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This. Bait shops near marinas are like bakeries. Open early, close early (or as soon as they sell out). As Travers knows, IF YOU WANT THE BIG SHIMPS, YOU GOTTA GET THERE EARLY!!! I will say that some of the convenience stores that sell tackle on the way to Westport are open pretty early, and...

That was the guy, alright.

I did a grocery run on the Reel Electric for salmon and rockfish last May. I'm struggling to remember my skipper's name, but he was very good and put us right on the fish. It was a great boat (bet it will be good for fly fishing; not much to get fly line caught on), and everyone at Mutineer...

I thought the helmets were pretty cool, but I prefer the old standard. The jerseys were downright fugly.

That was a good one. Both teams are gonna need every second of the next 10 days to heal up. What a brutal division this is....

I don't "buy" the economic argument. I personally own a couple full fly outfits (crappy rod, crappy reel, and crappy line) that cost me less than $75 each. I used to use them for trolling with my kids on lakes, but they worked for everything else, too, in a pinch. You can definitely do it on the...

Filling a catch card is something I've never done (mostly because I'm very picky about what fish I harvest), but the fact it costs $12 to get a new one seems like a potential reason for some people not to get new catch card. Little things like removing that absurd fee could only improve catch...

Yup. I need to get one of those clips. I've been using a D-loop plyer, and it works, but it orients my hands parallel to each other, where the clip makes them perpendicular, which provides a significant ergonomic advantage when securing the loop around the fur exactly where you want it.

That guy is great. I like his patterns and techniques a lot.

Loops are awesome. Durable and super buggy. Like you, I almost always prefer a dubbing loop to chenille. Much less bulk, and if you use ice dub, you get the bonus of not needing to incorporate flash materials (unless you want to, of course). Dubbing loops also enable the use of rabbit...

Lots of good stuff in that last post. I second that dubbing small flies is tough to master. Always use less dubbing than you think you need. If it doesn't dub onto the thread easily and without bulking up, you have too much. Don't "rush the head" is also huge. That's the mistake most newbies...

Check out his X-Caddis pattern. That thing works better for me than any caddis I've ever tied or bought. One thing to watch out for with starter kits is quality. Sometimes, they're pretty good, but they can be inconsistent. Nothing makes tying flies you're proud of harder than starting with...

I think it's because they make their spawning runs in the fall ("harvest season"). Think I read that somewhere....

Yup. Not looking good for my annual hatchery steelhead roundup on the OP if the forecast holds. Next weekend should be a window for at least smaller rivers/creeks, but it looks like another torrent in the days leading up to my planned trip. It seems like we usually get a period of cold, dry...

Not really. Like I said, all techniques have their drawbacks. It does help to use the heaviest tippet you think you can get away with. Unweighted flies also tangle less. I try to keep my droppers between 4 and 6 inches or so. Not sure if that's "correct" or not....

Depends on the situation. These days, I use droppers seated at the tippet knot in most of my double nymph setups, and I tie off the hook eye of the top fly in most other situations. I feel like I've had more issues with losing bottom flies to fish and unknowns tying off the hook bend, but all...

Thanks, all! Lots of great suggestions. Looks like I need to ask the daughter some questions about what length/width she wants. She'll need an inflatable, because her car is far from ideal for roof transport. I think the vast majority of her use will be on lakes, so there shouldn't be much...

Hi, All! Christmas is coming, and my oldest daughter asked me for a standup paddleboard. I see that they vary tremendously in price (like most things), and I'm trying to figure out what I should get her. This would be her first paddleboard, and she's probably not going to be using it very...

That's good stuff. Nice write-up!

I think this is generally dead on, but my recent experience has been that no matter how experienced you are or how many fish are present, pressured fish bite like shit (by what I used to consider SRC standards). I used to think SRCs were the dumbest (and therefore among the most awesome!) fish...