-
Tying the Jimmy John Perdigon
The Perdigon-style nymph has become a fly-fishing staple over the last several years. Popularized by European competition fly fishers, the nymph is a fast-sinker and a proven fish-getter. As a trailer fly either fished with the high-stick Euro-method or under an indicator, the Perdigon helps drag a bigger fly down a bit and keep it…
-
Tying the Tailout Sculpin
With low, clear water in most free-flowing trout rivers across America, it's a good time to throw streamers that resemble sculpins, a common food source for big trout when the fish are concentrated in main river channels during late fall, winter and early spring, before rivers rise during runoff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-6BOPGqn2U Above, TU's Nick Halle ties…
-
Support your local fly shop this holiday season
As we enter the holiday gift shopping season, this is just a friendly reminder to support your favorite independent fly shop. Sure, you might find cheaper deals here and there, but there’s nothing more valuable than local knowledge, and nobody serves that better than the fly shop. I’ve always felt like the classic fly shop,…
-
The lost art of roll casting
I wonder why we don’t pay more attention to roll casting. I can’t count the number of books written about perfecting loops and the overhead cast, but there’s a lot less on roll casting. This, despite the fact that when I’m actually fishing, I find myself rolling over false casting at about a 3-to-1 ratio……
-
Early snow isn’t a deal-breaker
I dread mornings like this every year. Sometimes it holds off for a few more weeks, or even a month or longer. But this year, winter showed up early. As I type this, it's snowing. And not just a little snow. We have a good 10 inches of heavy, wet snow in the yard —…
-
The water we don’t fish
I still slow down as the car crosses over a river or a stream, and instead of planning and executing an afternoon of fishing, I've found myself photographing covered bridges and watching wild brown trout fin in the current under the shadows of these New England staples
I'm in northern Vermont at Jay Peak Resort, a sweet little year-round resort nestled up against the Canadian border. But I'm not fishing. And, honestly, I'm not sure why--I could have easily tucked a little 3-weight rod into my luggage, or even carried a rod onto the plane. Instead, on little day-trip drives around the…
-
Choosing a rod is about the flies, not the fish
I had always assumed that an angler chooses a fly rod based on the type of fish they wanted to chase. Turns out, that’s not exactly true. Sure, a 5-weight is probably still the gold standard “trout rod,” but that has less to do with fighting the fish, and more to do with the range of…
Category