The Elusive Southern Appalachian Brook Trout
AKA: Brookies, Squaretails, Specs, Natives, etc. The following is an excerpt from Fly Fishing the Blue Ridge Parkway By Sam R. Johnson. For the first time, fly fishing savant Sam Johnson has captured in one guide an incredible “bucket list” of over 210 of the most...
Bill Cypress
We thought Bill Cypress was as close to perfection as human beings ever got. State Highway 16 ran south out of town. Not straight south — not to start, anyway. It had to work its way out of the hills first and make a couple of gentle turns past the new high school...
No Such Thing as a Bad Day Fishing
The bumper sticker read: A bad day fishing is better than a good day at work. I was sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic wondering how I had allowed myself to get in such a frustrating situation. Like all of the other miserable souls around me, I was growing more...
A Fishy Tale
In my youth, I chanced to date a girl whose family had a cabin on a lake. The lake was Bay Lake, just north of sprawling Mille Lacs Lake in central Minnesota. Going to the cabin was an escape from reality. Annie’s father took good care of the place, and when we made...
Does It Still Happen?
Words and values were their greatest legacy — the outdoors their greatest gift. Tell me. Do kids somewhere still grow up with Cochise, Robin Hood and William Tell, rather than the Terminator and Robo-Cop? Do they still forge blood-brother pacts with the Ogalala Sioux?...
Old Timer
He didn't look 80 years or more; he had the timeless quality of vigorous old age, the look of extended youth often seen on the faces of old men who have preserved some boy thoughts, particularly boy thoughts upon nature... Mill and I had finished our sandwiches and...
Dorsal Fins On the Cape
Was that a great white that swam by in the Cape Cod darkness?
Classic Alaska Charters
Typical June Family Trip with Classic Alaska Charters... Booking now for 2024! SPONSORED CONTENT: Classic Alaska Charters has long been the sportsman’s best choice for affordable overnight Alaska fishing charters in Southeast Alaska’s Ketchikan and Misty Fiords...
Lowcountry Tales
A tangled tale from the Carolina Lowcountry where writing runs deep in the blood. Half-moon of July, a low tide at noon, glaring blight sun and nary a breeze to ruffle the waters of Port Royal Sound. Piney islands shimmer in distant heat waves, surf grumbles far...
Tyee and the Salmon of 30+ Pounds
Tyee is the Indian name for a salmon of 30 pounds or more. No one has come very close to the mark. It seemed to make sense. From the time of the early Indians, Barkley Sounders have called a 15-pound or better chinook salmon a "smiley." Maybe the smiles would come...