Fly Rod & Reel

Update

  

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The challenges facing native fish aren’t limited to a single watershed, species or geography, or to salt or fresh water—they are global. Overfishing, introduction of invasive species, destruction of habitat and spawning grounds, man-made pollution and general lack of data are universal factors that endanger native fish, whether they are wild cutthroat in the Rockies, bonefish in the Florida Keys, permit off the Yucatan Peninsula . . . or even Slovenia’s softmouth trout.

guide flies

  

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The first time I took a fly pattern to a manufacturer was back in 1980, and since then I’ve submitted many, many more. For me it was a relatively easy process because there were very few people submitting new patterns at that time; now, as an established fly designer (and a shop owner for more than 30 years) it’s even less of a chore.

Project

   

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I NEARLY TRIPPED OVER the shed antler, one side of what had been an impressive 10-point whitetail buck’s rack. It was concealed in the leaf litter, slightly mossy and gnawed a bit by rodents (probably squirrels), but it was still beautiful. I zipped it into my pack and continued hiking up the Appalachian creekside trail, following the blue blazes and yelling for my buddy James to “Wait up!”

Personal History

Sometimes things work out. And sometimes they don’t. All right, picture this, ALMOST than 25 years ago: I’m the newly minted associate editor of this magazine (at the time, it was still called Rod & Reel, the Fly coming later). I’m newly married. I’m on my honeymoon. To top it off, my wife and I are spending that honeymoon in Belize, for our first flats fishing experience.

Short Casts

 

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>Northeast Utah’s Green River harbors up to 20,000 trout per mile; thanks to flushing flows in 2011 those fish are now feeding on improved aquatic insect hatches and growing fast.

Short Casts

>If you have ever watched a permit suddenly appear on a flat, bob in a gentle wave for a moment and quickly disappear into deeper water without a trace, you know the deal—permit are confounding.

Short Casts

When you first take a look at a Stone Bomb, it looks like a lot of other big, nasty, rubber-legged stonefly imitations. Much like its designer, it is not until you dig a little deeper that the fly’s nuances become apparent. What you will find with Frank Smethurst’s Bomb Squad lineup is that attention to detail matters.

Angle on Art

  

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Travis Sylvester is the only artist I know who works exclusively in colored pencils, and I must confess . . . I know very little about the medium, or the process he’s chosen.

Short Casts

Galen Mercer doesn’t think of himself as an angling artist. In fact, during a recent examination of a quarter century of his work, Mercer was surprised to find that, of the hundreds of paintings he reviewed, only three or four actually contained anglers, and fewer still included fish. “I’ve always been far more interested in the sporting environs than the particulars,” he explained. “Except for scale, I’ve never felt compelled to ‘humanize’ a landscape. Quite the opposite.”

Short Casts

Over the past decade, fly-fishing for northern pike has gained a solid footing with North American anglers looking for a new fix. Lured by the prospect of a visual—and often violent—take and a good fight, fly-fishing for pike is consistently fun and mostly lacks the pretentious attitude that trout and salmon fishing sometimes encourage.

It should come as no surprise that chasing pike with flies has taken hold in Europe, too. Known by different names depending on the language, pike fly-fishing is now an accepted and growing sport in countries as diverse as France, Denmark, Holland, The Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Just last year, an international pike fly-fishing tournament was held in Finland and included teams from Canada, England, Holland and Finland (Finland won).