Fish Hippie

In the 1960’s I actually was a Hippie... ‘then I sort of became a “Fishing Hippie” through the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s...’now, lo and behold, in the 2000’s, there’s actually a company called “Fish Hippie” and they make wonderful outdoor and indoor wear, not only for us Old Hippies, but for ya’ll as well!

Join me and visit their site. You’re fixin to get real comfortable!!!

https://www.fishhippie.com/

Another.....New Boat!

The anticipation of the completion of my new airboat, over the past three months , has been excruciating!!!

I went and violated my own cardinal rule: "NEVER SELL A BOAT WITHOUT FIRST HAVING it's REPLACEMENT "  I violated the rule and missed the Tilapia spawn and frogging the rising water at the beginning of rainy season... 'two events a fella should NEVER miss!!!

  

 But like Christmas, completion finally rolled around, and just in time to scout for the opening of archery season in a couple of weeks.

  The boat is all I'd hoped it would be (and more)...I even named it:

- Flip

www.flippallot.com

After ICAST 2017

ICAST, in Orlando was insanely busy for three days and nights...and so, for the third year in a row, Honson Lau, Christiaan Pretorius, Willy Le, Oliver White, Kristan Mustad and myself took a busmans holiday and hit the Mosquito Lagoon like a bunch of kids!

It's been many mango seasons since I had so much fun!!!

Thanks for stopping by and stay real close.....we have some exciting news coming!

' Zever,

Flip

New "Ask Flip"

**Ed Note: So sorry we haven't been posting much here or on the website. No excuses other than just busy. We'll do our best to get things back running smoothly here. Flip certainly has alot to share. We'll be doing an e-mail blast here soon so make sure you are on the mailing list.


New Ask Flip on the website:
 
4/17- Cindi Vetter from Waukesha, WI asks:

"Flip,  These pictures all make me smile.   Can to tell us your funniest story with Lefty?....I'm sure there are many to choose from."

 

"Cindi...thanks for your note. It's timely, as I just got home from taking Lefty to the airport. He's been here at the house for the past few days as we did a seminar in Titusville.
   

When I went to pick him up at the at the airport baggage claim I received a call from his Cel phone. It was a woman, who said, "Lefty was not feeling well on the plane as we were landing, so the Paramedics were called and are with him now"...Then she hung up and when I called back to find out where they were...I got voicemail.

I went to the Southwest Airlines desk and where they tried to figure out where he was being treated. After 45 minutes or so, six adoring, fly fishing Paramedics wheeled Lefty off the elevator into the crowded baggage claim area. 

They insisted upon having their pictures taken with Lefty which started a domino effect and other passengers on other flights had to have their pictures taken with Lefty as well!

The Paramedics insisted upon taking Lefty to the ninth floor of the parking garage and loading Lefty and all his plunder into my pickup, whereupon a ten minute goodby took place........   

The "Left Hander" sure knows how to make an entrance!!!"- Flip

 

Flip and Lefty last week in Titusville. Obviously, he's fine! 

www.flippallot.com

 

"Fix Florida" by Costa

Published on Jul 18, 2016

At one time, Florida was a waterman’s paradise, pristine estuaries and healthy fish populations. Recent events have put three of Florida’s estuaries in an environmental turmoil, but these events are not new, they are sparked from over a half century of development, agriculture and water mismanagement.

At Costa, we think it’s important to tell this story and work with interest groups to propose solutions and work on change. We can work to reverse the damage, restore the Everglades and recharge Florida’s waters. Water is our greatest asset. It’s our playground, the place that touches our soul, and it’s our job to protect it.

Get involved and please sign the Now or Neverglades Declaration!

http://gladesdeclaration.org/


Please get involved! Florida needs your help!- Flip

www.flippallot.com

RIDE.....Where does it come from and how can I get it?

There's no smoke, no mirrors and no mystery. It's really just high school physics and good old common sense. As simple as it is, many manufacturers and even more boat owners have trouble putting GOOD RIDE together with a good fishing package.

Good (comfortable) ride can be generated by either of two hull design characteristics...... 

ENTRY or DEADRISE. 

Achieving good ride from entry involves designing some vee or sharpness into the front portion of the bottom of a hull. Having this sharpness forward in a hull bottom allows the forward portion of the hull to cleave rough water thus providing good (smooth) ride. Sharp or deep entry as it is sometimes called, allows  the designer to build a flatter running surface toward the rear of the hull. Flatter running surfaces are more "correct" and require less horsepower to achieve the same speed as steeper running surfaces. Flatter rear running surfaces also provide more displacement so such designs float is less water than steeper designs. The design challenge is to build enough entry into the front of the hull so that the entry cleaves rough water before it reaches the flatter running surface yet rides high enough to remain out of the water in calm conditions allowing the hull to run on the flatter rear surface without drag from the entry.
Sounds impossible. A great concept which would never work in real life. Basically true except for hydraulic or electric trim tabs. Sharp hull designers in this day and age build enough rocker into the bottom of hulls so that with trim tabs in the neutral position the hull will ride bow up (entry out of the water). Some designers even allow their hulls to porpoise with tabs in  neutral but all designers realize the benefits offered by adjustable trim tabs. 

My belief is that virtually ALL BOATS can benefit from adjustable tabs properly used.

The term DEADRISE refers to the angle of a hulls bottom as measured from the bottom of the hull at the transom to an imaginary line drawn from chine to chine:

Here a drawing of the deadrise measurement:

Hulls having deadrise greater than approximately 12 degrees (generally found in many skiffs) up to approximately 25 degrees (found in many offshore fishing and racing boats) tend to use hull angle further aft to achieve smooth ride. This also allows less of the hull bottom to be in contact with the water causing less drag and often dryer ride.

At this point, even if you're not reading between the lines, you're beginning to see that there are areas of trade off and compromise in the arena of hull design. Each angler must determine what it is that he or she will be asking their boat to do during most fishing situations and select a hull design that will accommodate the broadest range of fishing situations. 
Forgetting about the interior layout of a fishing boat (which we will discuss at great length in future columns) here are some things to consider when deciding what features in a particular hull design will fit in with your fishing plans.

Hull Width:

There is a term which I love to use and hear used...... It is "Wretched Excess". This term applies very nicely to the width dimension designed into many shallow water fishing boats these days. To qualify as a great fishing boat a hull doesn't have to be as wide as an aircraft carrier. You do not need to be able to walk around the gunwale of a skiff without it tipping to one side or another. Tipping is a perfectly normal attitude for a skiff. In fact, there are certain situations where tipping can be a big help.

Some years ago when we used to fish for very large jewfish (giant sea bass) we would often catch fish as large as several hundred pounds. To put such fish in the skiff we would actually tilt the skiff until a rear corner of the gunwale or covering board was at or just under the surface of the water and slide the large jewfish, shark or tarpon into the boat.

Being able to tilt a skiff can often allow you to get into or out of shallower water than the boat could float in at normal attitude.  Tilting can also help to get a boat on plane in very shallow water. Narrower hull designs normally produce better rides and certainly pole better than wider designs. The fact is that if most hulls were narrower , had less deadrise, some entry in front and some more displacement in the rear, they would draw less (float higher in the water), answer better at idle speeds and pole better. The trade off might be that the boat would be slightly more "tippy"  (not much because of the increased displacement aft)......... who cares, that's what boats are!

Deadrise: 

In the 1960's the concept of deadrise or deep vee hull design found it's way into the off-shore ocean racing scene. It was very successful in that world and allowed highly powered race boats to go very fast through very rough seas, actually leave the water and land on the heavier (because of engine weight) rear end of the boat yet land softly because of the vee or deadrise in the hull. Deep vee hulls dominated offshore ocean racing in those years.

It didn't take very long for this technology to find it's way into the offshore fishing boat market and before long companies such as Sea Craft, Bertram, Sea Bird, Wellcraft, Speedcraft, Formula  and others were introducing fishing machines which incorporated the deep vee concept. It made perfect sense....... Folks were traveling further over rougher seas to get to remote fishing locations. Greater speed and better ride were needed and so the concept was embraced by the offshore market. Unfortunately, deadrise found it's way into the inshore market as well. Small boat manufacturers discovered that they could make their boats ride better if they incorporated some deadrise into their hull designs. To float the additional deadrise they had to build in more hull width to gain some displacement.......so boats got wider. As they got wider they got heavier and required more horsepower to make them go......bigger motors made them heavier still and harder to pole and fish.  The size/weight/power  pyramid developed a life of it's own and instead of people learning how to properly drive and use smaller, better fishing boats many just settled into bigger, smoother, faster less efficient fishing skiffs.

The average shallow water production fishing skiff on the market today draws in excess of nine inches, weighs well over one thousand pounds and is wider than it needs to be.  

Many excellent anglers that I know begin fishing for bonefish, redfish and snook in five or six inches of water. Areas unreachable by 99% of so called flats skiffs. All this so that folks can speed in complete comfort across choppy water to great fishing spots in boats that  cannot get there until the tide is halfway in and the fish are spread from here to Key Largo. Forget about the fuel that their 150 H.P.  Engine burned getting them there or the total outfit weight that they will have to pole around the flat all day.


So What's my point?  It's merely this......... If you're fishing offshore and speed and really rough water are considerations, a hull with serious deadrise may be what you need for most of your fishing situations. But, if most of your fishing will be done in very shallow water you may want to rethink the party line regarding skiff dimensions and bottom configuration bearing in mind that a fishing boat should above all FISH WELL!  Getting there in a true fishing boat may require you to tune up your seamanship and boat handling skills, but once you're in the fishes house you'll be needing a boat that will get you in and out of the neighborhood.

Stay tuned for more......Flip

www.flippallot.com

You've read what I've had to say about these rods both here on this Blog and on my website. Now read some from Rick Pope himself-

TFO Impact Fly Rods

Casting, Fishing, Fighting

by Rick Pope- Chairman- Temple Fork Outfitters

Finally … it is time to get out on the water!  Those of you who have seen, heard of or even cast our new Impact Series of rods can likely appreciate that they are unique among all the different series of TFO rods.  The combination of engineering and materials resulted in a long action with a very small diameter blank and lightning fast recovery.  While these are great marketing attributes, we want you to know exactly what they will do for you to enhance your success and enjoyment in fishing them.

Why a long action rod? - Unlike most TFO fast or medium fast actions which load and bend primarily towards the tip, Impact rods will bend much deeper for a given amount of resistance.  This shortens the effective length of the lever which can greatly reduce the fatigue of repetitively casting a fast action rod.  Think about it this way … if you put an ounce of weight on the end of a ruler, your lever is simply 12” and it is easy to hold horizontal.  Put that same ounce on a yard stick – making the lever 36” and it becomes a challenge to hold for any period of time. 

Recovery speed - In our rod action terms, a fast action rod is a longer lever and our Impact action is a shorter lever.  Faster action rods mitigate some of the stabilization issues when a blank is engineered with lower modulus materials as there is simply less blank load to stabilize.  Traditional lower modulus materials, when engineered as a longer action rod, typically suffer in recovery (think glass).  The higher weight to stiffness of lower modulus blanks wastes stored energy, or load, as some energy must be retained in order to stabilize the blank.  Higher modulus, or lower weight to stiffness, discharges a much greater amount of stored energy and stabilizes much faster which is exactly what the Impact Series does.  

Casting – “Let the rod do the work” Your job is to bend the rod and the rod’s job is to straighten (thanks Ed Jaworowski).  Store more energy by bending the rod more.  Bend the rod more by extending your stroke length for longer casts (a hint for George Anderson).  If your stroke is short, as in the old school 10 o’clock – 2 o’clock length, you’ll see tailing loops start to form as you attempt more distance.  Just lengthen your stroke and again “let the rod do the work”.  You’ll be amazed at the ease with which distance casts can be made.

Further, one of the most important practical fishing casts is a roll cast.  Even outside trout environments with limited back cast room, a roll cast pick-up is an asset.  Impact rods are superb roll casting tools. Just form your d-loop with an appropriate anchor point (end of the fly line about a rod length away).   You will find that the Impact long action design bends deeper through your delivery stroke and better discharges this stored energy when you stop.

Fishing & Fighting – or better stated, now that your Impact rod has delivered the fly, hooking fish with a long action rod will be easy. Big hooks and hard mouthed fish need a butt angle nearer zero.  A “strip strike” works best – just set the hook with your hauling hand.  Small hooks and light tippet are easily set with higher angles, and a very long shock absorber helps prevent light tippet break – offs … a great benefit.

Fighting bigger fish with heavy tippet will be easy as well.  While the shorter leverage is an advantage, you’ll still need to further manage lever length with fighting angle (rod butt to fish).  As an example, if your rod butt/reel seat is pointed straight up, you’re at 90 degrees.  Appropriate fighting angles for Impact rods decline as tippet strengths go up, so apply more pressure to a fish with heavier tippet by using fighting angles less than 45 degrees.  A 15 degree fighting angle with 20# tippet is about right.  Protect lighter tippets with fighting angles greater than 45 degrees.

In summary – we are particularly proud of this family of rods as they are easy to load, very efficient at discharging stored energy, and overall, a delight to fish.  We believe you’ll agree that the versatility of an Impact rod as a fishing and as a fish fighting tool are the great benefits of this type of action.  If you need help making a rod decision, just call us or email us.  For more on casting stroke length and fish fighting angles, check out Ed and Lefty’s “Complete Cast” DVD and whatever tool you select, we hope you enjoy what should be a great fishing season.   

Click Here to check out the Impact Fly Rods by TFO