2019

“Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.” ― Benjamin FranklinIn the new year, may your knots always be true, your presentations always drag free, and your boots always be wet. And above all, may you always fish with friends that compel you to be a better…

“The whole notion of fly-fishing would not be so romantic if the trout did not win, too.” – Mark RauschenbergerThere is more to fly fishing than wins and losses. It is the trout, the places trout live, and the people who pursue trout that make the notion of fly-fishing so romantic.  In the presence of so much mystery, beauty, and…

“A mark of all the best fisherman I have known has been the power of concentration, and this, perhaps, is the most important single quality a fisherman can have.” – Roderick L. Haig-BrownAll that is required to be an angler is to let the watery world distract you. Do this, and short attention spans disappear. The river’s power of distraction…

“For the maxim holds good in the matter of fishing as in everything else: the first step to be wise is to know that we are ignorant.” – Edward HamiltonWe are lucky to have the Wood, the Lost, and the Creek as our schoolhouse, and the trout as our teachers. Another step to being wise is to know that we…

“No wonder, then, that the fly fisher loves at times to take a day all by himself; for his very loneliness begets a comfortable feeling of independence and leisure, and a quiet assurance of resources within himself to meet all difficulties that may arise.” – Thaddeus Norris This age of hyper-connectivity begets more feelings of anxiety than comfort. If this…

“Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons.” ― Jim Bishop While Spring brings the promise of a new season and Summer the transition from green to gold, it is Autumn that possesses the greatest treasure for the seeker of trout. For Autumn’s pockets overflow and the temporal treasure of gold spills onto the watery canvas,…

“Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald from The Great Gatsby There is a freshness in the October air that is best described by the adjective “crisp.” The mornings start brisk, but the days turn temperate; abrupt but polite, firm yet pleasing. The angler and the trout are refreshed in the…

"If I were a bird, I would fly about the Earth seeking the successive autumns.” –George Eliot You are a bird, a migratory bird. You have flown about the earth and decided that there is no more splendid autumn than the one you have found in the Wood River Valley. After all, you have never seen water so beautiful, skies…

"The craft of angling is the catching of fish, but the art of angling is its receptiveness to these connections, the art of letting one thing lead to another until, if only locally and momentarily, you realize some small completeness.” – Ted Leeson from The Habit of Rivers All those who come to angling, no matter the skill level achieved,…

"Those who fish get to know and understand a river in a way few others can.” – W. D. Wetherell What does it mean to know and understand a river? Does it mean one knows each riffle, each seam, each bucket, or each trout by name? Does it mean understanding the cyclical nature of bugs and their importance to the…