geartalk

Years ago, I spent a few weeks running around the wilds of Chile–getting in-and-out of cars and trucks from one fishing spot to the next.

I finally stopped and paid attention to the proper way to “break-down” a fly rod, but still keep your entire rig intact, i.e. reducing the length of your fly rod by half to fit in smaller spaces…

Here are the basic steps:

1. Reel your fly to the top of your fly rod, but leave a little bit of sack–just a couple inches or so.

2. Find the middle fly rod ferrule and take the two sections apart–this means for four-piece rods, you’ll have two sections.

3. Fold the tip of the fly rod down towards the butt section.

4. Reel in any slack line, but leave enough for your fly to wrap around the bottom of the reel and hook back into the cork (tightly holding both pieces together).

5. Double check and make sure the tip of the fly rod is above the bottom of the butt end of the rod, protecting it from breakage. If not, simply unhook the fly and reel in a little of the top section, then re-hook the fly in the cork.

This is an easy, “fairly safe” way to fit a fully-rigged fly rod in a car–give it a try on your next adventure.

This great DIY stripping basket idea came from a friend at my local bass lake.

He’s always got this homemade stripping basket with him. We fish from a sharply-angled rock dam that’s covered with weeds, bushes and tall grass, so having a place to pile your loose line when walking around is a huge bonus.

Here’s what makes this basket so ingenious.

One, it’s simple, as the pieces can be bought almost anywhere. It’s fastened with one bungee cord around the waist via two holes drilled on either side of the plastic box.

Two, it’s cheap and consists of what basically amounts to a small piece of Tupperware, or small laundry basket, and a few zip-ties.

Three, it’s packable–and this is the point of construction that’s so brilliant. If you notice the bottom has been drilled with nine holes, then has zip-ties looped through and cut off about halfway down. This keeps your line from getting tangled when you cast.

When my friend travels to fish, he simply cuts the zip-ties off, puts the Tupperware in his suitcase, fills it up with whatever and when he gets to his destination, reinserts new zip-ties and is ready to fish.

Five Things to Ensure a Fun First Float of the Year

Just like boning up on river etiquette, or revisiting basic safety tips before the season starts, a little bit of planning can make your first outing this spring in a boat a heck of a lot smoother.

Again, this is just the tip of the iceberg, but the five items below have all stymied me at some point in the past. I know, a few are ridiculous, but I’m a slow learner and need constant reinforcement.

1. Make sure your trailer lights are working. This has to be one of the most common problems facing boaters. Just the other day, I pulled out my boat and sure enough, the ground wire on my harness had worn through and the lights weren't working. A easy fix with some electrical tape and a spare part or two, but many are not. Check the lights now and fix if they’re not working. Take the trailer to a mechanic if you need to. This will keep you from getting pulled over, or not being able to go at all, due to safety issues (at night) or in bad weather.

2. Another trailer ailment: tighten those lug nuts. Ask yourself seriously? When’s the last time you did this?

3. Another major “boo boo” I’ve made is almost never checking the tire pressure on my trailer. I stopped to fill up my truck tires last year and randomly thought to myself, When is the last time I checked the trailer tires? I couldn’t remember putting air in them for years. Sure enough, the trailer tires were dangerously low. Check your trailer tires the first float of the year, and often throughout the floating season.

4. Hard boat owners–do you have a spare drain plug or plugs? My dory has midships drain plugs and halfway through last year, I started noticing an inch, then an inch-and-a-half of water standing in the floor of the boat. I checked the plug tightness and bilged, but the water kept returning. At first, I thought somehow I had a leak in the hull, but that wasn’t the case. The rubber for the drain plugs had dry-rotted and was slowing letting water in. Occasionally, I’ve bumped out my stern drain plug as well on rocks. The bottom line, always carry a spare drain plug, or two, in the boat.

5. Raft owners–check your valves. Do they seem to be leaking air? One of the simplest fixes to this problem is 303 UV Protectant: fill the entire valve and let it soak overnight, or when you put away the boat for the winter. Voila, this almost always fixes slightly leaking valves. This is the same stuff you put on your rubber boat every year for UV protection. Like my rowing friend likes to say, “It’s like sunblock for your dinghy.”

River Safety: Rowing Tips and Fishing From a Boat

One of the most important aspects when on the water, besides etiquette, is how to fish from a boat while being safe.

Safety will be something we come back to every so often, taking deep dives on specific situations and hopefully sharing a few ideas that will resonate. This topic is complex, sometimes controversial and isn’t concrete. Below, I thought I’d list a few basics, specifically to help jog the memory as you head back out on the water and get after your favorite fish this season.

Rowing in moving water safely–and in a way that maximizes your fishing success–isn’t necessarily instinctual to most new boat owners. It certainly wasn’t for me. There’s a learning curve you must get through in order for the mechanics to become second-nature. The only way to really become an expert on the sticks is with lots of practice. But if you’re a rookie on the oars, these are four critical tips to know before that maiden voyage.

Move in Reverse

You always have better control and steering ability when moving backward. In fact, in the vast majority of situations, you’ll want to get to where you’re going by pointing the stern–not the bow–at your desired destination, and then pulling the oars and rowing upstream. It may seem counterintuitive, but forward rowing leads to trouble. Rowing backward reduces the amount of forward momentum the current can impart on the boat, slowing you down and giving you more time to think. This is especially critical in heavier water with obstacles. Always remember that if there’s something you don’t want to hit, point the bow directly at it, row backward, and hopefully you’ll miss it.

Don’t Get Sideways

Never let the boat get completely perpendicular to the current. This is something new rowers struggle with, because it’s easy to lose focus, or drop the oars just long enough that you get spun sideways to the flow. Drifting at a right angle, however, is the fastest route to disaster. A river flowing at even a couple of miles per hour is incredibly strong, and all it takes is a small rock just below the surface, or grazing a canyon wall, to flip or sink a boat. Even in water flowing barely three-miles-per-hour, I’ve seen rafts flipped, cotter pins sheered, oars snapped in half, teeth lost and people thrown into the water. Unless you need to take swift, evasive action to avoid trouble, keep the bow of the boat pointing downstream at all times.

Keep Your Distance

Maintain a set distance from the bank. That distance, of course, will be determined by your target species and how you’re fishing, but once that’s established, keeping a uniform distance from the bank, or any target structures, gives anglers the best opportunity to be effective. If the boat is constantly moving 30-feet out, then 10-feet back, then 20-feet out again, it forces the casters to constantly compensate, which is especially painful for fly anglers because they’ll have to strip out, or take in, more running line to keep up with the fluctuations. As the rower, it’s your job to always be looking ahead at the bank contour, so you can make adjustments to maintain that ideal distance.

Communicate Often

A good rower has the ability to adapt to the skill levels of the anglers. If the bow angler can cast like a champ, but the stern angler is spending most of the day untangling line from around their feet, you’re going to have to make adjustments throughout the day. As an example, when coming up on some prime water, you might want to angle the stern toward the bank, shortening the casting distance for the less skilled angler in the rear. While this might put your front angler at a slight disadvantage, his or her skills should let him cover the extra distance. Check in with the anglers often. Ask them if they need to be closer to, or farther, from the bank. And ask them if they need you to adjust the boat’s speed.

For more details on safety while rowing rivers specifically check out: American Whitewater’s Safety Code of American Whitewater.