no fishing, tie more...

palolo worm hatch and Tarpon fishing

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/10/1029_041029_palolo_worms.html



Another VIDEO LINK

San Juan Worms for Tarpon? Yes, and it is "match the hatch" practice too! see the above videos about this epic worm hatch in Florida Key. I did a quick search of this marine worm hatch - the palolo worm. Find a interesting article LINK above. "The worms" actually is just part of the worm! It is part of the worm body contain sperm and eggs, float free and swing to the surface. What a amazing reproduction behavior!

Farm Salmon Virus

------------------from Alexandra Morton LINK
Norwegian companies are operating in Chile and a Norwegian strain of the Infectious Salmon Anemia virus (ISAv) has spread through the industry causing its collapse in 2008/9. Every country with Norwegian salmon feedlots now has ISA, but this was the first time no one could argue wild fish had infected the farm salmon, as the current Norwegian strain could not have reached Chile in wild fish. As the enormous Chilean farm salmon supply dwindled, the global price of farm salmon increased actually benefiting some of the Norwegian companies operating in Chile. Although the industry is now moving into pristine Chilean waters the virus is following them, suggesting it could now be in a wild species of fish and Chile is permanently contaminated. Chilean production remains a fraction of what it was a few years ago.

One hundred eighty tonnes of ISA infected Chilean salmon were processed in November 2010. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration appears to consider ISA infected salmon safe for human consumption, but a group of Chilean Senators have become concerned and filed a petition to prohibit sale of ISA infected salmon for human consumption. The virus is reportedly in the same family as the flu. --------------
Continue reading HERE

go big! or go home..

Just read a great article in Deniki outdoors blog - LINK It is so refreshing to see people using big flies. I mean BIG FLIES. It reminded me all the great time I have in Alabama fish for stripers. Go big, or go home! Casting big flies requires specially attentions, debarbed hooks, eyes protections, and even helmet. Ha... The training will open up another window for predatory fish hunting. To me, that is exciting! One year, me and my fishing buddy Dennis decided to do a murky water bass fishing... he ended up hooked a 4 feet long gar in a murky water. It was so cool to see those big ancient fish! In south, you really don't need too many f;y patterns, one zonker, or put two tube zonkers together... down and dirty is what we play! : )
For short skagit line we have in the market today, it is so easy to cast those big and heavy zonker flies. As the article mentioned, keep tension, keep the momentum going and the casting will go smooth... I haven't fish the big murky water for steelhead yet, but I know there is time for big and heavy flies : )

"If you don't know where the fish lie but can cast well enough to cover all the water with finesse, you are likely to solve the mystery and catch fish. If you know where they lie but can neither reach them or present the fly naturally, you are not even in the game"

Joan Wulff

snow. good food, and fly tying..

what could I say?! LIFE IS GOOD! : )

Ponoi, Umba, Solar Chrome

cabin fever? checked!

smell like intruder

This past Sunday, I have decided to visit the local Orvis store in downtown Boston. After did a little bit research, I found out it actually fairly close to the T station on the state street. Only a few block walk, I was in the center of famous Quincy Market! What a beautiful store! It's always a great experience to visit Orvis stores, because people there are always friendly, and Orvis always stocking high quality tying materials. For weekend tier like me, quality is more important than quantity : ) Walking in a beautiful "candy" shop, what could you expect from a kid? I ended up buying more materials than what I need... @@. Most importantly, I just happened run into a bunch of nice Ostrich herls, very high quality, reasonable price, and amazingly beautiful dye! some nice saddles, marabous... ahh... Ijust can't resist all those nice feathers... My original goal is to stock up some tubes. Well, they happened to run out of it... but Steve later told me, no need for buying the HMH tubes, just pick up some coffee straws from the Red Barn coffee store about one block away. What? "Yes, I always tie my tube flies from the coffee straws". Well... I guess if it is free... it doesn't hurt to give it a try! : )

fine tuning the swing - Scott Howell - The man

I want to share some technique here that I got from Mr. Scott Howell. A really great technique to fine tune the sinktip system. Allow the fly still swing in a low speed deep pool and make sure they are "alive" and eager to entice a take from steelhead. I really appreciate Scott's generousity to answer my question. He is the man! Thank you Scott! (Noted: this attached video is NOT from skagitmater2, this is a film from Leland fly TV). check it out more video here!

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Hey Scott,

The DVD is awesome! I received the DVD last night and have watched it twice! Great casting and techniques!

I have similar question about using the long leader and weighted fly couple with sinktip. I was wondering what is the function of using sinktip in this situation? Is because to make the flyline has less hinge and form a better angle for control?
I used to fish similar deep slot situation for striper bass (big river) a lot. I use dry or intermediate tip and long leader set up.

Thanks!

Mark
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Hey Mark,
Thanx for the kind words regarding the DVD.

Good question - let me start by saying that there are certainly scenarios were a heavily weighted fly fished on a floating line with a long leader is sufficient. This could be the case in moderate depth water that is extremely slow. There were a couple tailouts to the tanks I spoke of above that I fished exactly this system. But, when responding to the original question, I envisioned water that had enough speed and depth to require a light tip as well. It doesn't take much current to raise even a large lead eyed fly high into the water column if fished on a floating line. The heavy fly/long leader/sink tip system lets us benefit from the best of both worlds. The fly is able to sink unhindered from the tip an thus immediately fall to the desired depth before the fly begins to swing. Using the tip of your rod to control tension on the line, it is possible to keep the fly deep for a portion of the swing. But at some point, tension will come on the fly and that is when it will start to raise in the water column. This is where the tip comes into play. Different weight tips then control how much lift you ultimately get. In most scenarios that I envisioned KJ was asking about, a light tip of some sort does the trick. Like I said in my last post, to truly dial the system in for each pool, it will take a little fine tuning.

To simplify my method of fine tuning, let me set-up a fairly slow sample pool that is 10 ft deep that gradually slopes up to 3 ft deep where I am standing. This is a scenario that would present the kind of "hang-up" issues KJ wrote of. I would probably start my surveying by fishing a 4ft integrated tip with a large lead eyed fly on a long 10-12 ft leader. First, I want to find a fly weight/leader length combo that allows me to get close to the bottom (without hanging) before my fly starts to swing. Once I find find that magic combination, I then start fine tuning my tip. I obviously want a tip that lets my bug swing thru the entirety of its swing without touching bottom. Being as anal as I am, I usually keep increasing the length/weight of my tip until I find bottom at some point thru my swing. Then, once I know I have found the tip that is just a bit too heavy, it is easy to lighten up a notch and feel confident I'm down at max depth. Two points: 1) this is a simplified scenario for example purposes 2) as an angler gets accustomed to approaching these deep slow water tanks, you get a real sense for the perfect combo without a lot of trial and error (it is not as cumbersome as my example may lead one to believe).

Let me end by saying, I also use this same concept with heavy tips to get down fast and stay down in deep fast slots.

In short , the heavy fly/long leader/tip system lets you get deep immediately and stay at your desired depth thru the swing.

More later if needed to clear things up - I'm dead tired!

Good business, good will, sustained

Not sure when got me thinking about business… I never see myself will be a businessman, and probably will never be. However, as a consumer, I do dealing with businessmen pretty much everyday, I guess same as everybody. About 15 years ago, one of my best friend told me: "doing online business is burning your money to chase the smoke, but if you did not make a online business, you will perish like smoke". It turns out he is right. Look around what business is not doing online thing now a day? Even a food truck outside of my department as telling me to follow him on the tweeter and facebook! How long I have been doing online ordering? Well almost 99% of my flyfishing material came from online ordering… PS. I don’t have any local shop near me to support, and I don’t really fish local waters, sadly! I do, however, do my best to support the local shop when I went to my destination. (yeah, exchange the favors of local fishing report! ha).
So, no one can escape from the big brother “internet”. I probably spent too much time blogging and mumbling on the internet than what I should. What I have noticed is as the business expanding through internet, reputations also become important cause it speeding up and spread out like thunder and fire. You can ignore it, but people are not going to stop talking or tweetering. (good or bad reputations). Thus, I have found good reputations become more powerful in the online business. It’s just a matter of few hours, and suddenly everybody is talking about it! (online forums, blogs, facebook...) It’s really scary that I have so many things on the finger tips. Too much information and too quick!
Now, what is the good thing about the online business? What they going to impact on our environments ? Good online businessmen is doing good thing to our society and the power is far from we can imagine (allow me to put it up front here). For instance, the red shed fly shop (online web). I am sure if you are a member of speypages, you will noticed the red shed fly shop. MJC (a.k.a Poppy) is the shop owner. He always has something to say on the forum, something blunt, sharp, funny and wise. When he talk, everybody is listening. I think he probably is one of the important attractions in the speypages. Ha… we are fortune to have such wiseman around. The concept he is spreading is nothing short than the current conservation movement. Sustain and good will. He is the one 24/7 online, helping answer all sort of questions. Newbies should feel lucky to have him around! What is the return? Online business! I always order my fishing materials from him. Not only his material is the best, he also always give you some invaluable suggestions. I am sure many other people are doing the same like me, it’s mutualism. The future online business is base on this kind of mutual relationship. The other company I like a lot is Patagonia. If you have chance to visit their website, some youtubes interview, you will realize they have been doing good thing for several decades. And people appreciate that, support them, they return their good will (1% for the planet) to the society. It’s the same principle = mutualism. I still remember there is one interview to Yvon Chouinard (CEO, Patagonia). He is talking about several important turning points in his business. When he needed to make big decisions, every time, he made the decision toward environmental friendly. And it turns out they were the best decisions, even it cost more to begin with. (i.e Organic cotton, Green factory design). It seems this move is conflicting the cost/benefit rule in business world. But who knows that the good will has such power to return the effort in protecting environment "mojos" into cash!? And pour in good reputations! I might be a little bit too lazy in shopping clothes, but now, if I need anything for my clothing, I always look up Patagonia first. Costly? Hell no. I only shop twice a year! I still wearing a T-shirt that my brother gave me 20 years ago! I have 6 pairs of Jeans that I am still wearing EVERYDAY during the past 8 years. Yvon said “you don’t need that many, just a good one” I think for a business man leader talk like this!? My hat’s off to him! : )


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXCrYRuQl-M&feature=fvsr

skagit master 2 - DVD

What an awesome DVD! featuring Scott Howell - steelheading outside the box!
A ton of beautiful fishing clips, awesome fish and great instructions. Most importantly, this crazy dude- Scott has reminded me what is the beauty of our sport, what is the essence of the art and creativity. It is not about fishing itself, it is about the "way" I enjoy the fishing. The "in and out" of the "box". My view of fly fishing can be summarize as scientific principles that express in a art form. the cast, the water and the fish all involving physics, ecology, animal behavior and the feeling blended into a art form to make me feel good about myself. I have mentioned this before in my another love - photography. It is a art form that "evaporate" from the rule of chemistry. same here in fly fishing.

Scott mentioned he is a very "intense person" when come down to fishing for steelhead. I can tell that from the passion he has expressed in the video. It is so great to see people so dedicated their life to fishing for steelhead. It just make you feel when concentrate on one thing, everything is possible. (So dose Ed Ward in his Skagit Master 1 DVD).

What I really learned from this great movie? I think besides all the great techniques in real fishing situations. The most important/exciting part is to keep my mind opened. Don't get yourself locked inside of the box. Keep learning, exploring and enjoy the life, passion, energetic and make everything possible! Great work! Scott and Jeff.

yuki - you are so cute!

well.... here is uncle Mark give you some recent report of our beloved - fly girl- yuki!
She is become cute-er and cute-er... OMG... I have gotten the same syndrome that my sister in law already severely infected - "My cuteeeest daughter (niece) in the whole world syndrome". What is the best part?! She is growing in the same trajectory of his father did(Leroy), I think she is aiming higher position though.... HA, what a exciting moment to talk about our new member - Yuki! It's a pure joy! Just want to share those photos with you guys, the first one is my baby brother - Leroy, and the second one is my little beautiful niece -Yuki. BTW, the pond on the background of Leroy is full of my youth memory! Me and my brother are the terminators of those big ponds in our backyard! : ) what a sweet memory!

green butt

great demonstration, listen carefully what Mike said! great tyer!
I don't fish the traditional fly patterns that much, but, I am sure I love to tie them, and they are all beautiful! : )


second one is my go-to staple fly... "simplicity" is the song it sing!


third one... becoming my go-to fly! great work! Jay

Ayu wallet got a little brother

Just got this little wallet from a good friend (on the right). I am sooo excited! Thank you my friend! : )
I have use my Ayu wallet for almost a year now and I really love it! I think this little Ayu will bring fortune to me just like it has been suggest by the ancient people that "Fish will save you money/bring in luck". Both works are so beautiful that I will have all my fortune living with them! Happy New Year! : )

magic line? or magic cast?

In last few years, I have seen more and more people get into the spey casting. I started spey casting about 5 years ago because of the big striper river down south, soon, I joined the speypages, a great internet forum for people that fish spey. A lot of great veterans that are willing to share their experience, history and better yet, amazing fishing stories. I enjoy and learn from this site a lot. Sometime I do put my thoughts there just to return the favors that I have been receiving from the past few years.

Spey cast is not a easy cast to learn, if people tell you spey cast is so easy, so simple. They are lying! Unlike overhead casting, A simple looking spey cast, does, involved a lot of learning, from basic mechanics to fine tuning power control. You will know it is not that "simple" by look at the confusions and frustrations on the internet forum.

A frequently asked question is "what is the best line to use?" many people are search for the magic line that can make a perfect cast, can help you to launch a laser sharp loop and catch a big one. Unfortunately, this question will only lead to another level of different questions! What rod you are using? what style you prefer to cast? what fly you are going to throw?.... ha... for beginner... it is a overwhelming situation. People are search for the magic line? Situation like this...."what weight of line for this particular rod?" It is 500 grain for me! "It is 650 grain for me when I use sinktip, but sometime I use 450 grain with polyleader for dryfly action!" What?? what? people get lost, discussion get into debating and even worse... turn the internet into a war zone...very sad!

are there magic line? or magic cast? Be honest with you, I don't know?! But if there is a real magic one. I can be careless. why? (you know what I going to say...) because even a magic line, it needs good hands to cast it! and good hands need a good brain to coordinate them! Old philosopher said "" instead of give you a fish, rather teach you how to fish!" this is so true in spey casting, especially, for spey rods, it always have a huge window of line weights which means it will cast a wide varietis of lines. Truth been told, I have a rod that has a very sensitive feel on hands. Sweden brand - Guideline LeCie 13'7 8/9 lines. Normally, the manufacturer recommend about 550 grain line. But I cast it well from a low spectrum 270 grain all the way up to 540 grain. You might ask why use so different lines? "Different horses for different course!" a wiseman once told me! Different line for different situation, and they are all magic lines for their casting and fishing scenario to me. What I try to say here is there is no need to find "a" magic line, I sincerely encourage new comers to build their casting from focus on casting mechanics and practicing. Train a brain is much better to train hands, train hands is much better than searching for a magic line. Dr. Way Yin, a famous spey casting instructor and neuro-physician once said: " if you figure out "why" it works, then, you will figure out "how" it works ". this is so true! I like to teach a new comer "how to fish" instead of just "give them a fish". This is the beauty of this sport! Doesn't it?! You figure out the principle and you customer design a recipe for your fishing scenario. Believe me, it is another level of satisfaction! so stop searching for a magic line or a magic cast. But start to learn the basic and principle. There are several spey casting DVD I highly recommended beginner to start with. First, The art of spey casting - A film by Jeffrey Pill. What a wonderful DVD! The best value spey casting DVD ever produced! 20 world famous casters demonstrate their casting basic and secrets, I mean, WORLD FAMOUS! Goran Andersson, Al Buhr, Simon Gawesworth, Andy Murray, Way Yin Nabuo etc..... Second - The Skagit master 1 DVD - featuring Ed Ward. A skagit casting style guru teaches the foundation and principles of power skagit casting. It is a very distinct way/style/a new principle to cast heavy fly. I highly recommended if you fish heavy fly very frequently.

define value

Yvon talk about "value" in his life, his view of life, business and our environment. Always refreshing, always positive! If you are a outdoors lover, you need to listen what he said. If you are struggling in your business, listen what suggestions he has to offer. "Patagoniaism" has become a profound commercial strategy, if not just a simple green move. Great stories! Yvon!

Monday blue? or ... purple?

Atlantic Salmon Documentary TV

pingu gone fishing

how lovely!

winter steelheading (part 2)

Drive alone, always gives me a sense of freedom. Me, my truck and all the fishing gear on board. I enjoy the mixture sound of music, the roaring engine and the inter-talk of a free mind. I reviewed myself what I have done, what I have missed in the past year. Some sweet memories and some sad memories. It's all good! It was such a wonderful trip that just like chewing a plain but fresh bread, the more I think/ chew about myself the more flavors it come out. Me, driving alone the high way 90. no plan, no schedule, just one single mind- Fishing. The winter steelhead. Even the cheapest motel I crashed in suddenly turned into a Golden palace! It's a refuge, a comfort inn, a sweet home during the exploration - what I mean by exploration? It is a form that I review myself, the weakness, the strength, the risk and opportunities in my inner self. It is also a test of how comfortable it will be alone in the deep winter, steelheading.

The river is so clean and cold, close to freezing point that I almost can feel "the soup" is flowing in high density. The crunch sound from the snow field is so funny, I actually love it a lot! What a amazing trip, I am fishing in my own pace, slowly and steady, to feel what steelhead fishing is all about. The Zen, and this medication just fit my current mind very well... (photos first, story will come later...)

need more steel fix?

NFR: celebration party

we were celebrating for a new PhD - a good friend, a great group. a truly amazing lab!
NFR: a.k.a non-fishing related.

Happy New Year - Tie more flies!

A good friend from Japan sent me a Fly Fisher magazine vol. Jan 2011. It is a wonderful issue! a lot of good tips and great photos about fly tying... so cool! I am also very surprised they included many American fishermen and their flies which I don't even know... evidently, I need to tie more and fish harder! : )