Introducing the Fly Shop Box

Fly shops are a vital part of the culture of fly fishing. Beyond a business providing flies and rods, they often function as hubs for education and community. While online “fly shops” have their place and provide gear to anglers, real brick and mortar stores provide soul.

The Casting Across Fly Shop Box is an online directory of fly shops. It gives you an opportunity to see where there are stores around you or around where you’ll be travelling.

A few answers to some good questions:

  • Can’t I just Google “fly shop near me”? Of course. However, you’d be surprised how many fly shops don’t show up on a simple search.
  • Why isn’t [big chain outdoor store] on the list? From personal experience, I can say that I’ve been to many Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s locations where the fly fishing employees know their stuff and offer great customer service. But there is certainly a difference in a traditional fly shop and a big box store.
  • Why isn’t the rod building store, gas station with a great fly assortment, or lodge pro shop included? I can appreciate how locations like these can actually be as helpful as some full-orbed shops. Once again, these locations are great but they don’t check all the boxes of my admittedly arbitrary criteria.
  • Why did you miss [shop]? Because I’m human. Send me any misses or corrections here.
  • Where are Alaska, Hawaii, and international fly shops? They’re there… just not here, yet.
  • I don’t like [shop]. You know what? There are some shops on this list I’ve had bad experiences with, too. And that isn’t a question.
  • Could you [implement this web feature] to make this page a lot more user-friendly? I’m not the most web-savvy guy out there, but I am tinkering with ways to make the Fly Shop Box better.

Take a look around, and make some plans to head to a fly shop near you or near where you’ll be fishing:

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Podcast Ep. 252: Allow Myself to Introduce Myself

Who is this guy you listen to every week?

Valid question. In fact, I think that it is incredibly helpful to know at least a little something about the life, experiences, and worldview of the author you’re reading. Or podcaster you’re hearing.

So this week, in incredibly short (and arbitrarily scheduled) fashion, I give you a little bit of an introduction to who I am. Perhaps it will give you some insight into Casting Across. Or you may potentially find some parallel aspects of our lives. Either way, thanks for listening!

Listen to the episode below, or on your favorite podcast app.

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He Needs to Know

“He needs to know what kind of fishing it is going to be.”

My wife was all for the 11 year old joining me on a trip to a tiny, tight, brook trout creek. Being a mom, she also had the intuition to identify some vital qualifiers of which he needed to be apprised. Casting was going to be difficult. The fish were going to be small. Dad was going to be fishing. Of course, I would help in a knot/wading/sasquatch emergency: but she wanted to protect my angling interests.

He accepted the terms, loaded up his sling pack, and hopped in the car. We headed into the woods and onto one of my favorite local creeks. It was rough going for a bit, but he did well. I stuck close and gave some quick pointers, trying not to overwhelm him as he is capable of learning from trial and error. The trout were spooky. He had some strike at his foam beetle. None came to hand. He still had fun. That’s all that matters.

Walking back to the car, I tried to distill my approach to these tiny creeks down into a few pointers. Here are the four things I told him he needs to do to fish small streams well:

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Happy Inevitable Transitions

Close up camp. Back to school. Don’t wear white. Labor Day does not sound like a whole lot of fun.

But summer is only a short nine months away. And fall is pretty spectacular. Plus there is the fact that you can’t alter the rotation of the earth and the resultant seasons so there is no point in fretting about the inevitable anyway, of course. Such is the transitory nature of life.

One such transition is a “last day of the season” of sorts. Depending on where you live, there are opening days and closing days for certain fisheries. Trout, in particular, are governed with such rules. To protect spawning populations, fish and games says that you don’t gotta go home but you can’t fish here.

Or, you could have some self-imposed opening and closing days. Your own stewardship of a creek means that you’re making some personal decisions about when to fish and when not to fish.

For me, Labor Day marks one such closing day for one particular trout stream. It teems with little brookies. It is off the radar. It is my plan for this afternoon. It is a good transition into fall.

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Podcast Ep. 251: Fly Fishing Accusations, XXV

Every 10 episodes I read and respond to listener and reader feedback. This 25th edition of this facet of the Casting Across Fly Fishing Podcast includes the most diverse sources to date.

Today I interact with a Facebook comment, a YouTube question,  and a conversation at Dunkin’ Donuts.

Yes. A conversation at Dunkin’ Donuts.

I’m confident that something I cover in this week’s podcast will be relevant to you and your angling. And as always, thanks for all your questions, comments, and accusations.

Listen to the episode below, or on your favorite podcast app.

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The Best Fly Fishing Headlamp

Can’t see well? I could, because I had a headlamp

A headlamp lives in most of my fly fishing packs. When I’m out for a long time or I’m far from the car, it goes in for emergencies. If I’ll be fishing into the evening, it goes in for safety and out of necessity. I usually have one in the back of the car all time time, too.

But any headlamp won’t do. Sure, whatever you grab from the Home Depot checkout line will be a lamp that straps to your head. It won’t be the best piece of gear for fishing, though.

For the purposes of safety, performance, and investment, I’ve outlined four things that I look for in a good headlamp. And it bears mentioning: you can get a good headlamp for under $50. Many at this price point will do all you need for some night fishing or general outdoors activities. With that kind of MSRP, you really can easily pick up the best for your fishing.

Here are four things your fly fishing headlamp should do:

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Disaster & Action on Beaver Creek

A Beaver Creek brown trout from 2017.

Earlier this month, hundreds of dead trout floated through the fly fishing only section of Maryland’s Beaver Creek. Authorities have yet to pinpoint the ultimate cause, but heavy rainfall over heavy-use agricultural and industrial lands bordering the stream is likely a significant part of the picture. The same environment that produces fertile spring creeks filled with fat trout also makes for prized farmland, mining opportunities, and even the kind of aesthetic backdrop that estate developers covet. Even with statute upon statute from the EPA and other agencies, even the most well-buffered stream can be impacted. Torrential rainfall only exacerbates the problem.

This is a story that Mid Atlantic  anglers have heard before. Trout in a famous spring creek  70 miles to the north were virtually wiped out in the early 80’s. Pennsylvania’s Letort Spring Run was the jewel of the Cumberland Valley and a darling of fly fishing magazines. A watercress farm in the headwaters applied an insecticide that eliminated over 90% of fish and insect life downstream.

It is something that the angler, conservationist, or anyone sensitive to our stewardship of the planet hates to see. Decades of protection can be undone by one mistake, one thoughtless individual, or one unexplainable event.

Is there hope for Beaver Creek?

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Podcast Ep. 250: Guests for the 250th

250 episodes. That is a quarter of the way to a really impressive benchmark.

But let’s not focus too much on the future.

Today, I break my format rules and bring three guests into the studio. We talk travel, big bass, and fall dreams. There is also a very serious discussion regarding gummy bears.

Thanks for listening; whether this be your first time with Casting Across or your 250th.

Listen to the episode below, or on your favorite podcast app.

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Rusty Flybox: Birthday

So this weekend happens to be my birthday. And it isn’t any birthday. It is one of those birthdays. A big, round number that seemed decades and decades away only a matter of years ago is upon me.

But I don’t think it is going to be all that bad.

What it does give me an opportunity to do is share some older articles that reach back into time (not quite) immemorial. I guess that makes it time memorial. I digress.

Below, you’ll find stories that came out of:

  • My first fish
  • My first fish on a fly rod

& one other thing on the website that goes largely unnoticed.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll save a piece of pie (pie > cake) for you.

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River Apollo, VI

Paul’s name was not Paul. The name on his driver’s license was Apollo. His parents, particularly his mother, were living more like Andy Warhol than Andy Griffith around the time of his birth. There was a lot of experimentation in their life. And seeing as they weren’t particularly engrossed in Greek or Roman mythology, Paul considered their choice to name an unremarkable suburban Caucasian baby “Apollo” to be the zenith of their quest to experiment.

He didn’t mind the name on it’s own. What he didn’t enjoy was the conversation that inevitably occurred when he had to give the back story to the rare individual who discovered his true identity. No, I’m not into the space program. No, I’m not a big fan of the Rocky movies. No, I don’t have a twin sister named Artemis.

“Paul” is not only a common name, but it is a legitimate shortening of Apollo. He had no ill will towards his parents. This modified moniker, in his mind, maintained an appropriate level of respect for them. Paul is a low-profile name, and it is one that he wished he would have adopted much earlier in life.

This is part 6 of the story. Read the beginning of River Apollo here.

Paul pulled up to the Lions Clubs building that hosts the monthly Trout Unlimited meetings. The Spring Meadow chapter had been going strong for nearly 30 years. The members had done some truly remarkable things for the protection and conservation of cold water resources over the decades. Many of the local creeks had been polluted, scoured, and channelized at some point in the past two centuries. The time and finances garnered to restore some of the region’s creeks was truly respectable.

These sentiments Paul played over and over in his mind as he shut off his engine and sat in his front seat. It was 6:58. He gave himself another minute and a half’s worth of a pep talk. Flies with honey, and all that, he thought.

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