Fly Fishing Insider Newsletter featuring The Fly Fishing Shop

quartering into the wind with the line and fly crossing the center of the boat...which is filled with people. It is a tricky, unnerving presentation. Sure enough the cast lands short. I strip line frantically, trying to pull the heavy fly line out of the water to make another cast. Derrick poles the boat hard, keeping pace with the fast moving fish. Surprisingly it has not spooked. I take a deep breath and let my nerves settle. Shooting line on the back cast and hauling hard on the forward
	permit are very strong	To Top

average Belize Permit

cast, my body arches forward and drives the narrow loop into the wind. The bulky fly lands quietly four feet in front of and slightly beyond the moving fish. I count to four and twitch the fly. The Permit sees it and strikes. I feel him and pull. Nothing! (Expletive deleted.) He spins around twice in the knee-deep water thirty feet from the boat where the light gives us a glare-free view of his desperate effort to locate the fly. Vortices of muddy water whirl up with each

kick of his wide black tail as he maneuvers to find the fly. I twitch the fly again. Somehow, he spots the fly in all this mess, probably by feel, and charges, but looses sight of it in a plume of mud and misses. I keep stripping the fly with the Permit in hot pursuit, his long, thin, black dorsal fin slicing through his bulging bow wake. I feel the grab and make a hard two foot strip with my left hand. The line comes tight as the sharp stainless steel hook bites deep into his fleshy mouth. There is a wild thrashing at the end of my line.

Patty & her Permit

Permit and don't have the faintest idea what to expect. Adrenaline pumps through my already over-crowded veins. At first the fish doesn't do much. For a few seconds he doesn't realize he is hooked. He just wallows around making big bulges and kicking up plumes of spray with his wide vee-shaped black tail. This gives me precious time to get organized. I set the hook again with confidence. The Permit takes fifty yards of backing at moderate speed as it heads for deeper water in the center of the lagoon.

"Nice fish!" says Derrick and poles the boat after him.

"He doesn't look that big", I reply.

"I think you will be surprised", he reassures.

I am thinking to myself, " this shouldn't take too long".

Derrick poles the boat after the fish. I gain line rapidly and in no time nearly all of the backing is on the reel. I actually turn the fish around so he is facing me. I see his gray outline against the bottom.

Suddenly, there is an explosion when the Permit panics, turns end for end and the rod is nearly wrenched from my grip. The reel shrieks, its handle is a blur. Fifty yards of backing melts from the spool and then he turns the after-burner on, taking another hundred yards with such speed that I can hear the reel handle churning air like a turbine. Then he stops and just wanders around and I realize that it was my image on the bow which had spooked him, not the tension of the line. I pull hard but it seems to have little effect. Derrick poles the boat and once again the line is gained back to the reel and the Permit spooks and takes it away. This process is repeated many times with the Permit showing unbelievable resistance. However, the runs do keep getting shorter and shorter.

Over an hour later it is getting dark when the Permit is finally tailed. My right arm is in shock from wrist to elbow. Derrick is elated. The Permit is 31 inches long and possibly over fifteen pounds, much larger than it had appeared in the water. I stare in awe at this beautiful silvery creature in my hands and then place it gently in the water. It revives quickly and churns out into the tropical sunset. There is much laughter in the boat as Derrick fires up the motor and we head back for camp.

The next day I was able to land a nearly identical Permit which almost spooled me. The day after that Jim got a double. The first was about twelve pounds the other around twenty. All of the fish were taken on the brownish gray fly. We name it the Placencia Mud Crab. Now we had a fly that permit would eat. Our confidence grew.

	** Salish Velour Under Wear by Dutch Harbor Gear.** This mid-weight Velour Fleece under wear is undoubtedly one of the great clothing buys today. The material fits a wide range of out door uses. The quality and workmanship is comparable to similar garments costing many times as much. Wear it under waders. Wear it lounging. Wear it into a restaurant after fishing. It looks as good, feels as good and wears as good as the $70 brands. Zip-T tops = $25.00 & Uni-sex pants with pockets = $21.00.
	Click here for more information.	To Top

*******	Red Rocket Tube Fly Hook: TMC 105, #4 inserted in rear of the tube Thread: flame color 21 denier flat waxed Tube: 1 1/2" HMH soft plastic tube Body: none Rear Hackle: orange marabou plume applied as hackle Flash: gold Flasabou Center Hackle: red flashabou plume applied as hackle Front Hackle: red saltwater neck hackle
This fly is fished with a sinking tip fly line deep and slow. It is especially effective in clear water in bright light. The Red Rocket has accounted for winter & summer steelhead, Coho and Chinooks.

The Local Scene	To Top
The Deschutes River The Deschutes River water flow is stable and good temperature. Prolific mid-day may fly hatches have brought Redsides to the surface in good numbers during cloud cover days. Some days we have hit some big Redsides as well as Bull Trout while fishing leaches for steelhead during the bright light times. Steelhead are distributed throughout the lower 100 miles. Some are getting dark and assuming trout-like attitudes taking small nymphs dead-drifted along the bottom. Bright fish are still entering the river. This time of year is interesting as some fish have been in the river since June and others came in the river yesterday. Their color and body confirmation varies widely. Check out these pictures. Most popular Deschutes steelhead flies this recently are: Fly de Jour, Buddler, Joe Girt, Black Stallion, Purple Wooly Bugger and Articulated Leech. (All in stock). If you would like to read a detailed Deschutes River Fishing Report, click here. To Top
Crooked River Water flows are stable and the water has enough color to give the fish a sense of security. Most fish are 9" to 13" with a few fish to 19". Most days its nymphs morning and mid-day and dry flies in the afternoon and evening. Flies: Elk Hair Caddis; Blue Winged Olives; Comparaduns, Scuds; Woolly Bugger, B.H. Pheasant Tail, Serendipities and Soft Hackles. To Top Sandy and Clackamas Rivers Phenomenal Coho runs are the big deal in both watersheds. These fish will take flies and the rivers are small right now and and easy to cover with a fly rod. The big crowds are starting to dissipate. There are many dark fish in both river but there are also bright fish. Be there early in the morning or late in the evening for the best results. Rabbit strip and marabou flies in purple, black, orange and chartreuse have been the best producers. To Top
Fly Fishers Winter Months Round Tables feature Alec Jackson, Steve Gobin, Randy Sholes & Derek Fergus. Be sure to mark your calendar. Click here for dates.

Sage 9150-4 laying across the seat in my drift boat.

~(continued from 10/23 "Insider")
Sage has re-designed their entire line of SPEY RODS for 2001. They have incorporated the newest materials, Graphite IV and Graphite IIIe. On 10/23 I had a chance to test drive the new 9150-4 - 15' #9 rod. It is an impressive big water, big fish rod. It is designed to load easy, but kick hard to cut casting fatigue and build blazing line speed. I tested this rod on the Deschutes, but felt that it would be better as a winter rod.

These new rods are just becoming available and will be on-line in our catalog soon.
If you need one, please call.
We've got the custom lines to make your new spey rod rock & roll.   To Top