The good news is angling trash didn’t make the Top 10, still 400 pounds of trash per mile is a bit less than pristine. With a mountain of plastic the size of Africa swirling gracefully off our West Coast – 2.3 million cigarette butts picked up in a day is a drop in the hat. [...]

Skiers get enough toys, I’d call it a “Spring Creek Float Tube” myself. Low profile for those all-too-common moments when you need just six more feet on your cast… …Or, it’s getting dark and crossing the river at the car is faster. There’s no end to the cleverness of desperate fishermen. We’ll have to lose [...]

Fisheries research suggest the older mature fish should be released and angling regulations changed to allow only young fish be taken. Maturity is necessary to fish populations – and youth is less so. Makes us old guys feel good, but college cheerleaders won’t change their preference anytime soon.

The Caddis Variant is an elegant Caddis imitation that is dressed lightly and uses very little hackle. An excellent searching pattern, and floats well when dressed. It’s in the vein of the Elk Hair Caddis, and may be easier to tie.

California will have company shortly as Norwegian authorities contemplate ending the salmon season. Quotas and restrictions have already been instituted, now a complete ban of wild salmon fishing is on the table. A multitude of possible culprits exist – global warming tops the list, with acid rain and farmed fish escapees also cited. The association [...]

The collection of angling history amassed by Ernest Schweibert will be auctioned by Lang’s Auctions and eBay, April 25th and 26th. Hundreds of flies and books, dozens of rods and reels will be available for public bidding, representing nearly 100 years of fly fishing history.

I finally stumbled on the fly fishing equivalent of those “late night medical breakthrough” shows with faux MD’s hawking snake oil. We’ve all endured them – hosted by some ersatz skeptic who adds little other than, “Well, Doctor Bob – how can the viewers get Miracle-Krill?” This 50 page tome claims to perfect your fly fishing skills [...]

Smallmouth Bass are among my favorite gamefish to catch on flies – they’re the ultimate assassins, camoflaged and voracious. I like their “red eye” as it always seems to hold malice with each stare, making me thankful I’m a lot bigger than them.

In traditional fashion I brought one dry fly and a half dozen spinners, those by accident, and was completely unprepared for the massive outpouring of insect life. Another couple days of balmy weather and the upper elevations will be abuzz with critters, here on the valley floor I walked into a five hour long spinner [...]

I figured carp and bass would still be plentiful and assumed I could move to Canada before they close the borders.  We’ve known the Cockroach is a survivor, and now it’ll have company – as the CO2 enriched atmosphere is building a Poison Ivy superstrain. New research shows the rash-inducing plant appears to be growing [...]