Podcast: Fishing for Freshwater Stripers with Henry Cowen


This week, I had a great talk with Henry Cowen on freshwater stripers. Henry is a saltwater angler and fly tier of great experience who brought his talents to freshwater stripers, and he has some wonderful tips for finding these big guys, flies to use, and techniques to get them to eat your fly. Also, we have lots of good Fly Box questions on saltwater fly tying, bad loops on fly lines, and other tidbits. A young listener takes me to task for banning cell phone calls to the request line, and I should have known better. He says the only people he knows who have land lines are his parents. Guess I am showing my age, so please do use your cell phones for the podcast request line—just please not from your car and from a place with good service!

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8 thoughts on “Podcast: Fishing for Freshwater Stripers with Henry Cowen”

  1. One of the best fishing information pod casts that I have heard. Wish I had known some of this when I lived in Tennessee!

  2. This was a fantastic Podcast Tom. I don’t have much striper fishing here in Colorado, but it was great hearing Henry talk about it and if I ever do venture out to some of the Striper/Wiper fisheries here. I feel prepared. Thanks for all of the hard work.

  3. Can we get a list of the materials needed for the Something Else fly Henry mentioned? Sounds like a really cool pattern that would for more than just stripers.

    1. Chris,
      Recipe for Somethin’ Else fly:
      Hook: size 4
      Thread: monofilament size 006 (fine)
      Flash: silver Krystal flash
      Throat: fluoro fibre (fluorescent pink)
      Tail: white polar fiber
      Wing: grey polar fiber (or olive)
      Weight: 5/32 dumbbell eyes (or medium size)

  4. Great podcast – as always.

    Would you consider doing a podcast on reels? We all love fly reels! I know for trout, a reels main purpose is holding line, but what about a podcast on reels, focusing on:

    – click and pawl vs disc drag
    – large vs medium vs small arbor
    – vintage vs modern – whats the difference
    – when do you need a great drag system
    – steelhead – why does everyone love a vintage pre-war Hardy with a click drag, especially when the fish are big and fight hard?

    I know you mainly fish trout with a CFO, but i’d love to hear some other ideas too. Im always looking for a reason to buy another reel!

    Thanks!

    Andrew

  5. Great detail about the birds regarding baitfish location!
    I’ve followed the birds many times to locate pike, here in the UK, but the details given by Henry have opened my eyes wide.
    Another terrific podcast! Thank you Tom, and thank you Orvis.

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