Over the last couple of years, I’ve done almost all my fly fishing with an English fellow, Nigel. We’ve shared the same waters but almost always attack those waters from different angles. I charge in, throwing the largest streamers I think might fit between the jaws of a fat brown while Nigel […]
Read more "Invasive Ideas"On the first day of November I was on the Black River in northern New York, trying to catch a Chinook salmon, the largest type of trout or salmon (salmonid) on the North American Continent. I’d failed here before to actually get one in though I’ve hooked many in previous years. I just have […]
Read more "A Problem and an Opportunity along the Lake Shore"It’s rained quite a bit this summer and Pittsburgh, as representative of western Pennsylvania, has received 14 inches above normal rainfall for this time of the year. Local rivers were flooding (some extremely) yesterday morning and many Pittsburghers couldn’t make it to work. Few people were going fishing. It put my plans on […]
Read more "Seize the (very wet) Day!"“Watch out for spiders!” Susan warned as I left to go ice fishing a few days ago. She knows the history of arachnids that sneak into camp and into sleeping bags when least expected. Yes, even in mid-winter. But it was particularly cold today, the high only reaching about 20. I wasn’t […]
Read more "The Spiders of January"When I was a little kid in Newfoundland, Canada, I followed dad on the adventures he thought we should go on – adventures to far off places and strange country that I now know were neither far off nor all that strange. We went up and down streams for mud trout, drove down to […]
Read more "Longing for Ice"Like me, young Felix Omondi grew up loving to fish and feeling it was natural to be outdoors. We both took to the fly rod at some point as we grew up, finding that sport could be as valuable as fish in the pan. We were much alike, the only significant thing separating us being […]
Read more "Felix Omondi"8:30 PM – It’s dark outside and darker here underground. This tunnel allows a tiny brook to flow under the freight yard down to the Allegheny River and allows me to reach the walleye, I can only hope. At least when your fishing begins with sloshing through a dark tunnel to a flooded river, […]
Read more "Walleye, the Steel City, and a Long, Cold Night"