The Best Fly Fishing is Everywhere - 08.02.0225
Ramblings & Readings, Creativity & Conservation, Happenings & Hope
My Fishy Friends,
This week I had the pleasure of walking into a piece of water on the local river that I had only floated through previously. Approaching on foot cast it entirely different than before; what had been one run of many now looked as good as any, worthy of time on-anchor or perhaps an on-foot session. Is it better to fish from a boat or on foot? Sure is!
Cheers,
Jesse
Banner photo: Sight-fishing Shangri-la
Cast Every Day
“If you want to be really good at something, you just can't do it three days a year.” So says Headhunters Fly Shop co-founder, guide, and dry fly fishing savant Mark Raisler. Check out this post from Skwala Fishing, which features Mark’s take on fly casting practice and is filled with his words of wisdom and advice on how best to get better. “Two minutes of practice is better than no practice. Two minutes is also better than 20 minutes. Short, consistent sessions are good. Long, inconsistent sessions are bad.”
Finger Pickin’ & Fly Fishin’
In another instance of crazy, serendipitous paths-crossing made possible by the internet and an email, I connected with Erin Morris Huttlinger who co-hosts the annual Guitar & Fly Fishing Camp in Paradise Valley, Montana. Conceptualized with her late husband, musician and angler Pete Huttlinger, the camp fuses fingerstyle and acoustic jazz guitar playing with fly fishing on the mighty Yellowstone River, confirming and fostering what we already know: good music and good fishing not only go together but are everywhere. This year’s camps are rapidly approaching but there’s still a spot or two and should occur again next year.
Swing the Fly’s Spey Nation
Spey Nation, the annual Spey casting celebration and educational event, returns to New York’s Salmon River next weekend, August 8 — 10. I’ve swung flies on the SR and started to hone the practice there and while I never hooked one while doing so, I can attest to the beauty of its swing water and the fishery as a vibrant one. The Spey casting-swung fly-anadromous fish-focused magazine Swing the Fly is organizing this year’s event, pulling a formidable cast of instructors to the table for the weekend. Check out their website for a host of fine, related writing.
Restoring The Run
I found the new short film “Restoring The Run” from YETI to be a great spotlight on an historic fishery and the dedicated anglers, ghillies, conservationists, and scientists — all characters in their own right — who care for it deeply. While this particular film is set on the River Tyne, it really could be anywhere because the vision is the same: “The work that is happening now may not have an immediate payoff, but the hope is that it can for future generations.”
Yawning and Yarning
Call walked the river for an hour, though he knew there was no real need. It was just an old habit he had, left over from wilder times: checking, looking for sign of one kind or another, honing his instincts, as much as anything. In his years as a Ranger captain it had been his habit to get off by himself for a time, every night, out of camp and away from whatever talking and bickering were going on. He had discovered early on that his instincts needed privacy in which to operate. Sitting around a fire being sociable, yawning and yarning, might be fine in safe country, but it could cost you an edge in country that wasn't so safe. He liked to get off by himself, a mile or so from camp, and listen to the country, not the men.
~ From McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove
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© Jesse Lance Robbins, 2025
