In my travels around the US I run into products that certainly need to be publicized. Goat Head Sole Spikes are one of those items. This year, felt soles are banned in Alaska and a number of other states. This means, of course, that we will all be wading with rubber soles. And although wading [...]

Otter’s Eggs are great imitations for the likes of browns, steelies, and salmon, and Walt Mueller (The Otter), has devised a great way to peg them on thee leader about 3 to 4 inches above the hook. He slips a tiny bead on the leader, secures it with a couple of turns through the hole [...]

I had a comment/question asking about clarification and differentiation for the Belize Knot, Kime’s Clincher (Clifford’s Knot), and Lefty’s No-slip. 1. All of them are non-slip loop knots. 2. All of them start with an overhand knot  in the end of the tippet. 3. I particularly like the Belize Knot for finer tippets where a [...]

In the last post I described the non-slip knot that my old friend Harry Kime showed me many years ago. He called it the Casa Mar knot, but I changed the name to honor this pioneer of salt water fishing. I had a note from a reader that the knot is also called Clifford’s Knot, [...]

I had some comments about the Belize Knot that Jeff Parker showed me, and so I thought I’d go back and work through some similar knots that have been developed over the years. Harry Kime was one of the originals. Salt water flowed in his veins, and he never missed a chance to take is [...]

Nancy and I spent a four day weekend on the shores of lake Michigan, and it got me to thinking of an upcoming trip to Ontario to fish for Lake Trout and, of course, the fall salmon and brown season. In turn that got me to thinking about fishing the flies on a loop knot. [...]

Abel Reels is always coming up with new things for the fly fisher. Years ago, they started producing their very high quality reels with finishes that stepped well beyond the usual boundaries of the traditional black, gold, or silver. Now they’ve gone one better: reels that reflect the skin of trout. They are certainly beautiful—more [...]

Another excerpt from our upcoming book Long Flies. This story is “hot off the press” because it’s a story about a fishing experience I had last week in Alaska. Some anglers have difficulty considering these actual fly fishing tactics, and that’s okay as long as they don’t try to make others stop using these tactics. [...]

Trajan Weaver send me an email and noted, There is a scene (the final shot of an older man fishing, tying a fly on the end of his line) in “A River Runs Through It.” Would you show me, step by step, how he was tying on the fly? I would much appreciate it. The [...]

Here’s one fine pair of nippers! These are not your momma’s nippers, and they’re not your daddy’s nippers. These are decidedly the Humvee of the nipper world. Abel has always built superb products and these beasts are no exception. There’s heft, there’s superior nipping power, there great looks, there a needle to clean the hook [...]

I received this email from Youngki Min: “I bought a rod weighs around 2.9 ounce and it is 9 foot 6 wt rod. Do you think that I need to get reel that balances the rod? People do not agree about this issue. Among reels designed for 6 wt, their physical weights of reels seem vary. Some [...]

I think the Blood Knot was so named because most people sweat blood when trying to tie it. Actually this knot isn’t hard to learn, and it’s a great connection between pieces of mono. The Blood Knot is thinner in diameter than a Surgeon’s Knot and hangs up less in weeds. But if there’s more [...]

OK, so you really don’t like the regular Clinch and need to tie the Improved Clinch. But before you do, the question is why does there need to be an Improved Clinch? Well (1) for those that insist on pulling the short end of the tippet, the improved Clinch will work. (2) When the wire [...]

Sorry I’ve been out of the loop for a few days. I’ve been occupied with any number of items that have drained my time like a mechanic draining old motor oil–in fact, I’ve felt a bit like that old motor oil that’s being drained. But, here’s a knot that is so misused that it gets [...]