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Slizang

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The brilliant minds over at Lo Fi Fly posted some funny shit today on their blog. If you don’t have it on your daily ready list, you should.

slizang

Mid summer we took out a guy from a well know clothing company for an evening fish. He is a good dude and can fish with the best of em but during the float and time spent up and down the banks stalking and casting to risers we kept encountering a communication breakdown. At least 50% of the instruction I gave was always met with “I dont have a clue what you are talking about” or “say that again” it dawned on me that on the boat and in regards to fishing I was no longer speaking english, over the years we have developed, adapted words for new meanings and created another language based mostly on short form and slang that only a select few really understand entirely. It’s not a conscious thing but its bound to happen when you spend hours on a boat with the same crew season upon season. Guides have this shit going on at a whole other level for a bunch of reasons a) they can give an accurate appraisal to fellow guides about guest ability/prowess with their guests standing right there b) it allows them to condense copious amounts of stream data, fishing locales & techniques into a few paragraphs, most guides i know have about 14 voicemail messages 22 texts and 40 emails from all their “friends” waiting for them at the end of everyday. Now only 1% of these get replied to but thats still a lot of questions to answer and info to give so some form of fishing pig latin is needed. At some point we should compile these into a book but for now here are a few that come to mind. I will have missed a few of ours but no doubt every crew has their own so send em in maybe we will start a SLIZANG O THA MONTH post. I intentionally left fly names out of this list cause that’s a whole other post in itself.

Hit play and enjoy a lil Beasties while you peruse

LO FI SLIZANG:

1. BLANKERS: Guests who don’t tip
2. LOFT: Lack of fucking talent “had a dude with a serious case of LOFT in my boat”
3. BUTTER: Payette floatant
4. JIZZ: liquid floatant
5. JIZZ: Fish slime
6. JIZZ: Mayonaise
7. JIZZ: Anything on a surface that is not immediately recognizable. “What is this Jizz?”
8. BEARS: Cows
9. RAPTORS: Any bird
10. PFM: pure fucking magic
11. JIGGY JIGGY: A specific twitch style presentation “jiggy jiggy that shit”
12. BACK ARCH: Marks custom hook set style
13. DOSE: Crappy, shitty, unsatisfactory “change that fly its dose”
14. FUCKITY: testy, uncooperative, not quite right “this river is being fuckity”
15. WALLY: Big fish
16. HUCK IT: cast
17. EAT BOOM: pole to mount go pro on
18. CAMERA ON A STICK: pole to mount camera on
19. WANGS: any type of sausage
20. AIR CHAMBER: Indicator
21. AIR CHAMBER TECHNOLOGY: Indicator
22. AAACT: Anglers Against Air Chamber Technology
23. MERGANSERS: Guys in pontoon boats
24. PYLONS: Whilst fishing from a driftboat guys fishing from the banks “we gotta pull out we got a pylon up ahead”
25. 5 DOLLAR FOOT LONG: also know as the “sub sandwich” which is a common way people grip fish for pictures. “dudes holding that thing like a sub sandwich”
26. MR DRESSUP’S: Guys who wear as much gear as possible and look like a walking tackle shop (why do you need a vest with a net on the back of it if you are floating??)
27. JIZZ: Jizz
28. EDWINS: 1st Generation BARE breathable waders ( Edwin’s were apparently a popular jean on canadas east coast)
29. INDY RACING: Guide slang for fishing the 3 worm indy rig “Fuck i gotta Indy race again tomorrow”
30. HOT RIG: dude who’s set up/fly selection seems to be catching more fish than anyone else
31. FACE MEAT or FACE MEAT TRAUMA: to catch or hook up in the face “I gots me sum dat face meat”
32. BACK MEAT: to foul hook
33. YUMMY MEAT: good eating meat
34. MEAT SWEATS: feeling of fatigue and illness after pure meat meal or over indulgence of meat
35. MEAT PLUG: Constipation
36. MAYORS: Guys who believe they have some right to a specific bank or stretch of water, they believe they found it and only they should fish it. Anyone else who fish’s it is an impostor.
37. JUSTIN BEAVER, BEAV’Z, STEVE THE BEAV: Beavers
38. DICKS: a universal term for people committing etiquette crimes on the river e.g. Launch dicks, guide dicks, dick dicks, poaching dicks, jet dicks etc.
39. DONNY BRASCO: Name of a mythical fly. Best used on random dudes that ask “Whats working out there?”
40. MAJESTIC: Can be used as a compliment but is mostly used to mock…..”you are looking so majestic today” “that cast was majestic”
41. FANNERS or THE FAN: terrible casting “dudes fanning over there” or “check out the fan over there….how majestic”
42. SUCK IT: used while waiting for a fish to eat your fly “c’mon suck it troutz” also used to cast shame on people or things when you got em beat “Suck it poachers” etc.
SLANG TERMS SPECIFIC TO DAISY:
1. FIDDLERS BID’N: the paranoia of being excluded from tying nights
2. DON’T LIKE THE CUT OF YOUR JIB: I dont like your set up, fly, length of leader,line,rod choice
3. THE GUIDE WHO LOOKS LIKE GEORGE MICHAEL: term of endearment for cod with a 5 0′clock shadow
4. GO FUCK YOURSELF: go fuck yourself

A creek Rod

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I recently got a new rod for the creeks. This is a remodeled Tout Bum Rod from Orvis. Their 7’6″ 1# Super Fine Touch rod is super sweet. It has old school matte wrapping and a cork handle that fades right into the first rod wraps. It is a full flex, super slow action rod that is a blast to cast. I paired it with a weight forward 2# line and a Mirage Reel. It is slow and steady casting and weighs next to nothing.

The first day fishing it was on a small brook trout pond in Northern Maine. I spent the afternoon with TU Brook Trout Guru Jeff Reardon. The trout were actually see-run and would move back and forth to the Atlantic down a 1/2 mile creek. They hit with absolute ferocity and the new rod made for a fantastic few days of fishing! I can’t wait to head out to the Cascades with it soon.

The Magic of the Sound

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I turned a friend of mine on to the Salt today on various beaches around Puget Sound. When the bite is on there are very few fishing experiences that equal it. The fish are not big, but they are very aggressive and will take a fly like it is the last thing that it is going to do.


The bait fish are rolling out of the creeks and these fish know it. We hooked several fish in just a few hours and were back in Seattle for lunch.

New Year Fishing

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In the recent issue of The Fly Fish Journal there is an article written by Jim Hepworth where he says that “guides tend to make lazy, spoiled, indolent fly fishers, needy and dependent, especially in a crisis, and flyfishing is nothing but one crisis after another. In that sense, even for those who can afford them, guides can be downright dangerous.”

Well, while I agree with much of what Jim says, my fellow guides and I aren’t lazy.

Here is why:
It’s Saturday morning January 1st. We are having a cold snap here in Western Washington, the high is going to be in the upper 20’s and I had three bottles of Champagne last night bringing in 2011. Now I’m twenty minutes from meeting Charlie and Ted (fellow EWA guides) to fish the Skykomish for early run winter steelhead. As I cross the West Seattle bridge there isn’t another car on the road. I stopped atop the bridge to snap a few pictures of the moon coming up over Mt. Rainer. I can feel my heart beat in my Temples.

Charlie and Ted are right on time, we load our gear into my car and head out. The day never get’s above freezing, we never see a fish, we fish till dark, and it is great!

Mr. Hepworth goes on to say that “A guide will spot your fish, select your fly, help you to your casting position, teach you to cast, tell you when to “set” the hook, how to play the fish, net the fish for you, and the snap your photo. In return all you need to do is hand over a big wad of sweaty bills.”

And then, on days off we fish, in the freezing cold with frozen feet, casting to nothing. So, Jim, I don’t think all guides are lazy, spoiled, or indolent, especially the ones that I know, but yes, fly fishing can be one crisis after the next and fly fishing guides can be dangerous.
Here is to a fantastic year on the river and the sound. We look forward to fishing with you!

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