FlyTalk

It seems as some of you wanted to see a fish in my video from a couple of days ago. Well, here you go. My good friend Roy Tanami has once again sent me a sampling of video we shot a couple of years ago from around the world that he put together over the last couple of days. Enjoy the last day of 2009 with some gratuitous fish porn.

Oh, and go buy Roy's new book, Angling The World just out on The Lyons Press.  It's an impressive book which I was fortunate enough to accompany Roy on one of the chapters (New Zealand) and for some reason he actually used all my images for that chapter as well. Forget your camera Roy?

Happy new year!

TR

If you haven't submitted any photos for the Fly Talk photo contest, you will now. Slowly, but steadily I've been receiving submissions for the past couple of weeks and I have to say there are some great shots to choose from, but we need more.

Here's the deal. You send me ([email protected]) what you consider your best fly fishing images, and we'll do an edit and separate the crap from the good stuff. Just after the new year Fly Talk will present our picks on the main Field and Stream website and let you, the viewers pick your favorites. Whoever gets the three highest number of votes will get the three prizes below. Remember, we want some variety here. I'll be really bummed if we get four hundred "grip and grins". I want some humor, landscapes, lifestyle, etc...

PRIZE #1. A Scott, nine foot, four piece, five weight A3 (MSRP $335). We like Scott Rods... a lot. They make sweet rods right here in our home state, are unapologetic about their processes and basically just kill it all the way around. You want this rod, trust me.

Prize #2 Whoa, another Colorado company... Fishpond is also one of our favorites and make righteous stuff. We're giving away the Sawtooth wader mat(MSRP: $49.00) (I keep one in my car always) and a Westwater Boat bag (MSRP: $149.00) together.

Prize #3 A sweet pair of Smith shades. The Interlock Spoiler in Square Tortoise with a Polar Brown lens (MSRP $149) is the perfect fishing pair of sunglasses. Truly, this is the only pair of interchangeable lenses that in my opinion cannot be rivaled. Just twist the stems and pop out the lenses. Check out how the system works here.

Good Luck,

TR

So admittedly this is going to be pretty unofficial, but I want to see some of your photographs that you've taken over the last year in regards to fishing.

I've been doing a ton of edits the past couple of weeks for possible ads, catalog covers and our magazine Angling Trade. I'm sick of looking at my photos and thought that I could convince some of you to share some of your favorites with Kirk and I and the rest of the Blog-o-sphere. I'll gather them up, categorize, analyze, ponder, and hopefully laugh some and we'll all vote on our favorites right after the new year. Heck, I'm sure I can even wrangle up some pretty sweet little prizes for 1st, 2nd, and third place.

I'll make it fair and I'll set up a way for us to vote when the time comes. Anybody have any suggestions for categories or ideas for this little competition? List them here in the comments section and we'll start up the first end of year photo comp for Flytalk.

Please send photo submissions to my email [email protected] and please don't crush me with hundreds of photos. While photos of big fish or weird fish are totally cool, I'm curious what you all can come up with that's a touch outside the grip and grin realm. Get creative here!

Good luck and I can't wait to see what's in my inbox. Oh, and please title your subject line in your submissions Flytalk Photo Contest.

TR

Enough of this election nonsense. It's time for some free stuff!

The first person to correctly name the exact spot and species being fished for will receive a pair of Oakley Straight Jacket sunglasses.

Since these are sweet shades you also have to answer when the best time of year to fish this area is and why. This doesn't have to be a long answer, but enough to educate our fellow flytalk members. If this single image proves too difficult I will post more hints throughout the day.

Good Luck. The winner will be named tomorrow.

TR

Hint#2

Since we all know it's far safer to let me do my explaining with images rather than words I thought I'd put together a little flickr slide show of my recent trip British Columbia steelhead fishing. My friends Hannah Belford and Roy Tanami invited me up to shoot, hang out and do a little fishing. It was a trip of a lifetime and I highly doubt I'll ever be able to repay them. Thank you Hannah, Roy, Alice, Don, and Jessie for making the week so amazing. This is but a small edit of over 4000 photos I took over the week and a full web story of Hannah and her mom's (Alice) lodge will be forthcoming on the main F&S website. This is but a taste... Make sure to move your cursor off the image with no movement to get the entire image without type over it.

ps - the release shot was taken by Roy. I had to post it though because it's so damn cool.

enjoy,

TR

Well, almost fishing... Notice the rod tube waiting to be uncapped under her arm? That's my new wife, Ellie sipping on a cold one yesterday under the Gore range just before we threw dry flies for small wild fish. It doesn't get much better than this.

Anyone else get to fish on their honeymoon?

TR

Could it be the over-powering stench of the wastewater treatment plant when I open the car door? Doubt it. What about the possible human remains found on the river bottom? Uh, not so sure about that either... The barbed wire fences, or giant dead bloated rats floating in the water? Nope. Could it be the thousands of pounds of trash lodged in the trees or effluent streaming by my bare legs? I really don't think so.

Perhaps it's the fact that I can go anywhere in America and have a legitimate shot at a 30 lb fish all for the cost of a gallon of gas and a bottle of water. That's why I love trash fish on the fly.

Patrick Mackay caught me taking photos of his car on the main drag in Durango, Colorado this past weekend and started up a conversation. He told me that his raft was six times the cost of his "old-slowmobile" delta 88. I say Patrick has his priorities lined up quite nicely. Dude knows where to spend his money.

Not only did Patrick have the raft on top of the car, but his back seat consisted of a cooler, oars - sticking out of the window, and a mountain bike. He told me he was down south fishing for a while.

I only wish I were this devoted.

Who's with me on this being one of the most bad ass fishing rigs you've ever seen? I'm just curious how he got it on and off...

TR