Ken Morrow, President of Adaptive Fly Fishing Institute, sent us in these shots of him fly fishing for smallmouth bass on the Holston River sporting our Crisfield Fishing – Fly Fishing Shirt.  We like that fly rod fish fighting stroke you have there as well as that nice smallmouth bass, Ken, way to go!

A nice golden dorado caught on a crease fly while fly fishing in Argentina on the Rio Parana. Grab your Lateral Line fishing hat and or Crisfield Summer Tropical Fishing Shirt for your next fly fishing adventure. Take a picture with a fish and your Lateral Line fishing apparel and send it to us, we’ll publish it in our blog and send you a Lateral Line sticker as a thank you. (Lateral Line fishing hat and Crisfield fishing shirt pictured next to the dorado on the fly fishing dude, with the trying to be cool, sunglasses)

Tige Savage managed this gorgeous brown trout measuring in at 23.5″ while fly fishing on the South Fork of the Snake in Idaho this past week. His biggest brown to date, way to go man, sweeeeet fish!

Lateral Line Ambassador Jay Fleming sent in this shot of a nice red fish he caught wading in shallow water this past week in Chesapeake, Virginia. WTG, Jay, nice fish and the Crisfield fishing shirt looks sharp as well if we do not say so ourselves! (photo: Ben Fleming)

Remember when your Mom used to say, “Don’t use your teeth to do that”. Well, she was right and especially right when it comes to using your teeth to cut fishing line. Over the years I unfortunately did not follow Mom’s advice and sure enough I paid the price. Luckily I have a great dentist, Dr. Don,  who just happens to be a fisherman himself and could sympathize with my situation.With a little filling and some expertise in filling, matching color and shaping was able to make me look as good as new.

Lesson is, if you do not want to spend a bunch of loot and risk chipping your teeth, do not use your teeth to cut fishing line

(click on the image for a larger version of the pic)

P.S. Also use sunscreen, note that sun spot on my face which is only going to go away by spending more loot to get it removed with a laser. Before and after pictures of that to come…

I’m a hat guy as I am sure many of you are out there (including hat gals), so I take my Lateral Line hat everywhere, even to 65ft. I think the Lateral Line logo attracted this grouper to come over and check me out

We’re working with TidalFish.com and giving away two of our Lateral Line Miles Technical Fishing t shirts if you post a fishing report on TidalFish.com’s Maryland Fishing Forum or Virginia fishing forum.  In addition you can win a pair of sweet Hobie polarized sunglasses worth some real loot to help give you the visual edge in your fishing adventures. Between our Miles fishing t-shirt and a pair of Hobie shades you’ll be one good looking angler on the water that fish can not resist. Check out the rules and how to enter on TidalFish.com’s  Maryland Fishing Forum here and the Virginia Fishing Forum here

Recently I was asked by and outdoor writer, who was doing an interview with me about Lateral Line and our Crisfield Fishing Shirt, if we thought that SPF ratings were important with clothing. When I was done talking with this outdoor writer I thought it would make sense to say a few things about SPF and UPF ratings on our blog because I think it can be confusing. Before I was in the technical clothing business I never really understood it myself. So here’s the low down.
(picture: Lateral Line’s Crisfield Fishing Shirt in action Bonefishing in the Bahamas. Click on picture for larger image)

The first thing to understand is the difference between SPF and UPF. SPF is a rating system for things like sunscreen and creams or liquids that are applied directly to your skin. The rating measures the amount of time it will take your skin to burn with direct exposure. Of course the rating is not an absolute because people’s skin types differ, but it does provide a good general guideline. UPF on the other hand is a rating that relates to how much ultraviolet light a material reflects and how much it lets through. The reality of it is that all clothing has some sort of UPF rating simply because any material acts as a filter.  Your every day light weight white t-shirt has a UPF rating of about 8 or 9.  A dark thick heavy cotton winter shirt on the other hand can have a UPF rating of 1000+ because it literally blocks all light.

The Lateral Line Crisfield fishing shirt has a minimum UPF rating of 30. One might ask why don’t you have an exact number; the answer is that different colors reflect different amounts of light. Our light green/tan Crisfield fishing shirt is going to reflect more light then our blue Crisfield fishing shirt. Either way you are going to get a minimum rating of 30 with our shirt. At the end of the day lab tests are great and everything, but we all know how testing goes.  We “lab” test our fishing apparel in the field while fishing and we’ve worn our Crisfield shirts in the middle of the summer in 90+ degree weather in places like on the flats in the Bahamas for days on end and had no problems with sun burn. That is our test, does it really work in the field. If not, we go back to the drawing board.

So next time you go to buy a fishing shirt or shirt to protect you from the sun we’d suggest you make sure you get a shirt with at least a 20+ UPF rating.  Buy our Crisfield shirt and rest assured you are protected. If you ever have any questions do not hesitate to drop us a line. Good Fishing!