S8, Ep 60: The Bare Necessities: Mac Brown's Guide to Minimalist Fly Fishing Gear

Hey, folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of The Articulate Fly. We're back with another casting angles with the man himself, Mac Brown. Mac, how are you?

I'm doing great. How are you doing, Marvin?

As always, just trying to stay out of trouble.And, you know, it's kind of funny, we were comparing notes and, you know, I was equipping my youngest son to go off to college with fly fishing gear, and you were doing the same thing for your youngest son. And it made us think about how. How little gear you actually need to be able to fish effectively for trout in our part of the world.And we thought that would be something to maybe share with folks, because I think people tend to develop a gear fetish. And I mean, I confess it, I love gear, but I think sometimes it gets in the way of their progress as an angler. What do you think, Mac Brown?

Yeah, I think that's a good topic for the, you know, just the bare necessities of what do we need and we can really get. I'm big the older I get.I'm more into being a minimalist.You know, when I go back up in the park and it's three or four hour walk in, it's like, I just like to have the very, very bare, you know, essentials of what I need. And that's usually a lanyard with a small box that fits in a shirt pocket, you know, so it just makes life a lot simpler.

Yeah. And so if we kind of walk through that, I mean, and I kind of like that approach too. Right.And so, like, a lot of times I'll fish a lanyard and a fanny pack if I need more stuff. But, you know, usually a lanyard for me in one fly box. And so if we talk about what's on the lanyard, we would have pair of forceps, right?We'd have a pair of nippers, which you can buy at the drugstore so you don't have to go buy $200 nippers. You're gonna want, you know, you're probably gonna want some shot, right?And you're gonna probably want gel floatant and you're gonna probably want powder floatant, right? And that's probably that. And your tippet spool is probably pretty much all you really want on the front of your.Front of your body with your lanyard, right? Mm.

That's about all you really need. And a handful of flies. And that can be really simple too. Just a handful of, you know, good producers.You know, just like in the park here is Like a really good idea of like dry fly wise. Just a couple of Elk Hairs, parachutes. Just really plain, you know, patterns. I mean, you don't have to be fancy and overthink it. Just plain.A few dry flies, a few wets, a few nymphs, and that's it. Because you're not going to do really big in the park. I know.I hear a lot of tourists always say, I'm going to come to the park and throw streamers and all this. I mean, the park's not the place you really do that unless you've got rising water after a thunderstorm storm.But if you want to catch fish, you're going to stay on one of those things. We just said small dries nymphs like hare's ear, pheasant tails.I mean, just the plain, plain Jane kind of patterns that have been around for, for many, many decades, you know.

Yeah, you do.You do some greenie weenies, some San Juan worms, you know, and maybe throw in some beetles and ants, you know, with, you know, like you said, elk hair caddis and, you know, maybe some parachute Adams. And then, you know. Yeah, I'm a big fan of the soft hackle pheasant tail. That's really pretty much all you need.And of course, this time of year you can wet wade.But, you know, the real trick is, you know, you're going to probably need to walk in somewhere to fish, but you don't want to walk out in wet shoes because it'll absolutely tear your feet up. So, you know, you can hike in and, you know, you can fish in a pair of old sneakers. You, you know, carry an extra pair of sneakers.You can fish in a pair of keens. You can fish in a pair of, like Chaco, you know, river sandals or all kinds of options. You don't need to basically hike in with boots, right?

That's right. Yeah. That's what we did for. For Duncan. He's got some just river suits that he wears a lot when we're doing river trips.And that's kind of what I prefer taking in the backcountry as well. So hike in just like a. A good. I like hokas, to be honest. I mean, hoka shoes. I mean, that's what I backpack in on the at and stuff.So I mean, a pair of hokas is light, really good traction. Then you get up there and you put a pair of like river shoes on that fold up like super small. Put it in a little tiny.Actually mine just go around my neck. I've Got a string on them when I'm done, and so I just wear it with my lanyard, you know.But it can be really simple because boots are just overrated.I mean, I don't think most people that push a lot of boots are doing much stuff hiking in and out because it's not much fun carrying four or five pounds and a pair of boots, you know.

Yeah, I generally like the keens just because I like a, like a something when I'm in the water with a closed toe box because I seem to smash my toes a lot on rocks. But other than that, I'm kind of with you on the not hiking in with your Frankenstein wading boots, right?

Yeah, they're great. They're great if you pull up to a river and you can get out of the car and be in the water.But yeah, whenever you're talking about carrying them, just look at one of the huge backpacks like you see the AT hikers use and just think how much a pair of wading boots would take up in the pack. There's a third of your pack already gone with these heavy, heavy boots in there, you know. So, yeah, that, that gets to be rough.And then you can also do like what we used to do, like old Converse sneakers and stuff. And we used to take pool felt and you could put layers with barred cement.I mean, there's all kinds of ways to modify a really lightweight weight and shoe, you know what I mean? Just that's what we used to do for years as a kid. And I mean, that's a fine weighting boot for hiking in somewhere. It's lightweight.

Yeah.And I would say too, you know, kind of lucky on the kind of the rod reel in line front now where, you know, you know, you can go spend as much money as you want to on rides, lines and reels.But you know, I think every major rod manufacturer makes a decent four or five weight, you know, and there's some companies, you know, particularly for trout, where the reel doesn't matter as much. But I mean, there's some companies that make some really high quality reels at a really reasonable price.Like, I think, you know, Lamson does a particularly good job making workhorse reels, you know, that aren't $1,000 or 600 or $800.And you know, you can get, you can get a decent fly line, you know, like, you know, even SA has a really affordable entry level fly line that's, you know, probably what, 69, 70 bucks. And you know, you can do that and get out the door. And then I think, you know, the next kind of expensive thing are boots and waders.And, you know, I think the trick, folks, is, you know, you don't have to start, you know, with $1,000 pair of zippered waders, you know, unless you really, really want to.

Yeah, that's right. And the other thing is, what reminded me of all this kind of for this topic was looking at a bunch of photos of the boys when they were little.And I was thinking back about, you know, we've had some before school started. My kids started both of them, Monday this week.So I've had a lot of kids with their parents, you know, like a dad and son or a mother and son and whatever the past few weeks, and just thinking about the simplicity of when they're small like that, of just doing things that keep everything in control, you know, like, really in control.And they do really well, like, keeping it, you know, keeping it short, methodical, and in control, rather than trying to go past their past, their means. And that's what we did a lot of, you know, with my kids when they were small.And I think it's just really easy and another technique thing there to work on even this time of year. The wet fly game's been really good, and that's a great technique for kids.I mean, just one or two rod lengths away and have something swinging, and the success rate of that with kids is really, really good compared to doing a technique that requires more discipline to master, you know.

Yeah. And I think the same thing's kind of true for gear.You know, you can kind of grow into the gear, and instead of, you know, just buying stuff, you know, just ask yourself, you know, is this piece of gear going to make me a better angler and be a little bit more deliberate about kind of what you add to your arsenal?Because, you know, I mean, you and I talk about this a ton on the road when we do classes and stuff, you know, highly unlikely that a piece of gear is the secret sauce to make you better on the water.

That's right. That's right. Yeah.I mean, a lot of that comes down to just experience of going a lot of thinking, recognizing, you know, better spots, triangles, and, you know, reading water seams and deep holes and coloration of the bottom and just making smarter decisions that only really comes from.From going a lot and letting those experiences build and making memories of, you know, the same example in a little small creek in your backyard will carry you through to all kinds of rivers throughout the globe. You know, it's like the same lesson is going to be the same somewhere else. So yeah, I think it's that more than anything.That's why it's just good like getting, getting these kids out. And my, my son's a, he's going into senior year, the youngest one. And so he's excited.We got a little outfit, he wants to keep it in the trunk and he's going after school and stuff. He goes, dad, I'm gonna do this all through the fall. So he's got him a little setup where he can be self contained.And so I'm excited he wanted to dive all in again because kind of took a break from it for a few years in high school at first. Yeah. Yeah.

And I would say too, you know, if you kind of make kind of more economical decisions when you start on the gear front, take that extra money and use it for instruction because it'll help you get better way faster than buying more gear.

Oh yeah, yeah, I think so too. Well then watching, you know, Instagram free clips and things like that, that's probably not going to be the safe all be all, you know.

Yeah, absolutely. And so, you know, we wouldn't, you know, I don't know. It's going to be close to 100 degrees here again today.So not like, you know, I'm hoping for fall, but I don't see fall coming anytime soon. But we do know if we look at the calendar that your fall class season is coming up.You want to kind of give folks kind of a teaser for, you know, kind of what you have, you know, coming and how to sign up and all that kind of good stuff.

Sure. The, the first one I guess is September, the two day Mastery fly casting weekend class. And then have a school, there's a couple schools.October, November, four day schools and they can find all that underneath. Oh. Macbrownflyfish.com in the top and just look at dates and on the calendar it'll tell you all the dates in the very first column.So that's probably the easiest way to get folks the word.

Yep. And we'll I guess, you know, early October they'll be stocking DH so people can come get a guide trip too, right?

Yeah.The first, first Saturday in October that'll start back up and hopefully it's going to cool down a lot in the next month and couple of months here to, to see that. But you know, some years October still too hot to the middle of October and other years it's, it's perfect right when it starts. So I don't know what.I don't really know what It'll be like 1st of October this year, but if I was booking something and I didn't live here, I'd book it by the middle of October on personally, because then it's guaranteed it's going to be cool enough by then and. But I've seen it a lot of years. Seems to be a trend.A lot of years between the first Saturday and up to the 15th, it's too hot still, you know what I mean? So that's what I would do if I live somewhere far away.

Yeah, that's good advice.And so, folks, you know, I hope, you know, kind of what Mac and I have shared with you, if you are, you know, thinking about getting into fly fishing, have people, you know, kids, family members, friends that are getting into it, that you can maybe kind of help make some good decisions as you kind of break into the sport and get better faster. And you know, folks, as I always say, yo, it's yourself to get out there and catch a few tight lines, everybody. Tight lines, Mac.

Tight lines. Marvin.