-
Fighting brush and fighting browns in the Driftless
By Duke Welter On a recent morning near Viroqua, Wisc., an angler didn’t know what to expect. Temperatures the day before had reached the upper 80s, the latest in a hot string. Overnight rains had some impact. Fields were wet and larger waters ran cloudy, but weren’t unfishable. Heading first to one of the “forks”…
-
Random Moments
Some fly-fishing scenes are universally appealing. Trout moving on a dry fly. The rise. Even the refusal. Cheers to the folks at Carpe Diem, the Swedish YouTubers who occasionally present some really great fly-fishing videography like the short film below. https://youtu.be/JPFYTe4G7sk Chasing trout isn't always about catching trout—most of us get that. But it generally…
-
Honor Float
Paul Zimmerman teaches fly tying to military veterans. At 91 years of age, and as the sole care provider for his wife Patti, he is reluctant to leave her alone. He conducts all of his lessons at his home, an arrangement that’s also convenient for his students, who are often most comfortable with one-on-one engagement and places where calmness and quiet prevail. “Our situation was different from Vietnam,” says Zimmerman, a…
-
How to fish a dry fly downstream
The "upstream and dry" approach is a commonly accepted method—and on some European waters, it's required—for fly fishing. Here in the U.S., we're blessed with a lot of trout water, and, thankfully, a lot of public lands on which we can fish at our leisure rather than being forced to pay rod fee, walk a…
-
Into the desert
Editor's note: The TU Costa 5 Rivers Program sent a handful of college students to the Columbia River basin to fish and study the challenges facing the drainage. Leaving the coniferous forests of Mt. Rainier, the Odyssey crew traveled to the semi-arid desert region of eastern Oregon where we set out to fish the Owyhee…
-
Fishing with the G Man
The first thing to understand about fishing with the G Man is that he likes to combine wetting a line with some form of law enforcement. This is not all that surprising. When you have spent a portion of your career as a deputy sheriff, and all of it dedicated to conservation of habitat and…
-
Totally wicked
I was fishing a mouse pattern just for the hell of it.
My natural inclination when excited is an over-the-top enthusiasm that can be, well, a little much for some. So when I got invited on a flyout fishing trip with a few acquaintances, I decided I’d better keep a low profile. It was a perfectly cloudy, little breezy, kinda’ chilly day in Bristol Bay. There were no humans, roads or fences in sight. The small creek we visited, nestled in…
Category