If you own a bamboo fly rod, you’ve probably spent a good amount of time reading various approaches to maintenance. The nature of the grass blanks and metal ferrules leads to some necessary, extra attention. If you own graphite or fiberglass fly rods, hopefully you’ve also put some effort into keeping your fishing gear clean. …
If you fish enough to wear out a fly line over the course of a season, you should absolutely tie a leader to your fly line with a nail knot. The result is a smooth connection that will not only slide through your guides with ease, but also facilitate the best transfer of energy. In …
Why have more than one pair of sunglasses? Why spend a lot of time creating loop-to-loop line/leader connections? Why listen to anything I say? I answer those questions, and a few more, on this week’s podcast. Thanks for listening and for subscribing. I always appreciate getting feedback, and have a lot of fun interacting with …
Two years ago I wrote an article on one of my favorite ways to experience nature and fly fishing: trail running. Along with the exercise and the challenge, it gets me deeper into unfished and wild places quickly. That post generated a lot of interest, and there is a link below. Running into the woods …
There are days when I leave my car in the morning and don’t see it again until I’m ready to call it quits. Those are good, long days of fly fishing. Just as frequently, I’ll fish a little bit here and then head over there to fish that hole. Maybe I’ll leave the river to …
I have a few core beliefs about tools: A tool should have enough flexibility to be used in a number of situations, or… A tool should perform a singular and necessary task well enough to justify it’s presence A tool should be priced so that it can be used without too much concern or thought …
Double-hauling a size 18 Parachute Adams out into the middle of a pond on a windy day is not my normal fly fishing. But some days that is where the fish are, and that is what they’re biting. It was what was in front of me and I had to figure out a way to …
Fly fishing is about the experience, not the labels or the quality of your gear. …but you need gear to fish, right? And if you need gear, it means picking one label over another. And that means money is a factor. So what do you do? In this episode, I quickly go through a dozen …
How many fly rods do you own? How many of those rods are within one line-weight designation of another? It is very normal to own an 8-, 9-, and 10-weight. Many trout anglers have multiple 5-weight rods; each with a different length or flex profile, each giving him or her an advantage as the situation …
My first key chain came from Cabela’s. It was a Royal Wulff dry fly encased in an oval of resin. It accompanied the two or three keys I needed at the end of high school and beginning of college. It met its untimely demise when I threw my keys out of frustration after blowing out …
