News On The Fly
Southern Missouri's Elk River Smallmouth
Posted on October 22 2004
I learned to fly fish on smallmouth (I don’t think my first efforts with tarpon and a 12-weight really count), so they hold a special place in my memories of discovery. As a counterpoint to yesterday’s piece about Lake Taneycomo, … more
Like Fly Fishing on Horseback
Posted on October 18 2004
Few anglers know it, but Tom McGuane is a top-tier cutting horse rider. His Some Horses is acclaimed as one of the best books about cutting and horses ever written. In this article in the San Diego Union-Tribune, Elizabeth White … more
Fly Fishing Books: Zipping My Fly by Rich Tosches
Posted on October 18 2004
In a quick review, Todd Vinyard on CommercialAppeal.com gives Rich Toshches’s 2002 book the thumbs up. “From chapters called ‘The Drivel Runs Through It’ to ‘Dances With Morons,’ Tosches, a humor columnist for the Colorado Springs Gazette, spins plenty of … more
"A Norseman's Idea of Purgatory"
Posted on October 17 2004
Among metaphors about bad fishing weather, this one ranks, though I’m not sure whether a Norseman’s idea of purgatory involves more cold or more hot. Ken Allen writes about Bob Mallard, proprietor of Kennebec River Outfitters in Madison, Maine, fishing … more
Fly Fishing Book Fetches More Than 16,000 British Pounds
Posted on October 17 2004
A signed copy of The Natural Trout Fly and Its Imitation, a book written and self-published by Leonard West 1912 and released in an expanded edition in 1921, got this record price at auction in Scotland recently. In The Scotsman.
Redington's Catalog Features Fidel Castro, Mahatma Gandhi
Posted on October 13 2004
“‘There’s not a lot of humor in fly fishing,’ said Paul Johnson, marketing manager for Redington, Bainbridge Island, WA, while discussing the choice to include the well-known faces.” On DMNews.com.
Ghillies on the Beat
Posted on October 11 2004
May and June, October and November are the best months to fish Scotland’s Tweed for large salmon. Finlay Wilson writes about fishing the Boleside beat near the former home of Sir Walter Scott on TheScotsman.com.
"World-Beating, Hairy-Chested Fiction"
Posted on October 09 2004
In this fine article by Gordon Burn in the U.K. Guardian, the author explores how the subject of sports exposed the much of the raw talent of American writers during the past century. He starts with Ernest Hemingway and moves … more
"Messing About In Boats"
Posted on October 08 2004
James R. Babb refers to himself as a ‘peahead nostalgist’ in this humorous recommendation of the “Peapod” skiff, a boat that first appeared in Maine’s Penobscot Bay in the 1870s. In Gray’s Sporting Journal.
Fighting Big Fish: A Primer
Posted on October 07 2004
Somewhere in the list of reasons for why most of us fish lies the thought that at some point we’ll be connected by a fly line to the Leviathan and be judged on the skill and artistry of our performance … more
"Something I Love About Hurricanes"
Posted on October 06 2004
In this audio piece on NPR.org, writer Scott Huler — author of the newly released Defining the Wind: The Beaufort Scale, and How a 19th-Century Admiral Turned Science into Poetry — talks about the poetry and specificity of hurricane warnings, … more
Fly Fishing Books: Charles Rangeley-Wilson's Favorite Books
Posted on October 05 2004
Mr. Rangeley-Wilson, who writes about fishing for the U.K.’s The Field and other magazines and newspapers, lists his favorite angling books. He mentions one of my all-time favorites, first given to me by Leonard Wright: Going Fishing by Negley Farson … more
Unfriendly Seas, Pugnacious Fish
Posted on October 03 2004
“We stood with legs braced as our small craft pitched and rolled on the shoulders of a dour sea, awestruck by the spectacle of a savage striped bass blitz.” Pete Bodo sets out with David Blinken and Richard Franklin to … more
New Yorkers Bathing in Neversink
Posted on October 03 2004
“The headwaters of the Neversink are cached upstream in a 35-billion-gallon reservoir and then channeled through the world’s longest continuous underground tunnel to become the purest source of water for the city’s 8 million residents. Even so, the waters below … more
A Fly By Any Name
Posted on October 02 2004
Toney Sisk applies his perceptive style to the topic of naming flies and tying streamside on his Wayward Fly Fishing site. “I sometimes tie along the streamside, where all human vanity must be arrested if you are to respond to … more
Trout From Heaven
Posted on October 01 2004
Apparently someone was injured by a trout falling from the sky in Whitefish, Montana, recently. These observations by George Ostrom in the Whitefish Pilot suggest that even ospreys sometimes make mistakes.
At the Grave of the Unknown Fisherman Review
Posted on October 01 2004
John Corrigan delivers another excellent book review, this time of Gierach’s At the Grave of the Unknown Fisherman, in the Concord (New Hampshire) Monitor. “Gierach’s collections of essays usually include a chapter on a species generally not seen as a … more
"An Awful Time to Stay Home"
Posted on September 29 2004
Ed Dentry sure likes the fall in Colorado, where as the water cools lots of bigger fish get comfortable with surface feeding. “On nearly every river and stream in the state, trout have been rising during late mornings and early … more
"Tortured Tough Guys"
Posted on September 27 2004
I’m always intrigued when a non-flyfisher reviews a book by a fly fishing author like William Tapply, who to be fair is more often consider a writer of murder mysteries. Hallie Ephron praises the novel Bitch Creek today on Boston.com: … more
Shenandoah Brookies: Going East and Going Small
Posted on September 26 2004
Chris Hunt of the Pocatello Idaho State Journal travels to the Shenandoah valley of Virginia in search of a quintessential brook trout experience. “In its headwaters, the Hughes is truly small. The boulders over which it flows create crystalline plunge … more
Nanotechnologists for Fly Fishing
Posted on September 26 2004
Craig Barrett’s favorite pasttime? Fly fishing. On SFGate.com.
A Scot's View of Alaskan Sockeye
Posted on September 25 2004
Neil Collins gives us an entertaining and informative look at Alaska’s River Alagnak in the U.K. Telegraph. “To get at them, you have to get there, which means four plane rides (no more direct flights, you see) culminating in a … more
Fly Fishing Tasmania
Posted on September 24 2004
Reports from the Fly-Fishing World Trade Expo in Denver this past week gave it a rather tepid review. Though it seems the money is still flowing from the retailers, manufacturers had what was by all reports a somewhat softer offering … more
Why Brown Trout Run
Posted on September 23 2004
“Brown trout spawning runs are sparked by a combination of water temperature and the number of daylight hours, called a photo period, according to Bruce Rich, fisheries manager for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Park’s Region 3. A … more
Van Gytenbeek on the Federation of Fly Fishers
Posted on September 20 2004
The recently installed executive director of the FFF talks about the environment, difficult choices, and new directions for his organization. “Van Gytenbeek said he’s been fishing since about age 5. He enjoys fly fishing for trout and salmon. But his … more
New Hampshire's Idyllic Cole Pond
Posted on September 19 2004
Nelson Bryant describes a favorite haunt hidden in the woods of New Hampshire and the large Kennebago strain of brook trout that fill its waters. In The New York Times.
U.S. Places 9th in World Fly Fishing Championships
Posted on September 19 2004
The 24th annual World Fly Fishing Championships took place in Slovakia last week, and the top U.S. angler was Pete Erickson. “‘The American Team has reached a long sought after respect amongst the European nations who typically dominate these annual … more
Fly Fishing Trip: "Yucatan Slam"
Posted on September 17 2004
If you’ve ever had the opportunity to catch a saltwater grand slam — a tarpon, permit, and bonefish in one day — you know how the images stick in your memory. Even coming close brings intensity to every subsequent day … more
Life Imitating Nature
Posted on September 17 2004
According to this piece by a local naturalist in the Ambergris Key San Pedro Sun, green herons use their feathers “like a fly fisherman” to attract prey when fishing in the Key’s lagoons.
F. M. Halford and Repetitive Strain Injury
Posted on September 11 2004
Alastair Robertson of the Scotsman.com comments on the progenitor of dry fly fishing. “FM Halford was by all accounts a bit of a pain but he is credited with, if not inventing dry fly fishing then at least working out … more
Becoming a Fly Fisher
Posted on September 10 2004
Bill Barker reminisces about learning to fly fish with his dad on Oregon’s Fall Creek and Umpqua River in the Corvallis Gazette-Times. “Though our creek was loaded with trout, he had the urge to take me to Fall Creek, over … more
"Rubble Flats and Sand Flats of the Tropics"
Posted on September 09 2004
Even with all the attention paid to food sources by authors of saltwater fly fishing books in recent years, no one really took a hard look at the near-shore marine environment until Dr. Aaron Adams wrote Fisherman’s Coast: An Angler’s … more
Fall Fishing in the Uinta Mountains
Posted on September 09 2004
“It was, even for the average angler, a perfect day … cool enough to tickle the nose and discourage bugs, yet clear, comfortable and calm. And, sure enough, as expected, there were signs of rising fish … circular ripples popping … more
Why CEOs Fly Fish
Posted on September 08 2004
This article by Del Jones from USAToday is a couple of years old now, but the message is still fresh: fly fishing is good for those in high-stress jobs. “Charles Schwab fly-fishes, as does Martha Stewart, Bill Ford of Ford … more
That Grim Meditation They Call 'Steelheading'
Posted on September 07 2004
Steelheaders are the kings of understatement and grudge-bearing. Perhaps that’s why observers like Randal Sumner can find fishing for sea-run rainbows dreary work until the magic happens. “After a couple of hours fishing, he was sure he was doing something … more
Paul Schullery's "Home River"
Posted on September 06 2004
When I first contemplated being a fishing guide in the Florida Keys in 1983 I had already been told that there were only two books I needed to read: Stu Apte’s Fishing in the Florida Keys and Flamingo and Tom … more
More California Fishing Maps
Posted on September 06 2004
FishSniffer.com has a page of links to annotated fishing maps that detail dozens of California fishing locations and the species that can be caught there. Some of the maps also include narrative about the fishing seasons.
Book Review: "Good Flies: Favorite Trout Patterns and How They Got That Way
Posted on September 06 2004
Gierach’s writing appeals to me the way Ernest Hemingway attracts English majors. He uses a vivid down-to-earth style combined with an expert’s understanding of his subject matter. The Colorado-based writer has also been recognized as a master of the one-liner. … more
"Trout Fishing's Version of the Silicone Implant"
Posted on September 05 2004
It’s the first time I’ve heard anyone suggest besmirching the upper Missouri, unless it was for the insanely difficult fish, but according to Peter Kaminsky some folks actually avoid tailwaters in favor of more “natural” trout waters. Nevertheless, the author … more
Fly Fishing or Global Domination?
Posted on September 03 2004
“How you livin’, dawg?” Columnist Maureen Dowd adds her sly humor to an assessment of the current political climate, after noting Dick Cheney’s guilty pleasure: fly fishing. In the New York Times.
"I Blush to Think Upon This Ignomy" – Shakespeare
Posted on September 03 2004
The problem with carp may just be that at they need a more majestic moniker. The British were smart about the south asian carp: they called it “the mighty mahseer” and it rose to legendary status among colonial anglers and … more
New Chico Fernandez Bonefish Book
Posted on September 03 2004
Stackpole released Chico Fernandez’s Fly-Fishing for Bonefish in August and we’ll be doing a review of the book soon. It’s worth noting that Aaron Adams, the marine scientist who wrote the excellent Fishermans Coast: An Angler’s Guide to Marine Warm-Water … more
Cabela's FT Combo for Fly Fishers Reviewed
Posted on September 02 2004
Dan Nelson gives the 5-weight FT rod a thumbs up but suggests upgrading to the Ross Cimarron as the reel for this Cabela’s combination. In the Seattle Times.
Quebec: Blueberries and Big Fish
Posted on September 01 2004
Whereas Iceland will set you back thousands of dollars for week of fishing, in Quebec you can fish the most famous pools for as little as $40 a day. “Under a system that may be unique in all angling, hundreds … more
Permit Record Rescinded
Posted on August 30 2004
The 16-lb. class tippet record for permit has been rescinded by the IGFA. According to Jason Schratwieser, World Record Administrator for the IGFA, there was not enough information submitted by the angler to warrant the original granting of the record. … more
USDA Uses NASA Satellites to Monitor Lake Water Levels
Posted on August 30 2004
“A few NASA satellites designed to study heights of Earth’s ocean surfaces are now also coming in handy for tracking water levels of inland lakes and reservoirs.” This announcement is particularly interesting because it a marks a trend away from … more
Yoshikazu Fujioka Fly Fishing Artwork
Posted on August 28 2004
‘Luminous’ is the first word that comes to mind when you see Mr. Fujioka’s watercolors and acrylics. This Japanese artist offers a vision of depth and light that is quite rare among wildlife artists. Fortunately there is an entire Web … more
Housatonic River Fly Fishing Recognized By Men's Journal
Posted on August 28 2004
According to Ed Harris of the Register Citizen, “the magazine was drawn to the Housatonic because of the combination of the wilderness experience of fly-fishing on the river and the adrenaline boost of driving at the Skip Barber Racing School … more
Fly Fishing Knots: Origins of the "Slim Beauty"
Posted on August 27 2004
In the past 12 years, the “Slim Beauty” has become one of the most popular knots in saltwater fly fishing, due to both its simplicity and its performance. The Slim Beauty allows leader material of different diameters to be connected … more
Hurricane Charley Creates New Captiva Pass
Posted on August 27 2004
If you doubt the power of hurricanes, take a look at this panoramic view of Upper Captiva Island off of southwest Florida’s coast, before and after Charley made landfall there. The trees that are pushed into Pine Island Sound, by … more