Your Bonefish Fly Box
As we move through the fall and our fly boxes stuffed with Parachute Adams and Pheasant Tail Nymphs are being opened less frequently, my thoughts turn to the saltwater game and the excellent bonefishing available throughout the Caribbean as the warm waters on the flats start to cool down after the long hot summer. I love bonefishing in the mid to late fall and often land my biggest fish of the year during this time frame.
Topwater Smallmouth Bass Part 2
Where I fish for smallmouths in the Great Lakes, I’m looking for the kind of structure that will draw and hold fish during the warm summer months. Early summer I’m looking for transitions zones where bass are feeding and congregating post spawn, on their way to their summer feeding grounds. Mid to late summer I’m looking for any kind of structural anomalies, like ledges, points, and drop offs, with easy access to deeper water. Smallmouth Bass are the ultimate ambush predators so finding structure is going to be the key to successfully finding and targeting smallies with a fly rod.
Topwater Smallmouth Bass Part1
If there was ever a species that appeared to be intentionally designed to be fished with a light weight fly rod, it is the Smallmouth Bass. Once hooked, it’s aerial acrobatics display is often spectacular and pound for pound, the Smallmouth Bass dwarfs the strength of its cousin, the Largemouth Bass.
IRELAND – JUNE, 2024
Ireland is always one of my favorite weeks of the year and it offers very good Brown Trout fishing in a lovely pastural, countryside setting. This is a dedicated Brown Trout trip, where we are based in County Tipperary, out of the town of Clonmel, for the week.
What to Bring on a Float Trip Day
It doesn’t matter where you’re fishing, be it Alaska, Argentina or Montana, a float trip day adds a great deal to the overall fly-fishing experience. You get to cover and fish so much water on a float day and because you are usually being piloted by an excellent guide who knows the water intimately, you have the opportunity to pick his or her brain throughout the day, which often leads to learning new things and becoming a better angler.
What to know when considering a fly fishing trip to Slovenia
I field questions several times a year from guests who have just heard about the trout fishing in Slovenia. The first question is usually, “where is Slovenia”? So little is known about the country that most anglers who have not already been there, have no idea where it is. They know its somewhere in Europe but that’s about the extent of it. Slovenia shares borders with Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the east and Croatia to the south. Not quite land locked, Slovenia has a small strip of land on the Adriatic Sea. What makes the country so special is that its still 65%
Cayo Romano Cuba has been fishing beautifully
Just thinking back on my last trip to Romano and how well it fished. I tend to fish the late spring early/ summer time frame at Romano for a couple of reasons. Firstly, late April through June generally offers the most consistent weather, with lots of sun and with winds that are usually pretty manageable. Secondly, these months also offer the best opportunities found during the year for shots at the big migratory tarpon that swim these north coast waters during their yearly migration.
NEW ZEALAND SOUTH ISLAND HELI TRIP – JAN 2024
Without question my favorite trip of the year and usually filled with repeat guests who have done this trip multiple times. This week is dedicated to sight fishing for big Brown Trout in one of the most pristine environments on earth.
SALINAS ZAPATA, CUBA – April 2024
The Cienega de Zapata National Park, where Salinas is located, is an enormous labyrinth of flats, bays and estuaries, that could not be fully fished in 10 trips. Bonefish, permit and tarpon are all available from this location, along with good sized ‘cudas, snappers, jacks.
Field Report – Day 3 – Haast Trip – Mystic River
As we flew 300 feet above the tree line, a thick canopy of Beech Trees sprawled out beneath us for as far as the eye could see. The “wap wap wap” of the helicopter blades slicing through the air temporality silencing the chorus of the millions of Cicadas who inhabit this forest, where the males of the species vibrate their tymbals, a noise-producing organ on the side of their abdomen, in the hope of attracting females to mate.