Articles

Redemption

This isn’t the sort of thing that happens on my home water

by Tim Schulz - Thursday, May 9th, 2024

Photo: Tim Schulz

I leave Glenn’s Sweetgrass Rods shop a little after 3 p.m., putting me in Livingston around 5. Physically, I stand more than a half-foot taller than Glenn Brackett. Figuratively, the man towers above me like an enormous redwood from his native California. His artistry is beyond reproach, but his humanity and decency make him a giant. Like Glenn’s, all our lives are the sums of everything we do and everything we don’t.

Thank you, suckers

Quit sneering, suckers are cool.

by Stephen Sautner - Friday, May 3rd, 2024

Largescale suckers in a stream in Montana (photo: Glacier NPS).

When I was in 10^th grade, I bought a fiberglass fly rod and Pflueger Medalist reel and decided to try my luck at fly fishing for trout. It felt like a natural progression, having already spin-fished for bluegills in ponds, and bait-cast for bass and pickerel in lakes. Now it was time to cast flies into rivers for pretty fish that ate bugs. But I knew little about how to catch trout, except from what I had gleaned from a few Field and Stream articles with banner headlines like: “Ten Tips for Giant ‘Bows!”

Fly fishing is always a numbers game

The only way to win is to not play

by Tim Schulz - Wednesday, May 1st, 2024

Photo: Tim Schulz

About one hour ago, I mixed three tablespoons of Miralax with eight ounces of Gatorade and downed the concoction like a college sophomore knocking back a Jägerbomb at an SEC tailgater. Then I set my iPhone’s timer for fifteen minutes. Since, I’ve mixed, rinsed, and repeated every time the three-chord mandolin riff blasts from my phone.

Environmental stewardship and a good piece of pie

The life of conservationist Bill Kodrich

by Jack Donachy - Tuesday, Apr 30th, 2024

In the 1960s, the Clarion River in Pennsylvania didn't offer anglers much besides a few stunted panfish. Now, trout, bass, walleye and musky are part of the catch. Over 50 miles of the river have earned federal Wild and Scenic status, and it has been named Pennsylvania's River of the Year four times — thanks in no small part to Trout Unlimited, other conservation groups and dedicated stewards such as Bill Kodrich (photo: Jack Donachy).

It wasn't so long ago that I was at the stage in life where a number of iconic figures in the art and entertainment world I'd grown up with had begun to pass out of this world. I am far from being a celebrity hound, but as I scanned the headlines each morning, it was sad and mildly shocking to see that an actor, singer, writer or other celebrity I'd long admired had been admitted to a hospital for the kinds of illnesses that portend the end, or that indeed the end had come.

Don't let your fishing interfere with your fishing

A conversation with author Chris Dombrowski on his journey to becoming a writer

by Hatch Magazine - Sunday, Apr 28th, 2024

Photo: USFS.

Writing about Chris Dombrowski’s 2016 book Body of Water—which recently appeared in the Wall Street Journal’s list of the five best books on angling—John Gierach described Dombrowski’s voice as “concise language that reminded me of Gary Snyder one minute and John McPhee the next.” Dombrowski’s most recent book, The River You Touch, has been described by USA Today as “A poignant rumination on marriage, parenthood, friendship and what it means to connect with nature.”