The latest Tales from a Trout Wrangler

Volume 1 - Issue 5

Beaver Creek Invitational

Few things in the guiding world give me as much satisfaction as doing some volunteer guiding for worthy causes. On a recent Saturday, I had the privilege to guide for the Massanutten chapter of Trout Unlimited during the Beaver Creek Invitational. The BCI, as it’s called, gives wounded veterans an opportunity to send a day fly-fishing on Beaver Creek, a spring creek here in the Valley. The Marine veteran I guided was a fishing machine, bringing 15 Rainbows to the net during the day, with the largest being a fat 17”er. It was a delightful day for all involved.

Tippet rings

This is one I’m still trying to figure out, but I’m exploring using tippet rings on my rigs. I’ll play around with them more this season and see where I land. Here are a couple of helpful tippet ring videos to watch if you are curious about using tippet rings.

From Rio: Rio Tippet Rings. In this video Rio’s Simon Gawesworth talks using tippet rings for a dry dropper set up. That’s what got my attention. I’ve used them for double nymph rigs and liked how they fished. I used one recently on a dry-dropper rig with no problems.

From Orvis: Put a Ring On It. Tim Flagler of Tightlines Productions has an entertaining video about tippet rings. He offers an excellent suggestion about tying tippet rigs on at your tying table rather than on stream. He also suggests adding a little floatant to the ring to keep it in the surface film.

The best tip they both offered, and I highly endorse, is don’t take the ring off the keeper before you tie it on your leader. Watch the videos to see how.

Two-minute etiquette tip

I suspect you’ve noticed there are more of us on the water. Now is a good time to reflect on a time-honored tradition of fly-fishing. That tradition is courtesy.

You’d have to be living on a deserted island to not see how tribal and nasty public discourse has become. Fortunately, that hasn’t become the norm in the fly-fishing world. Let’s keep it that way. Orvis’ Tom Rosenbauer has a great video reminder of what courtesy looks like on a trout stream.

Exit Take: stop, look and listen

I leave you with this. Whenever I change flies, I try to make it a practice to take a moment or two to stop and look around and see the sights and listen to the sounds.

As Traver said, "I love the environs where trout are found." I would hate to think I missed seeing their beauty. The photo at the top of newsletter is prime example.

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That’s all I have for now. As always, comments, questions and suggestions are welcomed and appreciated.