Fall is for Pheasant Tail

Current Flow Staters,

Trout season is drawing to a close. The Tigers are out of the playoffs (in an epic fashion). And the rains are starting here in the Pacific Northwest. I got my first steelhead grab of the season on the swung fly this weekend. Things are looking up.

All-in on Pheasant Tail

Luckily a strong resource has arrived to keep us occupied over the winter. Pheasant Tail Simplicity, a new book from Patagonia, offers a great beginner-intermediate fly tying and fishing technique instruction. It's all built around the power of a simple material: Pheasant tail.

The book is a sequel of sorts to Patagonia's Simple Fly Fishing, which, for my money, is the best book out there for absolute newbies to fly fishing. It reunites the same trio of anglers: Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, Blue Ribbon Flies founder Craig Mathews, and renowned Italian angler Mauro Mazzo. The authors break down a dozen flies across the dry, wet, and nymph spectrum, all featuring that great natural material, along with notes on how to tie them and stories from their epic angling experiences. Watch the trailer:

Join an event near you

Here at Current Flow State we're going all-in on Pheasant Tail Simplicity this month and next, and I hope you'll join us.

Join the CFS virtual book club, or a PDX tying night

First things first, our Read By the River virtual book club. I think this book is so valuable for the beginning angler that we're moving away from our conservation and angling-adjacent focus of our recent book club picks to go head-on to this core angling tome. On Sunday, November 2 at 4pm PST we'll be Zooming to chat about the book, the approaches described, and more.

CFS Fall Virtual Book Club: Pheasant Tail Simplicity
Sunday, Nov 2, 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM PST
RSVP in the Luma event below:

In addition to the Fall installment of our Read By the River book club, we'll be hosting two tying nights here in PDX in November: Friday, November 7th and Friday, November 21st. Come to discuss the book, then get hands-on and tie some flies.

If you're an accomplished (or beginning) fly-tier, great! Bring your vise and some materials and come twist up some bugs. If you're new or just tie-curious, that's fine too. We'll have a couple vises available and plenty of materials for folks to fool around with and give tying a try. It's also totally fine if you just want to hang out and shoot the breeze. We'll be convening at a great new board game bar in NE, The Paladin's League, where we'll have a couple big tables and the whole menu. I'm hoping we can make this a more regular thing over the winter, so vote with your feet. Come out, make some new friends, and fill up your fly box.

Tying night 1

CFS Community Fly Tying: Pheasant Tail Simplicity
Friday, November 7, 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM
The Paladins League, Portland, Oregon
RSVP in the Luma event below:

Tying night 2

CFS Community Fly Tying: Pheasant Tail Simplicity
Friday, November 21, 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM
The Paladins League, Portland, Oregon
RSVP in the Luma event below:

Official Patagonia events

Patagonia is also hosting a series of events promoting the book at its retail stores in Denver, Chicago, Seattle, Boston, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, and here in PDX.

The Portland event is on Thursday, Oct 23 at 7:30. We're due for a tying workshop from ambassador Hilary Hutcheson, owner of Lary's Fly and Supply near Glacier National Park. Hilary is an excellent angler and fly-tier. I visited the shop in August and it had one of the most streamlined bug selection I've seen in a shop, so she knows a thing or two about minimalism.

Signed copies of the book will be on sale, together with a box of 30 flies from the book made by Umpqua Feather Merchants, so you have a few model flies when you go to tie your own. Food, beer, giveaways, an info table from the Native Fish Society: All add up to an event well worth your time. RSVP for the Patagonia Portland event.

Pick up the book and RSVP today

However you come by your copy of the book, give a shout and let us know you're down to join any of the upcoming CFS Pheasant Tail Simplicity events. Here are those RSVP links again:

Virtual Book Club:

Sunday, November 2

PDX Tying Night 1:

Friday, November 14

PDX Tying Night 2:

Friday, November 21

Presenting wet and soft-hackled flies

If we're going to be tying these flies, we have to know how to fish 'em, right? Here's a tiny primer on presenting soft hackles and wet flies. It's a shred of the corpus. Any style of presentation in fly fishing is enough to devote entire books to. But this is enough to get you started.

How to swing soft-hackled flies for trout and steelhead

Try out one of the most straightforward presentation styles, for both trout and steelhead

Current Flow StateNick Parish

Leaders ➰

Mindset 🧘‍♂️

Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank, in his effort to help us re-humanize, digs in with TU / Flylab sensei Kirk Deeter and other teachers, from the Yampa to the Rapidan, to touch the mysteries of our revitalizing sport. (link)

Environment ⛰️

Colorado cousins Due West Anglers hipped us to this note from the National Park Service about the varying habitat of stoneflies. I didn't realize stoneflies also lived in underground aquifers, prior to reading this thorough, science-based piece of content (my tax dollars well spent, thanks NPS, godspeed). (link)

Tools 🎣

One of my pre-requisite features in waders now is an insert for me to add extra foam around the knees. CFS buddy Dave wears hockey kneepads over his waders. Here's John Juracek on the advanced approach of kneeling to avoid spooking bigger fish on Flylab's Substack. If we bow to the silver king when tarpon fishing, we kneel at the altar of monster trout. (link)

The late author and angler Dave Whitlock’s rods and reels are being actioned off. There are some great performing rods and reels in here, and it's for a good cause. (link)

Technique 🤺

🎥 "Nervous Water," the first fly fishing film from filmmaker RA Beattie has been remastered in 4k. Over two decades ago, this one set the standard for what's now become a standard storytelling approach. That it still feels fresh today shows just how breakthrough it was. (link)

Conservation 🌲

Western Watersheds Project identifies the American rancher who's doing it all right: protecting wolves and prairie dogs, following regenerative grazing practices with native bison, and more. It may surprise you to learn who the rancher is. (link)

Community 🏘️

🎥 In "Oregon's Abandoned Boats: A Growing Crisis on Our Rivers," Oregon Field Guide looks at the complex issues around identifying, citing, and removing derelict vessels from the state's waterways. From issues of personal sovereignty and the commons to corporate governance and tax burden, there are hundreds of stories on our rivers and oceans behind those old boats. (link)

That's it for this week! Current Flow State is a weekly newsletter from me, Nick Parish.

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