Tarpon Fishing History
A terrific essay on the beginnings of tarpon fishing from the Bonefish & Tarpon Unlimited Web site.
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August 31, 2003
August 30, 2003
The Movie, Minus the Soundtrack
A doubter's review of The Movie. Pretty humorous.
August 26, 2003
Nostalgia Marketing's Beginnings
An interesting piece on SunSpot.net talks abou how SI turned from a sporting magazine into a sports magazine; appears the turning point was a 3-part series on wet fly fishing.
I remember discussing with Leonard Wright almost 20 years ago how hard it would be to start up a true sporting magazine in the eighties. Of course that's all I wanted to do back then, but no one wanted to put money into it then (for good reason). Somehow my idea, "The Sportsman," ended up at Esquire, who launched a couple of issues in the nineties then as far as I know folded the concept due to lack of advertising support.
Despite (because of?) all of this "fly fishing" continues to be more a lifestyle than a sport in modern media terms. It is coopted by Pottery Barn more often than by Budweiser and defines an almost inscrutable niche in the "Mostly Men's" market. I don't know anyone who fly fishes who didn't at some point wish they could make a great living at it, but those slots are few and the odds are small. Perhaps anyone who tries it will find what I found after just a few years of guiding: I had to truly love what I did -- no matter how much money I made, it was impossible to try to be an excellent guide and think in those terms. It probably is why the merchandising of such unique places as the Marquesas left a bitter taste in my mouth.
Maybe that's one of the reasons fishing exists, to teach us the meaning of an avocation, and to frustrate those who don't seem to get it.
August 25, 2003
Strong Bad
Check out Strong Bad's take on Lures and Jigs (be sure your sound is turned up.) Or go here for the full menu of humor for any Monday. This is quirky humor with quite a cult following.
August 24, 2003
Dolly Vardens and Bearanoia
Bearanoia and Charles Dickens fish in far flung Alaska. In today's New York Times.
August 22, 2003
Fly Fishing Long Island Sound Moraines
In the valley where I lived in Montana, terminal moraines dotted the landscape where huge glaciers once slipped north out of the Beartooth mountains. The trout fishing in the rivers in and around this landscape was incredible. This morning, word of another place where ancient moraines are signposts of great fishing: the mouth of Long Island Sound.
August 14, 2003
VLMDs?
As a survivor of the dot.com bust, I personally count it as unfortunate when we resort to non-descriptive acronyms to describe fishing aids. After all, they did nothing for overpaid programmers. But I admit I felt the same way when casual diners who never left dry land began wearing chartreuse and pink TarponWear to dinner in Key West.
So I'm not surprised that Stripping Baskets (STs?) have become VLMDs (Vertical Line Management Devices). I think I'll just go back to stringing my KRAR (Kinetic Reserve And Release) device with some old EPFDS (Elongated Plastic Fly Delivery Sytem) and hit the beach with some FSOADs (Fish Sense-Obfuscating Attachment Devices).
August 11, 2003
Seamaster Reels
A question from a friend, plus the constant banter on the Net over What is the best large saltwater reel, prompted me to think about Seamaster reels and how reel-poor we all were before the 1990s rolled around. Here's a bit of history from Jim Williams's Just Reels site.
I remember the days when a Seamaster was on every serious saltwater fly fisherman's wish list. The only problem was you didn't know when you might get it, given Bob McChristian's refusal to adhere to a production schedule. When you did finally get one, of course, you wondered whether it shouldn't go directly into the safety deposit box.
August 3, 2003
Ernest's Insect Poetry
Ernest Schwiebert offers this poetic essay on this year's insects. A fine riparian sonnet for a hot Sunday in August, in The New York Times.
