The Perfect Cast I (ISBN # 978-0-9854280-2-0) is the latest book in the Fly Fishing Series by Gary A. Borger.

         Fly casting is built on one simple rule: what the rod tip does, the line does. From this underlying principle, Gary builds an amazingly clear and thorough understanding of fly casting, and introduces concepts that help you achieve mastery over this essential angling skill. His easily grasped discussions of line momentum, and loop formation and control, for example, are both important and revealing.  With the easily-understood techniques that he sets forth in this book, you will quickly acquire the essential elements of fly casting by using the time-proven pantomime-practice technique. Your abilities will grow quickly as technique flows seamlessly into technique, and precise casting tactics become integral components of your fly fishing.

         In this delightfully informative book, he leads you through a thorough understanding of casting development and skill acquisition–from the nine different ways you can grip the rod, to highly detailed and easily understood descriptions of the three methods of fly casting. He details the essential understanding of Acceleration, Loop Formation, and Energy Transfer (A.L.E.), and presents the best practice tools and methods for developing good casting quickly. Gary reveals the secret of High Speed High Line (HS/HL) that he uses to make high, fast backcasts with tight line loops, and the way to shoot a long line. He shows you how to utilize a wide variety of casting styles, including the Elliptical Stroke, Casting in the Wind, Sidearm Casting, Tournament Style Accuracy, the Galway cast, Across the Head Casting, accuracy in casting, and concepts of mending. In addition he skillfully covers the Bow and Arrow Cast, Extended Bow and Arrow, Roll Cast, Sidearm Roll Cast, Switch Cast (Forward Spay), Sidearm Switch, and more, for your successful use in all fishing conditions. He introduces on-the water and in-the air mending with the Reach Mend and the Curve Mend. These many, highly useful techniques are backed by their use in his lifetime of fly fishing, worldwide.  Illustrated with photos and the line art of Jason Borger.

         The book is available at: 

The Angling Bookstore   www.theanglingbookstore.com.
217 Kubler St.
Crested Butte, CO 81224
Mailing address: The Angling Bookstore

P.O. Box 2986
Crested Butte, CO 81224
Dealers may contact their book suppliers to get this text in stock

Many years ago, when gut was the leader material. anglers could connect one piece to another with a simple Fisherman’s Knot. It was simply an overhand knot in each end, and they were slid together. In todays’ world, that knot is too weak for monofilament, and cannot be used to tie two very different materials together. However, a modified version of the the knot is highly useful in connecting very dissimilar materials–such as monofilament to Dacron or gelspun backing. There are other uses, too, like connecting two pieces of mono together. Like the original Fisherman’s Knot, the ends of the two pieces are pointed in opposite directions and parallel to one another. Then, a Nailless Nail Knot is tied in each end around the other piece of material (Figure 1). Once the knots are tight, the two ends are puled tightly against each other (Figure 2) It’s a very strong knot, and as noted can have many applications in fly fishing.

Virtual Fly Fishing with the Experts

Spring is here. It’s time to refresh and renew our understanding of fly fishing. The COVID-19 pandemic has closed the Fly Fishing Show venues until 2022, but there’s still plenty of time and opportunity to avail yourself of the great teachings that the Shows offer. Management is providing the opportunity to attend presentations and casting and fly tying demonstrations specifically designed for Zoom meetings to give you a broad choice of topics from which to choose.

ZOOM to Fly Casting with Gary Borger

Casting is the physical skill of fly fishing. In this 2-hour program, Gary Borger presents new and highly effective methods to refine, improve, and develop casting skills to a highly polished level, allow the fly fisher to effectively and efficiently present the imitation under a host of angling conditions. There is detailed information in Grip and Stance, Two Rules of Fly Casting, Control, Swinging Curve, Differences between Method and Style, Wrist Casting, Forearm Casting, Whole Arm Casting, A.L.E., Easily Made Backcast, Lift and Flip, The Pause, The Forward Stroke, Tailing Loops, Loop Control, False Casting, Pantomiming, Hook Curve, Casting Across the Head, Elliptical Stroke, Casting in the wind, “C” Pickup, Roll Cast, Switch Cast, Drag, Reach Mend, Puddle Mend, Curve Mend, Shooting Line, Mend and Shoot, Long Cast, and more. Don’t miss this fun and extremely informative program.

Head online to https://flyfishingshow.com/virtual-show-info/

Silvercreek offers two really great head cements that are UV cured. I love ‘em and use both. They dry quickly and are hard and absolutely tack free, and both are flexible. I use the thin Crystal Coat for the heads on most of my flies. I love the thick Crystal Coat to give my streamers and bucktails a very smooth, highly polished head. One coat is all that’s needed.

Silvercreek’s Crystal Hard UV Coat is hard with some flex and Silvercreek’s Crystal Flex UV Coat is hard with more flex. Silvercreek’s Crystal Flex UV Coat is a hard clear UV cured coating for flies with additional properties. It is a clear pliable coating that can be used to apply eyes to a fly, to repair waders, leaky tent seams, coating leader knots, coating and sealing foam flies, and to repair cracks that occur in iPod/iPad/iPhone charger wires, ear buds, etc. It is also an excellent all around fly tying resin. I recommend the Crystal Flex for those ordering just one resin to try.

Both UV Coats comes in a 15 cc bottle with an applicator brush. They are $15.00 each. They contain 50% more resin than the 10cc syringe of Clear Cure Goo and the bottle/brush is a better system than a syringe with the applicator tips that cost extra. It is also better than a squeeze bottle or a squeeze tube that others use. The brush system has no waste, and the brush allows you to apply a thick or thin coat of the resin. You can apply a single thin or medium coat or multiply coats to get a single thick coat. I also apply Crystal Coat with my bodkin for small flies or to place it very specifically on the fly (as in attaching eyes).

To get yours, contact:  picaboo@charter.net, put silver coat in the subject line

Yes, you can catch sharks on a fly rod. I’m not sure anyone would want to hook the likes of “Jaws,” but Sand sharks all the way to Mako are great on the fly rod. My long time friend, Chuck Furimsky, has had some great days off the coast of southern New Jersey with these toothy denizens of the deep. Recently he took a friend, Bob Evans out for a day of shark chasing, and they had great fun. They hook many, landed 6, and were able to unhook all those landed.

Chuck used a bunker head teaser and brought the sharks close. He then pulled the teaser away and toss the shark his “Chunk Head ” fly. They pounced on it.

Oh, and Bod painful learned to keep his fingers out of the way off the reel handle while palming to increase drag. Sharks can be real freight trains when they run.

Bob quickly learned to keep his fingers out of the way of the reel handle.

The Chunk Head. Looks “reel” enough to me!

Sharks are very powerful fighters and can tear off great hanks of line with ease.

Yes they do have real shark’s teeth, and they can nip off a finger with great ease. Use a tool when unhooking these beasts.

Having lived for over 40 years in Wisconsin, I am still interested in its fish and my long time fly fishing companions, even though Nancy and I now live in Vancouver, WA. My faithful friend, John Beth, keeps me apprised of goings-on in the Badger State fishery. His latest report is both good and bad. Good because the really big browns are ascending the tributaries and taking flies very well. Bad because the weather, which has been unseasonably warm, is going to turn to its usual late fall nasty. As in freezing temps and then some. So, the rivers are going to ice, and that of course means no fishing. So, go, go, go. Get ‘em while they’re hot, because it is not going to be hot for long.

Our friend, Dan, “Doc” Zavadsky, with a 33 inch brown from a Lake Michigan tributary in Wisconsin. Better hurry, these big boys will soon be under the ice.

Fall is always a question mark for the big stripers. Some years early, some late. Water temperature is the key. It has to be cool enough the get the fish inshore. This year, the late, warm fall kept them north and out deep. But now they’re back with a vengeance. My friend, Chuck Furimsky, founder of The Fly Fishing Show, and his son, Ben, current president and director of the company, found the big fish last week. Let’s hope it stays just warm enough and calm enough so the anglers can get out chasing these beauties. They took the fish on large—as in 10 inch long—bunker flies. Ya need at least a 10-weight to toss ‘em and to handle the big boys they take.

One striper like this can make a day.

And another to make everyone’s day!

The big stripers are eating bunker–sizable bait fish that run iin the 10 inch and up size.

Stripers are always a bit of a question mark off the coast on New Jersey in the later fall. If the water stays a bit on the warm side, then the fish stay north. Of course if the weather is a bit on the foul side, then going out on the open ocean is precarious—even foolish. As an aside, I’ve fished the rough water—seasick as all get out—and caught some nice fish, but that was with only 6-foot seas. When the big stuff comes in, it’s just too rough to get over the bar, let alone enjoy the casting and fish fighting.

So, when Theo Bakelaar came over for the International Fly Tying Symposium last weekend, he and Chuck Furimsky wanted to catch some stripers. Too rough out on the big water, so they fished the calmer waters of the bay and caught fish. Chuck managed one nice one, but most of the fish were great 7-weight material. Plenty of fun in waters that allowed easy casting, and the excitement of a good solid fight.

Stripers, like this one that Theo is holding, are great on a 7-weight.

Salmon are a great fall fish in the Lake States, and they provide many hours of sport fishing for those fortunate enough to be within a day’s drive of the tributaries of the five lakes. But, the time has come, the walrus said, to speak of many things, why the sea is boiling hot and whether pigs have wings—and, oh yes, the end of the fall salmon season in the Lake States. It’s here, and the hangers-on–both fly fisher and fish—are seeing the rapid winding down of the fishing. Lately, it’s been the few remaining Cohos that are providing the action. As a quick aside, Cohos were the first exotic salmon stocked in the Great Lakes. Michigan stocked them first, in April of 1966, in the Platte River. From there it has exploded, and the fishery is certainly world-class.

My long-time fishing companion, John Beth, managed to get to the rivers on the west side of Lake Michigan, and found a couple of late Coho females. They were nasty dark color, but they fought with the energy of fresh ones. Cohos also take the fly with true zeal—that’s one of the things I love about them, whether fishing the Lake States, here in the Pacific Northwest, or Alaska.

Meanwhile, friend and bluesman, Keith Scott, was sampling the late Cohos on Michigan’s Platte River, and nailed a very nice older female.

Way to go guys—great way to close out the fall 2017 salmon season.

It’s not unusual for Cohos to get dark and nasty looking, but as you can see, this female has not even spawned yet. They are decidedly great fighters, too, and take the fly with true zeal.

Keith Scott, and another great, late season Coho female from Michigan’s Platte River (site of first Coho stocking in 1966); not the unspanned condition of this fish, too.

Albacore

It’s been a couple of busy weeks for the fly fishing community. On the east coast, my friend, Jake Jordan, helped sponsor the Cape Lookout Albacore Festival. All proceeds go to Project Healing Waters—a most deserving organization that helps veterans refocus their lives through fishing. Jake is a specialist for Albacore, especially on the fly rod, and everyone at the Festival caught fish and experienced a truly fun time.

Capt’n Jake and his anglers got into Albacore right away by heading out to where trawlers were culling their day’s catch.

Uninvited guests–sharks–are prevalent in these waters, and often a fly rodder loses a fish to one of these toothy torpedoes.

Stripers

Back from fishing with Jake Jordan for Stripers, my friend, Chuck Furimsky, began exploring for fall stripers with our good friend from Holland, Theo Bakelaar. Theo introduced gold beads into the US in 1994, when I first met him, and is always coming up with unique fly tying and angling ideas. The open ocean has been a bit too rough for easy access, so Chuck and Theo have been fishing the bay at Ocean City, NJ. They have found a few small foish, but the other day, Chuck found this beauty. Only hit he had all day, but I’d say it was well worth waiting for.

I’ll take every striper of this size that I can find!

Cohos

A bit further west, on the west side of Lake Michigan, as a matter of fact, another long-time fishing companion, John Beth, hit the Wisconsin tributaries at exactly the right time—when they were not flowing swollen and muddy well over their banks. The king run was over—having been buried in the high water—but the cohos were in. And were they ever. John took this 35 inch beast—his best ever in Wisconsin—and several others that day. He and a friend saw a couple of browns, too, so they may be poised to run soon, too. Get a couple for me, John.

Only an inch short of a yard. That’s quite a fine coho!

Rainbows

My long time friend, Marc Williamson, managed to get out the other day and explore a nearby Oregon lake. This 24 inch bulky critter found his fly. Mighty fine rainbow, I’d say.

A great fall day with a great fish.

King and Lahontan

Another friend, blues guitar maestro, Keith Scott, has been playing at venues across the Pacific Northwest—and of course taking advantage of the fishing here. He took a lovely, chrome-bright king salmon on the Hook and then headed for Omak Lake to hunt for Lahontan cutthroats, where he found the beauty below.

king salmon with a king guitar blues man.

Lahontans get big–as you can see here.