April 11, 2025 • 21 mins
In this episode of The Articulate Fly, host Marvin Cash reconnects with Ellis Ward for the latest East Tennessee Fishing Report. Despite battling a bout of illness at home, Ellis shares his enthusiasm for the fishing conditions as spring unfolds. The duo discusses the recent caddis hatches and the challenges of fishing streamers in low water, providing insights into effective techniques for navigating these conditions.
Ellis dives into the intricacies of using articulated flies, addressing a listener's question about the benefits of weighting flies versus using weighted fly lines. He emphasizes the importance of angler feedback and the thrill of seeing trout engage with swim flies, describing the exhilarating experience of watching fish strike in a way that is both visual and engaging. Listeners will gain valuable tips on line control and the nuances of fishing swim flies versus jig flies, along with Ellis' personal experiences that shape his guiding philosophy.
This episode is packed with practical advice for anglers looking to refine their skills, as well as a healthy dose of humor and camaraderie. Whether you're a seasoned pro or just starting out, Ellis' insights will inspire you to get out on the water and embrace the excitement of the fishing season.
To learn more about Ellis, check out our interview!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash,the host of the Articulate Fly. We're
back with another EastTennessee fishing report with Ellis
Ward. Ellis, how are you?
I am doing pretty good, Marv.How are you?
As always, just trying to stayout of trouble. And we were talking
before he started recordingand. You've been hit with the baby
(00:20):
plague.
Yeah, we got. Not sure whopatient zero is, but almost six month
old has had a fever.Girlfriend went down pretty hard.
I, I'm, I think just goodclean living and you know, being,
(00:42):
being outside. In allseriousness, I'm going to avoid being
too much of a conspiracytheorist, but I, I think this is
the worst of it. But. Yeah,been. Been a little rough last few
days and had trips three daysin a row over the weekend. So we
(01:04):
can we. I'm just gonna usethis to pivot right into talking
about fishing. It's hard to,it's hard to, you know, sit in. I,
I can be tired out there andit doesn't matter. And, and when,
you know, I had a regularclient and he's fishing really well
and we're moving fish and itwas challenging conditions. We're
(01:26):
fishing streamers in lowwater, you know, 90% of the time.
And the Caddis have been justover the weekend started ripping
and it's, it's, it's anunpredictable. I mean it's, it's
like going and, and booking atrip to try to catch striper on like
(01:52):
good luck doing that a couplemonths out. And so it's, you know,
it was April 6th when theywere, I mean, really, really going.
And, and it's, it wasn't all.It's a lot of these, the tan cat
is that are like size, youknow, 14s are big 16s mostly some
(02:13):
18s. So the, the big black catis, are. I saw a number of them.
So they're, they are alreadyhatching and, and those are going
to be coming out big here inthe next week.
Very neat. I just take someconsolation that you didn't tell
me that it was because you,you like Zen that you didn't get
(02:36):
sick.
Yeah, you know, I haven'tthought of the self fulfilling like
oh this, this is because Ilike to do this. Therefore it is
a good idea. But I can. Sowe'll just, I'll. I'll put that in
the hopper and get back to you.
(02:56):
Yeah, I think if you mix a Zenup with, you know, strawberry pop
tart, I think that'll curejust about everything.
Look man, it, it elevates yourmetabolism it, it spikes your internal
temperature. That's gonnafight off whatever is in your body.
And you know, there's a lot ofsimilarities in the research of,
(03:17):
of chemotherapy. So yeah, thistype of thing is, is something that,
that we can discuss more, morein depth either on the boat or, you
know, I might start a YouTubechannel on alternative medicine.
Well, there you go. And youknow, so you know, bugs are starting
to pop. That only makes itbetter for you, I would assume. The
(03:38):
water's probably still got alittle bit of stain to it, which
is good for the streamer game.And got a question for you from our
friend Brenner. And I knowwe've got to kind of hold on to you
so you don't fall down the rathole on this one, but you wanted
to talk about articulatedflies and whether you like to wait
the fly or whether you like touse the weight in the fly line.
(03:59):
Yeah, I'm brushing out thehead of a sort of boogeyman type,
you know, double articulated,two woolly buggers with some lead
eyes and laser dub. Right. Imean right now you can hear the,
(04:21):
the brush is going. So largelyspeaking, my personal style of fishing
is going to be use theweighted fly line. And boy, where,
where do we go with this one?I, I, I think there's, there's a
(04:45):
couple different problems thatwe're trying to solve for. Right.
One of them is what is the,what is your definition of a productive
day? And so as a guide thatlooks different sometimes with the
same client in hour one versushour three, sometimes it's teaching,
(05:14):
we're learning, sometimes it'scatching. For a lot of the guys that
are on my boat, it's, it'slearning. But boy, we need some feedback
from trout every once in awhile. The sound of, of me saying,
you know, that's good orthat's not working as well is that
(05:34):
that type of feedback does notgo as far or, or land as efficiently
as a brown trout giving youfeedback. So the reason that I like
to fish, we'll call them swimflies. There's basically swim flies
(05:55):
and then jig flies. So thereason that I like to fish the swim
flies is at, at the end of theday I am fishing for and if I, if
I sense this, if I'm pickingup on it from the angler and they
(06:15):
don't even have to be, theycould be a first time streamer fisher
person. If I'm seeing thatthey're feeling the swim bug or they're
fishing the drunk and they'regetting it to walk. I, I, I am going
to, I, I gamble every singletrip I am going to ride that until
(06:40):
the car is completely brokendown and sometimes it doesn't pay
off. And like that, that'sbeen a big part of standing by, you
know, sticking to my guns,whatever you want to say, guiding
the way that I do and buildingthe network and the clientele that
I, that I built over the lastfive years. There's, it's a conversation
(07:08):
you and I had had about, youknow, sitting with bad news or delivering
bad news. It's, it'suncomfortable for a lot of times
for the client and the guidewhen you're just not seeing anything
for hours sometimes. And thenyou move a fish off a weed bed or
(07:29):
out of a bank and it's on aswim fly and they shark up behind
it and they go left when youstrip and they go right when you
strip and then you give itanother little tap tap and they eat
it sideways so hard that it'sall you can do to hold onto your
line and really at that pointreally try your best to not lift
(07:51):
your rod tip up and maybe theymiss and then they blow it through
the surface. And I mean thelooks, I have goosebumps. The looks
that I get sitting in themiddle of the boat from that front
seat. It doesn't matter if thefish is hooked in the net, it's off.
(08:11):
It doesn't that eat momentwhen you're fishing. The swim flies
when it's 2 inches under thesurface of the water, 6 inches, maybe
8 to 12 inches under thesurface of the water and a trout
eats it in a way that youwould never envision trout eating
(08:32):
anything. And, and I, man, Isee brown trout blow up through the
surface more than I, I didn'teven know that was a thing. Middle
of the day, clear water, lowwater, it doesn't matter. Sunny.
I mean you see it more in thebitier conditions, but you don't
get any of that, none of whatI just described happens when you're
(08:54):
fishing the jig flies. And sothat, that, that's why I like fishing
the swim flies. It's just,it's, it's so much more visual, it's
so much more engaging. Willyou catch more fish fishing jig flies?
(09:15):
I think yes. Globallyspeaking, you, you have a built in
kill and so with the swimflies you need to have your angles
tight. I look we're going to,I'm going to be talking for two hours
before this thing, before Ieven get into bullet point two but
(09:36):
I do have a, a couple YouTubevideos on it at Ellis Ward Fishing
on YouTube. So I encourage youto look at that get book. I mean,
if you're interested in thistype of thing or you just haven't
really explored thedifferences between the two or, or
what's going on. The deer hairflies or the changers like get, get
some time on the water withme. I, I look at the, the trips,
(10:03):
the cost of the trip, the timeinvestment, whatever it is. Yeah,
you're learning about thecasting, the stripping fly tying,
you know, my experiences,trying to download that all onto
you. But the, the learningcurve is something that, you know,
I was, I was collapsing verypoorly tied dungeons into the back
of my head fishing a 5x withfloating line and 7 1/2 foot tapered
(10:29):
2x liter. I didn't knowanything about this. And as much
information as there is onYouTube, this, this whole fishing
swim flies for brown troutdeal is for anyone who doesn't know
my boat, which, which at thispoint is I, there's, there's dozens,
(10:52):
many dozens of people outthere now that regularly are fishing
with me. And it's the samewith all of them. They, it's just,
they can't get enough of it.And so, yeah, you can catch more.
You're, you're missing out on.Let's just say you fish a peanut
or a dungeon and you catch thesame fish or maybe some more throughout
(11:17):
that day. I'm never going tosee you look back from the front
of the boat and go, did yousee that eat? Because maybe you didn't.
And that's not to say I'mtying one right now. I fish dungeons
all the time in faster waterwith more complex current differentials
(11:40):
between bank and boat. There'sa lot of stuff I, I change flies
a lot. It's mostly visiblestuff. I don't do the color thing
at all really. But, but it's,it's, it's based on what the angler's
able to do with certainthings. And, and a lot of times for
my own fishing, I'm going tosomething with weight because it
(12:01):
just, you, you get a, the killwith which is that abrupt stop and
motion. It's built in with thejig and, and with the hair flies.
It's, it's on you to impartthat slack in between your strips
and, and doing that with acast. That splat lands right on the
(12:25):
bank with your line tight.Your left hand's ready to go. You're
not dropping your line, you'renot shooting, you're shooting on
your back cast, tight lineforward. All that stuff takes a lot
of time. And in certain waterlike the. The applications are somewhat
limited, so you do have tohave both. And look, you can get
(12:45):
fantastic eats on. On weightedflies. Absolutely. Especially, you
know, fishing pocket watertype stuff where you don't have the,
the time or the distance forthat weighted line to do its thing.
But I'm gonna, I'm gonna takea. A breath here and, and say, you
(13:06):
know, it. It comes down topersonal preference. And if, if you're
only doing one, you are gonnabe missing out on something. If you're
only fishing swim flies, youmight be able to catch more. You're
fishing a different part of awater column, you might be able to
catch more fish. And jigflies. It's also, you get that. That
(13:27):
built in, kill the ceiling onaction and the ceiling on those eats,
which is ultimately what Ifish for and if I can, what I guide
for that, that eat the ceilingthere is so much higher when you
start fishing higher in thewater. Water column. These predators
(13:47):
are eating bellies. You know,they're not, they're not chasing
out something sipping in theback of its tail and getting stung.
They're. They're eating itright in the middle of the fly from
the bottom. And you, yeah, youjust, you have a different experience
if you're only fishing jigflies. So if you haven't done it
yet and you can't get on myboat, do, you know, do it, do it
(14:10):
on a day that seems a littlefishier or maybe you've caught some
fish and, and you want to seewhat's going on with some of the
bigger flies or somethingthat's closer to the surface. Because
if you can't tell from theexcitement in my voice, it is something
that will make you want toquit your job and move to Tennessee.
(14:32):
And the rest is history, asthey say, folks. Yeah, I mean, I
think it's an interestingthing, right? Like, at the risk of
pulling you out for another 10minutes, you know, I would think
Brenner, too, Another way tothink about it is, you know, fishing
swim flies. You're reallyfishing the line, right, because
the game is the slack. Andthat's a totally different skill
set. Not better, but just adifferent skill set than fishing
(14:53):
jig flies.
Yeah, I never talk about thefly. And part of teaching, part of
teaching specifically withthis one is basically, you can call
(15:21):
it teaching or manipulation,but getting the angler to see the
light for a second becausealmost all the time, when you see
what happens when you giveabrupt strips and. And you can see
(15:42):
on YouTube with. With my ownfishing, that when I'm stripping,
I'm. I'm pulling a littleline. I'm. I'm. I'm throwing darts
at my knee. I'm. I'm put. I'mthrowing gravel into my. My left
pocket. It's just this little.I'm pitching it, and then I'm letting
that. There's. There's a joltthat. That reintroduces slack into
(16:05):
the line just momentarily. Butyou'll also see that I pull. I tuck
my wrist, my right wristthat's on the cork. I pull that back
towards my elbow a little bit,maybe 2 inches, sometimes a little
bigger. But as I'm doing that,it's at the same time as I'm stripping.
(16:27):
So I'm pulling that line justa little bit, just tossing it down
to my left thigh, and I'm justpulling that cork back towards me
a little bit. And then on thekill, I'm pushing my rod back out,
just that same little coupleinches, and then I grab the line
again, do the same thing. Soin that process, there is. You know,
(16:53):
if. If you were to look atthis like dry fly fishing, it's like
you're wiggling a little bitof s into the system. Every time
you push that line back out,every time you give those little
abrupt strips, that. Thatcauses a start and stop at that line,
it almost shocks it intoreintroducing slack. And when. When
(17:16):
you're doing that and you'rewatching your fly swim, that's when
you start seeing these. Thesebig dog walks, these big left rights.
The. You know, Tommy talksabout the float recovery. You know,
the. The back wobbling out andthen. Then coming back in, and. And
you're fishing a jerk bait. Imean, I had a guy fishing swim bug.
(17:39):
He's like, this is a glidebait. Yeah, it is. That's what it
is. You're fishing a littleglide bait that also has the ability
to, you know, on a. On afaster strip or a bigger strip, you
get some of the. The jerkbait. Boom. You get some of that
wobble, that s. Swim, andthen, you know, hands off and it
dies and floats up again. Hitit once, just real small with that
(18:02):
rod pole, and it goes to theother side and glides. You just.
None of what I said hasanything to do with fishing the jig
flies. And so it also has verylittle to do with. Yes, fly design
definitely comes into play,but none of What I'm talking about
is about flies. So yeah,you're right. It's, it's, it's about
(18:24):
line control through. As soonas you get the fly to the boat and
you're about to back cast,that's where we're starting. And
then it's all the way throughuntil the fly is back at the boat
after you've casted andretrieved and it, and it's hard to
do but man, the, you can seeit just when you're fishing it and,
(18:48):
and the entire process is sofun. And then you start to get feedback
from the fish and then man,you get those eats and really start
to figure out what it's about.
Well, there you go. Well, youknow folks, we love questions on
the articulate fly. You canemail me or DM me on social media,
whatever's easiest for you.And if I use your question, send
(19:09):
you some articulate fly swagand it may include a sticker for
the new butcher shop podcast.And we are drawing for some cool
stuff from Ellis at the end ofthe season. And Ellis, before I let
you go, you want to let folksknow how to reach out and get on
your boat if you got anyupcoming bucktail drops and all that
kind of good stuff.
Yeah, best way to get on myboat is contacting me on my cell
(19:31):
phone at 513-543-0019. I'vebeen mentioning this the last few
podcasts, but sorry, I gotsome laser dub my mouth folks, about.
I, I say reach out if you havequestions or just to talk about fishing
(19:52):
or, you know, I want to help.I, I know four or five hundred bucks
and taking time off work andall that to come down and, and do
this thing when you're fishingyour creek most often like that's,
it can be a lot. So I've hadfolks reach out and a little higher
(20:12):
frequency recently and it'sgreat. I love helping out where I
can even if it's remotely. Youknow, the whole whole point of this
is getting you on my boat. Butif, if that's not possible, definitely
reach out and, and ask mewhatever questions and, and send
them into to me or Marv sothat we can talk about them on the
(20:33):
podcast. But Bucktail is itjust depends on my priorities. I
want to get them out andguiding comes first, time comes next.
Those two both come behindbeing a dad, which has different
(20:54):
requirements. So I, I'll, I'llkeep people posted on Instagram about
Bucktail and that is at EllisWard Guides.
Well, there you go. Well,folks, as I always say, yo, it's
yourself to get out there andcatch a few tight lines, everybody.
Tight line. Zealous.
Appreciate it, Marvin.
Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash,the host of the Articulate Fly. We're
back with another EastTennessee fishing report with Ellis
Ward. Ellis, how are you?
I am doing pretty good, Marv.How are you?
As always, just trying to stayout of trouble. And we were talking
before he started recordingand. You've been hit with the baby
(00:20):
plague.
Yeah, we got. Not sure whopatient zero is, but almost six month
old has had a fever.Girlfriend went down pretty hard.
I, I'm, I think just goodclean living and you know, being,
(00:42):
being outside. In allseriousness, I'm going to avoid being
too much of a conspiracytheorist, but I, I think this is
the worst of it. But. Yeah,been. Been a little rough last few
days and had trips three daysin a row over the weekend. So we
(01:04):
can we. I'm just gonna usethis to pivot right into talking
about fishing. It's hard to,it's hard to, you know, sit in. I,
I can be tired out there andit doesn't matter. And, and when,
you know, I had a regularclient and he's fishing really well
and we're moving fish and itwas challenging conditions. We're
(01:26):
fishing streamers in lowwater, you know, 90% of the time.
And the Caddis have been justover the weekend started ripping
and it's, it's, it's anunpredictable. I mean it's, it's
like going and, and booking atrip to try to catch striper on like
(01:52):
good luck doing that a couplemonths out. And so it's, you know,
it was April 6th when theywere, I mean, really, really going.
And, and it's, it wasn't all.It's a lot of these, the tan cat
is that are like size, youknow, 14s are big 16s mostly some
(02:13):
18s. So the, the big black catis, are. I saw a number of them.
So they're, they are alreadyhatching and, and those are going
to be coming out big here inthe next week.
Very neat. I just take someconsolation that you didn't tell
me that it was because you,you like Zen that you didn't get
(02:36):
sick.
Yeah, you know, I haven'tthought of the self fulfilling like
oh this, this is because Ilike to do this. Therefore it is
a good idea. But I can. Sowe'll just, I'll. I'll put that in
the hopper and get back to you.
(02:56):
Yeah, I think if you mix a Zenup with, you know, strawberry pop
tart, I think that'll curejust about everything.
Look man, it, it elevates yourmetabolism it, it spikes your internal
temperature. That's gonnafight off whatever is in your body.
And you know, there's a lot ofsimilarities in the research of,
(03:17):
of chemotherapy. So yeah, thistype of thing is, is something that,
that we can discuss more, morein depth either on the boat or, you
know, I might start a YouTubechannel on alternative medicine.
Well, there you go. And youknow, so you know, bugs are starting
to pop. That only makes itbetter for you, I would assume. The
(03:38):
water's probably still got alittle bit of stain to it, which
is good for the streamer game.And got a question for you from our
friend Brenner. And I knowwe've got to kind of hold on to you
so you don't fall down the rathole on this one, but you wanted
to talk about articulatedflies and whether you like to wait
the fly or whether you like touse the weight in the fly line.
(03:59):
Yeah, I'm brushing out thehead of a sort of boogeyman type,
you know, double articulated,two woolly buggers with some lead
eyes and laser dub. Right. Imean right now you can hear the,
(04:21):
the brush is going. So largelyspeaking, my personal style of fishing
is going to be use theweighted fly line. And boy, where,
where do we go with this one?I, I, I think there's, there's a
(04:45):
couple different problems thatwe're trying to solve for. Right.
One of them is what is the,what is your definition of a productive
day? And so as a guide thatlooks different sometimes with the
same client in hour one versushour three, sometimes it's teaching,
(05:14):
we're learning, sometimes it'scatching. For a lot of the guys that
are on my boat, it's, it'slearning. But boy, we need some feedback
from trout every once in awhile. The sound of, of me saying,
you know, that's good orthat's not working as well is that
(05:34):
that type of feedback does notgo as far or, or land as efficiently
as a brown trout giving youfeedback. So the reason that I like
to fish, we'll call them swimflies. There's basically swim flies
(05:55):
and then jig flies. So thereason that I like to fish the swim
flies is at, at the end of theday I am fishing for and if I, if
I sense this, if I'm pickingup on it from the angler and they
(06:15):
don't even have to be, theycould be a first time streamer fisher
person. If I'm seeing thatthey're feeling the swim bug or they're
fishing the drunk and they'regetting it to walk. I, I, I am going
to, I, I gamble every singletrip I am going to ride that until
(06:40):
the car is completely brokendown and sometimes it doesn't pay
off. And like that, that'sbeen a big part of standing by, you
know, sticking to my guns,whatever you want to say, guiding
the way that I do and buildingthe network and the clientele that
I, that I built over the lastfive years. There's, it's a conversation
(07:08):
you and I had had about, youknow, sitting with bad news or delivering
bad news. It's, it'suncomfortable for a lot of times
for the client and the guidewhen you're just not seeing anything
for hours sometimes. And thenyou move a fish off a weed bed or
(07:29):
out of a bank and it's on aswim fly and they shark up behind
it and they go left when youstrip and they go right when you
strip and then you give itanother little tap tap and they eat
it sideways so hard that it'sall you can do to hold onto your
line and really at that pointreally try your best to not lift
(07:51):
your rod tip up and maybe theymiss and then they blow it through
the surface. And I mean thelooks, I have goosebumps. The looks
that I get sitting in themiddle of the boat from that front
seat. It doesn't matter if thefish is hooked in the net, it's off.
(08:11):
It doesn't that eat momentwhen you're fishing. The swim flies
when it's 2 inches under thesurface of the water, 6 inches, maybe
8 to 12 inches under thesurface of the water and a trout
eats it in a way that youwould never envision trout eating
(08:32):
anything. And, and I, man, Isee brown trout blow up through the
surface more than I, I didn'teven know that was a thing. Middle
of the day, clear water, lowwater, it doesn't matter. Sunny.
I mean you see it more in thebitier conditions, but you don't
get any of that, none of whatI just described happens when you're
(08:54):
fishing the jig flies. And sothat, that, that's why I like fishing
the swim flies. It's just,it's, it's so much more visual, it's
so much more engaging. Willyou catch more fish fishing jig flies?
(09:15):
I think yes. Globallyspeaking, you, you have a built in
kill and so with the swimflies you need to have your angles
tight. I look we're going to,I'm going to be talking for two hours
before this thing, before Ieven get into bullet point two but
(09:36):
I do have a, a couple YouTubevideos on it at Ellis Ward Fishing
on YouTube. So I encourage youto look at that get book. I mean,
if you're interested in thistype of thing or you just haven't
really explored thedifferences between the two or, or
what's going on. The deer hairflies or the changers like get, get
some time on the water withme. I, I look at the, the trips,
(10:03):
the cost of the trip, the timeinvestment, whatever it is. Yeah,
you're learning about thecasting, the stripping fly tying,
you know, my experiences,trying to download that all onto
you. But the, the learningcurve is something that, you know,
I was, I was collapsing verypoorly tied dungeons into the back
of my head fishing a 5x withfloating line and 7 1/2 foot tapered
(10:29):
2x liter. I didn't knowanything about this. And as much
information as there is onYouTube, this, this whole fishing
swim flies for brown troutdeal is for anyone who doesn't know
my boat, which, which at thispoint is I, there's, there's dozens,
(10:52):
many dozens of people outthere now that regularly are fishing
with me. And it's the samewith all of them. They, it's just,
they can't get enough of it.And so, yeah, you can catch more.
You're, you're missing out on.Let's just say you fish a peanut
or a dungeon and you catch thesame fish or maybe some more throughout
(11:17):
that day. I'm never going tosee you look back from the front
of the boat and go, did yousee that eat? Because maybe you didn't.
And that's not to say I'mtying one right now. I fish dungeons
all the time in faster waterwith more complex current differentials
(11:40):
between bank and boat. There'sa lot of stuff I, I change flies
a lot. It's mostly visiblestuff. I don't do the color thing
at all really. But, but it's,it's, it's based on what the angler's
able to do with certainthings. And, and a lot of times for
my own fishing, I'm going tosomething with weight because it
(12:01):
just, you, you get a, the killwith which is that abrupt stop and
motion. It's built in with thejig and, and with the hair flies.
It's, it's on you to impartthat slack in between your strips
and, and doing that with acast. That splat lands right on the
(12:25):
bank with your line tight.Your left hand's ready to go. You're
not dropping your line, you'renot shooting, you're shooting on
your back cast, tight lineforward. All that stuff takes a lot
of time. And in certain waterlike the. The applications are somewhat
limited, so you do have tohave both. And look, you can get
(12:45):
fantastic eats on. On weightedflies. Absolutely. Especially, you
know, fishing pocket watertype stuff where you don't have the,
the time or the distance forthat weighted line to do its thing.
But I'm gonna, I'm gonna takea. A breath here and, and say, you
(13:06):
know, it. It comes down topersonal preference. And if, if you're
only doing one, you are gonnabe missing out on something. If you're
only fishing swim flies, youmight be able to catch more. You're
fishing a different part of awater column, you might be able to
catch more fish. And jigflies. It's also, you get that. That
(13:27):
built in, kill the ceiling onaction and the ceiling on those eats,
which is ultimately what Ifish for and if I can, what I guide
for that, that eat the ceilingthere is so much higher when you
start fishing higher in thewater. Water column. These predators
(13:47):
are eating bellies. You know,they're not, they're not chasing
out something sipping in theback of its tail and getting stung.
They're. They're eating itright in the middle of the fly from
the bottom. And you, yeah, youjust, you have a different experience
if you're only fishing jigflies. So if you haven't done it
yet and you can't get on myboat, do, you know, do it, do it
(14:10):
on a day that seems a littlefishier or maybe you've caught some
fish and, and you want to seewhat's going on with some of the
bigger flies or somethingthat's closer to the surface. Because
if you can't tell from theexcitement in my voice, it is something
that will make you want toquit your job and move to Tennessee.
(14:32):
And the rest is history, asthey say, folks. Yeah, I mean, I
think it's an interestingthing, right? Like, at the risk of
pulling you out for another 10minutes, you know, I would think
Brenner, too, Another way tothink about it is, you know, fishing
swim flies. You're reallyfishing the line, right, because
the game is the slack. Andthat's a totally different skill
set. Not better, but just adifferent skill set than fishing
(14:53):
jig flies.
Yeah, I never talk about thefly. And part of teaching, part of
teaching specifically withthis one is basically, you can call
(15:21):
it teaching or manipulation,but getting the angler to see the
light for a second becausealmost all the time, when you see
what happens when you giveabrupt strips and. And you can see
(15:42):
on YouTube with. With my ownfishing, that when I'm stripping,
I'm. I'm pulling a littleline. I'm. I'm. I'm throwing darts
at my knee. I'm. I'm put. I'mthrowing gravel into my. My left
pocket. It's just this little.I'm pitching it, and then I'm letting
that. There's. There's a joltthat. That reintroduces slack into
(16:05):
the line just momentarily. Butyou'll also see that I pull. I tuck
my wrist, my right wristthat's on the cork. I pull that back
towards my elbow a little bit,maybe 2 inches, sometimes a little
bigger. But as I'm doing that,it's at the same time as I'm stripping.
(16:27):
So I'm pulling that line justa little bit, just tossing it down
to my left thigh, and I'm justpulling that cork back towards me
a little bit. And then on thekill, I'm pushing my rod back out,
just that same little coupleinches, and then I grab the line
again, do the same thing. Soin that process, there is. You know,
(16:53):
if. If you were to look atthis like dry fly fishing, it's like
you're wiggling a little bitof s into the system. Every time
you push that line back out,every time you give those little
abrupt strips, that. Thatcauses a start and stop at that line,
it almost shocks it intoreintroducing slack. And when. When
(17:16):
you're doing that and you'rewatching your fly swim, that's when
you start seeing these. Thesebig dog walks, these big left rights.
The. You know, Tommy talksabout the float recovery. You know,
the. The back wobbling out andthen. Then coming back in, and. And
you're fishing a jerk bait. Imean, I had a guy fishing swim bug.
(17:39):
He's like, this is a glidebait. Yeah, it is. That's what it
is. You're fishing a littleglide bait that also has the ability
to, you know, on a. On afaster strip or a bigger strip, you
get some of the. The jerkbait. Boom. You get some of that
wobble, that s. Swim, andthen, you know, hands off and it
dies and floats up again. Hitit once, just real small with that
(18:02):
rod pole, and it goes to theother side and glides. You just.
None of what I said hasanything to do with fishing the jig
flies. And so it also has verylittle to do with. Yes, fly design
definitely comes into play,but none of What I'm talking about
is about flies. So yeah,you're right. It's, it's, it's about
(18:24):
line control through. As soonas you get the fly to the boat and
you're about to back cast,that's where we're starting. And
then it's all the way throughuntil the fly is back at the boat
after you've casted andretrieved and it, and it's hard to
do but man, the, you can seeit just when you're fishing it and,
(18:48):
and the entire process is sofun. And then you start to get feedback
from the fish and then man,you get those eats and really start
to figure out what it's about.
Well, there you go. Well, youknow folks, we love questions on
the articulate fly. You canemail me or DM me on social media,
whatever's easiest for you.And if I use your question, send
(19:09):
you some articulate fly swagand it may include a sticker for
the new butcher shop podcast.And we are drawing for some cool
stuff from Ellis at the end ofthe season. And Ellis, before I let
you go, you want to let folksknow how to reach out and get on
your boat if you got anyupcoming bucktail drops and all that
kind of good stuff.
Yeah, best way to get on myboat is contacting me on my cell
(19:31):
phone at 513-543-0019. I'vebeen mentioning this the last few
podcasts, but sorry, I gotsome laser dub my mouth folks, about.
I, I say reach out if you havequestions or just to talk about fishing
(19:52):
or, you know, I want to help.I, I know four or five hundred bucks
and taking time off work andall that to come down and, and do
this thing when you're fishingyour creek most often like that's,
it can be a lot. So I've hadfolks reach out and a little higher
(20:12):
frequency recently and it'sgreat. I love helping out where I
can even if it's remotely. Youknow, the whole whole point of this
is getting you on my boat. Butif, if that's not possible, definitely
reach out and, and ask mewhatever questions and, and send
them into to me or Marv sothat we can talk about them on the
(20:33):
podcast. But Bucktail is itjust depends on my priorities. I
want to get them out andguiding comes first, time comes next.
Those two both come behindbeing a dad, which has different
(20:54):
requirements. So I, I'll, I'llkeep people posted on Instagram about
Bucktail and that is at EllisWard Guides.
Well, there you go. Well,folks, as I always say, yo, it's
yourself to get out there andcatch a few tight lines, everybody.
Tight line. Zealous.
Appreciate it, Marvin.
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