Aug 06 2010

Great site for those who want to learn more about Knots

Published by flyfishfanatic under General

I have been visiting this site for many years, and I have been sending ALL of the students I teach FlyFishing to, to this site as well.  If you are new to fishing, (FlyFishing, Gear fishing, etc….) or are into Boating, Hiking, Climbing, you need to check out this site.

The site is ANIMATED KNOTS BY GROG.

Not only does the site give you step by step instructions on knots, it gives you animated step by step instruction that you can slow down, stop and even rewind to make sure you can get the hang of some of the more difficult knots.

Some of the knots that are shown are;

  • Nail Knot
  • Surgeons Knot
  • Clinch Knot
  • Improved Clinch Knot
  • Albright Knot
  • Perfection Loop

Make sure to check it out, ANIMATED KNOTS BY GROG.

Rick Passek, “The FlyFish Fanatic”™

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Aug 03 2010

BEST DAY i have EVER had fishing my favorite River, Take 2!!

Published by flyfishfanatic under General

Well, I headed out to the Skagit again on August 2nd and 3rd.

Well, this time, I had my 15 year old son with me, what could be better, right, well the fishing was AWESOME once again, so having my son with me to be able to get him into his first ever Bull trout was a HUGE TREAT for me.

My son is not much of a Fisherman, but does try it from time to time, but one thing he is GREAT at is Photography.

He brought his camera with him, and spent most of his day taking pictures, so I thought I would post some of HIS pictures from the day here!

My Son with his first EVERY Bull Trout!!!!!!

Open Wide

Some Really GREAT Pictures taken by my Son, I did not post all of them as he is starting his own website for his Pictures.

So by the end of the day, we ended up with 2 Bulls for Ryan, and I landed 12 plus 2 Rainbows. Not quite the day I had last week, but having my son with me made it a MUCH better day!!!

Rick Passek “The FlyFish Fanatic”™

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Jul 29 2010

BEST DAY i have EVER had fishing my favorite River!!!

Published by flyfishfanatic under General

I have been fishing the Skagit River (In south West B.C., Canada) for 18 years now and I love the area. It is one of those places that is close enough to the city (Vancouver) that you can do a day trip, but it feels like you are in the middle of nowhere (And you are).

The Skagit River starts in the Mountains of Manning Park in BC, and flows west and then to the south into Ross Lake. Ross lake is primarily in the USA and is a man made lake that is caused by the Skagit river being Dammed on the US side. The Skagit then flows through Washington state and dumps into Puget sound near the town of  La Connor.

The Skagit (In BC) is a beautiful small river that is PERFECT for flyfishing and holds some beautiful fish. There are 2 species of fish in the Skagit River, Rainbow Trout, and Bull Trout.

Well, enough with the details, here is what happened last week Thursday (July 22nd) when myself and one of my team members fro the 2009 National FlyFishing championships went.

We met up in the town of Chilliwack and Alistair jumped into my car and we headed out. We drove to the Skagit Vally and were on the water by 10am, and started to fish a beautiful run. I was all geared up for the Bull Trout, while Alistair was geared up for Nymphing and dry fly action with the rainbows.

I headed to the top end of the first nice run and with my first cast I had a nice (Smaller) Bull come up and take a swipe at my offering. I was not really paying attention, so I missed the fish. After this, I did not see another fish in this particular run, and neither did Alistair, so we started to move on down stream to another Beautiful run.

Alistair fishing the first run of the day

Alistair was using a wet fly (A Partridge and Orange) and ended up landing a nice 15″ Rainbow. I followed him on the run with my Bull Trout streamer so not to spook the rainbows in the run for Alistair who was hunting for them. After a few casts I got into a beautiful Skagit river Bull Trout;

First Bull of the day "ON"

A Nice 3.5 lb Bull Trout

After taking a few Pictures and releasing this beauty, I continued to fish this run and after a few more casts, I was into another beautiful Bull Trout,

A Nice 4Lb+ Bull Trout

I landed one more Bull in this Run, and them Alistair and I decided to move on down stream to another nice run that Alistair knew about. As we approached, we noticed another flyfisher was working the run, so we continued past him and went to another run/Pool further down the river.

A few years back, the river changed it’s path at this point and you cannot follow it here because it had cut a new path through some dense bush. We followed the old river bed around the corner to where the river is accessible again.  In the old river bed, some flow still passes through and has created a totally different experience for fishing. Here are a few shots of the Old river bed,

Old river Bed

Alistair fishing a small run in the Old River Bed

Once we got back to the main river, we got to this really nice run/pool and because of the depth of the water, I changed over to a TypeVI sink tip fly line.

I decided to try to do some nymphing, while Alistair was trying his hand with some emergers. after a few casts, I was into a nice Skagit River Bow;

Nice Skagit River Bow

Next Cast, Next Fish;

Another Nice Rainbow, This time on a Bow River Bugger

Alistair, was concentrating on a few Rainbows that were actively feeding on the surface under a overhanging tree, and after a dozen casts, finally lured one into his offering;

Alistair fisghting a nice Bow

Alistair with his prize

After stopping and having a nice shore lunch, we decided to head back up to the run where we saw the FlyFisher on the way down. Once we got there, he was gone, so we started to work the run. We saw the flashes of Bull Trout all over the place in this 200 yard long run. My first cast, BANG, Bull Trout on!!!

A nice "BIG" Bull trout taken on a White/Red Bunny Steramer

After releasing this beauty, my very next cast produced this;

Another nice blue

Again, after releasing this fish, next cast, FISH ON!!!

Under water shot of a bull

This continued for the next 2 hours, every cast, I had a fish on, and I mean EVERY cast. Some I landed, some I lost, but I have NEVER seen anything like this before on the Skagit, the Bulls were stacked like cordwood in this run, and I had a BLAST fishing for them. After a few more fish, I got into a HUGE one, this fish fought hard and took me close to 20 minutes to get in. Just so you can get an Idea how big it was, My net opening (In pic) is 21″ and this fish overflowed the net. Alistair and I figured it was around 28″ and 8+ pounds;

8+ pound Bull Trout

After catching and releasing a few more fish, we decided to move on back towards the car as it was starting to get late (Around 7pm and we had a bit of a walk to get back to the car). We did fish on the way back, and I got 6 more, with this one being the largest;

Another nice Bull Trout around 7 pounds

The colors of these fish is impressive, here is a shot of their colors;

Beautiful spots on a Bull

Another nice Bull Trout

Close up a Bull Trout Head

My Final fish of this AWESOME day

We fished hard all day and had a wonderful time, and I can only say that I have NEVER had a day even close to this EVER on this wonderful River. At the end of the day, I landed 3 rainbows and a WHOPPING 22 Bull Trout and lost at least 10 more.

A HUGE thanks has to go out to Alistair for coming with me.  Alistair got into a few fish as well, but because of him not having a sink tip with him, he did not get into many Bull Trout. He even used the same flies I did, but the key this day was having a Fast sink tip to keep the fly in the zone as the fly as the fly was striped in.

Here are a few random Pictures from the day to end the post;

Skagit Bow

Nice deep run/pool

There were some fish hanging out in front of this fallen tree

The Bull Trout Bend!!

Rick Passek “The FlyFish Fanatic”™

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Jul 20 2010

Skagit River, BC, The Flyfishers Paradise

Published by flyfishfanatic under General

Well, i know it has been a LONG time since I posted because of my new job. Well that is about to change!!!!!! I will be posting more again, so stay tuned!!!!!!!

I finally had a chance to get out fishing last week, and I went to one of my favorite places in North America, The Skagit river.

I had a GREAT day (FISH OR NOT,  IT IS ALWAYS A GREAT DAY ON THE SKAGIT!!!)

I was prepared to do some dry fly fishing, but there were next to not risers this day, and the river conditions are still a bit on the high side so  I decided to do what I do best, Czech Nymphing and High sticking. I am glad I did, because the fish LOVED it.

The first fish of the day (And of the year from the Skagit) was a beautiful 14″ Rainbow.

The run that I was fishing was a classic one, and produced a few really nice fish.

Myself and my buddy worked this and a few other runs and got a few fish, but once we got to this section, we got into quite a few fish and a few really nice ones.

This was the first time my buddy had EVER flyfished in a river, so part of the day was spent teaching him a few of the finer things on how to fish a river and what to look for when fishing in a river like the Skagit. Here is a shot of him learning how to cast (Sorry about the Picture quality).

And here is a shot of him learning the finer aspects of High Sticking.

It is early in the season, and the water level is still VERY high and due to that the water clarity is not great, but still good for Nymph fishing.

Here is a final shot of another beautiful Skagit River Rainbow.

I will be heading out again on Thursday, but this time I will hunting Bull Trout, I will do another post soon with Thursdays results.

I will also do another post soon with a Step by Step of the Nymph pattern that work VERY VERY well last week on the Skagit and has produced well for me on many clear water stream and rivers.

Rick Passek “The FlyFish Fanatic”

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May 16 2010

Wholesale Sports, Langley (Now Open!!!)

Published by flyfishfanatic under General

Well, that time is finally here.

I have been working at wholesale sports for close to a month now, and we finally opened the doors to the public last Thursday.

The store looks GREAT and people that have come in so far have been VERY excited about it.

Here are some Pics of the store.

Come on by and have a look, and make sure to look me up in the fishing department and say HI!!!

Rick Passek “The FlyFish Fanatic”™

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Apr 30 2010

Wholesale Sports, Langley

Published by flyfishfanatic under General

As you know, I have taken a new job a few weeks back as the Head of the fishing department of the new Wholesale Sports that is soon to open in Langley, BC.

We have been working at a feverish pace to get the store ready for the soft opening that is scheduled for May 17th/2010, but it looks like we may be open as soon as Friday May 7th!!!!!

I am super stoked about the new store, and even more about the fishing department that is 1/3 of the store. The store is a total of 34,000 Sq Ft, and the fishing department is around 10,000 Sq Ft. The department is coming around, and we just completed putting 1500 different Rods in rod racks on the main floor. We have (4) 40′ long sections for Fly Tying, and have about 220 fly rods, and Spey rods.

The Tackle section is HUGE as well, big sections in Spinning, Ocean as well as Bait Casting!!  We carry Crab Traps, Prawn Traps, etc….. We will be carrying Canoes, Kyacks, as well as some molded style Jon boats.

I can’t wait for the store to open so I can start sharing my passion with the public!! I will post some pictures of the store as soon as I can, but that will not be before Tuesday May 3rd at the earliest.

If you live in the area, make sure to stop by and say Hi!!!

Rick Passek “The FlyFish Fanatic”™

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Apr 09 2010

I am Proud to announce, I have a new Job

Published by flyfishfanatic under General

I am VERY proud to announce that I have taken on a new job.

I Start next week as the Manager of the fishing departmant in the new WholeSale Sports in Langley, BC.

Wholesale sports will be opening in Mid May-Mid June and will have a Large Fishing section as well as Hunting, Outdoors wear, Camping gear, etc……

If you come in, make sure to stop by and say hi when you are there.

Rick Passek “The FlyFish Fanatic”™

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Mar 16 2010

Tying up a storm!!!!!

Published by flyfishfanatic under General

Well, my time at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and Paralympics are now complete. I had a GREAT time working at the Olympics and it was a experence that I will NEVER forget!!!!!

I met some AWSOME people that I worked with, and will miss many of them, while I will be keeping in touch with many as well. A few of the people that I met were also FlyFishers, and we made plans to go out FlyFishing some time soon, I can’t wait.

Since the end of my time working there, I have been tying up a storm to get caught up on 6 different fly swaps that I am involved in. I have tied up Steelhead flies, Trout flies, and eevn just completed tying a bunch for a Redfish fly swap.

Here are a few pics of what I have been tying;

Cutthroat Trout Swap

Stillwater Swap

Stillwater Swap 2

Steelhead Swap 1

Steelhead Swap 2

Steelhead Swap 3

Salmon Swap

I will be doing more blog posts very soon. I have been Nuts busy and just wanted to make sure to get something up to give my readers something to read. I will be doing many new posts VERY soon, and there will be some Tying posts, FlyFishing posts, Gear reviews (I got a few real good ones coming up for my readers.)

Stay tuned

Rick Passek `The FlyFish Fanatic`™

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