TheHound

You could always look into making some shadow boxes. They are pretty good for displaying items.

Greetings, It is my nephews birthday soon and he has been bugging me for the past few years to let him use my switch rod. I have an older Beulah switch and taught him how to cast it, now he wants his own. His father and I have considered buying him a used switch rod just in case because kids are clumsy and who knows if he will want to use it in a years time. Then I came across Santiam Rods. They make what appears to be a decent rod for a really good price. An 11'2 8/9 for 150 bucks is a pretty good deal. In my experience when things seem to good to be true, they usually are. As usual I tried to located reviews and gather more information but all I could find was a couple reviews on their conventional rods. I was wondering if anyone here has direct experience with them or what you have heard. Thanks again.

Really nice framing and composition. I've always preferred black and white also, it allows for people to focus on the content rather than the color.

I also use braid in front of my leader. You can get a whole spool of powerpro fairly cheap and I usually have around 6-8 inches of braid tied on with a loop to loop connection. Never had a problem.

I've always used Mustad for all my inland trout and warmwater flies. On occasion I've also used their stainless ones for saltwater use. I also used Partridge for salmon and lake run trout flies when I want a bigger hook or want to fish doubles.

An old man I ran into on the river one day told me, "You can never go wrong with a box full of caddis flies." I second this and recommend a few different caddis patterns. The Balloon Caddis is quite an easy dry to tie and is usually my go to fly. Any size from 12 to as small as you dare go. The Dead Caddis is also a really simple but effective dry. That pheasant tail or hares ear nymphs are always good to have in your box also.

I've always found that quilled bodied nymphs work extremely well for me, you can either do a full quill body or leave gaps and rib with peacock. Whatever colors you normally use would apply. If you need some weight you can weight with lead or tungsten sheets, or even a bead head. Just a good general pattern. Nothing specific.

I agree with others that a big turn off is the attitude that goes along with flyfishing. Most people general view of fly fishing is stuck up old men, who are the only experts. I still have this kind of view. Walking into various fly shops as a kid and not a single person talking to me or just being plain rude. For the most part even at 24 I still get this sort of treatment. Even on my home rivers which I've been fishing over a decade I still get crazy looks, ask people how they are doing, etc. I usually get a less than warm response. The elitism is what I think ruins it for most people. If I had a nickel for every time I've heard a fly fisherman refer to a spincast fisherman as a "snagger" Id have a brand new Sage outfit. This is said even before watching the person take a cast or whatever, its just assumed. Then at least where I live there is a huge divide between fly fisherman and center pin users. Nine times out of ten its fly fisherman talking about how dumb center pin fishing is, when its sort of the same thing...drifting egg patterns. Now a lot of fly fisherman are using just beads same as center pin guys, I don't see the issue. Not only this but fly fisherman even turn on their own. I've read numerous times on this forum alone negative terms for people who use egg patterns. Also just the general, "you dont know anything." It is kind of sad and I think once this sort of reputation is sorted out we can expect a larger number of younger people getting into fly fishing.

I am 24 now and been fly fishing since I was around 13 or so. For me it started out one day being a local pond and watching a man fly fish for panfish. I thought to myself, that looks interesting. Me being the kind of person who always has to be different I looked into it. Started out with a Shakespeare fly rod and I think a Martin reel. I had no one to teach me, my whole faily fishes but no one had ever picked up a fly rod so I got as much info as I could from books and what limited videos were on the internet at the time. The fly tying also became a natural progression. I have always enjoyed making my own things as opposed to buying them. I think there has been a bigger following of fly fishing for younger people as of late. Due to social media and sites like vimeo, groups like HOOKÉ or H&H Outfitters have become quite popular. I think the number one turn off is the high cost of start up. Not that you need the best gear but having a nice rod will make casting easier. If someone gets stuck on casting right in the beginning and becomes frustrated over and over, there is a good chance they will just give it up before they even started.

FlaFly, Quite a lot of professional photographers did that. Many famous fine art photographers did also. Two of the more famous ones being William Eggleston and Henri Cartier Bresson never stepped foot in a darkroom. I think they figured their job was to press the shutter button, that was it. You are right about the variable toos. I personally believe a lot of photography is luck. Being in the right place, right time, and pressing that button at the right time. Sometimes...even when you do those all correctly the final image still is not right.

I'd still say it forced me to take better photographs. Knowing that it costs money is an incentive to make every shot count. There are a lot of bad shots for sure, buty you learn from them. Digital photography enables people to do the "Fish Egg Laying" concept. That is fish lay a lot of eggs knowing that many will not make it. By having more eggs, there is a better chane that some will survive. Same with photographs, by taking more pictures, it helps ensure that possibly some will be good. That really does not make you a better photographer. Also by experimentng you can enhance the same image in darkroom.

FlaFly, Slide film was always great for that reason, a bit easier than looking through sheets of contacts with a magnifying lens. If you decide to go the B&W route I suggest you load her up with some Tri-X, can't get any better in my humble opinion. I always found that using a film camera forced me to take better photographs, and what I mean by that is it made me more selective. That usually carried over to digital photographs also.

That was really great! Awesome take, the tone of excitement in your voice made it even better.

I've watched the documentary and thought it was pretty good. For anyone who is interested, Davie McPhail did tying video of one of Megan's patterns.

I second the Redington Classic Trout. Its my go to light trout rod. With such a reasonable price you could pick up different lengths. For small steams I use a 7' 6" like AZWoolybugger and for the larger rivers and streams I have a 9' 4 weight. The 9' casts like a dream, at least for me.