TOPICS IN THIS ISSUE
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’03 Leland Fly Fishing
Travel brochure in the mail
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Early season trout
destination
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’03 Hosted Trip
Schedule
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Benefits of developing
your casting skills
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Tierra del Fuego
availability
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Defining cold weather
This is the ninth 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 ones. 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.
’03 LELAND FF TRAVEL BROCHURE IN
THE MAIL
Our 2003 Leland Fly Fishing Travel
Brochure was recently mailed. This year’s edition
is 6 pages with a bonefish on the cover. It
includes many “world class” fly fishing destinations
both domestic and international. They’ve been
mailed over the last few weeks with the last batch
mailed this week. If you haven’t received a copy by
January 15 or have a friend who should get one, hit
“reply” and send us the “snail mail” address.
EARLY SEASON ROCKIES TROUT FIX
We’ve been making a shop trip in
April to the North Platte River in Wyoming for a few
years now and have found it to be an excellent early
season location. Last year, Tony Brookfield and a
friend made the trip in early April. We printed
Tony’s report last year, but thought it might be
worth another take because of the timing.
“Peter and I had a great time on the
North Platte (besides the hand cramps at the end of
the trip). We had been concerned that the weather
may not be great in early April in Wyoming, however,
we had 60 to 70 degrees every day. Catching less
than 20 fish each per day was considered a bad day
(but who’s counting), and we caught nothing smaller
than 15 inches - mostly rainbows and a few cut-bows.
The guides were patient, superb oarsmen and skilled
fish-finders. The lodge was comfortable, the food
excellent and the hosts were friendly..
We were joined by a group of seasoned
fisherman who fish all over the world and have
fished the North Platte half a dozen times. They
claim that the North Platte is the best place
anywhere for big trout. I’ll be back.” TB
(See below for our hosted trip to the
North Platte in ’03.)
’03 HOSTED TRIP SCHEDULE
April 1 – 6: North Platte Lodge,
Wyoming. A great early season Rockies destination
with good size fish and the option of fishing two
private creeks. $1,400 pp/do includes transfers
from Casper, flies, leaders, and license.
June 7 – 10: Deschutes River Float
trip, Ore. Timed to catch the salmon fly hatch on
the Deschutes. $1,300 – 1,400 depending on the
number in party.
June 21 – 25: Smith River Float
trip, Montana. One of the great float trip
experiences in the U.S. A good experience for both
veteran and novice fly fishermen. $3,000 pp.
July 4 – 11: Minonipi Lodge, Minipi
River, Labrador. The finest dry fly fishing for
brook trout in the world. Past guests have
regularly caught fish in the five-plus pound
category. $3,750. Our hosted trip week for ’03 is
SOLD OUT although other weeks in ‘03 may still have
openings.
Taking reservations now for our
hosted week in ’04. Don and Scott Muelrath will be
the Leland representatives for the hosted ’04 trip.
July 4 – 11: Dean River/Moose Lake
combination trip, British Columbia. Combine fishing
the world famous Dean River for steelhead and kings
with some of the fastest rainbow dry fly fishing in
North America. $4,250 – SOLD OUT for 2003. Moose
Lake Lodge still has space available during other
weeks for ’03.
Taking reservations for the
combination trip in ’04 – this is limited to one
week and only six people.
July 25 – Aug 1 and Aug 1 – 8: Dean
River, British Columbia. The Dean River is rated by
many as the finest steelhead river on the globe.
$4,250. Our first week has been SOLD OUT every year
to the same group; still have two spots left for Aug
1 – 8.
(Note: only one of the three trips to
the Dean/Moose Lake lodge will have a Leland
representative along and, as of now, we don’t know
which one)
July 26 – Aug 1: Ladies Week at
Three Rivers Ranch, Idaho. Three Rivers Ranch is
one of the West’s finest fly fishing lodges with
outstanding location, guides, service, cuisine,
etc. They have a special week geared to helping
ladies get started in fly fishing (also great for
veterans). A great fly fishing experience in a
beautiful setting!!! $3,170.
September 19 – 26: Belize salt water
flats fishing from the motherships Meca and
Seaduction. Fish the finest bonefish, tarpon, and
permit flats in Belize with her premier guides
Martin McCord and Charles Westby. $2,400pp
February, 2004: A return to New
Zealand. Details still in the planning stages
Possible additions could include
another salt water/bonefish destination and
Kamchatka
DEVELOPING YOUR CASTING SKILLS
The difference between a fly casting
range of 30-40 feet and 60-70 feet is significant
and can open up many additional fishing
opportunities. When my son and I started fly
fishing in saltwater in Belize and the Yucatan, we
carried one fly rod for bonefish in the boat and
three spinning rods. We couldn’t make the casts
necessary to catch tarpon, permit and the other
saltwater species (we could only catch bonefish
which were close by and downwind). After some
lessons and study on casting technique, we we’re
able to expand our range to 60, 70 feet, and more.
Today we only carry fly rods in our skiff – four or
five of them rigged for all the saltwater species –
and any fish within 90 feet is a target.
The key issue in expanding your range
to 60-70 feet is learning to double haul. After
learning this technique, your fly fishing enjoyment
and success will increase. This applies to fresh
water as well as saltwater fishing. A double haul
will allow you to increase your line speed to gain
distance as well overcome casting obstacles such as
a head wind. Learning to execute the double haul
will improve your accuracy and double and triple the
water you can cover and fish you can reach.
What is the best way to learn to
double haul? I think the best way to learn (given
that most of us don’t want to spend hours practicing
in a non-fishing situation) is to take a few lessons
and make sure that you understand how to correctly
execute the basic technique. Then it just takes
practice and it’s more fun to practice when there
are fish to target. If you have an understanding of
the basic technique, a week of fly fishing (bonefish
flats in saltwater provide an excellent lesson
stage) will ingrain your new skill because you’ll be
working on it everyday. Before the week is over
(assuming that you begin your trip with the correct
basic technique), you’ll be confidently executing
accurate 60-70 foot casts, even with the wind in
your face. Your new skills will be yours for a
lifetime of fly fishing enjoyment and will provide
the basis upon which to build further skills.
One of my greatest challenges in
preparing people to enjoy a world class fly fishing
experience (whether it’s chasing tarpon and bonefish
in Belize, trophy trout in New Zealand, or steelhead
on the Dean River) is to convince them to invest
some time and a few bucks in developing their fly
casting skills. It’s a shame to spend thousands of
dollars traveling to a great fly fishing destination
and not be able to capitalize on the possibilities
because of restricted casting skills. The most
basic element in enjoying success with a fly rod is
developing the ability to cast successfully.
Fortunately, it’s not rocket science. It is a motor
skill that can be mastered by the young and old,
weak and strong, or male and female.
If you want to learn, or just
improve, your double haul Leland’s two shops have a
world class team of fly casting instructors. Please
contact me or the shops directly to set up a
lesson. It will definitely be worth your time.
San Francisco: 415-781-3473
Lafayette: 925-284-3474
TIERRA DEL FUEGO AVAILABILITY
One of the world’s great fly fishing
experiences is pursuing the giant sea run brown
trout of the Rio Grande in Tierra Del Fuego,
Argentina. In a normal year, finding space during
the prime time of Jan - March at any of the great
lodges is impossible. However, this is not a normal
year and we know of some space available. If you’d
like to throw together a great adventure at this
late date, give us a call. We can book space at
most of the operations in Tierra Del Fuego and
should be able to find you space.
DEFINING COLD WEATHER
We’ve had some cold and wet weather
in Northern California the last four weeks – or have
we??? Below is a message I recently received from
Lorraine Cooper, owner of Cooper’s Minipi River
Camps in Labrador -----
T'is pretty chilly here today. Minus
30 with wind chill. I have a
huge wood fire burning and the
electric heat cranked up on high, and am
sporting a wonderful pair of seal
skin mukluks on my feet. Life in the
north, nothing like it.
Either call or drop us an e-mail if
you have questions or would like more information
about any of our destinations. I’ll be chasing
tarpon, bonefish, permit and snook in Belize from
Jan 12 to 24 so if you have any pressing matters,
please contact me ASAP.
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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