I’m not going to brag and say that I’m some kind of fallfish catching phenom. I’ll simply let the evidence speak for itself. At a purely quantitative level, I’m super good at catching fallfish. Want proof? I hauled in some real fine specimens the last time I went out. Which, it just so happened, was …
Cold cut through every exposed inch of skin like a knife. Wool and fleece and neoprene worked in unison but were unable to achieve success. Numbed fingers struggled with the most basic knots; hope was used as much as monofilament. The stream was the only moving thing in the stark winter landscape. Patches of snow …
If you were to write a classic fly fishing story you’d start with an existential statement. Maybe something about water or wind or the challenge of catching a fish. You’d develop it a bit. Then, you’d launch into the metaphor. Because this is real fly fishing writing, and everything is a metaphor for something else. …
The International Fly Tackle Dealer Show has returned to beautiful Colorado! For three days, fly fishing companies will be showing off their latest and greatest to others in the industry. While the purpose of the event is to cultivate relationships and broker deals, many fly fishers keep an eye on the goings-on. What gets unveiled …
I could hear it. It was coming closer. And there I was: alone in the woods, halfway across the world, holding only a fly rod. It wasn’t even that great of a rod. 10 years ago I went to Italy. There was culture, cuisine, and an ill-fated fly fishing adventure. Hear me talk about the …
I don’t want you to feel like you’re being attacked. I am sure that you are really, really into fly fishing. If you were to tell me everything you know, share your angling expense report, and rattle off where you’ve been I bet I’d be impressed. Seriously. No sarcasm. There is a very good chance …
If your fly fishing world extends anywhere off the water, you’re constantly exposed to more fly rods. You can’t shake a 5-weight without hitting an advertisement, a review, or someone waxing lustfully over a rod. While some promotion is necessary (you can’t sell fly rods unless you sell them), much of it is superfluous at …
He said he owned a stream. A stream with big trout in it. His plan was to charge a daily rod fee for the opportunity to fish in his stream with big trout in it. That was why he was in the fly shop. To see if we would advertise his stream and the trout. …
Today is not a holiday. But tomorrow is. And like any red-blooded American, I’m working today before stocking up on meat, charcoal, and colorful imported explosives. No time for fly fishing writing. But, the Rusty Flybox is a channel for me to break out a few posts that didn’t get a lot of traction the …
You’ve probably been there before. Lying in bed, the night before a fly fishing excursion. You have thoughts. Questions, actually. You might attempt the counting sheep equivalent of visualizing heavy trout coming to the net. But, for analytical minds like many fly anglers possess, that practice gets one thinking about hypotheticals and other situational what-ifs. …
