Articles

Review: Simms G4 Pro Shift Fishing Backpack

Simms' innovative, new 2-in-1 pack is aimed at all-day, adventurous anglers

by Paul Snyder - Monday, Jul 8th, 2019

Photo: Paul Snyder

As one who spends more than 90 percent of my time on the water on foot, a great pack is something I relish, especially for days that run up to 10 hours or more away from camp, the rig, or a drift boat. I need space for food, hydration, emergency items, rain gear, fly boxes, bear spray and more. And I need that space to balance well on my skinny frame, preferably keeping its extras out of the way when the hatch comes off and it’s business time.

Book Review: Fifty Women Who Fish

Steve Kantner's new book entertains and informs

by Mike Hodge - Wednesday, Jul 3rd, 2019

Angler Claire Carter King (photo: Wild River Press).

More women than ever are fishing. That much is a given. No one knows exactly why one in four anglers have the XX chromosome or why nearly 40 percent of new anglers are female. Fact is, men now share the water with women.

South Florida author Steve Kantner capitalized on this trend with his latest book, Fifty Women Who Fish, a series of profiles of the most prominent women who can fling a fly or lure with the best of the best.

An eye for flies

Thoughts on the art of fly tying

by Todd Tanner - Tuesday, Jul 2nd, 2019

Photo: Jeremy Roberts

When I was nine years old, my Uncle Joe and Aunt Doris gave me a fly tying kit for Christmas. It was boxed and wrapped and tied off with a big shiny red ribbon, and I opened it at the Tanner family Christmas party, which, if memory serves, was held the weekend before the actual holiday. This particular celebration was at Joe’s home (we rotated every Christmas; one year at our house, the next year at Uncle Jim’s, the next at Uncle Austin’s, and so on) and I don’t think I was ever so excited as when I pulled off that wrapping paper and saw the treasure I’d just received.

Fishing and PFDs: Life savers — Part 2

Today's neck-saving wearables aren't the bulky, ungainly things of yesteryear

by Todd Tanner - Friday, Jun 28th, 2019

The West Marine Ultra-Slim (photo: Todd Tanner).

A few years ago, while I was wade fishing Montana’s Missouri River on a windy January day, I was struck from behind by a huge, slow-moving ice flow and pushed out into a deep channel maybe a hundred yards from the nearest bank. I went under a couple of times as I tried to swim in my waders and a heavy, sodden insulated jacket, and if not for the help of a fellow angler, it’s unlikely I would have survived.

The Racine

It was as unimprovable an object as human hands have ever fashioned

by Tom Davis - Tuesday, Jun 25th, 2019

Photo: Aaron Carlson / cc2.0

Buddy Bishop, the man who owned the Racine, was about as un-Buddylike as it’s possible to be. You tend to think of Buddys as ruddy-cheeked back-slappers, the kind of guys who organize softball games at company picnics and spend the rest of the afternoon flipping burgers, tonging hot dogs into buns, and drinking foamy beer from plastic cups.