I got back into fly fishing last year via ultralight hiking. I kitted myself out with ultralight gear, and at some point got led to tenkara, which for obvious reasons is popular with backpackers. This summer the hope is to spend a decent amount of time in the mountain west, both with James and solo. So first I had to get James kitted out with basically all the same stuff that I have. Then I had to think about what to take for fishing gear when we’re backpacking.
The backpacking gear is fairly standard ultralight stuff. We each have Gossamer Gear Marisposa packs and Exped Synmat UL sleeping pads. I have an Enlightened Equipment Revelation quilt and we got James a ZPacks cuben and down sleeping bag. We settled on a Big Agnes Copper Spur UL 2 tent. It all came together fairly well, if at bruising expense.
The first problem with backcountry fishing is wading. In many situations it’s basically impossible to just fish from the bank, and it didn’t seem wise to count on being able to do that. I looked into lightweight waders, but even the lightest aren’t really light and they’re very bulky. And packing along separate wading boots didn’t seem practical. Going that route would have involved buying James brand new waders, as his current ones are impossibly heavy to pack. I thought back to my days fishing the wilds of Canada as a teenager. I just wore shorts and cheap running shoes and waded. Hm. Why not? When doing fieldwork in the Arctic for years, I crossed streams by carrying rafting sandals and switching into them, and I used the same tactic in the Canadian Rocky Mountains recently. Couldn’t see why it wouldn’t work. So I bought us each a pair of Keen sandals, sturdy enough that some people actually use them for hiking, along with a pair of neoprene socks each. We’ll use them both for fording streams while hiking and for fishing.
Next came how to transport the fishing gear, and what to use on the water. Vests are very heavy and bulky, out of the question. I ended up buying a bunch of Zimmerbuilt stuff, centered around a guide sling. We take four rods in this setup, and a decent but pared down assortment of tippet, lines, nippers, and forceps. It worked great. The guide sling, loaded and ready to go, fits in the big outer pocket at the back of my pack.
The last consideration was fly boxes. I love C&F boxes, so I got a couple of C&F ultralights.
On the one hand, they are indeed really, really light. On the other, they’re a bit bulky. One of them got squished in the guide sling on the drive out and I thought it was ruined. Amazingly, after a day it just sprung back to its original shape, closing perfectly flush again. I really like these boxes. You might want simple slimmer foam ones for midges and nymphs, but the C&F ones will hold dries without disrupting the hackle. I’m really sold on them.
I’m sure it will take some refinement, but it works fine, and packs well with our standard ultralight loadouts. Our first trip got curtailed by high spring water, but we got enough done to establish proof of concept.