Author Archive

Fish Eyes

In addition to a running discussion of fish ears, I want to talk about fish eyes, too. There are a number of questions that keep coming up relative to fish vision that tell me the pool of misconceptions is still deep, dark, and slow moving. Here’s the much compressed lowdown on fish vision. These items […]

The Acoustic Footprint

Fly fishers have spent an inordinate amount of  time studying the visual acuity of trout. That’s good because it has given us some remarkable data that have helped shape not only our flies but also our angling tactics and the clothing we wear. But, in the process, we have neglected the acoustic acuity of fish. […]

5/7 Blood Knot

The Blood Knot is an excellent way to connect two pieces of monofilament. It’s thin in diameter and very clean (no protruding bits to catch weeds or other obstructions). Back in the days of gut leaders it was the knot of choice. When nylon appeared, the Blood Knot hung on, but with the same restriction […]

Under Water Oz

My friend, Ozzie Ozefovich, has been shooting underwater footage of trout for years, and has produced a couple of revealing DVD’s on the life and times of trout. His latest DVD will be released later this month. Entitled “Trout Vision and Refraction,’ it is an excellent look at these phenomena. The underwater shots through the […]

Dry Enough, Indeed

The first draft of Volume 1, “Fishing the Film” in our book series entitled Fly Fishing has been submitted to the editor for his comments. Fishing the film deals with all aspects of this feeding zone, both above and below, as well as in, the surface film. Fishing the film is not always what it […]

John and 33 x 20

My great friend John Beth was at it again. While the rest of us ate turkey and stuffing, John was busy stuffing a big streamer down the throat of a 33 x 20 female brown (20 x 20 x 33/750 = 17.5 lbs). That’s quite a collect of big browns for Johnny Boy this fall. […]

Fishing the Film

I’m sorry I’ve been away from my Blog for a few days. I’ve been putting the finishing touches on a new book entitled “Fishing the Film.” It is Volume 1 in a book series entitled “Fly Fishing.” The books in the series will be written by Jason and myself. Jason is also the series editor […]

Tarpon Cay Lodge

As winter sets in, here in the northern climes, the thoughts of many anglers turn to fishing somewhere warm, especially somewhere warm with a bunch of fish that take the fly really well. Jason and I had the opportunity to visit Tarpon Cay Lodge a couple of years ago and fish there with our friend, […]

Purple Hot Head Leech

The big brown that I took on my last outing to the Sheboygan gobbled a Purple Hot Head Leech. This has been a great fly for me for kings, cohos, browns, and steelhead. It’s a Collared Leech (see 10/28/09 post on tying the Collared Leech) tied with dark purple FoxxFurr and a fiery, 505 Orange […]

Solo Brown

I got up at 4 am and made a run at the Shegboygan. About a dozen casts after I got on the water, I hooked a nice steelhead that was on long enough to make me think I was going to land it. Then off. It looked in the upper 20’s in length and in […]