One Saturday morning in the summer that I turned eight, my father peered across the breakfast table at me and said, “I guess you’ve been doing a lot of fishing lately, huh?”
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Pro Tips: How to Fool Really “Smart” Trout
Trout outsmart me regularly. This neither surprises nor embarrasses me. Sure, a trout’s brain is about the size of a pea—a bit smaller than mine—but it’s a highly specialized organ. It’s not. . .
Read More“The Bass-Bug Moment,” by William G. Tapply
I grew up casting deer-hair bugs for bass, both largemouths and smallmouths, in lakes, ponds, and rivers all over New England. It was my favorite kind of fishing—even better, I thought, . . .
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 More“Bass-Bug Humbug,” by William G. Tapply
Written by: William G. Tapply
Bill Tapply had some awfully strong opinions about what makes a good bass bug.
Photo courtesy Vicki Stiefel
“It is with some degree of trepidation that I approach the subject of artificial flies [for bass],” wrote James A. Henshall in his Book of the Black Bass, “for I am afraid that I hold some very. . .
Read More“Fear and Loathing in Belize, Part I,” by William G. Tapply
Former Orvis Cleveland Fishing Manager Jim Lampros shows off a Belize tarpon.
Photo by Dan Davala
About four feet of Mason leader material was looped around Andy’s bent knee. He kept fiddling with the Mason and frowning at the book he’d propped open on the table beside his . . .
Read More“Trickle Treat,” by William G. Tapply
Written by: William G. Tapply
A tiny stream that holds native brookies is a secret to keep.
Photo by Zach Matthews
After living most of my life within earshot of highway racket, where city lights blot the stars from the night sky, I finally did it. I bought a little farm on a dirt road in the New Hampshire hills. My new . . .
Read MorePro Tips: Bill Tapply’s Pocket-Water Secrets, Part I
Pocket water isn’t as easy to fish as pools and glides, but it can be very productive.
Photo by Sandy Hays
Written by: William G. Tapply
Here the river surges over and around boulders the size of Volkswagens. The churning whitewater roars in your ears. It buckles your knees. It wants to knock you over. Around the bend, . . .
Read More“Literary Treasures” by William G. Tapply
Bill Tapply fishes one of his beloved Montana spring creeks.
Photo via williamgtapply.com
“The literature of angling falls into two genres: the instructional and the devotional,” wrote William Humphrey in his satirical little novel My Moby Dick. “The former is written by fishermen who. . .
Read More“Trout Eyes,” by William G. Tapply
Sometimes, seeing is believing.
Photo by Sandy Hays
The Bull Shoals dam was holding back water, and the White River was running low and slow and clear. Local trout maestro Wayne Reed had led John Barr and me through some woods to a . . .
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