The Middle River Group, LLC

fly fishing, conservation and politics.

tenkara, conservation, communications, politics

Key grip and trout wrangler at the Middle River Group, LLC. Playing Doc Holliday to the Wyatt Earps of the fish and wildlife conservation world. Deputy Director, Marine Fish Conservation Network. Guide and instructor, Mossy Creek Fly Fishing. Freelance outdoor writer.

Connections

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When I read Todd Tanner’s Fly Fishing is Ultimately About Connections, especially the part about guiding, it resonated strongly with me. Rather than a quick reply or share on Facebook, it merited a bit more commentary.

If you’ve spent much time around fly-fishing guides, or if you’ve worn the yoke yourself on occasion, you know that guides can be a close-knit bunch. Rivalries and egos aside, the vast majority of guides share a common love for the sport.”

Todd Tanner

A number of this struck me about Tanner’s column.

First, he notes that guides are a close-knit bunch. The crew at Mossy Creek Fly Fishing, where I have the privilege to guide (although this season, COVID-19 disease has robbed me of some of that), are like brothers. It is a fraternal bond that is seated in a common purpose; to provide our guests the best possible experience. We willing help each other to see that happen. And while we horse around and mercilessly tease each other, I know each would do all in their power to help me as I would them. That is a connection that I treasure, and a big part of the physic income I derive from guiding.

Second, Tanner notes our love of the sport. I have yet to meet a guide that doesn’t fit that description. Frankly, the love of sport is unavoidable. The willingness to share that love is, for me and I suspect my fellow guides as well, what gets us out on the water. We flat out dig the sport and we love to share it. I take great joy in seeing my guests succeed and come away from their time on the water with a desire to return and enjoy the experience again. You need only look at the smiles on the faces of guides when their guests succeed to know this is true.

Tanner points out, “If there’s a palpable difference between guides and the general fly-fishing community, it’s likely in the degree of sheer, unbridled passion.” Sure it can be a hassle to guide and put in the long hours of pre-game preparation and post-game resets. But it is that passion that makes me sign up to guide another trip and is fed by that physic reward I mentioned.

Finally, and Tanner touches on this as he wraps up, there is the connection to the natural world. For the better part of 25 years I have been directly engaged in advocating on resource conservation policy at the federal level. As a lobbyist and a journalist I have to connect complex public policy to meaningful, real world impacts. Guiding has made me better at doing that.

Tanner’s column goes beyond the points I note here. He explores his own connections to the sport and where they have led him. It is worth you time.

Source: Fly Fishing is Ultimately About Connections – Sporting Classics Daily

The Reckoning

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If you’ve read the papers or watched the news you see the litany of failure from this administration. The world looks on in horror or delight depending on their geo-political stance toward America.

For four years or more, words of warning went unheeded, signs of malfeasance ignored and the voices of dissent ridiculed.

No more.

These voices are trusted leaders. Their standing or patriotism can’t be, shouldn’t be, questioned.

The chorus continues to expand, growing stronger and louder.

There will be a reckoning for those who aid and abet the malfeasance and criminality of this administration.

Scott Fly Rods – G Series

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This medium action rod, hand crafted in Montrose Colorado, is tailor made for spring creeks in the Valley

Rising browns and rainbows on a spring creek can really get your heart rate up. Add the pressure of laying in a delicate cast with a small dry fly and things get technical real quick. At times like these having a rod in your hand, designed to deliver, can make the day one to remember.

What rod do you reach for?

The G Series

Here is how Scott describes the G Series rod:

“These rods advance medium action fly rods with two innovations. We’ve reinvented the hollow internal ferrule to make it more flexible, stronger, and more than 20% lighter. We’ve also combined our cutting edge fiber and resin systems in the most advanced multi-modulus layups we’ve ever created. New multi-slope tapers were designed to take full advantage of the new materials layups.

The results are rods that help solve one of the toughest challenges in medium action fly rod design – how to create a rod that both bends deeply and remains stable. New G Series rods balance lighter in hand, have much more stability through the middle of the rod for better tracking, and generate higher line speeds. They do all this while retaining the classic flex of your favorite medium action rods. We’re bringing together presentation and power, so now you can pull hard on 7X tippet AND fish in the wind. The all new G Series. Like no other.”

If you don’t have a smooth casting, medium action rod in your arsenal; it may be time to try one out. You will be rewarded with a rod that moves with you, adjusting to your rhythm and style as you step onto the fishing dance floor and start the show.

If you love the feel and grace of a well cast line, the in your hand feedback as the rod loads, then the G Series rod is just the ticket.

Specs and technical stuff from Scott

Scott G Series fly rods feature breakthrough technology seamlessly integrated with the finest components and workmanship. All this to make sure your fishing is better.

  • ReAct technology combines our X-Core design with a new complex material and taper system to create a breakthrough in rod design. Distance, control and compromised by waves that vibrate in the rod, even after the cast has been made. Simply making the rod stiffer to stop these vibrations kills feel. ReAct counteracts energy sapping vibrations by speeding the recovery of the blank without the need to stiffen the rod with more material.
  • Advanced Reinforced Carbon for reducing torque and increasing strength. Scott is the leader in carbon blank reinforcements. Our latest ARC technology adds hoop strength to our blanks without adding weight, and counteracts torque that can reduce casting accuracy and line control. ARC helps us create low-mass thin-walled blank designs by providing the most advanced reinforcement. And that’s just good ol’ science meets engineering meets design.
  • X-Core delivers blanks that transmit feel and maintain stability better than any other design approach. We use fast taper mandrels with low-mass thin-walled blanks to create rods that have feel, stability and sensitivity.
  • Scott pioneered multi-modulus lay-ups in blank design. We’re able to precisely control stiffness along the length of the rod to build rods that load and unload more smoothly.
  • Every single Scott rod has been handcrafted in the USA… beginning to end. That’s very important to us. We like to get our hands dirty, and we can control exactly how your rod is built and who builds it. That commitment continues today, in the heart of Trout Country, Colorado by anglers who understand fly rods. Isn’t it better to know who built your rod?
  • Creating a natural finish blank requires exacting tolerances, more care, and shows off the beauty of graphite. The Scott natural finish is all about making your rod lighter, more durable and better performing.
  • X-core deliver blanks that transmit feel and maintain stability better than any other design approach. We use fast taper mandrels with low-mass, thin-walled blanks to create rods that have feel, stability and sensitivity.

The Scott G series is available for line weights 2 through 6. Order from Mossy Creek Fly Fishing’s online store HERE.

Why the Roosevelt Mandate

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During this Covid spring, as these days have come to be known, I had time to reflect on the state of conservation and what the future might hold. As time permits I will use this space to gather and share my thoughts.

Roosevelt’s words from A Book-Lover’s Holidays in the Open, have always had deep meaning to me. And as we face the destruction wrought by the pandemic both in human lives and economic damage I decided to use Roosevelts words as an inspiration for some opinion writing.

Memorial Day 2020

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keeping the faith

Memorial Day is different this year. A pandemic has swept the globe and here in America, as I write this, more than 98,000 souls have lost their lives. Our nation’s flag has flown at half-mast since Saturday to honor the dead from Covid 19.

Today it flies at half-mast in remembrance of men and women in our armed forces who lost their lives defending our nation.

Another symbol of this day is the red poppy. It significance comes from the poem, In Flanders Fields, written by John McCrae during the first World War.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

I learned the first two lines from my mother many years ago when I saw the paper poppies given out by veterans on Memorial day. They have been a powerful symbol to me ever since.

Over the years the words “keep the faith” have come to mean a great deal to me. I learned the phrase from Senator John McCain when I worked in the U.S. Senate. It was writ large when I joined the Navy. And is manifest in the work of Ed Nicholson (Capt USN Ret’d) and Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing.

There was a poem, We Shall Keep the Faith, written in November 1918 by Moina Michael responding to McCrae’s poem. It was her pledge to “keep the faith.

Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,
Sleep sweet – to rise anew!
We caught the torch you threw
And holding high, we keep the Faith
With All who died.

We cherish, too, the poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led;
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies,
But lends a lustre to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders Fields.

And now the Torch and Poppy Red
We wear in honor of our dead.
Fear not that ye have died for naught;
We’ll teach the lesson that ye wrought
In Flanders Fields.

Recently, I was asked if my use of the phrase was a reference to religious faith. I said, “Not really, for me it is a reference to carrying on in honor of fallen brothers and keeping true to the oath I swore.

So today is a day to remember the fallen, those values we hold dear and to renew the pledge to forever “keep the faith.”

Rio’s InTouch Technical Trout Fly Line

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Fishing to selective trout is hard enough, don’t make it harder.

Spring time in the Valley. One of the most exciting times for trout fishing. You have survived the winter doldrums, tied flies, organized gear and looked at the maps to refresh your memory. You hear the stories filter in, bugs are hatching and fish are looking up. Time to get out there.

Did you look at your fly line? I mean more then a cursory look to see if it was dirty or cracked. Are you using a plan vanilla weight forward line that is “fine” for every day use? Think you are good to go?

Of course, you can use whatever it takes to get the fly to the fish. But, what if the next time you are out you can give yourself an edge with those spooky bug sippers, would you take it?

Fly lines are tools as much as rods and reels are. If you think “good enough” is good enough then you are handicapping yourself. The wrong size screwdriver may be “good enough.” But if you have ever stripped the head on a screw because you didn’t use the right sized screwdriver, you know what I mean.

Just like there is the right screwdriver for the screw, there is the right line for the fishing you are going to do.

Are you using the right one?

InTouch Technical Trout line

Here is how Rio describes the line:

The line features a long, fine front taper for the lightest of presentations and delicacy and is the ideal choice of line when fishing dry flies, nymphs, soft hackles and emergers to tricky eaters at distance. The line has a long head and back taper to increase loop control when carrying long lengths, and for making precise casts to rising fish, while the weight distribution makes it easy to turn over long leaders for technical feeders at range. The ultra-low stretch ConnectCore provides incredible levels of sensitivity when casting and fishing.

Now put yourself on the bank of Mossy Creek or Dry River and visualize the rise form you see on the water. You have the right fly, you know where you want to put it and you know the rod can make the cast. But how about your line? Will it do what the one described above will do? If not, you just made fishing harder than it needs to be.

Specs and technical stuff from Rio

  • ConnectCore ultra-low stretch core (maximum 6%) provides incredibly sensitivity and control when casting and fishing.
  • MaxCast hydrophobic coating repels water, ensuring lines float higher, shoot farther, stay cleaner, and last longer.
  • AgentX dual layered fly line has a high floating inner coating made with more buoyant microspheres covered by a tough outer coating for maximum durability.
  • MaxFloat Tip technology high float coating floats more than twice as high as regular fly line tips, without any increase in diameter
  • Triple color line marking system makes it easy to gauge distances and load, with a quick glance.
  • Printed line marking system that allows anglers to quickly and easily identify each line.
  • A neat, bulletproof loop welded at the front and back of the fly line for fast rigging to a leader and the backing.

The InTouch Technical Trout line is available in WF3F through WF6F. Order one from Mossy Creek Fly Fishing’s online store HERE.