The Underground has long held an appreciation for writer Hugh Koontz – a North Carolina-based newspaper editor who writes about fly fishing – often employing the wildest, most over-the-top metaphors we’ve read.

The Maestro of Metaphor now has his own blog, so those with a desire for a daily metaphorical fix – and some nice writing along the way – should tune in. What will you find? Metaphors like:

The air was cold enough to force me to switch hands carrying the rod every minute or so, and a rain as steady as life’s miseries spit in my face.

or,

I set out to find new water. I left the three lonely, fishless fly fishers and strolled along a soft carpet of leaves soggy as cornflakes. The path, when I could see it, felt like a thick rug.

Even if you’re not entranced by his metaphors, his simple, direct style is worth a look:

As engineers, beavers have few peers. While their abodes did not impress me with their aesthetic qualities, they were sturdy. It really looked like somebody spilled a truckfull of sticks.

It was pretty though. After a couple tries with the yellow fly, I sat back to drink all this in. Tall brown grass rimmed the ponds. The mountains were smoking through the mist. The sky looked like a freshly painted battleship from my hometown of Norfolk, VA.

And the air tasted sweet and clean.

I asked Kevin Howell of Davidson River Outfitters if there were, indeed, trout in those ponds, and he assured me there were but that late spring and early summer were the best times to fish there. Come back later.

See you on the Internet, Tom Chandler.

fly fishing, hugh koontz, fly fishing writing, fishing

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Technorati Tags: fishing, Fly Fishing, fly fishing writing, hugh koontz

Since they were foolish enough to link to us – and the guy can write – we’ll give ‘em a plug: the Fishbeer blog.

They suggest they’re the “Greatest fly fishing, beer, and fancy writing blog you’ve ever seen” though I’m going to dispute the “beer” part.

After all, it was the Underground who led the way in protecting your First Amendment Beer-Drinking Rights.

Still, there’s something to be said for the writing part:

One thing Cow Creek Ranch could improve is the strength of their coffee. I’m sitting here now in Soma in Bloomington Indiana enjoying a tall glass of very fine, strong-brewed, real coffee. I’m going to drink two. Maybe three.

Scuff on the fuselage, lightening on the left, lightening on the right, my flight back from New Mexico was not great. I got to my new house around 2:00am last night. I still have to unpack from the move. Awesome.

But enough of the complaining. Just two days ago I was traipsing through high meadows on the Sangre de Cristo Mountains plunking down a bushy stimulator in every riffle, pocket and hole of Cow Creek looking for the five-slam. Above the black, swirling, deep pools of the manicured guest beats on the main fishery at the ranch, Cow Creek continues to climb into the mountains above 10,000’. There’s a trail that follows it all the way up.

See you on the Internet, Tom Chandler.

Technorati Tags: beer, fishbeer, Fly Fishing, fly fishing blog

The Fly Fishing in Yellowstone blog posted a wonderful essay describing his brief escape from the monochromatic whiteness of winter.

I sympathize. Most of my yard is covered in snow, yet 30 minutes down the canyon, the grass has already turned a vibrant green, and spring is underway.

Still, if you were to ask me, I’d say spring is a couple weeks away. Is that alpine-induced tunnel vision, or simply a reflection of my immediate reality?

(photo courtesy Fly Fishing in Yellowstone)

From Fly Fishing In Yellowstone:

The cloistered mind of the high country tends to forget that there are other bits of humanity that seem to enjoy four full seasons and a world with minimal snow.

He ends his thoughtful essay with:

Soon there will be color enough. Riots of small blossoms will appear on the edges – where the dirt first appears. There will be snow in the corners until June, this year — maybe a bit left for the 4th of July. We’ll see.

The Madison River looks asleep up here. Last night’s snow has covered the lonesome foot prints to the fishing spots in the tailwater. It seems dormant. It hides a secret – there are fish there, and they are getting ready for their Spring mating rituals. They will dance with you if you send them the right offering. And only the neighbors will know.

Without getting all mushy about it, I’ll say this: his essay is a rare glimpse into the high country mind. Don’t miss it.

Technorati Tags: fly fishing,fly fishing in yellowstone,fly fishing blog,spring in the high country

Technorati Tags: Fly Fishing, fly fishing blog, fly fishing in yellowstone, spring in the high country

First there was Fly Fishing in Yellowstone — the Yellowstone-based fly fishing blog that churns out local and regional fishing information in awe-inspiring quantities, then spends the off-season doing weird (but interesting) stuff.

Reading Fly Fishing in Yellowstone is little like spending a whole fly fishing season in the area, only without the mosquitos and grizzlies. (Well, it’s not, but it feels like it).

He’s a tough act to follow, but I’m adding two new Montana blogs to the Underground’s heap. We’ll keep track and see how they’re doing.

Will Fish For Work

The newest kid on the block is Will Fish for Work, a blog bouyed by the following subtitle: “Desperate Fishermen Seeking Gainful Employment.”

Sadly, he won’t find gainful employment on a fly fishing blog, which is about as far from “gainful” as it gets.

Still, don’t let his delusions get in the way of your enjoyment; Will Fish for Work is a good read, and worth a visit (or an add to your RSS reader).

The Best Blog?

Finally, there’s the Best Yellowstone Fly Fishing Blog, whose name suggests plenty of confidence. They’ve been posting since July, but I missed them until recently.

Heavy on the local and regional angle, at first blush they look like they’re setting up for a run at regional search engine fame, but they keep publishing interesting stuff, and they’re definitely worth adding to your RSS feed.

The Big Fishing Trip?

Sadly, it looks like I won’t be winging my way to Tennessee for spring fishing, though one door always opens when another closes, and there might be a Montana Summer Roadtrip in my future.

Naturally — like any lazy fly fisher wanting to catch loads of big fish without putting in the time — I’ll be soaking up whatever information the Montana blogs have to offer.

See you in the blogosphere, Tom Chandler.

Technorati Tags: fly fishing,fishing,fly fishing information,fly fishing yellowstone,fly fishing montana,fly fishing blog

Technorati Tags: fishing, Fly Fishing, fly fishing blog, fly fishing information, fly fishing montana, fly fishing yellowstone

Women represent a sizable (and fast-growing) chunk of fly fishing’s huddled masses, yet — with a few exceptions — they’re not much represented in the magazines, and women in fly fishing’s "celebrity elite" are more curiosity than commonplace (then again, maybe they’re too smart to become fly fishing "celebs").

If it’s one thing we stand for here at the loosely defined, mission-statement-less Underground Writer’s Network, it’s that we’re all about diversity.

We love diversity. We embrace diversity. We’ve even kissed diversity on the lips.

That’s why we’re proud as can be to welcome a new voice to fly fishing’s online world: The Fly Fish Chick.

  
Apparently our Texas-based angler spends some time in Montana…

From her first post:

And right to the end, it was a great day. It’s hard to distill all the intangible highlights into words, but let’s just say once again the Guadalupe was there for me. All those freshwater takes gave me a fresh take on a river I’ve known my entire life. And I’m rejuvenated to see how much more there is to discover.

Once back in Austin, I decided to top off my flyfishing adventure with live music at Atone’s. Truthfully I was already pretty hopped-up on the highs of catching Texas trout, but of course I had to celebrate with some Lone Star too.

And if you really need proof the woman can write, read this tower of word power from her Chicken Fried Therapy blog.

That’s a kickass piece of writing, and I suspect there’s plenty more to come on the fly fishing side of things.

Stop on by the Fly Fish Chick, leave a comment, and subscribe (via RSS or email). You won’t be sorry.

See you at Fly Fish Chick’s, Tom Chandler.

Technorati Tags: fly fish chick, Fly Fishing, fly fishing women, underground writer's network, women in fly fishing

Here’s one I wish I’d though of — fly fishing’s Top 10 overused words and phrases. The Day Tripper just fired up this crowd-participation post, but listed only nine played out phrases, expecting his readers to supply the final one.

Head on over and leave a comment — before some rat bastard posts your worn out fly fishing phrase. I’d hate for that to happen.

See you at The Day Tripper, Tom Chandler.

Technorati Tags: fly fishing cliches

I’m way behind on a lot of things (including book and blog reviews), so I’m going to fire off a couple of blog notices right now.

First, we’ve got the Neil Creek Chronicles — which right now is holding a closeout flea market near-giveaway of some excess equipment.

An interesting read — their latest post is a missive about real BBQ, a subject near and dear to the Underground’s heart (and clogged arteries).

Find Yourself a Back Eddy

In The Back Eddy is another new blog that looks to be focusing on Idaho and Montana.

He looks to be staying right on top of the area’s issues, fishing reports and even the question about whether to rebuild the Teton Dam.

Add both to your RSS reader (hell, your boss won’t care if you don’t get any work done at all).

See you on the blogosphere, Tom Chandler

Ever since Rogue River guide Dave Roberts and I ran into each other on the Upper Sac (both of us casting bamboo fly rods and wondering who that other idiot was), we’ve been fast friends.

He was Best Man at my wedding, his duties largely confined to quick-drawing a flask of Irish Whiskey at opportune moments, keeping the dive bombers in my stomach calm and relaxed.

Dave Roberts, now guiding fulltime on the Upper Rogue

We still fish together whenever possible, which isn’t anywhere as often as it should be. That’s why you’re about to experience a shameless plug for his new guiding Web site, which even includes a blog.

Of course, everyone who meets Dave knows he loves to tell stories, and for that matter, everyone has their favorite Dave story.

Mine (fortunately) involves a big fish, so at least it’s printable.

We were fishing a more technical stretch of the Upper Sacramento, and I hooked a good fish. A real good fish.

Like a lot of big trout, it didn’t realize the danger at first, and came within a few feet of me before waking up and bolting downriver.

I stood there dumbfounded (I thought it was a little guy), watching the fly line exit the reel at an ungodly rate.

Suddenly, it was gone, replaced by that weird, skinny backing, and Roberts gave me a nudge, pointed where the fly line disappeared into the water, and said “You going to chase that fish, or just stand here with your thumb up your ass?”

Classic Roberts, and while I can’t guarantee he’ll say something similar if you take one of his drift trips down the Rogue, you can bet it won’t be a dull trip.

That much we can say for sure.

See you on the Rogue, Tom Chandler.

Technorati tags: fly fishing, fishing, rogue river, fly fishing guide, fishing guide, rogue river guide, dave roberts, david roberts

I’d love to say I had a crystal clear vision for this nascent fly fishing blog network I’m piecing together, but suffice it to say that someday, somehow, I’d love to be in the business of helping good writers build something useful.

With that in mind, joining the Trout Underground and Singlebarbed on the Underground Writer’s Network is the Daytripper blog.

It’s written by Alex C. — a fly fisher of strongly held opinions and significant energy. In addition to his multitude of posts about his fishing trips (of which there have been many), he touches heavily on a lot of fly fishing topics, and is even in the process of building a fly pattern database (home to many streamers, a branch of fly fishing I find oh-so interesting).

We welcome him into the fold (though we didn’t tell him about the “new-blog hazing ritual” where he ties the existing members of the network a couple dozen flies).

What’s clear about Alex is he’s a fly fisher, and he’s got it bad. Hell, he’s even posted a counter on his site which broadcasts the number of flies he’s tied so far this winter. Scheez.

We understand. And welcome to the neighborhood, Daytripper. Give him a visit, and leave a slaw dog on the front porch for him.

See you all on the river, Tom Chandler.

Technorati tags: fly fishing, fishing, fly fishing blog, daytripper, daytripper blog, underground writers network, singlebarbed, trout underground

I stumbled across Gale Rainwater’s photography blog and Web site (actually, he stumbled across us), and I flipped over the work.

While it’s not fly fishing specific, it speaks to one of the things most of us fly fish for — the stunning, unspeakably beautiful outdoors.

It’s proof that craftsmanship still exists in the digital world. Worth a visit!

Technorati tags: photography, outdoor photography, nature photography, gale rainwater

Thanks to Alex at the iconoclastic Daytripper blog — who’s running a “Stuff That Sucks” series (in opposition to his own “Stuff You Need” posts) — we found ourselves face to face with an Anti-Spring Ridge Club Web site that Underground Tackling Dummy Donny Beaver probably doesn’t love. From their “About” page:

This site is intended to shed light on the activities of the Spring Ridge Club in Central Pennsylvania. The activities of this club are to secure land surrounding PA trout waters and post them for their own use…

We intend to gather support from the public to try to convince the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to change the current legislation to allow stream access to the public to the high water mark of the river, just as it has been done in Montana.

The Underground’s beef with Beaver isn’t with his attempts to post private waters (we’re not in love with that part, but it’s legal). It’s about attempting to illegally restrict legal public access to rivers (and pretending he’s a conservationist for doing it).

It’s a trend we’re going to see a lot more of over the coming years — they’re not making any more rivers.

Buster Wants to Fish looks like a collaborative fly fishing blog written by some of our favorite self-described “dirtbag fly fishers” — along with a few names I don’t recognize, but will certainly come to. Their mission?

Broadcasting from high atop the Bilgewater Building in Dogpatch USA, hello and welcome. We are a small mob of dirtbag flyfishers with a web site. Weve stared at the water enough to maybe have some things to say about it. You might disagree, but here you are anyway. Did you bring beer? Weve stumbled out of a variety of regions and fallen together on the internets. Were pretty much staunch localists who are still stoked about the rivers, lakes and beaches were lucky enough to call our home waters, and wanted to get the words down before life goes and robs us of the alphabet. And we want to have a good time doing it.

“We’re Here”

There’s a lot of hand-wringing in the fly fishing industry about the “next” generation of fly fishers — namely that they don’t exist, and if they do, they’re a bunch fat-assed whiners gripping Xboxes and thinking fish and meat are something that comes shrink wrapped from the grocery store.

I always thought that was a little too convenient for an industry that was largely stuck in the 1980s way of doing things.

If it’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that the new wave are out there, but since they’re unlikely to subscribe to a snore-inducing Fly Fishermen magazine or buy $650 fly rods by the dozen, they might as well not be (as far as big chunks of the industry are concerned).

That’s tunnel vision, and while it seems the Internet might as well be the empty space off the flat end of the earth for most fly fishing companies, a quick visit to the right places would set you straight.

Buster Wants to Fish would be one of those places.

It careens between the odd, the sublime and the overheated, alternating kickass fishing reports like this one or this one with bigfoot sightings and the obligatory, anthemic rage against the machine post (which loses a lot of steam if you have to find, manufacture, or prop up a machine to rage against, but by its nature, rebellion requires something to rebel against).

Put it on the old RSS Feed, and let ‘em blast away. It won’t be a boring trip.

Comments from the Undergrounders are always welcome.

See you on the blogosphere, Tom Chandler.

[tags]fly fishing, fishing, buster wants to fish, fly fishing blog, outdoor blog[/tags]

It seems no one’s indifferent to “The Movie” — Robert Redford’s adaptation of Norman Maclean’s “A River Runs Through It.”

Depending on who you’re talking to, it either persuaded you to try fly fishing, ruined fly fishing, saved fly fishing, or overran the sport with trendy, gloss black SUVs. (Do golfers feel the same way about Caddyshack?)

Frankly, I don’t get it. I mean, I liked the movie — and loved the story — but when I hear someone say the movie was “about fly fishing” I want ask them who their high school literature teacher was and put a contract out on them.

[sfx: deep breath]

(It’s not. Fly fishing is a backdrop; the movie’s about a family.)

Still, everyone who’s anyone knows that Jason Borger did the actual casting scenes, and now, Jason Borger’s blog carries a couple of interesting stories from the movie — 15 years after the fact.

For that matter, Borger’s blog is worth a visit all on its own:

Fish, Flies & Water is meant to provide a flow of links, thoughts, and educational/entertainment media related to my personal journey through fly fishing. I hope that you find some of this blog to be useful, interesting, or simply enjoyable.

See you on the Internet, Tom Chandler.

[tags]fly fishing, jason borger, a river runs through it, the movie[/tags]

Photo courtesy Tamanawis blog (we hope)

I’m starting to become mesmerized by the idea of fishing Scotland, especially when the Tamanawis blog describes the terrain in terms like this:

The North is really about the lochs. There are thousands of them, scattered all across the land and each one with a particular character. It’s probably a good analogy to imagine the landscape as a giant bowl of curry. There are endless chunks of onion (the ‘typical’ lochs), punctuated by the occasional tomato (the ‘better’ lochs), and the odd rare and prized piece of tender lamb (the ’special’ lochs).

As with curry, it’s no use having just one ingredient: variety is truly the spice of life and the huge variety of Scottish loch fishing provides hope for a lifetime of interesting fishing.

Am I the only suddenly hungry reader? And hey — who wants to go fishing? You can read his whole post by clicking here (several nice photos too).

See you in Scotland, Tom Chandler.

[tags]fly fishing, fishing, scotland, lochs, tamanawis[/tags]

I’ve seen a lot “roadkill/fly tyer” pieces floating around the Internet, but the best I’ve read so far can be found at our own Singlebarbed, who makes us wonder exactly what kind of drugs he was doing in college while the rest of us were… uhhh… OK, we were doing pretty much the same drugs, but you didn’t read it here.

Any real tier worth his salt can tell sex, species, approximate the decay level, cross reference it with his mental inventory, and determine value – before he locks the brakes up.

We?re sickos, masterless ronin, owing allegiance to nothing other than the knowledge that steel belted radial season is open year round. The real trick is getting the game processed so?s not spend the next decade in some gladiator academy, protecting our hindquarters.

He even sprinkles the piece with useful information (how to treat bird skins vs those of larger mammals), but still, it’s the description of the diseased that causes some uncomfortable moments, if only because it all seems unsettlingly familiar.

Read the rest of the weirdness at: Sordid Confessions of a Tertiary Stage Fly Tier : Singlebarbed

[tags]fly fishing, singlebarbed, fly tying, roadkill[/tags]