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Rio’s InTouch Technical Trout Fly Line

May 16, 2020 By Tom Sadler

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.

My 12 “go to” trout flies in 2019

December 27, 2019 By Tom Sadler

During this post Christmas, pre-New Year lull I started working on reorganizing my fly boxes. It is a semi seasonal ritual that I undertake as my days on the water guiding start to reveal the flaws in my previous attempts.

As I contemplated the various organizational options, my mind wandered off and started thinking about the flies I used the most often. Before that fleeting recollection vanished, I wrote them down here.

  • Parachute Madam X
  • Parachute BWO
  • Parachute Pheasant Tail
  • Japanese Beetle
  • Kreelex
  • Golden Retriever
  • Slump Buster
  • Conehead Wooly Bugger
  • Jig head Gold Ribbed Hares Ear Nymph
  • Jig head Pheasant Tail Nymph
  • CK Nymph
  • Guides Choice Nymph

These are what I used in no particular order or frequency other than I grouped them, dries, streamers, and nymphs. The sizes, weight and colors varied depending on location and conditions. And there were other patterns that I used as location and conditions dictated a change from my “go tos.” But day in and day out, these were the patterns I turned to, because they consistently caught fish for my clients.

Liam Diekmann and Odell Creek.

December 26, 2017 By Tom Sadler

O’Dell Creek holds a special place in my heart.

The first time I saw it was in August 2006 with Alex Diekmann. Alex and I worked together at the Trust for Public Land; he was a project manager, and I was a lobbyist. He found the places to protect, and I helped find the resources to try and protect them. One of the last times I was with Alex we fished O’Dell together.

photo:Alex Diekmann

The O’Dell project as it has come to be known is the conservation vision and hard work of Jeff Lazlo. Jeff  has made O’Dell Creek wetlands restoration an award winning model for citizen-driven conservation. In doing so he created a source of cold, clean water and a haven and breeding ground for native cutthroats in the Madison River.

Alex’s death was a blow to many of us, but his legacy of fishing and conservation I am delighted to say lives on in his youngest son Liam.

Liam writes of fishing and conservation for Mountain Journal. His latest article, For Every Great Trout Stream, There’s a Conservation Map, is his story about working on Lazlo’s, Granger Ranch, home to O’Dell Creek.

I thought the way you learned about trout was by catching them. But my project taught me how and why a good trout stream exists. Clean, cold water filled with healthy amounts of natural fish food doesn’t just happen.”

Liam is a fine young outdoor writer, and his work reflects a conservation ethos steeped in things he learned at his mother’s and father’s side. His articles in Mountain Journal are worth the read.

If you don’t know Mountain Journal, it is a new publication keeping a weather eye on the Yellowstone ecosystem. They are a not-for-profit public interest journalism outfit, check it out and shoot them a few buck so they can keep lights on and the presses running.

Tom, Liam, Alex photo: Logan Diekmann

The Duty to Act

November 23, 2014 By Tom Sadler

Below is a trailer to the film CO2LD WATERS.

You need to watch it.

As Thomas McGuane wrote in The Longest Silence, “if the trout are lost, smash the state.”

Fortunately, Todd Tanner of Conservation Hawks has started the process. In this new project he joins fly fishing notables Craig Mathews of Blue Ribbon Flies, Yvon Chouinard of Patagonia, Steve Hemkens of Orvis and Tim Romano of Angling Trade in pointing out the consequences of ignoring global climate change.

If you don’t think climate change is problem, then you are just not paying attention.

Not sure what you can do about it? Share this video, add your voice and stay informed.

 

 

In Good Company

April 6, 2012 By Tom Sadler

This week I got a somewhat cryptic Facebook message from my friend Toner at Truchacbra, “Congrats on the appearance in Trout, Tom.”

I had no idea what he was talking about.

I then came upon this post on Troutrageous! “I Have Lost All Faith In Trout Unlimited.”

Kinda made me wonder what was going on?

Come to find out Dispatches is in some mighty fine company in the an article by Chris Hunt in the Spring 2012 issue of Trout.

It was an unexpected honor to share the “Ten Fly-Fishing Blogs You Should Check Out” with those other fine blogs. If you are looking for a ready-made blog roll this list would be hard to beat.

Blogging for Fish – Trout Spring 2012

Conservation Messengers

As Hunt notes in the article, there is a strong conservation message in these blogs. Hunt knows what he is writing about he not only works for TU, but also has a blog, Eat More Brook Trout that should be on this list as well.

What is interesting and important about this list is the conservation challenges these bloggers often write about. Conservation can be a tough beat. The policy and the politics can be rough going and sometimes the comments can be a bit troublesome to say the least. But these bloggers wade in and slug it out in both an informative and entertaining way. Blogs are an increasingly important channel of communication for getting the important conservation messages out to people. These folks are some of the very best at doing that. I am very proud to be in their company.

The Ten Fly-Fishing Blogs You Should Check Out list

Fly Talk

Buster Wants to Fish

Moldy Chum

The Fiberglass Manifesto

Troutrageous!

Compleat Thought

Dispatches from the Middle River

Chi Wulff

Gink and Gasoline

Trout Unlimited blog

And if you don’t belong to TU or haven’t renewed your membership, what are you waiting for. Go to TU.org now and throw a few extra $$$ in the pot for good measure.

Why more fish are bad for business.

March 28, 2012 By Tom Sadler

Editor Note: The post below showed up on OBN inviting other to use it as a guest post. The economic connection caught my attention.

Sounds counterintuitive doesn’t it, how can more fish be bad for business?

As Schustrom and Farling explain, angling numbers have declined on Flathead Lake as well as tourism dollars. Read below to learn why.

Not convinced? Check out this great Flathead lake fishery FAQ on Chi Wulff; The Battle to Restore the Flathead’s Bull and Cutthroat Trout Goes On…


Flathead Lake fishery collapsing thanks to non-native lake trout

By Chris Schustrom and Bruce Farling

This spring native westslope cutthroat and bull trout will stage for their epic journeys from Flathead Lake to spawning streams in the Middle and North Forks Flathead River.  Once quite common, their numbers are significantly diminished from the recent past because many cannot navigate the gauntlet of predacious non-native lake trout (and illegally introduced northern pike) that occupy the lake and river. Our neighbors, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, want to bolster the populations of native fish to once again provide a diverse sport fishery as well as revive an important part of tribal culture. With the support of anglers, the assistance of objective science and a review panel of biologists from state and federal agencies, as well as the university system, the tribes are working hard to strike a reasonable balance in the fishery at Flathead Lake. They deserve your support.

west slope cutthroat trout

Flathead Lake once hosted one of Montana’s most popular and robust sport fisheries, featuring millions of kokanee salmon, cutthroats, yellow perch, bull trout and lake trout. Today, the salmon are gone and cutthroat and bull trout numbers have been reduced dramatically. Also gone are many fishermen. Perch and lake whitefish remain, but their availability fluctuates year to year, depending on water levels and predation. Well-meaning state managers who introduced Mysis shrimp into the Flathead system in the 1980s triggered the decline in the lake’s fishery and fishing opportunities. The shrimp provide an ample food source for young lake trout, improving their survival rates. Once these lake trout get larger they feed on other fish. In the nineties the exploding lake trout population consumed about 10 million kokanee in Flathead Lake, collapsing perhaps the most popular lake fishery in the state. Angling numbers then dropped by about 50 percent.  When the kokanee disappeared, so did hundreds of bald eagles that gathered each fall to gorge on spawning salmon at McDonald Creek in Glacier National Park. Thousands of tourists then stopped coming to view the eagles. Tourism dollars dropped.

one of the bad guys, a non-native lake trout

The large lake trout population – as well as illegally introduced northern pike — also preys on bull trout. The result has been an alarming loss of the native fish in the lake and the connected North and Middle Forks. Today, adult bull trout in Flathead Lake are estimated to be only about 3,000 fish. Localized spawning populations continue to disappear. It is now illegal to fish for them. Scientists estimate lake trout numbers, however,are around 1.8 million. They are tough to catch without a large boat and specialized gear. Lake trout migrating from Flathead Lake have also nearly eliminated bull trout from 10 of 13 lakes on the west side of Glacier Park. Further, they have severely reduced cutthroat numbers in the upper Flathead system, reducing their population to less than half of what they were before Mysis arrived. Because many of the easier-to-catch cutthroats in the upper Flathead River system migrate from the lake, angling opportunities – and the tourism dollars they generate — in the Middle and North Forks are threatened by lake trout.

The near monoculture of lake trout in Flathead Lake threatens the future of sportfishing in the upper Flathead basin. The tribes, however, are addressing this challenge head-on. They are evaluating tools, including maintaining fishing tourneys coupled with limited and scientifically based netting, that can reduce the lake trout population to a reasonable number. This could reduce predation and benefit native bull and cutthroat trout, as well as other sportfish such as perch and lake whitefish. It would also still maintain a lake trout fishery for the minority of anglers who can afford powerboats and the specialized gear it takes to pursue them. Despite the fears of the small cadre of commercial charter operators who fish for lake trout, it would be impossible to eliminate their favored fish from Flathead Lake.

Without new approaches at Flathead Lake, bull trout and cutthroat trout will eventually be reduced to a tiny fraction of their historical numbers, or even extirpated. Without new approaches, angling opportunities and the economic benefits they generate, will continue to dwindle. Without trying, and instead turning the lake and river over to lake trout, we will be judged harshly by future Montanans who will never feel the tug of a large cutthroat on their line at Flathead Lake.

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