I often read passages and sections from Norman Maclean’s A River Runs Through It. What so often jumps out at me about great narrative writing is how even the sparsest language can convey sweeping ideas and emotions. Many who have read (or seen) River Runs are familiar with the opening and closing lines. The close is [...]

Yet another fly-fishing friend has died—Jim Greenlee. It’s likely that not many readers will recognize Jim’s name, but I know that some of you still wade in the boots that he shepherded into being—along with my father—many years ago. Jim was in charge of Weinbrenner when he and my father got together and made the [...]

The GB/JB book series that I’ve been talking about here at FF&W continues to move ahead. GB and I finally decided on a trim size (7″X10″), and I finally got the layout and font choices figured out (we hope). While it’s not exactly a thrilling bit of news, GB and I want to keep interested [...]

GB has a good post up about the 5/7 Blood Knot, a variation that I grew up tying (the “School of GB” was a great, if sometimes demanding, one). Personally, I use this knot for leader butt/taper interconnections, then move to a three-turn Surgeon’s (or Water) knot for tippet section(s) (talking trout/salmon, etc. here, but [...]

The old boy is fast if anything, that’s for sure. The first book in our upcoming GB/JB educational series has been uploaded to our shared FTP server. Granted, we’ll have to edit, polish, illustrate and layout before printing, boxing, warehousing and (hopefully) selling, but all 70,000(!) words are in their initial places. GB and I are [...]

It’s getting into fly-tying season in the farther reaches of the North Hemisphere, so here’s a little QuickTime video of an alternative tie-off knot for those FF&W readers who are lurking near a vise (vice?). [ Javascript required to view QuickTime movie, please turn it on and refresh this page ] This is the tying [...]

I grew up camping out of the back of Ford van, a van that eventually became known as the Boar’s Nest after an extended trip my father took with a couple of fishing friends. I’m sure you can imagine the reason for the name (Official Boar’s Nest equation: Canned Food+Wet Waders+Moldy Fisherman*Total Number of Days). [...]

The Upside-Down Leech is the fly up above, but down at the bottom. The educational content in the latest E-List mailing was focused on streamer techniques, specifically “subtle streamers.” One of the flies mentioned was the Upside-Down Leech, which promptly elicited an e-mail asking, “What’s an Upside-Down Leech?” I also promised the E-List that I [...]

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). [...]

Took me long enough, but here is the “terrestrial time” beetle-tying post. As with the previous ant post, rather than try to re-type all the info, I have done the digital equivalent of a tying scrapbook. The images below are scanned (and then Photoshopped) straight out of GB’s 1991 book, Designing Trout Flies (there is no [...]

As promised yesterday, here are the instructions for tying the Para-Ant (an old pattern of my father’s, which I still tie, carry and fish with regularly). Rather than try to re-type all the info, and then do a layout with individual drawings, I have done the digital equivalent of a tying scrapbook for you. The [...]

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 [...]

It seems that someone has uploaded my father’s old (early 1980′s) Scientific Anglers film, “Fly Fishing for Trout,” onto YouTube (in six parts, see links below). Watching it makes me realize how fast the years have flown by when I think that my father was my current age (39) when this VHS(!) video was popular. Not so sure [...]

Yes, the day has come. A mere 17 years after its theatrical release, you can now snag a copy of A River Runs Through It on Blu-Ray. My copy is on its way today. Here’s to hoping that a few deleted bits from the fishing scenes are back…