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The True Cast – The Best Teachers in Trout Fishing…
My favorite quote of all time is by Will Rogers: “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” I think that applies to many things in life, even trout fishing. When I program myself to fish the same way—use the same flies, the same rig, the same…
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The True Cast – On Guides, Ghillies and the Great Ones
I now get asked, all the time, whether guides these days, on average, can stack up against the guides from a generation ago...
Twenty-some years ago, I wrote the book Castwork: Reflections of Fly-Fishing Guides and the American West with my cousin Andrew Steketee. It never got much commercial traction, but it did garner a cult following, and it got me discovered by Field & Stream. For all of you would-be authors out there, understand that a book…
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The True Cast – “Sporting Clays” with a Fly Rod
Autumn leaves… blown off the trees… covering the river surface… kind of a bummer if you want to go dry-fly fishing, right? Well, when life gives you lemons, make some lemonade. With fly fishing, there’s always an opportunity to learn something and practice. This happened a week ago or so as I was fishing the…
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The True Cast – What do you think spooks trout the most?
Like many anglers, I often found myself wondering what the fish were actually doing beneath the surface. Eventually, my curiosity got the better of me. I got some SCUBA gear, dove into the North Fork of the South Platte River in Colorado and hung out with the trout to watch and learn what was really…
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The True Cast – The “Vicarious” Angler
I have become a “vicarious” angler. That means I like fishing through others more than I like making casts and pulling on fish myself. That’s not to say I dislike making casts and pulling on fish. Not by a longshot. I just like watching other people light up when they catch fish more. And if…
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The True Cast – A book for the ages
The Catch of a Lifetime, Moments of Flyfishing Glory
The Catch of a Lifetime, Moments of Flyfishing Glory Peter Kaminsky is one of the world’s most revered angling journalists and authors. His Outdoors column has appeared in the New York Times for 35 years, and he’s written for myriad publications from Field & Stream to Smithsonian and GQ, as well as most of the…
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The True Cast – Gotta love a “fishy” town…
There’s something special about those places with an authentic community connection to fishing.
A number of years ago, I wrote a story for Field & Stream on “The Best Fishing Towns in America.” It wasn’t a real formal, vetted ranking, by any means—just a story based on gut feelings I’d formed having rolled many miles in pursuit of fish, as well as numerous conversations with some kindred spirits…
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