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. […]

Lately I’ve been looking hard at all the bamboo fly rods in my rod closet, trying to mentally define why I fish them and how I apply value to them–values that often differ markedly from the marketplace.
Then that crafty bunch over at MidCurrent went and excerpted a chapter from Casting a Spell by George Black, […]

I don’t know at what point putting on waders and heading to the river ceases to be a fishing trip and becomes an excuse for getting out of the house - the walls of which grow a little closer every winter day - but it’s likely I passed that point today.
It was snowing, the Upper […]

Save money tying your own flies?
That’s the hilarious contention of John McCoy (staff writer for the Charleston Gazette), and I wonder if his employer shouldn’t immediately administer a drug test - lest John suffer another drug-induced flashback.
I gaze at the piles of expensive fly tying materials, expensive hackles, machined HMH vise, chemically sharpened hooks and […]

A few years ago, I was lucky enough to stumble across a copy of Muriel Foster’s Diary, and bought it faster than your average fly fisher buys a big fish story.
If you’re not familiar with Muriel Foster or her diary, she was an upper-class Englishwoman who lived from 1884 to 1963. In addition to fly […]

When your back is sore from shoveling snow and your last walk with Wally the Wonderdog found you plowing through five inches of powder snow (the Wonderdog loves snow - he’s a powder pup for sure), then you can say that winter’s officially arrived.

A walk with the Wonderdog. Photo by Tom. Snow & sunset colors […]

Given that 98% of the time you spend fly fishing could be technically classified as a failure, then having expectations for the remaining 2% seems pretty far fetched.
So it’s probably accurate to say that going fly fishing with a lot of expectations in place simply means you think you know what’s about to happen before […]

I got an e-mail alert from CalTrout, and while I’d rather do anything instead of getting all pissed off while sitting at my desk, I couldn’t avoid it in this case.
The key quote:
Despite what experts consider an ironclad case for the removal of the dams, FERC issued a draft environmental impact statement that recommends only […]

Moldy Chum apparently never sleeps. That’s the only explanation I can find for his blog’s never ending stream of odd and unusual finds.
This time, Moldy struck the motherlode of fly fishing industry “journalism” and since I’m feeling a little hostile from my own lack of sleep, it’s time for a Trout Underground rant.
The omniscient Moldy […]

It’s hardly unusual for someone to get up every morning and check the weather, much less an avid fly fisher waiting (largely in vain) for a cloudy, drizzly day.
I once wrote that I got all the daily news I needed from the weather report, and while it’s nowhere near true, it does indicate a set […]

Trout aren’t stupid. They might be brainless and lack creativity (a lot like the creators of Gilligan’s Island), but they’re survivors. And they didn’t get that way by offering themselves up as a meal for every predator that wanders by.
Which – if you stop to watch most fly fishers on the water – begs the […]

A leading Montana Fly Fishing Blogger recently posted a “suspicious” [ahem] October Caddis pattern suggestion on the Underground - the third such questionable pattern suggestion from a Montana-based Undergrounder in 18 months.
Clearly, it’s time someone in the outdoor media stood up and asked the question that others don’t have the guts to ask:
Are all Montana […]