I shot this deer earlier in the year and trailed it until after midnight, when my friend and I lost the blood trail. I was sick over losing it and had gone back out a few times to find the carcass. Friends of my friend found him a week ago. I should get his skull …
According to the internet and common sense, fish have small brains. Eating food, making baby fish, and not being dead are really all they have/need to process. They don’t get hung up on existential hypotheticals, five year plans, or even if their new sling pack really meets all their needs. The cerebral existence of a …
A quick flip through a tackle catalog or a scroll through Instragram will clearly demonstrate the charm that aesthetically pleasing fly rods have for fly fishers. Detailed graphics, bright colors, and custom cork designs on handles are “in.” Obviously fish are lining up to be caught by anglers who use prettier gear, so it makes …
Part of the outdoors experience includes the unforeseen encounters out in nature. Coming down the path to see a black bear retreating into the woods. Stumbling upon the ruins of an old moonshine still in the Carolina mountains. Watching an osprey dive from the canopy to take the rising trout you’d been watching. You could …
Recently I wrote about how, even in the winter, fish have to eat. That is all fine and good. It means that we can be out on the water all year. However, there are conditions that need to be met for us to go fishing. Conditions that transcend temperature, vacation time, and permission from a …
“Number… four!” he said, with a delight unseen up until this point in the conversation. Number four, as it would have it, was the campsite furthest from where we requested to spend the night. We paid our twenty bucks and quietly left the office. Driving past more desirable tent sites, heading further and further away …
I began fly fishing at the age of fourteen. When I turned 30 a few years back it struck me that not only had I been involved in the sport in one way or another for over half my life, but that I’d been fly fishing for longer than I’d known my wife or lived …
“Fish have to eat.” If I had a dollar for every time I’ve said that. If you’re a fly fisher, and you’ve gone out in the winter in pursuit of fish, you may have offered that same phrase as part of your explanation to a skeptic. Friends, family members, and concerned passersby might be puzzled …
Today I’ll be attending the Fly Fishing Show in Marlborough, Massachusetts. I’ve come prepared with a camera, a notebook, comfortable shoes, and enough money to get into only a little bit of trouble. I’m planning on spending the day seeing familiar faces, meeting new folks, and, well, buying stuff. Next week I plan on …
I’m not afraid of snakes. What I’m not a fan of is their snaky-ness. Herpetologically speaking, this is the trait that snakes possess that allows them to surprise you. Rarely does one see a snake coming from a long distance off, as you would with a bison or a truck full of rural folk. The …
