Mooring day

Mooring Day

May 1^st is the first day that my local state park (just 10 minutes away) officially allows boats to moor up to their berthing spots.  Last year, it was the latter half of May before even close to half of the boats had found their way out to the lake.  This year’s exceptionally mild spring meant that many anglers were ready to have their boats out the middle of March.  I was no exception.  Although I have a sit-on-top kayak, having a car to transport meant it is not very convenient to transport my kayak every fishing day.  

So this was my 2^nd year of purchasing a shoreline mooring spot.   I had been out in my kayak several times already but I was really looking forward to being out on the water every day off.  I have to admit, I was anticipating this like a kid anticipating a trip to the zoo!  I only got about 2 hours of sleep the night before yet I was wide awake and full plans for the day.

I have the only kayak next to a varied lot of plastic and aluminum skiffs, most pretty small.  The larger boats have floating docks on the side opposite the boat launch and there is also a kayak tree for (lighter) kayaks and canoes.  Having a spot on the beach is great; I can be in the water in less than 10 minutes.  If I was more organized it would take less than 5 minutes.  This includes unlocking and removing the heavy cabling that I use to secure my kayak, installing the seat, situating my gear where I like it, and stowing my gear bag in the front hatch.

Of course, there are disadvantages too!  Like the time a huge toad jumped out from under my kayak when I turned it over.  Since it was still dark it about scared the..well you know what out of me.  This happened a couple of mornings in a row.  Even worse,  one morning I reached down to turn my kayak over and there was a dark shape huddled under it (I started looking before turning after the toad).  It being dark again (I like to paddle to my first fishing spot before dawn breaks to get that early bite) I couldn’t make out what it was.  I got out my flashlight and to my dismay it was a raccoon.  A couple of proddings with the blade of my paddle and I determined it was dead.  This really creeped me out…I mean all I could think of was that perhaps it had rabies and crawled underneath to die.  I called the park rangers later that morning and they apparently came and picked it up because it was gone when I got back.  An additional call a couple of weeks later and I found out that did not have rabies but they did not know what it died of.

Most of the time there was no scary things popping out and I was out on the water paddling with anticipation of another great day.  The cool things I see definitely outweigh the creepy.  Bald Eagles swooping down and gliding back up with a large fish in it’s claws, beavers on shore and in the water, loons calling, deer at the lake edge, and porcupines just to name some.  Needless to say, there is also the numerous bluegill ‘kisses’ at the water surface, the carp jumping in their spawning dance, and the occasional explosion at the water surface as a bass pounces on its prey.

So now it has been three weekends since mooring day and I have been out fishing five times since.  The only day I missed out in the kayak was because I was sick.  I anticipate another sleepless night next May!

Hooke's Law and Fly Fishing guest post by Zedd

In order to serve a broad range of expertise and skill levels, I'll be inviting guest posts from time to time.  Here's the first by Zedd:

Whilst out fly-fishing this weekend I got to thinking (a dangerous thing, wrought with mischief to be sure) that maybe we should take lessons from the largemouth bass. Unlike the vaunted trout, a fish known for becoming dogmatic in its eating, the largemouth doesn’t really care about its chow. If it moves, makes noise, and generally appears to be an organism big enough to digest, the largemouth will hit your lure. This got me to thinking about fly-fishing in general.  What does it mean to ‘fly fish’?

I define ‘fly fishing’ as use tools (fly rod, fly line, leader, tippet, fly reel, etc…) which allow you to use lures too light for typical momentum casting such as with spinning or bait-casting equipment. This definition helps me to think of the fly-fishing equipment as a whole as opposed to a series of individual ‘categorical casts’. For example, fly-fishing has literally dozens of types of casts; back casts, forward casts, side-arm casts, bow cast, vertical casts, false-casts, roll casts, curve casts, S-casts, ad infinitum. I think it’s best to do away with naming the cast, and learn what  happens when I apply different techniques during the cast. A wholistic  approach if you will.

First, what ‘happens’ during a fly-cast?  Instead of the weight of the lure pulling the line off the reel, the weight of the line is pulling the fly along for the ride. The most basic means of this happening is sometimes called the bow cast, where the fly is carefully pinched between two fingers, pulled back against the fly rod-causing it to bow, and then released. The action of pulling the fly back causes the fly rod to flex. In reality, the fly rod is a material that exhibits both rigidity and elasticity, a spring:

In mathematical terms (Hooke’s Law):     F=-kx

During the compression phase (pulling the fly back) the rod stores mechanical energy and a force is generated in proportion to the length of the pull (X). Upon release, the rod de-flex’s and releases its force in a torque like manner; that is it rotates in an elliptical movement, increasing speed, and imparting this rotational torque into the fly line in the form of centripetal force, shooting the fly line and its rider, the fly. Fly Fisherman call this storing of mechanical energy into the fly rod as ‘powering up the rod’.

This may seem a little technical, but it is the rotational torque part that is important. Fly fisherman say by way of good fishing, ‘tight loops buddy [ma’am]’. This is a reference to the importance of learning the fly rod technique of casting with a tight loop. The ability to create tight loops is the first important skill a good fly fisherman needs learn. Remember the rod tip will de-flex in a curve? Centripetal force teaches that the rod tip will tend to want to impart energy into the line in a continuous and constant cycle throughout the energy release. The effect is that when the rod is held in a stationary manner, the loop will become large rather than tight. The trick with casting with a fly rod is to first learn how to move your rod tip as it releases its force in such a manner that the rod tip stays in a fairly straight line. The straighter the stroke of the casting rod tip, the tighter the line. To be sure, there are many times when you will want to make a broad round stroke, thus imparting a curve, or even multiple curves of different widths into the fly line. However, it is important to start off with the basic ability to cast a tight looped line, and this is only accomplished by casting in such a manner as to keep the rod tip in a constant straight line as it unleashes its force in a rotational manner.

This sound tricky and it is. Still, remember there are millions of fly-fisherman the world over who have mastered the technique. Once this stroke is learned, experimentation with manipulating the rod will teach you how to make the loops and casts needed for an infinite variety of presentations your favorite bay, lake, pond, river, or stream will offer you. The wholistic approach to understanding the what happens when will lead to a more instinctive cast without having to memorize and implement a variety of individual methods.