Keep Calm and Fly Fish

The fly fishing community is a relatively small niche where everyone knows or knows of someone especially if that individual has contributed to the sport in some way. In my personal opinion the fly fishing community is one of the most welcoming fishing communities there is where everyone is willing to share and help each other in some capacity to succeed. A few days ago I was devastated to learn that one of our community’s best had passed away.

As someone who considers the Yuba River his home river, veteran guide Jon Baiocchi’s influence was always felt. Jon had been guiding on the Yuba River for decades and had a unique way of approaching the river on foot in comparison to other guides who would drift it instead. Jon’s fishing reports were unlike any other guides as well as he was passionate about more than just the fishing conditions. His reports demonstrated his extensive knowledge of the local flora and fauna which were always a pleasure to learn about.

Jon’s passion for teaching and nature was one of the reasons I felt comfortable approaching him about questions I had as a newbie fly angler. Although Jon, I, and many other anglers shared our love of the Yuba River it was the Middle Fork of the Feather River where I believed we really connected. There was no other guide more knowledgeable about the Middle Fork of the Feather River than Jon Baiocchi. I have saved emails of all our exchanges of information and still look at them from time to time.

My most memorable interaction with Jon was when he approached me about a photo of a carp I had caught on he Middle Fork of the Feather River. He asked if he could use the photo in a PowerPoint presentation that he had been working on about the Middle Fork of the Feather River. I told him I was truly honored and as a thank you he sent me a copy of the PowerPoint.

Jon Baiocchi passed unexpectedly while guiding on the Middle Fork of the Feather River. He passed away where he loved being doing what he loved to do. The next time I’m out on the Middle Fork of the Feather I’ll be thinking about you buddy. Condolences to his family and friends as we all mourn the loss of one of the fly fishing greatest.

The other day I found a small bright green 4′ Shakespeare spinning rod at my parent’s house that didn’t have a reel attached to it. Curious about how fun it would be to use I bought a Shimano Sienna 500 spinning reel and spooled it with 4# line. The outfit, despite looking a bit ridiculous, felt good and I couldn’t wait to try it out. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt excited about gear fishing.

College is when I started to get into fishing and like most anglers learning how to fish I started off with a spinning rod. My fishing buddy and I mostly targeted bass throwing soft baits like senkos for largemouth bass. I would dabble with a few bait fishing trips for stocked trout but other than that I didn’t really get to learn how to truly fish before getting into fly fishing.

I caught quite a few fish with soft plastics but eventually got bored and wanted to try and expand my arsenal. I always thought hardbaits were cool but I had no confidence in them with the exception of classic topwater lures like poppers. As a poor college student hardbaits were tough to justify buying because if you happened to accidentally snag one or break one off you’d be out +5 or even +10 dollars. I had a few but I was often too afraid about using them because they were expensive. Losing a few of my favorite flies doesn’t bother me because I know I can easily replace them by tying more however losing my favorite hardbait means having to buy a replacement.

Now as a real adult with some extra spending money I can finally buy all the hardbaits I want and that is exactly what I did. Through fly fishing I now have an advance understand of fish behavior that I probably would’ve never learned if I had stuck to using a spinning rod. I was curious to see if I could use this knowledge to fill in the gap that I left when switching to fly fishing.

I bought a TFO panfish series 6’6” two piece rod and paired it with a Shimano Sienna 500 spinning reel with 8# fluorocarbon. The rod is considered an ultra light rod and feels great. I had to look through a bunch of different spinning rods because I didn’t want one that had too thick of a butt and the TFO panfish rod’s butt was perfect. Nice and thin.

I’ve been getting a bit bored of fly fishing the same rivers, holes, runs, etc so changing it up a bit will be a fun new learning experience.