For a year I’ve been contributing to the excellent magazine Dark Skies Fly Fishing. Available digitally or in print, this periodical is the spiritual successor to a publication that Mid Atlantic anglers relied upon for decades. In the February/March issue, I give a quick synopsis of what fly fishing looks like in the Shenandoah National …
Two whole podcast episodes devoted to how fly fishers can be lazy? Oh yes. And I could do a handful more just on those issues I see in myself. Recently I defined laziness as choosing to not do what you know you should do. If the goal is catching fish, why would you only try …
I don’t throw around the word “essential” flippantly. But if you fish spring creeks in places like Pennsylvania, Virginia, or Wisconsin, Mike Heck’s Spring Creek Strategies is essential reading. There are other excellent books out there covering spring creek fly fishing from a broader perspective, often including the famous, sprawling western rivers. Heck’s writing addresses …
One of my favorite things to do at fishing expos is to see fly rods I’ve only seen online or heard about on social media. Every once in a while, a company will even reveal a product in development at these events. Better than wiggling them or getting a sales rep’s elevator speech is actually …
We don’t talk enough about how much of a problem laziness is. That goes for people and society as a whole. But, of course, today I’m talking about how laziness is not the friend of the fly fisher. If you’re being lazy, it means you know better. It means you can do what you should …
It takes quite a skilled pen to write a famous crime novel and famous fly fishing books. But John Voelker (aka Robert Traver) accomplished just that. His Trout Madness deserves every bit of the prominence it holds in 20th century fly fishing writing. It is a wonderful example of the subgenre of angling account anthologies. …
Walking the exhibition hall at The Fly Fishing Show is a great example of the diversity of interests within fly fishing. Saltwater and freshwater, tied flies and materials for tying, established companies and small businesses are all represented. There are also nonprofits, antique dealers, booksellers, and artists. Fly fishing is certainly about catching fish utilizing …
Today’s episode is a snippet from one of the presentations that I give at The Fly Fishing Show. It is about a third shorter and you don’t get the benefit of PowerPoint slides, but the content promises to be quite helpful for the small stream angler. Why? If you primarily fish small streams, there might …
Conservation books are often written after the fact. Articles and blogs can talk about what is happening, but the real what happened of any conservation initiative has a certain longitudinal quality about it. The Forgotten Salmon of the Merrimack, by Lawrence Stolte, chronicles a century of restoration and protection on the eve of an early-1980’s …
I love my lightweight bamboo fly rods. I truly enjoy fishing with my older, wispy fiberglass fly rods. And one of my favorite graphite fly rods is a decidedly slow action 2-weight. This lines up with a common approach to fly fishing small steams. Since the water is small and the fish are small, many …
