe you look at next next fall. But yeah, definitely. 00;23;36;08 – 00;23;52;01 Kathryn Bartlett It’s always great to give us a call and you’ll find availability. Pricing is usually better upfront for like booking trips a year out too. So you definitely do save a little bit in your accommodations and in your fly fishing trips. 00;23;52;14 – 00;24;08;17 Dave That’s it. Okay. So if we were coming in, you know, I can imagine let’s just think we were coming through. Maybe we’re heading out this summer and we kind of had a trip we were planning on, you know, doing that stop in there. We could probably, you know, just check in and say, first off, hey, what do you have for availability, timing, and then talk about the guides. 00;24;08;17 – 00;24;24;14 Dave And then if there was something open, you can maybe lock that in and then build a program around that. What would let’s just say we did lock in. Maybe Ryan had a couple of days there in July and we found a couple of days there. So, you know, like you said, come in the night before. What does it look like? 00;24;24;14 – 00;24;34;14 Dave Take us to that. That night, that first night, If we’re getting there, let’s say we’re in one of those rooms, Your standard room. And is that something where you could also get dinner there? Is that something where it’s kind of just the room? 00;24;35;00 – 00;25;00;19 Kathryn Bartlett No. So a restaurant is open and available. It is your your choice. So dinner is not included in the room. So you have the option. We’re all about giving people options. So love it. Make it, make the trip what you want it to be. And we do have an all inclusive option where you can book in and then all your food and beverage, including house wine and beer, is included in that price point. 00;25;00;19 – 00;25;19;14 Kathryn Bartlett So it kind of makes it one less thing you have to worry about. And our friend, our staff can can work you through those different rate options. Additionally, that information is always on our website, but if you are, you know, you want to get in, get to dinner, and then in the morning you’re going to had a 7 a.m., 6:37 a.m.. 00;25;19;14 – 00;25;41;10 Kathryn Bartlett You’re going to head out with your guide, be on the river, float the morning, get situated for lunch riverside do a little float and then probably making it back for happy hour. Honestly, our happy hour starts at three and we do a killer happy hour. And everybody loves that. That’ll really take you through your first day and then a really good night’s sleep. 00;25;41;10 – 00;26;02;26 Kathryn Bartlett The best part I hear this all the time from our guests are beds are phenomenal. We have the best comfiest beds, I think, of any hotel, super soft sheets, nice and medium firmness, not too hard not to squishy beds, but we get compliments all the time. And so you’re going to get a really good night’s sleep and then be well rested and well-fed to go out again the next day. 00;26;03;09 – 00;26;22;27 Dave Yeah, it’s it’s I think it is the little things. I think those little things make a big difference. So and I love the options. I think that that’s a big part of this because, again, there’s all sorts of different people, you know, out there and listening to this that are going to be like, Well, yeah, some of them want the four all inclusive, but then there might be somebody that’s like, Man, I just want to save a little bit money, you know, And I’ve got I can handle, you know, everything else. 00;26;22;27 – 00;26;28;19 Dave I just want a room. Yes, I am. But then they could also get a guide for a day or more if they wanted to, right? Yeah. Yeah. 00;26;28;19 – 00;26;48;24 Kathryn Bartlett So and other things that are happening like on property that are really special is we have a full casting pond, large casting pond on property is stocked. And so you are welcome to, you know, if you’re one of those fly fishing anglers that this is your, your one or two trips of the year, you got to get the rest off a little bit maybe. 00;26;48;24 – 00;27;10;23 Kathryn Bartlett So it’s a great way to start off. Maybe, you know, the day before or the morning of you can get out there, cast a little bit, get your flow, go in. We also just recently opened a dry sauna on property, so we have a little bit of that rest and relaxation and recuperate kind of atmosphere going on so you can start your day or end your day with a sauna. 00;27;11;02 – 00;27;14;18 Dave Well, one thing I saw was the massage, right? Is that part of you have that. 00;27;14;19 – 00;27;32;23 Kathryn Bartlett Yeah. We offer on property massages. Those have to be booked at least 72 hours in advance to make sure we have the therapist availability. But those will take place in what we call our dry fly den. And it’s a great little fitness room. It’s got some workout equipment in there, but enough space to have a massage in there. 00;27;32;23 – 00;27;52;01 Kathryn Bartlett And then we kind of closed it off. You may get your private massage area when that’s booked and it has a killer view. This isn’t a dark room. This is a 180 degree of our back pasture floor to ceiling windows. It’s a great place to work out and get a massage so you could do both there. And our sauna looks at that as well. 00;27;52;01 – 00;28;04;19 Kathryn Bartlett So we really try to bring the outside into every experience. Here at the Lodge we are surrounded by beauty and we want to allow our guests every opportunity to see that. 00;28;04;19 – 00;28;10;27 Dave Yeah, you’re you’re in a cool place and what is in the casting pond. So that is just a pond and it has fish that you stock in there. 00;28;11;04 – 00;28;24;10 Kathryn Bartlett We do? Yep. Yep. It gets stocked with rainbow trout and all sizes and just we had a nice like springs the last couple of days and I had a little boy who’s 12 year old, he pulled out a little 11 inch trout out of. 00;28;24;10 – 00;28;25;04 Dave That nice. 00;28;25;14 – 00;28;36;24 Kathryn Bartlett Guy and so that was pretty great. I was glad that they survived the winter and they overwinter well. But yeah, so we have a great casting pond that’s fed off the galleys and river. So it is a natural pond. 00;28;37;05 – 00;28;51;28 Dave Okay, perfect. And what do you think? You know, as we’re building out this trip we were talking about, you know, in this example, you know, maybe somebody is coming through for a couple of nights. Maybe they just want to get the standing room, kind of have a couple of places to kind of hang over before their head and maybe, you know, east or west. 00;28;52;08 – 00;29;00;15 Dave But what are mistakes you see people making out there when they’re planning these trips? You know, anything come to mind that you hear a lot about or they you may have mentioned a couple of them. 00;29;00;22 – 00;29;22;07 Kathryn Bartlett Yeah. No, I think that if you have any interest in fishing book, that when you book your rooms right. Same time because hitting up the front desk and being like, oh, we decided we wanted to fish today, is there a guide available? We don’t have guides on staff with us specifically, so we don’t necessarily have a guide that’s just hanging out in the lobby waiting for a trip that morning. 00;29;22;07 – 00;29;40;16 Kathryn Bartlett So I would say if you have any interest in fishing, whether you’ve seen it on a TV and you’re like, That looks fun, let’s try that, or that’s the purpose for your trip book that ahead of time. And then skipping out on our restaurant, I would say, is a big mistake. Our restaurant is fantastic. We’re one of the best restaurants in Bozeman. 00;29;40;29 – 00;29;52;00 Kathryn Bartlett Are we deliver super consistent service, really warm and hospitable, but our food is out of this world, so if you love food, you cannot miss our restaurant. 00;29;52;00 – 00;30;02;03 Dave We do. We do. And what is the if you had to say I’m sure there’s a lot of good on the menu, but what would be a couple popular or does it change? Is this something where this changes throughout the year? 00;30;02;10 – 00;30;27;28 Kathryn Bartlett It does seasonally change. We are gearing up for a switch over here, but some of my favorites is we have a sweet tea brined pork chop that is succulent and delicious. And we also do a shrimp and grits that is probably the best for immigrants I’ve ever had. Our chef does a amazing job with those. And then we love to feature local, local beef, Montana beef. 00;30;27;28 – 00;30;41;17 Kathryn Bartlett And so we have a fantastic Montana Wagyu New York right now that is melt in your mouth. Delicious. Wow. So those three, I think, are my my rotation. Those are not going to let you down in any way. 00;30;41;28 – 00;30;48;09 Dave Good. Wow. I mean, this is like I think just for the food, people could probably plan a trip here. It sounds like all three of those are awesome. 00;30;48;13 – 00;31;01;02 Kathryn Bartlett I think it would be totally worth it if the fishing gets blown out. You still won’t be disappointed because you’re getting no big deal. You’ve got a good, good restaurant, good bar. Yeah. Yeah. That’s that’s really where it’s at for me. 00;31;01;02 – 00;31;11;12 Dave What are other people other than the anglers coming through in there, you know, probably overlap. What are other people coming through or are there people just stop and I’m guessing just coming through right then they’ve heard about you or they want a good meal sort of thing. 00;31;11;19 – 00;31;31;23 Kathryn Bartlett Yeah, absolutely. I think Yellowstone National Park is the other big biggest draw. We are equal distance from the north entrance and the west entrance to Yellowstone. So we are a great place to attack both or just like do the loop the day drive, loop through one entrance and out the other one. And so that’s kind of a not miss. 00;31;31;23 – 00;31;50;22 Kathryn Bartlett If you’re coming this way, there’s it’s worth spending a day and going into the park and you can do that on your own. A self-guided driving. We also work with a couple different tour companies that offer a guided trip in that direction, and that’s actually a really great option. I suggest for especially first time visitors to the park. 00;31;51;01 – 00;32;07;17 Kathryn Bartlett The park is massive. There’s so much to see and there’s not a bad way to do it. But it’s great to go with someone who’s a little bit more knowledgeable and you don’t have to drive and pay attention to the road. You can just look out the window at all there is to see. And that’s really the ticket. 00;32;07;17 – 00;32;16;03 Kathryn Bartlett There is. There’s a lot to see. So maximizing your time for a day in the park is a great option. And so definitely don’t miss that either. 00;32;16;15 – 00;32;29;18 Dave No, no, you’re right. I think when we did it last, we drove through and it’s just spectacular. I remember there is the bison. Yeah, I guess bison, buffalo. You know, they were I mean, some of those places are like right next to your your car, right? 00;32;29;18 – 00;32;45;08 Kathryn Bartlett Yeah, They’re all snorting and hooting and hollering. Right. Right. Nice to your car and you can’t move. It’s a fun experience in itself. I definitely have a time or two where there’s a traffic incident involving a bison and you just got to wait it out because you can’t move that guy. 00;32;45;21 – 00;32;56;18 Dave Yeah, you don’t want to be the guy that’s like rushing and spinning. This tires around trying to, you know, it’s a you’re in a place that you should be relaxing, right? And just be like, yeah, a buffalo, you know, traffic jam is okay. 00;32;56;26 – 00;33;15;11 Kathryn Bartlett Yeah. And I will say we do have trips that go fish in the park. That’s kind of its own thing. So it is it requires a special like outfitters license to guide people into the park and is some different things. So if you’re interested in fishing in the park definitely let your guide your guide when you get connected with them. 00;33;15;16 – 00;33;30;23 Kathryn Bartlett Know that ahead of time and they’ll kind of walk you through what that those steps look like. I know that some people think fishing in Yellowstone National Park is is its own destination, and it’s on goal of a trip. But you can certainly do that. And home base yourself out of the lodge, too. 00;33;31;03 – 00;33;52;09 Dave Yeah. Yeah, I can see this as we’re building this out. I think this is really cool because you got like you said, maybe you’re getting a few days with, you know, hitting the Madison, the Gallatin, you know, hitting those famous rivers. But then maybe, yeah, you spend a few days actually hit in the park and just, you know, either taking a tour, maybe you get a tour for a day and then maybe you drive on your own or maybe you fish in there, you get a guide for a day. 00;33;52;09 – 00;34;04;12 Dave I mean, this could easily be a cool, you know, hybrid, you know, week trip. You’re in there and then you’re doing some other stuff is do you find people or I guess there’s so much to do but that the other parks definitely should be on your bucket list, right? 00;34;04;18 – 00;34;06;00 Kathryn Bartlett Absolutely. 00;34;06;00 – 00;34;23;10 Dave Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, any other items, you know, as far as mistakes or things that people make out there, you mentioned book in the guide with the you know, with the trip together or what about just planning this if you’re planning you just mentioned one thing, Yellowstone National Park. Are there other things that we haven’t covered that people would be doing in that area? 00;34;23;29 – 00;34;54;09 Kathryn Bartlett Yeah, the list is pretty long and it’s a little bit seasonal. So, you know, thinking about what is like primary fishing season and other things you can do, you know, Big Sky is 40, 45 minutes from us. There are too many to count hikes that you should do and see. You know hiking is a big thing. I my favorite thing is to hike to glacial lakes so There’s a there’s a lot of lake trail that’s pretty great it’s great for all levels of hiker and skill for a few hours. 00;34;54;16 – 00;35;13;17 Kathryn Bartlett I also really love Ferry Lake and heading up that direction those are all self-guided and you can just kind of get yourself to the trailhead and take off for the day. The lodge provides some outdoor equipment as part of your lodging fee, for instance, so you just check it out from the front desk. So if you need bare space, you need sunscreen. 00;35;13;17 – 00;35;33;23 Kathryn Bartlett If you need a daypack, if you need an ice chest or a water bottle, you know those kind of things we have for you and we invite you to just check them out from the front desk and use them while you’re here as part of part of a guest perk. So we don’t offer like specific fly fishing gear because that’s a big range of stuff. 00;35;33;23 – 00;36;01;12 Kathryn Bartlett But for the the other activities, we can help you out that you don’t have to pack as much. And yeah, in the summertime hiking I love downtown Bozeman is a great little college town. There’s some awesome breweries. There’s a couple really great distilleries that are that are around. If you want to do kind of a brewpub tour, I can set you off on on My favorites or anyone of any one of us on staff can give you that direction. 00;36;02;04 – 00;36;25;28 Kathryn Bartlett There’s a couple of state parks that I think are worth mentioning that are super fun to explore, like the Lewis and Clark Caverns. A lot of history, a lot of really unique geological features. They’re horseback riding, whitewater rafting, zip lining, those kind of activities are very popular as well. So we can, again from the Lodge, connect you with those outfitters and those guides and those people that are doing those activities on property. 00;36;25;28 – 00;36;29;15 Kathryn Bartlett We have a Frisbee golf course. So if you’re into that. 00;36;29;16 – 00;36;30;28 Dave Oh, wow. Frisbee golf. Yeah. 00;36;30;29 – 00;36;49;02 Kathryn Bartlett Yeah. You can throw a few discs in and do around and it’s a little three, three, three hole course. So nothing crazy but Gary to kind of stretch your legs in that way and see the lodge from a different angle out out in our property there’s just so much just it’s really fun. There’s a ton. Come to fish. 00;36;49;10 – 00;36;50;04 Kathryn Bartlett Stay for everything. 00;36;50;04 – 00;36;59;20 Dave Else. Exactly. Yeah. Come and fish and and what do you think when people get there? Do you think they’re our common expectations that people have that when they get there they kind of get flipped? 00;36;59;28 – 00;37;21;13 Kathryn Bartlett I think the biggest one is either and it’s either one or the other. Either people. I think you’ve forget how close you are to Bozeman when you’re here. And because, you know, we’re down a dirt farm road, our dirt road, there’s something magical that happens when you when you turn on a dirt road and it releases something in your mind that you’re like, Oh, cool, I’m I’m on vacation or I’m on a trip. 00;37;21;13 – 00;37;42;08 Kathryn Bartlett So that’s really special and a little bit to people. You know, we are, again, only 10 minutes from the airport or 15 minutes from Bozeman or very centrally located. So you can feel like you’ve gotten away without having to spend a ton of time getting away, which is really nice. And I think that we really do hospitality, right? 00;37;42;08 – 00;38;02;05 Kathryn Bartlett I mean, not to toot our own horn, but there’s a lot of change in growth in Bozeman. A lot of it’s coming really fast and quick. And so we’re kind of fighting against that and wanting to give people a really great experience that’s warm. We don’t like to say it. We want you to feel at home here because sometimes people’s homes are, you know, messy and chaotic and nobody knows they’re leaving their homes. 00;38;02;05 – 00;38;12;13 Kathryn Bartlett They want a break. But we definitely want to make sure that you have a great experience and that you leave feeling restored as part of part of our messaging and part of what we’re trying to accomplish here. 00;38;12;22 – 00;38;31;04 Dave Love it. But this is cool. And I’m guessing just from what I’m hearing, that probably people come in there and maybe their trip evolves a little bit over time. Do you I mean, obviously you’re setting if you’re fishing, you got these dates set in, but I’m guessing people might come there and learn about something. Like we said, if you didn’t know about the national park, that’s something you definitely want to add to your trip. 00;38;31;09 – 00;38;37;14 Dave Do you see kind of that? And do you get people that come through there and then come back, you know, in following years for different things? 00;38;38;00 – 00;39;01;22 Kathryn Bartlett Absolutely. We see all of that. I would say like keep your plans loose and a little, you know, structure and planning is good, but the weather really plays a factor. And what you’re able to do that day, you know, in the summer we get we’ll get that afternoon mountain thunderstorms that whip through sometimes. So be able to do to pivot a little bit with what you’re doing, have your list of things you want to do and definitely book a couple of things. 00;39;01;22 – 00;39;18;16 Kathryn Bartlett But also really leave yourself open to what the day has to bring. And then we get a lot of out in backers is what we call the people that are here for a couple of days at the start of their trip. Montana’s huge you ask like, what? What? The other thing people don’t realize is like rent a car. 00;39;18;16 – 00;39;19;07 Dave Yeah, it’s big. 00;39;19;08 – 00;39;39;23 Kathryn Bartlett It’s big is big. There is no public transportation, so you need wheels to get around and things are far from each other. And so, you know, we have people that pop up to Glacier. They’re they’re here to do like kind of the National Park tour and they’ll fish a couple of days here and there and then they’ll they’ll go to Glacier and that’s a six hour drive from us. 00;39;39;23 – 00;40;02;10 Kathryn Bartlett So they is at least, you know, half of your day or more. And so that realization is that Montana is huge. It’s the big Sky country for a reason. And we to make sure that people know that coming out. And so we recommend yep rent a car and definitely see all that you can see and then come back through and stay with us know on your last two nights as you’re flying out. 00;40;02;10 – 00;40;04;15 Kathryn Bartlett So that’s a great way to kind of do an out and back trip. 00;40;04;21 – 00;40;18;02 Dave Love that love. I know. And as you said, I was thinking about Mike in our in our community. I know I’ve talked to him before. He just did a trip out in the Midwest and he was thinking out there for a month or so, hunting and fishing. And he was talking about he was just describing how cool it was. 00;40;18;02 – 00;40;32;20 Dave I imagine that same thing in Montana, Right. Or you’re out there for a month just travel and maybe you got your camper. And like I said, you got a couple of nights you’re staying there. Maybe the start or the end. Yeah. And hunting is a big thing, too, right? Do you hear about hunters around? I know that’s a big thing in the area. 00;40;32;20 – 00;40;50;25 Kathryn Bartlett It is a big thing in Montana. Certainly it’s something that requires a little bit more knowhow and planning, but it is we don’t do any hunting trips out of the lodge that are guided. But certainly we’ve had actually a couple of people come through that were we’re here at the tail end or the start, what would be their hunting trip. 00;40;51;08 – 00;41;10;01 Kathryn Bartlett So it’s a great place to kind of land in Montana, us being so close to the airport. If you’re coming to western Montana through Bozeman for any reason, the Lodge is a great option too. If you need, you don’t stay at the airport hotel. Come stay with us. We’re just as close, honestly. And we have a better restaurant, a better bar and a better bed. 00;41;10;11 – 00;41;27;21 Dave There you go. I think that’s the that’s the take home message, because you fly around a lot and you’re like, okay, the airport hotels come up first. They’re right there and they’re I guess they’re easy, but they’re actually a lot of these places, they’re just as far I mean, when you land any of these big, bigger towns, I mean, you got to drive like 20 minutes just to get, you know, it’s a wave. 00;41;28;05 – 00;41;44;23 Dave So but what you’re saying is Montana, even though there’s a lot of growth, you’re still not that far from, like you said, from Bozeman, correct? Yeah. Everything else. Absolutely cool, right. Well, I think, you know, I got a couple of random ones. We’ll take it out of here in a little bit. But just wanted to check in with you and see if we missed anything else. 00;41;44;23 – 00;42;01;06 Dave You want to shed light? I know. Like we said, we’re going to have Ryan, I’m going to talk about the fishing. This is kind of just our intro to your program. We mentioned the discount code swing ten for 10% off. If people want to book in, does that include is that just for a night stay or what? What is that code? 00;42;01;12 – 00;42;18;00 Kathryn Bartlett Yeah, So it’ll be just 10% off your accommodations, whether that’s one night to night, three nights, six nights. However many nights. So 10% off your total stay and that’ll get you started. And then from there we’ll, we’ll get you connected with the guides and the other activities that you want to do. 00;42;18;08 – 00;42;27;11 Dave Perfect. Okay, so we got that in. And like I said, Gallatin maybe gives head up again on your website and then kind of where you’re active out there on on social. 00;42;27;11 – 00;43;04;24 Kathryn Bartlett Absolutely. Our website is d r for Gallatin River g r Lodge accom. And we also on Instagram and, Facebook, that’s Gallatin River Lodge is our Instagram handle and that’s kind of our primary social. And then we do a newsletter and email the newsletter every month. We don’t spam you anything like that. So if you jump on to our website, you can give us your email and then you get the first first knowledge of any of packages we’re running for lodging, any things going on in the restaurant when we’ve got live music out here, you know, all the ins and out. 00;43;04;24 – 00;43;12;29 Kathryn Bartlett So if you want to base your trip around anything like that, we kind of give people a heads up on what’s coming. So it’s a great way to stay connected with us, too. 00;43;13;07 – 00;43;27;08 Dave That sounds perfect. Good. Well, a couple of random ones. We’ll get out here and so I always love we talk movies a little bit and all that. I love the kind of the media, the multimedia stuff. But there you listen to you more a podcast listener, more music. When you’re out there on the road. 00;43;27;24 – 00;43;35;13 Kathryn Bartlett I’m definitely more of a music listener, but I’m an album listener. I like to listen to an album from like the first song in order to last. Oh, you. 00;43;35;13 – 00;43;36;05 Dave Do? 00;43;36;05 – 00;43;40;12 Kathryn Bartlett Yeah, I think that that’s that’s the way it was designed. So I’m going to listen to it that way. 00;43;40;21 – 00;43;44;25 Dave Do you listen on like a Spotify or how do you listen to your albums generally? 00;43;44;25 – 00;43;45;28 Kathryn Bartlett Spotify Yep. 00;43;46;07 – 00;43;58;14 Dave Yeah. And that’s a cool thing is Spotify. You can pretty much find a lot of that, right? So if you want to listen to an old you know, I was talking to my daughter the other day, it was the Beatles. She had this song I gave her on her phone there. It was like, okay, this is the Beatles. 00;43;58;14 – 00;44;08;18 Dave And she’s kind of learning about it, right? But, you know, I was like, Hey, that is part of the Sgt Pepper’s album, and that’s a whole experience. That’s kind of what you’re it sounds like you’re into like getting that whole, the whole experience. 00;44;08;27 – 00;44;29;17 Kathryn Bartlett Yeah, I want, I want to feel what the artist intended us to feel from start to finish. When they assemble an album. I kind of like that traditional listening style. Of course I’m you know, I’ve got my favorites and my, my my favorite playlist it but for three long stands when I listening to something I kind of plug in my AirPods and go on that journey with them. 00;44;29;23 – 00;44;36;10 Dave Perfect. And what about movies? We mentioned Madison and then River runs through. Do you have are you much of a movie buff or. 00;44;36;19 – 00;44;56;25 Kathryn Bartlett I am not. I haven’t. You know, to be honest, I haven’t seen a movie in a while, but I have been rewatching Ted Lasso, I think Ted Lasso. Ted Lasso. It’s a soccer based comedy TV show. That’s hilarious. I’m actually going to the World Cup this summer. I’ve got a couple of tickets to check out. Where’s that. 00;44;56;25 – 00;44;57;01 Dave At? 00;44;57;24 – 00;45;14;09 Kathryn Bartlett So it’s in North America and Mexico and Canada. It’s a joint World Cup. Oh, nice. And that is I’m going to the game in L.A. and then the game in Vancouver. So pretty excited to see that. I’m huge soccer fan, so. Oh, good. Yeah, we’re getting ready for that this summer too. 00;45;14;14 – 00;45;16;23 Dave Did you play soccer throughout your life or. 00;45;16;24 – 00;45;21;00 Kathryn Bartlett I did, yeah. In all, since I was a tot all the way up through college. 00;45;21;01 – 00;45;23;27 Dave You did All through college. You played college soccer? 00;45;23;27 – 00;45;34;23 Kathryn Bartlett Yeah, I did. Just for the club team at my college. But my husband and I met at a tailgate for a U.S. game. So we have deep, deep roots and a love for U.S. soccer. 00;45;35;03 – 00;45;46;19 Dave Love it. Yeah. It seems like soccer is a it’s grown a lot, right over the years where I think it was kind of small back in the day. And now it’s it’s pretty big. I mean, a lot of there’s a lot of professional cities that have professional sports, right? 00;45;46;28 – 00;45;51;25 Kathryn Bartlett Absolutely. Yeah. None out here in Montana yet, though, which is a little bit of a dry zone, but that’s okay. 00;45;52;09 – 00;46;07;07 Dave That’s right. Yeah. Montana is its own thing, right? And that’s it. That’s what makes it great. So good. Okay, Catherine, I think we’ll leave it there for today. And like we said, we’ll be following up with some details on interest. But if anybody wants to connect with you, they can do that. J.R. Lodge, AECOM. And yeah, until we get on the next one. 00;46;07;08 – 00;46;09;00 Dave Appreciate your time and we’ll talk to you then. 00;46;09;11 – 00;46;12;07 Kathryn Bartlett Thanks so much, Dave. 00;46;12;07 – 00;46;32;21 Dave If this trip sounds good to you, you can head over to G R Lodge Dotcom right now and check in with Catherine. We mentioned that coupon code. If you want to get 10% off your next trip and everything you have going on and you’re planning, you can use that right now. That’s swing ten and and check in right there and you support this podcast by checking out and checking in with Catherine. 00;46;33;06 – 00;46;49;17 Dave If you want to take this further with us, you can go to I swing pro this the best place if you want to check in on trips and dial things in what play swing pro is the place to be. We’ve got stuff going on all year long and we’re excited to be doing more of this this year. If you want to connect with me, send me an email. 00;46;49;17 – 00;47;04;01 Dave Dave Our place of income. I always love to get feedback and input together. Episodes. If you have an episode topic or content, please do that right now. If I haven’t talked to you in a long time, that’s the best way to stay in touch. All right. I hope you enjoyed this one and I hope you’re having a good evening. 00;47;04;09 – 00;47;24;14 Dave Good morning or afternoon. And we will see you on the next episode. Have a good one. Thanks for listening to the Wet fly swing fly fishing show for notes and links from this episode, visit Wet fly, swing, Dotcom.

Conclusion

A successful Montana fly fishing trip isn’t just about choosing the right river—it’s about building the right experience. Kathryn Bartlett shares how thoughtful planning, flexible scheduling, great guides, and a comfortable home base can transform a fishing vacation into something much bigger. For anglers looking to explore Montana’s legendary waters while still enjoying everything the region has to offer, Gallatin River Lodge provides a unique starting point.

     
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