Fall Float on the Wild Watauga
Trout the hard–and fun–way in fishing’s late season.
Our All-American Bear
Assigned to cover a draw high on Old Smokies’ spine, Kephart kindled a thin fire between roots of a mountain oak that wasn’t warm enough to thaw his fingers and toes. Rifle across his lap, he listened for the dogs to bay, announcing they’d caught a black bear’s trail....
Timeless Precision: A 64-Year-Old Model 70
Finding which brand of modern ammo a vintage .257 Roberts prefers.
America’s Best Trout Streams
The middle of the night is a wonderful time to go fishing. No matter how heavy the flow, we can wade to the most advantageous position. Our casts unfurl with uncanny precision, and flies drift wakelessly until the dimpled take. It is then that slashing rainbows,...
Great Guide Not
I owe much of what I know about how, where, and when to fish to great guides. Guides who spend day after day on the same water accompanying myriad clients of varied ability and temperament amass an abundance of knowledge that’s ours for the learning. Most of the time...
Blue Ridge Bear Hunt
Bear hunting sure has changed here in the southern Appalachians.
An Old Parker Finds New Life
To restore or not, that is the question. How many times have each of us thought about having a fine old gun refinished only to be cautioned that having it reblued or restocked will diminish its value? Several years ago at a small gun show in a church social hall, I...
Where There is a Wil…
A painter he is, and that’s what he always wanted to be… His house is what realtors, in Salisbury, Maryland, call a two-story “Colonial.” It sits near the back of a tasteful subdivision — meaning one where developers have left standing the native loblolly...
Linda Besse Adventures in Art
Don’t think of Linda as some sort of five-foot-four female Indiana Jones who’s hellbent on adventure. Rather, she’s a rare spirit who is both good and lucky, an unbearable combination for a wildlife artist. The leopard had appeared fairly tame....