Articles

Pike flies

Three rules for success with pike flies

by Chris Hunt - Thursday, Jan 11th, 2024

Photo: Chad Shmukler

The whimsey starts at the fly shop, really. I mean, this is where the initial brain bomb leads you. One minute, after looking at the calendar, you realize that in just five short months, you’ll be in the Yukon chasing giant northern pike. The next, you’re in the truck, navigating snow-packed city streets in order to pick up all the ingredients you think you need to tie the perfect fly for a fish that’s about as discerning as Fat Albert at the Chuck-a-rama.

Sage introduces new R8 Spey rods and reels

The Bainbridge Island rodmaker brings its venerated R8 technology to a brand-new two-hand lineup

by Hatch Magazine - Tuesday, Jan 9th, 2024

Photo: Far Bank Enterprises.

There may be few other fly fishing disciplines as physically demanding as the one practiced by Spey anglers who pursue fish returning to freshwater with a season’s worth of ocean-spiced strength and vigor. In an arena that requires long days spent wading, long casts, the patience to put in the hours and the ability to react on a moment’s notice, the two-handed angler is both artist and athlete.

Cutting back

Where lies the line between collecting and hoarding?

by Tim Schulz - Sunday, Jan 7th, 2024

Photo: Tim Schulz.

Through a series of events as unlikely as finding a pearl in a brook trout’s mouth, I spent thirteen years in university administration—eight as a department chair and five as a dean.

“We have too many damn administrators,” one of my colleagues told me back then, seemingly oblivious to the title “Dean of Engineering” next to my name on the door he’d just walked through.

“How many should we have?” I asked.

“I don’t know, but I can tell you how to find out.”

“How’s that?”

The tao of fly fishing

How do we get to the heart of the sport?

by Todd Tanner - Thursday, Jan 4th, 2024

Evening arrives on a river in Iceland (photo: Chad Shmukler).

If you spend much time around anglers, you’ll hear the following questions on a regular basis.

“Catch any?”
“Fish here much?”
“What did you get him on?”
“What rod are you using?”

They’re valid questions, all of them, but they invariably steer us towards small talk and away from the heart of things.

Fly fishing the urban guts of Houston

Largemouth, carp, speckled trout, panfish, gar and more in Houston city proper

by Chris Hunt - Tuesday, Jan 2nd, 2024

Rob McConnell with an Amur gras carp from a Houston city ditch (photo: Chris Hunt).

Sometimes it helps to not know what you’re doing.

It forces you to mine your ingenuity — to fall back on what you do know, and use that filed-away information to solve the task at hand. For a lot of us fly fishers, that’s how we learned the craft. A bit at a time, learning lessons along the way. Trial and lots of error. And it never really stops. As long as we keep fishing, we keep getting better.