Category Archives: Fly Fishing

April 21, 2017 · 8:17 am

Photography of Kevin Feenstra

Kevin Feenstra is a fly fishing guide in Michigan. He is the owner of Feenstra Guide Service. If you don’t already follow Kevin on Instagram, you really should! He has some beautiful photos to share. You can find him on Instagram @kevinfeenstra
I have selected some of Kevin’s photos below, but there are so many that are good, I couldn’t include as many as I wanted. Enjoy!
-Paul

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Filed under Bowfin, Fly Fishing, Smallmouth, Steelhead

April 12, 2017 · 7:23 am

W4F – Fly Fishing Tennessee and North Carolina “Early Spring Tips”

Ken Tanaka of Wish4Fish is back on the water. This time in Tennessee and North Carolina on the Watauga River.

From Ken:
“I was switching up tactics from Streamers, Dry Dropper and Tight line nymphing throughout the day. Before all the good hatches start, early spring is all about being on your toes and being versatile. Finally caught some fish on the new Ross Reel Evolution R as was as the Flut Rod Company prototype. Can’t wait till spring really starts kicking off!”

Check out our store
http://shop.wish4fish.com

Fly Fishing Gear
Ross Evolution R – http://amzn.to/2owXSDP
Flut Rod 9′ 5wt – http://www.flutrodcompany.com/
Ross Colorado LT – http://amzn.to/2nigHXb

Flies – Tanaka Your Socks Off, WD40, Prince, Adams

Camera Equipment
Sony Action Cam FDR x3000v – http://amzn.to/2mShv4G
Sony Action Cam FDR x1000w- http://amzn.to/2mSd9L7
Sony RX100v – http://amzn.to/2np1oje

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Filed under Fly Fishing

April 6, 2017 · 8:07 am

Brook Fishing Equipment

The Brook Box

The Brook Fishing Equipment Brook Box is an amazing fly box! I’m not just saying that, it has some outstanding features that made me very happy when inspecting and testing the box for myself.

First, I’ll give you a brief backstory. I had never heard of Brook Fishing Equipment before the Midwest Fly Fishing Expo where I tied back in March. Jarrett from Brook Fishing Equipment came to my table and was telling me that he really enjoyed FrankenFly and that he had a booth there himself. I asked him about his booth and he brought back his Brook Box fly box and was telling me about the silicone inserts.

Since then, I’ve had the chance to thoroughly check out The Brook Box. The silicone inserts work exceptionally well! They are kind of a rubbery type of material, to help explain what they feel like. The reason they work so well is because you can put a hook into them, take the hook out and you can’t even see where the hook was in the insert. It heals itself right away. For testing purposes, I placed a 4/0 hook into the insert, pulled it out and had the same result. I even put magnifying glasses on to try and see a hole and I could not find one. Brook Fishing Equipment offers the inserts in slit and non-slit form, in case you are interested in having slits. In my opinion, slits are not necessary when you have inserts like this.

Another impressive feature about The Brook Box is the depth of the box. If you are a dry fly fisher I’m sure you know how hard it is to find a fly box that doesn’t mash your flies down when you put them in a fly box. I placed dry flies in The Brook Box and they were not even close to being in danger of being smashed. Plus, the way the slit inserts are made, your hackle will hang over the trough of the inserts so your hackle isn’t mashed on the bottom. I love this!

Not only can it handle dry flies, it has the room to store poppers. I placed a large 1/0 deer hair popper in the box and closed the lid. It did not move the popper or smash it.

Besides having plenty of room I noticed the box was very well made and sturdy. It also floats. The dimensions of the Brook Box are: 6.625″ x 4.125″ x 1.75″

Another product available from Brook Fishing Equipment is their Outta The Box fly patch. This is a fairly large fly patch with dimensions measuring: 7.875″ x 6″. It is designed to be placed in your boat, kayak, vehicle, next to your fly tying vise or where ever you need to place your flies. It has Velcro mounting, so it is easily mounted and can be mobile.

Outta The Box

I have posted below their current brochure which includes more details about Brook Fishing Equipment products. Be sure to visit their website at www.brookfishingequipment.com. If you are in the market for a new fly box, I highly recommend The Brook Box!

-Paul

2 Comments

Filed under Fly Fishing, New Product

March 23, 2017 · 10:18 am

W4F – Fly Fishing Tennessee “Watauga River”

Ken Tanaka of Wish4Fish is back in Tennessee this time fly fishing the Watauga River with Brad and Holden of TroutFish NC.

From Ken:
I absolutely lit it up with the W4F Simple Baetis that I tied right before I headed out the door. Video of that tie will be up on YouTube soon. You can see the LIVE feed of my tying the fly right now.
https://youtu.be/SrSA131FZG0

You can also buy the Franken Dubbing used on this fly in our store now.
http://shop.wish4fish.com/products/nymph-dub

You can also purchase the flies in our store as well.
http://shop.wish4fish.com/products/baetis

Fly Fishing Gear
Flut Rod 5wt – http://www.flutrodcompany.com/
Ross Colorado LT – http://www.rossreels.com/

Camera Equipment
Sony Action Cam FDR x3000v – http://amzn.to/2mShv4G
Sony Action Cam FDR x1000w- http://amzn.to/2mSd9L7
Sony RX100v – http://amzn.to/2np1oje

Music – Agallah Don Bishop x Duke Westlake “3 Day Theory”
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/3-day-theory/id1198286276?ls=1&app=itunes

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Filed under Fly Fishing

March 14, 2017 · 7:18 am

Fly Fishing The Ozarks – Vlog 2

Streamers on the Current River, lunch with a great older lady, tying with a bunch of cool people, and illegally flying the drone……VLOG #2 is born.

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Filed under Fly Fishing

March 7, 2017 · 8:07 am

“Brook Trout” Great Smoky Mountain National Park – W4F

Ken Tanaka of Wish4Fish is back on the water. This time Fly Fishing in Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park for Brook Trout.

From Ken:
I got a couple hours on the water with Chad Fouts from the Smoky Mountain Angler. I was lucky enough to be taken around his beautiful home water. I can’t wait to get back out there again and spend a little more time in GSMNP.

On this trip I was using my custom Flut Rod Company 9′ 3wt and the Ross Colorado LT.

Check out our store – http://shop.wish4fish.com/

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February 16, 2017 · 8:10 am

The Rod

I love the rod making and the fish pursuit in this video. It’s very well done and went well with my cup of coffee this morning!
Head over to http://www.bamboorods.se/ if you like to find out more about the rod maker.
-Paul

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Filed under Fly Fishing, Fly Rods

January 25, 2017 · 8:20 am

Streamer Chronicles — Erik Griffen

The current episode in Brian Wise’s Streamer Chronicles.
From Brian:
“A little backstory…… Every good experiment (like Streamer Chronicles) has to have a control. Erik Griffen is the control of Streamer Chronicles. You see, Erik is 17, and a fisherman of mine. The first time him and his dad came to fish with me, I was rigging a nymphing rig for him and he (VERY politely) asked “Um, excuse me sir, do you care if I threw streamers all day instead of nymphing”…….For a 13 year old kid to say that, he grabbed my attention. The kid can fish, he handles the stick as good or better than most guys twice his age (and acts twice as old as most of those guys too). But bottom line—-I wanted to see what the next generation of streamer fisherman had to say–and he drops some GEMS!”

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Filed under Brian Wise, Fly Fishing

January 10, 2017 · 9:18 am

Death Ray scores in Patagonia!

Kate Smith with large brown trout. – photo by Ray Schmidt

This is Kate Smith with a big ol’ brown caught on my articulated streamer, the Death Ray. The fish was caught in the Rio Mañihuales River, Patagonia, Chile. Kate and Ray Schmidt are friends of mine from Michigan. They are the owners of Double SS Outdoors and are consultants to the Fly Fishing Industry. They are also Temple Fork Outfitters representatives.

Close up of fish with fly. – photo by Ray Schmidt

How this started was that I had just made an order for new FrankenFly hats at the end of the year and Kate and Ray ordered a couple, so I also threw in a couple of my Death Rays for them to use on their trip to Patagonia. Kate sent me these photos yesterday. It was awesome to see her smiling with a big brown trout she had just caught on one. Really AWESOME!!

wet Death Ray with FrankenFly hat – photo by Ray Schmidt

The rods Kate and Ray are using are a 7wt TFO BVK and an 8wt TFO Impact. The Impact is the new rod out from TFO and you can see a banner ad for it on the side here at FrankenFly. Just click the banner to find out more about that rod. I have a BVK and it is a great rod that has a good feel to it.

a wet Death Ray – photo by Ray Schmidt

Another thing I want to make note of is the split tail on the Death Ray streamer. These Split Tails are made by Pat Cohen and part of his Cohen’s Creatures line of products. They are available on his website Super Fly. Back in the beginning of 2016 Pat had asked me to test some of these tails and one of the flies I designed used this Split Tail. I did a review on them in the April 2016 issue of North 40 Fly Shop Emag. I did not plan to use any of the streamers I played with when testing the tails, but after fishing the split tail fly through the summer I fell in love with it. It became known as the Death Ray.

By the way, the head on the Death Ray is made from FrankenDUB Monster dubbing and then I trim it.

Congratulations to Kate Smith on a beautiful fish and I hope she and Ray continue to have a wonderful time in Patagonia!

-Paul

4 Comments

Filed under Fly Fishing, FrankenDUB, FrankenFly, Streamers

January 9, 2017 · 8:11 am

BC Steelhead Fly Fishing – The New Fly Fisher

Host Tom Rosenbauer travels to beautiful British Columbia near Terrace to try his hand on the Skeena River for steelhead. Gil McKean is the expert guide who shows Tom how to use two-handed rods to catch fish.

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Filed under Fly Fishing, Steelhead