On the hundredth post I asked, “I wrote 99, surely you can write one” – but it was an epic fail. I’d already run out of things to say after the 16th article and it showed.
Today marks my 1000th post and I know better than to ask what you like.
It was a simple and [...]

We’re ill prepared to encounter someone interested in our fish – where our attempts to catch them interfere with others trying to photograph or paint fish in their natural surroundings.
As the Pristine dwindles it’s likely to put a great number of heretofore invisible wildlife lovers squarely in our path. and begs the question, who gets first dibs at the quarry?
Considering we’ve got [...]

Her icy gaze punctuated by the bony digit pointed in my direction …
Naturally, I tried the First Law of Backpedalling, innocence.
“ … What?”
I gazed around studiously avoiding That Which She Held, but I guess my look of innocence wasn’t quite up to par – or I’d gone to that well too many times …
I was Flat [...]

You’ve watched them gash bosom and plea with club personnel at every meeting. Each plaintive cry falling on deaf ears – and then some poor SOB that’s not there nominated to be the “Youth Coordinator.”
… a title reasonably vague, implying something to do with finding kids that want to unplug long enough to take [...]

The last decade was not our finest hour. Professional sports and ethics under scrutiny, press conferences featuring unrepentant athletes apologizing for dog fighting, bruised spouses, gunplay, infidelity, and their entourage – orchestrated carefully by agents and handlers hoping to mitigate the discomfort of sponsors.
Plenty bled into our sport, the dawn of the “sporting professional” [...]

I’m never surprised by a “better mousetrap” – only surprised that our industry is the source of so few.
With rubber soles being the standard of the future and while the vendor community wrestles with compositions, textures, and sticky – eventually settling on some blend they’ll label with a Star Wars moniker, you’d think they might [...]

It’s always been a Singlebarbed trait to delight in the suffering of others. We cackle and point fingers, toss barbs quicker than most – yet lack the social niceties that defines the true prima donna.
No, my good lord: banish Peto, banish Bardolph, banish Poins; but for sweet Jack Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff, true Jack Falstaff, [...]

I’ve often wondered what a fly fisherman does when they’re 80 years old and joints aren’t as limber, reflexes likewise, and they yank your driver’s license as you’re unsafe at any speed.
I saw myself as one of the “past their prime” old bastards sunning themselves at the casting pond, throwing an occasional word of encouragement at the [...]

… sure it’s the season of friendship, hope, and orgy of consumerism, yet buried way down deep is still a hint of Christianity … hard to see, but baby Jesus is sandwiched somewheres between that Lexus commercial and all the reasons I need a 54” flat screen …
… absent the three wise men, whose star [...]

Last night was a flurry of pots and pans, screaming cooks with blistered fingers, slopped sugary icing, and my complete abandonment of the angling world.
This time of year similar scenes are playing out in kitchens everywhere – and most anglers are smart enough to make themselves scarce, go fishing, or nurse barked knuckles after [...]