According to my jaundiced perspective, three hundred and fifty bucks is a fair price for a fly rod expected to last me a lifetime. Figure a lifetime is about a decade or so – usually accompanied by a hammy handed pal closing a car door when you’re preoccupied extinguishing a fire or shooing flies off [...]

The only way I can figure it is there must be two demographics for fly fishermen;  the starry eyed fellow that approaches the counter with an eight hundred dollar rod and asks, “what else do I need?” … and the mean old penny-pinching codger poring over the fly tying materials alternately swearing and grasping his [...]

Add Upstream to a crowded field of e-zines making their debut in 2010. I liken the ezine conundrum to the current political spectrum, where Republicans and Democrats try to distance each other from the opposition, the administration, and their own party. As each new magazine throws down their own unique brand, free of tired articles [...]

It’s the fish you think of on slow days and rekindles flagging interest. It’s the fish that makes up for fussy trout and flies smaller than #20, it’s salve for a season of sunburn and mosquito bites, cures hangovers, and for a couple of too-short months allows us to focus on important fishing principles like [...]

It could be a California angling phenomenon, but I see more guys wearing pink than girls. … and while fly line color continues to be debated with great ferocity in the forums, the  SIMM’s G3 Guide vest in rust orange debuted with hardly a murmur… Now that embedded jungle cock and spray of gaily colored feathers [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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” [...]