What to Do With A Fly Rod when the Water Is Too High to Fly Fish

What to Do With A Fly Rod when the Water Is Too High to Fly Fish
Northern Wisconsin has been absolutely inundated with rain. Just lambasted, to the point that the waters I fish are at least 18" to two feet higher than they were at this time last year. High water always makes fly fishing very difficult. So what do you do when the water is too high to fish topwater bugs on a fly rod?





A beautiful three piece eight foot 3/4 weight Tycoon Tackle glass fly rod.

Well, you can always nymph and streamer fish, which I decided to do.



This is one gorgeous rod, that casts as good as it looks.

The problem with this kind of fishing at this time of year is the fact that there are literally clouds of baitfish -- perch and sunfish -- which clog the waters and make it nearly impossible to get a nymph or streamer down to where a nice bass or pike would see it. I despaired ever getting into bigger fish -- and I had a job. I was being tasked with testing a new Tycoon Tackle Co. fly rod.



D*** perch. Hate 'em! Even switched it up here to a vintage glass rod with no effect.

With options for fish running out, I turned to my brother in desperation. The new graphite fly rod manufactured by Tycoon Tackle is called the Martha Ann, named after the mother of Tycoon's owner Tim O'Brien. It's a beauty of a rod, that casts a fly line like a cannon, but I needed to get into some big fish to see how it handled. A fly rod that casts well but can't handle a fish is like a car that runs perfectly only in straight lines.

By the way, the rod is also a fund raising rod for Casting for Recovery. Pretty classy move by Tim and the Tycoon folks.

Enter my brother. He's always loved fly rods, and his particular skill is attaching ultralight spinning reels to them and fishing deep water for big walleye and pike. So in order to test the backbone, I turned it over to him, and he put on a reel and tied on a huge Husky Jerk. Within minutes he was into a 17" walleye. The rod performed like a champ.



Soon we were into bigger fish. Again a rod designed for trout was absolutely crushing big walleyes, the biggest of which (pictured below) came in at 24". It even got an eight pound pike that threw the hooks a few feet from the boat. It's a honey of a rod and strong to boot.



So I proclaim this amazing rod a success. If it can handle a big northern or walleyed pike in open water, what do you think it can do for a trout in a middling sized stream?

-- Dr. Todd

Thursday Review: Jack W. Berryman's Fly Fishing Pioneers and Legends of the Northwest

Thursday Review: Jack W. Berryman's Fly Fishing Pioneers and Legends of the Northwest


As a regular columnist for a number of fly fishing magazines, Prof. Jack W. Berryman has crafted numerous informative and interesting profiles of legendary Northwest fly anglers. In Fly Fishing Pioneers and Legends of the Northwest (Northwest Fly Fishing, 2006--$29.95) we find a large collection of these articles collected (and sometimes expanded upon). What results is an absolute "must have" for fly angling, fly tying, and fishing history fans.

The subjects read like a who's who of fly fishing. The inimitable Dan Bailey, the fascinating Ted Trueblood, and the legendary Roderick Haig-Brown are included, as well as some figures that might not be as recognizable but are still of great influence and importance, such as fly tier Bill Nation and Bill Schaadt, who has received some interest lately stemming from the epic documentary Rivers of a Lost Coast.

The articles are all about the same length and because they were originally written for magazine format follow about the same formula, which is not a bad thing. Each of the essays are informative, although one wishes there could have been additional illustrations. Berryman writes in an engaging and forthright manner; footnotes would have been nice but of course, in this day and age seem to have gone the way of the Dodo.

It is a pretty book, well laid out and edited and with attractive design. At 206 pages it is the right length for a book like this, and can be digested in pieces, which is exactly how I read the book. I found myself reading one or two chapters, setting it aside for a few weeks, and then returning to read another chapter. Several months later I was somewhat saddened to discover I had finished the book, and was left wanting more. We can all hope Prof. Berryman pens a sequel.

Although this book is about five years old, the subject matter is timeless. Well-written, informative, and filling a badly needed gap in our fishing history, Fly Fishing Pioneers and Legends of the Northwest should be in every serious fly angler's library.

The book is currently on sale for half price direct from the publisher, and a bargain like this should not be passed up.

-- Dr. Todd