Comments on answers to Al's questions

Troy Miller comes in from Alaska with some very good comments on our message earlier, today, on Al's questions to Gary Eaton. Lots of reading, however, they are worthwhile heeding :-

Greetings from the last frontier --

Wow, there are a number of great learnings here. There are also a few things that I think differently of.

Mends are NOT necessarily only upstream. Depending on current speeds, you may be making 90% of your mends downstream on certain days. Mends can also be used to purposefully move or animate a fly as a part of presentation.

I appreciate that as instructors, we think of "the cast" as everything up to the stop and rebound. But most students think of the cast as everything up to the point that the fly and line land on the water (which includes the unrolling of the loop). Unless we clarify with EACH STUDENT that we mean just the stroke and stop when we say "cast", they may not understand. I've had several intermediate level students that were confused by the literature or other casting instructors as they didn't fully grasp the meaning of "the cast" as we use it. Fully understanding the concepts of aerial vs. OTW mends requires grasp of what we mean when we say "the cast".

Therefore, to be sure my students understand my intention, I give them exactly your simple definition of a mend, Gordy, with one word change.

MEND : REPOSITIONING THE LINE AFTER COMPLETION OF THE STOP.

While we eggheads can argue about whether it should technically be "stop" or "cast", my students have consistently understood it better when I say "stop".

Troy.... I'm going to go with you on this one for the very reasons you espouse. Gordy

I really like your simple but accurate definition of stream types below. You're absolutely correct, a glacial stream is very different from a freestone stream and you'll know it the very first time you fish one. Many people think a glacial stream is simply a stream that flows through an ancient glacial valley, but behaves as a freestoner. When I show people pictures of fish from the Kenai or Kasilof or Susitna drainages, they are perplexed. "You caught those fish in THAT water???" Typically the water will have a grayish-turquoise hue, from nearly clear to nearly opaque. Due to limited visibility, we often use larger or brighter flies than in clearer water. We can also get much closer to the fish, and high sticking is often done with just a leader. And a whole bunch of split shots...

Freestone fish may be every bit as selective as spring creek, limestone, or TW fish. It depends on a variety of factors such as amount/variety/nutrient value of the available food, type of water and cover available, water clarity, angling pressure the fish see, etc. Not all freestone trout are pure opportunists, just waiting to pounce on any fuzzy brown thing that drifts by.

The jumping rise is awesome to behold. It takes my breath every time. It’s an amazing cross between arching gracefulness and aggressive intensity and pinpoint focus. Lucky that the fish typically impale themselves on the hook, since the angler is often paralyzed by the sudden eruption and mesmerized by the beauty.

Not following the need to change from open salt flats to open lakes. I commonly use very much the same equipment for both. In fact, I’ll often use a leader that’s a bit shorter (still long by most peoples’ standards) when lake fishing than when fishing a clear flat. The wind can be a lot stiffer on a flat than on a lake, since it’s often tougher to find a leeward area to block some of the wind. “Long leader, long/stiff rod, wide open casting style” describes most of my flats fishing -- just as it does my lake fishing for most species. For small creeks, if we assume they’re filled with trout, we’ll probably change the entire outfit to something 4 line weights less. Potentially a shorter rod, as well. Much more subtle presentation type leader assuming the smaller size and wary nature of the fish.

Good review of the hooksets. Trout, sometimes depends if I’m upstream, sidestream, or downstream fishing. Sometimes I’ll hit them on an angle if it makes sense to “direction of line pull”. Redfish, I do EXACTLY like you. It used to be really frustrating to miss all those topwater nudges when the fly was not in Red’s mouth yet. Bass, I don’t always slam hard straight away. Sometimes, I strip until tight, then slam with the butt of the rod. Not at the same time. If they have not closed down on the fly, you’ll often pull the fly straight out of the mouth and alarm the fish. Stripping first, I’ve had the fly pop out of the fish’s mouth only to have the bass SLAM it again immediately when he thought his froggy lunch was escaping.

Wish I had more experience with “large” bones or permit, but only little fellers. They didn’t present too much problem in landing, other than lots more reeling than I’m used to.

Thanks again for another great sharing of information, Gordy. I'm sure there's something that everyone can glean from it.