Just in case you haven’t checked his blog in awhile, my friend Reed Curry over at the Contemplative Angler is releasing a book this fall. The book is entitled The New Scientific Angling: Trout and Ultraviolet Vision. Reed posted a couple of articles on his blog awhile back that first explored this idea. Personally, I think it has the potential to really change the way people think about tying flies. In fact, I think it’s the coolest idea in fly tying that I’ve seen since taking up the sport. If nothing else it’ll provide me with just one more excuse on a tough day: “Well, I probably would have caught several nice trout, but I haven’t been able to locate those Bolivian scarlet titmouse feathers with the proper UV characteristics, either that or the weather’s got ‘em holed up somewhere.”

A new online fishing magazine was released recently which I’ve enjoyed: Fish Can’t Read. The folks over at Chiwulff and Singlebarbed have all been involved. I highly recommend you take a look. These online magazines with the flipbook format seem to really be catching on lately. There are two others that I’m aware of: Catch and This is Fly. Of the three, Fish Can’t Read and Catch are more along what I like. This is Fly is pretty cool, and I probably would have liked it if I’d been into fly fishing as a teenager, but the style is just a bit over the top for me now. I don’t know how long the flipbook format will persist, but something like this is likely the future of fly fishing periodicals. I’m surprised the paper magazines haven’t caught on. Also, this is just my opinion mind you, but I think making the magazines freely accessible is the way to go as well. People will probably cease paying for magazines whether online or not just due to the fact that so much information is out there freely available. I know I have. I’ve got a single straggling subscription left that I’m strongly considering doing away with. It’s really just a waste of money and a waste of storage space to store the old magazines (which I never can bring myself to throw away). If you publish good work, you can probably get enough revenue to support it through advertising.

I’m still working on my Glacier photos. The truth is I’ve really struggled finding time to work on the website here or work on photography or go fishing or even take a walk in the woods. I can’t even put my finger on the problem. “Things” just seem busy lately. I know the job’s been more stressful. Heck, I don’t know. But I do know this: something’s got to give. It has become abundantly clear to everyone around me that I need to be in the outdoors. If I’m not, things get rather ugly rather quickly. Still, I have played around with my photos a bit. Lately I’ve become interested in black and white and “sort of” black and white photos. One thing I discovered about myself on the Glacier trip: I really enjoy working with photography. I still need lots of work to be anywhere close to good, but I do honestly enjoy it. Anyone who reads the site knows I’ve sort of been into photography for awhile, but usually I’m too involved in the fishing to concentrate on it. Glacier offered a chance to focus. I got up at daylight nearly every day of the trip for photos, and several evenings found me waiting for just the right light at some photogenic spot. I’ve GOT to start updating the photoblog more often. Here’s another of my better shots:

Swiftcurrent Lake and Many Glacier Valley in the early morning.

I recently read a wonderful little book of essays on fine art photography by Brooks Jensen entitled Letting Go of the Camera. Jensen publishes the magazine LensWork, one of the best out there. Check out the book if you’re the least interested in fine art photography or even just the life of a fine art photographer.

Take care,
Nathan

Friday Footnotes: random, rambling reflections to round out the reek…er, I mean week

Things have been a little depressing around the TVangler this week. As you saw in Matt’s last article, we’ll be losing one of our own. It’s always sad when a friend moves away. I feel like Matt and I are leaving a lot of unfished water out there. One positive is that he’s moving to Melbourne, FL, which is smack-dab in the middle of one of the world’s best areas for trophy redfish. Insane and I have already told him to clear a spot in his back yard for us to pitch a tent. We’re not letting him go without throwing some sort of party. I made the initial preparations last night. We went to see the new Star Trek movie (grea flick, by the way), and I discovered that a new cigar and wine shop had moved in just down the sidewalk. 4 Rocky Patel Vintage 1992s, 2 Arturo Fuente Hemingways, and 2 Rocky Patel Sun Grown cigars are now in my possession just waiting for the right time. Now, I believe I’m supposed to be locating a good bourbon…anyone out there have a good suggestion for a fine bourbon that I might be able to locate here in North Alabama?

Justin's nice bass.

The most depressing thing though, no offense to Matt, is that we haven’t done much fishing, and to make matters worse, friends insist on sending me photos of their big catches. Insane’s brother Justin landed the nice bass at the right just down the road from my house. It’s like he’s spitting right in my eye and then laughing about it.

Next came Matthew Crampton with his monster brown, all four pounds of it. In case you’ve forgotten, Matthew is the fellow from across the pond who helped write the book on The Angler’s Retreat, a fishing lodge on the island of South Uist off the coast of Scotland. I can only take so much of this before I go nuts. Luckily I’ve got that backpacking trip to North Georgia coming up next weekend, and I do hope to get in a little fishing before then. Matthew never fails to mention his music choices for his fishing trip. This time it was “Ryan Adams, Gillian Welch and jazz pianist friend… called Dorian Ford.” I’m a Gillian Welch fan myself, but the other two have given me some new artists to explore. We here at TVangler aren’t entirely musically-deprived. Just about the whole staff attended a concert by country legend John Anderson last Sunday night. Who can resist such greats as “Wish I Could Have Been There,” “Seminole Wind,” “Straight Tequila Night,” “Wild and Blue,” and of course “Swingin’”? And one can’t forget “Chicken Truck.” Matthew got his big fish, his largest brown ever, on South Uist with Angler’s Retreat owner Billy at the oars.

Matthew's big brown. We'll try not to hate him...

The reason we haven’t done much fishing is mostly due to rod-building and fly tying, both for the upcoming backpacking trip and for a mid-June trip to the beach for redfish and whatever else will bite. I’m also tying up some flies for a charity auction – luckily they didn’t seem to care how poor my fly tying skills happen to be. So I guess we haven’t completely neglected our favorite sport. Maybe we’ll post some photos over the weekend of the flies we’ve been working on. I tied my first bass popper from a foam sandal, and it turned out pretty nice. For the auction, I’m tying up a couple dozen of a fly called Sam’s One Bug. It was invented by a gentlemen who lived here in Huntsville, and it’s a great bluegill and bass fly. Most importantly, it’s easy to tie. Maybe someone will buy a few.

Oh, I nearly forgot. We did fish Pond X last Friday, but the water was so high we couldn’t fish where we wanted to. Our efforts were restricted to a small corner of the pond, now really a sizable lake after all the rain. I used the time to test some of my new flies, and Insane landed a bluegill or two. Jason Kelley joined us there along with a friend from Texas. The friend showed us all up by landing a 2 lb bass, but it wasn’t on a fly rod, so I’m not entirely sure we can count it I tried out one of the bass flies James Marsh sent me called the Swimming Frog. I was thrilled with this fly! It floats exceedingly well and dives when stripped just like the jerk baits I used to cast with conventional gear. I believe it’ll be a killer out on Lake Guntersville once the milfoil grows up close to the surface. I said, “I love the way this fly works!” to which Jason replied, “I haven’t seen it work yet,” referring to my not catching a fish. The low-down, no good, smart alec, hog-calling…

I’m skipping the naturalist tutorial for today. It’s midnight, and I’m too tired to type anything else. Take care,
Nathan

It was a little over two and a half years ago that I wrote an entry on this site pining for a bamboo fly rod. Only three months after that I found a good deal on a beautiful, used Granger Aristocrat 9′ 9050. I had no idea at the time of what had taken hold of me. That one purchase opened the floodgates. I now own eight bamboo fly rods, and that’s if I haven’t missed any during my rough count. I can’t even explain how it happened so quickly. In my article, I wrote: “You may not even really have a choice about it. You just wake up one day short $700 with a bamboo rod propped beside your bed. And you feel pretty darn good about it, too!” I have yet to spend anywhere near $700 on a fly rod, bamboo or otherwise. It does, however, seem like I just woke up with a whole stable of rods. Here’s the rundown: (more…)

I don’t have much time while I’m typing this tonight. It’s for a good reason, I promise. I’m getting up early to go fishing tomorrow. Still there are a few things I want to highlight on Friday for you unfortunates stuck in front of a computer monitor.

I received a couple of boxes of flies from James Marsh over at Fly Fishing the Smoky Mountains. They’re a selection from his Perfect Fly Store. He sent me quite a variety from tiny midge patterns for trout to big hair bugs for bass to crab patterns for permit and bonefish. I’m going to take some photos soon and give you a report on how some of them work. I may try a couple patterns tomorrow for bass and bluegills. All of the patterns look great. I was really impressed with the quality of his spun deer hair flies and the caddis patterns. Check out his sites often. I don’t know how he finds time to update his blog so often. I can’t even keep up reading it all.

Matthew Crampton sent me a copy of the book I highlighted two weeks ago, Tales from the Angler’s Retreat. I’ve already begun reading it, and I’ve loved it so far! It’s such a neat little book. Before Matthew contacted me, I wasn’t even aware of the fishing on the island of South Uist off the coast of Scotland. Now they’ve got me wanting to pack up and head over. Just what I needed…another destination to add to my wishlist of places I’ll probably never get to. The book isn’t just a collection of fishing stories. It also tells a bit of the history, environment, culture, what it’s like to fish there, etc. I’ll talk more about it once I finish, which might actually be awhile. You see, I have this problem where I can’t wait to start a new book when I get one. Since I’m a book-aholic, I’m constantly getting new books. This in turn means I’m constantly starting new books before I finish the old ones. I’m currently reading seven books, no, I think it’s closer to ten…especially if you count a couple of destination books I’ve been scanning. Anyway, at least check out the excerpts on the site dedicated to the book. I think you’ll enjoy them.

Twisted Root and Waterfall - Monte Sano State Park

One of my favorite blogs recently changed both its name and web address. You might have noticed if you’ve kept up with the blogroll. Best Fly Fishing Yellowstone has changed to Chi Wulff. Interesting name, huh? There’s a neat story behind it that’s worth checking out. It sounds similar to the story surrounding a beaten-up gold Rattletrap that I used back in my bass fishing days. I still have it. It’s sitting in my old tackle box, retired. I caught two bass over 8 lbs on it, one over 7, and one over 6. Plus there were many in the 4 and 5 lb range. It was eerie. No other gold Rattletrap worked as well. Anyway, back to Chi Wulff. This is absolutely the best site out there for up-to-date information on the fishing in the Yellowstone area. Nothing out there comes close in my book. Last year before our trip to Yellowstone, I agonized over their website every day looking for updates on the runoff and which rivers had turned on. If you’re going to the Greater Yellowstone area for some fly fishing, you need look no where else.

I wanted to highlight a new blog I’ve added to the blogroll. It’s called Fly Art Studio and is run by Neal Osborn. I found the site through Zach Matthews’ Itinerant Angler board. Mr. Osborn has put together one of the most useful and practical blogs out there. Really excellent stuff! If you’re looking for information on shooting macro photography of flies, Fly Art Studio is the place.

Finally, I added the last photo from Monte Sano to the photoblog. It’s of the waterfall just below the picnic area. I forget its name right now, and I don’t have the energy to look it up. Anyway, I think the shot turned out pretty cool, if I do say so myself. Obviously I did some post-processing work (and I’ll probably do a little more before I leave it alone). Once again, the colors were rather bland due to the top of the mountain still being in winter mode, but I like how the split-toning and saturation tweaks brought out some interesting textures.

Take care,
Nathan

I recently finished reading two books by Paul Schullery. Both were great reads, and both historical in nature. Schullery is one of the most prolific writers on fly fishing history, and he was once director of the recently much-maligned American Museum of Fly Fishing (AMFF). Cowboy Trout covers the history of fly fishing in the Western US. Schullery has an interesting writing style. Each chapter is like a self-contained essay as opposed to a straight this-happened-then-that type of narrative. The book’s focus is really about how fly fishing has become a cultural phenomenon in the West, even a part of the West’s identity. Most of the stories take place in the Yellowstone area. I learned a lot and connected many dots of knowledge that had been floating around on their own in the vague recesses of my mind. Schullery’s style carries over somewhat in his American Fly Fishing (actually I suppose it carried over to Cowboy Trout as American Fly Fishing was published first), an overall history of the sport in North America. I found both books fascinating. Schullery’s easy prose and quick wit ensure the histories are never boring. He devotes a sizable section near the end of American Fly Fishing to the start-up of the AMFF in Manchester, Vermont.

I’m about to go on a rant. Stop here if political rants don’t interest you. I understand I don’t have a 100% complete picture of the incidents I talk about below (who does? – no one from what I’ve seen), but I have enough sense to make a few general statements about how these things are handled.

For those of you not familiar with the controversy surrounding the museum, you can read about it on Midcurrent and TroutUnderground: here, here, and here. If you notice my comments attending that first link, you’ll see how I feel about the whole thing. I just have real trouble understanding the level of anger on this issue. Looking at it with what common sense I can muster, the choice of Cheney to speak at the fundraising dinner was an incredibly poor one given the feelings of many of the most vocal members of the fly fishing community, assuming you wanted to avoid a ridiculous uproar such as we’ve seen. Many claim that their inviting him is the same as endorsing his political views. I just don’t buy it. He is/was simply an important politician who happens to fly fish and who therefore fits in with the museum’s other exhibits which, incidentally, feature several other unpopular politicians. His decisions in office, while they severely hampered conservation efforts for coldwater species, were not targeted specifically at fly fishers. There were other sides to the issues. You don’t have to disagree with Cheney to enjoy fly fishing. The museum is for all those who fly fish, not only those who fly fish and hate Cheney. The museum is about fly fishing history, not politics. I’m not saying I agree with Cheney’s decisions by any stretch, I’m just saying Cheney isn’t out to kill fly fishing as an end in itself. In fact, I’d see Cheney’s enjoying fly fishing as a possible way for environmentally conscious fly fishers to perhaps change the man’s views. Laugh at the prospect if you wish, but one thing is certain: You’ll never change his views (or those of others like him) by screaming at him and calling him vile names. There is common ground here on which we might open a discourse with an important man, explain our concerns, try to understand his, and engage in meaningful discussion as to how best to work on the problems. Think of how valuable a man like Cheney could be to us if we could convert him to our cause! Certainly, I find the prospect unlikely, but one way to ensure its impossibility is to continue with name-calling. I would think the goal is to convince others of our “rightness,” not win the upper hand in a childish game of taunting. I’ve seen all sorts of posturing on fly fishing sites, all sorts of threats to no longer donate to the museum. All that just seems silly. How many of you have donated a dime to the museum anyway? Visited it? Maybe I’m wrong, maybe lots of you have, but I doubt it. I certainly haven’t. I’ve never received even an email or postcard from them asking for a donation. If they’re like most museums, they struggle just to get by. To read many fly fishing sites, you’d think the museum positively overflows with money direct from rich Republican salmon-killing fatcats. Heck, maybe they do. But I doubt it. I’m not sure how Paul Schullery stands, but I imagine if nothing else he’d be distressed at the mess in which the museum finds itself, because he understands its value to us fly fishers. Go to the museum’s website and look at the stuff they’ve preserved. There’s a lot of really cool stuff there. Lots that would either not be preserved at all or not available to the public if not for the museum. Do we really want to throw that away? (more…)

I received a video a few weeks ago from the folks at Dry Fly Media who are also behind the Best Fly Fishing Yellowstone Blog, one of the best places to find timely updates on the fishing in the Yellowstone region. I was given the choice of any of the rivers in their Rivers in Motion series: the Madison, Henry’s Fork, Yellowstone, Missouri and Gallatin Rivers. I chose the Gallatin for a couple of reasons. First, I’ve never fished it, but that would also apply to all the other rivers except the Yellowstone. Second, I wanted to fish it last summer, but we didn’t have the time.

Dry Fly Media take a unique approach in the fly fishing video field. In fact, you wouldn’t really place these videos in the “fly fishing” category if it wasn’t for the fact that most of the purchasers will likely be fly fishermen. All of the videos in this series feature shots of the river and surrounding terrain. And that’s it. There’s no fisherman, no automobiles, no nothing but the river. The camera remains stationary and captures between five and fifteen minutes of footage at each location. It’s just you and the river and the attendant sights and sounds. Each video contains between an hour and an hour and a half of footage and between ten and fifteen or so different locations. My video is 77 minutes in length and contains 11 river scenes ranging from broad, epic landscapes to a narrow view of an undercut bank.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that I wasn’t optimistic about this video. I mean, I was inclined to give it points for a unique idea, but I thought I would quickly become bored with it. After coming home from a long day at work, I popped in the DVD. I was running short on patience, I was tired and I wasn’t in the best of moods. I didn’t expect to like the video at all. For the first few minutes, I didn’t. I skipped around between the scenes, I got up to get something to drink, etc. Then I decided to allow it to run for a bit, just to see how it worked for me, give it a fair shake and all. The drink probably helped with my mood. I chose the Gallatin Canyon scene, a truly beautiful shot of the canyon in the late afternoon. I figure it had been running for four or five minutes when I suddenly “got it.” I’m not certain how to explain what “it” is, but I understood what they were trying to do. I found myself closing my eyes and pretending I was there. I looked for holding spots that I’d like to fish. I scanned the water for rises. I won’t say it felt like I was there, but I “wanted” to be there. After the canyon scene, I watched a few of the other scenes that I had previously skipped, and I appreciated them in much the same way. Over the next couple weeks, I watched all of the scenes. Any time I just wanted to get away for a minute, I’d think of the video.

These videos aren’t for everyone. Some will become bored rather quickly. But others will appreciate them. Some will appreciate them greatly, especially those who like to relax to the sounds of the outdoors. If you’re the type of person who plays a burning fire DVD on your television or listens to the sounds of waves while sleeping or perhaps you’re into meditation assisted by outdoor sounds or sights, you’d probably love this DVD even more than me. I’m not that type of person. I generally find such things distracting, so I guess I’m a middle-of-the-road type of guy. I use the video to take a few minutes out to admire and long for a beautiful place.

More than this particular video itself, I really like the direction the Dry Fly Media folks are headed with the idea. I can see further developments. What about including a fisherman in the scenes, but instead of the constant cuts and loud, annoying music, we just get a scene much like they’ve already filmed with someone fishing a good pool or run for a few minutes. Just an average fly fisher with a competent cast working a pool; doesn’t have to be perfect, just competent. No sounds (please no cheesy music or loud rock) other than the swish of the line, the gurgle of the water and the wind in the trees. I think something like that would be a logical and welcome blending of styles, although it would be sort of a betrayal of the whole idea behind the Rivers in Motion series, which is to enjoy the river with as little human influence as possible. Still, it’s a thought. I’m not into loud music, MTV-style video cuts, or tons of fish porn. But I do love rivers and trout and beautiful imagery and observing a competent angler at work. Dry Fly Media is well on their way down this path. These are quality folks doing good and unique work. Definitely worth keeping track of. The normal price of the videos is $23.95 each, but they’re offering a Christmas Special at $14.40 each.

Dry Fly Media Home

Dry Fly Media Blog

Best Fly Fishing Yellowstone

Best Fly Fishing Yellowstone Blog : one of the best out there.

Take care,
Nathan

I recently picked up a copy of Backcast: Fatherhood, Fly-fishing, and a River Journey Through the Heart of Alaska. The story sounded interesting to me. You know, a real Alaskan adventure, father and son “stuff,” and a healthy dose of fly fishing. What the book actually is came as something of a surprise. Backcast is a deeply personal and often painful memoir on fatherhood, growing up, the many manifestations of family dysfunction, and the role of the outdoors in one’s life. All this is set within and around the story of a fly fishing trip to Alaska in which Ureneck and his son float down a wild river alone. Ureneck hoped the trip would allow him to reconnect with his son and regain something of their past relationship, damaged after a painful divorce. Mr. Ureneck is a skilled writer, capable of beautiful prose. You will see many examples in his depictions of the Alaskan wilderness during their float down the river. Much of the book must have been truly painful to write, and Ureneck conveys that pain effectively to the reader. My own family circumstances were and are much different from the author’s, and yet I identified with many of his feelings, particularly those from his childhood. The book probably won’t appeal to a wide range of folks simply due to the emotional and personal nature of much of the subject material. However, I found the book intriguing and valuable both for its insights and what you might see as its warnings. I applaud Lou Ureneck for finding the courage to write such a book, and I wish him the best. Reading a book like this, you begin to feel as if you know the author. Take care,

Nathan

I just finished reading a most superb fly fishing book tonight (I’m writing this on Thursday night). It’s a book entitled Jerusalem Creek: Fly Fishing through Driftless Country by Ted Leeson. Leeson is well-known among those who enjoy fly fishing literature and is perhaps known best for his book The Habit of Rivers which I have also read and enjoyed. The Habit of Rivers is widely considered his finest work and is often counted among the very best of the sport’s literature. For what it’s worth, I believe Jerusalem Creek to be superior to the first book, which is to say I liked it a lot. I liked it so much, in fact, that I already plan to read it a second time. The book is, to me, on a level with any of my favorite fly fishing-related literature including A River Runs Through It, John Gierach’s best stuff, Sparse Grey Hackle, Robert Traver, and On the Spine of Time, although to be fair there is still much I haven’t read, and to compare some of these books fits the old apples and oranges analogy.

To write an annoyingly verbose review here would be an injustice to the book and a ridiculous pretense given both my literary credentials and Leeson’s skill. I simply wish to encourage you to buy the book and read it. I’m including a couple of my favorite passages from near the end of the book (because they are fresh in my mind). The context is unimportant; I just like the words.

“It is the reason too that all rivers run backward to the first one, and all writing about them ends up as memory.”

“In the end, perhaps, all that remains is a trust that the small spaces we fish in our minds are real…that spring water carries the pulse of its source, and that the trout that swim there, if they could speak, might explain how things come to past.”

Take care,
Nathan

I played a lot with my wide angle lens on this trip. The tabis get the wide angle treatment here. Unfortunately, almost all my photos turned out to be trash-worthy. My freshly finished fiberglass rod also makes an appearance.

Jacqulyn and I took only our Hawaiian tabis for wading on our recent backpacking trip in the Smokies. A gamble on our part considering we had no idea how they’d hold up over three days of fishing. If you’ll remember, tabis are ninja-esque, sock/wading shoe combos popular in Hawaii for hiking to waterfalls. They’re not the most attractive things, and this endows them with two immediately obvious advantages: they fulfill every fly fisherman’s secret desire to be an eccentric, and they (along with more traditional techniques such as excessive body odor and swearing loudly at your invisible friend) might assist in clearing more fashionable anglers out of your favorite hole. This was to be their first real test. The only other time I wore them, we were fishing roadside with my Abrams Creek wading shoes easily accessible. That fishing trip had been a leisurely affair as fishing trips go, and I didn’t give the shoes a proper breaking in. Our concerns on this trip revolved mostly around durability. I had my doubts that the seam between the sock material and the harder plastic would hold up to three days of hard wading on a rough mountain stream.

So, how did they perform? Turns out durability wasn’t an issue. After three days of tricky wading, the tabis looked good as new. Our feet, however, didn’t come out feeling great. Although it wasn’t “that” bad, our ankles did take a minor beating. Obviously, the tabis provide no lateral support, which is sorely missed when boulder hopping or feeling your way through a swift run. Jacqulyn’s ankle gave way several times. Luckily she fell short of serious injury, but the increased risk of a severe ankle sprain is cause for concern. My main problem was banging my ankles off rocks in fast water. If I could see where to place my feet, I was mostly stable. When I couldn’t see my feet, I quickly developed a penchant for cramming my unprotected ankle between unforgiving boulders (between a rock and a hard place, as they say). The tabis are stellar performers when it comes to gripping slick rocks, just as good as any felt-soled boot I’ve worn. Better than some actually since the felt is fully exposed on bottom, unlike my Korkers wading boots on which the felt is outlined in plastic. Surprisingly, I noticed no discomfort due to the split toe design. I thought I might develop a big blister either on my big toe or on the adjacent toe, but I didn’t. Neither did Jacqulyn. I will recommend that you keep your toe nails well-clipped when wearing tabis, which is actually good advice for any sort of activity that’s stressful on the feet, like backpacking or having your toes licked by a freak. One other thing I suspect, but which it’s difficult to be certain about, is that I move around on the stream more slowly with the tabis. I take more time placing my feet, and some of the certainty is missing when I’m in faster water.

Conclusions: I’m going to recommend tabis as an excellent bargain pair of wading shoes. A sexy pair of green and yellow ones like mine will run you around $10 in Hawaii. They grip slick rocks well and protect your toes better than wading sandals. They weigh next to nothing compared to wading boots. I tied the sock portion of mine to the frame of my Kelty Trekker. I don’t think they’d be appropriate at all for large, strong freestone streams. If cleated wading boots are what you’d normally wear, leave the tabis at home. If you’re going to be fishing a steep-gradient, small-to-medium size mountain stream, you could probably get by with tabis, but consider wearing your regular felt-sole boots for the extra stability. If you’re going to be fishing moderate-gradient streams with some meadow sections or small mountain streams that aren’t too rough, definitely consider taking the tabis, especially if backpacking. For the typical fly fisher, tabis would be most appropriate for high mountain lake and small stream backpacking trips, where most times you’ll be fishing from shore but might occasionally need to cross or fish a small stream. If you’re hauling wading boots for those type of trips, I think you’d appreciate the light weight and performance of a pair of tabis. Take care,

Nathan

Some time ago I engaged in a memorable and friendly email discussion with fisherman James Marsh. Turns out Mr. Marsh is a native of Alabama who spent considerable time near my old stomping grounds on Lake Guntersville, albeit, considering he was there first, I suppose I should call it his stomping grounds. James spent years fishing professionally for bass and saltwater species, becoming a successful television personality and educational video publisher in the process. These days, James and his wife Angie travel around the country fly fishing for trout (tough life, eh?). Much of that time is spent at one of my favorite locations for tossing a fly, Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

During the course of our conversation, Mr. Marsh offered to send me a couple of his DVDs. He graciously allowed me to choose from his sizable library. I picked out one titled Fly Fishing The Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Year-Round Dry-Fly Fishing. I made the mistake of allowing Insane to give the DVD a watching first. I began to doubt I’d ever get it back. Fortunately I coaxed him into giving it back and gave it a go today. I should have posted this review weeks ago.

First off let me say that I typically do not enjoy fly fishing videos. I like the scenery, but that’s about it. I didn’t go into this DVD expecting much. Having said that, I think Mr. Marsh has produced an excellent video that would be most exceedingly useful for a beginning fly fisher looking to sample the waters of the Smokies. In fact, I think my brother and I would have caught on to the game much more quickly if we’d had the privilege of watching a video such as this one. (more…)