I’m moving. That means getting rid of stuff. It is a very liberating process. Have we touched that fondue pot any time in the last ten years? No. Is the decorative pewter rabbit dish really “our style?” Nope. Do we need all those fly rods? Yes. Yes, we do. There are a handful of things …
Tag: Youth
Kicking the Conservation Bucket
I never saw myself as the chain-yourself-to-a-bulldozer, repel-from-a-dam-to-paint-a-crack type. But I wasn’t totally disengaged from the environmental side of fly fishing. As a teenager I had been involved in some conservation. Stream clean ups, seminars, science fair projects – those sorts of things. So I was a little surprised at myself at what I did …
Tomorrow’s Conservationists: The TU Teen Summit
For conservation minded anglers, one of the highest priorities involves ensuring a sustainable resource. Clean water, protected habitats, and reproducing trout populations are realities that individuals and groups strive to see on their home waters. As vital as issues like these are, the fact of the matter is that there is another priority that is …
First Fish
This may very well be where I caught my first fish. Growing up in the Chicago suburbs, I wasn’t necessarily born into a hotbed of angling. My family wasn’t a fly fishing family. However, like so many kids in middle America, my dad and grandpa did take me fishing. And this might have been that …
Fly Fishing at Fourteen
I began fly fishing at the age of fourteen. When I turned 30 a few years back it struck me that not only had I been involved in the sport in one way or another for over half my life, but that I’d been fly fishing for longer than I’d known my wife or lived …
Breaking Curfew with Inky
Of all the reasons that a summer camp counselor would come into a room full of teenagers to tell them to be quiet, it might have been one of the most unique. It wasn’t the camp movie comedy tropes of cigarettes or coed mischief. That night, after lights out, four or five of us were …
High Up The Creek
Like many anglers, I have a soft spot for small mountain streams. The solitude, the scenery, and the familiarity of a high-gradient creek are comfortable commonalities that you’ll find across the world. Aside from the difference in riparian foliage, streams I’ve fished from South Carolina to New Hampshire to Colorado all feel very similar and, …
Angling for a Gift
Black Friday. A day when we eat everything we ate on Thanksgiving, only in one sandwich. It is also a day when door buster-crazed, credit card-wielding Americans frantically spend like their lives depend on it. I suppose the need for calories after such retail battles necessitates a turkey/stuffing/cranberry sauce/gravy hoagie. Don’t get me wrong, I’m …
The Fly Fishing Authority
I love fly shops. In fact, the genesis of this website had a lot to do with my love of fly shops. But that story is for another day. The fly shop is the quintessential embodiment of fly fishing culture. Generally they are located near water that is productive enough to warrant a full-time local …