-
Saying thanks through fishing
Shane walked over to me, standing mid-way between the members of our group along the small Seattle Creek in interior Alaska, near Cantwell. He was holding his 4-weight rod and had the satisfied grin of a new angler experiencing a first successful day of catch-and-release fishing. For a moment, we looked out to the Alaska…
-
The new natives
West slope cutthroat trout from Grayling Creek, Yellowstone National Park. Just a quick update from Yellowstone, with more to come (I promise). I had the good fortune to take a quick drive a couple of weeks ago along the Grayling Creek corridor in the northwest corner of Yellowstone National Park, and I figured I'd stop…
-
Natural dubbing materials
Fly tying is so sophisticated these days, that sometimes it pays to take a step back and really examine the materials we use as we conjure up the next great pattern at the vise. Take dubbing, for instance. This is the material used in both dry flies and nymphs, generally to craft fly bodies for…
-
Topwater Atlantic salmon fishing
Atlantic salmon—at least those that swim wild in the ocean and migrate into the rivers and streams of Newfoundland and Labrador—are a bucket-list fish for a lot of fly fishers. And they should be. They rival any other salmon species when it comes to taking flies and, of course, when it comes to the fight…
-
Dry fly floatation
It's dry-fly season. Well, it's what I like to call "hopper season," especially here in the West, where big trout will look up for terrestrial bugs that will occasionally end up in the water, thanks to a timely wind gust or just dumb luck. But fishing hoppers and other terrestrial flies isn't about dumb luck.…
-
Sage Trout LL fly rod
When you find a fly rod that's essentially made for the kind of fly fishing you like to do—and makes that fishing markedly better—you hang onto it. That's why I'll likely never part with the new Sage Trout LL rod. I'm a walk-and-wade stream-fishing junkie. I like the intimate feel of water running around my…
-
The Mickey Finn
With fall coming on and a few high-country leaves starting to turn here in the Rockies, some anglers are jumping ahead to "streamer season." I'm not ready to make the leap just yet, but I do generally have a few flies in my box that work well during the shoulder season that is late summer…
Category