Many of us hire guides when venturing to waters unknown, especially international ones. Those who don’t will often wish they had after hours or days without a single strike. Still, when we make such arrangements, some of them end there, become both our first and last trip with a particular guide. Understandably, these engagements are […]

Why bamboo? When I ask, Olivia Elia’s expression softens, becoming almost dreamy. She’s perched on a stool with her knees tucked to her chin in the workshop she shares with her mentor, master rod builder Dave Dozer of Bamboo Pursuits, based in Sisters, OR. Some anglers fish bamboo for tradition’s sake. They like the historical […]

“It feels like my hand is burning…” Sure enough, my hand was, in fact, burning. A 32-pound bull red was peeling across a channel deep in the Mississippi River Delta, taking with it 100 feet of line and a fair amount of my skin as Camille Egdorf McCormick and our guide, Travis Huckeba, looked on. […]

“Wanna see what a salmon fly tattoo on your stomach looks like after two kids?” Brita Fordice rolls down the waistband of her shorts to reveal a splashy, colorful fly with a wide hook that resembles the letter J more than an actual hook.  “It looks like a bird took a colorful shit on my […]

It’s midafternoon in Bellingham, WA,  and a bonfire is burning behind my house—split timber from last winter’s tree fall is towered high and bright, and an October breeze is gently feeding the flames. There’s a break after weeks of rain and the wind has blown even the grass dry, begging us to sit outside.  With […]

“It wasn’t my plan.” It’s April outside Umeå in north-central Sweden, and Rolf Nylinder is sitting in the little room in his house that occasionally makes appearances in his films. The window behind him is covered by a Venetian blind lit from above, while on the sill sit a few candles in brass holders, a […]

The legend of Bob Clay is already well established: He’s one of the finest bamboo rod builders and steelhead fishermen on earth. To cast one of his cane spey rods is to feel the rhythm of nature. To fish with him is to learn and understand nuances of the steelhead world you probably never even […]

It’s almost midnight as I leave a Death Cab for Cutie concert, traveling north from Seattle and sitting shotgun in a 2008 Ford pickup, a seat more often occupied by a shorthaired pointer and a Boston pug. At the wheel is the band’s drummer, Jason McGerr, relaxed and still sweat-soaked from the show. There are […]

“With a name like Erik Ogershok, you have to be a metal singer,” Alvin Dedeaux says just before he drops a streamer into the water. “I mean come on, it’s perfect.” We’re on the Colorado River, near Austin, TX, and Dedeaux is waxing poetic about the local metal scene. Ogershok, a metal guitarist turned local […]