I’m going to keep a good thing going! Last week was all about fly shops on Casting Across. It started with two companion pieces, each listing 25 of the top rated fly shop in each state. That was followed with a podcast episode where I asked, and answered, what makes the good fly shops good? …
He said he owned a stream. A stream with big trout in it. His plan was to charge a daily rod fee for the opportunity to fish in his stream with big trout in it. That was why he was in the fly shop. To see if we would advertise his stream and the trout. …
Fly fishing for trout in still water – lakes and ponds – is a different game than pursuing fish in moving water. Most of us have caught trout from a pond by just casting to rising fish or stripping a woolly bugger. That works. But there is much more to this type of fly fishing. …
What are you good at in fly fishing? Any sampling of fly fishing media will inevitably yield a majority of articles, videos, and posts telling you “how to.” (Casting Across is certainly not above that, to be fair.) And it makes sense. We all want to get better. We want to cast better. We want …
It feels like I was laying on that rock for hours. Like I got there in broad daylight and left as night approached. However long it really was, it was a long time. I wasn’t hurt. I wasn’t catching fish after fish. I wasn’t exactly having fun laying on the rock. I was trying to …
Waders and wading boots are often afterthoughts in fly fishing gear discussions. But if you fish a lot, would you rather have a great fly rod and mediocre boots or a mediocre fly rod and great boots? I don’t think I’m overstating things when I say that another few feet of “castability” isn’t going to …
Let me be clear: I did virtually everything I should have done beforehand. The rod was stored disassembled, in it’s sock, in it’s tube, sealed. Nothing was applied to the male ferrule. No paraffin, no candle wax, and definitely no nose grease. I know that there are different sides to this debate, but rod makers …
A bluebird morning quickly turned dark and ominous. Not coincidentally, a fish-less morning quickly turned interesting. It seemed like perfect conditions: a warm, still, spring morning. There were bugs in the air. No one else was in the parking lot, and there weren’t any fresh boot tracks on any of the trails. The only thing …
Sunday is a busy day for me. Consequently, Sunday is a busy day for my family. We still have time for rest and recreation, but bigger plans usually get pushed off to Monday. Of course, Father’s Day falls on a Sunday. Truth be told, I’m not a huge fan of second-tier holidays. I’m not offended …
I had never been fly fishing, but I decided that a fly fishing vest would be a good investment. In junior high, the multi-pocketed khaki vest certainly didn’t have anything to do with style. Tommy Hilfiger t-shirts, baggy jeans, and puffy white Filas were preferable. As is probably the case with everyone, I must have …
