Latest / The Articulate Fly / S6, Ep 81: Small Creeks and Big Wins: Summer Strategies with Mac Brown

Transcript

S6, Ep 81: Small Creeks and Big Wins: Summer Strategies with Mac Brown · The Articulate Fly

• 0:03
  Marvin: Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly.
• 0:06
  Marvin: We're back with another Casting Angles with Mack Brown. Mack, how are you?
• 0:11
  Mac: I'm doing great, Marvin. How are you doing?
• 0:13
  Marvin: As always, just trying to stay out of trouble. And you know,
• 0:15
  Marvin: it's been pretty darn hot in our neck of the woods.
• 0:17
  Marvin: But, you know, for the next week or 10 days or so, it looks like it's going to be cloudy.
• 0:22
  Marvin: Decent amount of rain and probably temperatures in the 80s. So the fishing ought
• 0:24
  Marvin: to pick up a little bit, right?
• 0:27
  Mac: Oh, it has. I mean, I was down at Lowcountry last week and, you know,
• 0:32
  Mac: it was up triple digit heat index.
• 0:34
  Mac: And the day I got home, I think it was Wednesday morning.
• 0:37
  Mac: We were 72 for the high, overcast. And it's kind of been that pattern this whole time.
• 0:43
  Mac: You know, and here it is Monday and it stayed like rain every day, overcast days.
• 0:48
  Mac: Fish are looking up. It's a big change from what it was before I went down there.
• 0:52
  Marvin: Yeah. And so on the hatch front, I mean, what's the bug of choice these days? Nothing.
• 0:58
  Mac: I'm throwing a lot of pseudocleon, like little tiny mayflies in the morning.
• 1:02
  Mac: They're similar to trichos, mahogany color.
• 1:04
  Mac: We're having those, like huge spinner falls of those about 10 a.m. every morning.
• 1:09
  Mac: That's really what's been best is throwing really tiny, either midges or the
• 1:13
  Mac: little pseudos, one or the other. But the small flies are king right now.
• 1:17
  Marvin: Yeah, and so I would imagine you're probably fishing up in the park and not down low, right?
• 1:23
  Mac: Well, I'm fishing a lot right below the house, too. I mean, just,
• 1:26
  Mac: you know, the state water, I mean, it stays plenty cold just because it's just
• 1:31
  Mac: a lot of foliage the whole way down.
• 1:33
  Mac: And when it comes out of the park, it's not a big difference going up a mile
• 1:36
  Mac: or two miles than what it is right here.
• 1:38
  Mac: You know what I mean? The lower elevation before it goes in,
• 1:41
  Mac: you know, into Bryson, into the Tuckasegee.
• 1:43
  Mac: So, yeah, I mean, I think all the park streams with these rains are cooling down quite a bit.
• 1:49
  Marvin: Yeah, which is also a little tip for folks if they're on the big water to go
• 1:52
  Marvin: fish where the small creeks come in because the water's going to be cooler.
• 1:56
  Mac: That's right. That's right for sure. And it's like, I haven't done a lot of
• 1:59
  Mac: warm water fishing the last few weeks.
• 2:02
  Mac: I mean, mostly, mostly when, as soon as I got home, it was back to,
• 2:06
  Mac: um, you know, a lot of, a lot of stuff on the freestones teaching.
• 2:10
  Mac: And it's like, they all want to do trout. So if they want to do bass,
• 2:14
  Mac: I'd go do it. It's just everybody that's here right now wants to do trout.
• 2:17
  Mac: So, so the trout, I'm just thankful it's cooled down.
• 2:20
  Mac: The water temp this morning was 56 degrees, which is nice temperature for this time of year.
• 2:26
  Marvin: Yeah, absolutely, because I know checking the temperature gauges over on the
• 2:29
  Marvin: Davidson and Brevard, I mean, in the afternoon, that water's up in the low to
• 2:33
  Marvin: mid-70s, so it's no good.
• 2:35
  Marvin: And, you know, I was talking to—actually, it's kind of funny, right?
• 2:38
  Marvin: I was at ICAST last week, and I literally walk in to check into the hotel,
• 2:43
  Marvin: and Kevin Howell is down there eating breakfast with his wife.
• 2:46
  Marvin: And it's always funny because it seems like wherever I travel,
• 2:49
  Marvin: I either see him or I go fish in Montana, and I walk in a bar,
• 2:52
  Marvin: and there's half his guide staff.
• 2:53
  Marvin: And, you know, we were, you know, we were talking about the fish and he's like,
• 2:57
  Marvin: yeah, he's like, basically once spring was over, it was got,
• 3:00
  Marvin: got kind of tough and hot. So.
• 3:03
  Mac: Yep. Oh, it did. I'm just thankful all the, you know, high elevation above Bryson.
• 3:09
  Mac: I mean, it's, it's nice having that elevation.
• 3:11
  Marvin: Yeah.
• 3:12
  Mac: I mean, coming off of like the left prong, about 6,700 feet.
• 3:16
  Mac: So most, most watersheds don't have 6,700 feet. So, like, I feel bad for our
• 3:20
  Mac: friends just to the south, you know, down, you know, like North Georgia,
• 3:24
  Mac: it doesn't have near that elevation to keep it as cold. So I'm sure it's hotter.
• 3:29
  Marvin: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it was interesting too, right? So, you know,
• 3:32
  Marvin: I know you've been to ICAST before and we tried to tempt you to come over from
• 3:35
  Marvin: Hilton Head for a day, but, you know, it was my first time there and it,
• 3:38
  Marvin: uh, it was an experience.
• 3:40
  Marvin: I mean, that is a, uh, that's a fishing show on a completely different level.
• 3:45
  Mac: Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I mean, there's a lot of good industry stuff there for sure.
• 3:49
  Mac: And I was going to try to make it, and it just ended up having work,
• 3:55
  Mac: you know, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
• 3:57
  Mac: And it's like when I left out of Hilton Head to beat all the beach traffic,
• 4:00
  Mac: I think I left about 3.40 in the morning.
• 4:03
  Mac: I wanted to get home before it was, you know, getting hot, and I thought it
• 4:07
  Mac: was going to be hot. And to my surprise, it stayed cool all day.
• 4:12
  Mac: You know to be outside was nice it's nice being back outside not not having
• 4:16
  Mac: like trip you know we didn't get that hot when we say we're hot up here we're
• 4:20
  Mac: like upper 80s you know so the local people start com upper 80s is too hot.
• 4:26
  Marvin: Yeah you.
• 4:27
  Mac: Know so we like it better in the 70s this time of year for sure.
• 4:29
  Marvin: Yeah absolutely you know it's kind of interesting too right because there is
• 4:32
  Marvin: a fly fishing section at icast but you know the interesting thing is you know
• 4:36
  Marvin: even if folks weren't exhibiting there there were a lot of you know we were
• 4:39
  Marvin: talking before we started recording And there were a lot of the kind of the
• 4:42
  Marvin: usual suspects that came to the show when we're walking around.
• 4:46
  Marvin: So it was kind of good to see people in the middle of summer like that.
• 4:49
  Marvin: And, you know, a shout out to our friends at TFO. And I know you helped develop
• 4:53
  Marvin: this ride, but they actually won a Best in Show Award for the new,
• 4:57
  Marvin: I guess, what is this, the Elvair? It's their nymphing ride, right?
• 5:01
  Mac: Right. It's a great, like, wet fly, dry fly rod. That's what I've been using
• 5:05
  Mac: for everything with all, you know, the trips.
• 5:07
  Mac: I was lucky. I've had it for several months.
• 5:11
  Mac: Probably four months before it came out.
• 5:14
  Mac: And it's just such a great rod for, I think, everything all around.
• 5:21
  Mac: But I like the longer, lighter rods like that anyway.
• 5:25
  Mac: But this thing is really well-balanced swing weight.
• 5:28
  Mac: It's been my new favorite thing all summer that I've fished every time I go out.
• 5:34
  Mac: I'm glad they won that down there, for sure.
• 5:38
  Marvin: Yeah and so tell me a little bit more because i haven't had a chance to really
• 5:42
  Marvin: kind of play around with the rod i'm assuming is probably starting to show up
• 5:45
  Marvin: and maybe like uh you know some of the smaller sizes that probably goes out
• 5:48
  Marvin: to a 10 or 11 foot rod right.
• 5:52
  Mac: Yeah i think the two weights 10 footer there's a two and a half footer,
• 5:56
  Mac: and um i like both i've been fishing a lot with the two weight just because
• 6:00
  Mac: i'm fishing a lot of really small flies right now i mean like this morning i
• 6:05
  Mac: was fishing 22s and 20s the whole time and,
• 6:08
  Mac: That's just kind of what the fish have been keying in on because that's just
• 6:13
  Mac: really the thing that's prevalent when you're out there. That's all I see.
• 6:16
  Mac: I'm not seeing any kind of large insects. I don't see any.
• 6:20
  Mac: I've not seen a yellow sally all year. And, I mean, we used to have them by
• 6:23
  Mac: the thousands this time of year, and I don't know where they are,
• 6:26
  Mac: but I've not seen one anywhere on the creek.
• 6:29
  Mac: So there's no point in throwing a 16 yellow sally when there's not any out flying
• 6:35
  Mac: and crawling on branches. Now, there might be some somewheres else,
• 6:37
  Mac: but at least on Hazel and Deep Creek and Nolan Creek, I've not seen one yet.
• 6:43
  Marvin: Yeah. And so tell me a little bit more about the rod. I mean,
• 6:46
  Marvin: what did you and the other folks that helped design it at TFO put into that
• 6:50
  Marvin: rod that kind of sets it apart from some of the other kind of traditional Euro nymphing stakes? Yeah.
• 6:55
  Mac: Well, Jason did a lot with that rod and the swing weight. We talked a lot about
• 7:00
  Mac: that when it was in development stages.
• 7:02
  Mac: So the swing weight is really ideal. When you have a really balanced swing weight,
• 7:08
  Mac: it feels like it's an extension of your hand without having weight and feeling clunky in any places.
• 7:13
  Mac: Of course, the hard part with long rods is when they're not balanced,
• 7:18
  Mac: you feel this clunkiness of swing weight being off.
• 7:22
  Mac: And then a lot of it with the way the handle was,
• 7:26
  Mac: we modified that quite a bit and that feedback,
• 7:30
  Mac: you know, Michael Bradley and Jason and I got together up here in Cherokee and
• 7:36
  Mac: talked a lot about other things that were pluses and things that we'd like to see change, you know.
• 7:43
  Mac: And I'm just glad because then when the prototypes, they went ahead and did
• 7:46
  Mac: all those things that we were talking about.
• 7:47
  Mac: And it's just, I love it. I mean, I use it a lot with wets and stuff too, Marvin.
• 7:52
  Mac: I mean, I love it for launching like doubles, you know, putting on a double
• 7:56
  Mac: taper. And it's not just a tight line.
• 7:58
  Mac: And it'll excel in that area, but it's a great, you put a double taper two or
• 8:02
  Mac: three weight on it and for those type of line weights, and you can do whatever you need to do.
• 8:07
  Mac: Like on big water, like that's what I would take on the Holston even right now.
• 8:11
  Mac: If I was over there floating, I'd probably be throwing a 10 and a half foot three.
• 8:16
  Mac: Because you can still do a lot with it, you know, with the double taper yeah.
• 8:20
  Marvin: And just to help you know folks that may not know when we talk about a rod and
• 8:24
  Marvin: reel being balanced what we're really talking about is that the line in the reel is,
• 8:30
  Marvin: equal to the weight of everything kind of in front of that so if you kind of hold that rod,
• 8:34
  Marvin: you know on your index finger it should kind of balance like a teeter-totter
• 8:37
  Marvin: and what that does is it keeps you from getting fatigued um and to your point
• 8:41
  Marvin: makes the rod an extension of your arm and And so it's kind of an effortless
• 8:44
  Marvin: tool to fish with, right?
• 8:47
  Mac: Yeah. Yeah. It just, it just makes it feel like really super balanced in your hand.
• 8:52
  Mac: And so that's what I liked. I remember in the early stages, a lot of the 11
• 8:56
  Mac: footers, you know, 15 years ago, I kept thinking, well, there's not going to
• 9:00
  Mac: be anything that ever feels balanced.
• 9:03
  Mac: Cause I was just a clunky at 11 foot.
• 9:05
  Mac: You know, it was hard that they didn't have the way to lighten up the top enough
• 9:09
  Mac: yet with all the technology that's in rod building today.
• 9:12
  Mac: Day so it'd feel kind of like a catapult you'd make a cast and you'd feel this
• 9:16
  Mac: big book on the rebound you know the counter flex rebound bounce and it was just because it was so,
• 9:22
  Mac: non-balanced swing weight wise you know so i had a bunch of them that went right back on e-bus
• 9:27
  Mac: back in the day you know i was like nah this 11 footer's going and uh yeah then
• 9:32
  Mac: that happened a lot even with the 10 and a half footers in the early years and
• 9:36
  Mac: so whenever you get one that,
• 9:38
  Mac: can be balanced it's just a lot a lot more pleasant to hold in your hand all day yeah.
• 9:43
  Marvin: And i so i would say you know nick conklin and all the folks at
• 9:46
  Marvin: tfo you know they're really putting out some really nice rods and
• 9:49
  Marvin: they're doing the same thing on the conventional side you know the great thing
• 9:52
  Marvin: is you know gosh i mean you know when i got into the sport and certainly when
• 9:56
  Marvin: you got into the sport to be able to have a rod that performs as well as the
• 10:00
  Marvin: elvair or you know the blitz or the axiom 2 you know at the price point that
• 10:06
  Marvin: they're at is really pretty amazing.
• 10:08
  Mac: Oh it is and another one to mention too is that solution i
• 10:12
  Mac: mean that's a that's a brand new it was like mystery x
• 10:14
  Mac: rod at the show in atlanta they didn't want to unveil you
• 10:18
  Mac: know the name and all because it was still about to come out you know it just
• 10:22
  Mac: came out to a couple this last month and that that is a wonderful i ended up
• 10:26
  Mac: getting a bunch of those for the casting schools that's a wonderful medium action
• 10:30
  Mac: rod if anybody's looking for a great casting tool to practice with you know
• 10:34
  Mac: That's one of the better rods that I've seen in a long time,
• 10:37
  Mac: it shows. It's just so well-balanced.
• 10:40
  Marvin: Yeah, I got to cast one at ICAST, and the amazing thing was,
• 10:43
  Marvin: to your point, you could put 60, 70 feet of line out just to pick up in a shoot.
• 10:48
  Marvin: But if you wanted to mend line up close, that medium-fast action,
• 10:52
  Marvin: that little bit of softness in the tip really allowed you to manipulate the
• 10:56
  Marvin: line really well up close.
• 10:59
  Mac: Oh, yeah. Yeah, and it's an awesome roll casting rod, too, if you like doing
• 11:03
  Mac: long-distance roll casts.
• 11:06
  Mac: It'll really help with that because it's just got a lot of – it's so well-made at the medium side.
• 11:12
  Mac: It's not too fast. It's not too slow.
• 11:14
  Mac: It's basically just right. It's the ideal casting tool because,
• 11:19
  Mac: as you know, the last 20 years, I mean, most rods have gone fast,
• 11:21
  Mac: fast, fast off the deep end, where they're just too fast.
• 11:25
  Mac: There's not a – I don't know of a casting instructor in Europe or here that's
• 11:28
  Mac: advocating anything super fast.
• 11:30
  Mac: You know, and it's like, it's nice to see that come out just for the fact that
• 11:35
  Mac: it brings back rejuvenation into the medium action that are,
• 11:39
  Mac: you know, like the things that most people like to throw.
• 11:43
  Mac: So I think that'll be a big hit.
• 11:45
  Marvin: Yeah. And it's interesting too, right? So, you know, we're getting towards the
• 11:48
  Marvin: end of July and, you know, depending on where you are, I mean,
• 11:50
  Marvin: I was amazed, you know, school systems in Tennessee are going back in like a week.
• 11:54
  Marvin: That makes you start to think about fly fishing schools. And,
• 11:58
  Marvin: you know, when it cools off, you're going to have some schools for folks, right?
• 12:03
  Mac: Oh, yeah. Yeah, we're going to have some schools start in October and got some
• 12:06
  Mac: casting schools in September.
• 12:08
  Mac: I think there's still one spot in that left, and then the school's November.
• 12:13
  Mac: So I'm looking forward to the fall. I'm looking forward to cooling down.
• 12:16
  Mac: I'm going to be in Arkansas the first week of November for the club there in
• 12:23
  Mac: Mountain Home for three days.
• 12:25
  Mac: I'm looking forward to getting back down there and fishing there on the white and get to see Davey.
• 12:32
  Mac: And of course, then we're going to do our Upper Peninsula thing again early
• 12:37
  Mac: October for Kings in the Driftless area with Jason and Ed Engel and Jeff Currier.
• 12:45
  Mac: There's a bunch of folks coming. There'll be a whole bunch of folks that I'm
• 12:48
  Mac: looking forward to spending time with. That'll be a week. I think we'll stay up there a week.
• 12:52
  Marvin: Yeah, and so I imagine what is Mack Brown Fly Fishes where they can go to figure
• 12:56
  Marvin: out, find out about all the schools and stuff oh.
• 13:00
  Mac: Yeah no no that is and they've got to read
• 13:03
  Mac: it though i mean it's a little aggravating in july you know being tourist season
• 13:06
  Mac: the people will call and ask you the first sentence on the page like if i just
• 13:10
  Mac: took a minute to read what it says you know instead of calling i'd really appreciate
• 13:15
  Mac: it because it's like you get a call it's like everything they ask is the first
• 13:20
  Mac: paragraph if they just looked at the site you follow me the reason you make
• 13:24
  Mac: a sites for what efficiency of time,
• 13:26
  Mac: And so I don't mind saying that because I'm sure a lot of shops have the same problem.
• 13:30
  Mac: It's like, dude, did you look at the website, you know?
• 13:33
  Mac: No, I figured I'd just call and ask you. But yeah, it'd be better if they'd read it, you know?
• 13:38
  Marvin: Yeah, so I guess what I'll say, you know, whether it goes for schools,
• 13:41
  Marvin: clinics, or for guiding, you know, read it first.
• 13:46
  Marvin: Then come. Yeah, and then come. And then as I always say, you owe it to yourself
• 13:50
  Marvin: to get out there and catch a few.
• 13:52
  Marvin: Tight lines, everybody. Tight lines, Mac.
• 13:55
  Mac: Tight lines, Marvin.