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Author: Matthew

New Gear Can Be A Blast

Assuming ten dollars a pound, I’m  quite a few ducks and geese away from paying off my new shotgun. But that is okay. Why? Well, for one, I can’t even begin to think how in the hole I am when it comes to fishing gear. I have killed some fish over the past few decades. …

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Let Them Touch Bugs

I am not an entomologist. I am not even the kind of fly fisher who  is proficient with insect taxonomy at the species level. But I do know a few things about bugs. And I am aware that they can captivate an 8 year old in a way that very few digital things can. Over …

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Podcast Ep. 304: Gear Gimmicks

Rightfully so, many consumers think that marketing is out to divide them from their hard earned money. Consequently, most hype surrounding new or novel innovations is received with a fair amount of skepticism. But what if some of these features are more than gimmicks? Today I’m sharing four products with design or function elements that …

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3 Ways to Save on New Fishing Gear

You can absolutely nab some excellent deals if you shop sales, wait for next year’s model to come out, or trawl auction sites. This can be a lot of fun and you can certainly find some amazing things. But you can also strike out a lot and damage your eyes from staring at a computer …

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Give to Vocation, Receive from Leisure

Work is not antithetical to recreation. The inescapable dichotomy within time allocation  doesn’t demand  disjunction. That is to say, it is more appropriate to consider work and recreation as complimentary. And complimentary things aren’t better and worse. They are different and necessarily different. Labor and rest need one another. Misconceptions about this come from a …

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Life and Death in the Middle: A Review

I have a soft spot for books filled with two- and three-page stories. Perhaps it is because I grew up reading outdoor magazines. It could be that I prefer to write in a short format. Or, it may very well be the case that I have succumbed to the short attention span beguiling so many …

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Rusty Flybox: Me, the Fly Fisherman

Full disclosure: today is a day that comes around every year, and my family makes a big deal out of it. Consequently, I’m sharing some content from the Casting Across back catalog. But these are three great articles. They’re great because they touch on some of the most important parts of life and fly fishing. …

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Podcast Ep. 302: Downstream Dry Flies

The vast majority of your dry fly presentations ought to be made upstream, with you standing slightly to one side of the fish. This optimizes your cast, your mending, and your hook set. But what if you can’t do that? What if there is a fish that is downstream, under cover, and slurping bugs off …

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Open to Fishing (Once Again)

Back at the tail end of June, things were pretty dry in Virginia’s piedmont region. I was down there in July, and saw the low flows with my own eyes. Rivers and creeks weren’t dried up. But low flows and high temperatures are a perfect combination for stressing out coldwater fish. Add in the high …

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