Be Prepared

This past summer I learned a lesson on how prepared I am in the outdoors. Basically… I’m not! I headed up north to fish a river I had been on once. However, it was with someone who was very familiar with the area. This time I was headed up north with a friend who had never been fly fishing. Ignoring the warning about fishing this spot without someone familiar with the area, I was determined to have a successful evening fishing one of my favorite hatches. It turned out to be an embarrassing disaster. Fishing ended at 11:00pm… we were back at my car at 3:00am… I am sure you can guess what happened in between. Luckily my cell phone had service (this is the only river I have fished with cell phone service) and we were able to contact help! Yes, the police came in with spotlights in the air for us to locate them and find our way out! Again…. Embarrassing! It was a lesson needed to show me how really unprepared I am. I never thought much about getting lost on a river or what I would need.

Never leave the car without:

• A Compass

• Water

• Emergency Food

• Some type of First Aid Kit

• Head Light or Flashlight

• A Pocket Knife

• Signaling Device (Whistle, Flare, Mirror)

• Candle

• Insect Repellent
  

• Waterproof Matches
  

Always let someone know where you are going

Pay close attention to your surroundings and landmarks from the moment you leave the car

Stay calm if you get lost. Panic is your worst threat!

Sometimes it’s good to stay put if it is after nightfall

Always be sure to look at a map of the area. Pay attention to where bridges may cross the river and if other tributaries flow in

Travel with a companion (I can’t imagine if I was alone)

Be prepared for weather conditions (rain, snow, etc)

Understand the symptoms of heat exhaustion, heat stroke, hypothermia, and dehydration

When someone says "Don't go"... LISTEN

Back again!

After a long absence FlyFishingGals is up and running again. Sadly early this summer someone abused the photo section of our site and posted our photos on various discussion boards. The photo section will remain closed for the time being.

Question of the Day

For those of you who are excited about the Walleye Opener!

Walleyes hunt at low light levels because:

[A] Fewer boats are out
[B] They can see better than their prey
[C] They use mainly their sense of smell and their lateral line to locate forage

Check back later for the answer...

Gordon MacQuarrie

Nearly a year ago I was introduced to the “Old Duck Hunters’ Association”, a group of fictional stories written by Gordon MacQuarrie. Your imagination is quickly captured as you read about the President of the “ODHA” and his days spent on the Brule fishing or duck hunting on Richards Lakes. MacQuarrie has a way of writing a story that keeps you tuned for the punch at the end. Whether you’re waiting to find out if Minnie (the mallard hen) will find her way back to Bill or who will catch the largest trout of the day, MacQuarrie will always leave his readers with a grin. Zack Taylor compiled Gordon MacQuarrie’s stories in a book called “More Stories of the Old Duck Hunters”. If you’ve never read the short stories I highly recommend checking them out. Not only will you be entertained… but you’ll read about those flies and stop to think “hmm… should I try it?”

Quote of the Day!

The farther you travel to fish, the worse the fishing will be. However, it will improve immediately after you leave to return home. Thus the old saying: "The fishing is always better the day before you get there and the day after you leave".
-Max Schulman

Question of the day

Bug's are everywhere, and the trout are rising - but they aren't taking your dry fly. The first thing you should do is...

[A] Go to a lighter tippet
[B] Switch the fly pattern
[C] Use the same pattern, but go one size smaller

Quote of the Day

My home river does not always give me her fish, but the blessings of her company are always north the trip.
-Paul Schullery

Quote of the Day

I look into my fly box and thing about all the elements I should consider in choosing the perfect fly: water temperature, what stage of development the bugs are in, what the fish are eating right now. Then I remember what a guide told me: "Ninety percent of what a trout eats is brown and fuzzy and about five-eighths of an inch long."
-Allison Moir

Quote of the Day

When your fly rod breaks and your fly box is bare, it's time to quit fishing. Go sit in your chair. Light up your pipe. Pour some Glenlivet and drink 'til you're ripe. Don't worry about your rod and flies. Just sit with your buddies and tell fishing lies.
-Jimmy D. Moore

Fly Fishing Schools

Check out the recently added Fly Fishing Schools to our Fly Fishing Guides Page

SE MN Floods

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Baghdad School of Fly Fishing

Support our Troops! Lt. Cmdr Joel Stewart formed the Baghdad School of Fly Fishing to teach deployed soldiers casting techniques, knots and catching fish on a fly rod. Check out the website at www.baghdadflyfishing.com for information about the school and ways you can help!

Rivers in Danger!

Pebble Mine – Bristol Bay, Alaska

The Pebble Open Pit Gold & Copper Mine is a proposed development of an open pit mining district at the headwaters of the Mulchatna/Nushagak River and the Newhalen/Kvichak River. Not only are these the two rivers that feed into the Bristol Bay but are two of the most famous salmon producing river drainages in Alaska. The project would include the largest dam in the world. This land is home for 120,000+ Mulchatna Caribou, moose, bear and many other animals… these spawning waters are the source of the most productive commercial and sport salmon fisheries in the world. If this project is approved it could create a 1,000 square mile industrialized mining zone within the Bristol Bay watershed not to mention being mined for the next 40 – 50 years creating toxic wastes.

65,000 recreational anglers visit the area yearly to find one of the most prolific rainbow trout fisheries in North America. 29% of the $374 million commercial salmon harvest statewide was from the Bristol Bay area. Join Trout Unlimited, The Sportsman’s Alliance for Alaska, native tribes and villages, and over 50 outfitters and commercial fishing operators in the fight against Pebble Mine. Contact the Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin at gov.state.ak.us/govmail.php and voice an opinion.

Trout Unlimited’s Top 5 Endangered U.S. Waters

Trapper Creek, Northwest Colorado
The Threat – Drilling and industrial development

Jefferson River, Southwest Montana
The Threat – Irrigation and drought

Snake River, Idaho
The Threat – Four dams

Green River, Southwest Wyoming
The Threat – Oil & Gas drilling

Southern Appalachian Mountain Streams
The Threat – The climate Change

Quote of the Day

My biggest worry is my wife (when I'm dead) will sell my fishing gear for what I said I paid for it.
-Koos Brandt

A New Season Starts!

Friday night your heart will start to race! You’ll pull out that 4 weight rod and check the leader and tippet! Prepare those nymphs for easy access the following morning… lay out your wool socks, fleece pants and gloves! Because you know that within a few short hours those favorite Wisconsin streams will be calling your name. March 1^st is the Wisconsin “Catch and Release” opener!!! With a weather forecast in the low 30’s, I’m sure Saturday will mark the first day of fishing this season for many of us!

Purchase your 2008 Wisconsin Fishing License & Trout Stamp at:
https://www4.wildlifelicense.com/wi/start.php

Quote of the Day

I held the tiny nymph on my fingertip, a mere speck I duplicated with a clumsy fake. As I cast it into the fast moving current, I too became a speck, held by the expanse of beauty that surrounded me, engulfed by a sense of peace as enormous as the nymph had been small. Amongst the mighty scheme of things, I felt I had a place.
-Chiyo Sagara

Quote of the Day

They say you forget your troubles on a trout stream, but that's not it. What happens is that you begin to see where your troubles fit into the grand scheme of things, and suddenly they're just not such a big deal anymore.
-John Gierach

Fly Fishing in the Movies

The Quiet Man **Recently Added

How could I forget a favorite classic! A friend reminded me of The Quiet Man. A story about returning to your roots, starting over, falling in love and fly fishing! John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara star in this tale of Sean Thornton, The tall American who returns home to Ireland. He not only finds childhood memories but confrontation from his neighbor Will Danaher, who is determined to keep his sister Mary Kate from marrying Thornton. The plot thickens when Michaleen Oge Flynn, Father Peter Lonergan and Rev. Dr. Cyril Playfair devise a plan to get Danaher to give his permission. A plan that soon backfires! It is Father Peter Lonergan we see casting a fly rod for that prized salmon in the village river. If you haven’t seen The Quiet Man it is well worth the time… and for those of you who have, will never forget that Irish tune… “There was a wild colonial boy… Jack Duggan was his name… He was born and bred in Ireland… In a town called Castlemane…”

A River Runs Through It

We’ve probably all seen it! The story of Norm and Paul MaClean, two brother rebelling against their father who teaches them “To him, all good things, trout as well as eternal salvation, comes by grace and grace comes by art and art does not come easy”. Although each brother takes a different path for their future, fly fishing is the passion that still links them together.

Catch and Release

The title is a bit deceiving. Little fly fishing is seen in this romantic drama. Gray mourns the death of her fiancé who she soon discovers had a separate life from the one she shared with him. She finds herself depending on his friends while falling for the one she least expected. Although a great chick flick!!! The amount of fly fishing is at a minimum

Quote of the Day

The finest gift you can give to any fisherman is to put a good fish back, and who knows if the fish that you caught isn't someone else's gift to you?
-Lee Wulff

Ethanol - Good or Bad Idea?

Consumers are being told Ethanol drives economic development! Providing cleaner air in America and offering a cost effective solution to gasoline. Ethanol is made primarily from corn and other agricultural products and is combined with unleaded gasoline and used as a motor fuel, decreasing fuel’s cost while increasing the fuel’s octane rating. You might be thinking “This sounds great”. Hundreds of new jobs will be created in the area of an ethanol plant, a new demand for crops will help our farmers, ethanol is made in America and it is environmentally friendly! Or…. Is it?

An Ethanol plant in NE will produce 44 million gallons of ethanol a year, with the capability of using as much as 515 million gallons of water annually. The two plants in the area have been approved for drawing as much as 1 billion gallons of water annually. Keep in mind, the 250+ residents who live in the area use about 10 million gallons of water each year. NE’s 16 operating ethanol plants make a little under 1 billion gallons of the fuel, using three gallons of water to produce each gallon of ethanol, that’s 3 billion gallons of water annually. Think something’s wrong with these numbers? Let’s go on…

How does ethanol really affect our land? Organizations like Duck’s Unlimited, Pheasants Forever, Trout Unlimited, etc. are dedicated to conserving and protecting our wetlands, waterfowl, cold water fisheries and other wildlife through habitat improvements, public awareness, etc. A report was released by Ducks Unlimited officials showing 600,000 acres of land enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program will expire in MN by 2010. One-third of ND’s CRP contracts will expire by 2010 and 4.5 million acres of CRP in IA, ND, SD and MT will expire within the next 5 yeas. The concern is great for how much land will actually be re-enrolled with the increasing demand for corn production. 400,000 acres of CRP grasslands have already been plowed up in ND, shocking wildlife representatives. These are some of the most productive duck-rearing areas in North America. For those of you who are not familiar with what the CRP is, let’s take a closer look. The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) was created to provide technical and financial assistance to eligible farmers/ranchers to address soil, water and related natural resource concerns on their lands in an environmentally beneficial and cost-effective manner. The program encourages environmental enhancement which protects the Nation’s ability to produce food and fiber, reduces sedimentation in streams and lakes, improves water quality, establishes wildlife habitat and enhances forest and wetland resources. Below is an analysis by the USDA regarding CRP:

• CRP reduces the annual cropland soil loss by about 450 million tons -- enough to fill approximately 37.5 million dump trucks.
• CRP has restored 2 million acres of wetlands and adjacent buffers.
• CRP has protected 170 thousand miles of streams.
• CRP sequesters 48 million tons of carbon dioxide annually.
• CRP produces 15 million pheasants annually.
• CRP produces 2.2 million ducks per year in the Prairie Pothole Region.

How does Ethanol help us economically? Supply and Demand… the price of corn has jumped from $2-a-bushel to above $5 in 2008, a historic high. Not only has this affected livestock farmers who need corn for feed, but also the packaged-food companies who recently sent a letter to senators with their concerns about ethanol and how it would affect their ability to produce competitively available, affordable food. This includes Coca Cola Co., PepsiCo Inc., Kellogg Co., Nestle USA, Dean Foods Co. and H.J. Heinz Co. So far as the price for fuel… you are driving up the price of a product when adding an ingredient that is pricier than the product itself.

I can’t say I am an expert on Ethanol but after doing a little research what I found concerned me. Of course being an angler my concerns for ethanol encompass the danger to the Trout on my local streams as well as inflation in food prices. These plants will have an affect that may cause a huge loss of CRP contracts, a future filled with drought, erosion, high water temperatures, chemicals applied to the ground, loss in wildlife and waterfowl habitats and much more. Ethanol plants will not only affect the angler and hunter but also every individual who purchases food! After researching on your own, please get involved with the fight against ethanol!

Quote of the Day

He who catches a trout has in the rough, mortal hand of him one of nature's poems, a creature of a comeliness so rare, so strange, so patrician, as to touch the heart of the captor with pity and with praise.
-Ben Hur Lampman

Quote of the Day

There he stands, draped in more equipment than a telephone lineman, trying to outwit an organism with a brain no bigger that a breadcrumb, and getting licked in the process.
-Paul O'Neil

Quote of the Day

There is no more graceful and healthful accomplishment for a lady that fly fishing, and there is no reason why a lady should not in every respect, rival a gentleman in the gentle art.
-W.C. Prime

Quote of the Day

One moment your holding a dripping, sparkling fish, the next you're looking at the water seeing an image of yourself and no one else. For a moment, you know precisely who you are.
-Ken Marsh

Quote of the Day

Fly Fishing is such great fun, I have often felt that it really ought to be done in bed. Not that high frolic is the only thing that pursuit of fish and the pursuit of females have in common; these ancient sports have more going for them than just that. As I'll now try to tell why. First off, just as both diversions are best conducted in decent privacy, away from distracting crowds, so too the most gratifying results are best obtained by subtlety rather than by force, by seduction rather than rape. Again, just as both pastimes quickly pall when the conquest is too easy, so too the lures used in the wooing, whether jewels or jassids, must be presented with the utmost skill and grace.
-Robert Traver

Quote of the Day

Last Sunday I fished up a certain river most of the day and through my supernal skill and encyclopedic knowledge of angling was able to take a dozen brook trout. If I had kept them I would have had the makings of a nice can of sardines.

-Sparse Grey Hackle

Reading the Water

Trout have three basic needs. 1.Shelter, 2.Protection, 3.Adequate Food. Ask yourself where does the water best meet 1 or all of these needs. Observing current patterns can help you pinpoint the location of underwater objects (Shelter), the sign of a current pushing against a bank can indicate an undercut, and the seam between the fast and slow water can be a great feeding spot. Spend time learning how to read the water and your surroundings.

Riffles are a great place to start. Always work your way up the river so you don't scare the fish.

Bushes covering the water offer a low shadow for trout to hide in. A key spot for fly fishing is standing in the center of a river casting towards the bank where a tree or bush is casting a shadow. Try to stay in faster water but no whitewater.

Water Temperature plays a key role. The headwaters (upper zone) are normally very cold with a low flow and a narrow streambed. These waters serve as a spawning and rearing area but to small to support large trout. This is sometimes a great place for Brook Trout.

The middle zone has cool water and is the most productive portion of the stream. You will find a higher population of adult trout due to the insect crop.

The lower zone is the larger part of the river with the streambed flattening. The water is warmer with a slower current and silty bottom. Few trout are supported here but occasionally some of the largest.

A good sign there is a hatch developing/in progress is when the swallows are in the air!

What are they eating??

Splashing Rise:
Emerging insects breaking through the surface film. You will see the Trout completely clear the water. Use Skitter caddisfly imitations or a dead-drift emerger.

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Sipping Rise:
The flies are resting on the water surface. The Trout will suck the insect. The perfect time for that dry fly.

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Head & Tale Rise:
Insects stuck in the surface film. You will see the Trout's head and dorsal fin and tail as it rolls. Cast your fly up current from the last rise and let it drift naturally past the line.

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Tailing:
Immature insects or other food from the bottom of the stream. Trout won't usually take a dry fly.

Welcome To FlyFishingGals.com

We are just getting started and look forward to hearing all of your thoughts from Fly Fishing to anything else us girls like to chat about. We hope this can be a site for new friends to connect and where someone can find a helping hand to get started fly fishing. Feel free to email us at info@flyfishinggals.com with any questions, feedback or ideas.