Ice (Fly) Fishing

January 6, 2021

This is not a joke. To be fair: I have contemplated creating a satirical article advocating casting across the ice into a small, drilled hole. This is not that article.

This is an article that legitimately discusses fly fishing when there is ice present. It is brief, but it is an overview of what you can/can’t and should/shouldn’t do around ice.

While there are some things I caution against below there are also a lot of opportunities. Ice forming is a natural and normal part of the seasonal cycle of a river. Understanding it, and how fish react to it, is wise and helpful for fly fishing.

Here are five things to think about if your favorite trout stream has ice in, on, or around it:

All Things Bright & Beautiful

January 4, 2021

My mother told me that my grandma would read Casting Across now and then. She wasn’t a fly fisher. She just liked reading about what her grandson was doing.

She passed away last week at the age of 89.

Some of my earliest memories involve my grandma and grandpa. They were remarkable people. They also lived on a farm. Combines, corn fields, and cattle make quite the impact on a little boy. And as a little boy I spent a lot of time with grandma and grandpa on the farm.

Bottle feeding lambs. Counting puppies as they are born. Climbing into the hayloft to see baby doves. Hearing coyotes yap in the distance. Finding raccoon tracks. Dodging ornery bulls. Creeping around the barn to catch a glimpse of owls. Naming dozens of cats. Flushing pheasants.

Podcast Ep. 112: Fly Fishing Resolutions, 20/21

January 1, 2021

I don’t make a lot of New Year’s resolutions. Sure, I decide to do a lot of things… they just happen to be more spur of the moment than calendar-based.

However, I do like to think about my fly fishing on an annual basis. Perhaps it stems from buying licenses on January 1st for so many years. This year I offer up three resolutions for fly fishing. Maybe you’ll want to take one of them for yourself. Maybe you’ll simply copy the exercise. At a minimum, I hope you’ll enjoy thinking about your fishing in the coming year.

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

Casting Across: A “Top 3” Year in Review

December 30, 2020

Happy (early) New Year from Casting Across!

First of all: Thank you for reading, listening, and being a part of Casting Across. With everything that 2020 brought, this website, podcast, and community has been a positive constant. Hopefully something I wrote or said helped you get on the water and get through the difficulty of the year.

While I don’t spend a lot of time looking at stats, I do try to take an inventory every once in a while to see what people are reading. Since the end of the calendar year is as good of a benchmark as any, I thought I’d share some “top 3” lists from the past 12 months on Casting Across. I’ve included:

Articles published in 2020
Articles, overall
Podcasts
“Clicks”

Check out the lists, including links to all the articles, below:

2020 via Casting Across

December 28, 2020

This year, 2020. This weird, awful, ridiculous year.

But looking at these nine little thumbnail images is a reminder that there was a lot of good. A lot of good. In fact, these “top nine” pictures represent a mere fraction of the blessings that came in 2020. For one, they’re all only related to fly fishing. If my social media reflected the wider spectrum of my life there would be at least eight different images shown above.

Casting Across is about fly fishing though. Fly fishing is a part of my life, and was a part of my 2020. Here are nine good moments from this past year: read more

Podcast Ep. 111: Fly Fishing Storytime

December 25, 2020

Merry Christmas from Casting Across!

Since this episode is being released on the night of Christmas Eve, I thought I’d go ahead and do something a little different.

Nostalgia and tradition is a big part of the holiday season. Stories of those who came before us and the way things used to be come part and parcel with this time of the year. So along with the normal segments on the podcast, I’ll read some selections from The American Angler’s book (1864).

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

Rusty Flybox: Merry Christmas!

December 23, 2020

Merry (early) Christmas from Casting Across!

I’ve got something fun for you to unwrap today. Three things, to be precise. Whether you’ve been naughty (bobbers?) or nice (strike indicators!), feel free to crack into them a couple days before the main event.

The first item is a new spin on an old holiday classic. Instead of lords a-leaping and turtledoves, I’ve got some of the less desirable species that swim in our waterways. Of course, liking weird fish is cool these days.
Up next is another song. This is a celebration of the most despicable and despised style of fly out there. The fly that intends to suck the joy out of little dry fly purists’ dreams.
Last? Ideas to get you on the water and away from the… whatever you have going on otherwise. It is the holidays, but that means it is the holidays.

Check out each article, below:

Glam Rock & Golden Rainbows

December 21, 2020

The first fish was a fat palomino. They’re bright anyway. Too bright. Unnaturally bright. Genetically modified bright, in fact. This one came out from underneath a tangled mess of roots against the bank to nail a small white streamer. Palominos get picked on. This fish had apparently had enough and it took it out on my fly. The muted orange and yellow from the tannic water hid the brilliance of the hatchery monster. I’d caught palominos before, but never in the middle of a dark winter day. The fish shone like the sun.

But I’ve got too much pride as a fly fisher to go on too much about palominos.

The next few fish weren’t caught on the little white streamer. They fell prey to a #28 cream midge. Certain times of the year I have to fish dry flies. It is a period that begins in January and extends right up until after Christmas. And the smaller, the better. I figure there is some kind of advantage to tying on something most other anglers are too smart to mess with in frigid temperatures. Get noticed by standing out in the crowd. Which, in this instance, means blending in with all the real bugs. It is a bit of a contradiction. But fish aren’t smart enough to pronounce “oxymoron” – let alone grasp the concept.

You Can Never Go Wrong With Flies

December 16, 2020

Gift-giving season is upon us. When done right, it is a very special opportunity. Strip away the stress and the commercialism and the price tags. What are you left with? A chance to find something that will make somebody smile. If that person is a fly fisher, flies may very well do the trick.

Flies are everywhere. Flies are inexpensive. Flies are fun. Flies are necessary.

Even if the person you’re buying for has thousands upon thousands of flies already in their possession, a few more aren’t going to hurt. In fact, their next favorite pattern might be something they have never owned before… but it is something that you’ll give them.

Could the flies you tie turn out to be stinkers? Maybe. Could the knowledgeable and helpful shop employee pick out some flies that aren’t the most useful? Possibly. Are they going to be irredeemable? No. Not one bit.

And here’s a few reasons why: