With the Samurai System, starting with a kayak paddle held in both hands, one can: while standing in a kayak, after sighting a fish, stow the paddle quietly acquire the fly rod in the casting hand, and make a 40 foot or greater fly-cast (whatever length you feel safe to keep in the stripping bucket) … More The “Samurai” System, “Slow is Smooth and Smooth is Fast”
Seven seconds from sight to the cast that caught the fish. Talking about the Samurai system doesn’t seem to always get my message across, so this weekend I put my new GoPro to work to try and capture the system in action. Its hard enough solo fishing with a fly rod in a kayak with … More See the Fish, Catch the Fish
To wade fish the Ross Barnett reservoir you have to have a certain common sense about alligators, or, possibly, a lack of it. When it comes to gators and the Rez, like OMGItsWicks says, “if the water is wet, there’s probably a gator in it”. The reservoir authorities maintain that there has never been a … More Gator Encounter
I guess if you stick with something long enough, eventually you either surpass your mentors—or, more realistically, you simply reach the point where you have to start trusting your own observations. I certainly don’t think I’ve surpassed mine. In fact, I’m still a firm believer in Bill Gammel’s Five Essentials. Those principles remain the foundation … More It’s the Back Cast, Stupid
When BP settled the big lawsuit over the oil spill, the MDEQ set up a proposed project site where people could enter ideas for projects to help recover the marsh. In 2014 I responded with my own project which got a number, 4248. That project suggested to restore Grand Batture Island which existed back in … More Grand Batture Island to be a Reality
In fly casting, I pre-load by slipping a little line at the end of the back-cast. I do this for both accuracy and distance. More precisely, I allow a controlled amount of fly line to slide through my line hand during the back-cast so the rod loads more deeply and smoothly before the final delivery. … More Slipped Pre-load for Accuracy and Distance
Last summer my son and I made a trip to the Mississippi River to try for white bass. Well, really we wanted stripers but we pretty well know that would be a miracle. We haven’t seen any at the rocks in years, but, we had hopes for a striper anyway. So we were on a … More Mississippi River Flathead on Fly
Back in February I made a trip to a friend’s pond that has a large population of triploid grass carp. This lake would be choked with water lilies if it weren’t for the numerous grass carp. They really do their job. I think the carp were spawning because there was a large number of them … More Early Spring Grass Carp
I was at a friend’s lake recently. It is an old lake with the oldest portion of it being over 100 years old and the newest portion was built in the 1950’s. The 100 year old portion has silted in and so has become very shallow over most of it and naturally the fish like … More Big Fish on Little Fly
Pumpkin chunking is the sport of hurling a pumpkin by mechanical means for distance. Devices range from slingshots and catapults to centrifugals, pneumatic cannons, and — most fascinating of all — the trebuchet. Whenever I’ve watched one fire, I’m struck by how much stored energy sits in that wooden frame. A massive counterweight drops, the … More Trebuchets, Pumpkins, and Fly Rods
Check out this video of a guy having a good day using the Pultz Camo Popper from Breambugs.com. on an ultralight spin rig. I can testify that it works well, here’s one I caught using the similar, Crazy Legs Popper on my 9wt flyrod: I tied it on with a non-slip loop to give it … More Pultz Camo Popper used on ultralight
After a week of practicing my back-cast presentation (BCP) using slide-loading (see previous posts), I felt like I have that cast down and was ready to try something new. I realized that when I’m doing the BCP, I am getting the timing right because the cast is across my chest making it easy to watch … More A Thousand Dollars for Ten Feet
"Samurai" Fly Shop 