Category: Marketplace

Posted on April 22nd, 2023

Starting June 22 thru June 29th I will once again be guiding at L. Almanor for the world famous Hexagenia hatch that starts in mid June and goes on into early July. This will be my 21st year fishing the lake. The Hexagenia is one of the largest Mayflies in North America.

California is one of about 6 states that have these Mayflies. Michigan is also famous for the stupendous Hex hatch they have. Often times the department of Public Works in many Michigan towns spend hours cleaning up spent Hex carcasses over 2 feet deep from underneath highway lights. We should be so lucky! However, we do have a pretty significant Hex hatch of our own at L. Almanor. Lake Almanor is located about 35 minutes east of Mt. Lassen along Rte. 36 out of Red Bluff. You can camp at Lake Almanor West in the state campgrounds above Prattville or stay in one of the many motels on the lake or in Chester on Rte. 36. Customers have a good chance of landing giant rainbows and browns (8-12lbs) along w/smallmouth bass up to 22”. The lake also has 1-3 lb. landlocked salmon that are often landed and make excellent dinner fare.

My guiding starts at 3pm w/a short presentation on “How To Fish” for the Hex out of a float tube or pontoon. We cover the gestation period for the Hex nymph and the Hex migration to the surface. I offer 3 styles of fly fishing – nymphing w/an indicator, stripping a nymph/streamer combo and dry fly fishing. We try to get on the water by 5pm and continue until dark around 9:30pm.

My rates are $200.00 for individuals / Lower rate for groups of 3 at $190.00 apiece. Club members get a discount to $175.00 apiece. I supply float tubes and fins, rods/reels, tippet and flies. Customers need to supply their own waders and are encouraged to use their own water craft and fins if they have them. Contact me with questions and dates.

Big Sur Styles Guide Serv.
Tim Loomis
C 831-345-8411
H 831-426-4683

Posted on April 19th, 2022

FOR SALE:  BRAND NEW (never used) G. Loomis NRX+   590-4   9 foot 5 weight fly rod, with soft and hard cases.  Retail cost: $795.00.  Priced at $600.00.  Call Rich Hughett @ 831-757-5709

Posted on April 21st, 2022

The shelter-in-place directives and changes in DFW regulations have caused many of us to postpone or cancel our plans to fish this spring. If you feel the need to re-connect with your favorite sport, consider this possibility:

Find a suitable place to cast and devote fifteen minutes to one hour of practice time a day to maintaining your skills or learning something new. At home or nearby is best, as you will be more likely to pick up that rod spontaneously and will put in more time; but, if necessary, any public space with an open, grassy area will do fine. In a pinch, your driveway or the street may suffice (though you will want to dedicate an old and disused line for the purpose, as asphalt and concrete are hard on high-tech coatings.) Once you start whipping that rod around and throwing a line, you will likely find that other people stay at least the recommended six feet away. A few simple props (hula hoops for accuracy, soccer cones for distance or for specialty techniques like curve casts) are helpful but not really necessary. The important thing is to work on upgrading your skills. If you need suggestions for what to focus on, you may want to look at the Fly Fishing International skills challenges. They offer three levels – bronze, silver, and gold – each of which involves a series of tasks that casters of increasing levels of competence should master. (The skills challenges can be downloaded here: https://flyfishersinternational.org/Education/Learning-Center/Casting/Casting-Skills-Challenge.) In my experience, even well-seasoned casters seldom succeed at every one of the tasks on the bronze challenge on the first try, but you’ll be amazed at what a little practice can do.

If you want to up your game and are someone who learns best from books, try consulting the classics by Mel Krieger (The Essence of Fly Casting), Joan Wulff (Fly Casting Techniques), and Bill Gammel (The Essentials of Fly-Casting). However, many people find that a more visual approach is helpful. Our club’s library of DVDs includes some relevant titles, but in this time of social distancing, a more readily available alternative is the Internet. A quick search on youtube.com will connect you to an overwhelming variety of instructional videos on almost any casting technique you wish to explore and at any skill level from beginner to advanced. Here are a few that I have found especially easy to understand, insightful, or entertaining:

Peter Kutzer is Orvis’s resident casting instructor. You may have met him at the Pleasanton show in February (which must now seem a long time ago because it happened just as we were all becoming aware of Covid-19.) He offers an entire series of professionally produced videos on a wide variety of subjects, several of which are indexed here: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=peter+kutzer+fly+casting

Australian Casting Champion Peter Hayes has an appealing series of videos (the production values of which are, unfortunately, highly variable), all delivered with good humor and in an engaging Aussie accent: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=peter+hayes+fly+casting

And for those who want a more in-depth treatment of both the theory and practice of fly casting, you may want to work your way through the many subjects covered in Paul Arden’s Fly Casting Manual on sexyloops.com (http://www.sexyloops.com/flycasting/index.shtml). His explanations can be a little harder to follow, but he has thought through the physics of casting in depth.

One instructor whose explanations I find particularly clear is Carl McNeil. He has a complete instructional DVD for sale on the Echo Fly Fishing site, but a few of his videos are available free on youtube at: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=carl+mcneil+fly+casting

If you have a favorite site or instructor of your own, let me know so they can be shared in a future issue of the newsletter. Until we are able to gather again on our favorite lakes and streams, a little coronavirus-casting in the back yard is a great way to stay limber and sharp, ready to return to the water when the all-clear sounds.

Posted on May 20th, 2020

We owe a debt of gratitude to club member, Jeff Slaboden, who generously provided 100 bottles of hand sanitizer produced by his company in an effort to protect our community from the coronavirus.   At the onset of the crisis and due to the apparent shortage of product, Jeff directed his company to immediately convert production from its usual products, to producing and supplying hand sanitizer to community first-responder agencies, organizations and some local stores.   Being the generous person he is, he offered a supply to our club members for free, or to use as a fund raiser.   All club members who requested some, gladly paid five dollars, and it raised $500 for the club’s scholarship program, where Jeff asked the funds be directed to students entering the medical or science studies.   A huge thank you to Jeff for his humanitarian effort helping so many families during this serious pandemic.

Thank you Jeff. 

P.S. – Thank you Cecilia and Richard for stepping up, helping to get these 100 bottles of hand sanitizer to our club members who were rapidly moving to the shelter in place requirements.   Jeff informed me that over the last 30 days, his company has produced and distributed over 100,000 bottles of hand sanitizer, “Thousands of which have been donated to a variety of good causes and people in need.

If you have a special story you’d like to share around this crisis and fly-fishing – drop me a line. −Tom Hogye

Posted on April 20th, 2020