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Voices from the River: Famous Water
A tight-lined nymph produced this and several other wild Spring Creek browns for Mark Taylor during his recent visit to the popular Pennsylvania stream.
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Skills: Split-thread dubbing
One of the biggest challenges for fly tiers, particularly new tiers, is the handling of dubbing for fly bodies. For most flies, dries or nymphs, a simple dubbing twist is all you need, and it's relatively easy to master. But some flies require a body that's a bit more buggy ... a bit more natural.…
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Short casts: 25 years since “The Movie,” saving Colorado’s greenbacks, India’s mahseer
This fall, the film iteration of Norman Maclean's "A River Runs Through It" turns 25. The film made fly fishing trendy (too trendy, some would say), and it helped put Montana on the fly fishing map. While the film and the book centered on the Blackfoot River near Missoula, the film's fishing was actually shot…
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Fly rod building pioneer Tom Morgan dies
The fly fishing world lost one of its guiding lights this week when Tom Morgan, the former owner of the R.L. Winston Co., and, more recently, the founder and owner of Tom Morgan Rodsmiths, died peacefully at home with his family in Montana. Morgan molded Winston, already a hallowed name in fly fishing when he…
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Video spotlight: Find Your Water—Backcountry Solitude
We're close to backcountry trout season here in the West, but we might have to wait a bit longer this summer, given the copious runoff we're seeing in the region. Nevertheless, wandering off the beaten path—parking at the end of the road and then wearing out some shoe leather—is my favorite kind of trout fishing…
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Fly tying: The Flying Squirrel Nymph
I love "mash-up" flies—inventions at the vise that work on trout for no particular reason at all. Just this week, I tried a simple wet fly pattern I "created" at the vise a couple weeks ago for Firehole River trout, and I was rewarded with some of the most aggressive brown trout takes I'd ever…
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Kenai king salmon management under scrutiny
An angler boasts an 80-pound Kenai River king. These fish are becoming much more rare thanks a number of factors in the drainage. Wikipedia file photo. Many have heard about declining king salmon stocks throughout Alaska in recent years. The world-renowned Kenai River has also seen a decline in larger stocks, the 6- and 7-year-old…