Women Talk Fly Fishing

Cecilia "Pudge" Kleinkauf is one of the best known women anglers in the U.S.  She's been fly fishing for close to 30 years, and tying flies for nearly as long. She is the owner and head guide of Women’s Flyfishing® an instruction and guide service headquartered in Anchorage, Alaska. For the past twenty-four years her business has been introducing women to the sport of fly fishing and guiding small groups of women and couples to a wide variety of locations throughout Alaska for salmon, trout, char, Arctic grayling, and pike. She also leads groups in her off-season to Mexico for saltwater fly fishing and to Argentina. Pudge is the author of three books, and a contributing editor for Fish Alaska Magazine. She is on the pro staff of patagonia, Ross Reels, Scientific Angler, and others and is one of the founders of the International Women Fly Fishers..  Because we feel, as does Pudge, that it's high time there were more resources for women flyfishers, we are happy to offer this monthly column, authored by Pudge, exclusively for women (but guys might learn something, too!)

Women Talk Fly Fishing­­- May, 2011

Fly Fishing from a boat or a canoe

©2011 Cecilia “Pudge” Kleinkauf

Here are a few tips for fly fishing from a boat or a canoe.

-Master a variety of mending techniques so that you can control the drift of the fly in synch with the drift of the boat or canoe;

-Learn the steeple cast so that you can direct your back cast up instead of back, to avoid hitting the rower or boat driver and also to avoid getting tangled in the leader of another caster in the boat;

-Practice casting with your non-dominant hand or across your body so that you are able to cast from both the front and the back of the boat or canoe. You won’t always have the boat to yourself, and you won’t always be in the position to execute the over-head cast comfortably if you are right handed and you find yourself in the end of the boat where your back-cast might hit the rower or tangle with the other person’s line;

-Learn the steeple cast so that you can direct your back cast up instead of back, to avoid hitting the rower or boat driver and also to avoid getting tangled in the leader of another caster in the boat; -Practice casting with your non-dominant hand or across your body so that you are able to cast from both the front and the back of the boat or canoe. You won’t always have the boat to yourself, and you won’t always be in the position to execute the over-head cast comfortably if you are right handed and you find yourself in the end of the boat where your back-cast might hit the rower or tangle with the other person’s line;

-Watch the other caster closely so that you can alternate your casts if possible.

-Don’t be reluctant to ask the other person in the boat if they could limit their false casts to one or two so that you can each have the same opportunity to cast.

-Keep in mind that the demarcation point between the two casters is the oar-locks or the gunnels, and politely advise your boat partner that they need to pick up their drifting fly when it drifts into your half of the water.

-Avoid casting up-river or down river when doing so will enter the other caster’s “air space;

-Realize that you may not be able to be casting while the other person is trolling. The rower or boat driver will recommend the best type of fishing for the location where you are and for the rowing conditions. Follow those suggestions.

-Avoid casting up-river or down river when doing so will enter the other caster’s “air space; -Realize that you may not be able to be casting while the other person is trolling. The rower or boat driver will recommend the best type of fishing for the location where you are and for the rowing conditions. Follow those suggestions.

-With one person fly fishing and one person rowing in a canoe, the caster can experience some wonderful, unimpeded casting whether sending the fly off first one side and then the other in moving water or casting quietly while the rower propels the canoe slowly across the lake. But, if the rower also wishes to cast intermittently, that might require that s/he casts perpendicular to the canoe while the caster in the back or the front is trying to cast horizontally. It is easy to see what type of problems that might cause. The easiest solution, obviously, is to take turns casting.

-Always keep in mind how dangerous it is to yourself and to the other person when you stand-up in a canoe.

Visit Pudge’s web site, or, contact her at Women’s Flyfishing® P.O. Box 243963, Anchorage, Alaska, 99524  (907) 274-7113 or email her at pudge@flyfisherpro.com.