December 14, 2024

Around Christmas time peple ask me about getting into fly tying. So it seems like a good time to reprint my article found in the Learner's Corner of my website.

Fly Tying? 

A lot of people ask me this question. It seems pretty daunting to get started with all the patterns, materials, tools, techniques, etc. Well the best way is to just get started. 

 First realize what fly tying will not do for you.

It will not save you money or room in your house 

It will probably will not allow you to tie flies as pretty as the ones you see in the store

It will not raise your blood pressure (most of the time) 

It will not make you spend more time with your family

It will not keep your kitchen table uncluttered

What will fly tying do for you? 

It will make you a better problem solver

It will make you better with your hands

It will improve your patience 

It will make you a better fisherman fisherperson(?)

It will help you tie flies you cannot buy

It will help you tie flies in the size, color shape, etc. you cannot otherwise find

It will help you look forward to the trips you take

It will let you forget about things while you are tying.

What do I do to get started?

Buy a fly tying kit, throw the vise away, and buy a decent vise

Get a fly tying friend to help you; you really cannot learn from a book; you can sort of learn from videos especially more advanced techniques, but the best way is in person with the instructor helping you every step of the way 

Watch videos and practice the techniques 

Set aside a dedicated area for tying. If you don’t, it is unlikely you will tie flies on a regular basis 

If you stick with it, buy more and nicer tools and buy materials for specific flies you want to tie 

Start off simple and work your way up to more difficult patterns 

Tie several of the same fly at one time, repetition is your friend

Buy a recipe book (we call it a pattern book in fly tying). Put the materials on the hook in the order listed in the pattern.  

Keep notes of what works on certain patterns

Realize there are a lot of ways to do something, so don’t be afraid to experiment. That is part of the fun. 

First, learn to use a half hitch tool and then learn to whip finish as soon as possible.

Buy several bobbins, so you can keep several types and colors of thread ready

Realize even ugly flies can catch fish, so can simple flies, so can complex flies 

Learn to improvise, otherwise the bit above about your blood pressure not going up will not be true.

Try to keep your fly tying area tidy. Come up with an organization system that works for you. 

Tie regularly, at least at first. After you have been tying a while you can pick it back up easier if you take a break.         

Download the hareline app at Apple App Store or Google Play, Fill up your cart and forward it to me for easy ordering. You cannot buy it direct you must go through a Hareline Dealer. 

Remember if you are a beginner and buy a kit from me, I will give you a free 45 minute fly tying lesson (actually it will probably go longer than that)!  If you have questions about buying a kit for yourself, getting a kit for a gift or giving a kit for a gift, call me at 803-466-8162 and save yourself a lot of stress and confusion. Available only for kits on hand

November 20, 2024.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the  water, lo and behold this is lurking in the depths searching for something to devour. 

It might not look like too much until you understand the scale. The rod is a 13'5" spey rod, and the stripping guide you see is 36 inches from the butt of the two handed grip. If you lay the fish at the butt and go beyond the 36 inch stripping guide to the tip of the fish's mouth, it is 48 inches. The girth was 31 inches. If you go to the striper length/weight/age chart  https://twinlightsmarina.com/Striped-Bass-Length.htm a 48 inch fish is 17 years old, and the minimum weight is 37 pounds, the median weight is 44 pounds, and the maximum weight is 51 pounds. While it felt like 51 pounds to me, I am estimating 40 pounds. Now for the details, I used a size 1/0 gamakatsu B10s hook for the black rubber legged beastmaster. I was using 20lb Rio Fluoroflex plus leader. It was a 25 minute fight, with up to 80 yards of fly line, running line and 30 pound backing; I finally beached it, popped the fly out easily which was a little disconcerting, took a few pictures for posterity, and revived and released it. 

Before you ask, I was on private property with very limited access which I cannot share. Let's just say it was somewhere above Gervais Street Bridge.

Now for tonight's lesson. I post it time and time again, when you are reeling your fly in for the last time, do it intentionally, reel, stop, reel, stop, and always be ready. I was doing this on my last cast and about 20 feet from me the the mega beast hit the fly. I call it the mega beast, because last year's fish pictured on this page was a beast - 36 inches and 20+ pounds. Back to the narrative, I had been fishing for about an hour and a half with no luck and on the last cast, the only bite of the evening. I tell people this only works about 5% of the time but you do not know what 5%. I caught a 40 inch striper doing this in 2022 and this in 2024. Always be ready for the unexpected, because you do not know when your chance will come.

September 3, 2024 

For all you trout nuts. I have not forgotten you during striper season! During my nightly forays, I am often swarmed by insects, some bad and some good. Lots of gray caddis sizes 14-18 and light cahill duns sizes 12 and 14. Not a bad thing to remember.

August 22, 2024

For what else could you wish 

Smaller crowds yet still large fish

Caught this 27 incher on a size 1/0 black rubber legged beastmaster on the swing in really fast water. Quite a fight dragging it upstream. BTW for reference, on my 13.5 foot spey rod, from the butt of the cork handle to the top is 24 inches, the first gold ribbing is 25 inches and the second gold ribbing is 30 inches.  

August 19, 2024

As Don Henley said "Long after the boys of summer are gone." At 8:08 p.m. this 28 inch 10 pounder shows up, hits my size 1/0 black rubberlegged beastmaster and rips off 60 feet of running line and another 50 feet of 30 lb backing while all the time I am palming the reel and hoping for the best in the strong current. Finally, I can stop him and start raising the rod and reeling down to recover line. I was sure glad to get all the backing on my TFO BVK IV reel and then start getting all of the 110 feet of running line  on the reel, then the 40 feet of 600 grain skagit head, mow tip and 20 lb leader, so I can beach it, wrestle the Gamakatsu B10S hook out, and revive him to swim away and fight again another day. Four others all under 22 inches but who cares, USC students are back in school and so are the stripers.

August 12, 2024

I have been listening closely, and I thought I heard her, but guess what-the fat lady has not sung yet. What does that mean? It means I thought striper season was over but last night proved me wrong. I was fishing at my friend's house below the zoo, and I had a young friend with me who I was trying to teach to spey cast. He was doing pretty well, but no fish. He was getting ready to leave and handed the rod back to me. On the 1st cast, with a black articulated slumpbuster tied on a salwater hook, I hooked a nice fish on hte swing in the fast water, and it took off like a scalded dog (mixed metaphor). I finally was gaining some line by raising my rod up and then reeling down. About that time the line stopped and would not move. I tried letting some line out to take the pressure off but that did not work. I had to go downstream into the slower water below where the line was stuck, and still, no success. Finally, I decided the fish had wrapped me around something, and I was not going to land it. I laid my rod down on the shore grabbed the line and pulled and pulled, finally the fly broke loose. Here I was standing in the water that I usually don't fish because of the back current that makes it very difficult to control your line, so I tied a black rubber legged beastmaster fly on. The casting was difficult, but I started getting a lot of bites and landed 6 stripers all under 22 inches on the black beast master. The action was hot and heavy, a lot of takes and a good many fish landed but still many missed. After the action slowed down, I went back upstream where I started off and landed seven more stripers, two of which were 26 inches. Finally, my fly was so stuck in one of their mouths, that I had a hard time getting it out and basically ruined the fly and tied on another beastmaster. All of this took place in a 2 hour period between 8 and 10. The action slowed down and there were no more bites, so I happily reeled in my fly and came home, tired but triumphant, and with a beat up thumb. My best night yet this striper season. So don't give up yet there's still lots of good action on stripers

July 30, 2024

Fortunately, I had this dermatological condition before, so I was not too worried. It is called in the Latin “Morone saxatilis digitis,” or in the vernacular - striper thumb (not really). It comes from lipping too many striped bass in a short period of time. I have always said that taking a net striper fishing (unless you're in a kayak) is like taking a knife to a gunfight. The net is fine on lots of the smaller ones, but not so great on the larger ones, and you still have to lip the fish to take the hook out, so why not cut out the middleman.  I prefer to grab them all by the lower lip, despite the fact they thrash violently as soon as you grab their lip. It is worth it to be able to immobilize the fish and then fight to get the hook out of its hard mouth. That's what has happened to me the last two nights. I caught 8 stripers on Monday and eight on Tuesday night, thus the sore and bleeding thumb. It was well worth it. Tonight, there was no action until about 8:30. By that time I had switched to the same fly that I used the night before - a black rubber legged beastmaster. I am not talking about the same type of fly, I am talking about the exact same fly I used the night before. I haven't decided whether to retire it or not, because it has been responsible for catching 13 stripers in the last two nights. It is beat up, the inset eyes are gone, most of the rubber legs have been torn off, I had to bend the hook back into shape after one of the larger fish straightened it some (I lost a nicer fish as a result), and the articulated tail is much worse for wear. Tonight, was much like last night except for no early action. That is frequently the way it is with striper fishing. No activity for a while, then while you are using the same fly in the same way, the action heats up, sometimes for a half hour, sometimes longer. Just like Monday night almost every fish was taken on the swing on my 13 1/2-foot 8 weight tfo spey rod. The chartreuse beastmaster that previously worked earlier in the evenings, did not work at all, but the old reliable did, and my thumb is the worse for it.  Another good thing about striper thumb is at least my wife knows I have stayed out late fishing and not doing something else!

July 29, 2024

To quote Frankie Valli: "Oh, what a night." Went below the zoo, explosive feeding by stripers, baitfish coming out of the water, and best of all, no one else was on the water. I used my 8 weight TFO spey rod with a full sinking mow tip and a 6 foot leader with 0X Rio fluorocarbon. I tried the same things that I usually do while using a chartreuse rubber legged beastmaster, which has been working very well recently. I picked up 3 20 inch stripers and lost the big one 10 feet from shore on the chartreuse beastmaster. I noticed that the fish were all hitting the fly in almost the same area. Due to the fast water, it was very hard to get the fly to this place in the middle of the river and 80-100 feet downstream. I decided I would cast straight across 60 or 70 feet and then let out additional 30 to 40 feet of running line line and let the fly swing across the current in the target area. Around dark, I switched to a black rubber leg beastmaster and started swinging the fly after casting across and letting line out straight downstream. In the next hour and a half, I landed five more stripers, including 2 28 inchers. All of them on the swing. I did manage to catch one catfish while stripping the fly in. Just goes to show you you can fish the same place over and over again and still improve what you do. Always be willing to experiment and remember what I say, when it gets dark, and there is time to tie on one last fly put on a black fly. 

July 17, 2024

Took my TFO 13'0" 7wt  spey rod and used  a medium 5ft t11 5 ft floating mow tip. Since it was overcast, I used a bright color - in this case a chatr/white ribber legged  beastmaste. At around  8 pm while stripping it in to change the fly, a schoolie striper grabbed the fly about 10 feet down from me, and I landed it. I then cast the fly about 20 feet down where the water deepens and had numerous hits and landed 2 more small stripers while holding the fly in the current and slowly raising the rod kind of like a leisenring nymph lift, but with a streamer. After that quit working, I caught one more schoolie on a black articulated rubber legged beasmaster stripping farther downstream. What lessons can we learn? Use bright colored flies when it is overcast; always be ready for a fish to hit your fly, especially a streamer, since they will  often follow it in and then hit it when the action of the fly changes; when you catch a fish, think about what you just did and rinse and repeat; sometimes just lift your rod and let the fly swing in the current, especially on the Saluda; fish like to hang out where the water transitions from shallow to deep - where they feel safe and the current brings the food right over their heads; when fishing is tough even small fish are welcome;  4 small fish = at least some fun. Thus endedth the lesson.

July 14, 2024

Some small and nice sized trout are being caught on articulated minnow patters andstonefly nymphs.

July 7, 2024

Temperature 99, feels like 105. What’s a man, a woman, a fisherperson supposed to do? Wet wade of course!! Think about 105 degrees and the Saluda is 16.5 degrees Celsius or for us metric/Celsius challenged - 61.5 degrees Fahrenheit. I can tell you if you fish for a while you will get cold and hungry, make that ravenous. 

So how do you wet wade? You wade without waders. You still use your wading boots (not tennis shoes unless you have a close friend who is an orthopaedist). You can wear thick socks inside your wading boots, but you can get a lot of sand and rocks in your boots if you do that. The best way is to buy some wading socks. These are neoprene socks with a fold over gravel cuff built in to keep the debris out. The water still gets in your boot but hopefully not as much sand or gravel.

Sounds easy and it is and it is generally safer than wearing waders, because you don’t have to worry about your waders filling up and weighing you down.

Just a few hints. I like to wear long nylon fishing pants and a long sleeve shirt. That helps with briars and  rock scrapes, but mostly mosquitoes, gnats, and other things that live to suck your blood and suck your blood to live. It does not hurt to wear insect repellent - deet or sans deet, that’s up to you. If you use deet insect repellent, spread it by using the backs of your hands, not the palms; deet can harm the coating on your fly line.

Happy wading, wet or not.

June 26, 2024

Striper fishing is still slow, at least for me. Took my friend's grandson fishing and had to be extra careful since the water level is a little higher than I would like. We forget, wading is an acquired skill, so we wet waded. He tried a spinning reel for a while. I asked him if he wanted to try the cross cut rabbit strip jig steamer  I helped him tie, but he wanted to stay with the spin gear for a little while. So forgetting my manners, I went upstream and cast his fly with my 13'0 7 weight spey rod with a 10 foot intermediate mow tip. I let about 145 feet of skagit line, mow tip, leader and running line and fished a long stretch of fast deep water.  Not long after I started I hooked something and started dragging it upstream. I could tell it was not that big and I was using 1x rio fluoroflex tippet, so I hand stripped it in. I was pretty sure it was not a striper. How did I know you ask?The fish was pulling side to side, not up and down. Usually I have found stripers, especially large ones, move the rod up and down (vertically) while trout move the rod horizontally. This is my general experience, so please don't inundate me with contrary encounters. So what was it? A nice stocker rainbow about 12 inches but not too colored up. Needless  to say, I let my guest fish the rest of the night, but that was the only action other than being chased by mosquitoes and caddis. Speaking of insects, there were several on my back door and lots of size 20 Dark mayflies (blue wing olives?) in spider webs. At least the insect life is healthy on the  lower Saluda. 

June 16, 2024

Striper As of  June 16, you cannot attempt to catch stripers in the Congaree, and it is catch and release only in the Saluda. There is a lot of poaching going on, so call a Game Warden at 1-800-922-5431 if you see it. I can tell you, it is hurting the striper and trout populations.  It's easy, if you see someone with a striper, they are poaching, if you see someone with a trout in the catch and release stretch of  the Saluda it is poaching.

June 10, 2024

For Father’ Day only get 10% off any purchase by cash (sanitized preferred) or check of any in regularly priced in stock item excluding discounted items, since those are already a great deal! I don’t care if you buy it for yourself, buy it for a family member to give to you, buy it for your child, or buy it for your friend, the deal is still the same. Sale ends Saturday June 15, so hurry up, come by and pick it up or tell them to let me know that you want a gift certificate. I have never enforced the expiration date on a gift certificate yet.

We are pleased to be selling Temple Fork rods and reels and Redington rods and reels. These are two of the premier names in fly rods. The painstaking craftsmanship is revered among knowledgeable fly fishermen. Each rod comes with a great warranty for repair or replacement, for the original owner regardless of cause. I really like the number of models offered at a reasonable price and their warranties and service are superb!

Visit Temple Fork at https://tforods.com/product-category/fly-fishing/

Visit Redington at https://www.redington.com 

Fishpond products 25% off. We have a whole new shipment of chest packs, lumbar packs, submersible packs in stock. 

https://fishpondusa.com/

The striper fishing is picking up on the Saluda. Like I always tell you, fish with whatever you want while it is light, but when there is still enough light to tie the last fly on,  put on something black and hold onto to your rod. The river rocks are slick and there is algae in the river, so be careful wading, take your time and take a wading staff (we have those in stock) and 2 headlamps (read my June 9, 2020 report). Remember as of June 15, you cannot attempt to catch stripers in the Congaree, and it is catch and release only in the Saluda. There is a lot of poaching going on, so call a Game Warden at 1-800-922-5431 if you see it. I can tell you, it is hurting the striper and trout populations. Enough of that, we have lots of 8 weight rods, reels, lines, tippet, leaders, and striper flies in stock and ready to go. Get ready for the harmonic convergence - Father’s Day and Striper Season on the Saluda. As a Father’s Day Special, buy a regularly priced striper rod and reel from Fly South and get an 8 weight Rio Mainstream Fly line for FREE  (a $39.99 value). Heck, I will throw in the backing for free. We have the largest selection of 8 weight rods and reels in the area.

Close out on Redington Rise Reels. The Rise is CNC machined (if you want to know what it means if a reel is machined read my article in the learner’s corner of my website https://flysouthsc.com/learners-corner), anodized 6061-T6 aluminum design with quick release spool; ultra-large arbor design for quick line retrieve; Smooth, compact carbon fiber drag system; Twin molded, soft-touch ergonomic handles; Oversized drag knob for easy adjustment; Nylon reel case included; Lifetime warranty. The regular price on a 5/6 is $219.99 and a 7/8 is $249.99. Sales price $149.99. Limited to reels in stock, first come first served, very limited supply. 

June 5, 2024

The lesson tonight is - try something different. When things are slow don't keep doing the same thing over and over again. Some of the normal flies have not been working, and some of the normal tactics have not been working. I got a late start and put on a new articulated fly I had just tied and had not used before, and of course I broke it off (not on a fish) on the second cast. Since I had to tie on a new fly and new tippet, I decided I would go smaller. I tied on a size 6 purple and white clouser. I also decided I would try to fish a few spots different from the ones I normally fish at this location. Don’t get me wrong, this location has been very good to me; in the last two years I caught two stripers over 20 lbs. However, those same spots at this location have not been producing. I started casting methodically to different places, even though they did not look like they would be prime locations. I tried one place right in front of a rock in still water. I made a nice 65 foot cast with my spey rod and right after the fly landed I hooked up. I landed a schoolie of about 4 lbs. No other hits, no other fish, no other action. Nonetheless, new tactics at least produced something. 

 May 20, 2024

 Tonight I took my own advice, and it worked. If you read my Facebook page or my Fly South  fishing reports, you may remember  a while back when I said "reel with purpose." I was fishing tonight in my backyard hoping for striper action. I had been fishing with a black articulated beastmaster with  rubber legs like I always do when it gets dark. I had been flogging the water for about 40 minutes with different flies with no success. After I put on the black beastmaster and had been fishing for about 20 minutes, I decided to get off the rock and move to another place. When I started to reel my fly in I remembered to intentionally reel and stop, reel and stop. When I reeled about 90 feet of the 110 feet of fly line, something hit the fly. It did not fight like I was expecting, it fought more side to side than away from me and did not bend the rod as much, which was  my first clue. After a decent fight, I landed a colored up, fat 18 inch rainbow. Not to upset you trout aficionados, it did not fight as hard as a comparable size striper. But I digress, after fishing the same area with the same fly for about 20 minutes, nothing happened until I started to reel the fly in. I only works about 5% of the time, but on an otherwise slow night, I am glad I remembered to reel with purpose. 

May 15, 2024
Here  is my initial foray into the field of fish dermatology. Here is the before picture. Before you accuse me of going over to the dark side and using lures, this is how I found this unfortunate 28 inch striper last night. (S)He took my black articulated beastmaster (the second to do so) and when I landed it, there was a nice lure in the mouth with all kinds of nasty treble hooks waiting to bite me. After extensive unsedated surgery, I was able to remove the lure. If it's your lure, let me know and I will be glad to return it for a small fee. The fly was removed, the patient revived, and successfully returned to loved ones. For the before and after pictures, go to my facebook page  

May 11,  2024 or as my wife calls it- Mother’s Day Eve.
It’s trout season and striper season, and the Saluda is at 10,700 CFS. What's a man supposed to do? If you can't fish, there are several things you should be doing right now. For example, the last time you were using your floating fly line, was it sinking? If so, you may need to check it to see if there are cracks in it. If there are cracks in your floating fly line, then it will sink, and it will be harder to handle and cast. If there are no cracks in it, then it may just need to be cleaned. One easy way to clean it is to strip off 30 or 40 feet of line and put some mild dish soap into a sink with the stopper in it, add water to make bubbles, move your line around in the water, pull the soapy line through a soft cloth, put the line back in the sink, and rinse it with clean water; pull the clean line through the soft cloth. If you have something like Rio agent x line cleaner or Loon line cleaner, treat your line with that and then dry it off with a soft cloth. A clean fly line cast farther, floats higher, and lasts longer. With as much as new fly lines cost now, it is worth a little maintenance to keep it working and lasting longer. We have lots of new fly lines in stock from Rio Including specialty lines. This would also be a good time to check your leader. If you are still using last year's leader, you probably want to replace it. Who wants to lose a great fish, because you're using last year's leader. The same thing goes with tippet material, who wants to lose a great fish, because you're using last year's tippet material. We have fluorocarbon and monofilament Rio leaders and tippet material in stock. While you're at it, check and make sure that you have not left the drag set on your reel. If you store your reel for a long period of time with the drag partially set, then you reduce the amount of the range of the drag. You should always store your reel with the drag all the way off. Another thing you can do is check your flies. You may want to look in your boxes and make sure that some of the flies are not rusted. Once the hook on a fly is rusted, it is pretty much worthless. It is almost impossible to restore the integrity of the hook and who wants to lose a great fish to a rusted hook. You also can check your waders. A quick way to do that is to turn your waders inside out, hang them up so the foot of the wader barely sits on the ground when it is filled with water, and fill one leg with water and look for any leaks. The leaks in the lower part of the leg will be easy to spot by the slow drip of water from the waders. You can mark the slow leak with white correction fluid or as some of you know it, white out. Pour the water from one leg to the other and repeat the process. Once you mark all the leaks, the best thing to use is Aqua seal, just do not get it on your hands, as it is very difficult to get it off. If you fish for stripers at night like you are supposed to do, check your headlamps. You cannot do anything about the river level, but you can be ready when it drops 

May 3, 2024

There was a seecada hatch in my shop last night. Before you e mail me or call me or text me that it is cicada, please wait, I call it seecada because this fly is so easy to see with black and orange body, black and orange legs, a long deer hair wing and an orange sighter post, It comes in various sizes from large to huge. Available for sail now (you can contact me about that misspelling if you want,)

May 1, 2024

Stripers are moving up into the Saluda in greater numbers, even though most of the guide boats are not up in the Saluda yet. The best is yet to come. Look to the picture at the left and see what striper "stuff" we have in stock. I think we have the largest selection of 7 and 8 weight rods and reels in the Midlands. We also have flies - big flies and smaller flies you can cast with your 8 weight rod without hurting your shoulder or the back of your head. I always say fishing should be fun, and if you cannot comfortably cast the fly you are using, then it is no fun. We also have 7 and 8 weight fly lines from Rio and heavy duty leaders and tippet. All you need in 1 easy place. 

April 27, 2024

Trout action is heating up with some holdovers being caught. I decided to try some trout action this afternoon. Caught a few small stockers which were colored up, so I am guessing some of the Tasmanian trout which were stocked. I tried nymphing but no luck. Switched to streamers and had better success using a olive articulated slumpbuster and a purple mini me dropper. I tried the normal casting across or up and across or down and across but nothing happened. I then decided I  would use the Saluda Swing, which has worked many times before.  Cast it however you want but when it straightens out downstream hold it in the current, and I mean hold it, hold it for 30-40 seconds. Sometimes when you do this you will feel the fish hit the fly and you may miss it, but often if you go right back they will hit it again. I told a young med student who came to buy some flies from me, and he caught a nice fish using the Saluda Swing with a Pat's Rubberlegs. Other flies which are working are Prince nymphs and Higa's SOS

 April 19, 2024

Well first striper in the Saluda (no not the one like last year), but still very nice 32 inch striper below the Zoo with my 13'0" 7 weight TFO spey rod. Based on the striper age/weight chart https://www.captainfish.com/biting.html

it was between 12-14 pounds Tried a shad fly, an articulated  slumpbuster, a Galloup's --- dungeon fly, all to no avail. As I tell you fish with what ever you want, but when there is time to tie on one last fly, put on something black, so I put on a black articulated beastmaster, and at 8:00 the fight began. In the swift current where I was, the beast had out 40 feet of skagit head, mow tip, and leader, 110 feet of running line and about 90 yards of 30lb dacron backing, and no signs of stopping, so I had to start palming the reel to slow it down. As my backing was getting close to being done, the beast finally stopped. Then I had to begin lifting the rod and reeling down to gain back line. I kept switching the rod angle. Finally after about 15 minutes, I was able to back up and beach the beast, take a quick picture and revive it. A nearby paddler asked it I was going to keep it, and "I said no, I want to give someone else the chance to catch it." No other hits or fish. I still think most of the striper action is in the Congaree, but the striper action in the Saluda will pick up. As to trout in the Saluda, articulated slumpbusters and size 16-18 gray caddis are working.

 April 12, 2024

Saluda river levels have dropped and are remaining at good levels for wading. Striper action is slow in the Saluda and is still centered mostly in the Congaree. Trout action in the Saluda is picking up nicely. Most of the fish caught are stockers, but a few very nice holdover rainbows are being caught. The best flies are articulated streamers, small madame x dries, higa’s sos, and pat’s rubberlegs nymph

 Feb. 16, 2024 

Despite some stocking of trout, the fishing is still not great, so what  do you do? Tie flies of course. Winter is for fly tying. In that vein, I am holding a free fly tying session at my home on Wednesday Feb. 21 at 6:00 p.m. Some expert tiers have signed up and some not so expert ones too. I am saving 2 spots for beginners who I will be helping. The 2 beginners will not have to bring anything but a desire to learn, I will provide all the rest. Space is very limited, so contact me via phone, e mail, facebook, carrier pigeon, etc. to sign up. Different people will be tying various  flies so you can watch or tie as you wish. Other than beginners, It is byobvm (bring your own beverage and vise and materials). Here is a chance to learn something about fly tying from other people or just come and tie what you want around other tiers.

December 29, 2023

 Fish were stocked on the Lower Saluda on December 8 and are being picked up by anglers in the 8-10 inch range using perdigon nymphs and streamers. So far by all accounts, the fish are skinny but better than nothing. Hopefully they will continue the past growth rate of an inch per month. 

November 8, 2023

 Many people ask me, “where are the trout?“ The answer is death and dissolved oxygen. Death sounds macabre right? What does it mean. The Saluda is not the best trout habitat. It is an artificial habitat for trout created by the outflow from the Lake Murray dam. Without the dam and its tail waters, there would be no trout fishing in the Saluda. The life of a trout in the Saluda is perilous. So perilous that the mortality rate is 98%, you read that correctly 98%. For example, if DNR stocks 50,000 trout in a year, only 1,000 would survive to the next year. What causes such a high mortality rate? There are several reasons, none of which I am going to discuss here. Suffice it to say that very few trout survive from year to year. Enough about death, now what about dissolved oxygen. Trout need colder water and higher levels of dissolved oxygen than warm water species such as bass, sunfish, etc. The primary factor in dissolved oxygen in the Saluda is the water drawn from the lake. Most of the water drawn by the turbines is from the bottom of the lake, so the amount of oxygen in the water at the bottom of the lake where the turbines draw from, will for all intents and purposes, determine the dissolved oxygen levels in the Saluda. During summer and fall, the water at the top of the lake is higher in dissolved oxygen than the water at the bottom of the lake. During the winter, usually sometime in December, the lake “turns over,” and the more oxygenated water works its way to the bottom of the lake. The layering process is called thermocline.   DNR does not want to stock trout just to have them die immediately, so DNR waits until the lake turns over and the more oxygenated water is at the bottom where the turbines draw the water to pump into the Saluda. A low survival rate and dissolved oxygen deficits mean that from summer to December are the slow times. 

 September 4, 2023

Recently a man emailed me and said he wanted a "newbie appointment," his words not mine. We found a mutually agreeable time and met and talked for a while and went over some of his questions. Then later that week I had an initial fly tying lesson with another beginner. Some people in the fly fishing business don't like beginners, they ask too may questions and frequently don't buy enough to compensate for the disproportionate time spent, plus often they require more patience. I don't mind beginners and actually help quite a few. I guess after working with semi-interested Boy Scouts on their fly fishing/tying merit badges when my son was a Scout prepares you for beginners. Genuinely interested people who are teachable are fun to work with.

 August 24, 2023"Reel with Purpose" - sounds like a fishing charity doesn't it? Actually its is a technique I use just about every time I trout fish or striper fish, especially when using a streamer. So what  I do is when I am about to reel in my line to quit fishing or just move to another place and I have too much line out to just let it drag while I move or leave (see the July 8, 2023 post),  I intentionally reel the line in moving the fly and stopping the fly while moving my finger back and forth to evenly distribute the line and leader on my reel. In other words I reel with the purpose of catching a fish while I am reeling the line, I don't just reel quickly and mindlessly but with the intention of catching a fish and being ready to do so. Does it work all the time? No, only about 5% of the time, but I did catch a 20 pound striper 2 years ago while doing this. My friend also caught a nice 28 inch striper 2 years ago doing the same thing on his last cast. It also worked tonight. I usually just point the rod tip and line straight down with the rod tip almost touching the water. However, tonight I did that for a while and then held up the rod tip to about a 75 degree angle and kept reeling. Whether it was the reeling action alone or the reeling and changing of depth in the water, I don't know, but it was more than the 22 inch striper could stand, and s/he ate my size 4 Gervais Gray and kept me from getting skunked. So instead of just mindlessly reeling in your fly, reel with purpose.

August 22, 2023

Striper season is over right? Try telling that to my friend Mark. We  went fishing, his first time striper fishing and certainly his first time fishing with a spey rod. He used my TFO Deer Creek 13'0 7 wt with a 2.5 foot t10/ 7.5 foot intermediate tip. First we tried the fly he tied (his first fly) but no luck. It was fun, however to watch him casting a size 2 conehead fly about 60 feet on his first outing. About 8:40 we moved then switched to a purple and black rainbow blingmaster. About 10 minutes later he hooked a nice striper in strong current  and had a great fight but broke it off when he had about 15 feet of line outside the tip. How do I know it was a striper you ask? Well if you have caught many nice stripers, you know usually there is a hard hit, then  strong runs and while the fish is running and you are frantically trying to get the excess running line on the reel, the rod moves up and down noticeably; I like to call it the "whump, whump."  No jumping but a lot of strong runs before you even get close to seeing the fish, especially at night. And it takes a big fish to break 15 pound Rio Fluoro 0x tippet. Does he wish he caught it, do I wish he caught it? Yes, but we still had fun, and he had the surreal experience of wet wading and being cold when the air temperature was 90 and doing everything in the dark. Give it a try, there are still a few stripers to caught up and down the Saluda and some big ones 

August 10. Stripers, whiskers, and a sale.

Fished below the zoo last  night with my TFO 13'0  7 wt spey rod. Started around 7:35. Started with gray and white hairy legged blingmaster and then switched to chartreuse hairy legged blingmaster, no hits. Around 8:05 added lots of 0x Rio fluro tippet and switched to black hairy legged blingmaster. At 8:21 hooked a nice striper in the strong current, fought if for a while and it slipped the hook. At 8:28 hooked and landed 24 inch striper. At about 8:45 I hooked and landed a 20 incher. Both were on a black hairy legged blingmaster. Once again the striper action was hot for about 30 minutes. Unfortunately, I spent too much of that time pulling fish up against the strong current and getting my hooks out of their mouths, since the hook went in one side of the mouth and out the other. Not bending down your barbs means you land more stripers, but it is much harder to get the hook out. Take your choice, but you should always bend the barb down on the hooks for trout. 

That's the stripers, now for the whiskers . At about 9:15, I hooked and landed about an 18 inch catfish on the same fly. 

So that is the stripers, the whiskers and now for the sale. I decided last night before I went that how many stripers I caught I would reduce my 7and 8 weight rods, 7-9 wt reels, 7-8 wt lines, and striper leaders and tippet. So I am lucky the first one got off, as it saved me 10% and cost you 10%. Just to show you what a nice guy I am, I will let the catfish count as half a striper. What that means is that my 7 and 8 weight rods, reels, lines, and striper leaders and tippet are 25% off. Limited to items in stock.