The Best Fly Fishing is Everywhere - 08.08.2025
Ramblings & Readings, Creativity & Conservation, Happenings & Hope
My Fishy Friends,
A photo text message came to me at the beginning of this work week from a dear friend across the country, showing their son fishing in a pretty river, gray, wet clouds filling the sky behind them; fishy weather, if I ever saw any. Two days later, the same exact weather arrived here in Oregon, if only briefly. I imagined myself in that river with them while I drove up the freeway to work that day.
Cheers,
Jesse
Banner photo: Pick a pocket and flick a fly.
Anadromous Anglers
Among the cast of souls I’ve crossed paths with who are dedicated — in one or many ways — to steelhead in the Northwest is Pacific City-based guide and native Oregonian Nick Rowell. I fished with Nick years ago and he worked his ass off, so far as to run a shuttle twice and do a second float so we could spend the entire day fishing. I also admire his approach to the fishing day, shared in part through his photo gallery and his Instagram, which considers flowers, mushrooms, the lighting, and more along with, of course, the river and the fish. If you’re feeling lucky, you could win a trip with Nick via WaterWatch’s Guided Fishing Raffle going on this month!
KOL on the Fly
I can’t remember if I got introduced to the Kings of Leon through a friend or if I found them on my own but regardless, they are one of a handful of bands that have remained a favorite of mine for years and years and probably the single band I love whose genre has been referred to as ‘arena rock.’ A newer song of theirs, “Work on Me,” surfaced recently as a new, repeatable jam — don’t you love it when you find a ‘new’ song by an ‘old’ band?? — and listening to it while on the way to the river made me wonder if those guys fish. Sure enough, at least one of them, bassist Matt Followill, does. Read about it here.
No Rock Mine!
Captains for Clean Water, The Everglades Foundation, and Friends of The Everglades, among others, are keeping up their strong conservation work in Florida and are calling on anglers and environmentalists to help fight a proposed rock mine near the Everglades. This vast, unique, and irreplaceable ecosystem needs our help — click here to learn more and add your voice.
Angler, Author, Editor & Publisher
If you have some fly fishing books on your bookshelves — which, if you are reading this, I’m sure you do — then you most likely have one or many from Lyons Press, which was founded by Nick Lyons in 1984. A Google search will pop up many articles and links about Lyons worth exploring but just this week a podcast interview with Nick was released by April Vokey. Lyons’ voice in the interview is intoxicating, as if he’s telling story after story… which I suppose he is. The interview is filled with nearly a century’s worth of angling, writing, editing, and publishing anecdotes and insights — well worth listening during a long drive.
Nature More
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods;
There is a rapture on the lonely shore;
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more...
~ Lord Byron
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© Jesse Lance Robbins, 2025
