Last week I published “Gone Fishing: Skunk.” For those of you who have been following Casting Across for a few months, you might be aware that I post the Gone Fishing series from time to time. If you are uninitiated, these posts are photographs only. No words. No trademark wit. No wading through obtuse vocabulary. …
Fridays on Casting Across are devoted to other people’s contributions in the fly fishing community. Articles, pictures, social media accounts, videos, podcasts, products, and more will be featured on The Last Cast of the Week. Today, I’m sharing items from Blue Lines, Fiberglass Fly Rods / Fiberglass Manifesto, and The Fly Shack. If you’d like …
Taking a trip to go fly fishing is a special experience. Whether it is a monthly occurrence or something that happens only once a year, taking an excursion of at least a few nights to fish is distinctly enjoyable. There is a lot that goes into that distinctive experience. Being away from home, work, and …
I woke up that morning in the apartment that my wife and I rented in downtown Florence. The noises of the nuns bustling about in the courtyard below were the first reminders that I wasn’t home. After getting everything prepped – train tickets, extra pants and socks, a wad of Euros to pay and tip …
I started fly fishing at a young age. With a few silver spoon exceptions, teenage anglers generally share a particular trait while on the water: Don’t lose a fly, at any cost. This means that sleeves get rolled up to the shoulder to pry a streamer from a log at the bottom of the stream. …
There are a few moments in fly fishing that exist crystallized in your mind. A first fish, a large trout sipping a dry fly, a trophy tarpon. These events stick with us as anglers for a lifetime. They find their way into our subconscious, rising up from the depths as we warmly regard times on …
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 …
“There is an appointed time for everything.” That is how the second chapter of the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes begins. What follows is the list of things for which there is “a time.” A list, if you weren’t the Sunday School type, you may know from The Byrd’s cover of Pete Seeger’s “Turn! Turn! …
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 …
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 …
