You drive a Prius (or it drives you), you only use fur from renewable animals that aren’t clubbed to death, you release all your fish, police your candy bar wrappers, and field strip your cigarette butts so only the wind knows of your passing … You wear rubber soles and sterile gear for fear of [...]

It’s my contention that the only thing spurring innovation is the much reviled competition scene, every other rod maker is fiddling with weight and thinking they’re being creative as all hell. The idea is certainly clever, a fifth piece, lacking guides, that transforms a nine footer into a Czech nymph rod; but they might want [...]

I wondered briefly whether Edwin Teller had a similar moment as they wheeled “Fat Man” and Littleboy” into the hold of the USS Indianapolis. Did he wrestle with the devastation he was about to unleash, or was he simply enamored that the theoretical had legs … … the big, atom smashing kind. I was standing [...]

With all the boutique players entering into the hook market and many discounters emerging offshore, it’s possible to run afoul of a good hook that fishes poorly. Most of us don’t consider pinching the barb much of a modification, but the design of the hook often hinges on the barb being present. Plenty of great [...]

The fly fishing brotherhood has always prided itself in dimly lit showrooms, fly-specked plate glass, and unshaven trolls rummaging through backrooms for Good Stuff … … if the proprietor doesn’t reach under the counter or fetch the item from The Back Room, we know we’re getting the “tourist” deer hair – or the Whiting neck everybody [...]

Matching the Hatch, trout fishing, fly tying, caddis, fly fishing humor, exploitation of fish hooked on forbidden chemicals, featuring caddis, trout, fly tying, fishing gadgets, and really stupid yet creative flies provided by a tyer long past his prime.

Dear Sirs, Your recent week-long West Yellowstone clinic on “Long Lost Secrets of Fly Fishing Returned From the Grave and Brought back with Us,” was ill conceived, disgusting and worthy of a refund. While both lodge and private streams are Orvis endorsed, neither of your featured speakers were licensed or bonded, and neither said much [...]

While last week was an orgy of drips, smears, and spills, it was only half of the overall effort. Testing dyes to produce the one and twenty minute shades gave me a pile of sodden colors, but it’s not dubbing until it’s teased, torn, and turned into filament. Wet dyeing is a mixture of chance [...]

It’s a fact that only chance collocates decent fishing with anything resembling cuisine. At best there’s the local flavor of greasy spoon, a fast food franchise or two, and a local pizza parlor – at worst, there’s whatever you left in the motel refrigerator supplemented deftly by the minimart. The evening hatch dooms us to [...]

Singlebarbed reader “Ed” recently took me to task on my curmudgeonly stance to invasive species, outlining newly minted facts that was sure to change my mind, and those of my readers … On Saturday I was visiting a girl friend and we were using her kayaks which hadn’t been paddled in awhile.  We cleaned them [...]