“Hallucinatory—that’s just the way everyday life is in Colombia. All the time, you say to yourself, did I just see that?” —Barbet Schroeder It’s a blazingly hot midweek afternoon when John first voices the nickname. Nico is up on El Bizcocho’s bow with Ashley, his teasing rod ready for action as the boat glides into […]

That film reel in your head is an unforgiving medium. It replays constantly, on a grainy endless loop, delivering jolts of exhilaration and tragic disappointment, one right after the other, in painfully slow motion. First there’s the attack from beneath on the skated mouse pattern. Violent. Breathtaking. Exhilarating. The line goes tight to the massive […]

Jazz & What?  Jazz & Fly Fishing—part jazz quartet, part quirky film project, and a dream come true—traces its beginnings to a pub in Helsinki, in 2008, when two young men came up with the ingenious idea of putting together a jazz band of flyfishermen and making a TV documentary about the project. Those two […]

After I spring for the plane ticket to Chile, I tell my friends there, all of them professional flyfishing guides, the most important things are to see everyone, eat good food and drink good wine together. Not that I will pass up any opportunity to go fishing, but the months of border closures have left […]

As Osmany ran the skiff across the gulf toward a little channel where dead mangroves merged with new, the boat began to slide and fall in colossal swells. When a dot of trees finally came into view, Osmany radioed Yadian, whose skiff was coming in behind ours.  “Yadian, háblame!” he said, lighting a cigarette under […]

The African night stretched to infinity beyond the tip of my 12-weight. Our fourth night wading this untamed beach had yielded nothing but a steady stream of blood leaking from my right heel, the rich plasma broadcasting my presence to patrolling sharks like an overzealous waiter trying to sell the evening special.  “Hey Teddy,” I […]

Dave Downing picked me up at the Glasgow Airport at 8 a.m. Two hours later, I stood in the middle of the River Clyde in a setting that could be mistaken for an 18th-century oil painting alongside Downing, a former world championship angler on the National Scottish Fly Fishing team and a well-known fly tier […]

Spring my ass. When I left Houston, it was 92 degrees. Landing in Minneapolis a hair after 10 p.m., it’s a lovely 36 degrees and raining. I throw my gear in the back of Hansi Johnson’s 4Runner and we head to the southeast corner of the state, stopping only at a gas station for the […]

Occasionally, someone will ask what it costs to get into flyfishing. I’m always hesitant to answer. Like most things, the reply is invariably, “it depends.” And I’m reluctant to add up how much money I’ve spent on gear and travel.  But there’s also worth. While price can be quantified, worth is a calculation of price […]