And the party never ends.  At least the fishing doesn't.

Having just finished the 19-hour drive from Michigan to Colorado with the Mrs., my 8-year-old son, two dogs, and a car full of fishing gear, I've had time to collect my thoughts a bit. 

Those long drives are ultimately healthy experiences.  A pain when you do them.  But it doesn't matter where I go--driving through the Arizona desert, down the Pacific Coast Highway, along I-95, or through the heartland-- I inevitably gain a deeper appreciation for how beautiful this country is.

I also learn things along the way.  Here are some examples of what I learned this time:

When in southwestern Iowa and the emergency broadcast network breaks over the radio with a tornado warning... and you pull off the highway to hide under an overpass... it's not a cool parenting move to suggest to the 8-year old in the back seat that he look out the window and see if he can spot a funnel cloud.  Other lessons... [ Read Full Post ]

We continued our new-to-us trout river explorations over the weekend,  this time traveling to a better-known stream in the western Adirondack mountains of New York. We caught fewer trout, but they were larger--a happy trade-off. Yesterday morning, I put down the fly rod for a while and fished with an ultralight spinning rig. The reel was spooled with 4# FireLine (a so-called superline), the fine diameter of which allowed very long casts with very small lures. One result was this brown trout that ate a little Yo-Zuri Pin’s Minnow.

That kind of tackle makes it easy to cover lots of water fairly quickly, much more so than with fly gear. This might or might not be a good thing, depending on your particular preferences or prejudices as to fishing method ...

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Times change, and with them so do trends, attitudes, and even cultural stereotypes.

But the principles of fishing are as solid as the rock of Gibraltar.  Steady like magnetic north.  Sure, we find new tricks and techniques, and we use new materials.  But, by and large, what was good advice in Field & Stream 50 or more years ago is still good advice.

Which cannot be said for all magazine advice.  To wit, I bring you these excerpts sent to us from the Fly Talk Cutlural Institute in Grawn, Michigan, from Housekeeping Monthly from May 13, 1955.  The story is called "The Good Wife's Guide," and I swear I am not making this stuff up (I'm not that brave)... [ Read Full Post ]

Nearly a couple of weeks ago, I described my yearning to find some trout rivers "off the grid" meaning the kinds of places where I wouldn’t find a BMW sedan in a roadside pull-out, its vanity license plates proclaiming “dry fly.” That would mean heading north, I noted, instead of south as I often have done for trout fishing in well-known waters. So I did just that last weekend. Here’s what happened.

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No, Deeter isn't going to come pick you up, drive to Alaska, and guide you for a week...  Although I'm sure he'd love to. This opportunity comes to us by way of Alaska West fishing lodge and Deneki Outdoors. I just had to let the flytalk nation know about the chance to fish for a week in Alaska for free. Here's the scoop... [ Read Full Post ]

So here’s a bit in praise of snobbery when it comes to fishing. I don’t mean the kind of in-your-face uptown tweed that some fly fishermen, in particular, unfortunately seem to affect. It’s just that a down-and-dirty approach to fishing seems itself to have become overblown lately. Hey, I’ve spent my share of nights in years past sleeping under a sheet of polyethylene next to a trout river and washing down a can of Dinty Moore stew with warm beer. That was okay. But it doesn’t mean I’d necessarily choose that route if I had other options. [ Read Full Post ]

We often review "stuff" like rods, reels, and lines... but rarely do we think about something good to carry your "stuff" around in.  Here's a great product from fishpond--the Dakota Carry On rod case.  It holds a few rods (out of their tubes) easily, and also has compartments for holding things like lines, reels, fly boxes, and so forth. [ Read Full Post ]

The Big Hole river is known for exceptionally large fish, and the stories on trout sizes there are sometimes hard to believe. This one though, appears to be the real deal. Our friend and colleague Ben Romans sent me this article from The Montana Standard last night.  The fish was caught on a five weight and measured 35 inches in length and weighed...

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Yeah, I know. We haven't announced a winner for the last caption contest we ran a couple of weeks ago.  There's just to many good captions.  I tell you what... at the end of the week we'll announce both. This week and the previous contest winner. Whomever writes the best caption for this week's disgusted look on angler Roy Tanami being given water bottle full of scented soft-plastics will win a Simms G3 guide vest (large only). This vest is for the angler that brings everything. There are 22 pockets on this bad boy and it retails for $199.95. 

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What would you say is your favorite all-around fly fishing state in America?  There are a number of great contenders in my mind:  Montana has to be a strong contender... New York's Catskill region is the cradle of many things fly fishing, and don't forget about striper fishing on Long Island... how about Idaho, Wyoming, or Colorado?

All wonderful.

But for me, the number one fly fishing state in the country always has been, and always will be... [ Read Full Post ]

I just got back from a soggy fishing trip in New York’s Catskill Mountains. Thanks to continuous and heavy rains, the Beaverkill was high and muddy. So were the East and West Branches of the Delaware. I did get in some trout fishing in the upper reaches of the Willowemoc, as that stream clears before other area streams, but that was about it.

Once home, I did something I rarely do: I put all my flyreels on my workbench, took them apart, and cleaned and lubed them. On a roll, I also pulled out a couple of Shimano Symetre spinning reels, stripped them down, and cleaned and lubed them as well. 

I point this out because, for the first time, I actually had an official reel cleaning kit. (In the past, I used anything I had lying around – usually an old toothbrush and some WD-40.) This kit has all you need: a Reel Kleen Degreaser, Reel Butter Oil and Grease, a brush and swabs, a combo Phillips/flathead screwdriver, and a silicone cloth, all in a snap-shut plastic case that could easily fit into a tacklebox. It’s a good idea – like... [ Read Full Post ]

Chad Love recently posted a blog on how consumer marketing types who come up with Father's Day gift ideas paint a picture of the American dad as an alcoholic, martial arts-loving golfer. He may or may not be, but books on making the perfect martini are not going to make you feel like a man. This video will.

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