Note: This article was published to Troutbitten in January, 2016. It's revised and revisited here today. The tall man crossed the old railroad bridge above me. He paused at the midpoint, lingered and watched me cast for a moment, then he bellowed downstream to me with...
Trout have a strange way of all doing the same things at once. Although they rarely pod up like a school of suckers, they tend to function as a collective order, especially during feeding periods. Trout fishing is unpredictable, and sometimes it can be maddening, but...
Sawyer isn’t afraid of the cold. He’s like a polar bear in waders — doesn’t even wear gloves on his paws. And I don’t get guys like this. I don’t understand where their warmth comes from. Is it a higher tolerance for pain or a motor that just runs hotter than most? Who knows, but Sawyer’s always up for anything, and he’s fun to fish with.
The first batch of winter roads had people a little skittish on Tuesday morning. Even the plows and salt trucks showed some unusual caution. Later in the season, they’ll be cutting close lines and motoring at top speed, plows laid flat, shooting sparks with bare steel on rock. Before long, they’ll be in a mid-season rhythm. But at 7:30 am on Tuesday morning, the highway traffic formed a line behind the yellow diesel beasts, and everyone unanimously and silently agreed to be a little extra careful. So I was late.
When I finally stepped out of line and steered left onto the winding creek side road, I was eager to accelerate. So I took my new freedom with some aggression, pushing snow with my 4-wheel drive and generally driving the way a ten-year-old boy rides a sled. You gotta love fresh snow . . .
Sometimes, delivering tiny nymphs to the trout is the only way they’ll eat. And you can fish those nymphs with confidence by making a few adjustments in your rig and presentation. Hatch Magazine published my article, "Tips for Nymphing with Tiny Flies." Why, when,...
Playing it safe saves flies. It even saves time. But it catches fewer trout. And whether drifting nymphs across a rock garden, punching hairwing dries into hazardous hidey-holes or slinging streamers into bankside slots, it pays to take risks because the rewards follow . . .
Early August in Montana, 2007. The afternoons burned hot, but the mornings were bitter and covered in frost. Our days swam together until neither the time nor the day of the week mattered at all. Dad and I had two weeks and more, long enough that the internal nagging and questioning about how long before all this had to end were sent away. We watched no television and kept the radio off. We visited no restaurants and no bars. With two coolers and a camper-freezer full of food, we restocked at a grocery store only once. It’s as far away from everything and anything as I’ve ever been, for as long of a time as I’ve ever known. There were timeless, surreal moments, and they were fantastically long . . .
As the sun dropped below the treeline, the water surface turned a dark gunmetal grey, and I lost track of my caddis. I fought the glare for a while, tilting my head, pushing my sunglasses up to my forehead and flipping them back down minutes later. I still couldn’t...
How often do you get the chance to positively impact the health of your favorite river? Most of us want to help, but conservation takes time. Sure, we pick up trash, release most of our trout and take care of the stream. Many of us also donate time and money, hoping...
Anyone who thinks indicators are just for indicating is missing the point. And yes, it's a bobber. Hatch Magazine published my article, "Your Indicator is too big." It's about the importance of balancing the size of the suspender with the weight underneath. -- -- --...
It’s not called catching. It’s called fishing. And a lot of our time on the water is spent not catching fish — all of us. Going fishless can be frustrating, or you can readjust the goals, focus on fishing better, and find satisfaction in fishing well. Bite windows are...