Opening day. High noon. Cold but tolerable. There was little doubt I would be there, in this exact spot. A group of mallards appear, drifting with the currents towards me. Soon they notice me, shocked to see someone for the first time in months, they make a quick exit. I fish a scud pattern upstream…

My tackle has been cleaned and stored away for months. The fly tying vise is permanently in place, many flies tied. Holidays have floated downstream. The time will soon arrive, the start of a new season. It will be cold. I will fish, just about no matter what, at least for a while. Wind being…

PART THREE We would fish together often throughout that season long ago. Experimenting with different patterns sometimes amazed at what they were willing to take when presented properly. When no fish were visibly feeding he would show me sub surface patterns and techniques that were foreign to me. Tactics that I had never seen in…

PART TWO My first visit with Tom came in early May. I pulled in behind him, just before noon, on a sunny typical Spring day. He was standing at the back of his car returning his gear after a morning of fishing. Asking how he had done, he turned, smiled and asked if I had…

PART ONE I first met him in the mid 70s. I, a teenage, nightcrawler dunking, Mepps spinner tossing pursuer of trout. Him, a fly fisher, author and photographer. There he stood, in the middle of our local stream, casting effortlessly, cigarette hanging from his lips. We chatted briefly, he spoke, I was smart enough to…

Well, that is the common saying, but in this case, it’s a lie. My preferred ride on most days to the fishing spot of choice is my Zero DSR. It’s an electric motorcycle with hard case side bags.  I can plug in once a week or so and I’m ready to go out for a…

The first two posts discussed the simple leech and the creation of another favorite large morsel, the crayfish. This post will briefly discuss the ability to create one more important food item by simply relocating the one material that made the leech a crayfish. The third pattern of this series, a favorite of the larger…

PART TWO All aspects of our natural world are interconnected in so many interesting ways, and the more I take time to learn about those interdependencies, the more I am amazed at the complexity in even the smallest systems. It all starts with geology. The limestone makes the water more alkaline and the steep topography…

My previous post went into a brief discussion of tying and fishing one of my favorite streamers, the leech. There are days, however, when fishing a piece of water that I’ve covered several times before, that I feel the need to throw them something different. More times than not that choice is a crayfish. When…

November. Haven’t touched a trout in weeks. It will be alright. We’ll slide through the holidays and January will be here before we know it. The bobbins are threaded. New, stronger reading glasses are on the tying bench. It’s time to spin up some bugs.  My tying usually starts based on how I plan to…