As mentioned this morning in Angling Trade, SIMMS has apparently pulled the plug on its self imposed felt ban, and will be making all manner of felt soled wading shoes for 2012. Naturally we’ll assume that’s it’s the suddenly decreased threat of Didymo that’s the root cause of this change-of-heart, or it may simply be the [...]

Outdoor Life taught them as did every hoary sporting rag stacked in the dentist’s office. Mark Trail lectured us from the funny pages offering woodsy advice ranging from trapping and skinning the neighbor’s cat, to shelter and fire construction; yet despite all the accumulated lore and it’s many sources,  you never passed on those skills for [...]

As SMJ so eloquently reminded us Monday, “… where them fuggin antz at?” I have the luxury of fleeing the fishless and flooded creeks in my area for our traditional twice yearly pilgrimage to Manzanita Lake. It’s become ritual at this point; once to mark the opening of the season, once in the fall to [...]

A single sentence sent me gasping in apoplexy, but I’ll save the tantrum until I get another corresponding data point. I’d suggest you do the same. Denver’s WestWord News mentions in today’s article on the feather trade, suggests Thomas Whiting of Whiting farms has stopped selling feathers to fly shops … When demand for his [...]

At some point we all flirt with the individual fibers, knotted legs, and artificial or synthetic everything – mostly because the flies look much too delicious to ignore… … about our third fly we begin to wonder about synthetic reality and whether something that takes forty-five minutes to tie can outfish something made from a [...]

Harlequin Romance, you tawdry little strumpet, when did you come of age ? From the back cover: Jess Cofer isn’t fixing for a fight. All the single mom wants is to run her fly fishing shop and preserve unspoiled Phelps Cove, Florida, for future generations. Too bad Dan Hamilton doesn’t see it that way. It [...]

There’s the fellow tasked with bringing all the cooking implements, the canisters of propane, the lanterns and mechanical vestiges of civilization, if he forgets something it’s a round of good natured ribbing and a bit of improvisation, like beans warmed in the can. Then its the guy tasked with the victuals; the ice chests bulging [...]

White bread has also been commonly used as a hook-bait for centuries and is even referenced in the fisherman’s Bible The Compleat Angler by Izaak Walton in 1653. It’s well known that successive generations of anglers have lowered their expectations over the outdoor experience and game fish in general. As our beloved quarry is diminished [...]

I’ve got additional defective scissors to dispense should your fly casting club wish to assist prospective students in defraying their new vice … … yes, vice. You didn’t think it was possible to promote immoral behavior with such innocent intentions, but by urging them to tie flies, and given their well known propensities for spiraling [...]

With 24000 pages of email from the Sarah Palin regime just released to the public, I figured none of our guys would wade into all that puffery to glean how the Pebble mine fared, as that’s asking way too much of us action-oriented types … Meanwhile the press is focused on the next extra-tasty history rewrite, [...]