Flymage Magazine 25 winter 2015

Fly fishing & photography Magazine

issue #25 - WINTER 2015 www.flymage.net

This is a Test.

Fly fishing is more than than getting your fly in frontfly Fly fishing is more getting your of a fish.

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CONTENtS PEBBLE MINE STATUS REPORT

By Scott Hed

4

CROSSING BORDERS

20

FLY FISHING WITH JACK HEMINGWAY

58

PASSION FOR FLY FISHING AND PHOTOGRAPHY

66

By Eduard Cesari

By John R. Childress

By Bo Hermansen

COVER PHOTO - © Gerard Perramón

EDITOR JOSÉ H. WEIGAND

CONTRIBUTORS SCOTT HED, WYATT ABERNETHY, EDUARD CESARI, GERARD PERRAMÓN, JOHN CHILDRESS, BO HERMANSEN, JOHN LANGRIDGE, JOSÉ L. GARCÍA.

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Š Bo Hermansen

End of 2014 Bristol Bay / Pebble Mine Status Report

By Scott Hed Sportsman’s Alliance for Alaska Photos: Scott Hed/Wyatt Abernethy

There have been a few major developments in the long-running campaign to protect the world’s most productive wild salmon fishery as 2014 draws to a close.

First, a quick refresher to get caught up. Over a multi-year period, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency conducted the Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment (BBWA) – a study of the values currently found in the Bristol Bay region as well as the potential risks to those values from proposed largescale mining development such as the Pebble Mine project. The BBWA involved 2 rounds of public comment and 2 rounds of peer review by an independent panel of expert scientists. It concluded that large-scale mining would have significant negative impacts on the waters and lands that support the largest wild salmon runs on earth – something that the fishing community has known all along. EPA used the BBWA as the basis for beginning a process under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act that could limit the type of mining development allowed in the Nushagak and Kvichak river drainages in Bristol Bay. EPA proposed common-sense restrictions on miles of stream impacted, acres of wetlands,

lakes, and ponds impacted, and reduction in stream flow. During this period, the major financial backers of the Pebble project withdrew their support, leaving only Northern Dynasty Minerals as a member of the Pebble Limited Partnership (PLP).

Weakened financially, and facing strong opposition both in Alaska and across the country, PLP decided to fight to keep its project alive in two arenas – Congress and the courts. Legislation was proposed in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives that would strip EPA of the very authority it is considering using to protect Bristol Bay. Also, PLP filed 3 lawsuits against the EPA seeking to have the agency’s work halted.

The legislation didn’t go anywhere in the last Congress, but it is highly likely that similar legislation will be offered in the new Congress which begins in January. The angling community will need to be ready to contact Senators and Representatives to urge them to oppose any bills that would weaken EPA’s ability to use the Clean Water Act to protect Bristol Bay. Of the 3 lawsuits filed by PLP, there was action just prior to Thanksgiving on one suit – and a

federal judge issued a temporary injunction that stops EPA from doing any work on the Bristol Bay Clean Water Act process until it is resolved. In Pebble’s own words, this was a “procedural victory,” and it doesn’t affect EPA’s scientific justification for using the Clean Water Act in Bristol Bay. Best case scenario = judge grants a motion to dismiss the suit and EPA’s work resumes in March 2015. If the motion to dismiss is not granted, then the case moves to discovery and EPA’s work may be pushed into 2016.

The bottom line remains that Pebble Mine is still the wrong mine in the wrong place. It was hoped that EPA would take the next step in the Clean Water Act process in February 2015 and that we could possibly have seen Bristol Bay protected by this coming summer. The lawsuit situation has pushed that timeline back.

In a somewhat related vein, in mid-December, President Obama issued a moratorium on offshore oil and gas exploration and development in Bristol Bay. In his announcement, the President touched on many of the same points that those who

have worked to protect Bristol Bay from the Pebble Mine have used for years. The President acknowledged the uniqueness of Bristol Bay, and the tremendous economic benefits it creates for Alaskans and many in the lower 48. While this announcement is welcome news for Bristol Bay, it does not affect the fight to stop the Pebble Mine. The EPA must still issue final and permanent protections to prevent North America’s largest open pit mine from being built at the headwaters of one of the world’s premier sportfishing destinations. With a final Clean Water Act 404(c) determination in Bristol Bay, the EPA has the power to make President Obama’s pledge to protect Bristol Bay both complete and lasting.

We will continue to need the angling community’s engagement in 2015, especially in beating back any harmful legislation that would take away EPA’s tools under the Clean Water Act that can see us reach the ultimate goal of protecting Bristol Bay from massive mines like Pebble.

Thanks in advance for your support, and stand by for how you can help in 2015.

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Crossing Borders

By Eduard Cesari Additional photos: Gerard Perram贸n

“Just over three years ago, while carp fishing from the shore, I occasionally made some longer casts leaving the streamer to sink deeper, hoping a bass or zander might take the fly. Blind faith, or perhaps pure chance, led me to catch some walleye using a floating line, key facts which made me think that a sinking line and a boat or float-tube would actually be much more effective.�

Two years ago I made one of the best purchases I’ve ever made, a secondhand float tube.

The beginnings were not very encouraging we might say, since I tried it out on a fairly strongly flowing River Ebro, without even knowing how to turn it on the water.

My first real trial came on a reservoir, looking for zander, after having tried a bit on an odd pond. I took a spinning rod (it was actually the last time I took one along) in case the fish went deep and the fly was no use. That day, a zander opened my eyes to the fact that it was possible to fish for any freshwater species on the fly, at almost any depth.

Fresh from the depths.

Smile please.

Dumbbell eyes and a chartreuse/white colour, a very effective combination in deep water.

Gradually, the species that I was catching with sinking lines from a float tube, have confirmed that any kind of fish inhabiting our inland waters is fishable. Zander, largemouth bass, trout, wels catfish, perch, pike, even carp and barbel. So this time I had more than enough confidence to fish exclusively with a fly rod.

In small areas like these reeds, a float tube is the best way to fish without scaring the fish.

Two Fishing Techniques The first is “beating the banks”, fishing every one of the spots where I think the fish might be. On days of 10 to 12 hours casting with an # 8 rod, it can be exhausting and you had better make the minimum false casts possible. Therefore I typically use a line number above that marked on the rod, with a sinking tip grade III (about 5m), and rather a long leader, over 2m, to compensate slightly for the ’poor ‘presentation of a sinking line falling through the water.

I usually use a rod # 8, parabolic; for casting I like this much more than a tip action and you don´t get so tired.

I do not often use intermediate lines, although they are an option if you’re interested in somewhat slower fishing. I use a DT for sight fishing, and a WF for general fishing.

Two different kinds of fishing equipment. One for shore fishing and another for deeper water.

Casting to a cruising carp.

A #10 parabolic rod for sight fishing for big carp, and to hold them without giving a single meter of line when there are a lot of snags they can go for.

Three pictures of the fight with a carp.

A big brownie before releasing it.

Float tube is perfect to fish for trout in ponds and reservoirs.

The second technique I use I call “fly trolling�. It is moving around, always with the line in the water, around the most attractive places, and matching the movement of the fish, pulling line and moving the rod up and down to maintain the tension, as a bite may go unnoticed or the hook not set.

The line that is best to use is WF, sinking tip Grade VI, with a floating running line. The reason is that the running line allows me to drift much more progressively and suitably to the speed of the float tube, even to detect bites without keeping a tight line.

A general rod can be a # 6-9 line and fast action, I usually use a #8. This type of action allows you to detect bites, set the hook better and faster, an important point in this technique.

Using sinking lines, a barbel take is really aggressive and the run is immediate.

Full sinking lines (15-18 ips), roughly equivalent to Grade VI, in order to go deeper, but with the low speed of the float tube, you just fish almost vertically, giving the sensation that the line goes deeper than the streamer, losing sensitivity, and conditioning the streamer’s movement to maintain a tight line.

This technique is total escapism, away from civilization with half your body in the water, with no noise, drifting with your flippers, combined with the streamer movement, knowing that, at the least expected moment a fish can rip the rod from your hands.

It’s really exciting going through an area where you are clear that a bite is imminent ... These are difficult things to understand if you don’t live fishing passionately.

For this “riding” technique, I usually use a streamer that serves for any species that inhabit the reservoir and give you more chances.

Streamers of about 10 cm are ideal for cyprinids (although they can take one of 16 or 18 cm!), A fact that I always have in mind in

order to better select the species that can be fished for. Catching fish of 30 to 40 cm, and then suddenly a one-meter carp, or a wels catfish of 1.30 m, is made possible with the gear I use, as well as being able to fight them, too.

In full fight with a wels catfish in open water.

For those still undecided, I recommend trying it, as long as you accept that it is not the most effective of all fishing techniques and you cannot rush into it.

Of course it has its limitations and the main one is reaching certain depths, and limited fly movement, drift speed, the likely absence of a depth finder‌ and all this considering that it requires a certain physical condition, if we want to spend the whole day on the water.

It is essential to watch the weather forecasts, for wind speed and direction, to take along a pump and not to go alone.

Always remember correct fish handling. Is not enough just return them to the water, you must do so with the greatest assurance of their possible survival.

If you want to take pictures, a good landing net can help to keep them in the water while you take the camera and shoot some pictures.

I hope you enjoy yourselves as much as I do.

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stories

untold

big fish, big landscape, big tales

“Time is but the stream I go fishing in.

I drink at it, but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is.

It’s thin current slides away, but eternity remains.”

Henry David Thoreau

Fly Fishing with

Jack Hemingway

By John R. Childress

The anticipation of an upcoming flyfishing trip to some exotic location seems to set my mind wandering back to highlights of past trips. One of my most memorable past adventures was flyfishing with Jack Hemingway, son of the famous author Ernest Hemingway.

In the spring of 2000 I was invited to go flyfishing for Atlantic Salmon in Iceland by a good friend and outstanding flyfisherman, John Green. John and I had fished together numerous times in Scotland and I was looking forward to his company and his fishing stories.

On the plane to Iceland from London John informed me that we were staying at a lodge whose guests that week included Jack Hemingway and his wife, Angela, as well as Orri Vigfusson, the ardent and innovative wild salmon conservationist. It promised to be a very interesting week and I had never fished the gin-clear water of northern Iceland.

While John Green was an accomplished Iceland salmon fisherman, this was my first experience with the tiny flies and the spooky fish in clear water. It took several days for me to get in the groove and hook and land a few of these massive, bright, hard fighting creatures.

But Jack was a seasoned vet of Iceland salmon fishing and tended to be high rod for most of the week.

One of the things I remember most about Jack Hemingway is that he was never without a smile and a hearty laugh, and he never boasted about himself. I imagine it must have been difficult being the son of such a famous author and sportsman, but Jack was definitely his own person, having a myriad of adventures as a OSS officer in WWII and a keen conservationist and sportsman.

At the dinner table each evening we would hear stories that ranged from his famous father to his own adventure of parachuting into occupied France with his fly rod, just in case he came

across a trout stream. Alas, he was captured and spent the remainder of the war in a German POW camp. Jack wrote two books, Mis-Adventures of a Fly Fisherman and A Life Worth Living, both about his life, family and fishing.

Our other companion for a part of that week was Orri Vigfusson. Orri was the inspiration behind the innovative approach to reversing the decline of the Atlantic Salmon through a program of buying out the net fisherman who, in their zeal to earn a living, were rapidly depleting the wild salmon stocks before they could enter the rivers to spawn. The abundance of North Atlantic netting, along with habitat destruction and pollution of the rivers, had over the decades between the 50s and 90s taken its toll on the stock of wild Atlantic Salmon. In addition, the increase in the number of seals and the spread of infections from salmon farms at the mouths of rivers were also a factor in the depleted numbers of fish. Orri’s efforts to mobilize the government

agencies of various countries led to an international effort to reduce the netting of wild salmon.

I am always amazed at the special people one meets while flyfishing. There is definitely something unique in the DNA of those who chase fish with flies and I am humbled to have been able to share that week in Iceland with two very special flyfishing legends, Jack Hemingway and Orri Vigfusson.

Sadly, Jack Hemingway passed away just a few months after our fishing trip. But I’ll bet he’s still smiling and telling stories.

Jack’s obituary in the Guardian is worth reading as it gives good measure of a good man.

Tight Lines.

John R Childress

FLY FISHING BOOKS Fly Fishing Belize

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From a photography and writing perspective, this book will speak to those who have fished Belize and those who plan to in the future.�

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“As with my first fly rod, I had to earn my money for the things I wanted.

So when I was fourteen, had saved enough money I could buy my first reflex camera.�

Bo Hermansen Passion for fly fishing and photography

“I grew up on the island of Fyn in the middle of Denmark. WIth my family we live in a beautiful country house in Jylland. Only a few kilometers away, there is a beautiful river with a good stock of wild brown trout and grayling.

Unfortunately the stock of both trout and grayling has suffered from the effects of too many cormorants these last years.

All through my life I have fished in many good rivers throughout Europe. I have done a lot of traveling, but I still enjoy fishing in my local rivers immensely. I also enjoy going to the coast on Fyn to fish for sea trout.

often see the fish. Here I found out that the fish didn´t feed on things looking like spinning lures. This was what really got me going with the fly tying. Since then I have been tying flies looking like fish food items.

As a kid we fished for all kinds of fish. We caught eel, roach, pike, flounder, cod and also trout in the river. When I grew a little older, I started fishing for sea trout on the coast. At that time, there was not as many sea trout as we see on the Danish coasts today.

As a teenager, fly fishing for trout became more and more of a passion for me. I loved the As a boy my family and I lived close combination of tying the flies and to a small river on Fyn. Already catching the fish on them. That before I could write my own name, has been the passion of my life; I fished in the river with a small rod, fly fishing for trout and grayling in a gift from my father. My first fly rod rivers.

I bought with money earned from picking strawberries in the school My fly fishing also started me holidays. Almost 40 years have building my own split cane rods. gone since, for the first time, I cast Up until today I have built more my new fly rod on the street in front than 200 cane rods. Here my big of our house. I didn´t know then interest lies with the # 3 and #4 that the tarmac of the road wore rods for trout and grayling. I have down the coating of the fly line, so developed my rods a lot these 20 it only lasted a couple of days... years and today I make them with a fast action. The weight of my rods I began tying flies before my 10th have come down to a minimum, birthday. When I fished the little so they are absolutely a fine river with my spinning rod, I could alternative to graphite rods.

Stonefly

When I was a kid, we lived next to my grandparents. My grandfather was a very active man and one of his biggest interests was photography. He developed his pictures in a room in the basement, and this initiated my interest for photography. As with my first fly rod, I had to earn my money for the things I wanted, so when, as a 14 year old boy, had saved enough money, I could buy my first reflex camera.

Granddad taught me to make pictures in the basement and we spent many good hours together.

You can learn a lot from photographing the insects. It will force you to get close to the bugs and really see what they look like, how they live and what their rhythm of life is. In a photo technical term this is called Macro Photography, meaning that you take pictures in a scale of 1:1.

For me it is always a big question if I should fish or take photos. When the fish are biting it is often the best time to photograph as well!

Because I take a lot of insect photos, it does not mean that I do not like to photograph other things.

I love a good motive and whether it is early morning or late evening is not important, as I often have a camera at hand.

Talking about gear, I think it is important not to say anything negative about any brand. Often your choice of brand will depend on personal opinion and your own test. Many years back, I decided to buy a good optic lens for my camera. I spent a lot of time finding out which brand I would be using.

Good lenses are expensive and you do not just replace them as you wish to.

I chose Canon, as I like their cameras and their accessories.

You can divide camera gear in two categories when you discuss the reflex camera type.

Optic lenses. Here you must carefully consider the purpose you will need them for and choose them accordingly. A good optic lens can last for many years, so look at it as long time investment.

The camera body. Normally the model you choose is close to be outdated before you buy it, as the development in this area is going very, very fast. So I replace my camera body every second or third year. My passion for insect photography is so big that I have chosen to buy professional models.

I can see the difference between a cheaper camera house and a professional one, but choosing a pro camera also requires that you are able to use the options that it gives you.

Heptagenia sulphurea - Yellow May

My favorite gear is a Canon EOS 5 mk III and for macro I use a 100 mm Canon macro lens. I also use my Canon 70-200 zoom lens a lot.

The light is of extreme importance too, so I use a radio transmitter for my flashlights. That means that I can place them where I want to, in order to get the light right on the subject. Yes, I also use flash in nature, also in full day light.

In my pocket I often carry a small Sony compact camera. It is very quick to use, if a good motive should suddenly appear.

“The four legs of my chair.”

I often talk about the four legs of my chair. One leg is flyfishing. The second leg is flytying. The third leg is split cane rod making. And the fourth and last leg is photography of the insects.

I take a picture of the bug, tie an artificial fly to imitate it, make a cane rod to match the places where I fish. The first three legs of my chair means that I enjoy the fourth and most important leg - fly fishing 100%.”

Dew on fly

Just about to take off

Danica Dun

Snapshots of the last moments of the Danica.

“Daddy Long Legs” - Cranefly

Natural and artificial food.

Blue Winged Olive

BWO

Pale Watery Dun

Caddis and dark olive nymphs

Cinammon Sedge

Yellow Sally

Blue winged damselfly

New line ferrule

Ready to fish!

Bo Hermansen with a beautiful sea trout.

Pupa de tric贸ptero latex

Ninfa de verano

Tric贸ptero CDC

Pupa de Tric贸ptero II

D谩nica

Buzzer

by Mikel Elexpuru

Flymage Fly Tying Videos

CONTRIBUTORS

Scott Hed is Sportsman’s Alliance for Alaska Director.

“The Sportsman’s Alliance for Alaska is a project of the Alaska Conservation Foundation (ACF), which is strongly committed to the importance of keeping Alaska’s wild lands healthy, accessible and enjoyed by the sportsman’s community. Hunters and anglers working together to preserve fish and game habitats and hunting and fishing opportunities on our public lands in Alaska.”

Scott is honored as Fly Rod & Reel’s 2014 Angler of the Year.

Please visit SAA website to know and support their work: www.sportsmansalliance4ak.org.

John R Childress is a Visiting Professor of Strategy at IE Business School, Madrid and the former CEO of an international management consulting group.

When not consulting or writing business books, he is fishing in such exotic places as Kamchatka, Alaska, Argentina, the Amazon, Belize or the Maldives.

He was born in Oregon to a family of flyfishers and often blogs about flyfishing, parenting, business and life.

You can reach John at john@johnrchildress.com and can follow his blog: http://blog.johnrchildress.com

Eduard Cesari is a young but experienced fly fisherman who has spent the last years fishing from a float tube in reservoirs and ponds.

Bo Hermansen, a danish fly fisherman with a huge passion from a very early age.

His pictures of insects are one of the most impressive collections we’ve ever seen.

He is also a very keen photographer, with his fishing partner Gerard Perramón. He has In addition, he is an expert managed to refine the technique bamboo fly rod maker, with over of fishing and to get shots like we 200 rods made. have published.

One of his favorite fishing spots Eduard collaborates with Adams is the River Test in England at the height of the May Fly, though brand. undoubtedly are the waters of You can learn more about him by rivers and coasts of Denmark visiting his Facebook page here. where Bo feel happier.

You can contact Bo by email: floatyarn@hotmail.com

Issue #26 Spring 2015