Most anglers consider themselves above the petty squabbles that so often erupt in the fly-fishing community, content to let other anglers define the boundaries of the sport for. . .
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Classic Story: Patience Pays Off in Alaska
The huge rainbows that Alaska is famous for are not always easy to catch.
All photos by Jeremy Kehrein
In early July 1995, I was guiding two of my favorite clients of all time—a father-and-son team from Annapolis, Maryland—on the Copper River, which drains into Alaska’s Lake Iliamna. Tom and. . .
Read MoreClassic Story: The Doc, the River, and Lessons Learned
Although I had been a fisherman since early childhood, I didn’t learn to fly-fish until I was in graduate school at the University of New Hampshire in the late 1980s. My older brother, Brian, lived nearby, and he taught me to cast one chilly January day in . . .
Read MoreStory and Photos: Just What the Doctor Ordered
One August afternoon several years ago, I returned to my desk at Orvis HQ to find that my neighbor, Tom Rosenbauer, was missing. Taped to the back of his chair was a hand-scrawled sign that said, “At an appointment with Doctor Triceau.” Once I . . .
Read MorePhotos and Story: Incredible Smallmouth Fishing Just Over the Border
We’d worked our way almost completely around the shoreline of the small lake, with just a couple hammer-handles to show for it, and I was starting to wonder if there were big pike beneath the dark water after all. I’d thrown all the patterns I could think . . .
Read More“Gone Fishin’” by William G. Tapply
We usually rumble across the iron bridge, turn off the road, follow the bumpy ruts beside the field, and park Dad’s station wagon at the water’s edge to offload the canoe. But on this gray afternoon . . .
Read MoreArmed to the Teeth: The Northern Pike of Wollaston Lake
Photo by Joel Ruby
“Can we please change this fly?” Guide Dan Lembke–all six-foot-eight, two-hundred and ninety
pounds of him–was sitting in the center of the boat, rebuilding my wire leader
and considering what fly to tie on, . . .
Classic Story: The Trout Stream That No One Else Wanted
With a sparsely attended Catholic church at one end and a Taco Bell at the other, Benmont Avenue is representative of the hard times that have befallen many American mill towns. This is not the scenic Vermont of postcards, but instead a hardscrabble . . .
Read MoreStory and Photos: You Never Forget Your First Love
The first brook trout I ever saw was about three inches long, little bigger than a baitfish really. But the memory of that vision—of that glittering flash of color and light—remains sharply etched in my . . .
Read MorePhotos and Story: Big Dreams, Big Fish
Muskellunge are the fish of legends—top-tier predators that are notoriously challenging to catch on even conventional tackle. Back in the mid ’90s, when I first started chasing muskies with a fly, people thought I was nuts. Now, these toothy monsters . . .
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