I am thrilled and honoured to be included in the premier issue of Fly Fusion's new Mobi (mobile) Mag.
These two additional issues of Fly Fusion Magazine have been designed in a television format (16 x 9 aspect ratio) and feature only the best in fly fishing film, story and photography. We want to thank Nick Pujic, Brian Grossenbacher, Tim Pask, Adrienne Comeau, Peter Christensen, Bryan Gregson, Jim McLennan, Wil Flack and Louis Cahill for contributing to this exciting new project. The first issue contains 67 "slides" (aka 134 pages) of pure escapism, including close to two and a half hours of some of the best fly fishing film and we can't wait to hear what you think!
~Fly Fusion Team~
If you haven't subscribed yet, you need to get on it! Sign up here for free:
Good sunglasses with the right lens colour make a huge difference for spotting fish, something I usually suck at. I've had good glasses before - Maui's and Smith's and Kaenon's. I recently got a pair of Maui Jims with the HT (High Transmission) lens, and I spotted more fish than I ever have before, anywhere.
Invest in quick dry underwear. It's fantastic to have all the lightweight, quick dry pants and shirts you can imagine, but wet underwear stay wet. For a long time.
Spend as much time on your feet as you can before you go. Otherwise, after two days standing on the bow of a flats boat trying to keep your balance your feet and ankles will hurt and swell up like they've been smashed with a sledgehammer.
Short shots at fish are almost harder than long shots. Okay, not almost, they are harder.
Apparently I say "out" and "about" funny. Never knew that.
Driving with Bjorn is likely to result in some... we'll call them "slight detours".
One of the greatest things you will ever experience is hand feeding the tarpon at a place called Robbie's in Islamorada. If you ever want to feel like a little kid again, you need to go and experience this.
Fishing for Oceanside tarpon will RUIN you. You will get home and not be able to think of anything else, except the fish you saw and had shots at and had follow your fly, and getting back there to do it again.
After fishing drinks and stories as the sun sets on Islamorada.
When I was a kid there was one summer when my sister and I, along with the two girls who lived beside us, were obsessed with the soundtrack to the movie Cocktail. In particular, the song Kokomo by the Beach Boys. We knew all the lyrics and would sing them over and over, day after day. I just got home from a trip to Florida, and the first day after Key Largo was mentioned that song popped into my head and would not leave, that one section of chorus a little mantra playing in the back of my mind. That summer we spent singing those words resonates with me as I always envisioned these fantastical places of blue water, white sand and hot sun, where life was pure happiness at all times. I never really imagined that these places where real and that I would ever have the opportunity to visit them. The idea of traveling to paradise always makes me feel like a little girl, and that childhood fantasy of sunbathing on a tropical island with a cute guy by my side has been slightly altered to fishing flats and aquamarine coloured waters in the hot sun, and ending the days having cold drinks with good friends.
We never actually spent time in Key Largo on this trip, but we did drive through it on the way to and from Islamorada. Paradise? Yes. While the hot sun part of the dream was a little hit and miss, the fishing and cold drinks with friends part came true. Now that I'm home it still feels like a dream, albeit one I was able to take pictures of and that was shared with other people.
There is never enough time on trips like these. I almost get resentful of the time I spend sleeping, as short as those few hours are. I come home and I obsess over the shots I missed, the casts I messed up, the times I did everything right and didn't get a look, the follows that never became eats, the eats that never materialized into hooked fish, and those fish I did get to hand, so strong and beautiful. I lament over the weather and wonder if I fished hard enough. I try to remember the masses of information that were offered to me and hope I can remember it all. I close my eyes and see tarpon swimming at me. I take a deep breath and imagine I'm smelling salty air and tropical flowers. I miss the people I fished, shared laughs and great conversations with, in this case Matt and Bjorn, Davin and Eric. I desperately wish that a year wasn't 12 months long so that our next trip could be starting tomorrow.
There are so many stories to tell from this trip, so many experiences to share, and so many people to thank. Kokomo was about a fictional place off the Florida Keys, but for me now, Kokomo is a state of mind enriched by memories that I hope to have the opportunity to make more of.
I love fly fishing. Whatever, whenever, wherever... I just love it. But there is one species that absolutely consumes me, the first I ever went fly fishing for, that has frustrated and rewarded me more than any other fish I've ever targeted: steelhead. I've fished for steelhead in a t-shirt and hot sunshine, in layers of fleece in -15C temps. I've been drenched to the bone for hours on end in the pouring rain, slept in the back of a truck for days at a time, and have driven hours to fish for a day. I've gone through slumps and hot streaks, missed takes and landed fish I shouldn't have. I've spent more time pursuing steelhead than any other species by far, with arguably much less success, and am happy for it.
There are no steelhead in Calgary. Epic trout fishing, yes. Chrome, sea-run fish, no. This is the first winter I haven't spent focused on winter runs, and it's been driving me nuts. I didn't realize just how much until I took that first step back into the cool winter flows a couple weeks ago. Brian Niska contacted me last fall to ask me to do some fly tying at the Whistler Flyfishing/Pieroway Fly Rods Cast & Blast event in Squamish, and I arrived a day early with enough time to fish for a few hours. It was warm and raining, and the river was in beautiful shape. That first glimpse of the river made my heart clench, and honestly, I nearly teared up. "This is where you belong" said a little voice in my head, and my entire soul agreed. I didn't touch a fish that night, but I didn't care. It felt like my whole body was soaking in my surroundings, reveling in being back on the west coast.
Cast & Blast is a three day event at Sunwolf in Brackendale, just outside of Squamish. Free to the public, the days were full of presentations from the likes of Stuart Foxall, Aaron Goodis, Bob Hooten, Scott Baker-McGarva, Brian Morrison, Mikey Orlowski, Scoot Mason, Geoff Pieroway, Francois Blanchet, Tim Arsenault, Pat Beahan, Harrison Perrin, Tom McHugh, JM Reid, myself, and, of course, Brian Niska. The Iron Fly fly tying competition was held on Friday evening, with Kirk Gilchrist stealing my title away with a rather unconventional fly. Saturday night was the Homegrown Fly Fishing Film Festival, with five incredible films premiered for an extremely enthusiastic crowd. It was an exceptional event, with a few beverages consumed, fantastic friends, and non stop entertainment. If you didn't make it this year, I highly recommend that you don't miss next year's event.
I stuck around for the week, as I was hosting a screening of IF4 in Abbotsford the following Friday, and planned on attending the M&Y Spey Day the next day. I fished a few days, losing a fish on an incredible river I'd never had any success on before, mostly because I was entirely unprepared to hook it and kinda stood there like an idiot while it cartwheeled on the end of my line. This river is not easy to fish, nor is it very generous to those who don't know it intimately, and I was beyond thrilled to have the opportunity to spend some time getting to know it better. Hooking a fish was a huge bonus. Towards the end of the week I was able to get out on the Vedder with Ben, who I love fishing with, and watched him hook hook and land an absolutely incredible chromer.
Friday we had a great screening in Abbotsford of IF4, and Saturday saw a couple hundred people gather at Gill Road on the Fraser River for the annual Michael & Young Spey Day. This was the first year I wasn't actually working the event, and was able to run around and catch up with old friends and customers, and spend way more time casting than previous years. Brian and Frankie had the Pieroway competition rod on hand, and a bunch of us took turns casting the big set up - a lot of work, but crazy fun. After a brief rain storm mid day, the sun peeked through the clouds and rewarded us with the most incredible golden light in the evening. I'd left my memory card in my computer, and had to watch enviously as Paula, Josh and Aaron captured some amazing casting photos. As the sun went down the remaining group gathered around a bonfire and enjoyed some drinks and conversation.
Originally I'd planned to head home the following day, but some very good friends twisted my very twistable arm, and I stuck around for the next week. Of the following seven days, I spent 5 very full days on the water, and two half days. It's been a few years at least since I fished that hard for winter fish, and the steelhead gods were not being kind. Cast after cast, some of the hardest wading I've every done, rain, sunshine and wind. By Friday I still hadn't hooked a fish, and I know well enough at this point that it's not that I was doing anything wrong, so it's tough to get angry or frustrated. Sometimes it just doesn't happen. I was pushing myself as much as ever, casting as far, wading as aggressively, covering water, fishing the right flies... I was so incredibly happy to be fishing for steel again, but just at a complete loss as to why I couldn't hook up. Luckily, I had one more day to fish, and Shane and I headed out super early to beat the weekend crowd. What followed was one of my personal best days of winter run fishing with a buddy, as far as hook ups go. Within the first hour I threw a long cast, and before my fly had gone 5 feet my line tightened up and blinding chrome was erupting on the surface. After a good run, some more violent surface thrashing the hook popped and I stood there, body shaking and heart racing. It doesn't matter how many steelhead I hook, or how often, each and every one leaves me in awe. By the afternoon I had hooked and lost one more, and Shane had lost three, two of them right at the beach. Chrome, wild, aggressive... my sleep deprivation, aching muscles and leaky waders mean nothing when compared with that feeling of standing in a coastal river, spey casting with the chance of hooking one of these irreplaceable creatures.
Sunday I headed back to Calgary, but I left my heart on the coast, amongst the evergreens and rocky banks of the rivers that are home.
Thank you to all the amazing friends who I was able to spend time with - April, Greg, Nick, Paula, Josh, Lisa, Brian, Mikey, Pat, Scoot, Stu, Scott, Sarah, Dave, Kirk, Bobbi, Frankie, Craig, Yos, Harrison, Ryan, Dave, Smalley, Paul, Landon, Jordan, Rick, Ross, Ben, Mat, Stevie, Andrea, Roger, Matt, Catherine, Vanessa, Justin, Tim, Aaron, Lawrence, Geoff, Mike, Chris and Shane - I love you all and miss you more than I can say.
The Skagit River is one of those iconic steelhead rivers, where the elusive silver ghost teases and tantalizes anglers. It's tree lined banks and wide expanse, with snow capped peaks towering in the background, evoke heartfelt memories for many, and just walking its banks leaves you with a lingering sense that you are walking in the footsteps of the fathers of steelheading. Names like Dec Hogan, Jerry French, Ed Ward and Harry Lemire are all synonomous with the Skagit, many a fly was designed on with its waters in mind, and the concept for the Skagit head was originated here.
In recent years the steelhead returns on the Skagit have suffered, to the point that the river now closes in February, completely. No catch and release season, no fly fishing only season...the river is left empty throughout the spring. An initiative, coined "Occupy Skagit", is being undertaken to try to restore the catch and release season once the run exceeds 6000 fish, to bring general awareness to the plight of this river, and to encourage WDFW to create a plan to encourage wild steelhead recovery. A river always needs concerned, passionate anglers to protect it.
From the Occupy Skagit Facebook Page:
What is Occupy Skagit?
• A gathering on the Skagit River, April 6th in support of restoring the C&R season. The activity will involve 'fishing' without hooks in as many visible places as possible on the Skagit and Sauk; from the bridge at Concrete upstream to Bacon Creek on the Skagit, and upstream on the Sauk to the bridge at Darrington. • This is a 'Wade In' Our purpose is not to disrupt traffic, be violent, disrespectful, trespass, harass, or engage in illegal activity of any kind...you know, just like when you go fishing. • This is a parallel action to mesh with attendance at the WDFW Comissioners Meeting the following week in Olympia.
Why is Occupy Skagit?
• At the time of the ESA listing of Puget Sound wild steelhead, it was generally acknowledged by NMFS that the most robust large basin population in the region was in the Skagit; in fact on its own it probably would not have been listed. After reviewing the evidence, it is our belief that a well managed, catch-and-release (C&R) season on the Skagit would not be inconsistent with the recovery of its wild winter steelhead. • This will require a petition from WDFW to NMFS for a permit that establishes basin specific allowable impacts (as is currently being done with Puget Sound Chinook). Who is Occupy Skagit? • You are. If two people do it, no one will notice. If two hundred people do it, we hope to garner some attention. Sometimes you have to dump a little tea in the harbor to get noticed.
I've been fortunate enough to fish the Skagit a handful of times, but have yet to land a steelhead. Those trips were some of my best fishing trips ever, with great friends. This historic river needs all the support it can get. Even if you can't make the April 6th "wade in", please take a moment to join the Occupy Skagit Facebook page here.
Have I ever mentioned that one of the biggest reasons why I love working in the fly fishing industry is that I get to meet the most incredible people? People who are motivated, talented and passionate, and incredibly inspirational. In the past several months I've had the pleasure of creating new relationships with a number of anglers who are pursuing their dreams in this crazy world, and I'd love to introduce a couple of them to you.
Wild Reverence
Shane Anderson, of North Fork Studios, is dedicating an enormous amount of time and effort to filming a documentary on the plight of wild steelhead throughout their native range. Please check out the website here - Wild Reverence, and "like" the Wild Reverence Facebook page for updates on the filming.
Silo4 - A Deliberate Life, and the Fishing Poet
Matt Smythe is part of the team at Silo4 and the voice behind the blog Fishing Poet. I'm sure at this point there aren't many anglers who haven't at least heard of "A Deliberate Life", the first film project from Silo4 and one of feature selections in the 2013 season of IF4. Heartfelt story telling, creativity and a genuine sense of community are evident throughout Matt's work.
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On the same note of great people doing great things, here are a couple new ventures from some of the most dedicated women in the sport, women that I am proud to call friends and who are truly a never ending source of inspiration for me.
Whitney Gould Guided Fly Fishing and Flycasting Instruction
Whitney is an incredible angler, superb guide, and one of the best spey casters I know. She is one of the hardest workers in the industry, and is now offering guiding services and instruction through her own website, Whitney Gould Guided Fly Fishing and Flycasting Instruction.
Frigate Adventure Travel
Kate Taylor is bad ass, plain and simple. She is the voice of Rogue Angels, guides in Alaska during the summer and Oregon during the winter, and hosts trips in the Baja for a couple of months in the the spring time. She and partner Justin Crump have started up Frigate Adventure Travel, and recently returned from a hosted trip to Christmas Island.
Write 2 Fly-Fish
A little newer on the scene but equally as passionate, Lisa Schweitzer is combining her love of fly fishing with her love of writing in her new project, Write 2 Fly-Fish. Lisa is a brilliant writer, an incredible angler, and brings a fresh and unique perspective to the sport.
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I hope you'll take a little time to get to know these fantastic people, and support them in their endeavors. And I hope they provide you with some inspiration, to pursue what you love, to push yourself to learn and grow, and to pass some of that inspiration on to others.
I don't often set out on a fishing day with a particular photo in mind that I would like to take. Usually I find things to be much more organic than that - the right light, angle and action tend to just jump out at me, and then I go for the shot. One thing that makes all the difference is keeping my camera in my waders so that when those moments occur I can be ready to take the shot in seconds. Risky? Yes. If I fall in, my camera is most certain to get soaked, but if I keep it locked away in a waterproof bag or pelican case, I can guarentee you I would barely use it. So I take the risk, and it has paid off, time and again. Here are a few shots of my favourite "moments" in the past little while.
Timbre fishing at Kananaskis.
Paula netting a distressed duck.
Pete throwing a stick for Chili on the ice.
Over or under? Paula takes the low road.
Josh spey casting at last light.
Streamer fishing.
Power casting into the wind as a sudden snow storm hits us.
After two weeks of being stuck inside working, it was time to step out for a breath of fresh air. A chinook had made its way to Calgary, and temps were hovering above zero.
Four of us piled in the car late Saturday morning and took the drive up to Kananaskis lakes.
I'd never been up there before, and it was more than I was expecting. One of those places unable to be fully captured in a photo, or justifiably described in words. Wide open skies, luscious evergreens, towering snow capped peaks, biting wind, layers of ice...
We fished for a couple hours, and with one hit between the four of us we really didn't care. Never has a fishing trip reminded me that its not just about the fish: it's about getting out and feeling alive.
So happy to see this girl. Love her to bits. Aidan Darby-Miller photo
Fly Fusion and IF4 booths.
The Western Canadian Fly Fishing Expo is over, and I can't quite believe it. It was a fantastic show, with attendance at an all time high. The chaos started Thursday morning at Spruce Meadows with the show set up. I showed up early to help with the overall set up, and then helped Josh with the Out Fly Fishing outfitters and Echo booths. Before heading over to IF4, Josh, Stevie, Nick and I stopped at the river to test cast a few rods. We had a spectacular turnout at IF4, and we premiered the most recent addition to the IF4 line up - Sheebang - which was very well received. Afterwords we headed out for a few drinks, and even though Puj couldn't come out to Calgary, he was still there in some capacity.
Stevie and Josh testing spey rods.
We missed you Puj!!
Ryan and Chris in the M&Y booth.
Patagonia....love it.
Stevie working hard at the Echo booth.
Out Fly Fishing outfitters booth. Thanks to everyone who stopped by!
Friday, Saturday and Sunday were a blur of new faces and old friends, seminars, presentations, casting, dinners and late nights. Our booths were all busy as good be, and show attendees were happy to stop and say hi, ask questions and take information. We were thrilled that the Expo silent auction raised over $5000 for Food for the Hungry Canada, and their clean water project in Guatemala. I want to personally thank all of the exhibitors I called to harass for donations for their incredible generosity.
The morning commute to Spruce Meadows.
Ape presenting at the casting pond.
Tying flies. Diane Michelin photo
Late night dinner and hockey with great friends.
I was able to crank out a few flies at the OFF booth, and traded a couple for one of Diane Michelin's amazing prints. It was a privilege to meet such an amazing woman, finally. Her artwork is absolutely outstanding - check it out here: Diane Michelin; Fly Fishing Fine Art. Naoto took a set of flies home to photograph, a new pattern I'm calling Candy Stripe. Take a look at them here: Naoto Aoki Photography. While you're at it, flip through his albums, I've been a fan of his photography for years.
The first tie of the Candy Stripe.
My beautiful print by Diane Michelin.
The flies for Diane.
Sunday came way too fast, and we ended the weekend by dancing the night away in downtown Calgary. It was so great to see some good friends again, including my amazing April, Nick Laferriere (another amazing artist, designer for Fishbum), Stevie Morrow (Dean/Bulkley River guide, comedian), Ryan Heitz and Roger Baker (M&Y), James Cunningham (North Haven guide and great friend), Rick Whorwood (guide, instructor, fellow GLoomis pro staffer), Chris Seipio (GLoomis/Airflo rep), all the Pieroway boys, and so many more. One of the best things about this industry is all the amazing people. Thanks for another amazing show and more amazing memories.
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