Reflection accompanies birthdays like a glass of milk accompanies brownies. One inevitably follows the other. With my birthday coming up later this week, I’ve been somewhat thoughtful about how things have gotten this way. This line of thought was spurred along by a conversation I had at work with my newest staff member. I don’t […]
Why I Fish
No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man – Heraclitus This quote floated across my twitter feed a couple of days ago and immediately transported me to what I still picture in my mind’s eye as home water – the upper reaches […]
Sometimes the shit just hits the fan. Things add up on top of each other, you realize you’re nowhere near where you thought you would be at this age, you feel like your day job is going to kill you, and it seems like nothing you are doing or working on really matters a damn. […]
Excepting our tropical flats loving brethren, and those living full time in the South (say everything south of lower-third Colorado), those of us standing today on the cusp of another long, dark, cold winter know deep in our collective guts that winter-season fly fishing has arrived. Numb fingers and toes, iced-up guides, shore and slush […]
Viewed through the eye of the non-fishing observer, a great deal of the proceedings associated with fly fishing must appear rather ritualistic. Thinking about it over the past couple of flu-addled days, my fishing compadres and I have succumbed to a fair number of rituals during the twenty-seven years I’ve been fly fishing. (Tangential thought […]
Winter isn’t even really here yet, and I’m already thinking about next year. A lot of us fly fishermen have put down our rods for at least a couple months by this point in the year, and honestly, it’s kind of nice to have a break. Winter is traditionally a time of knuckling down and […]
Clearly biased by Montana / Northern Rockies-centric thinking, the first week of November has always marked a fairly hard turning point in the fly fishing season. This is the last weekend for fly fishing in Yellowstone; park gates (all but the North Entrance) will be locked tight tomorrow morning at eight o’clock. For the second […]
Several months ago I wrote about anticipation, about how fly fishing is filled with moments of waiting and hoping for things to happen. Recently, I’ve been absent from Chi Wulff for a host of boring reasons, not the least of which is that I find myself worrying perhaps a bit too much about the goings […]
A recent discussion with a new creative (as in works in the ‘creative industries’) acquaintance rolled around to the topic of how we sourced our creative inspiration. He launched into a heady discussion of the Seattle alternative art and music scene and how he simply couldn’t function without ‘deep immersion’ (whatever the hell that means) […]
As a whole fly fisher folk tend to lean toward what some might label as perseveration. We tend to think or do certain things over and over again. We stubbornly cling to gear and flies that have seen better days, that perhaps aren’t the sexiest ‘new’ creations out there but get it done reliably time […]
Steelheaders understand it. So do guys and gals chasing permit and sometimes mythical stonefly hatches. Hell, even the local pond can some days bust a fair fly fisher’s chops. We’ve all been there at some point. The weather’s good, the water’s perfect, the hatch is on and you’re casting like a superhero. Drag free floats […]
The other night proved me to that perhaps people aren’t so bad after all. Shane and I were headed out to fish the Lower Madison after I got off work, even though it was a somewhat chilly, rainy night. Of course, in my haste to leave the house that morning I had forgotten my rain […]
Don’t get me wrong, I truly enjoy catching big fish on a fly rod. In years past I’ve labored to join the 20-20 club on more than one occasion, greedily measured girthy rainbows on the Missouri, learned a few tricks with a camera to make ‘em look really, really hefty in the image and pounded […]
A non-fishing acquaintance asked me this past weekend if I ever get bored “just standing in the water all day”. She caught me off guard with the question and my pause in responding (induced by trying to formulate some witty, seemingly off-handed yet eminently quotable reply) was long enough to make her uncomfortable. My conspicuously […]
There are those among us, content as bugs in a bakeshop, who fly fish the same waters for the same species year after year. And there’s not a damned thing wrong with that. There are others among the greater brotherhood of fly fishers who exhibit what in school children would be labelled as ADD (Attention […]
