My Top 3 Apps for Fly Fishing

For all their distractions and hindrances, smartphones can really improve your outdoor experience. Getting an email from work or a robo-call while on the water is certainly obnoxious. Still, locating a trail, identifying an insect, and photographing the beauty of nature are all great uses for the ubiquitous pocket technology. And everything we do, we do on an app.

Don’t worry. This isn’t an article extoling the value of spot-burning, subscription-based apps. Also, it isn’t going to be any sort of recommendation to sign up for another social media  profile.

But the smartphone applications I’ll be sharing aren’t true fly fishing apps either. Look up at the title again: “My Top 3 Apps for Fly Fishing.” Whether they were programmed for anglers to find value in them or not, I am constantly tapping on these three icons. These are programs that I’ve installed and use on a regular basis to help me prepare for or reflect back on my time on the water.

read more

Podcast Ep. 141: Fish Fight, part 1

Getting a fish to bite is a lot harder than fighting it to your hand.

Still, there are some things that should be thought about when you’re playing a fish. From the hook set to the release, there are a couple of bad maneuvers that anglers should avoid. Furthermore, there are some things that will make the entire process less stressful for both you and the fish.

Today I go beyond the basics and talk about a couple of fish fighting things to consider.

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

read more

Dams & Fly Fishing Media

Where and how do you get your fly fishing content online?

That might sound like a loaded question. A dozen anglers might give you thirteen different answers. Just like the last generation had allegiences to authors or magazines, today’s anglers swipe to the same digital providers with devoted thumbs. And there are a lot of options to keep both thumbs occupied late into the night. Social media has spawned a thick run of content creators filling every available feeding lane and vying for prime holding spots.

The biggest, oldest, and wisest fish get the heads of the pools. They’ve grown strong and secure from decades of providing real benefits to fly fishers. Small fry often burst from their safe obscurity, only to flop onto the bank to die in the sun after spending too much time and money on a nifty logo design. Most outlets fall into that solid slot size; sticking with it and putting up a good fight every once in a while. The ecosystem is pretty self-regulating. Fly fishers know what they want, and they know how to find it. But every once in a while, the internet throws a dam somewhere in a once free-flowing watershed.

Case in point: social media referrals (think exposure leading to clicks) to Casting Across have taken a huge hit in the past month.

read more

All Rising Fish

I’m sure you’ve seen videos of giant New Zealand brown trout blowing up a dry fly. The only fish for a hundred yards is stalked, observed, and chased with tactical precision. When everything goes right, the water explodes with the most furious salmonid intensity,

But again, I’m sure you’ve seen videos of this happening. You probably haven’t been there. Me either.

That doesn’t mean that there aren’t some exciting dry fly seasons on our local trout streams. Every once in a while, the trout around you and me decide against their better judgment to chase floating insects. Most of their food is tumbling helplessly right towards them. But trout, being magnanimous in nature, will throw fly fishers a bone every once in a while and sip the surface. This makes us very happy.

Only in recent years have fly fishers truly embraced tactics other than the dry fly. Large streamers satiate the most attention-deficient angler. Nymphs… well, they work. And western man is quite pragmatic in even his recreational pursuits.

read more

Podcast Ep. 140: Fly Fishing Accusations, XIV

You’ve got questions, I’ve got (my own stabs at) answers.

This week, I’ve got three great emails to share on the podcast. Two have to do with gear, one pertains to the small and coincidental world that is fly fishing.

As always, I appreciate getting emails, messages through the website, and interaction through social media. Casting Across isn’t a fly shop or trout town pub, but it is always fun to have a little back and forth with like minded people.

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

read more

Why I Got Skunked: A Handy Excuse Guide

The trope is that all anglers lie about catching fish.

That isn’t fair. Moreover, it isn’t even close to accurate. Anglers lie about not catching fish.

We all know the real reason why you’re not catching fish: you couldn’t do it. They’re simple organisms that simply pursue basic biological impulses. How are you supposed to contend with that? Sure, you could use a worm and a bobber. But you’ve decided to up the difficulty and give the homely and modest fish the advantage. And they’ve taken that advantage… not your fly.

There is no reason to simply shrug when you’re called to the carpet for your empty creel. If you can’t get creative enough to catch a fish, at least use some creativity in the excuses that you give.

I’ve divided the excuse arsenal into eight categories. And yes, I did use alliteration:

read more

Throwback Gear Review: Scott Alpha Series

Fly fishing gear is a big part of Casting Across. I’ve always enjoyed the aesthetics, the marketing, and, most importantly, the function of fly fishing gear. Consequently, I’ll review new products on the site from time to time. But appreciating fly fishing gear shouldn’t only be about  the latest model or newest technology. The things that you’ve fished with for years – for decades ought to be celebrated as well.

It is in that spirit that I put together this gear review. Although some products are old or even out of production, their value compounds with use, experience, and familiarity. We should enjoy what we use when we fly fish, especially if we’ve enjoyed it for a long time.

Prior to the summer of 2001, I had never fished in the salt water before. My friend and I were graduating from high school, and his parents invited me to join them for a week on Florida’s Gulf Coast. The promise of a week of redfish, snook, sea trout, and maybe even a tarpon was enough to get my eyes on every fly fishing catalog in my possession. Because, having never fished in the salt prior to that summer, I didn’t own anything heavier than a six-weight.

Early that spring I grabbed the fist-sized roll of 20s I had accumulated  and headed to the fly shop. Being in high school, and saving for my first year of college, I was on a relatively tight budget. Cash available for rod, reel, and line totaled in at around $450 or so. I was able to cast a handful of fly rods.  20 years ago, many rods in that price range were on the bottom end of most manufacturers’ line ups. After an hour or so one fly rod stood out among the rest.

read more

Podcast Ep. 139: Not too Hot for Trout

A common solution for conservation-minded anglers that place stewardship above sport is to lay off the fly fishing for a month or two.

But does that mean that fishing for trout is off limits in July and August? Are bass and carp the only fair game in the heat of summer? (As if these fish don’t have temperature thresholds…)

As is the case in most circumstances, if a “smarter not harder” mindset is employed the fly fisher can absolutely still fish for trout throughout the warmest times of the year. Here are three things to consider.

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

read more

14 & Fly Fishing

I was 14 years old the first time I went fly fishing. This means that I’ve been fly fishing for well over half my life. Also, fly fishing has been something that has been part of my life more, from a cumulative perspective, than I lived with my parents, that I’ve known my wife, or that I’ve spend time in any one home.

Being a new angler as a teenager entailed some trade-offs. I couldn’t drive myself anywhere. But I could also fish without buying a license for those first few years. Living in northern Virginia, that meant if I could get there then I could fish there for free. I took advantage of generous angling mentors and friends, travelling in-state as well as to nearby Maryland, DC, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. But what money I did make was absolutely spent on gear. I didn’t want to party. I didn’t want the latest and greatest shoes. I wanted fly fishing gear.

Although it meant that some of that money had to go towards licenses, turning sixteen also meant autonomous transportation. I’d eat fast food and sleep in my car. Suddenly, the woods and waters held more allure than the football field and the wrestling mat. I also had parents that encouraged my growing obsession. Having your son be into fly fishing rather than all of the typical teen goings-on is a pretty easy pill to swallow.  I wasn’t a saint, but I was always more into mischief and fishing than real trouble.

read more

Red, White, & Bluegill

It’s the 5th of July. I’m here to declare another kind of independence. You, my fly fishing friend, are invited to secede right along with me.

Maybe you don’t feel like you’re living under an unbearable burden. Perhaps there are no angling shackles upon your casting arm. But if there is even the slightest chance that you need to get behind this pronouncement, stand up and salute:

It’s just fishing.

read more