Fly Fishing

The new issue of The Contemporary Sportsman is almost 300 pages of fishing, shooting, and cooking.

Fans of online magazines should check out the new issue of The Contemporary Sportsman and feast on an astonishing 292 pages of content, including articles on steelheading in British Columbia, casting for tigerfish in Tanzania, and lots more. I like the nice, clean design and the easy-to-read format. The same company will soon be launching a fly-fishing-only title called Backcast, as well. You do have to sign up to read the new issue, but it’s well worth the effort.

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During the dog days of late summer, many trout rivers are running low and warm (although this year’s runoff has Western trout streams in perfect shape), so fly fishermen often turn to warmwater species. Few anglers would argue that the most exciting and fun way to fish for bass and panfish is with a surface pattern, which allows you to see the strike. Traditionally, . . .

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For this week’s podcast, the title is “Tom’s Top Ten Tippet Tips”, or just 5T for short (but no short jokes please).  In this episode, I review tips on knots, types of tippet, how to attach tippets, when to shorten or lengthen a tippet, how to avoid kinky tippets, and a bunch more.  

For the “Fly Box” section of short tips, I talk about some cool, new terms and tips I learned from fishing guides in Colorado and Montana over the past two weeks.

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Guide Bryan Eldredge with his improvised hot-dog-fork “fly rod” on Utah’s Provo River. photo courtesy Bryan Eldredge

My teenage daughter’s text message said, “You’re stupid for running out of gas!”

I knew she was kidding, but I was stupid. And the real stupidity was that I had run out of gas along Utah’s Provo River with a truckload of fishing gear, but not one fly rod! I had sent a call for help, but it would be over an hour before my wife came to my rescue. With nothing better to do, I grabbed a streamer from the dashboard, pulled a lanyard from the backseat, and slid down the embankment to the river.

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Welcome to our new weekly roundup of news from across the world of fly fishing. Every Monday, we’ll bring you up to speed on interesting stories, new records, important conservation news, and anything else we think you should know about.

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George Keil uploaded this picture of him teaching his son to fly fish one early morning outside of Branson, MO In his words: “Fly fishing lesson to my best fishing buddy, my son.”

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Seth Daughton, age 7, with one of eight smallmouths he caught to his father’s measly two. photo by Tim Daughton

Do you remember what it is like to smile this big when you catch a fish? For many of us, myself included, our fishing becomes an extension of our day-to-day life, stressful.  “Lets go, I want to get to that spot before somebody else does!” or “Just one more fish…” are phrases that are all too common. Don’t get me wrong: I love to fish, but somewhere along the way I may have lost some perspective. For the last couple of years, I have been blessed with the opportunity to fish with my kids, though, and my overall attitude has shifted.

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