First published in Volume 14, Issue 3 of The Flyfish Journal I check the clock, do the math and dial. Pete answers on the first ring, speakerphone. “Old Man.” He calls me Old Man because I was the first of our friends to get gray hair. “Pete. What are you doing?” “Rolling cigarettes. Going fishing. […]

I fish 17 days of the late-spring hatchery Chinook season just a short drive from my Bellingham, WA home. Mostly alone, I walk looking for things—things for my camera, for my fly. Inspect side channels, logjams, bushwhack the long way back to the truck. River mostly high, milky glacial silt, then warm snowmelt brown. I […]

I hunt your grounds now, just how you taught me. But I don’t know if you’ve ever been back. I don’t know if that football of a cutthroat you caught that day was your last, or if you’ve filled a Ball jar of dried porcini each year since; you said you liked to for wintertime […]

Someday, when the dust has settled, we’re likely going to sit back and realize that there was a “before” Corona, and there is an “after” Corona. In some ways they may be more or less the same, but we’d be willing to wager that in many ways the before and the after are going to […]

Grandpa sent me out into the yard in search of a stick, “about yay big,” as he held his index fingers four inches apart. He carved off the bark, smoothed the surface, and pushed a sewing pin into the tip of the stick. He dipped the pin end into blue nail varnish and randomly dotted […]

above “Bobby Foster reclines on a washed-up beach chair found during a steelhead rendezvous in western Washington State. A good time was had, but the 1-800-BEATDOWN counselors would have come in handy on this trip.” Photo: Copi Vojta Swinging for steelhead can be a slow game. And when I say “can be,” I mean “almost always […]

ABOVE On the tiny St. Brandon’s Atoll, located 300 miles off the Mauritius mainland in the Indian Ocean, a local mechanic fixes, cleans and rigs boat engines. When you’re in a location as remote as this, MacGyver skills are essential. Photo: Bryan Gregson You’ve seen them. They’ve tempted you. Pretty pictures of posh accommodations, well-appointed great […]