A Lifetime of Fly-Fishing Tales

A Lifetime of Fly-Fishing Tales

In The Last Best Day, Michael Altizer shares moments and meditations from a lifetime of fly fishing on streams from the Appalachians to Alaska. For the first several decades of my life, the greening up time of spring meant single-minded obsession with sparkling waters...
Fly Fishing the Salt

Fly Fishing the Salt

Experts argue about the genesis of saltwater fly fishing, but there is no question that anglers have been at it for at least 2,000 years. At that time, Roman author Claudius Aelianus described it thusly: “One of the crew sitting at the stern lets down…lines with...
Move Over Jimmy Buffett, Meet the Coolest Salt of the Sea

Move Over Jimmy Buffett, Meet the Coolest Salt of the Sea

Wherever the currents of time find Pallot, you can bet the fish will be biting and he’ll make room in the boat for you—whether in person or vicariously. What could be cooler than that? For 15 seasons a lanky poet with the central casting name of Flip Pallot poled a...
Montana River Wars

Montana River Wars

The decline of Montana’s rivers foretells a new battle brewing between businesses that depend on fishing tourism and the state’s ranchers. I’ll never forget the first time I met the Big Hole River. The relationship started on one of those crisp Montana autumn days,...
Swapping Roles with Your Guide

Swapping Roles with Your Guide

Sharing your fly rod, rifle or shotgun with a guide can be as rewarding as using them yourself. To this day I’ve never actually fired the old shotgun. It’s an ancient Winchester Model 12 with a plain, well-worn walnut stock and was in my hands on that cool spring...
The Tenth Time

The Tenth Time

There were pines in between the river and the rock cliff so I could not walk downstream to catch my salmon. I had to stay in one place, cast and drift. “Fish on!” Al yelled, and we scrambled down the path that led from Dam Camp to The Basin. Three of us hung over the...
Velvet Elk at Poso Creek

Velvet Elk at Poso Creek

A mid-summer fly fishing trip turns into an impromptu elk hunt. There before me stood 80 elk or more, the nearest ones no more than 70 yards away. I love hunting elk! And these elk clearly needed hunting. There were four of them—three cows and one young bull, his...
25 Heartbeats

25 Heartbeats

Along with common sense rules such as “don’t litter” and “don’t remove anything that was already here,” there’s this: “No groups larger than 25.” Occasionally, Congress does something right. In 1975, the assemblage designated an area of the San Juan and Rio...