A Brief  Warning to the Buyer

As with most fishing equipment, you get what you pay for.  Spending $50 or so on Amazon or in Wal-Mart may seem like a good purchase at first sight, but the chances are that your so-called bargain is in fact, a false economy:  this is as true of wading boots as of your rod and reel.  They may not seem so at first, but at some point any serious fly fisherman will have to buy in a set of wading boots or shoes.  Note, a standard hiking boot or sneaker is not good for splashing about in moving water, across slippery rocks, and on wet riverbanks (and by the same token, a good wading shoe is not good or meant to be used, for hiking paths, etc).

Are Felt Soled Boots Still the Best?

Until recently popular opinion has it that felt soled wading boots are the best, providing the greatest flexibility and traction.  More recently however, recent technological advances, coupled with a greater awareness of the need to ameliorate the introduction of harmful micro-organisms (aquatic nuisance species, or ANS) into our waterways, have led to the introduction of a new style of fishing footwear that whilst providing the necessary traction, and ankle support, but also lessen the conditions liked by micro-organisms and are easier to clean and keep clean.  A fine example are Simms G4 Guide Boots, complete with new Vibram soles & Cleanstream technology; worth a second look.

The wading shoe you purchase should be comfortable and have solid foot support when walking through water, and your choice may be influenced by the conditions you’ll be fishing in – speed of water current, type of terrain underfoot, and so on.  When angling these types of rivers, river talons or studded cleats are highly recommended.  River talons and cleats fit around a standard wading shoe and have small, metal spikes on the bottom.  These spikes, in combination with the metal it is attached to, provide the ultimate in footing.  River talons are highly recommended for the angler who will be wading in rivers that are very rocky, deep and have fast currents.

Size Differences

One point to be aware of is that due to differences in the systems of foot measurement, buyers in the USA & Canada are advised to purchase wading shoes one size above their actual shoe size, whereas in the UK for example, boot sizes equate more accurately to ones’ shoe size.  Most good stores that sell apparel such as the Simms G4 will have size charts and in some cases, written advice.  Further, most will supply the appropriate socks designed to go with the boots, as well as cleats mentioned above.

To Sum Up

A high grade quality wading boot or shoe provides purchase in slippery, fast moving water – leading to more enjoyable and safer wading. Whenever possible, look for wading shoes that have:

• A solid grip
• Ease of cleaning
• Good ankle support

Floundering around in a fast flowing river in hiking boots, standard gum boots or any other non-specific wading shoe is not advised.  Avoid the constant risk of falling, sliding around, the possibility of a visit to a medic, and the pain of wounded pride (and a fish that gets away); and invest in some sensible, quality wading boots.

Before you start panicking, this is not as big an undertaking as you might think. They are certainly been an overwhelming amount of information published about saltwater fly fishing and accessories. This can be confusing to someone who has never picked up a fly rod. However, just as with any other type of fishing fly fishing can be simple, or it can be complicated. It really does depend on what you wish to make of it. Getting started does not have to involve huge amounts of knowledge or equipment. In fact, you will quickly discover that there is no need to spend your life savings on equipment that will help you put a fish in your boat. Here are some of the basic equipment needs that will help you get started.

Naturally, the first thing you will need is a decent fly rod. Anything lighter than the seven weight rod is not a good investment. In fact, it is typically recommended that eight or nine weight is the perfect place to start for your average saltwater fish. This includes Northeast fish like bluefish and striped bass. You will find that for the most part, rod lengths are about 9 feet. These offer the leverage that anglers need to cast the line with little effort and they are easy to handle. A good quality rod should not cost you more than $100 at most tackle shops.

The next most important piece of equipment that you will need is a good reel to match your rod. The good news is the confusion is easy to wade through. Since reels and fishing rods are rated the same, and an eight weight reel will match up with an eight weight rod. If you plan on using your fishing rod primarily in salt water settings, a large, arbor reel is typically a best choice. The benefits of these include wider deepest pools that allow you the room that you need for a couple of hundred yards a fly line backing, as well as your fly line. This additional line is necessary in the event that you hook a large fish that make a long run. This type of fly reel system can be purchased for well under $100.

The next part of your tackle should be fly line and backing. There is no need to use expensive lines in the beginning. Your line weight should match your fishing rod and reel, and it is preferable that you go with a floating weight forward line. You will not need sinking lines until much later. The majority of your spool should be filled with the fly line backing before the fly line is attached. The best fishing line for this is Dacron, typically weighted for 20 to 30 pound test. It would be prudent to ask a tackle shop that has line winding equipment to put the appropriate amount of backing onto your reel and then attach the fly line to the backing.

Finally, you will need leaders and flies. The best leaders are made from monofilament of fluorocarbon line. This piece of line should be the same length as your rod, and should be attached to your fly line before you tie on your fly. Your local retailer will be more than happy to make recommendations the leader sizes and this will depend on the type of fish that you are going after. Tapered leaders allow for unfurling at the end of the cast.

Talk to others who fish locally for deciding which type of flies to use. As a general rule of thumb, a small selection of surface flies and streamers are usually sufficient. For those just starting out, the employees in a local tackle shop can provide this information. After you have been fishing a few times, you will start to figure out what works best for you.

I love talking about how fishing turned my life around when I was just 8 years old. I can’t imagine what my life would have been like if it continued as it had from age 5 to 8. I was already depressed and had nothing to live for, well as an 8 year old I thought that way.

It’s Take A Kid Fishing Day this weekend in New Brunswick, not sure about every where else but I think it should be a global event.

The weather people obviously don’t fish or have kids because they are calling for rain all weekend.

When you take that kid fishing be sure to make it their day, give them all the attention they need and don’t over do things. When they say they have had enough, they have had enough.

I know each time I have taken a kid fishing my heart has come out of it in better shape than when I went into it. Making a kid a happy kid, even for a day, makes me happy for a long time.

When I am fly fishing for most species available to us here in New Brunswick Canada I don’t usually strip the fly in all the way to the boat but when I am fly fishing for chain pickerel I do. Why?

Well chain pickerel, just like pike, love to follow your presentation all the way back to the boat where they explode on it, so I try to keep the fly in the water until the last possible second before I re-cast my fly.

Then there’s that big V-shaped wake the follows the pickerel as it’s headed for the fly. I have a hard time controlling myself when I see the wake and a lot of times I pull the fly right out of their grasp.

Favourite Fly To Use For Pickerel

I use a lot of flies when I am fishing most species but when it comes to chain pickerel it’s almost always a mouse or rat. They just can’t pass up on a big meal.

The first few times, early season, when the water temperature is still below 54F I don’t have much luck with the top water flies but as soon as that temperature goes up past that magic 54F/7C they will start to move a bit and go for those top water flies.

It’s great fun from that point all the way through to the fall when the water temperature drops below that 54F again. But heck it makes for a great time fishing from my float tube.

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I have so many great fishing memories but when Jamie and I were fishing chain pickerel this past weekend I was reminded of a fly fishing trip with Fishing buddy Kerry. We were out in our float tubes for a day of fly fishing pickerel in the weeds, which is always exciting.

Pickerel are great fun on a spinning rod but fishing pickerel on the fly will give you an entirely new experience, one that will keep you coming back with your fly rod. At the best of times having a chain pickerel on my fly rod is exciting but being deep in the weeds and hooking one of these toothy critters on the fly is a challenge. What an adventure.

Kerry was really good at creating a tippet that was pretty weedless because he was continually out performing me.  I eventually asked him what he was doing to keep from getting caught up in the weeds. That’s when he showed me how he had used epoxy to cover all knots, including the steel leader he used.

As soon as I got home I sat down and prepared a few setups for our next trip out, which was at least once a week, if not more. Now I was able to keep those weeds off my line and the catches increased dramatically. So sad that he chose to get married and move away rather than stay here fishing with me.

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• Fly Fishing For Pickerel (thejoyofflyfishing.com)

I always prefer to be out on the water rather than stuck in the house or at home for that matter, don’t tell my wife. However when I am stuck at home for what ever reason I still have my satellite and WFN. I also have a PVR so I can record all the fishing shows I love to watch, without the need to be home.

I used to have to surf all the channels to find what fishing shows are on but now I can just go through the guide and record any future events while I am sleeping or better yet, while I am out enjoying a day on the water fishing with friends.

A couple of the programs I like most are the fly fishing related programs, as I love to fly fish and really enjoy tying some of my own flies.

I can cast a fly pretty well but I am always ready and willing to learn new things to get a better cast.

I also like watching fly tying sections on these shows. I am a show me kinda guy. I do so much better when I see someone tie something. I end up tying flies I would have just been left scratching my head trying to figure out.

It’s also nice to be able to jump online and see what’s going on at www.wfn.tv both in the past and what’s upcoming.

Brother-in-law Joe, taught me how to fly fish and gave me a few pointers when I was purchasing my first fly rod, reel and fly line. I think the most important thing he told me at that time was to match my rod and fly line weight.

I didn’t really understand why he wanted me to match the weights, I just did what he told me and soon understood why.

The fly rod I purchased was a 7 1/2 foot – 8 weight rod, which was 30 years ago and I am still using that same fly rod. As a matter of fact I was still using the same fly reel that I purchased at that time, even though I just bought a brand new fly reel.

Investing in a good, well matched fly fishing rod, reel and fly line will make for more enjoyable fly fishing.

I have always been able to out cast my fly fishing buddies and always thought it was because I was better at casting a fly when in reality it was due to matching my fly rod and fly line.

It wasn’t until I switched fly rods with one of my fishing buddies. Both of us noticed right away that my buddy made the best casts of his life using my old and worn fly rod and I was having trouble matching my normal cast.

That was when I started asking him about the fly line he used and what weight it was.

The next time we went fly fishing for Atlantic salmon I had already forgotten about switching rod, but he didn’t and had gone out to buy new fly line that matched the weight of his fly rod and my days of out casting him were pretty much over.

I am sure he went for at least 10 years without ever matching his fly line to his rod and I never thought about it either, I just did it because Joe told I needed to. I’ll guarantee that he will never made that mistake again.

Balance is where it’s at when it comes to fly fishing. I even have my fly reel matched to my fly rod so that when I hold it in my hand to cast and open my fingers that rod stays there, balanced perfectly on my fingers.

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You don’t hear that too often these days. Some one staying married to the same person for almost 30 years. We got a lot of congrats from friend, family and neighbours and ever single one of them said the same thing about not seeing people last in marriage, so we feel pretty blessed.

Fishing Tip: Now here is a how you stay married and happy tip and to keep on fishing in the future. Don’t go fishing on your anniversary.

If I have learned anything in those years it’s that I am much happier when Jenny is happy. So I try to do things that make her happy. She is not a fisher by any stretch so I don’t ask her if she wants to go fishing on those special days.

Well our anniversary was April 17th, yesterday and today is Sunday. I wonder if I dare ask her to come with me while I get some pictures of early season trout fishing spots I like to fish in April? We will see after church.

If you never see another post here you know it wasn’t such a bright idea.

I am really looking forward to fishing season this year, like I don’t every year, just 4 more sleeps. That’s if I sleep of course. We have had a really early spring with above average temperatures.

The last couple of years we have fished the same spots for chain pickerel. I took fishing buddy Jamie once and he was hooked just like the first time I fished pickerel. The fishing was so good most of the time that we kept returning to the same area. We practice CPR, catch, photograph and release, so there are always lots of them and they just keep getting bigger each year.

About mid July, last year I took Jamie to a couple of spots we had not fished pickerel. A couple of little hot spots that I have had so much fun fishing over the years. I kind of expected the water to be pretty much gone, as in years before, but there was still plenty of water.

The day I took him in to my secret pickerel spots I was really hot and very windy, so the pickerel were hard to catch on top water, which of course is our favorite method of fishing pickerel.

I half expected to catch nothing and be back out of there quickly. I just wanted to show him these spots until the wind died down a bit.

My first hot spot is very open but on the very first cast they were active and we spend a few hours there having a blast. The hardest part was keeping the canoe still in that wind. One anchor just didn’t cut it and we kept blowing off course. Still had a great time though, one would control the canoe while the other fished and then we switched.

After we fished that hot spot for a few hours I wanted to show him my second hot spot. The first spot we could paddle through channels to get there but this spot was faster to get to if we carried the canoe through the bush, but it was just too hot and I wasn’t sure there was even any water left there. So we hiked in on foot.

We did bring our rods but it was so dry in the bush that we didn’t even bring our waders with us. That was a mistake on my part, I knew better.

I was surprised just how much water was still holding in there.

Jamie and I stood there for a few minutes. The wind was almost non-existent in there and the water was like glass, except for a gust that would put a little ripple on the water, but nothing like it was out in the open.

Even though there was still water there I wasn’t so sure about the pickerel. So I walked to a spot where I cast to the water, over a lot of grass, but it looked like the perfect spot. The plastic worm hit the water at the same time a good sized pickerel smashed it.

Well I was in my sneakers, sneakers that were about 10 years old and had never been in smelly sticky mud but I wasn’t about to let that pickerel get away, so I started walking towards that water, quickly sinking up to my knees in mud and weeds, but I got that toothy critter landed.

I have this terrible habit of picking fishing up with the wrong hand

Next time I will at least carry my waders in or maybe we will go to the other end and find our way back out the river so we can get in that way the next time.

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• Fly Fishing For Pickerel (thejoyofflyfishing.com)

I don’t care how great a fly fisher you are I am sure there are times you don’t feel like getting wet.I live in New Brunswick and we have a lot of water that stays cold all year long. We also have April and May that aren’t exactly known for warm water here.

Then there is the water I would never walk in without waders, like the water we fish for chain pickerel.It’s dark water, full of leeches and the bottom is soft so every step is going down a foot or so into the soft muddy bottom.

Because our season starts mid April I have neoprene chest waders but once the water temperature rises they get too hot so I have a second pair of waders that are much thinner, helping to cool me down on those scorcher days.

Which Waders Are For You?

Chest Waders or Hip Waders

Back 30 years ago when I learned to fly fish I started out with hip waders as most of the places I fished were brooks that were fairly shallow. It wasn’t until I started fly fishing for Atlantic salmon that I need to get myself a pair of chest waders. These days I never wear hip waders.

With or Without Built in Boots

My personal preference for my waders is to have them without boots attached. I find that my boots fit me better when I buy them separately. Plus I have gone through multiple pairs of waders over the years while my boots remained in good shape. No need to replace the boots.

I also find the waders that come with the boots as part of the waders just never seem to fit me properly. The waders are either to big and loose or the boots are. I have never had the problem with waders I buy without the boots.

I have also found that waders with built in boots tend to rub against my legs too much which irritates my calf long before the day of fishing is done.

I never leave home, when I am going fishing, without my chest waders, even if we are going to be in the canoe all day.

Simm’s makes great waders, give them a look before you purchase your next pair of fly fishing waders.

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