So you know someone who wants to get started in fly fishing. Question number one (which I get asked a lot) is, what type of rod and reel should a newbie start with?

And my answer is, that depends on the person... how old they are, how big they are... whether they do a lot of fishing with conventional tackle, what they plan to fish for, and so forth.

For example, take my nine-year-old son, Paul.  I started him out with the Old Orvis 8-foot 6-weight that I started with (at the age of 18).  For kids, I think the number one criteria for a starter rod is  that it has a slower-to-medium action.  I've often thought that fast 
rods, while wonderful in many ways (and I prefer them myself now) can be a crutch that covers up casting flaws.  In my opinion, it's important to develop a feel for the cast, and instill a natural sense of timing and tempo, especially with younger anglers.  You can build up to fast rods once you have that feel.  Slower is better for starters.  I often dedicate days on the water to fishing with slower,  softer rods, just to polish my own casting during... [ Read Full Post ]

From the Billings Gazette:

Building an illegal trail and clearing trees in the Gallatin National Forest will cost a Livingston man five months in federal prison, a fine and $25,000 restitution. . . .

Forest Service officials determined that [Francis Leroy] McLain built a 6-foot wide ATV trail that was a mile and a half long. Agency officials estimated it would cost about $7,600 to dispose of downed trees that McLain had piled up and $25,948 to restore the land and prevent erosion.

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Generally speaking, it’s a shame we can’t--in the words of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson--take the past decade, pound it into a goddamn bottle, and set it adrift in the China current. But in the world of rifles, by and large, it’s been nothing but good news. Herewith, the most significant developments of 2000-2010, not in order of importance.

1. The transmogrification of the AR-15 into a bona-fide sporting rifle and an industry unto itself.

2. Hornady’s emergence as a major player and a major innovator in the ammunition biz.

3. Ten years ago, I thought that sporting optics had reached a state of perfection beyond which it could not go. Boy, was I wrong. [ Read Full Post ]

From an AP story in the San Francisco Chronicle:
A Nevada couple letting their SUV's navigation system guide them through the high desert of Eastern Oregon got stuck in snow for three days when the GPS unit sent them down a remote forest road.

On Sunday, atmospheric conditions apparently changed enough for their GPS-enabled cell phone to get a weak signal and relay coordinates to a dispatcher, Klamath County Sheriff Tim Evinger said.

"GPS almost did 'em in and GPS saved 'em," Evinger said. "It will give you options to pick the shortest route. You certainly get the shortest route. But it may not be a safe route." [ Read Full Post ]

If you were good enough to get a new Leupold Mark 4® riflescope for Christmas than you were better than a lot of us boys and girls. Still, you’d better take a close look at your new toy. According to the company, there are some hard-to-spot fakes hitting the market:

Leupold® is issuing a customer alert to purchasers of products, particularly via Internet sales, in regards to bogus Leupold products that are apparently being illegally imported from the People’s Republic of China. . . .

Leupold employs serial number tracking for all its riflescopes, so if a customer finds a scope that is suspect, he or she can simply write down the serial number and call 1-800-LEUPOLD to confirm if it is indeed authentic.

[Most counterfeits] have “Leupold Mark 4” laser engraved on the bottom of the turret in a silver etch, while the black ring on the objective is etched in white and does not include the name “Leupold.” An authentic Mark 4 riflescope will always be engraved black on black and have the name “Leupold” engraved on the black ring. [ Read Full Post ]

For years now I’ve been flying out of JFK and LaGuardia with guns.

In all that time and God knows how many trips I’ve never been given a hard time by the airlines, or the cops, or the TSA. But checking a rifle through either airport adds another half-hour. And then you have the airlines’ whimsical way of shipping you to one destination and your gun to another.

So on two occasions this year, I’ve sent my rifle ahead. I stick it in a steel case and slide the case inside what is known as a ski-shipping box—a two-piece carton that adjusts for length. Then, I take it to a gun dealer and ask him to insure it heavily and give me the tracking number. All this is not cheap, but your rifle will... [ Read Full Post ]

An Ergohunter is not a hunter who seeks ergos (they’re good eating, I’m told) but a new series of Buck fixed-blade knives with  ergonomic handles. Among these, the Ergohunter Avid skinner stands out. It’s a skinner with a 4 ¾-inch blade make of Sandvik 12C27Mod steel, and a 5-inch asymmetric handle carved out of stabilized rosewood. The handle, which has deeply checkered panels, has what looks like a Wundhammer swell on its left side and a deep indent on the right side. When you grip it, it grips back, and you can use it for a long time and put a lot of leverage on the blade without your hand cramping up.

The Avid is mainly for getting the hides off critters, but there is enough drop in the point that it does well at gutting, and it will handle just about any other use you put it to. Sandvik 12C27 is a near-stainless steel that’s akin to 440-C, but sharpens more easily and takes a much better edge. The sample I got to play with was a SHOT Show demo knife with no edge at all, and it took only a... [ Read Full Post ]

Thanksgiving is over. I know this because every commercial on TV is now Christmas-related. I don’t generally pay attention to these rants about sales and holiday cheer, but I noticed something interesting this year. Bass Pro Shops is running loads of commercials, and I’m not talking about just on Versus and the Outdoor Channel. I’m talking Bravo and Lifetime. Why? Because these commercials are targeted at wives who don't fish. Here’s why they’re genius.

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Like most of you, I get a seemingly endless supply of mail-order catalogs in the mail, despite the fact that when I actually go to buy something it's generally either local shops or Cabela's for me. Such was the case a few days ago when I opened the mailbox and discovered a catalog from the folks at Cheaper Than Dirt.
 
As I browsing through their catalog I stumbled across this...
 
From the product description:
 
When an emergency hits, we don't always have enough warning to prepare for it. The movie 2012 released on November 13, describes what could potentially happen on 12/21/2012 based on the end of the Ancient Mayan calendar. [ Read Full Post ]

On my recent trip to Oregon, a bunch of us were sitting on a ridge waiting for a mule deer to do something stupid, and one of our number left to walk down an adjoining ridge. When he was 1,000 yards away or so the head honcho of the ranch said: “You know, I can see him as clearly as if he were wearing blaze orange. That camo of his doesn’t work.”

And it was true. The ridgerunner was wearing some kind of dark camo designed for sitting in a tree in a Southern swamp, and at a distance all the branches and leaves and Spanish moss and  cottonmouths in the pattern blended together into a dark and highly visible mass. I’ve seen this many times; very few camo patterns travel well.

There are three that do, and they work because ...

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Some years back I wrote a Fishing Column in our print edition about fishing with Barbie rods just to see what was possible with kiddie-style spincast outfits. Since then, I’ve heard of 20-pound catfish caught with this dinky gear, and even a 50-pound black drum. But nothing tops this latest Barbie news.

An angler fishing during a recent shark tournament off Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, caught a 100-pound blue shark on a Barbie-style rig. Yes, really! Here’s the video to prove it.

Okay, I know that blue sharks aren’t the toughest fighters on the end of a line. If this had been a hard-running, high-leaping mako shark, Barbie’s proverbial goose would have been cooked but good. But still, a 100-pound fish is a 100-pound fish, and I give the angler lots of credit for trying in the first place and for pulling it off.

In case you’re wondering about Barbie’s muscles, I once dead-lifted a 16-pound weight with a Barbie rod without breaking it. So there’s plenty of pull available. And I dare say this angler replaced the chintzy mono that comes on... [ Read Full Post ]

So say you're stuck in the woods, the temperature's dropping fast and you need shelter and fire, quickly. There are trees all around but you have neither saw nor axe. All you have is your knife. It's not even a big Rambo-inspired, serrated-edge survival sword with a picatinny rail, but a twelve-dollar plastic-handled mora with a little four-inch blade. Hey, no problem.

I admit, I'm a knife junkie just like the rest of you. Customs, semi-customs, high-end production models, even plain-jane knives speak to us with their seductive blend of form and function and we respond by purchasing them without regard to reason or budget.

But in terms of absolute bang-for-buck, is there anything out there to compare to the lowly mora? These simple, inexpensive wonders aren't made of the latest super steel, they aren't a quarter-inch thick and there's nary a tactical, special ops-inspired doodad on them anywhere. They just work when you need them to. If you shop around you can find them for about the same price as a super-sized extra-value meal. And if you want to make your... [ Read Full Post ]