With the recent Drawing Flies 52 emphasis on wet flies (another to come this week) I though that I’d post a bit on “adding a swing.” This really is an “add-on” tactic, not a full blown wet-fly approach, but it can still give your presentations an extra, and sometimes effective, element.
August of 2005 saw Montana’s [...]

Fly fishing from a boat can take many forms, whether it be sight fishing from a flats skiff or drifting the rapids of a wild Western river. Along with the wide range of boating possibilities comes a myriad of presentation techniques. In stillwaters, one of the simplest, but most important techniques is the Countdown Method.
In [...]

After the Braided Butt Damsel post, I got a couple of questions about fishing damselfly adult patterns wet. Using the BB Damsel pattern shown, with a yarn parachute post (versus foam), the fly can be fished “damp” easily (just fish “sans floatante“). If you need to get the fly deeper, or are fishing a pattern [...]

Al Crise (or “ol’ Al” as he was known to many) has passed. Some FF&W readers may know Al from his casting classes at Federation of Fly Fishers’ meetings and so forth, or from his posts on a number of fly-fishing bulletin boards. Al was tireless in his teaching of fly casting, and had a [...]

Another long-time friend from my youth has passed (and unexpectedly). My father has a nice little remembrance on his blog. I know that some FF&W readers likely either knew Dick (and his perfectly pressed khakis, top to bottom) or have seen him in my slideshows, most likely this photo:

This day was a beautiful day on [...]

I often read passages and sections from Norman Maclean’s A River Runs Through It. What so often jumps out at me about great narrative writing is how even the sparsest language can convey sweeping ideas and emotions. Many who have read (or seen) River Runs are familiar with the opening and closing lines. The close is [...]

With the recent concerns about the Harriman Ranch section of the Henry’s Fork (arguably one of the most famous stretches of river in the world), I thought I’d post a story that I wrote some years ago about a particularly memorable day on the Fork.
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The Harriman Ranch [...]

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Nail knots can be a pain to tie—especially when you really need one and there is nary a tool in sight (or you don’t know how to use said tool). Well, a “Nail-less” Nail Knot is a slick and quick [...]

Yet another fly-fishing friend has died—Jim Greenlee. It’s likely that not many readers will recognize Jim’s name, but I know that some of you still wade in the boots that he shepherded into being—along with my father—many years ago.
Jim was in charge of Weinbrenner when he and my father got together and made the Ultimate [...]

Since I’m going to soon be heading back to my old column in “Fly Fish America,” I thought that I’d post what is perhaps my favorite column from the “old days.” I suspect that parts of this story will show up again in another guise in a future column (and I can pretty much guarantee [...]

Another sad week for the fly-fishing community with the passing of Charlie Meyers (so close to the passing of Rusty Gates). Much more about Charlie from his close friends and colleagues here and here than I can write on FF&W. My mother has a funny remembrance about Charlie, though, involving a particularly rough plane ride across [...]

We started 2010 with fly drawings, so why not tie one on? Kel leaned over my shoulder and took this shot one day as we were fishing an old spring creek haunt. No real set-up, no real intent, just literally a quick snap-shot using dead-stock camera settings. Art? No. But it still means a lot [...]