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Long-awaited raft a fishing game-changer
By Mark Taylor As we made our way through the final riffle, I dug the oars into the cool, green waters of Virginia’s Jackson River and aimed the stern toward the boat ramp. “Have I told you that I love this thing?” I said to my fishing partner, Sam Dean. My memory isn’t as good…
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Nick point
Nick points abound in nature, but are also created by man
For good or ill, nick points change rivers, sometimes forever To put my amateur science skills on full display, I’ve always associated the term with the sins humans have committed against rivers. We built our structures too close, grazed and beat down their banks. We diverted their flows, channelized and dammed them until they were forced to remind us, often…
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A rod’s length between us
It was the squid boats at sundown that did it for me. I had been holding on to a lot of tension. I knew this. Much of it was linked to my recent move halfway across the state. But most of the ways that I usually deal with stress involve activities, including fishing, that have…
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Time to get away
A thankful get-away to the river
It was time. Actually, it was well past time. I had to get out of the house. I work from home and have for years, so these stay-at-home orders weren’t a big change for me. But because I’m immunocompromised thanks to ongoing cancer treatments, I haven’t been in town, seen friends nor been anywhere but doctors’ offices for well over…
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The Drunken Two-step
The panga makes for an unsteady dance floor
Fly fishing from a boat is a dance, rarely elegant and frequently anything but. While some watercrafts and bodies of water are more conducive to shaking a leg while wetting a line, a partly covered panga (which truthfully only accommodates approximately 1.5 fly anglers) rolling with tide of the Pacific Ocean will never be high on the list of suitable dance floors. South of the border and 4,500 miles away from the glacial rivers and cold creeks that I call home,…
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Looking back to look forward
These are strange and scary times. The yearning for a return to the normal is palpable. I feel it too, even though the shelter-in-place orders affect me less than many, since I have worked from home for years. No question, this coronavirus business put me in a funk. Fishing is a great funk reliever. But…
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Prepping for Southeast Alaska Fishing
Getting ready for spring fishing in Southeast Alaska.
The days are beginning to get longer, the temperatures are starting to rise and the ice is melting on many lakes and streams around Southeast Alaska. After six months of cold and darkness, and the last month of hunkering down, a lot of anglers are beginning to dust off their fly rods and reels, tie a few new flies, and begin…
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