The Colorado River and its surrounding lands are known for natural beauty and abundant outdoor activities. About 50 miles upstream from Grand Canyon National Park, the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area encompasses Lake Powell in Utah and the water below the Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona. The winding river, with countless channels, coves, and tributaries, …
The trout was holding just on the far side of a deep cut in the middle of the stream. Flitting back and forth, it would dart into the fast water to quickly eat an insect before returning to the gentler current. I watched the fish range a good eighteen inches into the swifter flow. My …
All fly fishers love fly shops. These stores stand as the brick and mortar embodiment of fly fishing culture. Fly shops are about more than buying gear. They are usually just off the banks of water productive enough to warrant a full-time angling retail option. The people employed are almost always passionate about the sport, …
Family vacation. There are lots and lots of choices of where to go. As long as everyone has a good time and stays in good spirits, where is just a backdrop. Amusement parks. Big cities. The ocean or the mountains. Or, somewhere you’ve spent time fly fishing. Even though I’ve often advocated for squeezing even …
“What is that screenshot all about?” you might ask. Well, this past weekend someone at the Washington State Department of Natural Resources tweeted it out of the park. Take it in again. That is funny. Especially for a part of the country that is notoriously sensitive to people’s feelings and whatnot, it is incredibly funny. …
Over the years on Casting Across I’ve advocated that fly fishers diversify their outdoor experience. The singular focus of catching trout with a dry fly is a stereotype that serves as a punching bag within our little culture. But I’d argue that only fly fishing is less than one standard deviation away from that stuffy …
If you’re throwing fish back, you never catch a mess of fish. You can catch a lot or a bunch. You might even have a great day where they were hitting everything you were throwing at them. Great memories, beautiful pictures, and stories that will last a lifetime: but you can’t say that you caught …
I’ve gone through periods of time in my life where my feeling towards “fishing shows” have vacillated. As a teenager, they were one aspect of my hungry outdoor education. When I was spending an inordinate time in the woods and on the water in my 20’s, all they seemed to do was make me antsy …
What is reading water? At the most basic level, it is the process by which an angler determines where fish are most likely to be. By assessing a number of variables, it is possible to figure out which parts of a river have the highest percentage of holding fish. But what becomes an intuitive process …
I do enjoy writing funny fly fishing stuff. To be honest, it is a lot harder than how-to and gear review writing. In large part, this is because people don’t have a good senses of humor. (Good senses of humor are defined, you see, as that which is relatively similar to the sense of humor …
