Fly Tying? You want me to tie a fly? No way. I can’t even darn socks. I knew I had enrolled in a fly fishing school, but I never thought about the fly tying aspect that would accompany my studies. School started and there I was, my instructor persuading me to give it a try. Reluctantly I went to the tying area. With a heavy heart, I tried my hand at tying my first fly, and managed to make a large and splendid bug. That disheveled fly went on to startle many fish, but one showed interest; all was
Oman … the name alone conjures up images of the desert, sand dunes and camels. This is the place that I now call home and where my husband and I have started our fishing business: Arabian Fly Sport Fishing. Most people’s first reactions are “Oh yeah, I saw the movie Fly Fishing in Yemen. Is it like that?” Well we haven’t built our own river and stocked it with wild salmon, that’s for sure. Our business is saltwater fishing. Oman has over 2000 kilometers of coastline - from rugged, unforgiving cl
Laurentian Great Lakes steelhead are a complex stock of fish. The population is a mixture of hatchery-released and wild, naturally reproduced fish originating from many different streams. Knowing the natal streams of the fish is important to best managing this species, as it allows for targeted conservation and management to the areas that are the major contributors to the total lake population. Fortunately, we may be able to determine the natal stream of a fish by looking at its otolith. Otoli
What The Company Says * The ground-breaking and innovative Free-Flex handle is designed on the basis of the logical principle that a rod’s power potential is situated in the butt section of the blank. *ArcticSilver ZENSE rods use the full power potential in the rod’s lower section by letting the blank load inside a hollow handle. The Free-Flex handle allows the butt section of the blank to load with less energy – it’s simple and it works! *ArcticSilver’s Free-Flex rods represent a new catego
We all want to be part of something new, something big, something important. But when we get there, these are the things that elude us. The big always passes us by. The small always takes prevalence. For me, life has been filled with almost too many ups and downs. It took me my entire lifetime to find my happy. However, I saw it, knew it and felt it years ago. It was the first time I went fishing as an adult. And when that fly rod was handed to me, I knew I was home. For it wasn’t just th
“There were no fish kills observed immediately after the fires. We do not anticipate any short or long-term population impacts on the trout streams in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.” says Matt Kulp, Supervisory Fishery Biologist for Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I had just picked up the kids from school on Monday afternoon, November 28th when my husband Ian called and asked “Have you heard any news this afternoon? The winds are carrying the embers from the Chimneys fire and spr
It always surprises me that so many people who fish with a fly rod have not yet tried fishing from a float tube. Many of those folks tell me that is because there are so many different models and types to choose from that they don’t know how to judge which might be the best for them. Once you get introduced to float tubes you’ll see that they enable you to fish a lake or pond by yourself, and that the peace and quiet you’ll encounter will enable you to do some wonderful wildlife viewing too. Du
Be intimidated by the idea of planning a women’s fly fishing clinic. Have no idea how or why you would want to host one. You’re not “qualified” anyways, right? Right, of course not. When the idea refuses to leave you alone, mention it to friends over beers to see if they’ll take the bait. “Would you go to a fishing clinic if I hosted one?” You’ll ask. “Yeah! What a great idea! I’ll totally go,” they’ll inevitably say in return (could be the beer talking). Of course they will. Immediately regre
My first memories of fishing in saltwater are at Hampton Beach, over the bridge from Seabrook. My father would drive my brother and me over the bridge and drop us off while he went to the local store to buy the Barrons’ weekly paper. Ah, the days of dropping kids off at the bridge! My brother and I would drop our sinking line to catch whatever we could on worms, and we almost always got flounder. I remember wanting to keep the Pet Flounder alive for a few hours … this was before my catch-and
Most children pick up the love of fly fishing from their Mom or Dad early on and the obsession only grows from that point. Because I came to fly fishing through a friend in Montana, I got to flip the traditional roles and be the one to get my parents hooked, (pun totally intended) when they last visited. As we cruised down Gallatin Canyon, the conversation flowed between what was happening in South Dakota, to some aspects of fly fishing, to how teaching was going for me this year. We had gott
Fisherman aren’t created equal and some are born to be on the water daily. Most guides I know didn’t choose the path of guiding, but hours, days and months on the water turned the obsession into a career of sharing the experience with others. My experience is that a person decides to go with a guide after numerous strike-outs. When they are filled with doubt and frustration… then they decide to seek a professional to show them the secrets. Others simply lack the time it takes to become intimate
Growing up, my idea of the perfect summer vacation was heading up to Michigan and staying at my best friend’s family cottage on Big Fish Lake for a week. She and I would count down the days until we went to ‘The Cottage’ because we couldn’t wait to spend our vacation fishing! Rain, bugs, cold, nothing stood in the way of the opportunity to fish with our dads. As we got older, we had less opportunities to go fishing, so it wasn’t until about a year ago that my eyes were opened to this sport.
It’s that time of year; if you live in the north, most of the waters are frozen and, for the most part, you have to put your equipment away for the season. Holidays consume much energy and help distract from the fact that you are suffering from withdrawal. This is when fly tying season explodes, as we anglers are not willing to give up the ghost and we need hope to get us through to next spring. Many new fly tiers will be born in these next few months. When you start to tie your own flies, a
In 2012, I was going through a very tumultuous time in my life. I had just gotten the job of my dreams; becoming a Park Ranger. With it, came the responsibility of moving to the park. Not only did I have to leave the home I had lived in for the previous decade, but I was now far away from friends and family, and suddenly dealing with relationship stress and indifference from my boyfriend of nearly10 years. When I moved to the park, that relationship ended: and so a new chapter in my life beg
What is the definition of home waters? Is it the water where you have spent the most time creating memories or is it the place where your heart and soul are most fully engaged? Is it possible to have more than one home water? How about in very different geographical areas? Do the people, as well as the landscape, make up the ingredients of home waters or is it the species of fish that live there? Possibly each and every one of us has a very different reason why we call certain waters home
