Spent an hour today casting and assessing three prototype finished rods and build kits. Need to tweak the last few inches of the tips (a little soft, I think), as well as the power low down in the butt sections (they’re strong, but they also cast an SA ED Sharkskin like a shot). Also need [...]

I’m slowly getting my act together on the grasshopper tying piece, but in the meantime here’s another pic from the archives. This is one my personal favorite fishing “snapshots” from Kel last year, taken on Oregon’s North Umpqua (I was working on a project at Steamboat for a couple of days—squint hard and you can [...]

Kel took this shot of a brown that I caught a few years ago on DePuy’s Spring Creek. It’s one of those photos that seems to continue to live on, despite its somewhat ordinary nature. Actually, this particular brown has shown up in a several different catalogs, ads, slideshows, and so forth over the last [...]

Just a little nostalgia from the way-back days of my youth (well, when I was 21)… As a few FF&W readers may know, I did a small portion of the fly-fishing-specific storyboard work on A River Runs Through It (especially some of the pick-up shots that needed to be acquired after principle photography was finished). [...]

One more still life from the archives while I prepare the next terrestrial-fishing piece. I like the interplay of similar colors in this shot, and the way those colors reflect the tropical heat and “flavor” of the location (Yucatan peninsula). This was taken at Tarpon Cay a couple of years ago, a few days before [...]

I have a small pile of fly-fishing still-life photos that have sat mostly untouched on my hard drive (until now). I think such shots often capture the unnoticed or under-appreciated details of our fly-fishing lives. I’ll be adding more of these as FF&W moves ahead. I hope that some will spark memories for you of [...]

Just a little story as a warm-up before the upcoming three-post series on terrestrial fishing… I remember one afternoon in the high-altitude meadows of Yellowstone National Park. It was a summer more than a decade ago, and I had hiked back into Slough Creek under a blistering mid-day sun. The sharp climb and elevation combined [...]

Yeah, one (well, two) more from the archives. Can’t help myself (I have some actual educational posts coming up after this, I promise). I am also hoping to get some repeats of these shots within the next month. These are from last September—sight-fishing, small flies, and a slightly over-excited husband. The morning had dawned brilliant, [...]

Once I started digging through old slides, I couldn’t stop. Not much in the way of self-deprecation here (other than the obligatory, “What’s she doing with you?” jokes), just a shot that I love from one of my favorite Wisconsin salmon days. This fish was actually two fish at one point. Kel spotted this king, [...]

Found this lurking in a binder full of slides. GB was lookin’ young, I was lookin’ like a 70′s leftover (although a certain girl didn’t seem to mind), and the helicopter was lookin’ broken—but it was still a great trip. The salmon may not have been overly impressed with my hair, but they still seemed [...]

Some kids go to summer camp. This kid (me) goes to rod camp. Or more specifically, rod-building camp. I hadn’t built a rod in more than 20 years—until this week. And now, I’ll be building them left and right. Or, more often than not, semi-building them: Find the spine, press-fit the handle, tape on the [...]

Now this is how a hot-tub is supposed to be placed. A cast of 50 feet puts you into the Clark Fork chow-line. You might encounter issues trying to land a good fish, but otherwise it’s pretty hard to argue with the set-up. This also takes night-fishing to a whole new level (especially if you [...]