Articles

How to fly fish tight, low, skinny water

Tips for fishing in some of the most challenging conditions of the year

by Spencer Durrant - Monday, Jul 5th, 2021

Photo: M. Stoeger

Fishing tight, low, skinny water can be simultaneously frustrating and rewarding. And fishing these tiny creeks—most of which are so small anglers step over them without a second thought—often feels like more work than it’s worth. Whether because of fighting brush and losing flies, or dealing with impossibly spooky fish, it’s perhaps unsurprising that many anglers skip over this kind of water.

This is happening

Do-it-yourself bonefishing on Long Island in the Bahamas

by Chris Hunt - Friday, Jul 2nd, 2021

Photo: Chad Shmukler

No, you can’t actually see the tide drain the blonde sand flat southeast of Clarence Town harbor, but it happens fast. And it happens in toto. As in, when the tide goes out, it goes all the way out, leaving behind something akin to a Walmart parking lot after a thunderstorm.

Seemingly, one minute the warm Caribbean water is there. The next, it’s gone.

The future of striped bass is in our hands

Proper catch and release practices are vital to the future of the Atlantic striped bass fishery

by Chad Shmukler - Thursday, Jul 1st, 2021

Photo: Chad Shmukler

The 4x4s that dot the sands of Cape Poge on Chappaquiddick Island aren’t typically lined up in what anyone would call end-to-end fashion. Even at Wasque Point, which sits at the southeastern end of the island and is one of the most popular fishing spots on the entirety of Martha’s Vineyard, pressure is usually light enough that anglers aren’t on top of each other.

An attitude of extreme displeasure

Experience, knowledge, skill, and all the other usual variables matter—but only to a point

by Tom Davis - Wednesday, Jun 30th, 2021

Photo: Bob Wick / BLM / cc2.0

My fishing companion Dennis LaBare was fighting his sixth or seventh heavy smallmouth of the float when his rod blew up. That it was a make I’d never heard of until that moment may or may not be relevant. That a Menominee River smallmouth was the agent responsible for the only rod to blow up on me while fishing may or may not be relevant, also, although it seems a little too convenient to chalk up to mere coincidence.

Who was O.W. Smith?

How did the memory of an iconic American fly fishing writer disappear from angling history?

by Tom Davis - Friday, Jun 25th, 2021

Smith captioned this photo of himself "I resort to night fishing when I have caught a glimpse of a square-tailed monster that refused to show any interest in my daylight lures" (photo: uncredited / public domain).

One summer day in 1937, the mother of Simon Schultz—his given name was Clarence, but no one called him that—sent him on the kind of errand most teenaged boys only dream about: catching a mess of trout for supper. Like a lot of families in Depression-era Wisconsin, the Schultzes, who lived in Washburn on the shores of Lake Superior, depended heavily on hunting, fishing, and foraging to keep the larder stocked and their bellies filled.

There were a lot of Schultz bellies to fill, too: Simon was one of 16 children.