Traveling Angler Tuesdays launched June 26th, 2012 on mattrevors.com. My mission is to prove the concept of fly fishing travel abroad is not just the realm of old rich dudes and magazine writers & photographers. Keep checking back regularly as I share tips & tricks to get you to fly fishing locales you dream of going to. To see past articles & tips, click here.
So you, the Traveling Angler, have decided to travel for fish.
You have a
passport. You have a zillion
airline rewards points. And you have decided where you're going and what you're fishing for.
Now comes the fun part: planning and research.
The key thing to remember in the planning and research stage is this: Google is your friend.
The two most important questions to ask in planning your fly fishing trip are when and how.
1. When?
This is probably the simplest yet most important part of the research: when is the best possible time to go?
It is important because you don't want to spending January chasing either Atlantic salmon in the Gaspé Peninsula or migratory tarpon in the Keys.
A few keystrokes in Google or a quick email or phone call to a guide or local fly shop should tell you when to plan your trip.
2. How?
There are a few choices on how you're going to take your trip and spend your money. For most people, it comes down to cost and expectations.
The Traveling Angler has the following to choose from for accommodations and fishing:
- Lodge or camp-based, with meals and guides included.
- Guided, but finding own accommodations and meals.
- Do it yourself (DIY).
- Combination of guided & DIY.
A big part of deciding is logistics; in some locations, DIY is not practical nor cost-effective (or possibly legal). Other locations, or if traveling in a larger group, a lodge-based trip might not be possible. DIY or a combination of hiring a guide and DIY might be the cheapest and most sensible route, especially if one of the group has experience in the area you're traveling and fishing.
There are pros & cons to each but, as mentioned above, it comes down to cost and expectations:
a) How much money am I willing to part with?
b) What is the likelihood of having a successful fishing trip?
Asking yourself (and your traveling companions, if applicable) when you're going and how you'll be fishing will set the foundation for the trip.
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Now you're ready to start researching the finer points of your upcoming trip.
The finer points, of course, are the small details that will make or break your trip. This section will help you make your final preparations. Here are a list of things to consider:
- Weather: knowing the weather conditions will determine what you pack for clothing. Too little or light, and you're uncomfortable. Too much and it's a pain to carry it around (note: I will be posting about packing in an upcoming Traveling Angler Tuesday tip).
- Gear: Are you bringing your own gear, or using gear provided by a guide? Do you have the right rod and reel setup? Your Montana trout rig will not suffice for permit fishing.
- Terminal tackle: Do you have the proper leader, tippet and flies for the species you'll be fishing? Do you have enough to last through your trip? Know that most countries outside of the US and Canada DO NOT have fly shops to top up supplies, so it is imperative you bring what you need with you.
- Technique: Are you sight-casting? Do you need to make 75' casts with 16-foot leaders in a twenty knot headwind? Are you wading?
- Physical considerations: Are you in decent enough shape to wade all day in tropical heat? Do you have food allergies? Do you need travel vaccines? Do you need to bring sunscreen and fly repellant? Are you covered under travel insurance (note: I will be posting about travel insurance in an upcoming Traveling Angler Tuesday tip)?
- Currency: Do you need to buy the local currency? Is it cheaper or more legit to do so in the host country or at home in your local bank? And, of course, how much (note: I will be posting about budgeting your trip in an upcoming Traveling Angler Tuesday tip)?
- Accommodations: Are you staying at a lodge? Hotel? Hostel? Campground? House or condo rental? How much will it cost? Who will book it and pay the deposit, if necessary? How far is it from your fishing location?
- Food and drink: Is your trip all inclusive? Are you eating locally? How much should you expect to pay per meal? How much does a beer cost? Are there local grocery stores? Refrigerators or coolers and ice? Is the water safe to drink without treating?
- Transportation: What happens once you land at your destination? Is someone picking you up? Do you need a rental vehicle? Does the rental company have any limitations (e.g., in Alaska, I couldn't take my rental down unpaved highways)? Do you need a shuttle service or a taxi? Is there anything you should avoid (such as any and all green cabs in Ouagadougou)? Does the lodge provide a pickup or transfer service?
These are all things that should be considered before you step out your door with your rod case over your shoulder. Preferably a few weeks before that.
If you are heading to a lodge or on a guided trip, the majority of the questions above can be answered via an email or phone call to the lodge or guide.
Pro tip: If the questions cannot or do not get answered by the lodge or guide, run the f**k away! Do not give your hard-earned cash and time to some donkey-run backwater outfit that can't tell you what leaders to bring. Book your trip with reputable lodges and guides, always!
Most of those questions can be answered with a quick Google search. More detailed information, such as fishing tackle and technique for a DIY trip, can be found with Google, too, but expect to spend a bit more time browsing web forums and blogs for this information.
Hitting up Twitter, Facebook and Google+ and asking the right people if they or anyone they know have information might give you some leads as well. New to the social media thing? Sign up for Twitter and
follow me. Then follow the fishing people I follow and politely ask us some questions. Twitter folks have all the answers.
Pro tip: Don't sign up for web forums and immediately start a new topic asking for directions to a good fishing spot. Longtime users of forums really, really dislike this. Spend some time searching and reading through previous threads. There's usually a gold mine of info on time of day, fly patterns, techniques. If you still have questions, steer away from specific locations. Maybe ask for a recommendation for a guide or fly shop. This might be just a Northeast US and eastern Canadian thing; I'm not sure. But we don't like spot-burning on the interweb for our honey holes for stripers, salmon, trout and bass, I can tell you that.
If you have any travel companions, split the load up and assign a few research topics to each person. Google Docs or a DropBox folder is a great way to keep track of your findings.
Pro tip: cloud computing, such as Google Docs and DropBox, is the Traveling Angler's friend. More on that someday in the future.
The list of questions and tips above is by no means comprehensive, but it is damn-well close.
* * *
My Research at Work
I travel a fair bit for work. As such, I'm a big fan of the side trip.
My reasoning is if I'm getting flown to some random place for three or four weeks at a time, it is my duty and responsibility as an angler (and writer) to fish there. I might never be back there again.
Of course, fishing may very well be limited by geography, season, weather, travel itineraries and, obviously, work (imagine, huh?). So research is a very big part of these side trips.
It might mean bringing three rods and a slew of flies, such as this recent trip to Alaska with my 5wt, 7wt & 10wt in tow. Or it might mean bringing my tying material and leaving the rods at home (e.g., Nunavut in April).
Here are a few examples of how a little bit of research beforehand (and occasionally during) has resulted in making some work trips into fishing trips.
Last year I worked in Northern British Columbia for a few weeks. While there, I scoured the internet to research the best possible bang for my buck to fish once my project was completed. From what I was reading, I felt DIY wasn't going to be practical: the river system there is huge and the runoff was in full, making wading impossible...and there are big-ass grizzly bears around.
I ended up booking a day with Derek Botchford of
Frontier Farwest on the Bulkley River on my way back home. The logistics involved delaying my departure flight by two days and booking a cheap motel room. That's it. It took three emails and two phone calls to make this day trip happen.
Unfortunately the timing wasn't right for the Bulkley's famous steelhead season, but I managed to hook a chinook and a bull trout, and spend a day having great conversation with a really interesting dude while running up & down the river in a jet boat. It was totally worth it. And it wasn't that expensive.
Note: But I didn't see any grizzly bears, damn it!
On the other hand, when I found myself in Yellow Pine, Idaho for the month of October for work, it was all DIY. Within 30 minutes of my plane landing in Boise, I was pulling into
Idaho Angler in my rental truck. I bought a license and started peppering the helpful staff with questions about where I was heading and what I could expect for fishing. They helped pick out a selection of flies for me and I was off. Bull trout were the order of the day (and month) and they were pretty fun.
When I returned to Boise, I popped into the shop again. They remembered my face & asked me how it was. Since I wasn't flying out until the next day, they directed me to the Boise River for rainbows and what fly to use. I had a blast.
Pro tip: Pay a visit to a local fly shop. Be friendly. Buy some flies or leader or a magazine. They should give you some little nugget of information to make fishing their area a little easier.
Here's an example of failing to research...and then researching like a man obsessed:
In Northern Saskatchewan last August, I didn't bring any fly rods with me. I only had roughly forty minutes between my flight into Saskatoon and my flight north to the project area. No possible way to buy a license in forty minutes, and online licenses weren't available there.
Once I arrived at the project site, I quickly discovered the majority of the guys were fishing obsessed. And it turned out I could buy a license, at the commissary of the aerodrome I flew into. So there I was, in big pike country with no fly rod. But the guys gave me a loaner spinning rod. And then I hit the internet.
I was up until 2AM reading everything I could find online on techniques for fishing pike. The next night I went fishing with the crew and caught one on my first cast. And then caught some more. Two nights later, I caught the largest pike anyone had ever caught on that project site.
I'll be the first to admit it was luck of right time, right place. But the research I did online told me the structure to look for, the depths to fish at and the retrieve to use. So how much of that is luck?
Unfortunately the pike wasn't on a fly rod, so it sits on my
Species Journal with an asterisk...for now...
After catching the big pike, I didn't get invited to go fishing any more. So I turned my attention to the elusive Atlantic salmon back home. Each night, after my work was done, I would read articles and forum posts about Atlantic salmon fishing, and scroll over the Miramichi River in Google Earth. Of course, I caught two on my first afternoon fishing once I returned home. Research works.
Note: Frequent readers will know my ego has since been deflated back to normal, sit-in-the-corner-mumbling levels with regard to Atlantic salmon.
With a bit of time and effort, and some help from Google, research can and will help you, the Traveling Angler, make the most of your trip.
Questions, comments, suggestions, or any additional tips and tricks are always welcome in the comments section.
Happy trails.
Mat
Use Google Earth, fly shops, maps, tourist information kiosks - Lonely Planet books are bad ass - every bit of info you collect is good. Sometimes you have to filter through a lot of it to get good stuff but keeping your ear to the ground and at least humour every lead; it can sometimes help you.
You might have a few wild goose chases, expect them. That's all part of DIY fishing: embrace it. Thats what makes it awesome and rewarding. You figured it out. Not your guide. Not your local buddy. It's then truly your fish.
