One of the biggest drawbacks to the last year has been the significant reduction in organic conversation. Sure, there are still opportunities to get together. It just isn’t as easy. However, I’ve had an uptick in online interaction with listeners and readers of Casting Across. I’m always happy to get messages, and I do my …
“Hey Matthew, what do you think about…” I’d be lying if I said that my inbox was inundated with questions about my opinion on various things in the fly fishing community. But it does happen. Moreover, it happens quite often when hanging out with angling acquaintances. Between Casting Across and my own general interest, I’ve …
Most fly fishers are different. Its the long rod and the thick line. Its the flourished casting such gear requires. Its the trappings and the stereotypes (and the counter-culture trappings and stereotypes within fly fishing). Day to day, we blend in with most normal folk. But on the water? That is where we’re different. We’re …
Unless the circumstances are exceptional, the pivotal men and women of fly fishing history can’t offer you hands-on, in the stream instruction. Their mentoring must occur in the pages of a book or journal; their words and deeds informing and influencing through a necessary medium. Whether you have a “real life” mentor or not, these …
“No one knows what tomorrow holds.” …but the sun is going to rise. There will be a long line at the popular coffee shop. Deadlines at work and school will come and go. Children will still require bedtime routines, and the same sitcom reruns will minister to worn-out parents. We know a lot of what …
This podcast episode is really a 4-in-1. And you get to listen to it at your normal price – I guarantee it. First: 5 years of Casting Across! I talk a little bit about why and how the website came to be. Second: I explain why people are the greatest benefit I’ve received through my …
“You should do it. You should write about fly fishing.” We had spent the day fishing the West Branch of the Delaware, A number of fat brown trout came to hand, fooled by sulpher emergers. After the mist and the dark made seeing difficult and wading treacherous, we retreated to a riverside pub. “You’d be …
Always talk about religion and politics when you go fly fishing. And why wouldn’t you? Perhaps you have been told that such subjects are taboo for the dinner table, the break room, or the morning train. But maybe that is part of what is wrong with society. We can’t handle a difference of opinion. Furthermore, …
Every week I approach podcast recording time with a handful of ideas. Most fill up a 20 minute episode. Some are a little more brief, derivative, or otherwise not enough. This episode is a compilation of 4 or 5 topics, only strung together by the common thread of fly fishing. There is some theory, some …
Road trip! Depending upon your particular experiences, that phrase might elicit great joy or terrible fear. But what if you have a fly rod in the car? Or, what if you’ve had a fly rod in the car while taking that same route in the past? Adding a little fishing to a longer drive can …
