These are a couple of shots that I had posted over at FlyTalk, but I thought they’d be of interest here, too. Basically a trout’s eye view of a real hopper, along with a furled variation of the Bow Legged Hopper pattern (original, non-furled recipe below). You can see the edge of the fish’s window in [...]

FF&W [expeditions]™ is now booking spots for a select few anglers who have what it takes to meet the challenge of the puffer. We recommend appropriate angling gear (flip-flops are a good start), and specialty flies such as a pink Bogglehead (shown), or a size 12 Hare’s Ear. After years of research and the redemption [...]

Using info supplied by the creator of the CCS (Common Cents System), Dr. Bill Hanneman, I built this chart for North Fork Composites (where I have been assisting with some rod-blank development). I figured I’d post this for those FF&W readers who are into the CCS for blank/rod measurement. It’s the full chart of ERN/TP/PR values [...]

For those following the Speed of Haul discussion on the Sexyloops Bulletin Board, here’s that post I promised. For those not following the discussion (or not wanting to read through those pages of casting-tech pontification), what follows is a quick taste of double-hauling (short cast) as shown on the 200-frame-per-second motion-capture system used by the [...]

[ Javascript required to view QuickTime movie, please turn it on and refresh this page ] Nail knots can be a pain to tie—especially when you really need one and there is nary a tool in sight (or you don’t know how to use said tool). Well, a “Nail-less” Nail Knot is a slick and [...]

Loop-to-loop junctures allow for a rapid change-out of a leader. If you pre-tie your own leaders or buy your leaders pre-made, you can go from slinging muddlers to dead-drifting mayflies in about two minutes—including the fly change. You can also refresh a worn leader system in a hurry. I have had days when my terminal [...]

GB has a good post up about the 5/7 Blood Knot, a variation that I grew up tying (the “School of GB” was a great, if sometimes demanding, one). Personally, I use this knot for leader butt/taper interconnections, then move to a three-turn Surgeon’s (or Water) knot for tippet section(s) (talking trout/salmon, etc. here, but [...]

As promised: Spey goodies. This is Juergen Friesenhahn’s contribution of German efficiency to the Spey world (especially the shooting-head side of things). I like the way the cast flows so smoothly and quickly, using a variation of skills that many Spey casters already possess (Can you make a Snap-T or Snap-V? If your answer is [...]

Yep, a pure lazy well-timed re-post. True, there is a perma-linked page over in the sidebar, but my web stats say the pages often get missed, so here it is again. This is an almost-verbatim snip from my Nature of Fly Casting book about one potential aid in grass-casting. And yes, you’ll probably see it show up again [...]

I’ve been putting in some time up at Gary Loomis’ new North Fork Composites (NFC) rod-blank project (blog is here). When the company was getting underway, there was a discussion about using Dr. Bill Hanneman’s Common Cents System (CCS) for providing additional (and “objective”) blank data, and NFC decided to run with it. The CCS [...]

As a few FF&W readers may know, I was fortunate enough to get some time on an early version of the Casting Analyzer way back in the dawning days of the device. (If you don’t know what the Casting Analyzer is, see the Castanalysis web site). Those initial analyzed casts provided a few graph’s worth of data [...]

For those who have been putting up with my laziness waiting patiently since, oh, February, for me to get this back up at FF&W, here it is! While there was already a post that showed the videos, I think it’s best to include them here again (and if you want to see a serious curve, check [...]