To say that Southeast Tennessee has captured my attention is an understatement. It’s pretty in a lusher, greener, less edgy way than the Upper Sacramento River and surroundings (whose raw, hard-edged appeal is impossible to top).

If I had to live somewhere besides here, the Smokies would be right near the top due to the year-round […]

Every other blog on the planet is running some sort of Halloween graphic, story, or joke. Not me.
With “Monster Deals” and “Spook-tacular Savings” headlines dotting the papers and TV commercials, it’s becoming clear that Halloween is the new Christmas - one more chance for the commerce machine to sell us stuff we’ll use once a […]

It’s cold outside, the sky is clear, the fall colors persist, and the Wonderdog is moving around more than yesterday.
That he’s moving at all is a bit of miracle, so overall, things aren’t too bad for a Monday. Still, due to looming deadlines I’m running 50% adrenaline and writing whatever hits the ganglia.
Enjoy the ride….
I […]

Saturday’s portion of the Bamboo Rod Gathering in Dunsmuir was conducted under sunny, perfect weather. Over 50 builders and fanatics made the trip, and if you ever wanted to cast a lot of bamboo rods, this was your chance.

Most unusual rod was the solid greenheart (wood) rod built by Larry Tusoni of High Sierra rods.
The […]

With the days sunny and warm and the nights right around freezing, the fall colors just keep hanging in there. Soon we’ll get a cold snap and the hard frosts that follow, dropping the leaves and killing off the October Caddis in droves.
That’s when the spent-wing October Caddis patterns really work, but everybody’s gone […]

More than two years ago I started writing funky fishing reports for Chris Raine’s uppersac.com site, and I can’t guess how many words I’ve written since then.
Lately - as the traffic has risen to its current 2000 pages/day level - I’ve been looking for a way to cover the hosting costs and perhaps make a […]

Why deal with a messy, dirty outdoor reality?
In the comfort of your own home - with a refrigator of super-chilled brewskis close at hand - you can experience all the excitement of fly fishing without risk of leaky waders, errant hooks, or man-eating beavers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCggoYO6pQc

(The intro is boring, but you’ll regret it the rest of your […]

Via MidCurrent comes an interesting opinion piece by a writer who wrote a kiss-and-tell article about his favorite stream for Fly Fisherman magazine.
It was years ago, but regret clearly runs through his psyche like… well, the stream he gave up:
If I had the money and wherewithal to buy up every copy of that magazine, I’d […]

It’s Thursday - Day Five of the Chandler Fly Fishing Hostage Crisis. The day’s going to be a full one, but with Dave Roberts in town to provide whiskey-based support for the Bamboo Rod Builders Gathering, I’ve got an out this afternoon.
I don’t know what I’ll find on the river (hopefully a better pocket water […]

Verizon calls this their shockproof, waterproof, EMP proof, solar radition-resistant, GPS-equipped Adventure Cell Phone. To me, it’s more an adventure killer.
After all, what’s the adventure in always knowing where you are, or always having the option to call for help?
For some of us, the adventure only begins after we’ve gotten lost, broken a leg trying […]

No sooner do I post an article about stealth being one of the free things in life that actually helps you catch more fish than Wayward Fly Fishing debunks me.
His tongue-in-cheek post about being as noisy as possible on the river is short and - like all his posts - well worth the read.Technorati Tags: […]

Our forest-green friend Ranger Gord is back blogging, and his latest post covers a great deal of ground, including an Enquirer-credibility-level report of a gang of Russian squirrels attacking and dismembering a large dog.
Still - while he exhibited narrow vision by rejecting my plan to train bears to attack humans offering them food - he […]