Fly Fishing Insider Newsletter featuring Martin James

Program: "Out and about with Martin James",
Saturday, September 11, 1:00pm - 2:00pm.

Martin James: Author, Writer, BBC Radio Broadcaster, TV Presenter and Consultant to Thomas and Thomas Fly Rod Makers

As a 4 year old Martin caught his first fish during a Nazi air-raid on his home county of Kent, UK. It was a stunted Rudd from a water filled clay-pit. This introduction to fishing was to take Martin into areas he hardly knew existed in those days.
His BBC Radio Program: Have Rod Will Travel, relates his angling travel adventures to 4,000,000 loyal listeners twice each week. Martin's love of the USA stems from early friendships with American servicemen developed during the war years.

One of his favorite U.S locations is the Deschutes River in Oregon - fly fishing for steelhead and redside trout. Martin has also spent time fly fishing for striped bass and false albacore on the eastern seaboard and Coho salmon in Puget Sound. Other travels have taken him pike-fishing in northern Canada and bone-fishing in the Bahamas. Further south, forays into the Amazon and its tributaries and lakes of Brazil, Columbia, Peru and Venezuela have been a tremendous contrast to the USA, UK and Canada. There have also been expeditions for Nile perch and tiger fish from Lake Nasser in Egypt and on to the Persian and Arabian Gulfs which Martin feels could be the next big saltwater fly fishing venue of the world. (Once people quit shooting each other).

Martin is an award winning broadcaster and writer. For over 25 years Martin has taken his BBC radio audience with him on his travels around the world. His twice weekly fishing show can be heard on the internet www.bbc.co.uk/lancashire then click on fishing. In 1993 he was awarded the prestigious Richard Walker trophy by the National Association of Specialist Anglers. The award is a full-size bronze bust of Britain's top angler, who died in 1985. There have been only two winners: the Anglers' Conservation Association in 1980 for their fight against the polluters, and Martin for his outstanding contribution to the world of angling and the environment. In 1989 Martin was presented with an Illuminated Scroll by Lord Mason of the Anglers Conservation Association at a special lunch at Fish Mongers Hall in the City of London - the first and only person to receive such an award. Recently Bradford City Angling Association awarded him the Frank S. Whiteley Memorial Cup for outstanding services to the Association.

Helping The Youngsters
Every year Martin runs a week-long fishing school for boys and girls during the school summer holidays. The youngsters learn several different ways of fishing fly, bait and spinning. They get taught how to tie a fly. All the tackle needed is supplied. There are no charges - it's all free. Every child from 10 years of age is welcome. Many mums spend the time at the school and often take up the sport themselves.

The Ladies Make Great Anglers
Martin is also a great believer that the ladies make great anglers and devotes a lot of time encouraging them into this great sport. The beauty of teaching ladies to fish is they will listen, learn, take notice, practice, don't litter the countryside, have a more caring attitude and don't know it all after a day like so many guys do. They look great, smell good and catch lots of big fish.

NATIONAL FLY FISHING WEEK

The Federation of Fly Fishers' National Fly Fishing Week will be August 13 - 22, 2004, and all across the country events will be held to celebrate. FFF clubs, volunteers, and local fly shops, will be exposing their communities to this great sport. By sharing their knowledge and passion of fly fishing, they are carrying on the FFF's great tradition of stewardship. Here at The Fly Fishing Shop, we have scheduled two events in the form of schools to celebrate and participate in this events, to help with meeting your fly fishing skills.

For the beginner wanting to start in fly fishing, we have the very successful
LEARN TO CATCH TROUT THE FIRST DAY. This is a 6 hr school, everything provided, to teach you how to catch trout, guaranteed; lunch is even provided. This will be the last of this school until next season.

For the intermediate to advanced fly fisher wanting to improve their steelhead fishing skills, we have a school to help with the pursuit of the summer steelhead:
6-HOUR SUMMER STEELHEAD TUNE UP !
August 22 /04. Sunday, 8:00 am to 2:00pm. "Presentation" with floating lines, on both sides of the river for dry and wet flies will be covered. Single handed and two handed casters welcome. Your instructors will be Leroy Teeples and Ron Lauzon, both FFF Certified Fly Casting Instructors, and guides, anxious to help you meet your fly fishing goals. This class will be held on the Clackamas River; bring your own gear, lunch and beverage. Cost is $125 per person; 6 people; (first come, first served).
Meet at 6:45 am, at The Fly Fishing Shop, leave at 7:00 am.

Thomas & Thomas DH1307-3
Written in August 2002:
This is a very fast action rod designed for casters with sharp skills. It delivers incredibly tight loops and allows the angler to ignore all but the strongest wind. One of the things that makes this rod so appealing is it's low center of gravity. The short lower handle and three piece blank makes this rod feel very light in the tip. The stiff butt gives tremendous lifting power when playing fish. However, this stiff, fast action doesn't cover mistakes. It isn't forgiving while casting either. The DH1307-3 will deliver amazing line speed, but you better be on your game.
How I feel about this rod (2) years later:
I have put a lot of hours on the water with this rod. Because it is, over all, the most comfortable Deschutes & John Day rod I own. It throws about any kind of 6/7, 7/8 line comfortably. It launches full floating lines with pointy-end bullets and loves any appropriate size sinking tip. It is very adaptable. After a couple of trips to the river I finally settled on a Waterworks ULA Force #3.4 reel as the best match for a complete outfit. This reel offers a very high rate of retrieve. To this was added a 6/7/8 WindCutter with tips. When Simon Gawesworth and I worked together during the PHD Class last year, he showed up with a totally identical outfit. The only way we could tell them apart was that I had colored my loop to loop connections green.

Sage 7141-4
Written in August 2002:
Possibly the one single best steelhead spey rod design of 2001-2002 era. This rod has a very user-friendly action. It casts long, handles wind & sinking tips. Fishes well in winter & summer. The 7141-4 has an action that plays fish with authority on 10 pound Maxima tippet yet absorbs shock and covers mistakes. It balances best with a Ross Big Game #6 and a Airflo Delta Spey 7/8 line. If this rod design has any faults as a summer steelhead stick, it is that it might be heavier than you need & it is a bit long for working under overhanging trees.
How I feel about this rod (2) years later:
This is a great fly rod. It is the perfect choice for the Deschutes, but overpowers rivers the size of the John Day. A year ago George Cook, Brian Silvey and I were conducting a casting class and those two guys said they liked an 8/9/10 WindCutter as the best match with this rod. I added one to mine and have to agree that it works pretty well. With this line, this rod could well become a candidate as best "year-round" rod. It is kind of out of the 6/7/8 category. The reel that I use with this rod is a Ross Big Game #6. My buddy Mike Senatra uses a GrandSpey 7/8 on a Tibor Riptide. I've seen him throw the whole line while fishing. The Grand Spey is an awesome line match until the wind comes up. Then the WindCutter is a lot more user friendly.

Sage 7136-4
Written in August 2002:
This soft/traditional action rod is best suited to floating lines and windless periods. However, it is probably the most fun rod to play fish with because of the forgiving, shock absorbing action. The 7136-4 is poetic to cast with. It has the power to cover water to adequate distances with a #4 bucktail or waker. This rod balances well with a Ross Big Game #5 loaded with a WindCutter 6/7/8 line. It will cast sinking tips, but is laborious.
How I feel about this rod (2) years later:
I have put a lot of hours on the water with this rod model. As a matter of fact I have owned three of them; two brown ones and a green one. Each rod was a love/hate relationship which ended in divorce. At medium ranges they were all smooth as silk. Each became my early morning baby. In early morning there is very little wind. Many steelhead were caught with each rod. But as the sun came up or the wind came up I lost affection and turned to other more robust rods. The 7136-4 is the perfect length for the Deschutes. It is long enough to to enable a good caster to reach the main current flow in any part of the river. It is short enough to work the tree lines. However the soft parabolic action which requires those long, pretty bullet shaped back-loops defeats you around tree lines. It requires too much room to operate. That long back-loop is also a hazard in the wind. With a faster action rod, your back-cast can stay more compact. I would like to see a lightweight 13 1/2 footer with a little faster action. Two friends of mine: Keith & Lisa Hansen, use 7136-4 rods year round with over-size Airflo Delta fly lines. They fish this combination in the winter with sinking tips as well as in the summer with floating tips. Both anglers have been very effective. I have several pictures of each person holding chromers.

Winston Ibis 7126-4
Written in May 2003:
I recently tried out the new Winston Ibis 12' 6" 6/7 Weight Spey Rod. The Stonefly Maidens Fly Club is sponsoring a women's fly casting clinic on August 16. Five of the members have been practicing their casting and instructor skills so that they can help other women learn how to cast. I have been acting as an advisor and casting coach for this group. Our last get together was 07/13 at Oxbow Park on the Sandy River (at the Spey Clave Run). While the "Women's Casting Clinic" will only deal with single hand casting, I decided to bring one of the new Winston Ibis spey rods to the party. The girls are getting pretty good with their casting and instructional skills and after observing the group go through their routines for a while I decided that there wasn't much for me to add. I assembled the spey rod for an initial test drive. The test line was a WindCutter 6/7/8 with tips mounted on a Waterworks ULA Force 3.4 reel. My first impression of the rod was that it is very lightweight and well balanced. The action might be termed "Modernized Traditional". It is a little bit faster than true traditional. Single spey, snap-tee, snake roll and double spey casts were performed with both floating and fast sinking tips. The rod worked well throughout the session, although I had to really slow down with the sinking tips. This rod loads down deep into the butt for long casts, but as soon as I found the "sweet spot", 80' casts were smooth and easy. Naturally some of the girls wanted to try out the new rod. It was interesting to watch. Two women had used spey rods before. One had caught a steelhead from the Deschutes the morning before the practice. The other two participants had never tried a spey. All four who tried the new rod preformed serviceable casts in short order. That says something about this group of women. For me, it was an interesting way for me to test this new rod. One of the things that I have noticed about spey rod actions is that some are easy to time and some are not. This rod appears to be a design that is easy for people to get used to in a hurry. That is a huge asset.
There ain't nuthin' the matter with easy.
How I feel about this rod (1) year later:
A lot of rod for the money. Our test model has held up well; including the cork handle. This is a very serviceable summer and fall steelhead rod. This model will probably suit anglers who fish the John Day better than anglers who fish the Deschutes. It works well enough on both rivers. It has an action that works well enough around trees and has the power to cover the water. It is lightweight and balances very nicely.

breakage. In half a dozen trips we haven't needed the back-up rods and this last trip I nearly left them home. The first morning we encountered two Sailfish laid up with a Marlin on the surface with their dorsal fins and tail tips exposed to the morning light. Our guide Eulogio eased the boat within casting range and the nearest Sailfish pounced on the fly. After a couple blistering runs and over a dozen jumps it was brought along side of the boat. It was dead tired and was coming in easy with very little pressure against the rod. Suddenly there was a loud crack and about three feet of the rod tip slid down the line until it came against the fly which was still embedded in the fish's jaw. The Sailfish was landed and both the fly and rod tip were retrieved. Two days later when Jeff Runner landed in town, he discovered that one of his rods, which was an identical model had been damaged in shipment. We took the corresponding piece out of my rod and repaired his. My misfortune became his good luck. The best part is that neither one of us lost any fishing time.

	*	Search	Catalog	Trips & Schools	Bargains
	Our Waters		Order Info		Events

Item	Description	Price	To Top
SPEY-CL9	6- HOUR SUMMER STEELHEAD TUNE UP, August 22, Sunday, 8:00 am to 2:00pm.	$125

Thomas & Thomas
Model	Length	Line	Sections	Price	To Top
DH1307-3	13'	7	3	$720

Sage European Style
Model	Line	Length	Sections	Weight	Price	To Top
7141-4	7-8	14' 1"	4	9 3/4	$735

Sage Traditional Style
Model	Line	Length	Sections	Weight	Price	To Top
7136-4	6-7-8	13' 6"	4	7 3/8	$675

Lucky Six/Sevens & Seven/Eights
	On the average, the summer steelhead that come to the interior streams such as the Deschutes, John Day and Grand Rhonde are not huge fish. Most average 4-10 pounds. These fish prefer smaller flies. Many of these flies are fished with floating lines. When everyone fished with single hand fly rods, the most popular sizes were 9'-10' #6/7/8 weights. They are still popular because these rods fit the water, the flies and the fish. Now that many anglers have converted to two-hand rods, the most popular line weights are still 6/7/8 weight. Over the past couple of years I have had the
good fortune to catch steelhead with several 6/7 -7/8 weight spey rods that I really enjoyed. Each has a distinct personality and appeal. Knowing full well in advance that every reader/caster has his/her bias; the selection of the four models listed below are rods with which I have spent extensive time on the water. More than that, each rod has been tested in my presence by friends who are also experienced spey rod steelhead addicts. Their participation is of great value.

Model	Length	Line Weight	Sections	Rod Weight	Price	To Top
IBIS7126	12' 6"	#6/7	4	6	$495