This episode drifted. And while I’d like to say that is a clever fly fishing pun, it wouldn’t be super appropriate because this week we’re talking about retrieving flies. The original outline was about all kinds of retrieves, but as I talked about what was most effective I kept returning to one simple truth: slower …
Trout are essentially simple creatures. They look for food, they look for security, and (once a year) they look for love. That said, there is some nuance in how and why they do what they do. Even something as seemingly straightforward as a rise tells the angler a lot more than “the fish is feeding …
For nearly 250 years Americans have fought to gain or maintain the ground of liberty. For the first handful of conflicts that our nation faced, men laid down their lives inch after inch with the prospect of a freedom long in the distance. In our lifetimes, and the lifetimes of our fathers and grandfathers, men …
Okay, in reality it is presented in more of a “toe to head” fashion. And, please hear me on this, you can wear all the wrong things and still catch more than anyone dressed in all the finest outdoor clothing available. All that said, there is wisdom in wearing the clothes that can keep you …
Book review videos have become a weekly feature of Casting Across. The goal is to share fly fishing books with my audience, exposing you to titles known and unknown; old and new. It has been a lot of fun to put them together and send them all over the world via YouTube. Today I’m asking …
His first groggy words of the morning expressed his desire to fish the Letort. He knew what he was getting into. An avid reader, he had been picking random volumes out of my fly fishing library for years. He had seen the pictures of the weeds and read the dour words of those recalling the …
What makes a fly a fly? How much money do you need to spend on a fly rod? What level of risk should you take when going fishing? In one way or another, I address all three of these questions on today’s podcast episode. And while I’m very much interested in all three debates, I’m …
Every once in a while, something touching this little niche world of fly fishing breaks out into the larger cultural consciousness. Kirk Wallace Johnson’s The Feather Thief was a book that found acclaim among people who have never sat behind a tying vise, let alone cast a fly rod. Part of the reason why the …
Of all the angling destinations out there, why drive all the way from New Hampshire to south central Pennsylvania? Maine’s wild and expansive opportunities for fish are closer. So too are those of the Catskills, which had to be crossed to get down into the Mid-Atlantic. And even our home state has ample water of …
There are a lot of benefits to hiring a guide. They show you new water, put you on fish, and teach you new skills. One of the less exciting facets is the focus they bring to your fishing; less exciting, but incredibly helpful. Today I talk about some of the aspects of fly fishing that …
