Today we are having the first really serious Pacific storm of the year here in the Portland area. Slashing rain and wind gusts over 40 mph are on tap, and it got me thinking about casting in the wind—specifically into head-winds. I have a lot to say about the subject, but to keep things reasonable, I decided to write a post with the primary content limited to 500 words (and an illustration). So, at the risk of painting with an overly broad brush (and in the world of the casting geek, that’s always a risk), here’s “Cast Trajectory & Head Winds (in 500 Words).” Hope that a few readers find it useful.

Trajectory—the back-to-front “tilt” of the cast—is a useful component for casting into the wind. By aiming a cast so that it finishes unrolling just above the water’s surface, you gain two advantages: First, the front taper of the fly line and the leader will likely be exposed to as little wind-speed as possible. Over open water, this advantage may be fairly slight (but I’m still willing to take a shot at “slight” over “none”). It can be a more apparent advantage if you are casting toward a “wind-shadow” created by a nearby object such as a high bank. Second, because the fly will be as low to the water as possible after the loop unrolls, its final position will be altered by the wind as little as possible. Actually driving the fly directly onto the water will prevent the wind from moving it in the air, but may not give you the quality of delivery that you are after (such as when you are looking for a reduced-drag drift over touchy fish).

This concept of using trajectory in a head wind may seem limited to “pin-point” deliveries, and not to general long-range casting, such as when “searching” over a large area of water. But, when you get down to it, no matter how tight your loops are and no matter how well you can haul, you are eventually going to reach a limit as to what you can accomplish in terms of distance against the wind. If you can tune your trajectory to better match that limit, then you can maximize your casting potential even when simply trying to cover as much water as possible.

And don’t think that head-wind trajectory only applies to fully aerial casts. I typically tune trajectory actively when making Roll and Switch/Spey-style casts. Rather than simply firing a delivery up-and-out to be battered by the wind, I will often direct my forward cast to unroll where I want it to unroll. That may mean a downward trajectory—even along the water’s surface in some cases—that seems at odds with the classic image of a monster Switch/Spey cast being launched “somewhere out there.”

Changing the trajectory of your cast may require more of a “lifting-up-and-pulling-down” motion (for overhead-style casts), or a rising, higher-angled backcast with a dropping, lower-angled forward cast for side-arm or across-the-head positions. Keep in mind that casting side-arm or across-the head with a trajectory parallel to the water means that your cast will unroll over the surface rather than onto the surface. You may want that, depending on conditions and desired fly delivery, but then again, you really may not. Few things are as irritating during presentation as having your aim being directed one way while your fly heads the other.

I suggest that you take the time to practice casting in a head wind, altering trajectory and watching the resulting effects. Do that and you’re likely to enjoy greater success no matter where you cast your fly.

So, I was just sitting here working on the latest book project and Kel pops her head in and asks, “Where’s your barracuda?” To which I replied, “Barra…?” Yeah, out of sight, out of brush, or some other BS like that. Anyway, 30 speed-brush minutes later, here you go. This ‘cuda is based on one that my friend, and fly-fishing filmmaker, Dr. Grant Wiswell, photographed a few years back. Hope you like my version of it, Grant!

I should also say that I love ‘cuda. I don’t see them as an “alternate” fish when nothing else is happening. I like to target them specifically. Maybe it’s the speed or maybe it’s the teeth, I don’t know exactly, but I’ll happily cast to ‘cuda! And for those of you out there who appreciate old-school American muscle, I’d take a 426 Hemi Cuda in either Sassy Grass Green or In-Violet, thanks (notice those colors in the painting?).

Notes: Penciled the outline quickly and got down to business with the brush. Barracuda have so much hidden color sprinkled throughout, and combined with their tropical environs, I felt that I couldn’t just go blue and white and call it a painting. So, I sloshed on the color and contrast. The paper I chose was a little too small, I think, and I had to leave out some of the more focused colors in order to avoid an overly pointillist feel. I also went a little Nosferatu on the front teeth, thinking of Max Schreck’s legendary vampire portrayal from 1922 as I drew.

As an extra note, this fish saw a more on-paper color blending than I normally do. Just felt like the only way to get some of the colors was to mix them and layer them in stages as I went. Worked where I really wanted it to work, so I’m pleased with that.

Went the full 30 minutes, too.

Tech Info: Pencil outline with watercolor on Moleskine paper.

Available for purchase? Yes. Image is on approx 5″ x 8″ paper. Contact me directly if you are interested.

Check out Jeff’s site for his ‘cuda. Mean-lookin’ and blood-spattered, just like I though Jeff might paint it!

Due to popular demand (well, one person), I am offering my “Icethroat Trout” painting as a computer desktop/wallpaper image for FF&W readers. Just download the appropriate size for your monitor (right-click or ctrl-click on the link, depending on your system), and you’ll have the Icethroat you need. As you can see, I’m offering nine sizes for download. These should cover a rather large number of modern monitors, from the basic 1024×768 up to the beyond-HD stuff. Enjoy!

And as a reminder, there are two other FF&W desktop/wallpapers also available: “First Fish” and “Steelhead Study #1“.

Pick your screen size:

1024×768 – 1280×800 – 1280×960 – 1440×900 – 1600×1200

1680×1050 – 1920×1080 – 1920×1200 – 2560×1440

Yep, on its way all across the world. Check your email right about…now.

Update: Looks like there were 8 hard bounces (that’s fancy-talk for “dead email addresses”). If you didn’t get your mailing, make sure your address is up-to-date in your profile (a link to your profile should be at the bottom of any previous E-List mailings or in your original sign-up confirmation email).

I have a live show that I do called “Approach & Presentation Strategies for Trout.” In addition to the rather pedagogical title, the discussion delves into how trout perceive their environment (and ours) and how we perceive the trout’s environment. It then goes onto talk (at some length) about, well, approach and presentation, taking into consideration those perceptions. If you’ve sat through it at some point over the years, you know the drill. I don’t think that it’s a boring show (at least not with the way that I hop around on stage), but it’s not exactly like an hour of the Fly Fishing Film Tour. In any case, early on in the show, I spend a few minutes talking about something that I consider a key approach and presentation mind-set: Be the heron.

“Be the heron” means pretty much exactly what it says: act like that bird of prey in your approach to trout fishing. As I like to ask at the beginning of the show segment:

“When was the last time you caught a brown trout, at your feet, with your mouth?”

I’ll have to admit that despite copious amounts of training and fishing all over the world for most of my life, I have yet to manage that one. I have yet to meet anyone else who has managed it, either. But, I’ve watched herons do it all over troutdom, and that’s the point. If we all emulated herons a bit more in our trout-water (or any-water) approaches, our presentations would likely be more successful. Here’s the deal in four simple steps (you could even make it three by combining the ideas in steps two and three):

1) Position
2) Patience
3) Observation
4) One move when the time is right

 I can talk for some time (trust me) about these four steps, but to save me the typing and you the long read, I’ll summarize them quickly: 1) Even herons have to get into the water somehow. They just tend to do it in a way that minimizes that entry (as best as reasonable). Herons also tend to minimize fussing once they are in. They get into position smooooothly and quietly and then move onto… 2) Waiting. Herons have patience. They don’t tend to rush their “presentations” unless they really must do so. They give the fish some time to acclimate to their presence. They spend enough time hanging out in one general area so that they can… 3) Observe what’s actually going on. What are the fish doing? Are there fish present that weren’t apparent at first? Are the fish up near the surface, or are they mostly feeding under? Once a heron is in place, and has spent the time to get a good idea of what’s really going, they… 4) Make one good move when the time is right. If the move is calculated properly, it’s trout for dinner. Just like magic. And it’s magic that we can repeat if we choose to just get a hold of ourselves and channel our inner heron.

Now, having said that, there are always exceptions, right? Of course there are, that’s just the way things work. Sometimes as a real-world heron you have to shortcut things. You may need to move into position now. You may need to best guess what’s happening because the fish is cruising away fast, and you have about two seconds (if you’re lucky) to be all patient and observant. You may also have to make multiple casts over a fish, but that doesn’t mean that you toss the heron out the window. Make each cast count. In other words, don’t be all heron-like on cast one, and then just slop casts two, three, four, etc., out there because the fish didn’t take right away. If a fish doesn’t like your fly after several good passes, maybe it’s a smart idea to go back to step three and have a careful look again….

With that in mind, below is a little slide show of my wife, Kelley, going through heron steps one through four. In the sequence, she’s stalking and ultimately catching a brown trout from a lake in northern New Mexico. Notice that she has no waders on, and is casting no more than about 15 feet. Notice, too, how close the fish gets to her in a couple of the shots. I don’t think that Kel or I breathed much during those moments. It’s is all up-close-and-personal stuff—heron stuff!

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Step 1) Having spotted a nice fish that is working regularly along the bank (no, not the little riser off to the right), Kel is moving up into position.

Step 1) Kel is moving quickly, but smoothly, to get into a spot where she has some cover, and can better wait on the fish.

Step 2) Kel in position and being patient. The fish had moved down the bank, but it soon turned back. Kel is waiting for the fish to reach easy casting range.

Step 2) Whoop! The fish turns in toward Kel. Not what was expected, and Kel, like a heron, freezes.

Steps 2 & 3) Kel holds steady despite the urge to cast. The fish has turned back out, and as Kel observes, is indeed taking adult insects.

Step 3 & Step 4) Kel has observed that the fish has eaten off the top again (she already has the matching fly), and that the fish has reached the limit of its cruising lane. The fish has turned back toward the left now and Kel has made a cast.

Step 4 complete) The fish has taken Kel's fly and the lovely heron has struck!

Now it's up to the heron to deal with the trout in the best way possible. This heron is all catch-and-release. She is keeping the trout on a short leash, and playing the fish proactively.

Just a cool framing to toss into the sequence. Notice that Kel has complete control of the line, no slop.

And it's about over. The fish has been quickly brought to hand.

The heron tails the brown and steadies it in the water for a couple of quick pics and a release.

A heron's eye view....

Lovely brown, back in and away to meet another day.

For fly-fishing veterans on this day: a red, white and blue ‘bow. One of my recent black and white photos of a Tennessee rainbow, tinted in Photoshop using red, white and blue “paint” (with some gold for the fin). Just a way to acknowledge sacrifice and to say “thanks.”

Drawing Flies 52 dorado (mahi-mahi). Had to go digital on this one, since it was the only way I could get the effects I was after quickly enough (and without splattering my office with paint).

Notes: For this fish, I was working in Adobe Illustrator start-to-finish. To save myself some time, I grabbed a number of elements from previous DF52 digital efforts and re-purposed them here. I also added a few new bits and pieces. Basically this “painting” is built up using a half-dozen layers, each one containing a number of elements that overlay previous elements. Doing a drawing that way allows the initial layers (such as the large background gradient) to be visible, but locked, so that they aren’t activated by the drawing tools used on later layers. It’s pretty much how anything in Photoshop and Illustrator gets put together on a general level, but I figure that most FF&W readers don’t use those programs and might not realize some of the behind-the-scenes aspects.

Of course, with a dorado, the color palette is half the fun of painting the thing. It’s all tropical blues, greens and yellows, with some darker color worked in where appropriate. Makes it a beautiful fish to draw, even if the paint being used is comprised of nothing but code and electrons.

Check out Jeff’s rendition here.

As you may have noticed, FF&W has had a few changes overnight. I tossed up a new header, plus a few other graphical and text alterations. The blog was waaaay overdue for some freshening, so I figured that there was no time like the present. Hope you like what you see, and I may do a bit more here and there as we go.

As some of you know, I was back at Blackberry Farm over this last weekend. I always greatly enjoy my time at Blackberry, even when I’m working in support of an event (as I was this trip). While there was much more going at Blackberry than just some fishing—including flat-out fantastic (and up-close-and-personal) concerts with Chris Thile and the Punch Brothers, Laura Bell Bundy, and Jake Owen—you can guess where I spent most of my free time.

Hesse Creek flows through the property and the cold, clear autumn water held ‘bows, brookies, and some rather spooky (and big) browns. Those fish liked everything from juicy streamers to tiny serendipities. And while some of the more recent additions to the stream (a.k.a the stockers) didn’t care too much if they got lined, the bigger fish bolted fast from a misplaced cast. Made for an interesting few days, and I even managed to hook a couple of truly big fish, nicely past the 20-inch mark. One of them cut my 5X off against a rock as it charged upstream, and the other just pulled off. Too bad; I would have liked to have seen them both in-hand.

Despite the good fishing, though, there is much more to a Blackberry angling experience than just the fish. The place is really about living a lifestyle—a lifestyle that you can mold to suit your personal needs and wants. In my case, it was quiet fishing by myself with the sights, sounds and smells of a southern Appalachian autumn all around me. And that’s exactly what I got. I was able to fish for hours solo, exploring the pools, runs and riffles of Hesse. At the end of the day, it was back to unmatched Southern hospitality and food, including one evening spent with Julian Van Winkle and some of his 20-year bourbon. If you’ve never had the Van Winkle 20-year, you need to make sure that you manage to sip a little at some point in your life!

After an intro like that, I figure that I had better do more than just post a couple of miscellaneous pix and call it good. So, I got myself a new WordPress plug-in and created a little 24-image slideshow for you to peruse. If you’re hoping for 24 shots of fish in various grip-n-grin poses, you’re going to want to look elsewhere. These 24 images include trout, sure, but they are also about the place itself, as I felt that I saw it while I was there. No people shots at all, just fish, flies and water (and trees, too).

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I should note that I’m using the freebie version of this plug-in. The paid version has got a lot more features, and if you all like the slide-show concept here at FF&W, I’ll cough up the few extra $ needed to get the “pro” version and make these slideshows a more regular part of the blog. Just upgraded. Worth it.

Yep, getting ahead of myself. And nope, couldn’t help it. I had a vision of the new Nature of Fly Casting cover pop into my head, and I had to sit down and work it out. Here’s a little teaser showing part of the front cover:

This may not be final final (maybe I’ll get tired of that image), but it’s close, I think.

Have to run, but a quick post of where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing. More to follow when I can get some WiFi time….

Where I've been (mostly in the wetter part of the photo).

What I've been doing (this was the last fish I could hold before my fingers went numb).

DF52 snook. Decided to go for pure form this time. A few minutes in Illustrator and done. Not all DF52 fish need to go the full 30!

Want to change-up your holiday fly-fishing gift-giving this year? Do the fly fishers you know seem to have everything they need/want already? Then it appears that you’re in luck, since the Eclectic Angler specializes in fly-fishing gifts that are definitely not mainstream. I myself have a build-it-yourself reel kit from the EA (itself a very different gift to give), and this year the EA has a new book out titled Reels and Making Them, by John Betts. The limited edition—with handwritten text by John—is not something that you’ll find in every angling library, of that I’m fairly certain. Being somewhat egalitarian in their approach to the book, though, the text is also available as a PDF file (in whole or in parts). The EA also offers a few other titles for those interested in this aspect of the fly-fishing world.

I should note that I have no financial incentive nor attachment to the EA , nor to any of the items mentioned above. I’ve ordered a couple of items from the EA in the past, and have had a few email exchanges. I just find the reel-making stuff to be pretty interesting.

After posting that little pic yesterday with the blurb about brookies and mice, I got an email asking about mouse flies. Here’s a simple pattern—little more than a few tails and some lashed-on hair—that works. No excessive trimming, no ears, no eyes, no whiskers. Nothing wrong with eyes, ears and whiskers mind you, just that when you want to tie up a dozen mice in the evening at a lodge in the middle of nowhere, those things are pretty unimportant. So, without further ado, here’s GB’s Down & Dirty Mouse (the scans are from his old Designing Trout Flies book, illustrations are mine):