FLYCRAFT BLOG
[VIDEO] How To Euro Nymph With George Daniel
This July we were lucky enough to have one of our favorite anglers in town, George Daniel. Unprecedented low waters in the west made our choice of where to fish an easy decision, Utah's Green River.
Although running at half the flow we normally see it that time of year, the water was cold and easily navigable in the Flycraft Stealth X.
Check it out:
To be honest, we were expecting great dry fly fishing. We had heard that the hatches were in full force and the terrestrial bite was on.
As we all know, these conditions can change in a hurry and meeting George at our campsite in a full force rain storm made us wonder what was in store for the next day.
The following morning George, our Sales Manager, Brandon Collett, and Pasta the Fisher Dog, put in below the Flaming Gorge Dam on the Green River with optimism.
Ominous strong winds and overcast skies made us doubt the dry fly game but we still tried it for hours. The fact of the matter is, we were there to catch fish and a change of pressure/weather or technique wasn't going to keep us from it.
Fortunately, George may be the best nympher out there (or at least one of the best we've seen). After trying some more traditional methods we were happy to see George switch tactics and do what he is known for: Euro Nymphing.
It was our first time seeing this technique out of the boat and we were blown away. After a tough first few hours, it was like a light switch was flipped, in no time George was bringing in trout after trout.
We definitely learned a lot from watching and hope you will too.
If you would like to learn more about this technique or George Daniel, check out his website or his books below.
For those who may not know who George, he has rightfully made a name for himself more than probably anyone else in the fly fishing industry. With his roots in guiding in Western Pennsylvania, George has gone on to write two of the best selling books in fly fishing: Dynamic Nymphing and Strip Set.
In addition to his guiding and writing, George travels the country giving lectures and clinics on his passion. A couple years ago, he also joined on with Penn State University as the Professor of Fly Fishing.
Years ago, George joined on with us as one of our Flycraft Pro Anglers. For the smaller streams and some larger rivers in PA, our boats, including his new favorite, the Stealth X, seem to be the ticket.
George's annual summer trip to the West is one of our favorite times of the year when we get to row him down the river, watch him fish and spend time with someone who has become a good friend and addition to the Flycraft family.
George Daniel | www.livinonthefly.com
[VIDEO] Foster Art | A Spotlight on Fly Fishing Artist and Guide, Walter Foster
Meet Walter Foster, a Park City, UT fishing guide and fishing artist.
We met Walter years ago through guiding Utah's local rivers such as the Provo and Weber. We always enjoyed fishing with him and even spent some time guiding for his guide service, Trout Tales.
Little did we know, beyond being one of the best guides around, Walter had a whole different skill set.
For years now, Walter has been transforming memorable days on the water with his clients into fine pieces of art and memories that will last a lifetime. Whether it's the brown trout of a lifetime caught on a guide trip in Utah with Walter or that Bahama's Bonefish, Walter Foster can help transform your photo of your fish into something you'll never forget.
When he's not guiding the Provo River or in his studio, Walter and his wife are most likely traveling the west with his Flycraft Stealth Fisherman Package, truck and camper. The Stealth Fisherman Package is his boat of choice due to easy transportation, whether he's loading it on the roof of his 4Runner alone for a solo mission or hitching up his camper.
For more information about Walter's art or guide service check out the links below.
Walter's Art Gallery: @finefinart etsy.com/shop/FineFinArt
Walter's Guide Service: @trouttales trouttales.com
[VIDEO] Chasing Stoneflies on Henry's Fork
This past June we took a trip up to the Henry's Fork of the Snake River in Idaho. Henry's Fork may be one of the most iconic fly fishing rivers in the world. Most anglers have either fished it or dream to one day.
June for us here in Salt Lake is all about chasing hatches. Catching golden stoneflies or green drakes on Henry's Fork is something we never miss! If you've ever had a fish come to the surface to eat a big foam Chubby as a stonefly or a size 10 green drake, you know it's about as good as fly fishing gets.
On this trip our friends Alex and Mia, as well as their furry companion Hatch joined us for two days of floating and throwing dries in the Flycraft Stealth X. Alex's dad joined us for day two and hopped in the 3rd seat of the Stealth X.
Weather in the west in June can be very unpredictable, and we saw everything from hot sunny skies to storms. We were happy to have some good anglers that could battle the wind, or as we refer to it "Cindy".
Love Letter To Arkansas | Home to one of the greatest fishing towns in the United States
The white river of Arkansas is home to some of the best trout fishing in the world.
Spanning 720 miles between Arkansas and Missouri there are many fishing towns along its banks but the one that claims the crown is Cotter.
Known as Trout Capital USA, this sleepy little town is tucked in to one of the many sweeping bends of The White River a short distance from Bull Shoals.
When trout anglers refer to the White River, most often they are referring to the Bull Shoals Tailwater, which supports more fishing resorts and fishing guides than all the other Ozark tailwaters combined. Data collected in 1993-94 showed this section of the White River held 188 brown trout per mile in excess of five pounds.
Is Cotter truly the Trout Capital of the United States? It might be, there aren’t many river systems today that still host 4 different species of trout Brown, Brook, Rainbow and Cutthroat.
How We At Flycraft Pack Up and Travel For Fishing Trips: Destination - The Historic White River, Arkansas
We get a lot of questions about traveling for fly fishing. To help those who want more fishing experience or traveling for fly fishing trips, we are going to be showing you what we travel with on some of our fishing adventures throughout the year.
In these Flycraft travel videos, we’ll be going over:
- How we set our boats up
- What fly rods we each use
- What flies we prefer on certain rivers
- and everything in between on a weekly basis.
Each trip will have specific equipment for the location and species we'll be targeting, but each video will have useful information you can use for wherever you may be heading.
In this video today, I walk through what I will be bringing for a week-long trip down to Cotter Arkansas to fish the historic White River. I will go into a bit more detail below for those who like to get into the details of all the luggage and fishing gear to bring.
You can use the info below as a rough example of a pack list for your next fishing trip.
Now the White River and Cotter or Bull Shoals rivers aren't necessarily "hidden gems", but they don't seem to pull the same attention and traffic like iconic places out west such as Jackson Hole, the Madison River, or the Snake River. That doesn't mean there isn't great fishing. Quite the opposite is true! The White is probably one of the best places in the country to catch a monster brown trout (fly fishing legend Joe Humphries took the time to travel to the White for this exact reason).
If you're not into traveling with an inflatable drift boat or have no desire to cook meals or row yourself and buddies, the Cotter area has a fly fishing lodge or two, fly shops with any level of guided trip, and even a hosted trip every now and then with a social media influencer. So if the details below seem overwhelming, but you still want to experience chasing trout on the white, there are plenty of options for whatever type of angler you are wanting to be for the trip. That being said let's get into the details.
We'll be hitting the river with fishing guide, Jake Flood, for 4 days. The goal of this guided fly fishing trip is spending 2-3 days on the white and then maybe 1-2 days on some smaller local rivers going after rainbow trout, bass, and even some carp, if time allows.
Jake guides out of one of our Flycraft Stealth X inflatable drift boats and has it fully tricked out with a gear rack, 3rd seat, rod holder and rear lean bar.
After those 4 days I'll be spending some time with my family who lives in Northwest Arkansas and going out with my brother on a float trip or two. In total I'll be gone for a week.
I'll be taking a checked bag and a small backpack I use for all my air travel. Those two bags will have everything I need for this fishing adventure and they're more than enough for me. Here is how I have my fly fishing gear broken down between the two bags:
Checked Luggage:
- Redington Sonic HD Wader and Redington Prowler Boots
- Rod tube with a Scott Radian 6 weight 9' rod with a Redington Rise Reel and Scientific Anglers MPX 6 weight line
- Second rod tube with a Redington Cross water 8 weight 9' rod with a Ross Gunnison reel and a Rio Gold 8 weight line
- Simms gloves/mittens
- Sitka Kelvin Lite Vest
- Arc'teryx down insulated jacket
- 2 pairs of quick drying pants
- 2 pairs of sun shirts
- 2 Pairs socks
- Underwear
- Extra pair of Smith Optics Highwater Polarized sunglasses
- Fishpond Gunnison Gorge lumbar pack (stocked full with fly boxes, tippet, leaders, floatant, indicators, and weights)
Backpack:
- Arc'teryx rain jacket (this is way more travel friendly than my beefy Orvis jacket that I use when it's constantly dumping and I know I won't be taking it off)
- Sage X 5 weight 8'6" rod with a Sage Spectrum fly reel and Scientific angler MPX 5 weight line
- Redington Predator 7 weight 9' with an older Rise reel and a Rio Streamer line
- Toiletries
- Quality book for the flight
Tip: Some people may disagree with me, but for any fly fishing that requires air travel I always split up whatever travel rods I'm bringing if I'm able to. I've lost luggage way too many times to trust throwing them all in one giant rod tube and praying they get there. This way I know I will always have multiple fishing rods with me on the trip, no matter what.
Now for this trip I'm bringing rods from 5 weight to 8 weight so we will have all our bases covered no matter what style of fly is needed.
Fly Rods I’ll Bring:
- The 5 weight is the dry fly rod (3 and 4 weight rods are great dry fly rods, but I prefer a 5 weight when fishing from a boat for a dry fly setup.).
- The 6 weight will be my utility rod to throw small streamers like wooly buggers or some of those smaller hopper patterns.
- The 7 weight will be my streamer rod set up with a sinking line to help get those flies down, especially with generation flows varying from day to day.
- Finally the 8 weight will be the nymph set up.
This 5-8 fly rod set up is pretty standard for any fishing trip for us at the Flycraft shop.
The idea of traveling to Arkansas might not seem to have the same luxurious appeal as a saltwater expedition chasing tarpon or bonefish in Belize or the adventurous lure of Patagonia, or chasing salmon in Alaska, but it is beyond worth the trip at some point in your life.
Even if you aren't going to try throwing 4-7" mouse patterns for 3 foot browns under the light of the moon, you can still target a plethora of species that aren't common everywhere in the country like brook and cutthroat trout. So what Arkansas may lack on paper makes up for in some of the best fishing in the country, mixed with a laid back southern feel and a beautifully forested terrain.
[VIDEO] Bull Trout Fishing in British Columbia
Bull Trout in British Columbia has always been a bucket list fish for us here at Flycraft.
Fortunately for Andrew Leus, aka Paperbag Fisherman, his home waters are some of the best bull trout fisheries out there. Although Andrew makes it look easy, don't be fooled, a lot of hard work goes into it.
Andrew has had our classic 2-man Stealth Fisherman Package for years but he recently added the Stealth X to his fleet. As you can see in this video, it didn't take him long to put it to good use.
VIDEO (Day 2): Winter Fly Fishing with Legend Lance Egan
Frozen Solitude: If you saw our last video, you saw us fishing in a blizzard on Utah's Green River in the end of December. As much as we loved the winter scenery with the snow falling, not to mention the cloud cover for streamer fishing, we were far from disappointed to wake up the next morning to sunshine. After a hearty breakfast we headed outside to scrap the ice off our Flycraft Stealth X boats and shovel the snow out from the past day's storm.
Fortunately, the harsh weather from the day before must have scared people away because once again, we were alone on the river. 25 degrees and sunshine felt like a day at the beach compared to the day before and we were very happy to find out the fish ate the streamer just as well in the bright sunlight ... well at least they did for Lance Egan.
I'll admit, most of us noticed the streamer bite to be a little slower this day, which is typical for no cloud cover. Although a little slower for most of us, Lance showed us all why people call him the Fish Magnet. Once again, Lance probably brought around 30 or so fish to net which might have been as fun for us to watch as it was for him to do.
Winter really is one of our favorite times to fish. Having an iconic river like the Green River to ourselves is truly magical.
If you think this river is beautiful in the summer, you should see it when the banks and cliffs are covered in ice and snow. People always ask us if we are crazy fishing in the cold, but the truth is, there is no place we would rather be. In the boat we are able to bring whatever we need to stay warm: plenty of warm clothes, thermoses of coffee, and lots of food.
Big thanks to Lance Egan for joining us, it's always a blast to fish with this guy.
Learn more about the Flycraft Stealth X 2 or 3 person boat:
https://www.flycraftusa.com/pages/stealth-x-inflatable-drift-boat
Featured in this film:
Flycraft Pro - Lance Egan | @lanceeganflyfishing
Flycraft CEO - Ben Scribner
Flycraft VP Sales - Brandon Collett | @trickingtrout
Flycraft Operations Manager - Brad Buchanan | @thebradbuchanan
Filmed and Produced by: Kevin Landgren
VIDEO (Day 1): Winter Fly Fishing with Legend Lance Egan
Many people think winter time is the season to put the boat away and pursue other activities. To us, winter is the time to fish some of our favorite places without any crowds. Bundle up like you are going skiing, bring a thermos of hot coffee, load up your Flycraft Stealth X, and your streamer rod and you are destined for a killer day.
This winter we headed up to Utah's Green River below Flaming Gorge the last couple days of December for two days of fishing on Section A with Flycraft Pro Lance Egan.
Fishing with Lance is always a treat for us because this guy is one of the best fishermen on the planet. People always ask me, can someone really be that much better at fishing? If you've ever had a chance to fish with Lance or watch one of his DVDs you know the answer is YES.
Day 1 on the Green was complete blizzard conditions and temps ranging from 14 to 20 degrees. We had plenty of warm gear and enjoyed one of the West's most iconic rivers all to ourselves. Being the only people on the Green River is a magical experience.
Fortunately for the cloud cover, it was one of those streamer days you dream of. After watching Lance stick probably 30 fish or so on streamers we headed back to the cabin to recharge for the next day. We'll wait to give you the report on day 2's fishing when we launch the 2nd video, but for now enjoy this video of the first day: Blizzard and Boats
Click the link to learn more about the Flycraft Stealth X 2 or 3 person boat: STEALTH X 2 or 3 MAN BOAT
Featured in this film:
Flycraft Pro - Lance Egan | @lanceeganflyfishing
Flycraft CEO - Ben Scribner
Flycraft VP Sales - Brandon Collett | @trickingtrout
Flycraft Operations Manager - Brad Buchanan | @thebradbuchanan
Filmed and Produced by: Kevin Landgren
Click the link to learn more about the Flycraft Stealth X 2 or 3 person boat: STEALTH X 2 or 3 MAN BOAT
Announcing Paper Bag Fisherman As Flycraft’s Newest Brand Ambassador
Ymir, British Columbia isn't known as a fly fishing mecca. Yet in Ymir, lives one of the most passionate anglers on the planet.
He doesn't talk much and when he does, he speaks with a knowledge, obsession and conviction that inspires others to be better anglers, and conservationists, and to better appreciate the times spent in wild places.
He feels that fishing is really not about the angler, it’s about the fish, so he simply hides his identity with a pre-drawn paper bag and lets the fish get all the glory.
Andrew Leus, aka Paper Bag Fisherman, has fostered a lifelong love of moving water, and everything in it. He studies the aquatic world with an urgency and intensity that few have for ANY topic, and he travels far and wide throughout southern BC, northern Montana, Idaho and Washington looking to expand his knowledge.
Bull trout are his addiction, streamers his weapon of choice, and the Flycraft 2 Man Stealth his mode of transport. You might find him using a fiberglass rod to cast repurposed barbie dolls in hidden, far away spots that hold the biggest bulls.
And then, when a giant is finally in the net, the bag goes on. There is no feeling on earth like fishing for bull trout, having one take you into the backing and then, BAM! Andrew comes out of nowhere and slams a paper bag on your head while you try to tail what you are sure is one of the largest char ever caught!
When not fishing, Andrew is a talented artist creating obscure works of amazingly intricate art. From large paintings to hobbled together sculptures made from found items on his long walks and time on the water, his art is truly unique and worthy of the praise it has garnered.
It’s turned into a bit of a tradition this paper bag thing, and Andrew is known far and wide as "The Paper Bag Fisherman", but at its roots is an incredibly authentic, and creative soul looking to learn, share and create memories with friends on the water, and in the Flycraft.
3 Fishing Adventures in the Flycraft Stealth X
The new Stealth X has surpassed expectations. It's really the perfect hybrid between our Stealth 2-person and Guide 3-person inflatable fishing boat.
Given the Stealth X's versatilely, we at Flycraft opted to take it on a few of our favorite runs: The Provo River, Utah, the Madison River, Montana and the Green River, Utah.
Check out the views and fish in the video below:
Here's a few things we love about the Stealth X:
- It's new frame design, secure leg locks for each angler, and its quick self-bailing feature, the Stealth X is a must-have for the avid fisherman.
- It’s WIDER, comfortably accommodating 3 people.
- With a new frame design, secure leg locks for each angler, and its quick self-bailing feature, the Stealth X is a must-have for the avid fisherman.
For those of you who‘ve had a hard time deciding between our classic 12 foot 2-man Stealth and our 14 foot 3-man Guide Boat, the Stealth X is really the perfect hybrid for you.
You can also check out Day 1 and Day 2 of our winter trip to the Green in the Stealth X with Flycraft Pro Lance Egan.
Learn more about the Stealth X here >>
VIDEO: Fall Fishing in a Flycraft Guide
Check out this short film of Clark Aeger and friends taking the Flycraft Guide 3-person fishing boat out for a spin on a beautiful fall day.
This video was shot on the Lower Provo River in Utah, a favorite small fishing river for local fly fishermen.
Check it out...
Video shot and edited by Clark Aeger @clark_aegerter_images
Fly Fishing for Fatty Rainbows from a Flycraft
Kendel with TroutHowler caught our attention documenting his fishing adventures off the beaten path. We reached out to see if he'd like to try one of our boats on his adventures ... looks like he's a Flycraft fan.
Check out the short (2 min) or long (22 min) video of his latest fishing adventure below.
Fly fishing for Fatty Rainbows from a Flycraft (2 min video)
"Ben the owner of Flycraft reached out to me and asked if I would like to try out his boats in some of my videos to which I replied----YES! It's a Flycraft, who's going to say no to that? So my buddy and I took one to a favorite destination hoping for some fat Rainbows. We ended up catching some nice ones and had a good time. We were both very impressed with the boat."