Articles

A dry-dropper nymphing approach for low water

Using an indicator fly rather than a bobber-style indicator or Euro-tactics can pay dividends when flows are low
Photo: George Daniel

What makes fly fishing for trout so special to me? It’s the dynamic nature of weather, stream conditions, and trout behavior. Almost nothing stays the same. As a result, the approach that worked today won’t always work tomorrow. As anglers, we need to adapt to these changes in order to achieve success, even if, from time to time, it means using some of your least favorite tactics.

Election rules to live by

Help cutting through the noise this election cycle
The South Fork of the Snake River in Idaho (photo: BLM / cc2.0).

With the 2022 midterm elections mere days away, those of us who love to fish, or who otherwise enjoy the great outdoors, need to decide who to support with our votes. Sadly, it’s becoming harder and harder for many of us to differentiate good candidates — those who embrace our values — from poor candidates trying to camouflage their motives and intentions.

Fishing 'The Guad': America's southernmost trout fishery

If you want to fish for trout in the continental U.S., you can't do it any farther south than Texas' Guadalupe River
Photo: Rob McConnell

It was a cold January evening. I stood in the garage, examining the tags on two sleeping bags. One sleeping bag was rated for zero-degree weather, the other for twenty-degrees. While I contemplated these options, my bare feet began to ache from the cold seeping into my toes. Hearing my phone ringing on the kitchen table, I gratefully scampered into the house, my feet tingling as they warmed.

An ode to the Texas creek freak and native spotted bass

Hidden in plain sight in East Texas is a blossoming creek fishing scene
Casting for spotted bass on "The Sam" (photo: Chris Hunt).

As a kid growing up in East Texas, I can count on one hand the times I actively fished the plentiful little creeks and seeps that flowed into the big and muddy Sabine River near my home. There were lots of reasons for this, not the least of which was that most of these little runs were secreted away on private lands, where property owners were quick to post them against trespassers or, just as often, to dam them up to create watering holes for Brahma or Angus cattle or private farm ponds stocked with bass and panfish.

We need to talk about The Little Black Book of Fly Fishing

Over a decade later, the iconic Little Red Book of Fly Fishing has a sequel
The Little Black Book of Fly Fishing (photo: Chris Hunt).

It was the summer of 2006, and a battle was brewing in the mountains of western Wyoming. But it wasn’t your traditional battle, it was the beginning of a new brand of conservation, and two longtime journalists — strangers to one another — found themselves on the front lines.

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