By Kirk Deeter

I've always chuckled at flyfishing double-speak.  The classic example: a "strike indicator."  I have an idea.  Let's call strike indicators what they really are... bobbers.  Yarn, foam, balloons, plastic, whatever.  They float on the surface... when they go under, they tell you to set the hook.  Like a bobber. 

Actually I have a better idea.  Let's call them training wheels.  Okay, they're not really wheels, per se, but you get the point.

By Kirk Deeter

Photo by Roy Tanami

I must hand it to Tim Romano... if Guinness tracked a world record for the most fishing trips taken between a wedding and a honeymoon, he'd surely own it.

Not that many of us haven't tried to lay down the law on fishing-as-priority early in our marriages.  I once suggested Alaska as a honeymoon to my wife.  Sitting on the beach weeks later, I wondered how long it would be before I saw the Far North.  Fourteen years, it turned out.

By Kirk Deeter

I've always thought that the best flyfishing guides were teachers foremost, and catchers of fish second.  In other words, for my money, I want someone who will make me a smarter, better angler, and not just leave me with a grip 'n grin photo.  But that's just me.

What do you think?

By Kirk Deeter

Photo by Kirk Deeter

Like many anglers, I've depended on a good pair of felt-soled boots to keep me upright in the river for many years.  But the dirty truth of the matter is that felt is now clearly linked to spreading a number of fish-killing threats like didymo (rock snot), mud snails, and whirling disease.  If you have a conscience, you want to avoid felt at any cost.  But, until now, if you didn't want to fall on your butt, you didn't have many great options, Aquastealth soles not withstanding.