What is a bead kook?

I love the word Kook.  I first heard the term used with regularity when I moved to Tahoe and immersed myself in the world of ski and snowboard culture, and the term itself was adopted from the world of surf culture.  I really fell in love with the term, so I incorporated it into the fly fishing world, where there is no shortage of kooks.

In the Urban Dictionary, a kook is defined as one who pretends to be someone who they are not and/or someone who tries to fit in, but with exaggeration.  Kind of like a poser.  There is really nothing wrong with that, unless the kook starts to interfere with someone else's fun.  For example...

This is a kook surfing...

In surfing a kook is defined with someone who interferes with others surfer's fun because he/she doesn't know anything about surf ethics, or doesn't have the right surf level of experience for the specific surf wave they are attempting to ride.  

This is a ski kook...

An important thing to point out is that if you are new to skiing, surfing, or fly fishing,  just because you are a beginner doesn't mean you are a kook.  Everyone was new to these undertakings at some point, and we have all done kooky things along the way.  Beginners need to just have some proper guidance, so they learn what waves, runs, or rivers that they should fish based on their skill levels are, and understanding of local etiquette and cultural history of the venue.  And most importantly, respect the folks who came there before you.

When speaking specifically about steelhead fly fishing, bead kooks have slowly taken over.  Numbers obsessed guides have popped up all over Pacific Northwest rivers, lobbing their kooky ass bead rigs on their 20 mile floats, grinding pencil leaded bare hooks through every inch of steelhead holding water.  Nothing wrong with side drifting bobber rigs, but I take offense to a rig that has absolutely no fly in the equation whatsoever.  Seriously, zero flies on the fly rig at all, just various plastics, lots of lead, and bare hooks getting lobbed from one side of the boat to the other, then dead drifting through every inch of water until you hook a fish somewhere, often outside the mouth.  How is this fly fishing?  Only a total kook could call it fly fishing.  

Here is a diagram below of a bead kook would rig...

WHERE IS THE FLY?

If you are kooking out on a guide day, you might not even know it, you may just be misguided...literally.  So, if you are a beginner or novice fly fisherman going out with a guide, you might need to do some homework before you book the trip to avoid this uncomfortable parking lot conversation...

Client: Hi (insert millennial name) so, what flies are we using today?

Guide: We are going to use what works best to hook as many fish as possible today man.  We will be pulling color all day!

Client: Cool!  So, what flies do you think will be most successful?

Guide: Eggs.  The egg grab is on fire.  

Client: Egg fly patterns?

Guide: Patterns?  Yeah, uhm, sure.  So we are actually gonna fish beads.  My beads look more like eggs than anything else.  I paint them to match the exact color of the real eggs in the river.  

Client: Paint them, beads?  Like necklace beads at the craft store?  Do you tie them on to a hook or something?

Guide: No, but I paint them.  Revlon Red number 2 crossed with Bamboo Shoot is crushing it right now.

Client: Ummm, ok.  So you paint them, then tie them on the hook and make some sort of a fly out of it?

Guide: No, actually we peg the egg above the hook with heavy mono or toothpicks.  They eat the bead, then the hook below it hooks the fish.

Client: So, it's not a tied fly?  what's on the hook?

Guide: Nothing, well a snelled knot is on there.

Client: So, where's the fly?

Guide: Fly?  The bead is the...wait, no, the hook is, wait.  Whatever, who cares?  We're gonna crush em, but we gotta get going...

Client: I'm confused, I thought you were a fly fishing guide?  I thought we were fly fishing today?

Guide: (sighs, annoyed) Dude we are fly fishing today.  (points) Just look at the big sign on my truck and Clack that says (insert millennial name's) fly fishing guide service.  I'm a fly fishing guide.

Client: But we aren't using flys, at all...correct?

Guide: Whatever, again, who cares?  I'm gonna, I mean, we're gonna get em.  C'mon, we gotta jam dude.  Don't worry about all these little details.  We gotta beat everyone to the boat ramp and make it to the Sanctuary Pool first.  It's right below a creek, and the fish are hella stacked in there just chilling. The spey fags yell at me for fishing there, just because they are jealous of all the chrome I've been slaying in there the last 11 days in a row.  Its' a super long, really slow drift, but ultra exciting when it's bobber down time bro.  Then we will just motor back up the run and hit it 15, 20 more times and then just motor back up to the put in and take out.

Client: Wait, I'm confused again.  I thought I booked an experience where I was going to be on a drift boat trip fly fishing.  But you're telling me that we aren't going to be using flies at all, and we are putting in and taking out at the same place, and not drifting to a takeout?

Guide: (defensive) Well yeah, it's the best program on the river man.  Or I guess we can just burn out a 20 mile float, but we should have already left if we were going to do that because I can't stand being behind anyone.  

I'm not making this shit up.  Similar conversations are happening every day on steelhead rivers throughout the PNW.  Bead kooks masquerading as fly fishing guides have overrun our boat ramps with their kooky ass bobbers, beads, and bare hooks.  What can be done about these total KOOKS?

What do you think?

The February Room Podcast

Justin Karnopp has a great podcast called The February Room.  Although he spelled my last name wrong here, I was very stoked to be asked to be on it.  He's a super good host and shares some classic stories of his own with us.

  I talk about the day in Mexico when I thought I was being abducted, then saw my first permit while bone fishing, and then got my pocket picked by a little girl.   We also discuss some more serious issues like the chronic mismanagement of wild steelhead in Southern Oregon by the ODFW.  Check it out here:

 

Remembering the Sandy River Spey Clave, and Spey Moses

This is the intro to a presentation I gave at the legendary Sandy River Spey Clave.  I really miss this event, as it was a gathering of some really special folks in the fly fishing industry.  Jonny Hazlett took me to my first one, and it was instrumental in my growth as a spey caster for which I am forever grateful.  On top of being able to try every rod and reel on the market, meet and mingle with awesome people, and drink alcohol hidden in coffee cups, a highlight was watching the best in the industry give killer presentations.  It featured the true icons in the spey world with folks like George Cook, Scott O'donnell, Simon Gawesworth, Mike McCune, Charles St. Pierre, and other characters who I am grateful to have become mentors and great friends with over the years.  

The 10 Commandments of Spey presentation I gave is not on the level of those dudes, but I was hoping to do something a little different that would be both humorous and instructional.  Not sure if everyone found it to be either, but it here it is...

Intro at the Sandy Clave:

here is a preview for the presentation from www.speylesson.com 

and here is a video of the very first appearance of Moses demonstrating a spiral spey on the Upper Rogue River...

and a pedestrian snap t

 Winter moods....

Why do you fish for steelhead?

                                                              

Look in the Mirror

If you are letting them go anyway, choose the appropriate method

Every angler has a choice as to how they go about catching a steelhead, and needs to understand that they have a very personal, direct impact on the resource. I choose to swing flies for wild winter steelhead for many reasons. I like standing in the river, making a cast, and actually angling, attempting to catch my own fish.  That last part doesn’t happen all that much when you are swinging flies, and thats ok.  Of all the reasons I swing flies for steelhead, perhaps the most important one is because I catch less of them compared to all other methods. That may not make sense to a lot of people, so I’ll try to explain.

Most people out there would presume that you go steelhead fishing with the primary goal and mindset to actually catch a fish, or the biggest fish, or alot of fish.  After all, fishing is defined as “The activity of catching fish, either for food or as a sport”.  So I understand why most people wonder how a swing angler can have a fulfilling experience even when they don’t encounter a steelhead, which is a regular occurrence.  Furthermore, every other method of angling tends to be far more successful for catching steelhead than swinging flies. 

Most of us do it because we enjoy the whole angling experience, and focus on moments, not numbers…it’s as simple as that.  And that is a good thing, because the numbers just aren’t there anymore to justify the numbers-oriented angling that most people want to do nowadays. 

Overall, less than 10 percent of wild steelhead runs remain in existence, and that number is declining on most PNW steelhead fisheries.  Considering the mortality rates of C&R steelhead, if everyone focused on numbers, we will eventually all lose the opportunity to even try to catch one.  Numbers oriented angling contributes to a higher mortality rate of steelhead, further reducing their numbers with  the result being more river closures and restrictions.  Steelhead have a lot of problems, and there are many factors that contribute to the declining numbers of wild steelhead other than how we fish for them…but that is a whole other story.  It is quite easy to blame the plethora of other factors contributing too the decline of wild steelhead, but at the end of the day, we as anglers need to look in the mirror at how we personally impact the resource.

As an angler, the best way to help sustain the future population of wild  steelhead while still participating is to simply catch less of them.  We each get to chose how many we need to catch to be happy with the experience.  We each get to chose if we need to lift the fish five feet out of the water for 10 seconds for another grip and grin photo.  We each get to choose how much we personally impact the future of steelhead by how many we need to encounter to be happy, regardless of technique.  Every time a steelhead is hooked the mortality rate increases, regardless of method.  The good news is that the Moments not numbers mantra works for everyone.  I could care less how you fish for them, just understand your personal impact on the resource, and above all respect it.  Seriously, look in the mirror…

 

Moments, not numbers...cheers!