Wings for an Angler - Lee Wulff

This video is incredible. Imagine learning how to fly and land a seaplane in under three weeks, then flying up to remote areas of Newfoundland for some dry fly salmon and sea trout fishing...

Crazy!!

I get the impression that Lee Wulff was one of those rare talents who had the ability to be really good at whatever he decided to do.

My all-time favorite movie is Bruce Brown's classic surf film "The Endless Summer." To me, "Wings for an Angler" has that same sense of adventure. It really struck a chord with me when I watched last night. These guys had no fear of the unknown. They just went for it. I'm sure they struck out now and then but they certainly hit quite a few grand slams as well.

This is well worth twenty minutes of your time

Product Review: Cabela's Utility Binder

Not fancy looking, but it works

Though my fly tying materials would say otherwise, I really do try to stay as organized as possible. In an effort to efficiently store spare shooting heads, running lines, tippet spools and other miscellany, I came across this review for the Simms Headwaters Tackle Wallet. Now, I think very highly of Simms' products. I usually look to them first when it comes to waders, clothing and accessories. However, I just don't feel like paying Simms prices for everything, especially when there are reasonable (and less expensive) alternatives.

Enter Cabela's Utility Binder...at $19.99, the large size is half the price of the equivalent Simms product. They do the same thing. The only difference I can see is that the Simms wallet uses velcro to hold the pages, while Cabela's binder uses two binder-type rings. Since I live relatively near a Cabela's retail store, I figured I'd go check it out.

It just works...'nuff said

I don't recall how many pages came with the binder. I think it was 10-12. However many it came with, it was more than enough for my use. The whole package was very sturdy and seems to do its job well enough. At half the price of the equivalent Simms product, the Cabela's was a no-brainer. 

I brought it to Russia...it held plenty of heads, tippet spools, spare cleats, spare running line, etc. I probably overstuffed it, but the zipper held just fine. I don't need to carry as much stuff with me when fishing in the U.S. or Canada, so it's definitely big enough. I probably could get by with the medium, but it's only a few dollars less, so I'll opt for the expandability of the large. It's probably a pretty tough item to screw up, but I was happy to save a few bucks considering I was originally going to buy the Simms. 

I probably could written this review in four or five sentences and still conveyed my message well enough, but it has been a good way to delay some necessary housework. In summary, if you're looking to get a little more organized and save a little bit of money in the process, I highly recommend the Cabela's Utility Binder. 

Kola Salmon Video #2

Here's another video of my Kola trip, this one shorter, less dramatic, lower resolution (iPhone 4) and a smaller fish, but I'm not complaining.

This was around 1:30am. This was as dark as it ever got at night. This fish was the first caught of a good run of fish which came through that day. I think there were about six anglers fishing this pool and everyone hooked fish, though it seemed like there was just one sweet spot. This was a killer pool above a HUGE set of rapids. In warmer weather, the bottom end of this pool would make for excellent dry fly fishing. 

My friend hooked three and landed one in a matter of a few hours. I landed this one and lost one about 18lbs later that day. This fish never ran up or downstream. It made several blistering runs straight across stream, directly into the heavy flow. It was bizarre. I've never had one do that before. 

It was a relatively cold night. The air temperature was about 44ºF and the water temperature 54ºF. This was the only fish I hooked on something other than a Sugerman Shrimp and floating line/leader combo. It took a small German Snaelda, tied on a 1/2" brass tube, fished on a floating Airflo Compact Scandi head with a 5.6ips Rio Versileader.