Four Months with my Swift Epic 686, plus Backstory

Introduction

Sherman, set the Wayback Machine for August, 2015.  There were two historically significant events at this temporal nexus:

1. The Fading Angler spends a day with a guide in southern Minnesota's Driftless Area.  Guide Dan brings along a 4 weight TFO Finesse rod that seems to mesh better with my casting "skills" than the stiff 7-foot Sage Approach 3-weight I brought along.
2. The Fading Angler gets a chance to test-cast the brand-spanking new Sage MOD at Headhunters Fly Shop in Craig, MT.  The MOD is Sage's "moderate action" rod, sitting somewhere between the actions of the fast ONE and "advanced slow-action" CIRCA models.  Very quickly, something amazing happens:  I am able to shoot line at the conclusion of forward casting strokes.  I'd never been able to do this before.

This was chronicled in more detail here on the blog last year: Fly Angler: Headhunter or Head Case?

Being a scientist (at least in my own head), I immediately implemented a new top-secret operation and intelligence protocol:

Fading Angler's Cientific Exploration Purporting to Learn Actual Nowlegde and Truth, better known by the codename FACEPLANT.

(You might want to grab a coffee, Diet Mountain Dew, pint of beer, or a double bourbon before continuing. Oh, and a grain of salt.  Bring the shaker...)

Reaching for Perfection

Just a short video nugget today, from Mark Raisler and John Arnold at Headhunters Fly Shop in good ol' Craig, MT.



I can't get enough of watching artist Mark Raisler cast a fly rod.  Yeah, that probably sounds weird, but I accepted long ago that I'm somewhat deviant.  My favorite line from him in the video:

 Just make sure that first cast is perfect, and you get fish like that.

Sure, Mark... As soon as I get back from Olympus and Asgaard, I'll remember to always make that first cast perfect.  It's so simple...

Just remember what St. Norman said:

...art does not come easy.

Trout Trek Part V - The Undiscovered Canyon

April 17, 2016 -  Fishing Day 2

Sunday Adventure begins here

It was an act of negligence on my part to wait this long.  I should have taken notes at the end of the day, or early the next day.  Alas, many of the details of this day have faded.  Many key events are still vivid in my memory, but a good amount of the moment-by-moment images have been washed downstream.  I need to be quicker to record trip details, probably rely on technology a bit more.

I remember waking myself up early.  I had a mission before the day could begin:  get down to Headhunters Fly Shop and retrieve the Epic 686 unidirectional fiberglass rod that John Arnold had set  aside for me.  They opened at 7 and I was in the door at 7:12.  The rod was waiting and the staff helped me take care of the paperwork.  In hindsight, it was rude/unprofessional of me not to buy SOMETHING while I was in there.  I feel badly about that.  No, I feel stupid.  Apologies to John and Mark.

I was back at the lodge before Mrs. Fading Angler was out of bed.  Breakfast was excellent and served with Lindsay's usual flair and TLC.  As food settled, the tone got serious between Joe and his anxious clients, all two of us.  What ARE we going to do today?  The weather was expected to be nearly identical:  full sun, some breezes, slightly warmer.  We could run the same stretch from Craig to the Dearborn River ramp and expect about the same as yesterday.  I'd had my fun there, and was actually looking forward to something new and a little more challenging.  The decision was made to float the "lower canyon."  Joe said it would be a lot of trial an error, relearning how fish were feeding because of the flow, temperature, and weather changes.  There was hope for some rising fish in some of the shaded sections later on.  Finally, he was confident that we'd have a good time tucking into some deep eddies.  I was anxious to see some new water, as yet undiscovered by me.

Trout Trek Part III - Slowing It Down with Epic FastGlass®

Epic stuff.
Photo credit: Headhunters Fly Shop

It's no secret I've been thinking about slower-action rods for a while.  We've got a couple of Sage rods around here at the Angler residence, and most of it is fast-action stuff.  I like to tease Mrs. Fading Angler that her Sage ONE 590 feels like an ultra-light piece of rebar.  I started thinking about something more moderate after using a guide's TFO Lefty Kreh Finesse (quite a model name!) last summer.  One of the hallmarks of Parkinson's Disease is slower movement, so maybe a slower rod would be a better match for my casting style (or, more accurately, lack thereof).  Sage announced their new lineup late last summer, and I've had MOD-on-the-brain ever since.  I got a brief chance to cast a 5 weight Sage MOD at Headhunters Fly Shop in Craig, Montana before we pulled out of their campground last August.  It was the first rod that ever let me shoot a little line out at the end of a forward cast, which made me shiver.  So did the $850 retail price.  But maybe this idea had merit.

Trout Trek Part I - The Corps of Rediscovery

Lewis and Clark lead the Corps of Discovery up the Missouri River in 1804.  In June, they found their way to The Great Falls of the Missouri, located in present day Montana, where they were forced into one of the most challenging tasks of their entire voyage: portaging (modern translation: DRAGGING) their equipment and supplies on an 18 mile land-trek around the various falls and rapids in this stretch of the River¹.  Their efforts and success are well documented, though modern historians are still debating their exact methods of bypassing Holter Dam, further up river.  Clark's maps and Lewis' journals are remarkably short of details on that particular obstacle.

Today, nearly anyone can find their way to Great Falls, Montana, thanks almost entirely to the maps left behind by these hearty pioneers.  We can easily chart a course via land or river to arrive at this small city in northern Montana.  However, the feat appears to still be somewhat elusive for technology-dependent airlines.

The original marker left by Clark in 1804.
The Corps was also relieved to discover
the nearby state-maintained outhouses.²

In January of 2016, the Corps of Rediscovery was commissioned by executive order of Mrs. Fading Angler.  She has explored remote and primitive parts of the Bob Marshal Wilderness with local guides on elk hunts in years past. She successfully negotiated a treaty for safe passage and provisions in April from one of the guides.  The local guide could be found near a Montana encampment called "Craig," located upriver from Great Falls.  Again, the original Corps archives are sketchy on the details of how this place was given its name.  But at least one source claims that it was named after a bearded dude wearing a bandana and Maui Jim sunglasses, who sold Clark some trico and hopper patterns that were "guaranteed to slay, with a sweet drift on a 4 weight."²

And Now We Pause for These Messages

First, I'm pleased to announce that Tax Restrictions have been lifted and I am free to fish!

Second, I've visited two neurologists in the past couple of weeks because things are changing.  I'll write more about this when I've found the right perspective and words to use.

Third, since I don't really have anything of my own to offer this week, I have a couple of items I'd encourage you to read while my gears are grinding:

• Notes from Base Bozeman 4 April: Equilibrium - The folks at chiwulff.com run a timely, diverse, and well-written blog.  Hightlight from this post: "Sometimes the river just fixes things."  I'm ready for some fixing. Which way to the river?
• A bit of help for Harper -  The crew at Headhunters Fly Shop in Craig, MT manage to post something just about every day on their blog.  This one went deep for me.  A Missouri River guide had his tiny baby daughter life-flighted far away from him.  When I saw the hospital photos on the GoFundMe page, it was like someone had sent me back in time 15 years.  My son was born with heart problems (among many other issues), and spent plenty of time as an infant on a respirator, with an IV in his head, and an NG tube running up his nose.  And he has another small procedure happening this Friday, which fortunately has nothing to do with his heart.  We should be out by the end of the day.  

Hug your kids and/or grandkids today.  Life is fragile.

"Take me to the river, put me in the water..."

Fly Angler: Headhunter or Head Case?

First Thing first: Definitions, for the reader without a background in flyfishing slang.  "Head Hunting" refers loosely to the practice of pursuing fish that are poking their heads out of the water in the act of eating something floating on the surface.  In the context of fishing, it has nothing to do with attempting to separate the brainless head of another human being who lacks the courtesy to avoid the water you've been fishing for nearly an hour as they shirtlessly float through in their rental raft with a Coors Light in each hand.  (I nearly mentioned something about these rafts being slightly less unwelcome when one or more passengers are bikini-clad, but that's not always true and might be offensive to some, so I avoided mentioning it.)  Or the other angler who's positive that the only fish in the river are in your immediate proximity.  There's a special DSM-V classification for these poor souls: accute rectocranial impaction.

Next Thing: Declarations.  I go through phases of obsessive and compulsive fascination with flyfishing, especially fly rods and fly lines.  Currently, I'm stuck in the gravitational vortex of a black hole with "moderate action" rods at its heart.  This trajectory was triggered by two things that recently coincided:

More Than Words

Sending out thanks to:

• Headhunters Fly Shop in Craig, MT for letting us park the 5th-wheel RV for a few nights, and for letting me try the new Sage Mod!
• Isaak's for the food and beverages
• Matt Mortensen, our fishing guide with Missouri River Lodge and X-Stream Fly Fishing, Wolf Creek, MT.  Matt, you are absolutely crazy.  And we love you for it! (This was our second trip with Matt as a guide.  There will be more!)

The rest of this story can be told with photos.  Mostly.