News On The Fly
Hiaasen on the Transformation of Florida
Posted on April 18 2005
“‘The Sunshine State is a paradise of scandals teeming with drifters, deadbeats, and misfits drawn here by some dark primordial calling like demented trout. And you’d be surprised how many of them decide to run for public office.'” This is … more
Formulas for Estimating Fish Weight
Posted on April 17 2005
Marty Seldon recently reposted formulas for estimating fish weight on Dan Blanton’s bulletin board. In summary the number used for dividing into the total of Length X Girth squared to get the estimated weight is 800 for large-girthed fish, 900 … more
Fish Artist Jay Falstad
Posted on April 16 2005
Maryland artist Jay Falstad just paints fish. But he’s good enough at it that his paintings, which often depict someone’s trophy catch, are being sold at the rate of 75 or more per year. “Orders come from around the world. … more
The Debate Over Killing Tarpon for Records
Posted on April 15 2005
Knowing most of the characters in this story personally, it’s hard for me to ignore the kinds of issues raised by this article by John Gieger in the Florida Keys Keynoter. The piece talks about the recent killing of a … more
New Book: Rod Crafting
Posted on April 15 2005
“Take, for example, the rich, dappled red, snakewood salmon rod that William Mitchell, of New York state, made in the 1880s. Hatton, who also fits mortised slices of snakewood into some of his rods, calls the material ‘incredible.’ ‘It’s one … more
Fly Fishing Argentina: A Distant Feast
Posted on April 11 2005
Peter Kaminsky makes an epic-length journey to break a 20-year-old rule against not killing wild trout. “With the brook trout, or fontinalis, as it is known in Argentina, fly-fishing connoisseurs anywhere in the world often feign disinterest concerning the size … more
Spring Fishing in Scotland
Posted on April 11 2005
“It’s all about timing and the delivery of a line in that period, usually very brief at this stage of the year, when flies are hatching. A little cunning skill is obviously useful, and luck is a vital ingredient that … more
Choosing Your Poison
Posted on April 11 2005
“Fishing is just as efficient at eating money. Is it a coincidence an Orvis T-3 763.2 Mid-flex 6.0 fly rod built with carbon fiber technology lists for the same price ($575) as a set of Nike forged irons.” Willy Zimmer … more
Fly Fishing Book Review: Western Mayfly Hatches
Posted on April 10 2005
New on MidCurrent: Brant Oswald reviews Western Mayfly Hatches: From the Rockies to the Pacific by authors Rick Hafele and Dave Hughes. “The new book is well designed and beautifully printed, all in color — a grand improvement over the … more
More Than Turning the Crank
Posted on April 10 2005
“The better you get with the equipment, the less the equipment matters,” notes Jim Seegraves, one of the most accomplished U.S. big-game fly fishers. “Anybody who can turn the crank of a big reel can land a marlin,” he said, … more
The Color of Fraud
Posted on April 10 2005
In this fascinating piece about the “relabeling” of fine art to attract higher prices, a cover of the Atlantic Salmon Journal recently showed a painting that had been altered (and not by the magazine) to show the signature of John … more
Utah's Green River: Avoiding the Hair Trigger
Posted on April 09 2005
John Merwin fishes the Green River tailwater below Flaming Gorge Dam in northeastern Utah and reports on the overabundance of good trout fishing. “‘This part of the river is called the aquarium,’ [Gordon Tharrett] explains, ‘because the water is so … more
In Praise of Mongolian Guides
Posted on April 09 2005
“He can kill, clean and cook a yak in the time it takes me to put up two fly outfits. He can swim a horse across a river so high in flood that forests are being uprooted. He can ride … more
New Dave Ames Book
Posted on April 08 2005
Dances With Sharks is the new Dave Ames title to be released in October. Ames is the author of True Love and the Woolly Bugger (Greycliff Publishing Company, 1996) and A Good Life Wasted (The Lyons Press, 2003). He’s also … more
Baseball and Fly Fishing: The Snooze Factor
Posted on April 08 2005
“When I was a kid, I understood perfectly that both baseball and flyfishing are slow. What I didn’t get–and what I get now–is that they are gloriously slow, a drowsy summertime slowness, the wonderful indulgence of more or less doing … more
Fishing Knots: The Weakest Link
Posted on April 07 2005
“My failure was pointed out when twice I lost hooked fish, only to pull my line in to find the end of my tippet curled like a pig tail, right where the knot came undone. The lesson, somewhat painfully learned, … more
In the Wind: Casting Backwards
Posted on April 06 2005
“Wind coming from your casting-arm side is dangerous because it can blow the airborne line—and the fly—into your body. The usual result is a hook in your back. There are several ways to beat this, but the easiest is simply … more
Roderick Haig-Brown, Conservationist
Posted on April 06 2005
When most of us hear the name Roderick Haig-Brown, we think of his A River Never Sleeps (1944), or perhaps The Seasons of a Fisherman (1939). We don’t automatically connect him with keeping British Columbian salmon safe from dams and … more
The Insect Underbelly
Posted on April 05 2005
Jason Neuswanger’s TroutNut.com just gets better and better as a resource for fly tiers as he adds to the library of interesting photos of insects. Of course we don’t want to stare at stacks of caddisfly larvae. Or do we?
Southwest Wisconsin Trout
Posted on April 05 2005
Aggressive stream improvement has made a big difference in southwest Wisconsin. Judy Nugent writes about the fishery there and how to take best advantage of the opportunity on the Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine site.
Maine's "Inexhaustible" Kennebago Lake
Posted on April 04 2005
“‘It’s deep, it’s huge, and it’s fly-fishing only. Trolling is not permitted. It’s 5 miles long, three-quarter miles wide, and 119 feet deep. It’s one of the best fisheries in the lower 48 states. And the river that connects Kennebago … more
Pat Hemingway: Pretty Girls and Fishing Guides
Posted on April 03 2005
“‘Sound travels,’ said Hemingway, whose dark eyes glitter merrily despite his 76 years. ‘And especially when there’s a pretty girl to impress in the boat, how often have I heard a guide say, “Oh, this isn’t really me, I’m just … more
Books: Getting Started in Fly Fishing
Posted on April 03 2005
“The lesson to learn is that you need to let the fish take the fly – actually close his mouth around it. At the same time, however, you do need to set the hook quickly … Setting the hook, then, … more
Andros: Bonefish Heaven
Posted on April 02 2005
Andros certainly has as much square mileage of bonefish flats as any destination in the world, and it deserves the accolades it gets from Roy Attaway in MotorBoating magazine. “I have pursued bonefish in the Florida Keys and elsewhere, largely … more
Ohio's Big Spring Steelhead
Posted on April 02 2005
“Cutcher’s bag of tricks includes watching for the telltale flash of a spawning female twisting over a redd, or nest, and watching for the sandy cloud thrown up off the bottom by a female digging a redd. ‘If you’re going … more
GQ & Stream Magazine: Finally They Get It Right
Posted on April 01 2005
The publishers of Field & Stream have finally thrown caution to the wind and admitted publicly what we have known all along: that we enjoy the outdoors more when we do it in fashion. GQ & Stream is the foil … more
Farmed Salmon Imperiling Wild Stocks?
Posted on March 31 2005
According to a study by scientists at Canada’s University of Alberta, wild salmon are not safe from diseases spread from salmon farms. “They add more fuel to the intense debate over the wisdom of turning to aquaculture to replace stocks … more
Hawaiian Trout
Posted on March 29 2005
Kauai, Hawaii is not the first place folks think of when they imagine great rainbow trout fishing, but in fact rainbows were introduced there in 1920. Deane Gonzalez gives the lowdown on a hike-in fishery on the Koaie on FlyFishingConnection.com. … more
The "Almost-Perfect" Wading Jacket
Posted on March 29 2005
Martin Joergensen of GlobalFlyFisher.com offers this fine evaluation of wading jackets and a list of the must-haves he feels are necessary components of a well-built waterproof fishing shell. “My latest venture is with last years Scierra Aquatex jacket, which would … more
Hard-To-Find Leaf Bucket Stripping Baskets
Posted on March 28 2005
We get a lot of inquiries about how to construct low-cost stripping baskets for use when fly fishing from a boat. Until recently, you could stop by most Target or K-Mart stores and pick up a collapsible gardening basket that … more
Belizean Bonefish: Nervous Water
Posted on March 27 2005
“This fishing is all about the eye and its voracity. A barracuda can unnerve everyone in the vicinity with a sideways glance. Bonefish, in turn, are like antelope, in the sense that they seem to live on the light they … more
Peeled Road Kill
Posted on March 27 2005
Fly tiers are indeed notorious for scrounging up materials from the oddest places and are often surprised with the results. “I once tied great looking black and white streamers with strands of my dog’s coat only to discover that springer … more
"Booby Nymphs"
Posted on March 27 2005
“After innocently mentioning some of Davie’s less traditional tactics in an account of our difficult day’s fishing, emailed around some trusted members of the angling fraternity, all hell broke lose. First, a message from my fishing companion: ‘Get yourself a … more
USFWS Director Steve Williams Resigns
Posted on March 26 2005
Perhaps due to the fact that litigation management consumed almost all of his agency’s resources during his tenure, Steve Williams resigned as U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s director last week. President Bush will name a replacement. Cross your fingers. Though Williams … more
Steelhead: 9 Degrees and Cooling
Posted on March 26 2005
“Thirty yards of fly line and a couple hundred yards of backing was pulled from his reel in mere seconds. I grabbed the net and ran down along the shore as quickly as possible, but it was too late. The … more
Choosing Bluefish Over Tuna
Posted on March 26 2005
Reminds me of my “one large tarpon per year” rule. This Delaware guide would rather not spend his money on chiropractors and heavy tackle. “Orchestrating such a trip is a lot of work in itself. If or when a big … more
Drought in Southern England
Posted on March 25 2005
“So, barring miracles, the die is cast. Even on the biggest and most robust streams of all — rivers such as the Itchen and Test in Hampshire, the Kennet in Berkshire and the Avon in Wiltshire, famous waters that attract … more
Seattle's Urban Steelhead Fishing
Posted on March 24 2005
“While rivers that meander behind shopping malls, subdivisions and freeways might not have the grandeur of the Skagit or the wilderness feel of Olympic Peninsula rivers, Seattle-Tacoma-area rivers nonetheless provide productive and nearby winter steelhead fishing.” David Rose describes great … more
Montana's Early-Spring Trout
Posted on March 24 2005
“Also talking about trout in early spring, I tend to high-grade the pools and runs much more than I do in the summer and fall. I only fish the best habitat and tend to stay there longer. I don’t fish … more
Yellowstone Pursues Non-Native Trout Removal
Posted on March 22 2005
In what might be considered a “tangential approach” to solving the problem of Yellowstone Park’s decreasing cutthroat populations, the park service is proposing rules that ask anglers to kill more rainbow, brown and brook trout. Not only have rainbows and … more
It's All in the Optimism
Posted on March 21 2005
I think it was Nick Lyons who best paraphrased the saying, “Fishing is a endless series of opportunities for hope.” In this piece by Gordon Lewis, the author notes that the same can be applied to almost any outdoors ritual. … more
Alaskan Fly Tiers
Posted on March 20 2005
Buried in this article about Alaskan fly tiers is a quote from John McPhee that belies the emergence (pun intended) of effective patterns in fly fishing for salmon: “‘He is a New England dry fly-fisherman, and up here his bamboo … more
Fly Fishing for Spanish Mackerel
Posted on March 20 2005
More toothy critters on flies. “The strike was hammer-hard. Fly line burned through my fingers and jumped off the deck in serpentine waves. I bobbed. I weaved. I danced around the deck to keep it from underfoot, and from around … more
Leonard Wright's "Sudden Inch"
Posted on March 19 2005
“[Leonard] Wright called his technique for putting action on a dry fly ‘the sudden inch,’ and it seemed simple on paper. Instead of casting upstream, Wright suggested casting down and across the current with an upstream mend and giving the … more
Smallmouth from a Hidden Gem
Posted on March 19 2005
“We muscled the driftboat down the bank through dripping spruce and maple and into the river as the sun burned through the morning mist and painted the snowcapped mountains a pantsuit shade of pink.” James Babb finds great fishing in … more
Fly Fishing Knots: How to Tie the Slim Beauty Knot
Posted on March 18 2005
New on MidCurrent: If you are a saltwater fly fisher chances are you’ve heard of or even used the Slim Beauty knot. That’s a remarkable thing to say about a knot that gained prominent use among Key West tarpon guides … more
Provo River Awakening to Blue Olives
Posted on March 17 2005
The blue-winged olives coming off on Utah’s Provo River are some of the larger ones in years — 16’s and 18’s — and the fish (and anglers) are diggin’ it. “Some call this time of year the ‘Awakening’ . . … more
Bonefish Tactics: "Close to the Bone"
Posted on March 16 2005
New on MidCurrent: Chico Fernandez describes the best ways to approach bonefish and present flies without them ever knowing you’re there. “Because sound travels better through water than air, any noise that comes from inside or outside the skiff is … more
Del Brown Permit Tournament Results
Posted on March 15 2005
As anyone who has fished long and hard for permit can tell you, it’s not all that unusual to have to endure a long dry spell. Three fish in 48 fishing days qualifies as a “dry spell,” I think, and … more
Daydream Flies
Posted on March 13 2005
Nelson Bryant describes the wide-roaming anticipation of pre-season fly tiers in The New York Times. “Many of us who tie flies choose to compromise, to create some flies and purchase others. We may, for example, enjoy fashioning trout flies down … more