when stars aligned

lucky me! yellowstone cuttroat trout found in yellowstone river... life is so wonderful!
: )

fish the yellowstone

needless to say, the yellowstone, what a great place to explore... it's soooo wonderful to see so many wildlife that actually fish with us @@... catch a trout in a moonlight meadow, with trumpter swan flyby, buffalo, elk and osprey... I am fishing in a heaven. We fish from dawn to dusk... sorry... there is no time for report... just few photos first... : )

it's time for another redbull

vacation!

Adventure West - Episode 04 from Thaddeus on Vimeo.

been there, done that! and I don't mind to do it again, and again...
: )

Montana Yellowstone Expeditions-Documentary from Phil Eastman on Vimeo.

Taming the Wind

DVD Review: "Taming the Wind" from Davin Ebanks on Vimeo.

This video is shown some wonderful tricks to tame the wind. The concept of "constant loading" is also mentioned in Ed Ward's skagitmaster DVD. It's such a great concept to control the wind. I have modified my double haul with this constant load concept. I really love it. It's smooth, fluid and fun, just like Yo-yo!

Zipcast fly line dressing

Time after time, the fly line will gradually accumulate dirt and become less "slicky",and doesn't float well. When it get old, it is time to bust out some fly line dressing, or cleaner to rejuvenate the line. It is very important to proper clean the line. Not only they will float better, shoot further, but also it will make you have better control of the line. Especially during short double haul casting, the dirty line will thwart re-feed the line in the back-casting and created line control problems. There are many kind of fly line dressing on the market, most of them are Silicone based. For those kind of line dressing, you squirt some on cloth and run though the line, wait few hours and buff them off. The Rio X agent and Umque line dressing are belong to this kind. I am NOT impressed with those Silicone dressing at all, because it only increase a bit performance, and sometime old dressing could become "sticky" and ruin the whole line.
What I have found lately, is a review article from globalflyfisher LINK The review is so tempting that I have to try it myself... the result? Oh man, I love this thing... it is super easy and super "slicky". It is Teflon based dressing, just run it though your line once or twice, you are good to go. The Zipcast is alcohol like solution, so you will feel everything go away except the lubrication remain on the line. I absolutely love this thing! I order them directly from the dealer, email: www.flyreeldots.com
flyreeldots@yahoo.com
610.220.9058
Jerry is such a gentleman to deal with. Just shoot him a email and you will become another firm believer, World's finest fly line treatment!
As a side note, you might want to clean your rod guides with the zipcast as well. As the old saying goes: "It take two to tangle"! This will reduce the fraction between line and rod guides and dramatically increase the smoothness of fly casting! Great stuff!

does color matters?

does flyline color matters? this is a long debating question in fly presentation. Over years, I found myself have leaning toward the camp of "Yah, it's matters"... as we all knows presentation is everything in trout fishing, stealth approach, good position, accurate casting, good landing, mending and good drift... all accounts! and everything is essential and important to a successful trout fishing. If you only fish for small creek pocket waters, you probably want to stop reading here... because you don't need anything below... For spooky trout fishing, I feel I need to do everything right in order to lure them to eat my fly. Does flyline color matters? I say yes!
As we know, trout has very good eye sight, not only see the full spectrum of color RGB as we can sees, but also studies show that rainbow trout can see the UV light (and most likely so in other trout species) that human can't see. On top of good color discrimination, trout also has a very accurate, sensitive vision, otherwise they will have a hard time to pick up a size #32 midge pattern. When we talk about vision and perception, there is one important factor that has to be taking into account, that is background color. Imagine a sculpin or darter swimming above a pebble bottom or on a white sand bottom. The background color will make them looks very different. Underwater trout looks up for food, the sky color become a predominant background color to them. So the contrast against sky color become important in trout fishing. White line will become camouflage under cloud cover. clear line will cast less shadow into the water under a sunny condition. The good old saying - "fly size" first, follows "shape" and "color"? have ever spooked a trout by casting a shadow into the pool? So the idea of monic flyline is by using a clear flyline, it will reduces the shadow and contrast when casting to a spooky trout. I have read some technical fishing reports in french nymphing for spooky trout. People are using long leader that up to 16-20 feet. Well, this might not sound difficult to cast to a experienced angler, however, the problem and challenge of this method is not casting, but is the lost of controlling the long leader. In my opinion, good control of the line and fly are the most crucial things in trout fishing. The solution? I am thinking the monic clear floating line maybe will provide a better control and stealth for this type of fishing... The drawback? they are more invisible to angler too, so a good feel in casting is needed, need some night casting training : ) The result? not sure yet... I will have to try it later in the trip and see how far it will go...

why everybody should visit yellowstone?

Adventure West - Episode 3 from Thaddeus on Vimeo.

because it is American's Best Idea - National Park! truely awesome family film! remind me how much fun I have when traveling with families and friends! Of course, a bit fishing would be even better : )

why fiberglass trout rod?

It's about time to fish for trout (for me). I am all excited about the coming trip to fish the western rivers, then a thought fly over my head: why not let's talk about trout rod? I have a gradually growing collection of trout rods... most of them are fiberglass rods, some of them are graphite rods, all has it's own character and role to fish them... but the one I enjoy the most is made from fiberglass material... why? not sure how to answer it, but let's read the famous interview from Fiberglass Manifesto first... then we can go from there... Larry Kenney is the one of most import rod designer in the early Scott Rod Company. He and Harry Wilson (Scott rod founder) created the highly sought after Scott fiberglass rods in the 70' (San Francisco era). If you are lucky, you still can find one on ebay, just be sure you put $800 or more into the bid if you really want it...
Quote from Larry Kenney Interview in Fiberglass Manifesto LINK "To get good accuracy, good leader turnover, and decent tippet protection from a light line rod, particularly a short one, you need a supple but controllable tip section, supported by mid and butt sections that let the tip do its work at short range and accept increasingly more of the load as casting range or fish resistance increases. You can build that tip section from graphite, but getting the suppleness you need demands either a very small diameter or a reduced wall thickness. There are problems with both choices. If you choose a thin wall, you risk creating a fragile blank. If you reduce diameter you need very small diameter mandrels around which to roll the graphite, and the resulting skinny graphite tip sections frequently don’t fare well in the rough and tumble of real-life fishing.

There are some pretty decent light line graphite fly rods available at 8 feet and longer, but in shorter lengths I’ve generally not been impressed. The path too many graphite makers have taken to make shorter #3 and #4 line fly rods has been to put the bend necessary to move the line into the butt section. The results, to my way of thinking, are pokey rods with stiff, slow moving tips that make for poor near-range accuracy – one of the very qualities you want a short rod for in the first place. Fiberglass’s greater flexibility and more reasonable diameters lead more directly to light, supple, effective and durable tip designs..." continue reading LINK

CF Burkheimer 1015

How lucky am I that be able to test cast the CF Burkheimer from Brian Styskal. This is a real big gun, 10 weight 15 feet. two different tips for different casting situations, specially designed for competition (and fishing). Brian is one of the finest distance spey caster in the world... He was placed in the 4th in Spey O-Rama 2010. I feel a lot of spirits and energy by just holding this rod... more report to come! Check out Kerry's website CF Burkheimer.

vacation 1

Kitchen is the place to have some fun : )





I have several vacation schedules coming up... finally! and this one is on the NC state visiting friends with friends in the blue ridge mountain area... it was a good 7 hours drive to the mountains... do I miss mountains!YoooHoooo, good food, good gathering and good fishing... I will just let the photos tell the story... who doesn't like vacation!? : ) there is more photos to come... (photos by Adrian/Mark)

Fly Fishing Iceland's Midfjardará River - Fly Nation TV Preview from Nick Pujic on Vimeo.