With more Winter weather in the forecast, We’ve just received a few items from Cloudveil, that, when applied in combination, get us one step closer to a cure for the Winter fly fishing blues.

Considered essential Winter fly fishing gear, the Cloudveil Two Trigger glove at $35, exposes the first two fingers and thumb, is made of Windstopper fleece with wraptor construction and has a Scholler WB400 knuckle panel with a Clarino synthetic leather palm. The Banks Beanie at $32 is made of 100% merino wool and has a microfleece headband. Snow is optional and recommended on both items. Can’t live without them? Please give us a call at 410-357-9557 or drop us a line at info@backwaterangler.com to purchase.

Thanks to Ben Kim for the following feedback,

Hi Theaux,
Just wanted to let you know that I had a great time this past Sunday.Thanks for fitting me into the class. Looking forward to sitting in on another class with Dave once my schedule opens up.
Take care!
Ben

We still have room in most of the fly tying classes on the event calendar.
If one, or more of these classes strikes you, give us a call at 410-357-9557,
or drop us a line at info@backwaterangler.com to pre-register.

Thanks to Jim Macneal for the kind words

Gentlemen,

A perfect day was spent driving through Monkton on Sat., Feb. 7th – made all the better by making a stop at the fly shop. Thank you Jason for making our visit enjoyable plus showing us pictures of how the dwelling appeared years ago. My wife really enjoyed playing with the fly shop mascot – forgot to get his name. We left your shop and drove down Masemore Road to the Gunpowder – a few cars , but we didn’t see anyone fishing. I’ll contact the shop soon to check on the progress of the DVD Jason told us about. Thank you again for the nice day, see you soon.

Tight lines,
Jim Macneal, Jr.

Thanks to Fred and Pam Meier for the following fly fishing report from a Fall trip to New Zealand.

Theaux,
We travelled to New Zealand in early November for two weeks of flyfishing, a week on the North island and a week on the South island. Although it had snowed in the week prior to our arrival, during our stay the weather was warm and sunny with only a day lost to rain and wind. On the North Island, we stayed at the Poronui Ranch and on the South Island, at Lake Rotoroa Lodge.

The fishing experience in New Zealand is different from that in the Americas. As there are few natural predators, trout are generally found in open water rather than in riffles, under a cut bank or under hanging tree limbs. The water is exceptionally clear. Both the rainbows and the browns were large, between 4 and 6 lbs.; and a net is needed for landing these wild fish.There are smaller fish, but our program was “fewer and better”.There was very little blind casting- the game in New Zealand is sight fishing. Where we were fishing, there was usually several hundred yards between the sighting of fish. Including entering and exiting the rivers through bush (dense vegetation and forest ), we were walking all day. Unlike Patagonia where there is an hour to an hour and a half for a leisurely stream side lunch, we would eat a sandwich in about 15 minutes and continue following our guide upstream. Because it was early in the Season, we fished nymphs most of the time. With a six weight rod, we were throwing a double rig of a size 12 green caddis nymph trailed by a size 18 pheasant tail. The leaders were long- 18 feet ending with 3X and occasionally 4X tippet. Casting accuracy was essential. Throwing a long line was necessary only a few times. We usually had at most three attempts to put an upstream cast in the slot, i.e., 3 to 4 feet directly in front of the fish. Spooking a fish is not uncommon.

The fish we caught were large, fat and strong. Once hooked, they do RUN. Although the North Island is known for its rainbows, we were fortunate to catch a lot of browns on the North Island. In particular, on the Taharua River which looks like a spring creek and is a tributary of the Mahaka river, we were catching large browns which the guide referred to as Scottish browns. We thought they looked like tiger trout. Finally, we did several days of heli-fishing. A helicopter would pick us up at the lodge and after a 35 to 50 minute flight over spectacular mountain scenery would place us in river which was otherwise accessible only by three to four days of hiking through rough wooded terrain. Because we were early in the Season, the fish were seeing a fly for the first time in six months.

We had expected New Zealand to be simply a more technical version of Patagonia where we have fished for 15 years. But New Zealand was very different and very wonderful-its fish gods left us both humbled for lack of skills and elated when we fortunate to hook and land one of the beauties. We hope to return.