Men's Journal went out to Colorado with Shawn Combs, director of product design and development for Fish/Hunt at Orvis, and Chip Swanson, Orvis’ 2019 freshwater fly-fishing guide of the year, to try out some new fly-fishing gear and see how it works on the water.
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00:00My name is Sean Combs, I'm the Director of Product Design and Development for Fish and
00:07Hunt at the Orbis Company.
00:09My name is Chip Swanson, I'm one of the head guides at Breckenridge Outfitters and received
00:13the Orbis 2019 Fly Fishing Guide of the Year.
00:16Welcome to Colorado.
00:17Those are a nice fish.
00:24We're at Ontario Reservoir out in South Park, Colorado.
00:28We're going to be doing some still water fishing today and we'll be fishing deep, so in the
00:31neighborhood of 12 to 13 feet there.
00:34So pretty long leaders, letting them sit and waiting for that bobble and bounce.
00:38This big one here, this is called the thin mint.
00:41This is a chironomid, it's a type of bug that's in a lot of still water lakes.
00:46And we actually have another one just above it.
00:49So they're kind of sitting like this with the big one being at the bottom down here.
00:53You'll see like bobbles on the surface and that's them eating on it and we just set the
00:57hook like this, like that, exactly like that.
01:02That's how it's done.
01:03We're going to be fishing with Helios 3's, the 9 foot 5 weight, 6 weight and 7 weight.
01:10We took the Helios 2 series and really focused on what does the customer want.
01:15And whether it was guides or the average angler on the water, accuracy was the most important
01:20thing that they came back with a feedback to us, how to make a more accurate rod.
01:24And what that means is more energy going into the line, making a more efficient cast and
01:28being on target.
01:29Tip, tip here for you, just to get it out a little bit farther, start off with the cast
01:37with having tight line in the water so that as soon as we start to accelerate the rod,
01:41our gear starts to move.
01:43So when we lift up, we're going to come up and stop hard, okay, and then we can deliver
01:48line on the forward stroke.
01:51So I've let go of my trigger finger and I'm holding my line hand firmly, so I'm going
01:54to hold that line firm, firm, firm, and then I'm going to let it go on the forward stroke.
01:59We can also do that coming to the other side of the boat.
02:02So we start low, peel out a little bit extra of line here, okay, and hold the line firmly
02:07in this hand.
02:08I'm going to start the pickup, raise, and shoot on that forward stroke.
02:16So Orbis has a whole adventure side and has teamed up with many lodges and outfitters
02:21throughout the world, really, like us at Breckenridge Outfitters.
02:24So we're kind of held to a little bit higher standard here at Orbis, you know, heavy on
02:29the teaching and the fun and getting people into the sport.
02:34Just remember to say hi on your rod there.
02:36Oh, dude, this is even bigger than your first one, dude.
02:39Holy cow.
02:40It's going deep.
02:41Dude, that is a monster!
02:42Monster!
02:43So this is a cross between a cutthroat and a rainbow trout.
02:51You can tell because look at the cuts underneath its chin.
02:55That means it's a cutthroat or a cutthroat.
03:01So you're at about 18 inches there.
03:07Most of my tours are beginners, people that have never held a fly rod before, you know.
03:12We're here to have fun and laugh, share this experience, and then, yeah, really get people
03:17out here and show them why nature is cool, why we fish the way that we fish, and you
03:23can start to introduce some of our conservation practices of why this is such an important
03:28resource that we need to protect so that we can give it to our kids.
03:31It's kind of a deal, a lot of beginners, but it's a really fun thing to introduce them to it.
03:37Today is when Mother Nature tells you to go home, you should love them because it's a good day.
03:45Thanks for coming out with this news journal.
03:48Yeah.