The Best Fly Fishing is Everywhere - 06.20.2025
Ramblings & Readings, Creativity & Conservation, Happenings & Hope
My Fishy Friends,
By the time you’re reading this, we’ll be one night into a three-night float. Packing for these trips takes as much time as you give them: there’s definitely a minimum amount but there seems to be no maximum. I suppose the trick is to give yourself just enough time, and no longer!
Cheers,
Jesse
Banner photo: Lower Rogue River and the way is clear: downstream.
Perspective
Last week, a good friend, The Plover, and I dropped in on one of the local rivers for an evening float, Spey rods and dinners on board.
Later, my good friend sent me this video. Clearly, he had a much different perspective than I did…
The Town Stretch
Our evening on the local river, recounted above, reminded me about this short film that Sage released a few years ago, The Town Stretch. “There’s something trustworthy about a town with a river flowing through it,” writes author and fly fishing guide Callan Wink. The film takes us down the town stretches of Livingston’s Yellowstone and Missoula’s Clark Fork Rivers, accompanied by Wink’s writing, and also gives us the thoughts of a few local angler-writers in each town, including Chris Dombrowski. “Cheers to the town stretch,” Wink writes. “Enjoy yours, wherever it may be.”
Bash Those Bass!
Whereas last week, I talked about a striped bass-saving beer, this week we’ll talk about harvesting smallmouth bass for the sake of a river. Next Saturday, Native Fish Society will hold its fourth annual Umpqua Bass Bash, a gathering on the river to help remove invasive species and raise awareness about the conservation issues of the Umpqua River system. Following the fishing/bashing, there’ll be a fish fry, raffle and prizes, and food for all. The event will be hosted by my dear friend, and NFS staffer Charles Gehr. He guarantees a good time!
Fly Fishing Fashion (?)
This Washington Post article, on the rise in popularity in fly fishing-inspired fashion, has been floating around my social media for a few weeks now and I finally sat down and read it this week. “Fly-fishing is a culture that seems to exist outside trends, and, as such, it has been capably outfitted for decades by heritage brands such as Orvis and L.L.Bean… But that hasn’t stopped the fashion-conscious from casting a curious, covetous glance in its direction lately,” the author writes. There are far more brands named in this piece that I’m unaware of than otherwise, and lots of related links to explore; all in all, an intriguing piece and worth a gander, if only for curiosity sake. To complement it, check out this video, wherein a traveler tests a fly fishing vest for potential use instead of a carry-on bag. Intriguing indeed!
A Fifty-Pound Salmon
That night, I found myself dining with some English salmon anglers. One, a florid, lively man in his sixties, was telling me of the recent death of his mother who had always been bored by salmon fishing. On the Alta, where his father had persuaded her to fish for one day, she caught a fifty-pounder and never fished again. This year, as she lay on her deathbed, her son sat by her side. She was only occasionally conscious as her life ebbed away. At the end, she opened her eyes and gazed at him. "You'll never catch a fifty-pound salmon," she said, and died.
~ Thomas McGuane
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© Jesse Lance Robbins, 2025
