My Favorites

For reasons I can’t (or won’t) explain, here are some of my favorite (and most-read) posts on the Underground.

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Humor & Fly Fishing

The Five Fly Fishing Movies That Should be Made Immediately
Fly fishing boomed after “A River Runs Through It” hit the movie theaters. I propose five new movies that could re-ignite interest in the sport (or totally kill it, depending on your perspective). Fun stuff – especially if you read the brilliant comments by readers…

Are Montana’s Trout On Crack?
We’re just going to say it; some of the Montana fly patterns strain credulity.

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 trout smoking crack?

Forget Fly Fishing; The Underground Goes For Weight
Fly fishing isn’t always about fish. Sometimes it’s about weight gain…

Frankly, I’ve moved far beyond those pedestrian concerns, and over the last two days, I’ve wholly abandoned any pretense about fishing, focused on what has clearly become this trip’s goal: Weight Gain.

More Shocking Proof of Drug Abuse by Fly Fishing Writers
Will fly tying save you money? I don’t think so…

Top Northern California Fishery Now Reserved for Wealthy: Undergrounders Need Not Apply
A satirical post spoofing private pay-to-play fisheries, courtesy a local who created his own Web site. Some thought we were being serious, but thankfully, we weren’t.

Ladies and gentlemen (applied loosely, of course), I present a dark stain that fly fishing can never fully erase: The Mt. Eddy Executive Bluegill Ranch (California’s Premier Private Catch and Release Bluegill Fishery).

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Assorted Stuff

The Grand Lake Canoe: An Essay with Images
The Grand Lake Canoe is a great fishing vehicle, and it makes an even better photographic subject. Includes some history of this unique wooden canoe.

But don’t make the mistake of simply calling it a canoe. You’re almost certainly looking at a Grand Lake Canoe (a “Grand Laker” if you’re into Maine guide slang), and suggesting that its roots run deep around the tiny town of Grand Lake Stream is to underestimate its connection to the area; the Grand Laker has big chunks of Grand Lake DNA directly wired into its genetic code.

Fly Fishing’s Original Blogger?
Muriel Foster’s diary is a staggering record of a lifetime of fishing the British countryside.

I only hope that – when the time comes to stop doing this (either fly fishing or the Underground, it doesn’t matter which) that I go with the grace of Muriel Foster, who didn’t make a big deal about things, but allowed as to how she’d fished a beautiful, deep black little lake with a borrowed rod.

Review: McGuane & Lindsay’s Upstream

I largely avoid fly fishing coffee table books. The problem? Fly fishing picture books typically attain a kind of artificial beauty, and do so at the expense of spontaneity, realism or soul.

Images are carefully arranged, styled and colored – to the point I’m witnessing the product of an advertising shoot instead of a real moment on the water.

The Stealthy Fly Fisher: Catching Fish Through Deceit and Trickery
A rare “how-to” article. Sneaky helps us catch fish, so why aren’t we all sneakier?

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 obvious question. Why don’t more fly fishers act like predators?

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Opinions (and Rants)

Who’s killing fly fishing magazines? The Internet? Or themselves…?
Is the Internet taking it’s toll on fly fishing magazines? Or are they digging their own graves? Started by a writer on a message board who complained that the Internet was ruining things for fly fishing writers, I took the opposite viewpoint; the magazines are largely screwing things up all on their own.

Instead of stating the obvious – that popular FF magazines are endlessly recycling the same old stories and using wannabes willing to write for fly line cleaner – he blamed the Internet, comparing reading free online information to receiving medical help from amateurs instead of doctors.

Gushy Fly Fishing Industry Videos Crank the Underground
You might not expect total objectivity from fishing magazines when it concerns their advertiser’s products, but when they create trade show videos that erase any pretense of editorial/advertising separation, then they might expect to get called for it.

For starters, the interviewers displayed all the reserve of small children seeking candy, but then, what did you expect in an industry where the magazines seem wholly committed to kissing ass?

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Fishing Reports

I don’t know what separates a good report from one that belongs on this page, but I’d say it has a lot to do with elements beyond the fishing. My mood, photographs, the weather… Here are a few of my favorites.

Road to the Smokies: Hazel Creek Campout
My four-day backpacking trip up remote Hazel Creek during my 2007 trip to Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

If fishing a river delivers a snapshot, living alongside one for a few days tunes you into much more; the animals, the weather, the river’s moods, history — even how it reacts to sun and rain.

The Backcountry Experience: Brookies, Beauty, and Yahoos…

It’s not as if I huddle in a one-room cabin and mail explosive devices to non-fly fishing strangers, but when I’m fly fishing, I’m prone to anti-social behavior.

It’s one reason why I love the backcountry; you can hike and fish all day with the reasonable expectation that you’ll never see another human being who didn’t hike in with you.

We fish for the places it takes us…

With the river over its banks, I head for a small pond where the fish are easy and the views are stunning…

The casual observer might assume that catching fish was pretty much the point of fly fishing, but they’d be several degrees off true North. Getting skunked isn’t fun – and more bigger fish is usually better than fewer smaller fish – but I love fly fishing for the places it takes me.

Bluelining for Brownies: Stream X Revisited
Why choose a small stream, little fish, hugely above-average beauty? It’s an trade-off.

“Bluelining” is the practice of scouring maps for the thin blue lines that suggest fishable trout water. It smacks of adventure and absolutely reeks of old-West romance — the twin pillars of any alpine fly fisher’s fantasy life.