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Kirk Deeter asks: “Do I still love fishing anymore?”
This week I returned from a three-month sabbatical from Trout Unlimited. How did I use it? Well, I worked a bit on writing a book. Played some golf but my handicap didn’t drop as much as I had hoped. Gave a few talks, started swimming again, and canned some peaches. Looking back now, I’ll admit,…
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Tie One On: Equinox Caddis a triple threat for fall
The Equinox Caddis is my go-to fly to fish when October Caddis are hatching. I designed this fly to solve a couple of problems. To effectively imitate an October Caddis, your fly should ride low, but this is often at the expense of buoyancy. Furthermore, the cold weather that brings on the October Caddis hatch…
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Unfishing Season
Abstaining from fishing doesn’t just happen. There must be a reason. As New Mexico swims through its third fat month of monsoon season, I’ve barely noticed how much water is in our streams. Winter was scary dry, then our shirt-sleeve spring collided with New Mexico’s largest-ever wildfire. Every morning from April to July, I stepped…
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Is it time to ‘break up’ with fly rod warranties?
Be careful out there. If you smash your rod, repairs will take a while. This just in… fly rod companies have reached consensus on a new industry-wide warranty policy. From now on, any broken rod will be replaced, regardless what caused the damage, no questions asked, for a flat fee of $900. That’s actually a…
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An angler’s bucket list
Later in life, a new credo beckons: Get out, before you can't.
Later in life, a new credo beckons: Get out early and often When I ran a fly shop long ago, I fell into the habit of buying flies on the store discount instead of tying my own. Perhaps not a bad move for someone with my ham-handed tying skills, but since my favorite patterns don’t…
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For a change, try the ‘Technique Slam’
Forget about 'how many?' and 'how big?' Instead, try this antidote to the tired pursuit of same ol', same ol'.
Two weeks on sabbatical, and I’ve been, well, fishing my butt off. I’ll be honest. I embarked on this break with the goal of hoping to reconnect with the feelings of why I so deeply love this fly-fishing fascination in the first place. Been a little jaded by the crowds, the commercialism, and all that…
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Five degrees of stupid
How not to catch trout while fly fishing.
How not to catch trout while fly fishing The other day, I started a three-month sabbatical, which is a super-cool benefit of being a Trout Unlimited employee for 10 or more years, but what it really means is I’m planning on fishing my butt off for several weeks (and maybe writing another book in the…
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