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The True Cast – Let’s Do More to Empower the Do-It-Yourself Angler
I don’t ask for much, but if I could make one wish for next year, it would be that more companies and organizations in fishing do more to empower do-it-yourself anglers. I actually think the future of the sport might depend on that. I’m not picking on guides. Goodness knows I like guides, was a…
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The True Cast – Keep the faith: Everything happens for a reason…
Over 25 years ago, I was nearly broke. My loving, supportive wife and I had moved to Colorado from Doylestown, Pennsylvania, to chase a dream of me becoming an outdoor writer. After a few years, although I’d knocked out a couple books and sold some stories here and there, that wasn’t exactly paying the bills.…
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The True Cast – The Best Teachers in Trout Fishing…
My favorite quote of all time is by Will Rogers: “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” I think that applies to many things in life, even trout fishing. When I program myself to fish the same way—use the same flies, the same rig, the same…
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The True Cast – On Guides, Ghillies and the Great Ones
I now get asked, all the time, whether guides these days, on average, can stack up against the guides from a generation ago...
Twenty-some years ago, I wrote the book Castwork: Reflections of Fly-Fishing Guides and the American West with my cousin Andrew Steketee. It never got much commercial traction, but it did garner a cult following, and it got me discovered by Field & Stream. For all of you would-be authors out there, understand that a book…
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The True Cast – “Sporting Clays” with a Fly Rod
Autumn leaves… blown off the trees… covering the river surface… kind of a bummer if you want to go dry-fly fishing, right? Well, when life gives you lemons, make some lemonade. With fly fishing, there’s always an opportunity to learn something and practice. This happened a week ago or so as I was fishing the…
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The True Cast – What do you think spooks trout the most?
Like many anglers, I often found myself wondering what the fish were actually doing beneath the surface. Eventually, my curiosity got the better of me. I got some SCUBA gear, dove into the North Fork of the South Platte River in Colorado and hung out with the trout to watch and learn what was really…
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The True Cast – The “Vicarious” Angler
I have become a “vicarious” angler. That means I like fishing through others more than I like making casts and pulling on fish myself. That’s not to say I dislike making casts and pulling on fish. Not by a longshot. I just like watching other people light up when they catch fish more. And if…
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