that fly fishing fix

I’m sitting at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah taking a short break in between studying for three massive exams I have to suffer through in the next two weeks. I close out of my lecture notes and take in my laptop’s wallpaper of a small High Uinta stream from an adventure last summer. Temporarily I lose focus on the “important” things in life that I’m working towards and I reminisce of the lazy days down by the creek, slapping buggers through riffles cutting into the bank of a nice bend. WHACK, my 2 wt takes the impact of an aggressive take by a small stream brookie. “Dang, this is a huge fish” runs through my head, a few seconds later….…..wait no this is my two weight glass rod.......but that bend! As I release my 12” brookie I can’t help but think how there is nothing else I’d rather be doing right now….which in turn reminds me of what is really “important” in this world.

It’s wintertime, our entire last blog post was all about getting out in the winter and taking advantage of the empty riverbanks and taking in the winter scene of the river. However, not only is it the cold that stops us from getting out on the water. November to April, seem to be the busiest time of the year, at least for myself. You have holidays, black and cyber whatever, birthdays (why the heck are there so many birthdays during this time), never ending days at the office, not enough sunlight, and unbearable amounts of school for some of us. When it’s impossible to get out on the water, what else can I do to get my fly fishing fix?

I think most of us have had those days where we would give anything to be out fishing but we are stuck somewhere miles away from the freedom of the river. Those first few times that you were stuck home, you watched vimeo and youtube videos till you had seen everything that was worth seeing at least five times. You might have even dropped a few bucks for longer videos on itunes hoping that it would feed your fix. These things do work, at least it did for me and continues to when I find myself in this predicament. Sometimes its good to waste away some time sitting back watching some good fly fishing videos, and who knows sometimes it can be productive in that you learn a new thing or two. Well here are a few more things that you can do to feed your fix and help you get prepared for future trips.

Explore! I know you have those few favorite places you love to fish that you know like the back of your hand. Scout some new water to try out for future trips. I use a lot of different resources for finding new places to fish. I start by looking around at other fishing blogs, instagram accounts, and other social media platforms. When people go somewhere awesome, they like to brag about it! Exploring a rad place that someone else has tried out will save you a lot time, you’ll know it’s worth checking out and most importantly that there are fish there. Talk to fly shop owners, they talk to people all day about their fishing trips and even if your given a general location, google maps makes it easy to key in on potential water to fish.  I know the last thing you want to do is read books but do it, there are people that have spent their entire lives fishing different places and share with you what they experienced. Magazines are another good way to get info on where to fish, and are easily accessible online. Hiking trail review sites and campground review sites can also point you in the right direction for water with trout. Possibly my favorite way of finding new water is getting on google maps or earth and searching through satellite pictures for potential places to fish. You can use all the previous methods mentioned to help validate a spot you think looks extra awesome.

Tie some flies and or build a rod. I don’t really have much more to say about these two things because I’ll be honest with you, I’m not great at tying flies and I’ve never built a rod. There are tons of blogs and videos though to back up this statement that it can help you feed your fly fishing fix. Even though I’m not great at tying flies I do enjoy it, I usually stick to the simple stuff that will save me some extra cash to buy other flies that I don’t have the time or skill to tie. One day I will build a rod and I’ll tell you all about how awesome it was.

You know those precious minutes that you spent taking videos or photos on the water from last year or two or more years ago. I bet you looked at those once when you got home that day and haven’t looked through them since. Or even better you haven’t even loaded the content onto your computer. Don’t let that time you spent to capture that content be in vain. Sort through and check out your past adventures, you might find yourself a new profile pic or a sweet video to upload to your youtube. You might even come across places you’ve visited and have since forgotten. Pictures can also validate your fish stories you’ve been telling to your family and friends.

I’ve noticed that trout and fly fishing art are a trending thing to do these days thanks to instagram. If you have artistic ability or heck even if you don’t, drawing, painting, and sculpting can be a fun and rewarding outlet. Hey I’ve got an idea, take those pictures you went through as discussed above and make something artistic with those. Slideshows, cool photo edits, and fishing videos might be a good way to pass some time.

Have you ever read a fly fishing book, some authors know how to take you down to the river without having to leave your warm cozy couch. You can find books that are packed full of information to books that will keep you laughing all day. There is a book out there for everyone to enjoy. Do some browsing on amazon, make sure you read the reviews to get some insight on what kind of audience the book is aimed towards. 

I know there are a lot of different fly fishing fixes that you can get when you can’t make it out on the water. I hope I’ve given you a few ideas to help you survive the rest of this winter. Let us know what you do to feed your fly fishing fix, leave us a comment below. Seriously just do it, we haven’t had one comment on this blog yet. I’d like to get some conversation going, the whole purpose of this blog is to share ideas, tips, and tricks. I can promise you that I probably don’t have half the knowledge that you have about fly fishing and I’d like to learn from the veterans.

Thanks again for taking a look in our world.

-Mike