The Red Zone is not a football term to most fly fisherman.  We are talking about the Southern U.S., specifically Louisiana.  Urban Angler John Frazee spent a couple days last week sight fishing for reds with Captain Bryan Carter of Voo Doo Charters.  They fished mostly EP crab variations that were supposedly used from some of Capt. Bryan's old carpet.  Luckily they worked and John hooked this monster redfish. John quickly learned why we all trust Eddie, our famous rigging master, to do all of our loop to loop connections from the backing to the line.  He said his black dacron loop connection snapped off after a tussle with this Bayou hog. "It sounded like a gun going off, and we thought that we broke the rod".  They ended up chasing the trophy red around the marsh close to a half hour following the floating line until they were able to grab the backing and nail knot it back on the line.  John says he loosened his Abel's drag a bit and was able to finally boat it after the whole fiasco. *Note the black dacron loop in John's hand on the picture* 

Call us at the shop if you have any interest in sight fishing for redfish in Louisiana.  Many of us have fished with Capt. Bryan Carter and would highly recommend him.  If you plan on heading down to the Red Zone, or anywhere else this winter where you may encounter fish strong enough to snap off your loop connections, stop by the shop to have Eddie hook you up proper like! 

It was our first snow (or should we say dusting) in the New York City area this past Sunday.  Not all of us stayed bundled up drinking hot chocolate while watching football in our warm houses.  Urban Angler, Philip Sawyer, headed out to the Staten Island area with a friend to brave the winds and snow to hook into some pretty decent striper action.  There was plenty of bait and a lot of schoolie action all morning long, but Philip did manage to get into some pretty nice fish over 30 inches. Great work Philip!

We all know or have friends that are steelhead addicts.  Urban Angler employee Kory Kapaloski is ours. He has been chasing Steelhead all over the West Coast from Oregon, Washington, Idaho and British Columbia for many years. Kory is what we call "A Double Handed Swinger"; he loves to cast the spey rod while patiently swinging flies for Steelhead. Kory has transplanted himself on the Right Coast and spent the last 8 days chasing steelhead on the Salmon and Cattaraugus. The water levels are perfect, the fish are there and the weather is very mild for this time of year. Kory caught most of these fish off of the Sage 11 foot 7 wt. Z-Axis "switch rod". Being an avid swinger, it is hard, but he will actually admit to catching some of these fish on nymph patterns. The Indian Summer has made the Great Lake Trib season a little later than normal, but I think he hit it just right. Give a call to the shop to talk spey fishing with Kory or ask us to fill you in with latest Steelhead fishing reports.

What do Montana guides do on their day off?  I know what Missoula guide Benjamin Hart does......he grabs the wife beater tank top out of the closet, a small bottle of Crown, extra tin of Copenhagen, a mix-and-match of beers that were left over from the past weeks clients, finds whatever frozen venison or elk that is left over from last hunting season to grill and floats a stretch of water that has carp!   I have no idea what fly he caught this on, but I am sure it was a fight.  You gotta love the redneck bonefish!!!