January 2004 Archives

Undoubtedly there are more experts in fly fishing than any other avocation. The good news is that in any human endeavor where the cognoscenti make up the majority, the humble are the elite (witness Bruce Richards, Lefty Kreh, Mike Lawson, Craig Mathews et al.). As Willy Wonka said, "You should never, never doubt what nobody is sure about."

Bob Krumm and his friend own the stream while fishing Wyoming in the depth of winter. In the Billings Gazette.

Near Los Alamos in New Mexico, those with a perservering mindset can fish San Antonio creek in the new Valles Caldera National Preserve. Christopher Solomon in the New York Times.

This handy piece in Field & Stream lists contact info for various shops, outfitters, and lodging places close to good fishing in five national parks. I can never find the number to the Flamingo cabins in the Everglades, a cool place to stay if you can get there (don't leave your sandwiches outside for a second, though; the racoons have higher IQs than Islamorada bonefish).

Business Week recently published this interesting article by Laura Cohn on the legacy of Mustad hooks. With deep roots in commercial fishing, Mustad makes over 10,000 products, most of them with wire from their own machines, an anomaly in the industry.

On the heels of reader comments from yesterday about drought in Montana, this Associated Press article on the plight/emergence (take your pick) of the Bighorn River outlines most of the influential factors, the largest of which is water supply. Not only are the sizes of the fish changing, but lower cfs (cubic feet per second) of flow since 2001 has meant that the fish are tougher to catch. Drill down a bit though and you get a taste of the truth. As my friend Phil Gonzalez says in the article, "I've been fishing this river 33 years.... I've seen a lot of changes. And as long as we have water and aquatic insect life, we'll have fish."

Speaking of similarities between sports, how about fishing and stock picking? The crowd psychology of "buy on the rumor, sell on the news" is as applicable in betting on fly fishing destinations as on equities. Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.

This story about "Old Hitler" on Captain Mel Berman's site reminds me of several encounters, including one off the south side of the Marquesas, where an enormous dusky brown hammerhead two or three feet longer than my skiff surfaced beside us and inhaled a tarpon we had been fighting for 2 hours. The skiff I was fishing out of then was an 18' Hewes. I still recall the feeling of my blood rushing to my feet as I realized I was standing on a tiny platform just feet above the hammerhead's back.

Field & Stream has published their list of favorite books of 2003. The list includes Guy de la Valdene's Red Stag and James Prosek's Fly-Fishing the 41rst.

Jeffrey Trachtenberg writes in the Wall Street Journal about fishing author Victoria Houston and the growth of "less coarse" literature in American society. (Thanks to reeder Jim Langley for this link.)

Pete Bodo writes a summary of issues regarding snowmobile and jet ski access to wild places in this New York Times article. When I worked to get jet skis banned from the Great White Heron and Key West National Wildlife refuges in the late 1980s, there was no question in my mind that a handful of jet skis in and of themselves would have little impact. The problem is always the proliferation, and in the fact that you can't set people on highly mobile vehicles free in a sensivite environment if you can't afford to monitor their activities.

Monte Burke, a senior reporter at Forbes, writes about the successful effort to protect and recover the subject river of Norman Maclean's famous book. The article includes photographs by the excellent outdoor photographer Tom Montgomery. In Gray's Sporting Journal.

More on the pleasures of casting small flies and the coincidental necessity of throwing such monstrosities as the "marabou newt." James R. Babb in this month's Gray's Sporting Journal.

The first in a series of articles by Lynn Burkhead called "Fly Tying 101," on ESPN.com. One bit of good advice: "There is no substitute for having 15 minutes with somebody standing over your shoulder who knows what they're doing."

Good introductory piece by Bill Drew on Forbes.com about salmon fishing in Scotland. The character of gillies as described makes them sound faintly similar to some Florida Keys guides.

This vignette of Roscoe, New York in the New York Times describes this western Catskills town as a last, best place two hours from Manhattan. Besides being home to respected fly tiers Mary Dette and Poul Jorgensen, it sits astride the Beaverkill and Willowemoc rivers.

Here's a page from Flyfishingconnection.com that gives much more detail on fishing the Willowemoc, including some nice maps.