Echo Shadow PE 10ft 6in 3wt. Review

I have been fishing this Echo Shadow PE 10ft. 6in. 3wt for several months now. It is perfection for a tailwater fly fisherman. Dry dropper, long leader nymphing, indicator nymphing this rod will do it all. You might be thinking well there’s no way I could do all of that with a 3wt. It doesn’t feel like a 3wt in the hand. I have been fishing mine with a standard wf 4wt trout line. It seems to really respond well to the 4wt line. I hadn’t tried a 3 on it as I want the ability to turn of larger bugs at distance. The long range mending capability that is gained by using this rod is nothing if not incredible. Making 50ft mends in fast current with a simple flick of the wrist. I would recommend this rod for anyone who’s wanting to branch out and try a longer rod. I had an outstanding day on new years fishing this rod in a very small stream. It gives you the ability to reach across current seams to get to where the fish are hiding. This rod is not for someone concerned about aesthetics. This is a stealth fishing tool. With a matte black finish and black hardware, you’ll be sure to not spook wild fish. I’d recommend this rod for anyone who’s serious about catching fish. You won’t break off fish very easily with this rod. Yesterday I was dragging 15in browns across the top of the water to me on 4x. It protects light tippets very well. If paired up with a curly mono indicator you’ll never break off fish. I can’t say enough good things about it. Get one!

visit: http://www.echoflyfishing.com for more information
visit: http://www.southholstonriverflyshop.com to purchase your own. Tell them you read the article on Josh McFadden’s blog and had to buy one.

Thanks,
Josh McFadden

Friday the 13th-2012

It was a cold day yesterday, but in between frozen guides and finger warming sessions, in the afternoon I was able to catch 9 browns. Most of which fell subject to a Oregon cheese colored egg. The others where happy to take a small blue wing nymph. I was fishing falling water, and I was by myself on the South Holston in 22 degree weather with the wind blowing 25mpg. I feel it was a pretty successful 90 minute trip. Snow was falling the whole time. I just love to fish in the snow regardless of how the fishing is. It’s somehow even more peaceful. I did make it out with my newly acquired MK Lanyard yesterday. It was very useful to have everything I need at the ready. I’ll give it a full review and how I set it up on a later post. Until the next time, Josh McFadden

 

 

 

Barbless Hook Give A Way

http://ncflyfishingteam.com/?p=1889 Check out this link for more details on how to enter. Kevin Compton from performance flies is giving away 6 packs of dohiku barbless hooks to someone this week who likes and share’s the article from the NCFFT website up above.

First Trip of 2012

Kevin and I made our annual trip to fish New Year’s Morning. We headed over the mountain to do a little small stream fishing. The first few hours didn’t yeild much as it was still cold. It started to warm up a little before the storms moved in. This was the prettiest wild rainbow of the year that was more than happy to take a blue wing olive nymph. I landed 9 fish this morning which is a great morning in the mountains. There were some small winter stones coming off. The South Holston had been very busy yesterday so it was nice to get out away from the madness of the tailwater.

Happy New Year
Josh McFadden

Fly Tying: Burnt Wings Pt. 2

So I’m continuing with my experimentation with these wing burners. I found some nice light dun hen saddle I had laying around. These stems seem to be more delicate and supple so it should be less cause for any kind of twisting issues. The color seems to be spot on as well for either sulphur or BWO.
These wings ended up a little further back than I would have liked. Here’s a top view Then we have the blue wing olive version in a size 20. Natural Tan CDC was used for the sulphur and Natural brown for the blue wing olive. Overall same technique used as previously posted. I’m happier with the placing of the wings on the blue wing. These things are so delicate to tie in sometimes your just happy they’re on the hook at all.

Merry Christmas & Happy Tying

Josh McFadden

Fly Tying: Burnt Wings

I picked two mayfly wing burners from J:Son Sweden company. I hadn’t ever done any wing burning before so why not start now. Right? So my first few wings that I made from the colored wing material didn’t quite turn out. So I decided to try my hand at burning some feather wings. I started out with some dark dun cdc. By the way, I should mention I have a sneaking suspicion that leader twist may be an issue with all of these patterns. However; it’s a chance I’m willing to take for the learning aspect of all of it. With my next attempt a cdc wings I’ll look for finer stemmed feathers as I think that would certainly help.

CDC Burnt Wing Dun

TMC 900bl #16, Yellow 70 UTC, 4 Microfibbets, Sulphur Orange Turkey Biot, Burnt Natural Dark Dun CDC Feathers, CDC hackle make from twisting CDC fibers using split thread technique.

 

Teal & CDC Sulphur

TMC 900bl #16, Yellow 70 UTC, 4 Microfibbets, Sulphur Orange Turkey Biot, Teal Flank Feathers Burnt, CDC hackle made from twisting Natural Tan CDC using split thread technique.
I do like the mottled effect that the teal feathers give off.

Teal & CDC BWO

TMC 111 #16 (very short shank fly here is about a size 20 with a size 16 hook), Olive Dun 8/0 Uni, 2 Microfibbets, Olive Turkey Biot, Teal Flank Feathers Burnt, CDC hackel made from twisting Natural Dark Dun CDC using split thread technique.

Until the next time,
Happy Tying

Josh McFadden

CDC Split Wing BWO #21

After yesterday’s trip it’s time to start thinking about restocking blue wing olives. I’m going to be adding the normal comparadun’s, loop wing’s, & sparkle duns for blue wing season. I’ve been thinking about a pattern I had seen somewhere with split wing cdc. This was my first go at it.
. This is a fly pattern that at first look makes me think will work for some discerning fish. The olives we have here in East TN are quite small #20-28′s. For this pattern I’ve chosen a x-fine wire dry fly hook in size #21. Now for the recipe.

CDC Split Wing Dun BWO #21
Hook: TMC Barbless Dry Fly Hook 903? #21
Thread: Olive Dun 8/0
Tail: 4 clear microfibbets split
Abdomen: 70 Denier Olive Brown Thread/
14/0 Griffiths White Thread Rib for segmentation
Coated in SHHAN and left to dry.
Thorax: Sparse Olive Scud Dubbing
Wings: 2 Natural Dun CDC Feathers Split with butt ends.
Head: Trimmed CDC ends

The wings can be coaxed upwards to fish dun style or coaxed downwards to fish spinner style I suspect.
Here are some different views.

More to come later

Josh McFadden