A week with Way Yin (aka Bubba)

[Paul Arden]

It’s been a long time since we’ve been in touch, great to make contact again with you Way!! Through popular demand it has been requested that you be our special guest

So welcome back!

Thanks, Paul

[Bubba]

Hey Paul and Sexyloops -

Great to be back!

Way

[Paul Arden]

How have you been?? Rumour has it that you’ve given up your day job and are now a rock star?

[andrewparkeruk]

Welcome Way Yin.

When I was just getting into fly casting, “Spey to Z” was one of the (several) DVDs I bought and enjoyed. I’m sure I still have it, but moved house a year ago so can’t quite put my hand on it.

I really enjoyed your chapters, the most memorable being the “evolution” of the cast from Belgian/oval into kiss and go.

Thank you, Andrew

[Bubba]

Thanks Andrew! You must be one of the few who were able to watch the DVD and not fall asleep. Haha. Thanks for that!

Paul, great to catch up with you! (Sadly, out this way we may be witnessing a steelhead extinction event, but having quit the day jobs, been having a blast trying to learn about old school vacuum tube amps and building some classics. Can’t quite figure out how to play that bloody guitar though.)

[Paul Arden]

I tried to learn the guitar a few times. Funny thing about it, whenever I started playing most people would retire from the campfire and go to bed. I’m quite gifted I think. Apparently my rendition of “Angie” brings tears to the eyes.

So while people are thinking up great questions to ask you, what made you first pick up the DHD?

Cheers, Paul

[Bubba]

I got my first taste of winter steelhead fishing in medieval times (late ‘80s) around Seattle. Back then it was hard work, throwing single handed 9-10’ 8 weight rods with sink tips and big flies all day long, wading tit deep to get far enough away from the bank to clear the trees. Sucked at it, but at least there were fish around back then.

Mid-90s, got turned on to “Spey Casting” by a guide friend who was also trying to learn. We made a lot of great latte froth, occasionally a good cast. Even the lousy casts went further than my good SHD casts. Plus, I could be right up against the brush, and fly control during the swing with the DHD was insane.

There was a guide named John Farrar on the Skagit who had learned some stuff from Goran Andersson (I think). John hipped some other guides like Dec Hogan and Scotty O’Donnell, and they basically invented the Skagit style of casting for winter steelhead (big flies, heavy sink tips), all from the double Spey. Very Obi Wan Kenobi.

I had more opportunities to pursue “greased line” approaches for summer and fall steelhead on the Deschutes and in BC. Back then, I don’t think anyone really understood it. Lots of how-to books (still had those back then), VHS, etc. but no “why”. This was early days of the interweb. I posted a Q to see if there were any physics of Spey casting resources out there but got majorly flamed. There were folks who cast beautifully, but it was considered an “Art”, definitely not Sexyloops science!

[Paul Arden]

I first saw the Circle C in ‘97 and the Snake Roll in ‘96. It was pretty new back then as far as I could tell. But maybe it was just new to me! ‘98 is when Sexyloops started.

It all got a bit silly I think, with different styles naming different casts, and with lift variations also producing different casts. There was also a lot of misinformation for example “the anchor loading the rod”??!

But it also goes the other way too I think, with science sometimes being given a higher regard than ability. If a caster comes along and uses voodoo then I’m fine with that. We each take the bits we need to make it work.

So what’s happened to the Steelhead? Is it overfishing, climate change, or something else? Conservation is a very fine line. Without anglers there is no voice. With too many anglers there are no fish, or if there are, the experience is very different. I’ll give you an example of this: in NZ one of the very best brown trout fisheries in NZ (and therefore the world) runs through a gorge and is little known. In other words it’s a secret. And that’s one reason why it’s the best. However there are proposals to dam this river for electricity generation. So what to do? Tell the secret? You’re damned if you do and dammed if you don’t.

It’s also a double edged sword in Malaysia. One of the best things about fly fishing here is that I don’t see other anglers. I have 2/3rds of the lake virtually all to myself. That’s a vast area. However there is commercial netting by the indigenous people. And it’s a problem because it’s not controlled and they are impoverished. How to solve this? Make them all fishing guides for sport fishing? Zone the lake so there are C&R areas only? Maybe this will work but then the wilderness remote experience has gone forever.

It’s a very fine line between saving something and loving it to death.

Cheers, Paul

[Bendix]

Hi

I think it’s an excellent question Paul asked. What is happening to the Steelhead and Salmon in the Pacific Northwest?

I occasionally browse the Speypages forum, and here I read the same, which is that the Steelhead and Salmon are simply disappearing from all the rivers. And it seems that no one knows why?
From what I can read, it seems that it’s only in the Skeena river (and it’s tributaries) that there still is a relatively healthy population of Steelhead…

So do you know what is going on?

/Bendix

[Tom Benson]

Hi Way ... & Welcome.
Lots covered in your recent posts !
Hopefully this will last longer than a week !

My request , concerns your ( DVD ) & the first 30 minutes or so :
Will you elaborate on the (( morph.. )) from Overhead Cast to Underhand cast:
that leads to a Traditional Spey .. I.v watched the previously mentioned
DVD , many times.. & although the video imagery is great & verbal overdub is of
the same high standard.....I do not patronise / but your delivery is free of the
usual bloated verbiage ....... thankfully ..........

Hopefully , we can discuss 'Real " problems .. ie .. Marine & Freshwater Toxicy
Valve Amps .... I use a Christal ( Germanium Diode ) to amplify me Strat .
Gary Davies ( Rev ) & John Hurt ( Missipi )

Tom