The sign by the road read “BAIT WADERS FLIES GUIDE SERVICE.” Simple enough, it stood in front of a ramshackle cinderblock building that was painted a shade of green that failed to blend into the brushy surroundings. I almost passed it by but a sign in the window read “OPEN” so, feeling curious, I pulled…
If you jump out of a perfectly good airplane, mountain climb, are in law enforcement or the military you expect that you might get injured, possibly fatally. In fact for major sports participants the general statistics show that there are 9.5 injuries per 100 participants. Football has the highest injury rate with hockey next. I…
In my younger days, I used to take my corporate mandated vacations in a block and made every effort to go someplace and do something “new”. In 1974, in the spirit of exploration, I ended up in Portland, Oregon with a young lady who, among other things, was willing to try fly fishing. We visited…
It had been a long productive day chasing brown trout for my friend Bob and I. We were sitting in his office-library-fly tying room soothing our sore arms and reminiscing over past adventures. I had prescribed a dose of twelve year old, single malt as pain medication. Time passed and as we talked, I noticed…
The MANISTIQUE RIVER in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is not listed in any fishing guidebook that I know of as a premier fishing location. Hemmingway wrote about the Big Two Hearted River and other locations in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and each year you can find fly fishermen that want to retrace Hemmingway’s adventures. I have never…
It was one of those perfect evenings on the Pere Marquette River in Baldwin, Michigan — the sun was sinking below the trees, stream temperature was in the mid 60’s, current flow was moderate and the canoe hatch was far downriver. As my fishing partner and I stood by the river to contemplate our plan…
Albright Knot, Arbor Knot, Bimini Twist, Blood Knot, Dropper Loop, Duncan (Uni) Knot, Improved Clinch Knot, Palomar Knot, Perfection Loop, San Diego Jam Knot Surgeon’s Loop. There are more than 30 different knots that a fly fisherman can use for attaching lines, leaders, tippets and flies. All of them have a reason for existence but…
Fly fishing methods are as varied as the number of anglers. If you examine any of these methods you realize that no matter what the method, there is always a thing called a “leader”–which is the all important connection between the fly (the part that catches the fish) and the fly line (the part that…
One of the current military strategies is to “Rule the Night”. Basically, this means that you take away from the enemy the ability to control the darkness and make it an advantage to you. While I never thought of trout fishing in a military sense, the thought might work if applied to the Michigan Mayfly…
Bugs, insects, and critters are all an integral part of the fly fishing process. If it wasn’t for the insects, fly fishers would be casting giant imitations of frogs or worms, in other words they would be bass fishermen. Its not that I don’t like bass fishermen, its just that they scare me in those…