In the April issue of Outside magazine, Dave Micus from Missoula, Montana, scored a free rod from Orvis by pointing out an issue that drives many of us crazy—an unbelievably crappy cast in yet another mainstream magazine. OOPS:

The December issue of Outside had run the above photo of some guy making a backcast with a loop so loose you could back a Buick through it. Nice work, Dave. We all thank you.

I am not a year round tier. Nor am I a hard core, bulletin board posting, size 24 Parachute Adams, $700 custom-made vise tier. One could classify me as a “destination focused tier” - one that only ties when tickets are booked and reservations confirmed. I don’t just tie to tie. There has to be an end goal in mind, a purpose and a list of patterns with quantities. When I do tie, I lock down and transcend to a possessed state of mind and enter production mode.

Once I am in the mode, I have one restriction…size 16 and bigger. If you look in my trout boxes and see a size 18 or smaller, you can bet …

A few years ago, I was teaching a fly fishing course through a lodge in central British Columbia. The day began fairly typically. We started out with equipment, knots, flies, and moved on to casting and finally lake strategy. It wasn’t long before we had our six angling students spread out along the edge of a large productive weed bed fishing a chironomid hatch. Now fishing midges under a strike indicator is mostly waiting until your little bobber goes down. Occasionally, someone would hook a nice fish and everyone would get excited again waiting for their turn at success.

Now I should tell you that it seems like every time you put a group together in the outdoors, you get a …

Looks like I found me a great fishing spot right here in New York City. It’s my favorite freshwater spot - the Boathouse Lake in Central Park. Just find some bushes, peer out into the lake and you know what? I don’t see the Manhattan skyline at all. It’s like I’m in a suburban park or something.

Now, I suppose if I thought about the fact that rats and all are in the water, I wouldn’t fish here. But if you live in Manhattan, you learn to adapt.

See, sometimes you just got to take a break from the pace of New York City or you’ll go crazy. And fly fishing’s how I …

You’d think that after 17 years of practice, Greg Koerner would know how to treat a customer. As Sr. Executive Director of Sales for YAHOO! Inc. the seasoned, Chicago based advertising executive with a well known passion for winning has had his share of customer meetings, cross country flights, traffic jams and time wasted in corporate lobbies. In an effort to get the job done efficiently, quick hellos have been barely exchanged before his corporate team and their customers settle down to the business at hand. Rarely does either party get the chance for real relationship building.

To escape the monotony of conference rooms, Koerner and his team often get creative …

For the uninitiated, fishing, like any craft, can seem inaccessible. It thrives on a secret language; “Fishing spoken here”, as one tackle shop used to advertise, says it all. But while angling skills can take a lifetime, or longer, to acquire, Atlantic salmon fishing in Scotland can be made simple and accessible to any visitor.

The Brigadoon view of a Scotland rich in tartan, tweed, malt whisky and ancestral castles is widely available. High quality fishing hotels offer deep baths and idiosyncratic charm together with enough salmon and sea trout to test your skills. But while deep pockets and high levels of skill are sometimes required the average weekend trout or bass angler with a more limited wallet or level of …

I was fishing the Border Esk on an October Friday. The trout season was slipping into memories of summer or rather non-winter. I was after salmon but with my beefier brownie gear. I don’t possess a salmon set up. I was wielding an ageing Daiwa 9 .5 footer with an H reservoir makeup and 10 lb. nylon. The water had just moved into fishing after flood so a rapid sink Orvis leader was getting the fly down nicely. I had a Rat size 10 on the point and a size 12 red fly ( name unknown ) on a dropper.

The last paragraph was for you tackle junkies. I was sporting a wax jacket, co-ordinated torn jumper and grey/brown hair if …

There I was sitting at the bar at the Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort Lodge and
arguing the finer points and differences
of left hand versus right hand retrieve. This was all too surreal. It had
only been a few short weeks when I was sitting in
front of my computer at a downtown San Diego law firm performing my

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paralegal duties. Then I had had enough and
wanted an adventure. This all occurred several years ago at the beginning of
my career.

How did a girly girl with a background in advertising, fragrance modeling,
and the law get hooked up with some of the
best fly fishing guides in the Eastern Sierras? Let the tight fly lines
begin…

I went online and got the …

The pick up truck lurched over the prairie, Rockies in the rear view.
Joe, my Blackfoot Indian fishing guide, was telling the legend of the Morning Star. One moment: “Which fly for this trout?” Next “What’s the purpose of life?”

I’d confessed I was terrified of wildlife. He was unfussed.
Joe, father of four, is the first Blackfoot to own a farm. But he and his wife Kathy, a schoolteacher, augment their income by guests who ride, swim, hike, watch wildlife — or just fish with Joe. >Now; Joe pointed to a cliff. Etched in the rock was the sign of the Morning Star. He’d even named his business after it. Then …

Sleepless at 3. The problems wrestling inside my head were tossing my body left and right. Covers off. Covers on. Two pillows. One pillow. My eyes cracked open to peek at the clock at my bedside. Three in the morning and sleep was abandoning me before my day was scheduled to start.

I had a meeting at ten that would cause me to drive across New Orleans at the peak of rush hour; turning a 90 minute drive into a two hour stress filled drive. Since my eyes wouldn’t stay shut, I rolled out of bed a little after five, read the paper, and hit the road after six. Since I had some time to kill before the meeting, I grabbed …