Last Week's Contest
Last week we invited our readers to guess what the following five Umpqua flies have in common: Bonefish Deep Minnow, Drowned Spinner, Bennett's Lunch, Neon Nightmare, and Gen-X Bunny. Well, we had some good guesses, but no one got it right yet. Here’s another hint: The answer is in the names…. Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with your guess.
*see photos and details in last week’s blog*
Jurassic Lake (a.k.a. Laguna Verde)
The Becks are at Jurassic Lake, Argentina, this week with a group of hardy anglers. Not only is Jurassic Lake known for big fish but big wind as well. It's wild and remote with poor internet, but I'm sure they are not thinking of the internet with cruising rainbows up to 20 pounds. We'll have a few photos for you next week when they move up to Estancia Tecka. We'll keep you posted.
Jim's Tips 
Winter time is a great time to inspect your fly rods, reels and lines and to do some cleaning and preventive maintenance. I have several rods, well….more than several. Lets say a lot of rods and reels so I set aside a day that is dedicated to rod and reel cleaning.
Fly Rods – Clean with warm water and dish detergent. Pay special attention around the guides where dirt and film can collect over the season. You can use a pipe cleaner to clean around the rod guides. I use a scrubby pad and dish detergent and lightly scrub the cork handle. (My wife doesn't read this blog so please don't mention it to her). After the rod and cork handle is completely dried I apply furniture polish to the rod to protect and add a shine to it.
Reels – Take the spool off the reel and rinse the reel with warm water and a little soap. Let the reel dry completely before putting the spool back on the reel. It’s also a good idea to back the drag off to the lowest setting to store.
Fly Line – I keep a cleaning pad saturated with RIO fly line cleaner in my gear bag and from time to time through out the season after I'm done fishing for the day I run the fly line thru the pad. A easy way to clean fly lines is to put warm water in a bucket with some dish detergent. Strip the line off the reel and run the line through a rag to clean the line. Add line cleaner to a pad as you are reeling the line back onto the reel. Now that I have all my reels laying on a table I inspect the fly lines for any cracks or signs of wear and tear and take note of any lines that I might have to replace with new ones.
It's a great way to spend a cold winter day and a little preventive maintenance will keep
your rods and reel in good working order for the upcoming season.
possible.
It might get to 10 degrees here today but the wind chill is making it feel much colder. I try not to complain, we could be living in Chicago! With much of the country in a deep freeze it's hard to write about fishing season, so let me tell you about a few spots we have in Argentina for March. And, we just had space open up on our African Safari for July 26-Aug. 9, 2019. 
Barry and Cathy are on their way to Edison, NJ for The Fly Fishing Show and they will be in the Sage booth. It's the biggest fly-fishing-only show in the world. 
are a few favorites from our group. We had a beautiful week of warm sunny days with good fishing. It made us all want to stay for a while longer. Our sincere thanks to 
I remember a times when the orange butt shrimp, and at different times the blue prince, caught more fish than a traditionally more effective same size fly like a pheasant tail or copper john. There is one day that stands out in my mind when a white streamer in late summer with low water was unbelievable. Why? When maybe the next day in the same place over the same fish they turn back to the PT or the copper john?
The Fly Fishing Show season kicked off last weekend in Denver with a great show and it's headed east. Looking for new tackle, shopping for a fly fishing trip, interested in a seminar or watching the dozens of demonstrating fly tiers, or just want to get out for the day – the shows are where it's happening.
Barry and I leave for Chile next week for a week at Coyhaique River Lodge. We haven't traveled since early December when we visited Le Fario and Tres Valles lodges in the Esquel region of Argentina and Coyhaique is roughly just a jump over the border and a stone's throw a bit to the north.
Ever fished for baby tarpon? It's one of our favorites saltwater species. As a friend of mine would say, it's a hoot. The video below is less than a minute long but it encompasses the pursuit of these incredible fish to a tee. We have fished for baby tarpon in lots of places – Mexico, Belize, Venezuela, Florida, and have found them to be pretty much the same everywhere. We might think we are the pursuer or the alpha, but regardless of size, they will quickly bring us to our knees.....but, like them, we'll soon be back for more.
For years both Barry and I would have said, “New Zealand,” but that has changed. It might be our age and Barry's knees. It's not so easy to walk 7-10 miles a day climbing over boulders and hugging rock slides searching pool after pool for a double digit wild brown trout. There is nothing like the challenge of the south island when it comes to trophy trout hunting, but these days the more genteel hunt is very appealing. We will go back to New Zealand – it gets in your blood, but the youthful throw-caution-to-the-wind days are behind us.
hope you come with us because we'd love to introduce you to one of our favorite places.
Global Rescue offers us some good advice about traveling with medicine. This article offers advice and pointers on things most of us would not think about.
You never know when a trout will take your fly and I believe it happens more often then we know. A trout can take you fly when it hits the water, during the drift or at the end of the drift. That's why at the end of every dead drift I end with a hook set. On occasions I found for whatever reason the end of the drift was the only time I was getting strikes.
We all fish streamers, some of us love to fish streamers. Take Santos Madero for example. Here Chad Shmukler takes a look at how Santos effectively fishes sculpins. It's pretty interesting! Thank you Hatch.
Our departures are shaping up nicely at Tres Valles and San Huberto for March, but we still have a couple rooms available at each lodge. These are two of our very favorite destinations in Patagonia for dry fly fishing on small to medium size streams. Tres Valles also offers exciting opportunities for trophy trout in clear mountain lakes. At San Huberto, you'll fish the beautiful Rio Malleo spring creek on private beats as it flows through the 
estancia.
Are you confused about sink-tips, T-Tips, iMOW tips? While this is geared toward steelhead fishing, it's still a great short piece on understanding some of the sink-tips that RIO offers.
By the time I arrived, the rain was falling in sheets and bands. I dashed to the picnic pavilion and sat in the middle on one of the benches. Rain poured down, hammering the tin roof and foaming the water of the creek. Everything looked thirsty, so I was happy for it. Still, I remembered the days when I would have seized yesterday’s clear weather to ensure I got at least one dry day on the water. Colorado makes you forget that it rains other places. I’d forgotten that. It was clear last night, so I expected it to be clear today. I rigged a fresh 9’ 5wt tapered leader and added a few feet of 6x. It was a nice job, if I do say so myself. Finally impatient, I pulled my hood over my hat to keep my neck dry, and when the rain slowed a tad, I walked upstream and waded in.
One thing to keep in mind with fall fishing is that you can sleep in a little longer. You don't need be on the water at day break like you do in the heat of the summer. In summertime most of us fish in the early morning and late evening to avoid the heat of the day and it's the best time to find active feeding fish. If you are an archery hunter you can be in your tree stand until mid-morning and then head to the trout stream for mid-afternoon fly fishing. And then head back to the tree stand for the evening hunt.
October is a beautiful month here in the northeast. Soon all of our trees will be dressed in their most vibrant colors and warm fall days will be calling out fishermen, hunters, and hikers to the streams, fields, and trails for a final bittersweet good-bye until next year. Trout will be showing off spectacular spawning colors and will be busy building redds and producing another generation of wild trout for us to admire later on.