Loop's Fly Fishing School

FLY CASTING CLASSES

Coeur d'Alene Golf & Spa Resort teams up with LOOP and Castaway Fly Shop
March 26th, 2009
Castaway Fly Shop, LOOP, and The Coeur d'Alene Golf & Spa Resort have recently started offering fly casting classes for all levels of the fly fishing enthusiast. Classes will be conducted by the LOOP team of experts from all parts of the fly fishing world, including Argentina, Scandinavia and the US.
"Now anglers have an opportunity to learn and enhance their skills of casting while enjoying the finest dining and accommodations available in the area says Bill Reagan, General Manager at The Coeur d'Alene Golf & Spa Resort. "We've always had fantastic fishing in the area, and now with LOOP and Castaway Fly Shop offering the finest in fly-fishing instruction and equipment, it provides a perfect complement to our wide assortment of outdoor activities offered. Combine the fly-fishing activities with a round of golf, spa treatment or a trip to Silverwood Theme Park and you've got a complete family vacation package... something for everyone."
The Castaway Fly Shop recently partnered with LOOP, a Swedish based company with a reputation of being the premier manufacturer of the finest fly-fishing rods, reels, tackle and apparel on the market today. LOOP is relatively new to the North American market and brings countless years of experienced craftsmanship with it. "LOOP’s certified fly-fishing and spey casting instructors are among the most well trained and experienced anglers in the world." said Joe Roope, owner and co-founder of Coeur d'Alene's Castaway Fly Shop. "Fishing enthusiasts visit us from all over the world to experience some of the finest fresh water fishing in the United States, now we have a premium brand of gear to equip them with and access to world-class instructors."
The LOOP Fly Casting Schools will offer 2-day courses designed with curriculums and activities for beginners and avid seasoned anglers alike. The school will also begin offering sessions tailored exclusively for women. Instructional topics include: fly pattern selection and insect identification, casting techniques, proper knot tying for different situations, handling and release for a variety of fish, how to find the perfect spot to drop your line and much more.
LOOP Fly Casting Schools complete with the luxury lakefront accommodations and amenities of The Coeur d'Alene Golf & Spa Resort are available from March through mid October.
For more information on the assortment of Fly-Fishing and Resort Packages that include accommodations and other activities, contact The Coeur d'Alene Golf & Spa Resort reservation specialists at 1-800-688-5253.

Casting Lesson of the Week - The Perry Poke

This weeks casting lesson deals with one of the most versatile Doublehand Casts out there, the Perry Poke. This is a great cast to teach beginners as it emphasizes building a perfect D Loop 2 times during the cast. As mentioned in the video, it is also a great cast to employ when fishing Skagit style heads. That said, it can also be extremely effective with Scandi/Shooting head line systems as well. One component of the cast to pay close attention to is the line dump that takes place in the middle of the cast. When dumping the line, make sure and take the rod tip all the way down to the surface of the water to allow all of the line pile into the water. This has 2 purposes 1) it allows the line to anchor properly, creating a better D Loop and 2) it puts the rod tip in perfect starting position to form the second D Loop resulting in a cleaner cast.

Watch the milltown dam on the Clark Fork River come down

hot linked this one for you.... follow the link and it gives time lapse link for the removal of the dam as well as other information
idaho joe

Coeur d' Alene River and St. Joe River Cutthroat Numbers Report

The season being on just like to thank the state for making great decisions on the CDA and Joe
to provide fishing for the future
Idaho Joe

Changing the Drag Direction on your Loop Reel

Being the service center for Loop Tackle Design in North America, one of the most common service questions/scenarios we run into is how to change the direction of the drag system from left to right, or right to left. While instructions are included with all reels detailing how to perform this operation, we know that watching somebody actually do it can simplify the task quite a bit. So.....if you have a Loop reel and have been wondering how switch the drag direction, or even how the Power Matrix drag works, this one's for you!!

Casting Lesson of the Week - Reverse Double Spey

This weeks casting lesson comes to us from Loop Army member Claudio Martin Nicastro of Rio Gallegos, Argentina. The cast, a Reverse Double Spey, is extremely useful in river left and downstream wind conditions as demonstrated in the video. Pay especially close attention to his hand positioning in setting up and executing the cast. A nice, concise range of movement can make all the difference in performing this cast well. Enjoy!!!!

Early Season Tampa Tarpon

Opti Salt 12wt + Opti BIG = 100lb Tarpon
Early Season Tarpon fishing has been great when you can hit it right and the weather/wind are in your favor. I recently got out with a buddy and found about a dozen or so fish "laid up" and holding just under the water surface. After a few failed attempts at trying to get the fly where it needed to be (directly in front of their face) we managed to get a medium sized fish to accept the presentation with abandon. This fish freight trained about 200yards in under 30seconds all the while jumping and thrashing. The Opti Big managed to handle the strain and performed flawlessly. Once we regained the backing I was able to put the hammer down with the Opti Salt 12 and really muscle the fish towards the boat. This rod is a true performer and the extra fighting grip is a great feature for big fish fights.
www.lostcoastanglers.com

Loop Army Announcement: SPRING IS HERE!!!

Spring has certainly sprung here in the little slice of heaven we like to call North Idaho, and leave it to the Loop Army to take full advantage of all that it has to offer! Loop Army member Jes Erling was kind enough to share a few photos with me from a recent outing on one of our local streams. Skillfully employing his arsenal of Loop gear, Jes managed to land this beautiful, wild native Westslope Cutthroat. Judging from the coloration of this fish, he will soon be turning his attention to pursuits other than gorging himself full of Skwala nymphs!! Once again, shout out to Jes for sharing this gorgeous Westslope, and to the rest of the Loop Army, get out there and cast a line!!!

Wild Samon - Now DYING of POLITICS in rivers near YOU

I now your time is worth something, but taking 60 seconds to help save some Wild Fish seems like time well spent to me. We need 10,000 signatures and we currently only have 6500, so please pass this on to anyone you might be interested. Thanks


Wild Salmon - Now dying of Politics in rivers near YOU!

Loop Army - Profile of Captain Rick Murphy

Starting out as a professional fishing guide in South Florida, Capt. Rick Murphy has over 28 years in the saltwater fishing industry. He is well renowned in the industry and highly respected by his peers.

Capt. Rick is the host of two very popular television shows, Sportsman's Adventures with Capt. Rick Murphy and the Emmy winning live talk-show, the Chevy Florida Fishing Report. He also acts as a consultant to well-known companies such as Yamaha Motor Corp., Contender Boats, Hewes Boats, and Rapala Lures to name a few.

Capt. Rick reaches out to his fans by providing numerous personal appearances throughout the year including casting seminars, slide and video presentations and how-to talks at fishing clubs, fishing and boat shows and tournaments on behalf of his sponsors. Capt. Rick has guided his anglers to grand championships in almost every major South Florida fishing tournament and travels throughout the southeast region of the US competing in several fishing tournaments and conferences.

One of his recent accomplishments includes being ranked as the #1 Redfish Tour Fishing Team in the world and winner of the Grand Champion Award at the Prestigious Gold Cup Invitational Tarpon Tournament in 2007.

Rick makes his home in South Florida with his wife, Kathy, and two sons

Rick & Kathy Murphy

rkmurphy@bellsouth.net

Loop Army - Profile of Claudio Martin

"Our man in Argentina"

A bona fide seatrout and steelhead bum, in charge of Loop Argentina and Chile.
As a certified instructor and with 11 seasons of guiding on the Gallegos River in Patagonia Claudio knows what it's all about. It's about things that make you smile and enjoy life to the fullest. What better way to do it than to guide a client to their fish of a lifetime?

E-mail: claudio@looptackle.com.ar
YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/LoopDude
Check casting clinics at: http://www.looptackle.com.ar/clinicas.php

P.S. Sonya and I just rolled in to BA, and we wil be flying south to Patagonia tomorrow, and I'll be drinking beer with Claudio and the rest of the Argentinian Loop Army soon enough. Feels good to be this close to the Rio Gallegos.

March Madness...good luck coach few

march rolls in and a few of us still have work to do...I would like to take a moment and wish
Loop Army Member Mark Few and the Gonzaga Bulldogs good luck with the NCAA Tournament.....
were all pulling for ya...Go Zags!!!
Idaho Joe

Free Loop Magazine - Sneak Preview

Photography: Yngve Ask, Nikon Ambassador, www.scanout.com
Designed by : Peter Huber, Art Director, www.scanout.com

Contact Joe Roope to get your copy here in North America. 800 410 3133

FREE Loop Magazine - Coming soon, so order yours now.

Loop Magazine

No more catalogs for Loop Tackle! It is with pride that Scanout.com as been assigned the duties of creating the new Loop Tackle Magazine. The new magazine will focus not only on tackle, but will cover the lifestyle and document the adventure travel that anglers go on in pursuit of their passion. We’ll be putting out the magazine twice annually.

You North American guys can order yours today by contacting the boys at the Loop USA Service Center in Idaho. (800) 410-3133 or visit them online HERE.

FREE LOOP STICKERS!!!

Ok Loop Army members, here's your chance to get a FREE LOOP sticker. It's real simple, all you need to do is send us a stamped, self addressed envelope to this address:

Loop Tackle USA Service Center
1114 N 4th St
Coeur d'Alene, ID 83814

As soon as we receive your envelope we will send you out a 2"x8" LOOP sticker similar (but better quality) to the logo pictured above. Any questions??

Best Value Reel

Contact the Loop Service Center for Pricing and Availability HERE, or order online HERE.

Loop Army - Message from Belize

Hey Tim..

These are the ones I caught in Belize on the Loop Opti Salt 10# I got to say it is a fantastic rod.

Best regards
Rabbi
Iceland

The State of the Steelhead, by Dylan Tomine

LD on the BD

The fish in the previous post are Black Drum. We estimated that the fish we got were in the 35lb range although there were larger fish in the school. These fish were all caught in our home waters of Tampa Bay within 3-5ft water, the crazy part was even though it was that deep these fish were still sticking their tails out of the water while eating off the bottom!? It's unreal! We were using intermediate lines to help keep the fly down and casting above the school, letting them overtake the fly and doing a very slow strip. These are the first BD of this size that we have hooked on fly so we were not too sure what to tie up. I figured something dark, buggy, and weighted enough to get down into their feeding zone (on the bottom!)

BD Crab Thing

Black Drum are notoriously blind and usually can only sense something if is directly in front of their face. If all goes good during your strip you will feel steady tension, the fish is on, and now it's time to set the hook. Once you get a solid hook up and these fish realize it they are off and running. Now these are not long runs but they are incredibly strong fish with each fight lasting about 15-20min. They're not the smartest fish in the world but they sure fight like hell!

For more saltwater fly pics from the Tampa Bay Area or to book a trip you can visit www.lostcoastanglers.com

Bangin on the Drums...

The new Loop Opti Salt 10wt is one serious stick and these bruisers were no match for it's power.

The additional fore grip on the rod was ideal for this type of down and dirty grudge match. We were really able to put the breaks on these fish with Loop's Evotec HD 9/13 reel, their Power Matrix drag system would simply not give up!

Don't believe us??? Just ask this guy

Loop Multi Reel- Is it the best reel for the money??

Go HERE for pricing and ordering info.

"Get a GRIP!!!" Loop introduces the X-Grip

I received a couple of Prototypes a few weeks ago and we took them to Florida on our recent tarpon trip. If you are a Saltwater angler or spend time chasing large freshwater species then these are some rods you will want to check out. "Get a GRIP!!!!"

Fighting the good fight

I was looking through some images today and ran across some butt kicking fight sequences, and thought I would post a few. For those of you who don't already know, Giant Trevelly's are as tough as they come, and we spent months hunting them on the flats on Christmas Island. Amazing fish that will tear off 400 yards of backing on the first run...Ed Sadvar just trying to hold his ground. Notice the angle of the backing and will understand it when I tell you that fish was hundreds of yards away on the far side of this bay.

This is still the biggest GT I have even seen landed. I don't have a clue how much it weighed, but it would have shattered the existing world record for sure. Notice the sweat on Ed' hat and you might have an understanding of this battle.

Ed hooked this fish off the beach and then we had to chase it with a skiff. The boat actually hurt our abilty to put pressure on the fish, so he ended up getting close to shore and jumping off the boat.
You will notice Ed's shirt is completely wet. Things get a bit wild when you are landing these amazing fish, and things just go wrong, but this time we were able to tail him for a quick photo before the release.
My wife Sonya is amazing. Yes I am bragging, but I have seen her whip to many big fish to not give her the props she deserves. Kicking butt!!!
Giants are one of the coolest looking fish I have yet to see, and they are easily revived and released, which makes them a great inshore game fish. Sonya has landed her share of these great fish.

Guess I'll go shovel the show off my driveway.. Crap

From time to time

From time to time we will call on the Loop Army to act on behalf of something that makes a difference in saving WILD FISH and WILD PLACES. This is one of those times!!!
Hello

When you signed the petition to enforce the Fisheries Act on the salmon feedlots, you checked the box that said you would be willing to help.

It is essential that we build up the names on this petition because the more of us there are, the harder it will be for government to close the door on our request to protect the wild salmon.

I realize Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is not going to willingly force compliance from the fish “farm” industry, but that is the law and public pressure will help.

Marine Harvest has appealed the BC Court decision because they are concerned they may not own their fish once they go into Canadian waters.

Their licences are unconstitutional because they were granted by the Province and they may not own their fish........

Please print this and post wherever you think it might inform people about the petition.

Also post on Facebook and distribute in anyway available to you.

Let me know if you have ideas on how to make people aware that this petition exists. It was signed by over 2000 people with no effort at all, it will be interesting to see how far it can go with some effort.

Thank you!

Alexandra Morton

To sign the petition to apply the Fisheries Act to fish farms the way it is applied to fishermen please click on the link below......... pass it on

Alexandra Morton
You can sign the petition directly HERE

Donate and get more information HERE

Field and Stream selects Loop Multi Reel.. best value

Loop Multi reels voted best value by one of the oldest outdoor magazines in the U.S.A.
......this reel the brain child of Tomas Ogren at Loop is a killer value and takes a licking in the tests
Idaho Joe

Tarpon Time

A few mutilated images from our recent trip to test out the new Loop Opti Salt rods.

Take a ride with us!!!

Argentina Seatrout reports HERE.

Jurassic Lake information HERE.

Rio Santa Cruz (Atlantic Steelhead) information HERE.

Undeniably one of the greatest Seatrout runs in the history of the Rio Gallegos is happening RIGHT NOW. There are a few openings and the price is right, so if you can bust away for a week of crazy fishing contact Joe Roope at (800) 410-3133

KLAUS FRIMOR ON THE NEW OPTi SWITCH STYLE / X-GRIP

Coming SOON!!!

“When we started the construction of the Opti Switch the goal was to build a rod with a relatively short length and light line class, that could cast like a real double-hand rod. It turned out better than we hoped! Many Switch rods on the market present as good-casting single-hand rod. but buckle in the mid-section when power is applied with a two-hand cast. Avoiding this common problem became a large part of the design. It used to be that this "1 1/2 rod combination" gave the worst from both single- and double-hand casting and fishing perspectives. The Opti Switch has melted the vest of both into one delightful rod!"

KLAUS FRIMOR - LOOP ROD & LINE DESIGNER, LAS BUITRERAS CAMP MANGER

Opti Switch 6107, 10' 7", 6 weight, 4 pieces

Opti Switch 8107, 10' 7", 8 weight, 4 pieces

Swinging for Kings

Loop Army member Kim Nakamura releasing a King salmon on the Ktok River, in Alaska. Kim has been fishing the Multi 9140-4 for 2 full years and loves it. He has it setup with and Opti MegaLoop reel and Skagit line. Boomer casts of well over 100' are not uncommon for Kim, although don't expect to hear any bragging from him. Kim is one of the best anglers I have ever met, but doesn't seem to take it to seriously and just swings, hooks em, release them and repetes it.

World Record Seatrout Caught & Released

Loop Army member Tim Pask recently caught and released a Seatrout that was estimated to weigh 312 pounds. Pask was overheard saying, "I saw this beast and thought it was a huge Tarpon. Nobody was more surprised then me when this HUGE fish was boated".
Caught and released.... Photo by Captain Carl Ball

Every wonder how Loop designs great Rods??? Meet Eoin Fairgrieve

Eoin is a fully qualified casting member of the Association of Advanced Professional Game Angling Instructors (A.A.P.G.A.I) and World Team Speycasting Champion. At the age of 24, Eoin became one of the youngest ever instructors to qualify in both the A.A.P.G.A.I trout and salmon disciplines and has been professionally teaching fly casting and fly fishing for almost twenty years. Eoin began working as a salmon guide on the famous Makerstoun beat of the River Tweed in 1988, before starting up his teaching practice in 2001 to concentrate on casting instruction and education on the Tweed system. He specialises mainly in teaching modern speycasting techniques in a relaxed and friendly environment at his Centre of Excellence. His teaching philosophy revolves around creating a relaxed and comfortable environment for the student to realise his/her full casting potential. Eoin’s intention is to give the caster an understanding of the fundamental principles of each aspect of fly casting and how they relate to more energy efficient fly presentation.

Photos: Yngve Ask, Scanout.com