Women in Fly Fishing

As I cruise the Internet highway, I often come across interesting blogs, written by women who love the outdoors, good beer, and enjoy writing. Fly fishers, backpackers, hunters, and photographers.

This really isn't a new trend. Joan Wulff has been doing this for years and she can probably outcast anyone I know. Why is it that fly fishing dudes always make such a big deal out of women tossing flies? Why do guys want to show a woman how to tie a nail knot when they can probably do it better than you? This doesn't include the myriad of women who just do this because they "married into it".
Some guys might be intimidated by this, but to me, they've become a prototype of what I look for in a woman....I mean lets face it, how awesome would it be to have my significant other be as into the outdoors as me, without having to coax, teach and otherwise "train" about the great outdoors? Trust me, I've gone camping with women who's makeup case is as big as their gear bag and are afraid of the dirt and everything else.

I'll introduce you to a few of my favorite fishing women who I would LOVE to go fishing with.

April Vokey always seems to find a way into This Is Fly every month. She's a good writer and can probably guide northern streams and rivers better than anyone I know....and isn't hard to look at either. If you've been into fly fishing for a while, I'm sure you know of April.

Rebecca Garlock who writes The Outdooress is a fly fishing addict and a GREAT writer. I get a kick out of reading her, although I wish she would try her hand at fly fishing in the brine just once. Something tells me she wouldn't bother with those weenie trout up there in Idaho any longer after she sees a hog of a snook try to pull her under a dock. This is a chick who has caught huge sturgeon, so I have no doubt that she could handle any saltwater fish. She'd also be "safe" to take camping or backpacking....

The Fly Fish Chick is another fly fishing addict/writer. If it's good beer, good fish and wacky tunes that you like, The Fly Fish Chick is your girl. She's also training for the 2010 Texas Water Safari for Team Paddlefish Post before and after photos so we can see how your hard work is paying off.

Lizzy, AKA The Fisher Babe isn't included in the ranks of fly fishers yet, but she's working on it. Sequestered in the fishing mecca otherwise known as Nebraska, Lizzy LOVES fishing in Canada and looks great doing it. She promises to learn how to fly fish this year....

So there you have it! A sampling of women who fly fish. If there are other women out there who fly fish and write about it, let me hear from you!

Teva LifeAgents Contest

Teva (the shoe company) is giving several people $10,000 to go on your dream adventure trip. All you need to do is write or present a video essay about the trip you would take with the money if you won. Details here



$10,000 is quite a bit of jack to take a dream trip.

Mine would be a backpacking/camping/fly fishing trip to Costa Rica....backpacking the eastern mountains, down to the Caribbean, camp on a pristine beach, and be wading a flat, fly fishing for bonefish.

Now I just need to find someone as crazy as me to go with.....

New FWC Regulations Regarding Snook, Bonefish, Tarpon

We saw a lot of dead snook amongst the loads of dead mullet and spadefish at Dunedin Marina on Saturday. I have never seen a fish kill due to cold weather on this scale ever.

This weather event has prompted the FWC to change a few regulations for the harvesting of snook, bonefish and tarpon (would anyone really keep a silver king or a bonefish?)

Here is the change. You can also see the original at the FWC website

I'd also like to stress that catch and release is still ok....

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has issued executive orders to protect Florida's snook, bonefish and tarpon fisheries from further harm caused by the recent prolonged cold weather in the state, which has caused widespread saltwater fish kills. The FWC has received numerous reports from the public and is taking action to address the conservation needs of affected marine fisheries. The orders also will allow people to legally dispose of dead fish in the water and on the shore.

One of the executive orders temporarily extends closed fishing seasons for snook statewide until September. It also establishes temporary statewide closed seasons for bonefish and tarpon until April because of the prolonged natural cold weather event that caused significant, widespread mortality of saltwater fish in Florida. The other order temporarily suspends certain saltwater fishing regulations to allow people to collect and dispose of dead fish killed by the cold weather.

"A proactive, precautionary approach is warranted to preserve our valuable snook, bonefish and tarpon resources, which are among Florida's premier game fish species," said FWC Chairman Rodney Barreto. "Extending the snook closed season and temporarily closing bonefish and tarpon fishing will protect surviving snook that spawn in the spring and will give our research scientists time to evaluate the extent of damage that was done to snook, bonefish and tarpon stocks during the unusual cold-weather period we recently experienced in Florida."

Snook season currently is closed in Florida under regular FWC rules, and there are also regular closed snook seasons that occur in the summer. However, the FWC executive order extends the statewide snook closed seasons continuously through Aug. 31 and provides that no person may harvest or possess snook in state and federal waters off Florida during this period unless the fishery is opened sooner or the closure is extended by subsequent order.

The order also establishes a temporary prohibition on the harvest and possession of bonefish and tarpon from state and federal waters off Florida through March 31, unless these fisheries are opened sooner or the closures are extended by subsequent order. The FWC executive order for the snook, bonefish and tarpon closed seasons takes effect at 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 16.

The other FWC executive order temporarily removes specific harvest regulations for all dead saltwater fish of any species that have died as a result of prolonged exposure to cold weather in Florida waters. It also modifies general methods of taking dead saltwater fish from Florida's shoreline and from the water to allow the collection of saltwater fish by hand, cast net, dip net or seine.

All people taking dead saltwater fish under the provisions of this order may not sell, trade or consume such fish, and the dead fish must immediately be disposed of in compliance with local safety, health and sanitation requirements for such disposal.

In addition, all people taking dead fish under the provisions of this order are not required to possess a saltwater fishing license, and all fish taken under the provisions of this executive order shall be those that have died as a result of prolonged exposure to cold weather.

This FWC executive order takes effect at 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 16 and will expire at 12:01 a.m. on Feb. 1, unless it is repealed sooner or extended by subsequent order.

Fly Tying

Since I haven't covered fly tying for a long time (as pointed out by McFluffchucker and Ken), I'd like to share a few of my favorite fly tying video sites....this is where I learned the art of fly tying....although I'm sure YOU wouldn't call it art.

Captain Pat Damico is one of the best at teaching the art of fly tying to newbies and I urge you to watch him on Fishbuzz TV If you dig around, there are some other awesome videos there, like the Howard Films Location X vids and In Search Of Rising Tide.

Another one of my favorites is Captain Matt Wirt Watching his videos made me look into my flybox and decide that I could tie flies too. He makes it easy for the viewer and I like his versions of The Seaducer and other classic flies there.

Mixed Metaphors and other stupid quotations

Here it is....the entire kettle of fish in a nutshell for ya...Oh...wait...I mean.....Errrrr.

Have you ever noticed that when purportedly intelligent folks either make serious grammatical errors in an e-mail with a "there, their, or they're"? I've noticed these same folks dole out the always popular mixed metaphors as of late. It's my humble opinion that people with degrees shouldn't be doing this.

*Quick refresher: A mixed metaphor is a combination of figures of speech that creates an incongruous or absurd image: "He's out of the frying pan and into hot water." "The sacred cows have come home to roost." "His victory is a springboard to rekindle his campaign." As these examples demonstrate, the colliding tropes are often idiomatic expressions or cliches.

A few shining examples:

"Don't burn your bridges till you come to them"

"Ya'all gotta take that like a grain of sand". Huh?

"We operate close to the bone by the skin of our teeth."

Do you have any examples?

I hope this doesn't add too much fuel to the oven and drop the Thanksgiving turkey and that you appreciate the inane humor life offers you at times.

State of the Blog

My fellow bloggers and blog readers...

I've been writing on this site not quite a year, yet I have a readership that most would envy and have posted over 100 posts (not counting the several dozen that I deleted....and the fact that I was absent from the blogosphere for a few months after taking a near dirt nap).

Here at A Bad Backcast, I strive to provide interesting, informative, sometimes humorous, well written writings pertaining to fly fishing, camping, photography, fly tying and, of course stupid people....often including myself in the laughs....semi - intelligent commentary and, once in a while, a how to article.

I'm wondering 2 things....

What do you like to see and read about on this site?

And who are you? I often see folks visiting the site from the Feedjit wijit and the Google Stats. Most are repeat visitors who visit the blog on a regular basis but never say hello or leave a comment. Of course, there are quite a few who I do recognise who also visit every day.

So let me know who you are....if you like the site, and what you'd like to see more of. I just want to make this blog the best it can be.

Favorite Beers of 2009

Key West Southermost Wheat Ale - Very Nice

Great Lakes Barrel-Aged Blackout Stout - Like a Guinness (yum), but different.

Hacker-Pschorr Hefe Weisse Natürtrub - Very Nice!

Hurricane Reef Raspberry Wheat Ale - Tied with Dunedin - Reminds me of the Keys....

Dunedin Brewery Raspberry Wheat Ale - Tied with Hurricane Reef - Winner 5 years in a row!

Also had some crappy beers that tasted like malt liquor that were stashed in the beer isle masquerading as a reel beer.

Also, if you're ever in the Clearwater area, World Of Beer on Gulf to Bay is an awesome place to find any off the wall suds you might be looking for. I need to visit as I can't seem to locate any Hurricane Reef....

*Please note, I don't drink very often and when I do, it's usually just one or two...

Low water temps

Local water temps near Tampa today are 51 F. With clear skies and bright sun, hopefully the snook will be able to keep themselves warm enough to keep from having a high mortality rate. Snook usually become lethargic in waters under 58 F and can die from the cold in anything under 54 F for an extended period.

Fly Fishing for Spectators?

I often fish in what would be considered urban conditions: seawalls near marinas, local parks, and the always popular with joggers, cyclists, and dog walkers, Coffee Pot Bayou.

One thing that I experience when fishing in this environment is the tendency to draw a crowd.....which can be quite annoying (sorry folks I'm here trying to fish, not perform a circus act). I don't enjoy whizzing 3/0 Owner hooks past peoples faces, or making sure my backcast doesn't snatch off your wife's wig....or YOUR wig.....or the pissed off jogger who runs into your backcast....

Another thing that often accompanies the crowd is the same old questions....

"Are you fly fishing?"

"You ever see that movie A River Runs Through It?"

"What do you catch on a fly in Florida?"

"We used to fly fish for trout in streams back in the day up north"

That's cool. I'm all about telling folks about the sport of saltwater fly fishing....except when I'm out doing it.

Would you approach the scary looking guy wearing a skull hat, Killswitch Engage shirt, earrings, with a scowl who looks like he'd kick your ass in a second, whipping a sharp object around?

Hmmmmmmm......

Happy Birthday Mom!

Mom and her shadow on Thanksgiving

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Thanks for putting up with me for all of these years....Thanks for helping introduce me to fishing and my love for the outdoors....and reminding me of how much I love it.
I can still remember being little and you and dad "fly fishing" at the canal with bees and little plastic frogs and catching bass....and being at the reservoir fishing with dough balls and catching a huge cat fish...and the camping trips to Old Mans Cave....and the time Deb caught a HUGE craw fish.

Most of all....thanks for being my mom!

Various Musings 1/6/2010

I was reading an interesting post at Fishing Jones yesterday about the children's book, "Goodnight Moon", which my mom tells me was my favorite book when I was a toddler. I searched online for the text for the text (you know, "goodnight comb. Goodnight brush. Goodnight bowl of yesterdays mush" or however it goes). Amidst my Google searching, I ran into an interesting Op-Ed from the New York Times from a few years ago when the publishers decided that the photo of the illustrator needed to be altered because he was smoking in the photo, and then humorously went down the super liberal road of nit picking every other thing in the book that needed to be changed, lest our children be subjected to dangerous living conditions....and Pete, Why IS that rabbit in the illustration fly fishing for another rabbit with a carrot...and why is he holding a net in mid cast?

Also, on a totally unrelated topic, over at Fiberglass Manifesto Cameron is having an "Old School" contest where you can win a super sweet William Joseph chest pack/day pack. I for one LOVE William Joseph gear as evidenced by my horribly written review right here on this blog.

Am also putting together a list of my favorite beers from 2009....It should prove interesting to try and remember them all.

Key West Southernmost Wheat Ale

This fine adult beverage was enjoyed by us on New Years Eve. Very nice Belgian style wheat ale, but with a slight lilting of Key Lime. Very much like a Hoegarten, not Blue Moon. A true wheat ale...

Nothing like fishing on New Years Day

Started the New Year out right by taking Julie and Chris out to Double Branch Creek to do some winter time redfish hunting. It was also meant to teach Julie how to use a spinning rig and a DOA shrimp. (no fly casting yet, although her skill at texting while fishing is pretty impressive) There was a nice dock and a few mangrove edges to cast to, as well as a bit of rip rap here and there. With a water temp in the mid fifties, we didn't catch or see anything, but it was a good day to get out cast.

We also scouted a few spots in Safety Harbor with only a few return trips found. That section of the bay is SO shallow and only offers a few spots worth returning to.

Also found that although Lacy prefers sleeping on a couch/bed/chair, she'll stoop to sleeping in a dog bed if she has to....

Nice Post About Saltwater Gear

Found this at The Joy of Fishing New Brunswick Good to know if you're interested in saltwater fly fishing.

Bad Parking Jobs

One thing that really annoys me is when inconsiderate people take up 2 parking spots so someone doesn't ding their car with a door. I understand someone wanting to keep a car ding free, but this is very selfish in my opinion. To me, it's almost as bad as the idiots who sit in the car in a no parking lane with the flashers on.

On more than one occasion, I've parked my sled right on the drivers door of the offending auto. Now, you have to understand that my car looks like something out of the road warrior, complete with "fu*@ You" and an erect penis spray painted on the hood, baseball bat dents in the passenger side, a dent in the hood where a tree fell on it during the hurricanes of 2004, a missing hubcap and peeled paint....the selfish parkers nightmare. I only wish I could see the expression on their faces when they come out of the store and see my ride pulled up right next to their baby.

I found a great blog dedicated to bad parking jobs called Your Parking Sucks

Cheers and I hope you get a laugh out of it....

Post Christmas and the New Year

*I made it through the holiday without succumbing to the holiday greed and cash grabbing that most folks normally do. Christmas Eve was spent at my mom's house as is the tradition and Christmas Day was nice at Julie's. There was a budget and dollar limit that everyone needed to adhere to, and you know what? It was great. No one went into debt. Got the wireless Internet hooked up and a few PS3 games and I'm happy.

*I discovered it's best for me to be single. What can I say? Even medicated, depression is still very hard to deal with at times, and it's best that I don't affect anyone else's life with it. It's not as if you can just ask me to not be depressed. I don't choose to feel depressed. I'm in no shape mentally to date anyone....it's not fair to them because I don't have anything left to give anyone. This should be my New Year's resolution.

* I'm taking part in a winter fly tying swap with the members of Captain Mel's fly fishing forum. I'm tying white and red DT Specials with 1/0 Mustad's.

* I'm determined to fish more this year - who cares if I have to do it alone?

Christmas Fishing

I know that you're "supposed" to stay home on Christmas, spending time with your family. Last year, I went fishing on Christmas. Loaded up the family and was wading at the un-named City of St Petersburg Park at 78th Ave. By noon.

It was considerably warmer last Christmas with the water temperature holding at 70. After receiving a load of new gear for Christmas, I was dying to try out this stuff. I was wading, throwing an EP shrimp when 2 nice redfish swam leisurely right past me, so close I could see the typical "worried" look on their faces....but no takers.

Does anyone think that it's wrong to go fishing on Christmas?

The Dark Side

I've noticed a lot of debate recently about "going over to the dark side" of fishing....I'm thinking a good definition of this might read something like this:

To fish for species one might not be familiar with - i.e. to leave your comfort zone.

For instance, Rebecca wrote an article about going over to the dark side of bass fishing. I can certainly understand the fear or discomfort in leaving one's comfort zone. I've been there before. Before I was into saltwater fishing at all, I was an avid bass angler. I used to read everything I could get my hands on in regards to bass....where to find them, what lure to use, and what a cold front does to fish.

When my buddy Chad tried to get me into saltwater fishing, I wasn't interested. I had everything I needed with bass....But I have to admit that I was scared. I didn't know anything about the salt. Where to go, what to use, what species was what. The fear made me cling to my bass rods even harder....that is until the first time a 20 lb snook dragged me under a dock and broke me off. Then it was on. Surprisingly, saltwater fishing with lures is quite a bit like bass fishing, it's just that the fish are bigger, the gear is bigger and the lures are bigger.

It wasn't that far out of the norm for me - when I was a kid, we lived in upstate New York. There were so many different fishing seasons that you just adapted your gear to suit what you were fishing for. Ice fishing, salmon run, muskys and walleye season, pike season.

I had the same fears when my buddy Scott kept telling me about fly fishing. "No thanks" I said, but I kept running into cool articles in Florida Sportsman about saltwater fly fishing. I didn't know anything about the sport, so I read everything I could get my hands on in regards to gear....combing the Internet to find gear that I could actually afford. Once I had the information, I felt empowered.

After I taught myself to cast, it was suggested to me that I should tie my own flies. "No way" I exclaimed, "I can't do that"....Well. After watching a few fly tying videos, I started looking at the flies in my fly box and decided that I could tie anything that I had purchased.

Then, someone told me about bonefish. "Sorry dude, I can't afford a trip to Andros...besides, I know nothing about bonefish and they aren't in my area."

Then I discovered Long Key State Park and found out that it's one of the best bonefish flats in the state.

I have to say that I'm afraid of trout fishing in the streams with dry's, nymphs, and whatever else...I know nothing about it.

So the bottom line is....stop being afraid of the fishing that you don't know about. Learn about it, read about it, talk to someone who knows about it.

My Favorite Florida Keys Posts

For those of you who haven't been there, I'd like to share the fly fishers paradise known as the Florida Keys.

Here are some of my favorite posts about my experiences there.

If you've never been there and want to go - Check this out

Long Key Part One

Long Key Part Two

Long Key Part Three

Chad and the Barracuda

Blood Knot Magazine

I've been telling you about the brand new magazine I've been writing for. Well, after the launch date was pushed back a few times, I'm finally able to talk about it. Blood Knot Magazine is a little bit different than your average "How to" fly fishing e-zine that everyone else does. This is a compilation of irreverent stories and humorous content....sort of like Moldy Chum meets The Outdooress. Check them out and subscribe (I'm still trying to figure out how to subscribe). It's a bimonthly publication but the website will be updated regularly.

Look for my "Lessons in Ditch Fishing" piece if they put it back up.