Like many anglers, I have a soft spot for small mountain streams. The solitude, the scenery, and the familiarity of a high-gradient creek are comfortable commonalities that you’ll find across the world. Aside from the difference in riparian foliage, streams I’ve fished from South Carolina to New Hampshire to Colorado all feel very similar and, …
Black Friday. A day when we eat everything we ate on Thanksgiving, only in one sandwich. It is also a day when door buster-crazed, credit card-wielding Americans frantically spend like their lives depend on it. I suppose the need for calories after such retail battles necessitates a turkey/stuffing/cranberry sauce/gravy hoagie. Don’t get me wrong, I’m …
Fly fishers are a very particular bunch. The vast majority like what they like, and have what they need. When it comes to giving gifts this puts the non-fly fishing buyer in a quandary. You could ask for a specific list, and then just do the buying for them. Or you can hop on Amazon, …
Anthropologists believe that a cave painting in the Czech Republic is the earliest example of a map that we have. The markings seem to represent local mountains, valleys, and rivers. It isn’t hard to understand that for millennia we’ve wanted to do what we can to identify where we are and what is around us. …
3:30 AM – The alarm goes off. 3:33 AM – The alarm goes off again. You remember that you don’t have to go to work, but that you get to go fishing. This gives you a performance-enhanced level of energy compared to every other morning, and you get up. 3:40 AM – Getting dressed quietly …
This isn’t meant to be a commercial. Think of it more as a public service announcement. Or, if you’re planning on fishing anytime soon and this applies to you, the cacophonous screeching of the emergency broadcast system. Don’t fish with cruddy sunglasses. Are your fishing sunglasses not polarized? Fix it, now. Do your fishing sunglasses …
Particularly on the east coast, popular fly fishing water gets that way because it is productive. Consequently, going to streams or rivers that provide a high probability of catching many and/or large fish also results in the high probability of fishing with company. Water in populated areas or with special regulations will always result in …
For fly fishermen, “sense of place” is defined as much by rivers as it is by any other cultural or personal aspects. A town might be where an aunt lives, but there is also a stretch of special regulation water close by. Your wife’s favorite antiquing may be in a particular region, but it is …
In baseball, a player that suddenly and unexpectedly loses the ability to perform a routine task (making contact with the ball, a catcher throwing back to the pitcher, etc.) is said to have the “yips.” It is a perfectly wonderful part of baseball, a sport filled with bizarre and nostalgic traditions. However, I think that …
The Great Lakes tributary system is a pretty remarkable fishery. Sure, the fish aren’t native and they don’t have an opportunity to run to saltwater. But they are big, fight hard, and are discerning. If west coast steelheading is like filet, then the Great Lakes offer up a hearty burger. It isn’t the same thing, …
