Why I Fish

I’m not sure when my love of a good road trip took deep root in my soul, but my guess is that it had something to do with growing up in the High Plains of Texas during my earliest years. We were about forty minutes from a break in the seemingly-endless, flat prairie and rolling […]

Wherever we wander these days, no matter how far afield we get from what we (in our biased as hell ways) consider to the current epicenter of modern fly fishing – the Northern Rockies – we’re always on the lookout for a fly shop. There’s something about a fly shop that draws fly fishers like […]

Yesterday provided an unexpected and delightful reminder of why I fish, and it came via a somewhat unconventional (for a dyed in the wool, Northern-Rockies trout guy) channel – the Orvis Bass on the Fly event in Plano. Steven Palmer, the Orvis Fishing Manager there, tagged three regional guides who put on one of the […]

She Who Must Be Obeyed and I have been on the road for the better part of the past 10 days, heading north to home country in Montana and exploring some nifty territory ‘down south’ in Wyoming. This was one of those combination work and play excursions (mainly play for SWMBO and work for me) […]

Back on Wednesday we posted one of Tim Flagler’s outstanding tying vids featuring Larry Solomon’s hairwing caddis design. Lo and behold Larry himself emailed yesterday and shared the following, masterfully giving credit to the video as well as to Sid Neff who was also a wizard at the vise when it comes to Caddis flies. Yet […]

Glancing at forecast for Southwest Montana brought a smile to my face this morning, as often happens in March and April. Spring is definitely elbowing its way into the Northern Rockies. Friends in SLC are skiing powder in the mornings and playing golf or getting gardens ready in town that afternoon. ‘Down south’, in warmer […]

Why No Officer, That’s Not A Weapon in the Truck Bed Several months ago, sometime during the millennium that we resided in Birmingham, I pulled my truck into the gas pump line just seconds ahead of a father and son in their spotless Range Rover (the preferred luxury vehicle of the region). The kid was […]

I’m often asked by those who live in other locales what’s my absolute favorite season to fish back home in Montana. While the renewing blush of spring’s green-up is always rejuvenating after a brooding, monochromatic winter, the fall season in the Northern Rockies very well might be my favorite time of the year. Shortening days […]

I suppose a lot of fly fishers feel about old, creaky fly shops the way a lot of beer drinkers feel about their favorite bar. They’re both places we can, even if for a while, leave our cares at the door, talk a little treason among friends, touch things that make us happy, meaningfully contribute […]

For a 12-year old kid growing up in public land impoverished Texas, the concept of the wide open swaths of public land in the West was pretty much incomprehensible during my first whirlwind sweep of the Western national parks one early 70’s summer. When She Who Must Be Obeyed and I first moved to Utah […]

That moment when you release a fish is pretty special.   You convince him it eat, fight him quickly, take the hook out in a careful manner and then gently hold him underwater as he catches his breath.  His world just got rocked, it takes a moment or two to figure things out.  Then you […]

You know there is a fish in there.  You’ve carefully observed, and by years of knowledge, practice, and many hours on the river, you know that there is a fish right there, just waiting to eat your fly.  The fly on the end of your line has been carefully chosen.  Confidence is high.  You feel […]

Take a look at that sign.  What’s the biggest, boldest word on it?  Wilderness. Fly fishing is something special in that it can take you to some truly wild places.  Sure, Bear Trap isn’t a true “wilderness” in the sense that most of us think of it, but you get my point.  As the world […]

There’s a stroke of sheer genius manifest in the current tenkara movement. More and more I hear tenkara being marketed, often to fly-curious non-fishers, as the simple way to fly fish. It’s you, the rod, a fixed length line and a fly. You have to admit, it is a profoundly beautiful, simple construct and barriers […]