This morning, I finished up the photo/illustration layout for Chapter Three of Reading Waters. In one spot, GB dictated the use of one of my 1990s-vintage photos of Costilla #1 creek on the Vermejo Ranch property. It is a photo pulled from a series of images that I made one morning when the light simply forced [...]

Other than the fact that I’m taller now, and rarely wear green pants, there isn’t much difference between this shot from 1975 and some I took recently. This is from the first year that father did fly-fishing schools on the Vermejo Ranch property in northern New Mexico. GB was a newly-minted director in the then [...]

More sad news in the fly-fishing world: Dick Talleur has died. I just received an email from Marla Blair, with the following included from Dick’s sister-in-law: It is with great sadness that I must tell you that Dick Talleur died … February 18, 2011, after a brief illness, at the age of 79. Dick suffered [...]

Got word from GB yesterday that Sylvester Nemes died earlier this month. GB knew Sylvester for many years, and I always enjoyed seeing and talking with Sylvester at shows and other gatherings. The Bozeman Chronicle has a short note on his passing here. Since Sylvester was a champion of the soft-hackle fly, I think that a [...]

This showed up the other day, a long-lost promotional photo of my father that was sent to me via my friends at The Fly Shop. The pic is still in great shape, and looks pretty much exactly as it would have when it was sent out in the 1980s. That makes GB is this shot [...]

Got word this morning that A River Runs Through It cast member Arnold Richardson died earlier this month. Arnold played “old Norman” in the film, and his gentle casting stroke, trembling hands and old-school knot tying lent a sense of vulnerability and longing to his character. The Helena Independent Record has a very nice and [...]

A nice post by my friends at MidCurrent (includng a link to the Writer’s Almanac) listing a few of the fly fishers who left us in 2010. I have some personal additions to that list, and I’m sure FF&W readers likely do, as well. A toast here then, at year’s end, to all of those [...]

Adding to the review of The Lost World of Mr. Hardy from yesterday, here’s a little old-school remembrance that I wrote for a Japanese magazine some years ago… – – – – – – – – – - My first great reel was a Hardy Princess, given to me on my thirteenth birthday in anticipation [...]

This week’s DF 52 fly is to be a sculpin (artist’s choice), and that got me thinking about some of the sculpin-based char imitations that I used on a trip to northern Russia some years ago. Of course, that got me thinking about the TV show that I was part of on that trip, which [...]

Drawing Flies 52 Bunyan Bug. Where do I even start with this fly? For me, it has so much meaning in my fly-fishing life. I’ll have to expand this post this weekend with a few memories about this pattern and “the movie.” Until then, though, here’s a bit of the DF 52 info: Notes: This [...]

Al Crise (or “ol’ Al” as he was known to many) has passed. Some FF&W readers may know Al from his casting classes at Federation of Fly Fishers’ meetings and so forth, or from his posts on a number of fly-fishing bulletin boards. Al was tireless in his teaching of fly casting, and had a [...]

Another long-time friend from my youth has passed (and unexpectedly). My father has a nice little remembrance on his blog. I know that some FF&W readers likely either knew Dick (and his perfectly pressed khakis, top to bottom) or have seen him in my slideshows, most likely this photo: This day was a beautiful day [...]

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 [...]