Today’s Dead Sucker Award (my new name for Underground Rants) comes courtesy of canoe.ca. And it must might represent the living embodiment of one of fly fishing’s least attractive stereotypes.
So hold your noses, and plunge into this sewage-laden passage:
It was a surreal adventure. One day last year, Ken McCagherty and three buddies arrived in Canmore, [...]

From the Yellowstone fly fishing blog comes this truly saddening news from the Billings Gazette:

“Non-native lake trout patrolling Yellowstone Lake are eating so deeply into the population that biologists last year found just 471 cutthroats at a spot where there were more than 70,000 in the 1970s.
The downward spiral has been particularly noticeable at [...]

From Alert Blog Reader Anonymous (would you want to be identified on this blog?) comes startling (and distressing) news of another culinary craze sweeping the south:
The Kool-Aid soaked pickle.

Truly the mind reels. Some dillhead (get it?) has taken a perfectly good dill pickle, and then soaked it in Kool-Aid. And got someone else to pay [...]

There’s a little guy named Justin who was born without a critical enzyme in his brain, so while he thinks fine, his motor functions don’t work.
A few folks have thrown together an auction for his parents (running on blog software). Sure, it was never meant for that, but it seems to work surprisingly well.
You can [...]

After the Hazel Creek backpacking trip ended on Sunday (and yes, a lot of laundry was done), Monday appeared.
What to do?
Hey — Good guess! Ian and I fly fished the Little River (later, Charity joined us on the river), but the story begins elsewhere. Indeed, it begins where all great fly fishing stories begin:
Lunch.

A box [...]

I’m about to leave for the Knoxville airport, starting what is sure to be another Quality Travel Experience.
I owe my loyal Undergrounders reports on two more days of fishing (including a last-day surprise location and a never-before-seen fish on the Underground), plus a trip wrap up.
Don’t miss a word. In the meantime, thanks for all [...]

Fly fishing a river tunes you into its water, bugs, and trout.
You gain a sense of the moment, hopefully catch a few trout, and walk away with what amounts to a frozen snapshot of what you think the river is all about, though most of the time we’re wrong about that.

Hazel Creek through the trees. [...]

Fishing trips are no time to relax. I’ve got to finish this report, hit the store for backcountry supplies, and jam my poor, overstuffed backpack with even more gear.
Apparently, I won’t be the only thing on this trip that weighs too much.
Yesterday’s Holst0n float trip with Ian and Rich was fun; lots of caddis and [...]

It’s after 11:00 pm and tomorrow we’re meeting Ian early for a float trip — which is my way of saying this is going to be brief.
Today, after running errands (license, backpacking goodies, etc), Rich and I drove, hiked, sweated, hiked, sweated some more, and hiked again — all to fish a small brookie stream.

Rich [...]

This will be short (I’m writing instead of fishing, a tough sell to most fly fishers), but I had a chance to see the 7′ 3wt Diamondglass rod (wrapped by Rich) in the morning light.

Rich Margiotta’s Emerald wraps on a 7′ 3wt Diamondglass (fiberglass).
Pretty job, and while we’ve still got to test-cast the thing, it [...]