Now that I have had the chance to use the system I find the pack to be an excellent choice, my only wish is that the hydration bladder was located between the frame and pack instead of in the pack. There is plenty of room and it would not interfere with your back or ventilation. The hydration bladder does not come with the pack and costs a few bucks extra. The things I like about the pack is it has plenty of room and has a frame that keeps the pack a few inches from your back allowing for ventilation and plenty of comfort.

The pack and vest can be separated with the click of a few buckles. This is great because fishing with the vest and pack is some what uncomfortable. Speaking of uncomfortable, the vest is when worn by itself. It only has a narrow strap around your neck which bothered me after the first hour. I found the pockets to be adequate but the ones on the front could have been larger, my fly boxes didn’t fit and I had to find some smaller ones. The vest is made of heavy material like the pack, I think it should have been made of light weight material to reduce it’s bulk, it just seemed to always be in my way while fishing.

If you are a large guy and/or overweight a little the vest seems to protrude way out in front of you, not good for walking over rocks. I also found that any time your leader or tippet gets close to the vest they get snagged in the zippers, very troublesome. By now you probably are thinking I don’t like the vest……I don’t, at all.

The back pack is great. I would feel comfortable doing an overnight using the pack and light weight back packing sleeping bag and tent, the vest would stay home.

My solution is to give the system to a member of my staff to use and let us know what he thinks. After all I can always have him carry all the extra gear in the pack for both of us.

Ed@fishingeuphoria.com

I started out as a dedicated employee of sorts — tied on a few demo flies we had in our box and did not even get a bite.  After that failed miserably, I decided to scout the area and take a few pictures.

I was looking for some indication of what might entice a big fish to eat. Since this was our first ever fishing trip sponsored by fishingeuphoria.com I was anxious to catch the first fish of the day.   It had rained in the days preceding our trip and the forecast called for continuous rain throughout the next few days.   The sky was overcast; the water was high, dark and full of mud — certainly not the perfect conditions.  With no rises and not a hatch to speak of I thought about the many books and articles that address what to do in this circumstance and continued to search for a solution.

After turning over this rock I saw these small snails and shrimp   and after thinking for a second I tied on a small olive scud.   Not rocket science, right?

It’s at this time the voice in my head should have said the following:

“… maybe it’s your tippet that’s too big?”

Even as I struggled to poke the tippet through the small eye on the hook, subconsciously I realized that I was stubbornly just trying to make it work.

Did I tie on a smaller tippet? Say oh I don’t know…‘8x’.  No. And as a reward for my lack of effort I got more rain as I waved my fly rod like some soggy conductor for the next hour or so;   But there was No music, No Trout… More rain. As I continued working my way down the stream, it was apparent that no Fish were interested in the olive scud.

Suddenly my whole brain realized that I was not catching any fish.   I was convinced there were no trout interested in eating or they all had left for deeper pools down stream.   Maybe lighting… Or aliens took them to a far away planet. Or it could have been something more hideous… It could be my fault. My tippet was the perfect size…right?

Then I flashed back to another time, “Queue wavy screen…”

For some reason I remembered something my Granddad told me when I was a child… He said “stop pulling up my best flowers to give to your grandma”.  This puzzled me.  I was four years old and thought Grandmas got flowers irregardless of the collateral damage.  And flowers grow back, so why not?  You see Granddad was a real piece of work — He grew those flowers for her- all of them…. all the way around the porch that surrounded the whole front of the house.  The truth is that Granddad was tired of me dragging all the dirt into the house along with each flower I brought.  I was being stubborn and did not listen. So for at least three more times the dirt from the flowers continued to drop onto the carpet. The sound of pulling flowers out of the moist ground echoed in my head. Granddad smiled and so did I.

The next thing I know I was walking out of the stream, up the bank, and back towards the rest of the people I came with.  I wasn’t really fishing when this day started, the lights were on but nobody was home.  My focus was to get the tippet through such a small eye on the hook; and to catch the ‘big fish’. I was looking at it all wrong.  The solution was to replace the tippet and not to be in such a hurry. I hear a dog barking…

For those who have never participated, the rules require each contestant to submit one fly which is inspected, given a number and placed in a grab bag. Then in the order of check-in each contestant draws a fly from the bag.  You must fish with this fly and only this fly, if you lose it – you are finished with the contest.  Awards are given for first fish, most fish and largest fish.  In addition, the constant who submitted the winning fly in each category wins a prize.

The fly that caught the second most fish is a Clouser fly called “Kandy Korn”.  The colors used are white, yellow and orange along with a heavy wire saltwater hook. You can use any hair to tie the fly but I usually use a synthetic hair or craft fur because I believe the fly sinks faster and gets to the fish sooner.  To find out how I tie this fly check out our Fly Tying Section section in the Fish Tales Blog.

We plan on fishing this tournament next year because it’s just plain fun and all of the people involved are just great!

ed@fishingeuphoria.com

This fly is very popular for fly fishing the surf in Southern California.  At a recent One Surf Fly tournament held in Huntington Beach, CA this fly caught the second most number of fish winning the user and tyer (yours truly) a nice prize in the tournament.

Hot Tip: When tying this fly, tie it very sparsely, you want it to get down to the fish quickly.

Listed below are the materials needed to create the winning Clouser fly:

Mustad 34011 #4, 6 or 8 stainless steel, or saltwater hook of choice; Painted lead eyes or other of your choice; Krystal Flash in hot yellow pearl; Super hair, Unique hair, Craft fur, Deer hair or hair of your choice in yellow, white and fire orange (use colors that work in your area, these work in So. Cal. surf); and white thread.

Mustad 34011 #6 – Stainless Steel

Painted lead eye, med.

Krystal Flash, Hot Yellow Pearl

Hair, Yellow

Hair, White

Hair, Orange

Thread, White

Step-by-Step instructions:

1. Start thread at eye and wrap 3/4 of the shank then return 3/4 of the way back to the eye.

2. Tie in yellow hair with 2-3 strands of Krystal flash, and then tie in white hair with 2-3 strands of Krystal flash, wrap   thread back towards hook bend to the end of the base layer of thread,return thread to point where hair is tied in. Trim hair in front of thread.

3. Tie in the eyes at this point and add a drop or super glue or what ever you use.

4. Turn your hook over and tie in the orange hair in front of the eyes just behind the hook eye.  Tie a neat head, whip finish and finish the head with super glue or what ever you usually use.

5. Tie one on and go fishing.

Watch the video here on Youtube.com

Ed@FishingEuphoria.com