by Chad Shmukler - Wednesday, Mar 30th, 2016
While talking over the finer points of their newest reel with Orvis' Tom Rosenbauer, it was abundantly clear that Orvis was excited about the new Hydros SL, which the company labored over and tested for some time before settling on its final design.
by Johnny Carrol Sain - Tuesday, Mar 29th, 2016
Winter draws to an early close in the South. I noticed the first spring beauty, an exquisite and appropriately named wildflower, in my yard on January 26 this year. Male spring peepers and cricket frogs feel the pull of hormones and start singing for the ladies around mid-February. But along about the time redbuds are blushing, I start listening for the return of another old springtime friend. This friend is also a singer. His melancholy serenade is the essence of a spring night. He sounds lonesome, and that may be part of the reason he was named Chuck-will’s-widow.
by Kris Millgate - Friday, Mar 25th, 2016
I’m not a fly tier. I’m a fly flinger. You create it and I’ll cast it. Even if it’s purple. I’m not picky, but I am ancy. I know the ice is off the river, but snow it still on the banks and because I don’t tie, I don’t have a winter timewaster. I resort to staring out the window at my buried boat. I’ve owned my drift boat for seven months. It’s been covered in snow for five of those months. A quick, March thaw is causing the white to recede rapidly and I can see my boat in my backyard again. It belongs on the water. So do I.
by Kris Millgate - Wednesday, Mar 23rd, 2016
I’ve never seen Siberia with my own eyes, but I’ve seen its twin. Henry’s Lake in Island Park, Idaho in the winter. It’s a desolate, wind-swept, ice cube on the Idaho-Montana border. The nearby blue-ribbon, trout stream known around the world as the famed Henry’s Fork isn’t stocked, but Henry’s Lake is. It’s a trophy trout lake full of lunkers that know it’s time to spawn even if it’s well below freezing and Siberia-like.
by Chris Hunt - Tuesday, Mar 22nd, 2016
I’ve always been a bit intimidated by fast-action fly rods. I’m trout guy—a small-stream creek freak who is much more comfortable using a slower, more precise tool to make shorter casts into tigheter spaces. To me, fast fly rods translated into weapons of random destruction, and to use them right, they required longer casts, double hauls and often some compensation for the wind that was likely blowing wherever something so stiff and unforgiving might be necessary.
And then I learned how to chase bonefish on the flats.
In much of rural America, the town dump remains the great equalizer. Sometimes known as the more sanitary sounding “transfer station,” it’s the place that virtually...
It felt like a slower-than-usual day. But then, on the morning after, I noticed a tender area a few inches to the right of my belly-button—not coincidentally, the place...
Killing native wildlife, defined by the ecologically challenged as “varmints,” is a popular American tradition, especially when organized into social events in which...
Korkers new Stealth Sneaker is a hybrid of the wading shoes we’ve seen grow in popularity lately and the tried-and-true wading boots...
There’s a creek freak in every fly fisher, even if it's compartmentalized away, deep in the emotional recesses of our psyches. Most of us who have fly fished for years —...
Fall is officially upon us, and fly-fishing gear manufacturers are pushing new rods, reels and other goods out to consumers this month. From a handful of new reels — both...
