The Fishing Poet took his Kayak, some friends, and his Fetha Styx fishing rods out to the West River to ply for Bass. Check out this awesome video he made!

From the The Fishing Poet:

Under the watchful eye of an American Bald Eagle, one of a few nesting pairs in the area, we paddled from the lake into the river–Jason and Dave with spinning rigs and me with my trusty 5 wt. It took us about half an hour to figure out what was getting the fish to look up. We traded bright top-water patterns for dark and the water instantly turned electric…well, for Dave and I anyhow. Every cast, every pop-strip and retrieve had the hair on the back of my neck standing like a jumpy kid watching the first Friday the 13th, waiting for Jason Voorhees to jump out of the water with a machete.

Dear Fetha Styx,

I just wanted to take the time and write you about the great time I had using your fishing rods on my recent trip to Yakutat, AK. Both rods I had were from your “True Hero Series“. The “Blitz Line” had great sensitivity and was able to handle some nice coho. I have never fly-fished before and Bill Boyce was nice enough to let me demo an 8 weight, “The Flashover”. My father-in-law, who is an avid fly-fisherman, was very impressed by the quality and ease of casting of this rod. I also found it very easy to cast and hooked into my first fish on a fly rod. I can say that I am hooked for life and it was probably the most memorable fish I have ever caught. Please enjoy the pictures I have included and know that Fetha Styx helped make this a trip of a lifetime.

Sincerely,
Matt

Fetha Styx new media guru, Evan Davies, will be participating in the IFTD Social Media Lounge at this year’s American Fly Fishing Trade Association (AFFTA) IFTD Show on September 9-11. He will be there representing Fetha Styx and discussing the role of social media marketing in the fishing industry for both those new to the concept and those looking to increase their social media presence.

Evan, along with other influential members of the fly-fishing social media community, will also participate in a panel discussion on social media strategy and the fly-fishing industry that is sure to be enlightening. Says Kyle Perkins of Compleat Thought, “The goal is to introduce fly-fishing industry leaders to this strategy, and also have a place for us that are already involved to meet and discuss.”

The IFTD Social Media Lounge will be at booth 1010, near the Guide Lounge.

Stay tuned to Fetha Styx facebook and twitter accounts for updates from the show. Of course, be sure to check the Fetha Styx blog for more of Evan’s reports from the IFTD Show.  If you want to get hold of him before you go, you can always reach him at evan@fethastyxblog.com.

For more information, check out the Fly Fishing Expo website.

The key is passion.

Nothing’s worth our time unless we’re enjoying ourselves, right? Perhaps that’s a tad extreme, but passion, patience and an open mind are a few of the fundamental characteristics that lead to triumph in any activity. The lessons put forth in the article are logical, yet incredibly poignant. It’s worth taking a step back to appreciate the values instilled through fishing — and the successes they’re capable of leading to.

Also, we would be remiss for not pointing out the fabulous photo the article uses was taken by our friend Rich Schaaff.

Read “Passion on the Fly” here.

Photo by Richard Schaaff (eastforkfly.com)

Those of you who live in the NW know that we haven’t seen too much sun in these early days of summer. Fortunately, the last two weekends have been beautiful and I took full advantage by dragging my raft down from Portland for some fly-fishing on the world-renowned Deschutes River in Central Oregon.

If you have ever had the chance to fish this river you know it is quite the experience. The beauty of the red cliffs and sage brush are beyond picturesque, and on a clear night the stars are unrivaled. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures as I normally don’t bring my camera when I float new water, so you can let your imagination run wild.

Fishing was good, but not spectacular. The biggest fish we saw were the ones we spooked while stalking the grassy banks. That being said, there is something incredible about landing the beautiful rainbows that the Deschutes are known for. I still remember the first time I saw these beautiful “red-sides” and that experience will keep me coming back time after time.

It’s too early for the summer steelhead run so the number of fishermen on the river is manageable, but will only increase as the summer and good weather continue. You are going to have to go downstream of Maupin quite a ways because the recreational rafters and commercial operations are ramping up and busy!

Here are some tips for your next visit to the Deschutes:

• Remember, there is no fishing from the boat even though access can be hard….
• The sun is intense, I found fishing early and later in the evening the better. Make sure you stalk your holes appropriately and don’t spook the fish with your shadow. Beware of the wind picking up around 4 and blowing into the evening. Also, remember no fires.
• Watch out for rattlesnakes.
• The rocks are super slick — you’ll definitely want studded boots or be very cautious.

Flies:

• Caddis (smaller 10-14 worked for me)
• Pale morning dun

Larger nymphs:

• zug bug, prince, darker stone fly, hares ear, pheasant tail, lightning bug

After what seemed like years of rain, wind, and spring snow the sun finally came out and said hello in the Jackson Hole valley.  Subsequently, I got on the river.  Will and I floated both the 19th and the 20th.  Although the river is running super high with a chocolate milk looking substance, we brought our fishing rods anyway.  Fishing was hectic to say the least, between afternoon, down-bursting thunderstorms and the entire forest residing always somewhere in the middle of the river, basically, we got skunked.  Wooly buggers, big, bright streamers, and the always hopeful dry fly all came to no avail.

Next week, if plans don’t change, I want to float the south fork of the Snake and see how things are there.  I imagine with all this sun the river will finally start falling and it’ll be time to slay.  Stay tuned and wish me luck!

My mind starts to wander back to the weekend’s events and the feelings I get every time I get ready to embark on a new fishing adventure. I start to think that the actual act of fishing becomes a forethought (especially when you get skunked like I did this past weekend) when compared to the quality time you get to spend with great friends, laughing, learning new techniques and the blissful state of mind that overwhelms you the second you push off of shore in your drift boat and fall into the river’s current. All the day-to-day work and life stress seems to quickly fade away — as fast as it takes to have your line snapped by a large steelhead.

I had the great opportunity of leaving behind the handcuffs of city and work life for a few days this last weekend and intended to make every second of it count.  When you are on the river with no email, no cell phone service, some great friends, a few beers and a river to yourself you feel almost invincible. 

This got me thinking about what fishing actually means to me. It’s so much more than the proverbial bragging rights that naturally come with the quality and quantity of fish caught. Camaraderie becomes the name of the game. When you are out steelheading on a tough day it almost becomes a team sport. Everyone is working hard. Constantly tying on new setups, trying new colors and set ups, hucking out longer leaders, more weight and finding new fishy water and different approaches. Your hopes rise and fall with not only your own cast, but also with everyone else in the boat.  And since I personally lost a few fish this weekend while others in the boat successfully landed fish, the joke running around was that I can lay claim to at least 1/8 or a similar fraction of credit for the fish caught (or so I like to tell myself). Overall though, that doesn’t matter all the time.

Making calls to some old buddies all week long, I finally wrangled a crew that consisted of some of the most skilled fly-fisherman that I know from my days in Montana.  All are life-long fisherman, and some are current or former Idaho and Montana fishing guides. The best part about this group is their infectious love and attitude toward fishing that is both relaxing and intense, if that is at all possible. They are the type of guys that will make fun of you for casting into wind and a tangle, toss you a beer and then give you a 15 minute tutorial on the art of casting while you try to fix your mess . . . while sticking another fish.  I learn more on these types of trips than I do from a full season of trial and error exploring my new home in the Pacific Northwest.

Back to the weekend. Weather-wise, it was paradise compared to the many weekends I have spent in the area battling below freezing temperatures, blowing wind, snow and sleet. The first day I was even able to sport just a t-shirt in the 60-plus degree weather.  We knew we were in for an interesting day with this sunny warm weather and a previous fishing report saying “it’s like they are all gone!” That didn’t deter us in the least bit and we had the river to ourselves as we dropped the boat in the water after raiding the hotel’s complementary breakfast for the first of many times.  Within the first hour we found out quick the abundance of the often misaligned sucker fish in the river, as a friend “christened” his new fly rod with one of these funny lipped fish to everyone’s laughter.   Things were quiet for a few hours until we anchored up several miles down river when with the first cast into the new hole all we hear is “ohhh yea, its him…steely dan” and everyone came out of their mid-day haze for the excitement. Some furious runs later and a few skips of the ol’ heartbeat when the fish seemed to be tangled up in someone else’s set up, the beautiful and surprisingly still chromed out and shiny native steelhead was netted and released — promptly to be followed by a ceremonial shot of whiskey.

The day concluded with the waning of sunlight, where a herd of about 25-30 head of elk grazed on the ridge above us and a few comments of “I love this f-ing place” turned into good-natured ribbing about the five shots (four missed) it took for a friend to take down his first elk the previous season.

The next day we woke to overcast skies, a bit of montezumas revenge from a jaunt to the local Mexican restaurant, another opportunity to destroy the hotel’s continental breakfast and a few more friends showing up.  First hole in the morning was some work. Extra deep for our fly-lines and indicators. Waylin makes the call and decides that with his sink-tip line he will just forgo his indicator. Not ten seconds after he comments that I have to be faster on my hook set for these fish, he rips into another steelhead lip.  Once again it’s on, but something peculiar happens. 

For the first time in all of our lives we witness what we happened to call the “Jaws” move.  We have all had a fish rip out a bunch of line only to pull a 180 and race back to the boat, but we weren’t prepared to see what happened next. After a quick run back towards the boat and lots of effort to keep a taught line the fish just stops and slowly makes an almost 360-degree tour around the boat (in the shallows) to show himself off before he made a frantic sprint down stream making the reel sing like only a beast of a steelhead can. Just like that, Waylin boats another beauty. Hi-fives all around and another shot of whiskey and an 1/8 of a steelhead landed for me. 

Next up is my great friend and the best Montana fly-fishing guide I know, Chris Orwig. He shows up fashionably late on the river in his new drifty and I immediately hop in. It’s been too long since I have seen him and his girl, but the catching up is short and sweet. Doubling the size of our group we head down river to the next “money run.” Now with two boats and six people, we can really start working the runs. Big in presence and in drifts, Chris hooks up directly in front of the other boat about 100 yards down river.  Good luck charm again, as my boat lands another majestic native steely — and I claim another fraction of a fish.

We may not have stuck anymore fish for the rest of the three day trip, but my love for the sport only grew the more time I was on the water, regardless of the impending eight hour drive home and thoughts of an extra long work week ahead. Count yourself fortunate to be able to get on the water (anytime) with the people you enjoy and love being with.  That is what fishing is to me. I love to catch fish, but I enjoy sharing stories, hucking line, being in the great outdoors, experiencing new territory, learning from the best and spending quality time with great friends and family just as much.  All things society dictates aside (cliche as it may be), a day spent fishing is better than anything else in the world.  That is what fishing is — to me.

Always down for a last minute steelheading adventure, I grabbed my Fetha Styx fishing rods, packed a cooler with beer and hopped in my car for a trip inland to fish the Clearwater River in Idaho with some old friends. As the hatchery fish seemed to move up river and numbers reported in the rivers down, the crew didn’t let that deter them from fishing hard and having a great time. While we didn’t boat a large number of fish, collectively we landed some beauties. Take a look and let me know what you think of the video.

A big shout out to my good friend Chris Orwig (in my opinion one the best Montana fly fishing guides) for making the trip and dropping some local and steelheading knowledge on me.  I always learn a bunch when I hit the river with this crew, and this trip was no different.

Check out some of the Fly-Fishing Rods and Steelhead gear rods I brought along with me.  Stay tuned for the next series of posts with a full write up and a new project I was inspired to do after the trip.

Thanks to EYEini for helping put the final touches on this.

Fetha Styx Blog Home

I’m the owner and founder of Flyfishmap.com. Brought up in Nottingham, England, I now live in London with my long time girlfriend, Bryony (whom I’ve even taught to fly fish). I’m 39 and aside from FFM, work as an Internet publishing consultant to media agencies and direct clients in the UK. I’m well traveled having lived and worked in Australia, Hong Kong and Sri Lanka and of course, I’m a fly fishing addict.

Where did the idea for this technology come from?

A couple of years ago, I became more aware of Google Maps mashups and their potential and realized that I could develop something pretty useful based around fly fishing. I looked around and found directory sites and localized maps but nothing that really covered fly fishing from a global perspective and so I set about developing FlyFishMap.com

You are encouraging user interactivity, not much seen in the fishing world, why?

We realized pretty early on that this would only have legs if the content was user generated. There are plenty of Google maps mashups out there where the content has been solely generated by the site owner, they’ve basically mapped all they can and the site is essentially finished. But Flyfishmap will always grow and develop because there will always be another great video, photo or article around the corner.

What is your ultimate goal with this tech?

The site continues to grow and we aim to get as much useful and entertaining information on there as possible. I envisage the site going through several stages as the content grows. Stage 1 being ‘interesting’, then stage 2 ‘useful’, stage 3 ‘valuable’ and stage 4 ‘invaluable’. We’re still in stage 1 right now for most visitors and leaning towards stage 2 for the international angler. We also have exciting plans to develop the site further and increase the functionality of markers. Ultimately we want FlyFishmap to be a unique one-stop shop for planning fly fishing trips anywhere in the world.

What’s your background?

Well I’ve been fly fishing since I was 8 years old. Business wise, I’ve worked in magazine publishing and new media for most of my career and am passionate about the web and the opportunities it offers, having worked in start ups as well as with established businesses growing their digital offering. Outside of work and aside from fly fishing, I like to shoot when I get the chance. I’m also partial to a game of snooker and enjoy watching football (soccer!) especially my home team, Nottingham Forest.

How is this tech relevant to the everyday angler?

I love to fish new places and FFM is proving to be a great way to find new places to go or to dream about going fly fishing. At the moment the site is probably most useful for the traveling angler but as we are moving into Stage 2 ‘useful’, the everyday angler looking for more local information will find the site helpful. Of course, because the content is generated by users, we hope fly fishers everywhere will embrace the collaborative nature of the site and add their own photos and videos. We would also like them to encourage their local tackle shops, guides and places to stay to add their own markers too – the more people and companies involved, the more useful it will be for everyone.

One of our main targets this year is to encourage more conservation organizations to use the map to its full potential and show anglers the important issues that are affecting the areas they fish in. I hope that FFM can play a role in educating fly fishers about critical conservation issues because the more people who know about them, the more people there are to fight for government/local authorities to take action. When we promote the content from these organizations on FFM, we can help build a stronger voice for the fly fishing community all over the world.

Where do you see your site in 5 years?

We’ll hopefully have many thousands of markers in 5 years and the site will have become an invaluable tool for planning fly fishing trips anywhere in the world. We also have lots of exciting plans to develop and expand the technology and launch more services to businesses using the platform, as well as giving our users a lot more functionality. We certainly have mobile aspirations and as Google develops its mapping technology we will be taking advantage as we see fit.

What role do you see the use of social media in the future of the fishing industry?

Social media is playing an increasingly important role in many types of business and the recreational fishing industry is no exception. This new ability to communicate and interact directly with people from all over the world and from all walks of life is amazing and I think companies which don’t seize this opportunity are shooting themselves in the foot basically.

From the start, I felt it was important to develop a presence on Facebook, Twitter and Linked In, places where we can directly connect with fly fishers and fly fishing companies and more importantly where they can interact with us.

I think we’ll see increasing usage of people accessing these sites via mobile in the next few years and it will also be interesting to see how location based services such as Foursquare and Gowalla can become applicable to fly fishers.

Explain your favorite fishing experience or best day on the water.

Well there’s so many to choose from and the great thing about fly fishing is that there’s always the chance of another ‘best’ day around the corner J. A couple of years ago, I did have a fantastic day on the River Avon in Hampshire, UK. It was a mayfly hatch that I will never forget as there were literally clouds of them in and around the water. The fish were going absolutely crazy and I caught a few nice ones but to be honest it will remain in my memory as just an amazing spectacle to behold rather than a red letter day.

Favorite fish species?

Probably the sea trout (sea run brown trout or ‘sewin’ in Wales.). It’s a fantastic fighting fish and we usually fish for them at night in the UK. They’re very wary and difficult to catch but it’s incredibly exciting standing in a Welsh river at night, casting a fly into the dark, then getting a savage, arm-wrenching take and trying to control an explosive bar of silver as it leaps around the pool.

Fly Fish Map
Fetha Styx Blog

A lot of people have heard, some haven’t, some care, and others don’t give a shit. A couple weeks ago we had an unusual weather event that cooled our water down to levels that were too low for certain fish like snook, tarpon, and bonefish to survive. I was unable to go out and witness the carnage first hand because I was in the rat hole finishing up our video for the fly fishing film tour this year. Most of my friends (guides) were ultra-depressed and all doom and gloom about the scenario, but everyone was aware that this kind of thing happens. Thousands of fish died. Big hit to the fishery.

Or is it? What percentage of our winter resident snook and tarpon actually died? It seems like nobody really knows. Over the last few days we have heard that some biologists and scientist types have been booking up days with Everglades fishing guides to assess the damage. It looks like it was a serious enough event to require professional interaction. I can’t wait to find out.

In the meantime all we can do is come to our own conclusions. Most of the initial talk on the internet is very negative. Things like “we didn’t find any life” or “all we saw was a lot of dead fish.” Now don’t get me wrong there has been a bunch of good things posted, but none really good enough to really offset the bad vibe. Until now…

I’m not going to get into the details of it, but five days after I finished editing a part of our new movie about the best snook (fish) of my life, I go out fishing once, when the fishing is supposedly as bad as it has ever been, and catch a snook that was better than the one I just spent all this time trying to tell about. The fish was a bit longer, and probably weighed about the same, but none of that is what it is even about. It’s got nothing to do with even catching the fish. What it is about is hope. Now granted these fish are down, beaten up (some to death) and very vulnerable (a perfect time to actually stand a chance with a fly rod), and I will honestly say that I went out looking to kick something big while it was down. But in the process of catching and releasing her, great respect was paid not to wear her down too bad and to make sure she swam off exactly how we found her. And she did. It was at that moment that Jeff and I realized how symbolic it was. At a time when many lost all hope, there was still a trophy out there willing to eat my stupid little fly and prove to all of us that it is FAR FROM OVER!