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This article by Dimitra Kessenides in Inc. magazine describes the due diligence required when considering the purchase of a small business, and also mentions the story behind Lon Deckard's purchase of rod maker Thomas & Thomas in 1991. "Looking back, he says, the business has had its ups and downs. 'But I'm a fly fishing zealot, and I love every day.'"
A pre-World War I reel -- a Roller Back Coxon Aerial made by John Forrest of London -- was purchased in Britain for £6,600 at a November auction, apparently setting a record for antique reel prices. On FishingMagic.com.
"As an urban intellectual, I was used to sneering at 'the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable', even if I recognised that this was the weakest of Oscar Wilde's quips." Roger Scruton, a leading British philosopher, suggests that hunting and fishing may be the only true sports, that all the rest are games. This is a fine, thought-provoking piece in the U.K. Guardian. Scruton is the author of more than 20 books, including 2001's On Hunting (St. Augustine's Press, 173 pages).
According to Thomas White, a Reefton, New Zealand guide, New Zealand rivers are getting pounded by foreign outfitters posing as recreational fishermen. "And they're not paying anything at all. They'll buy a New Zealand fishing licence, I hope, but nothing else." In The New Zealand Herald.
Bob Saile describes the disease and the cure in this piece about fly fishing for mountain whitefish. "Whitefish are the ugly ducklings of Western fishing, except they never turn into piscatorial swans. Ray Bergman, a famous fishing writer in the mid-1900s, visited Colorado's Elk River and came back home to write about catching 'grayling.' (That's what the locals called whitefish.) He received a deluge of letters telling him he wouldn't know a guppy from a great white shark." In the Denver Post.
Les Johnson's new book on fly fishing the U.S.'s northwest coastline is out and looks to be a good one. Fly-Fishing for Cutthroat Trout: Fly, Techniques, Conservation (Frank Amato Publications, 144 pages) is about the cutthroat that inhabit streams and lakes along the Pacific Coast rainforest belt from Northern California to Prince William Sound in Alaska. This fishing is also described in a piece we mentioned on November 18.
An article by Tom Hundley in the Chicago Tribune mentions something interesting about the hallowed River Test, where Isaac Walton once fished: that it wasn't truly a river until the various feeder streams were restructured by local farmers, 100 years after Walton. So Walton was probably doing his worm fishing in tiny rivulets, not the "classic" beats that are among the most prized in modern fly fishing.
I think the first time that I realized fly fishing for trout could be excellent even in the cold of winter was watching fish rise all around us as we sat in a freezing duck blind on the Bighorn River in Montana. Dan Boyd writes about the mid-winter opportunities in Idaho and describes fishing the South Fork of the Snake River. "After all, even during a cold Idaho winter, fish still have to eat." In the Pocatello Idaho State Journal.
$75,000 will get you membership in what may be the elite fly fishing club in the U.S., or at least the club most suited for the eastern elite. Situated on the confluence of Spruce Creek and the Little Juniata River in western Pennsylania, Spring Ridge is only 3 years old but already has more than 70 paying members. Suzanne Hamlin in The New York Times.
"Anglers in Great Britain, Norway and other European countries look forward to fall runs of what they call sea trout, a large form of brown trout that spends its growing years in the ocean. Sea trout are to stream-resident browns as steelhead are to stream-resident rainbow trout. Both the sea trout and steelhead are races or strains of species that evolved in fresh water. Some people call them subspecies." Eric Sharp clears up the confusion North Americans seem to have over the European "sea trout" and notes that the same strains of fish have been planted in New York and Michigan. In the Detroit Free Press.
David Churbuck reviews the classic book by Robert Post profiling the anglers who lent striper fishing of the New England its fame and fascination. "Reading the Water was reissued after a long disappearance, revived thanks to the efforts of fans who wrote to the publisher and Post's window Pia asking for its return. Now it is back and it must be read by those who haven't had the sweet experience of devouring its pages before. Buy this book." On Reel-Time.com.
Had my first experience with tailing black drum Sunday. Mighty interesting, to say the least. Here's an article that Chico Fernandez wrote for Florida Sportsman some time back that gives an excellent introduction to patterns and techniques for these fish, a close relative of the redfish.
"If I wanted to continue fishing with my son, I had to learn how to fly-fish." That's what Biogen vice president Burt A. Adelman determined after he bought his 16-year-old son a fly rod for his birthday. Then he found out he could be an advocate for rivers. Jeffrey Krasner in the Boston Globe.
"She had a spinning rod and a jar full of nightcrawlers with her, Walter said. He told her he was a flyfisherman and he could teach her how to do it so she wouldn't use worms. She shook her head and said she'd sue the dating service for setting her up with a retard. Walter told her she was fat and he didn't want her for a girlfriend anyway." Robbi Courtaway talks about Under Cottonwoods, an acclaimed first novel by writer Stephen Grace that was published by The Lyons Press in January 2004. On STLToday.com.
New Zealand mud snails have apparently established themselves as permanent residents of Yellowstone Park. In some locations, like Polecat Creek, they comprise 93 percent of the invertebrate biomass. Scientists think that the Park's geothermally heated rivers are most likely to attract the snails, which first appeared in this country in Idaho's lower Snake River in 80s. Scott McMillion in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. (Thanks to reader John DeVault for sending this link.)
FlyFishingConnection.com recently added an angler's summary for Andros Island, Bahamas bonefishing. "Some well known and famous 'big fish' areas are Moxey Creek, Land of the Giants, Big Wood Cay, the west side, Joulter Cays, and numerous other areas too many to count. The tongue of the ocean is located a short distance from the east coast of Andros. This is one of the many reasons for the excellent numbers of large bonefish found here."
Here's a great piece in Golf Digest by Jack Nicklaus, who describes himself as a low-handicapper when it comes to fly fishing. But the blood on his face -- the result of burying a double-barbed "Munro Killer" in his forehead -- in one of the article's photos marks him as a more than an initiate. There's some good stuff here, including a slide show of Nicklaus's trip to Russia's Kola Peninsula.
"You won't have to worry about the other guy while fly-fishing spots along the approximately 2,000 miles of shoreline on Washington's inland marine waters. You won't find drift hogs elbowing in and casting in front of you. No boats will be spooking the fish by floating over the water you're whipping." Greg Johnston talks about the fine beach fishing to be had along the Sound's edge, including fishing for sea-run cutthroat, steelhead and coho salmon. The article also has some nice photos, including Les Johnson casting in the mist and some colorful "comet" flies used for chum salmon. In the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
WaywardFlyFishing.com's Toney Sisk reviews Rene Harrop's Trout Hunter: The Way of An Angler and says that "Harrop's writing sneaks up on you. Some authors will bore you with long stories of a fishing adventure, leaving you wondering when the point will be made and what we are to take away from someone else's adventure. Not so with Harrop. I found myself enjoying a little narration, and before long I found myself immersed in a great learning experience."
Sheryl van der Leun writes on Newsday.com how "pornification" has become a commonplace marketing ploy. "'Porn for fly-fishers,' quips the table of contents in the July 2004 issue of Men's Journal, the magazine that carries the slogan 'Live the Interesting Life' under its nameplate. If that doesn't hook male readers, what will? Well, more of the same, apparently. The article in question (a review of a book on - no kidding - fly-fishing) goes on to describe Fifty Places to Fly Fish Before You Die as 'bare-naked fishing porn.'" In case you didn't know, the book is Chris Santella's recent title, released by publisher Tabori and Chang.
"Steve and I work upstream and I start seeing fish everywhere. HUGE fish, easily 2 feet long, resting in clear, shallow water. And, unlike many streams, they don't spook. It's a treat just to see these creatures, but I want to catch them. The driving wind and rain gives way to a patch of blue sky. Young puts on a tiny egg pattern and I drift through a promising hole a few times and BAM!" It's AP writer Dan Nephin again, fishing Pennsylvania's Twenty Mile Creek for steelhead and stocked coho salmon. In the NEPA News.
Boutique beer brewers in Montana (we're not in Montana right now, so we can call them that) try to come up with off-the-wall and slightly wry monikers to sell their inventory. We're familiar with Moose Drool, but 'Trout Slayer' is a bit different: imagine trying to appeal to a fly fisher's ego ;-) Robert Struckman in the Billings (Montana) Gazette.
As world-traveled angler Robert Tomes comments in this piece about Chinook salmon fishing in the St. Joseph River not far from Chicago, "It is one of those fall days, I wish I was out fishing. And I am." Dale Bowman in the Chicago Sun-Times.
Francis Betters's Au Sable Wulff was an attempt to combined the best qualities of the Adams pattern and the Wulff, another classic fly invented by Lee Wulff. But "The Au Sable Wulff isn't his only famous pattern. In 1949, while still in high school, he invented the Au Sable Haystack, a mayfly imitator. About two decades ago, he hatched the Usual ('What are you fishing with? ... "the Usual."'), a versatile artificial that can be fished wet or dry. 'I know 2,000 different patterns, but a fisherman only needs 10 or 12 to fish any river in the world,' he says." Candus Thomson in the Baltimore Sun.
Here's an enjoyable piece on the myths and realities of the "dream job," which Men's Journal's Eric Messinger says applies to guiding in the Florida Keys. But it's not all ecstasy, according to veteran guide Tim Hoover. "'I'm poling 1,500 pounds around all day,' Hoover says. 'Physically speaking, I think people who swing trash onto a garbage truck probably have it easier.'" (Thanks to reader Scott Collins for providing this link.)
Steve Kantner gives the lowdown on bluegills and shellcrackers and just about everything related to fly fishing for bream in Florida Sportsman. He also offers a list of 12 Florida hotspots for panfish. "Bream bugging is generally best in low light. I like to canoe at sunset. I'll work my way down an Everglades canal and wait for the wind to subside. It's only then, when the light begins to fade and the surface glasses over, that I'll begin casting. It starts with a bass here and there. Most are inconsequential yearlings. However, the rhythm is frequently interrupted by a succession of stumpknockers and now and then, a gar. Leg-pullers, I call them from the way they jostle the bug and chew its rubber legs."
Nick Simonson suggests this time-honored technique for learning to tie flies well in the Valley City (North Dakota) Times-Record. Perhaps encouraged by the weather -- it's 17 degrees where he lives today -- he notes that fly tying's also a great hobby to break one out of the winter doldrums.
Alex Suescun writes a long and quite comprehensive piece that looks at all the different locations and situations available for anglers fly fishing for tarpon in Florida. "The sun's fiery circumference was spreading over the horizon as I eased into position. It had been a few weeks short of a year since I'd watched the glistening backs of tarpon break the surface as fish took turns gulping air." In Florida Sportsman.
Fish a river for 43 years and you may just learn that conventional wisdom is not so wise after all. John Corrigan writes about catching landlocked salmon out of New Hampshire's Merrymeeting River on gray hare's ears and a 2-weight. In the Concord Monitor.
How hard is it to find literature for kids that involves fly fishing and teaches some life lessons? Pretty darned hard. A new book by Mary Bartek, Funerals and Fly Fishing, promises to do just that. According to the editorial review on Amazon.com, "In a style similar to the work of Jerry Spinelli and Sharon Creech, this story provides a subtle lesson. The characters are believable and well developed. Anyone who has visited distant relatives and experienced the unknown will identify with Brad's hesitancy. There is enough action to keep children's attention, and because of the uncomplicated plot and short time span of the story, reluctant readers will also find it satisfying."
Amongst the slush ice and frozen guides, Tony Lewis finds reason to chase steelhead on Alaska's Deep Creek and suggests the foods of choice for late-season fishing, just before the rivers freeze for good. "Steelhead can be fooled with all manner of flies. Purples, oranges and pinks paint a steelheader angler's fly box. But subtle works, too. Small, dark-colored flies resembling nymphs sometimes are the right choice. Sometimes, white yarn flies tied to resemble rotten salmon flesh work, too. Someone I know uses a large mound of fluorescent green yarn tied to a hook with good results. On this day, I use orange and red beads that mimic stray salmon eggs drifting along the bottom with the current." In the Anchorage Daily News.
E. Donnall Thomas talks about the joys of fly fishing for redfish on the southeast coast of Texas. "I love the excitement of flats fishing, but a week at a premier destination for bonefish, tarpon, or permit can put a significant dent in the credit card. So in the last decade I've come to know and love the everyman's alternative to those high-profile species: the redfish." In Field & Stream.
In an effort to reconstruct one of Arizona's few riparian habitats, state wildlife officials are sidelining the native fish of Fossil Creek while they poison the non-natives. All this is possible because of the decommissioning of an out-of-date power plant. "Biologists anticipate that returning spring-water flows to the stream's original contour will create a unique travertine habitat of dams and pools that will extend over a 10 kilometer stretch. With the power plants inoperative, wildlife officials expect native fish numbers, which had dwindled due to competition from exotic species and decreased flows, to be on the upswing." Max Foster in the Payson (Arizona) Roundup.
What happens to sitcom stars when they emerge from Rerun Hell? They go fly fishing. Henry Winkler talks about fly fishing in the Big Sky state as part of his role in Sunday night's episode of "King of the Hill" entitled "A Rover Runs Through It." Dave Mason in the Nashua (New Hampshire) Telegraph.
If steelhead fishing were this easy everywhere, it would ruin the carefully preserved image of steelheaders as maniacs. Tom Stienstra describes the great fishing happening now on northern California's Trinity river. "The Trinity River canyon has turned into the steelhead capital of the Western U.S. in the past six weeks. Six inches of rain in late September followed by clear, cold weather this week seems to have put a steelhead behind every boulder in the upper river." On SFGate.com.
There aren't many secrets between a fly fishing guide and his angler -- at least no more than between a husband and wife. Read "John's Story" on MidCurrent.
Gene Mueller writes about the importance of menhaden to Chesapeake Bay gamefish populations and the huge impact of their removal by netters. "As you might know, the Chesapeake's menhaden are netted into oblivion by the netters, all in the name of making certain oils, fish meal, cosmetics, medicines, etc., but nothing that couldn't be manufactured from other, less threatened sources." In the Washington Times.
Bless the British for mastering the art of finding unique foibles among the lifestyles of the famous. In the London Times Online, Brian Clarke uncovers the strange angling habits of author, biographer and historian Thomas Birch (1705-66), who liked to dress up as a tree. Of course Mr. Clarke himself is not beyond using cows to screen his approach. This is a wonderful piece.