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The water we don’t fish
I still slow down as the car crosses over a river or a stream, and instead of planning and executing an afternoon of fishing, I've found myself photographing covered bridges and watching wild brown trout fin in the current under the shadows of these New England staples
I'm in northern Vermont at Jay Peak Resort, a sweet little year-round resort nestled up against the Canadian border. But I'm not fishing. And, honestly, I'm not sure why--I could have easily tucked a little 3-weight rod into my luggage, or even carried a rod onto the plane. Instead, on little day-trip drives around the…
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Choosing a rod is about the flies, not the fish
I had always assumed that an angler chooses a fly rod based on the type of fish they wanted to chase. Turns out, that’s not exactly true. Sure, a 5-weight is probably still the gold standard “trout rod,” but that has less to do with fighting the fish, and more to do with the range of…
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Is ‘destination marketing’ bad for our fishy resources?
Oh, those innocent little hashtags. I’m in Vermont at the annual Outdoor Writers Association of America’s annual conference, and I just stepped out of a session about how writers, communicators and influencers can work with destinations to promote the activities at those destinations to encourage readers and viewers to take the plunge and take a…
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Slice the wind with a compact cast
Earl Harper prepares to cast to permit on the Berry Islands. Chris Hunt photo. I have the good fortune this week to among the first guests at the new Soul Fly Lodge on the Berry Islands in the Bahamas. Here’s a bold prediction: in the next five years, this place will be known as the…
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Roundtable: Our favorite public lands
The Caribou National Forest, Idaho. Chris Hunt photo. Editor’s note: In celebration of Public Lands Month, several TU anglers are showcasing their favorite public lands fishing and hunting destinations. America’s public lands are our national treasure — places that have storied histories for all people, from Indigenous Americans to modern-day hunters and anglers. Keeping them…
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Books: The Orvis Guide to the Essential American Flies
Originally printed in 2011, and including a foreword by the late Lefty Kreh, this book drills down on 20 patterns
I was delighted to receive an advance paperback copy of The Orvis Guide to the Essential American Flies by Tom Rosenbauer, because it just snowed for the first time this fall and as such, I’m about to enter what I call “tying season.” And when I tie, I like to focus on the basics, spinning…
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What’s the greatest fly-fishing technological advance in the last 75 years?
While fly fishing is still a very traditional sport involving simple tools—primarily a stick and a string—there have been a number of technological advances that transformed the sport. What would you rank as the most significant, say from your grandparents’ era to present? No doubt, graphite materials and space-age resins have changed fly rods dramatically,…

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