ANDREW HIGNETT JOINS KEYSTONE LAW

Although (as I have explained before) this blog is not intended to be a corporate or personal marketing tool, I am very pleased to be able to tell you that another leading planning and environment lawyer, Andrew Hignett, has joined KEYSTONE LAW. This further strengthens our well-established planning law team, and now gives us coverage of major infrastructure projects, particularly in the ports sector, in addition to the other specialisations we already cover. It brings the number of planning lawyers in the firm to five, all of whom have substantial experience in planning law at a senior level.

Andrew’s key skills are founded in planning and environmental law, and he principally advises ports and other organisations in the sector on marine-related development, particularly in relation to port infrastructure projects. As well as project work, Andrew advises on regulatory and harbour management issues, including the promotion of Harbour Revision Orders.

He has considerable practical experience on the impact of nature conservation law in both the UK and Europe. Andrew also has experience of the judicial review of development consents, including planning permissions, marine licences, and harbour revision orders.

Andrew is a member of the UK Environmental Law Association and is actively involved in the work of the British Ports Association. He also writes and lectures on issues of concern to the ports industry.

© MARTIN H GOODALL

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Get Started in Fly Fishing Chapter Two Fly Rods

The look on your face when you get a new rod

The fun begins with your first purchase. Youre ready to buy a fly rod. Most will experience one of three possible scenarios.

1) You find yourself in a large outdoor chain store with plenty of things to buy but no help to see you through a good decision.

2) You find yourself in a upscale fly shop where the sales staff proceeds to make you feel inferior and unworthy of the sport.

3) You come across a yard sale or hand me down rod that is always the best ever according to the previous owner. Trust me. Its rare to find any worth $$$ in a yard sale. I know because I look for them.

I didnt intend to start off this article sounding cynical but I bet if many of you would comment with your stories many of them would match one of these three descriptions.

Too Many Choices

Too Many Choices

Lets start with import or USA built.We can discuss this subject from many different angles - heres the facts

USA Built 

Pros - The best fly rods are built in USA. All USA built fly rods are hand crafted. Most if not all USA built rods come with some kind of lifetime warranty. Most have good resale value.
Cons - Expensive! Cost of USA manufacturing, research and development, advanced materials technology that makes these rods the best come at a high price.
Summary - If you become passionate about fly fishing you will own USA built fly rods. What comes with these rods is a sense of pride. Hard to have that feeling for something imported from an overseas factory. I have had the pleasure of visiting many USA rod manufacturer facilities. I like knowing that the hands that built my rods also are as passionate about fishing as I am. Its a feeling you cannot put a price on.

Imported fly rods

Pros - Value per dollar. Good entry level options. Some have lifetime warranty (although you may end up with a different rod than what you started with). Also some very good quality rods for much less than USA built price.
Cons - Hard to tell good from bad. Here today and gone tomorrow.
Summary - There is some really good import rods on the market and they catch fish just like a USA built rods. But the import business tends to flood the market and makes it hard to sift through whats Great, Good, OK or just plain cheap rods. Resale value of imports is weak and often times you cant give them away. I also notice that many come with catchy names to help sell them but not a good description of what the action is, so often you find someone purchased a rod only to find out it is a poor fit for their casting ability or the fishing they are doing.

Premium Picks - 

Sage One

Winston BIIIx

G.Loomis NRX Lite Presentation

All of these rods are beautiful and powerful tools for fishing. Each has great power coupled with very intuitive feeling that will help any angler progress down the path of good casting. Excellent resale value and the industry leading warranty service also add to their value. I should note here that rods like these hold their place in history for years to come.

Mid Line Winners - 

G. Loomis Pro4x

Winston Nexus

Echo 3

Sage ACCEL

These models range in price from about $300 to $595. Winston, G. Loomis and Sage are built in USA. All have lifetime warranty. All of these rods offer excellent performance and value. They could go with you on a lifetime of fishing and you would enjoy them for years to come.

Entry Level Values - Imports

Redington Classic Trout

Echo Solo

Redington Crosswater

Classic Trout and Solo offer lifetime warranty. One year on the Crosswater. I am real fond of the Classic Trout. Its a moderate action easy to cast really good trout rod for the price. The Echo Solo is also a good choice and at $119 with lifetime warranty its hard to beat.

Outfit Options

An outfit is an easy way to get Rod, Reel and Line all in one purchase. 

Sage Approach Outfits

Redington Minnow 
Made for Kids-Loved by Adults

Redington Topo Outfit - Complete ready to fish

Echo Solo Outfit - Great Value

Two Hand (Spey) Rod Choices

No reason one has to start out with a single hand fly rod. If you live in steelhead country just go ahead and jump to a two hand. Ive seen too many beginners get a single hand 8wt only to come back in a month and say I want a two hand rod. I think two hand casting is harder to learn on your own but with a good instructor like Tom Larimer of Jeff Hickman you will soon be on your way to fishing success! Learning single hand casting first is not a prerequisite. The rods I choose are all pretty moderate action and not only do they fit beginners well they are also a great action for skagit style two hand casting.

Winston Boron III TH

G.Loomis Pro4x

Sage ACCEL Two Hand

Redington Dually

Echo Dec Hogan II

Sum it up

A popular quote around the fly shop is "if you dont want to buy a more expensive rod than dont cast a more expensive rod." Even a person just starting out with some basic casting skills can feel the difference from these different levels of rods. That doesnt mean they catch more fish, they just cast better and make you feel like a hero. I know plenty of anglers that catch plenty of fish on $89 Crosswater rods. This works on the premise that if you want to catch fish you will use what you got! Spending more on a rod doesnt guarantee you more fish. What I can almost certainly guarantee is if you embrace to sport of fly fishing you will own premium USA built fly rods. Its inevitable!

The way I weigh the options is in one of three choices - 

Buy Top Shelf- You work hard for your money and when you have time off you deserve to enjoy it. Great pride comes with the best rods and you find yourself taking great pride in your fishing. Long after your gone when your grand kids find your fly rod hidden among your treasures theyll know how much it meant to you by the way you took care of it.

Buy middle of the road knowing that youll get a great rod you can own a lifetime or maybe it will be the first and last rod you buy. I know anglers that only fish their home waters. They usually will fish a dry fly if fish are raising and if not they switch to a nymph rig. One rod can do both methods therefore they only need one rod. They only fish a few days a year and enjoy it as much as anyone. Some of todays mid line rods are a recent yesterdays premium rod.

Buy cheap now knowing that youll upgrade in the future - Its nice to have a cheapy around for yard casting or letting your buddy or kid have a swing...Hard to hand over your several hundred dollar investment and watch a novice thrash it.

Dont fret over making a wrong choice. There are no wrong choices just future choices and Gorge Fly Shop will be here to help you make that choice whether you buy one or a hundred rods. 

Greg Darling 

Gorge Fly Shop Internet Sales Manager | Product Specialist

"Fly Fish the World with Us"

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Scientific Anglers Ultimate Scandi Taper by Andrew Perrault

UST - Ultimate Scandi Taper

Scientific Anglers Ultimate Scandi Taper Fly Line

I love fishing Scandi Lines for steelhead whenever the conditions permit, but I also love the nice slow swing of an intermediate line. I saw these new S/A Scandi Lines last year and just had to try them out. They come in a variety of different combinations for different conditions. I chose a triple density line. Officially, it is the UST Floating/Hover/Intermediate 460 grain head. The back half is a standard floating head, with the front half split into two sections; a “hover” section with an intermediate tip. This combination gives me a nice angle in the water and presents the fly somewhere around a foot deep, maybe two or three feet if I am using a weighted fly. This is often where I want my fly to be, so I gave it a try.

Gorge Fly Shop - 541.386.6977

I got this line back in May and immediately took it down to the ______ River to just throw around and see how she casts.  I only had one little bass streamer with me, and no extra tippet, just a five foot section of 10# maxima that I pulled off a sink tip that was in my truck.  Now May is not the best time of year for steelhead.  The winter fish are upstream spawning and the summer fish are generally not in the rivers in any numbers yet. 

I made a few different casts, testing how the line throws.  I was just standing in one spot, casting, and stripping the line in and casting again.  Trying different size D-Loops, hang-down and line speeds. About fifteen casts into my morning, I was stripping the fly back immediately after it hit the water and bam! Fish on!  It popped off in just a few seconds.  That was great!  Hooking up on a steelhead three casts into my day stripping a bass fly across a run that is not really a known producer in the first place during the worst month of the year for fishing….  Interesting start for this line

I decided to start fishing this little minnow pattern for real this time.  A few casts later and bam! Fish on!  I ended up going three for five in the first pass.  One of those epic moments of my steelhead career came and went in about twenty minutes on a quiet May afternoon and no one was there to witness it. 

I thought this had to be a fluke.  I ran into a pod off aggressive fish and they were just riled up.  So I went back the next day early.  I stepped into this same run and went two for three with the same fly, now very, very chewed up and falling apart.  I would have loved to have stayed, but I had to work and I was out of time.  With a hasty drive back to Hood River and a ear-to-ear grin, I happily worked all day and was standing in that run again for the last hour of light. 

So anyway, this is a line review…  The point is that if you have a line that catches fish, it is a good line.  I haven’t got to the part about how it is not very easy to cast.  This line really just doesn’t fly off the rod like a Rage or a traditional floating Scandi.  Part of that is that it is a sinking line, so it takes much more energy to break the surface tension and pull the line into the air.  The other part is that I was using a weighted fly on a 37’ Scandi line.  Scandi lines don’t generally do well with a weighted fly, especially one that has lead eyes, and this one is no exception.  

A Scandi Head system with Single, Double and True Triple Density models.

However, I expect that if I am throwing a sinking line, a weighted fly is an integral part of the system in a lot of scenarios.  Not that I couldn’t cast it, but it is not very easy to cast, especially with a weighted fly.  I can still hit 60’, which is as far as anyone should be expected to cast in order to effectively catch fish. 

I will repeat what I said earlier:  If you have a line that catches fish, it is a good line.  The next time I used this head was on June 1 (opening day) on the Klickitat.  I fished it with a little Gotcha bonefish fly.  It was on my rod when I hooked the only fish of the day…  And that was on the second pass though the run after fishing it with a Skagit line and a bunny leech too.  The next time I used it was on the Deschutes a few weeks ago.  I landed the only fish of the trip on a Larimer’s Brazilian.  I started to see a trend with this new line.

I ended up finding that it casts better on a Burkheimer 7134-4 better than the Sage Method 7126-4 or the Echo Glass 7129-4, and definitely much better with a traditional, unweighted fly.  It still takes some precision and my cast tends to fall apart easily if I am not on my “A-game” with this line.  It takes quite a bit of line speed to keep it from sinking as you come around on your cast.  But hey, it is still far better than the old Rio Mid-Spey that I learned on. 

Reviewing this, I find that there is a balance between the fishy mojo that it has and the ease of casting.  For pure fishy mojo, this line is a 10.  I mean, I have not ever fished it without getting a hookup.  (dooming myself for months…)  As far as casting ability, I would give it a 6.  I can cast it 60’ just fine, but it definitely does not have the buttery smooth casting of an Airflo Rage or Rio Scandi Short.  It’s a give and take here and I will take hookups over ease of casting any day. 

So in my thirteen years as a two-handed steelhead junkie, I have had hot streaks, cold spells, mismatched gear as well as having tried just about every head, running line, sink tip and new trick that has come out.  This S/A Triple Density Ultimate Scandi Taper has by far accounted for more fish per hour than any other line that I have ever tried, and in the end that makes it likely the best line I have fished, even if casting it is not a breeze.  

Andrew Perrault
Gorge Fly Shop | Product Specialist
541.386.6977

Scientific Anglers Ultimate Scandi Taper

"Fly Fish the World with Us"

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