[Editor’s Note: “First Casts” is an occasional feature that highlights great fly-fishing content from around the Web—from how-to articles, to photo essays, to interesting reads.]
- Over the weekend, the New York Times featured a great article by James Prosek called “Trout Fishing, a Taut Line to Our Past,” in which the author/artist muses on the draw of this sport we all love. The accompanying video (above) shows how Prosek uses art to understand his quarry.
- Midcurrent has uncovered a wonderful profile of Norman Maclean republished on The Daily Beast website last year. Pete Dexter wrote about Maclean in 1981, just a few years after A River Runs Through It was published. In related news, frequent Midcurrent writer Erin Block pointed me to this great piece of literary criticism by Maclean, who was a professor of literature at the University of Chicago, in which he explores the Language in Shakespeare’s King Lear.
Illustration by Cristina Spanó, via nytimes.com
- Could your waders someday be the source of scientific data? An article on the BBC website describes how a Dutch team is developing clever waders that enthusiasts can wear to find not only the ideal location to fish, but to collect key hydrological data.
- Have hatchery fish destroyed our rivers and the fishing experience? A geology professor named Douglas M. Thompson writes about his decision to put down his fly rods “after I saw what a century of stocking nonnative fish was doing to the landscape I love.”
- A fascinating video, “Tarnished Chrome,” discusses how recent fish kills on the tributaries of Lake Ontario have been caused by a deficiency of vitamin B1. The science and history that have led to this situation are fascinating.