Halloween Intruder

Happy Halloween! Well, almost Halloween. I've been tying a bunch of these for a steelhead trip in November. I love these color combinations, and have tied a ton of them in these colors. They seem to just stand out, and the new Rhea we have in stock has proven to be wonderful to work with.

SHANK - Partridge waddington 35mm
LOOP - 30 Firewire, twice looped (for strength and stability)
THREAD - black
HOOK - Tiemco 600sp, #2
TAIL - Orange Artic Fox spun, followed by Black Artic Fox Spun, Followed by Black and Dark Orange rhea wrapped around it. Followed by Orange Amherst
BODY - Black and Orange Lagartun flat braid
HACKLE - Black followed by Dark Orange Rhea over spun Orange Artic Fox. Followed by Orange Amherst and Black Holographic Flashabou
COLLAR/Head -Black Artic Fox Spun
HEAD - Spirit River Real Eyes

Sage 99

A pretty brown.

I was able to snag one of the new Sage 99 rods from our rep, and finally had a chance to get it out on the river.
When I first heard about a rod that was built primarily for nymphing, I was quite skeptical, and was wondering who would really want a rod like this?
Then I got to fish it. To put it very simply, it does exactly what they say it will do. It's an absolute gun with both overhead and spey casts, and keeps your flies apart from each other while casting, equaling a far more pleasant day with fewer tangles, and keeping your flies in the water.
To put it in context, I also fished a 5 weight Z-Axis today, and managed 3 tangles in 3 hours, while when i was using the 99, not one.

It's a very pretty rod, similar in looks to the XP, and with the extra length makes mending a joke.

What really astounded me more then anything else, was it's ability while roll casting (and single hand spey casting). The ability to roll cast an easy 60-70 feet or a whole lot further, keeping two flies and an indicator apart is something beyond belief, until you try it yourself.
This rod could very well become your primary Bow River Rod, it is simply that good.

We'll have the rods in stock by the first week of November, and are on our online site.

New Fly Tying Material

Got a lot of new Hareline fly tying stuff in. Some great new dyed saddles for the steelhead/salmon fly tyers, stonefly foam body cutters, a new type of rabbit that has even more motion, and lots lots more.

Come in the store to check it out, or go to our online shop.

www.countrypleasures.com/store

Sage 99

Brent has got his hands on the new Sage 99 in a 6 weight and will put it through the paces and give you a review of this brand new rod.

They are seriously pretty, and definitely feel that they will deliver what is promised.

WANNA GO SOMEWHERE WARM?

Winter seems to have us in its icy clutches, likely until May!
If you want to go fishing this winter, and be warm, check out these
Country Pleasures Flyfishing Travel scheduled trips for 2010:

Estancia del Zorro, Chile January 23-30, 2010
http://www.countrypleasures.com/estancia_del_zorro_vacation.htm

Cinco Rios, Chile January 30-February 6, 2010
http://www.countrypleasures.com/cinco_rios_vacation.htm

Sailfish Bay Lodge, Guatemala April 10-15, 2010
http://www.countrypleasures.com/sailfish_bay_vacation.htm

Jardines de la Reina, Cuba April 10-16, 2010
http://www.countrypleasures.com/jardines_vacation.htm

Turneffe Flats, Belize May 8-15, 2010
http://www.countrypleasures.com/turneffe_flats_vacation.htm

Boca Paila Permit Adventure May 16-23, 2010
http://www.countrypleasures.com/boca_paila_lodge_vacation.htm

Cayo Largo, Cuba (Home of the Super Slam) May 15-22, 2010
http://www.countrypleasures.com/cayo_largo_cuba_vacation.htm

Call or visit our website for more details.

What's New for Fall 2009 and 2010

Check out what's new and whats going to be in the shop in the upcoming months. Some very cool products are upcoming!

http://www.countrypleasures.com/fly_fishing_news.htm

Nasty old Permit!!

Arguably the most frustrating fish on the planet when chasing with a fly rod.

But so addictive!! And pretty as well!!

Some favorite photos

Here's some favorite photos from the last year that weren't featured on our blog until now.

Brent Piche Photo

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Brent Piche Photo

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Brent Piche Photo

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Product Review- Lamson Vanquish

Finally, after a long period of waiting, the new Waterworks-Lamson Vanquish reels arrived in September. We have been using Force and Litespeed reels for Tarpon, Permit, and Bonefish and really like them but were eager to try out the Vanquish.

A recent trip to Mongolia for Taimen gave us the opportunity to put this new reel through it's paces. Opinions and critiques are as follows:

Appearance: One of the prettier reels on the market we have seen. Lamson did a great job with this reel. Anglers who prefer more traditional looks like the Islander will probably turn their noses up at this one. The "light" model offers more porting and, in our opinion, is nicer looking but there is also a "closed" model which has less porting.

Overall Design: Following suit from other Lamson models the design is simple, but pretty. They have taken proven drag design and stepped it up to a larger, heavier duty drag system. In our tests on Taimen they proved to be one of the better reels for higher end drag, showing no start up inertia we could detect. The reel foot is a little different on the Vanquish, machined closer to the reel body. This caused no problems but a caster that grips the rod way back in the handle may not like this design. The reel knob is easy to work with and did not slip in our fingers.

Bascking capacities are exceptional, the 10 weight model houses more than enough gel spun to use for Tarpon (400 yds 30# w/ WF12F) (450 yds 30# w/ WF10F).

Drag: In a word, amazing! The drag is wicked smooth with no start up inertia or variance if the reel changes temperature or gets wet. Where you set the drag is where it stays. Taimen are similar to Tarpon in the way you set on them so we got a chance to set the drag right up and hit the fish right off the reel. The Vanquish drag allowed us to strike on the fish hard right off the reel but still be smooth when the fish peeled away. Not something you see on most reels. Normally when you set the drag way up a reel gets a "sticky" feel. Not the Vanquish.

The drag system utilizes proven technology used by Waterworks for a long time only bigger and heavier. Not a lot of parts involved and the sealed system means no maintenance.

Overall Rating: We would have to give the Vanquish a 9.5 out of 10. It's as good as we've seen in a big game reel, Lamson outdid themselves on this one. The only reason for the .5 deduction is the darn things are pretty expensive. Not every angler will get their mind around the price, but they're still cheaper than Tibor, and no corks to mess around with.

For those of you who target big game species and want the highest quality, this reel is worth a look.

Learning to Spey Cast

We came across these videos from a few years ago of Mike learning how to Spey cast on the Babine River. " A last minute opportunity came up to go Steelheading so I had to crash course
with the two-handed rod. My arsenal was limited to double spey and snap-t.

Double spey on the Babine River from Mike Gifford on Vimeo.

Video shows one the Babine's classic runs called Deadman's.

Double Spey on the Babine - 2 from Mike Gifford on Vimeo.

Any of you experienced 2-handers out there are more than welcome to drop us a line with any critiques and suggestions on the casting technique.

Double spey on the Babine River from Mike Gifford on Vimeo.