Well now...

This is my (our) first effort at an instructional video--which friends have been urging me to do for years.  My significant other, Suzanne Garnier, shot the video using an I-phone 5 and our roommate, John Shevlen did the sound and some basic editing.

We'll see how this one is received but look for more travel videos and especially instructional videos eventually --as I gradually divulge some of my secret fly patterns, techniques, ex girlfriends phone numbers, revealing photos, pancake recipes-- and whatever else!

The back story?  I have been fly fishing since the age of 10 or 11; teaching fly fishing and fly tying for almost 30 years; and even made a few feeble efforts at guiding.  Many of my techniques and patterns were only shared with students and friends as I truly believed some were deadly effective (which may or may not be true).  That being the case, I only wanted to share them with a select group that showed they wanted to learn--and more importantly, cared deeply about the resource.

I now have some health issues that will definitely change the types of water I can fish going forward; and will probably shorten the amount of time I have to fish. At a minimum, I will NOT be wading quite so aggressively, scrambling over boulders and crossing rivers with impunity.

A long winded way of saying there may not be much point in keeping secrets, either.   ;-)

About the knot featured in this video:  It is often called a dropper loop--although there may be other names.  I first learned it tying rockfish, smelt and perch rigs as a youngster in Southern California.  We also used it to quickly splice lines together.  Somewhere along the way, I realized that it was also a quick and easy way to tie a tippet on a fly line instead of using a blood knot.  It is every bit as strong as a blood knot!  Using this particular knot to build custom leaders makes what can be a laborious (tedious) process a snap!  I routinely fish very long leaders to minimize "lining" spooky fish and building my own leaders lets me turn over almost any fly with leaders as long as 22 feet.  Just as importantly, I can control how I want a fly to turn over.  For example, on some of thebigger and more technical spring creeks, I may want my leader to puddle up a little as this will buy me a few seconds to regain control of my drift and make whatever mends are needed.  This can be critical if you are fishing a weedy stream where microdrag or microcurrents are a factor.  I'm just scratching the surface as we are straying into some pretty advanced dry fly technique but...  I also use this knot to fish multiple flies (to tie a true dropper) as I feel tying a second fly into the bend of your hook can sometimes act like a weed guard--with the trout (possibly) bumping into the line of the trailing fly if it goes after the first fly.

Teaching the knot has always been a challenge as it resembles a game of Cat's Cradle at times but once you learn it, you will be tying on fresh tippet in seconds and building or rebuilding leaders in minutes!  Hopefully this video will help!  The basic technique involves forming a loop, keeping tension with BOTH hands on what de facto is your running line while twisting one side 5 to 6 times and then opening it up to pass the loop through...  Sounds easy enough, right?