If you want to guarantee that you’ll get rained on, forget your tent’s rainfly. I believe in providence; not luck or coincidence or karma or Murphy’s law. The handful of times I have neglected to ensure that I’m completely protected from precipitation are, in fact, the nights when the heavens have opened up. Waking up …
It feels like only yesterday that fly rod companies were advertising every new offering as FAST. Rods for trout, striper, and everything in between touted quicker action that produced longer casts with greater accuracy. Of course, there are always trade-offs. For many models, this meant reduced sensitivity and feel. Still, some builders produced some quick-action …
There are very few things that an angler can control while fly fishing. You can’t force a fish to be in a spot. You can’t demand that a fish eat your fly. And, of course, you are totally unable to dictate weather and water flows. But you can control your cast. In this episode I …
With Halloween candy wrappers still blowing down the sidewalk, another sign of the season appear within mailboxes all over the country. Even in a digital age, where millions of products are just a hey Siri away, Christmas catalogs still hold a place in the cultural consumer calendar. For the outdoorsman, one wish book is a …
The river was around 40 yards wide. The fog was so thick that halfway across it was impossible to make out the opposite bank. Which means, halfway across, it was impossible to see either bank. The cold water from the bottom of the deep reservoir usually elicited a mist over the water on warm summer …
One of my favorite parts of Casting Across is that it keeps me close to an industry that I have truly come to appreciate. The people in and around fly fishing are, in my opinion, a great and diverse group. Over the past six years, my writing and speaking have given me more chances to …
I had something planned for today, for the 6th Anniversary of Casting Across. The plan was to share some of the highs and lows of writing and talking about fly fishing three times a week for six years. There were some angling stories, some life events, and some interesting perspectives that come from recording my …
I wanted to try my hand at waterfowl hunting for a few years. Living in Massachusetts, procuring the appropriate paperwork to exercise the most mild form of my second amendment rights wasn’t the most expedient process. Add in a pandemic, and what I planned on doing in 2019 didn’t materialize until this fall. This past …
Inevitably, you’ve heard about the “four stages of the angler.” I don’t know who first came up with this timeline, but I do think it holds true. That being said, I don’t necessarily agree that it is as linear as is often implied. Often times progress means building upon the foundations you have already laid …
Over the years I have accumulated a lot of fly fishing gear. There are quite a few rods and reels. I have flies designed for fish I’ll never see. There are also more pairs of nippers and forceps than a reasonable person should own. Bottles of floatant, packets of strike indicators, and sinking agents provide …
