Alot of people think they know David Mangum: the skull buoys, the salty flats guide with a stiff upper lip and ever-present stink eye. But spend a day on the water with him, and you’ll realize that’s not really Mangum. I grew up in Maine around some old-timer lobster fishermen, and before even meeting Mangum […]

My cousin Margaret married an adventurous soul from Germany named Peter. Their family resides on the German side of the Alps. Peter, a passionate fly angler, is not afraid of a little suffering if it means access to good fishing. Last season I met him in Munich and we fished our way south through the […]

As with many stories of late,  it all began with the pandemic. During solitary confinement in a two-up-and-two-down terraced house in Sheffield, England, while enduring a nationwide ban on fishing, my mind began to wander. I wasn’t the only one. My girlfriend, unable to fill her time with running competitions, also deliberated on our current […]

You drove across the desert seven hours for me and waited patiently, reading newspapers and listening to the radio while I learned the effectiveness of the San Juan worm on its namesake river, fishing in rolled-up blue jeans, skin also blue like icicles. After graduation, wearing a bikini top and oversized waders with a wilted […]

In any conversation I have with fishing folk who lack real-world knowledge of the South, a mention of Florida immediately evokes a conversation about the Keys and its tarpon, bonefish and permit. Much to their surprise, I let them know tarpon can be caught on both sides of the state, not just at the bottom. […]

Though the term “bushwhacking” might initially call to mind images of grueling humps through brush-choked, trailless forest with nothing aside from a faint game trail for guidance, in this day and age, when everyone, everywhere just wants to get away from everyone else, everywhere else, I wonder if the term could use a bit of […]

“A little beat for the rhythm and some words to read”—Beastie Boys, “Super Disco Breakin” It was a spartina holiday, the brindled grasses of the Louisiana marsh tan, brown and green, their yellowed tips waving in the wind for miles, a welcome compliment to textureless skies that were mostly gray. We had clouds, soupy fog […]

A pronouncement that you’re going flyfishing in Oman usually elicits a “that sounds rad,” followed by a lengthy pause and finally a quizzical, confused expression. “Wait—where is Oman again?” And that, for the geographically challenged (which, let’s be honest, is most of us) is an entirely legitimate question. Located on the southeastern coast of the Arabian […]

It is satisfying to please your guide, but I don’t get guided often. I can barely guide myself, and am rarely ever comfortable on large rivers that I’ve never fished. Generally I prefer to fish alone, or with a few buddies. Sometimes it is more fun to fish together, to heckle, watch, photograph, learn and […]