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NEWSLETTER #32 -
JANUARY 2005
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Leland Fly Fishing Travel Newsletter - January, 2005
TOPICS IN THIS ISSUE:
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BUSH STREET “DESTINATION DAY”
Wednesday, 1/19 – Summertime in Eastern Idaho and
Wintertime where it's summer NOW; Southern
Hemisphere,
Costa Rica, and saltwater
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OPEN UP YOUR FLY FISHING OPTIONS
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LAST MINUTE OPENINGS AT WORLD CLASS
LODGES
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PLANNING NEW ZEALAND IN '06??
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CABO SAN LUCAS REPORT - PERSONAL TRIP
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FANTASY FISH AND DAYS
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QUIPS AND QUOTES
This is the thirty-second edition of our monthly
newsletter with updates on great fly fishing venues
and insights for our traveling fly fishers. We want
to help you match the right location with your fly
fishing goals and objectives and properly prepare
you to fully enjoy the experience. We’ve been to
most locations and pride ourselves on our ability to
research new sites. One of our services is to
compare and contrast different lodges/outfitters.
Whatever unbiased information on timing and
locations we can provide comes at the same cost to
you as booking direct – i.e., no extra cost.
BUSH STREET SHOP DESTINATION DAY, Wed, Jan 19 –
Eastern Idaho For This Summer - Wintertime where
it's summer NOW
This Wednesday, Jan 19, will be our monthly
Destination Day in the Bush Street Shop. I’ll be in
the shop from 11:00am through the evening. The
scheduled slide presentations will be 12:30 and 5:00
and feature family and corporate trips to Eastern
Idaho as well as destinations where it's summer NOW
- Costa Rica, Southern Hemisphere, and saltwater
flats.
Personal slide presentations by appointment can be
scheduled on any of our destinations. Let me know
if you’d like to make an appointment and what
destination you’d like me to be prepared for. Drop
in and say “hi” and let’s discuss the exciting
possibilities of fly fishing travel.
OPEN UP YOUR FLY FISHING OPTIONS
The 5 and 6 wt. rod with a floating line are
probably the most commonly used rods for trout
fishing situations. While I love fishing the
surface with a floating line as much as anyone, I
always have a 7 wt with a 200 grain sink tip and
some bead-head woolly buggers in my arsenal for
special situations. Even in New Zealand, the
world's ultimate destination for sight fishing with
a floating line, there are examples where the sink
tip can get you into fish when the floating line
just won't handle the situation. Example: on a
"non-fishing day" while staying at Blanket Bay, my
wife decided to take an afternoon nap after a busy
shopping morning in Queenstown. I slipped on my
waders and walked down to the lake edge. No surface
activity was happening, but by wading from the
shoreline, I was able to reach a drop-off with my
sink tip line. In a few hours, I released 6 or 7
fish hooked 5 to 10 feet below the surface. One of
my two double-digit trout taken in New Zealand was
taken with the 200 grain sink tip and a woolly
bugger fishing a spot where a spring creek emptied
into a large lake. In Patagonia, there have been a
few 5+ pound fish in my net as a result of getting
subsurface with a sink tip line, especially in
lagoons and inlets. In a perfect world, we'd all
like to limit our fishing to floating lines;
however, there are times when that sink tip allows
you to create some action, and sometimes, very good
action.
LAST MINUTE OPENINGS AT WORLD CLASS DESTINATIONS
Each season, there are some last minute
cancellations at lodges/destinations that normally
would be completely full for that particular time.
Here are a few opportunities and some of these are
discounted because of the short notice.
RIO GRANDE, TIERRA DEL FUEGO: Giant sea run brown trout at one of the
premier lodges on the Rio Grande, Toon Ken, for the
week of Feb 12 - 19, 2005 - space for 3 rods.
BABINE STEELHEAD LODGE: Our week is sold out for
next Oct, but space just opened up for the week
after ours, Oct. 15 - 21. The rest of the season
is full.
DEAN RIVER STEELHEAD: Aug 5 - 12 has some space on
the lower Dean, the hottest steelhead in the world.
PATAGONIA: Two lodges in our favorite area of
Patagonia in the Chilean Andes have some space
during the weeks of Feb 26 - March 5, March 12 - 19,
and March 19 - 26.
BELIZE
MOTHERSHIPS: Weeks with space are 3/17 - 24 (2
only); 3/28 - 4/4 (2 only); 6/29 - 7/6 (4 only); Aug
19 - 26 (6).
NEW ZEALAND:
Poronui Ranch had 2 rooms and 2 guides open up for
Feb 25 - March 9. Feb is full for this year with
virtually all the best guides and lodges, but March
has some possibilities for someone planning a last
minute experience.
CHRISTMAS ISLAND: two spots are still open for our shop hosted trip March
28 - April 4.
ALASKA: Trophy
rainbow/silver salmon trip Sept 3 - 10 hosted by
Matt in the shop. First class Alaska experience at
Bristol Bay Lodge
PLANNING FOR NEW ZEALAND IN '06??
If you are, now is the time to start the process if
you want to go "prime time." The world has
discovered New Zealand (The Lord of the Rings
trilogy didn't help any) and the best lodges and
guides book up as much as a year early. Many
anglers book their next years dates when they leave
from this years vacation. I'm already working on
several itineraries for '06. The only way to have
the best options available for your planning is to
start very early.
CABO SAN LUCAS TRIP REPORT
My first trip to Cabo San Lucas took place in early
January. Due to a last minute flu, our trip was
delayed and I only had one guided day of fishing,
but it worked out well as we did "hit it right."
Sierra Mackeral were present in good numbers at our
first stop and were willing takers and scrappy
critters. My partner and I released 12-15 in a few
hours, mostly 4 – 6pound fish. Our guide was
casting an attractor plug to raise fish in shallow
water within a few hundred yards of the beach. Had
one sierra that we had hooked-up and it was grabbed
by a large 50-60# rooster fish that ran about 200
yards before letting go. We did attract one dorado
that stayed in our area and followed the cast teaser
four different times. After blowing the first three
casts at it, I finally got the popper in front of
her and she grabbed. The 15# fish put up a great
tussle with constant jumps before settling into a
deep water tug-o-war. I’ve had 30-40# tarpon who
weren’t as tough as this fish to get to the boat.
She did have the advantage of access to deeper
water, as opposed to a shallow flats hooked tarpon.
This was my personal fantasy fish for the month - a
beautiful fish taken on the surface with a sight-
casting opportunity. We also raised several rooster
fish, but couldn't get things to line up right.
We fished with Grant Hartman who does a great job of
catering to fly fishers - no trolling flies here;
his approach is one of getting fish into a fly
casters range. Grant has 3 double hulled 26 ft
skiffs with dual 115hp outboards, great equipment
for this sort of fishing. Overall, a good sight
fishing/hunting experience, especially the dorado
and roosters. They slash and dart so quickly that
it is great excitement trying to get the fly in
front of them in an enticing manner.
Cabo offers good inshore fly fishing year round.
May, June and July offer a special opportunity –
sight fishing from the beach for roosters that reach
40 – 60 pounds, but are more common in the 15 – 25#
range. This is stalking from the beach and sight
casting. Sounds like a great “hunt” option for
casters with the skills to make a fast 50-60 foot
presentation into the wind. Naturally, he’s almost
fully booked for these months for this hunting
experience. It’s on my “must try” list of fly
fishing experiences. Price for a day is $480 for
two. It's on our list of destinations we will
book. (Note: will have Cabo slides with me
Wednesday)
FANTASY FISH EXPERIENCES
You may recall the name John "Pinky" Spencer - his
fame stems from having his first permit featured on
the Belize video tape. John was recently on the
Sacramento River and was having a good day with a
few 16-18 inch rainbows. John was fishing a small
nymph attached to a 4x tippet when a 40+ pound king
salmon grabbed. He chased the fish all over the
river until the leader finally parted after 90
minutes of out of control pursuit.
Gotta love these New Zealand stories - this month's
comes from Bob Turner who reports one day where he
landed a 7 and an 8 pound brown trout, both fish
rising to the surface to take a size 16 caddis.
Does it get any better than that!!!!! Only in New
Zealand!!
QUIPS AND QUOTES
Thanks to Lani Waller who summed up the New Zealand
experience with these words (I leave this week on my
annual NZ adventure and can't wait): "New Zealand
is the one place in the world where all the best
elements of fly fishing come together."
LELAND-FRONTIERS AGENT AGREEMENT
In addition to the many great destinations that we
represent, Leland Fly Fishing Adventures also has an
agreement with Frontiers to represent all their
properties (many of which we already book
independently). If you are considering any of the
destinations that Frontiers offers, please give us a
call as it’s virtually the same process as booking
through Frontiers, and we need the “bonus points.”
And, we may have some personal experiences that can
add to your knowledge and preparations.
Either phone or drop us an e-mail if you have
questions or would like more information about any
of our destinations.
An enthusiastic traveling fly fisherman,
Don Muelrath
Leland Fly Fishing Adventures
888-347-4896
flyfish@napanet.net
www.flyfishingoutfitters.com
e-mail Josh Frazier at
Josh@flyfishingoutfitters.com
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