Fly Fishing Books: Art
Flashes in the River
THE FOOD CHAIN in and around an Alaskan river is a lot like that in the Gulf Stream: It's in constant tension and you're not technically at the top of it. But in practice, of course, you're not much of a part of it either. The brown bears aren't about to walk away from their salmon cafeteria to try to run you down, especially now that guides and park rangers have for several bruin generations been practicing applied Darwinism with shotguns and large-bore handguns. You'll probably be consumed by the beauty of an Alaskan river and its residents, but you won't get eaten there.
This is not to detract, however, from the generalized ferocity that is never far beneath the surface of those gently burbling streams. Literally. Take a conceptual leap into the Gulf Stream for a minute and imagine yourself covered with and reeking of shark attractant.
Fly Fishing Books: Trout Guides
Castwork : "Rusty Vorous"
ON MANY September mornings, cold air nestled high in Yellowstone National Park wakens with sunlight, slowly warms, then swirls a determined path up through Montana’s Paradise Valley. A few hundred feet above the valley floor, it clashes with dry ranchland heat and begins to bounce off the Absaroka Mountains, transforming into an erratic, volatile breeze. Where the valley narrows, near Carter Bridge, the wind gathers velocity until it explodes northward like a shot from a jet nozzle aimed straight at Livingston.
Such is the case this morning as we stand in the parking lot of George Anderson’s Fly Shop, lining up and casting 6-weight fly rods until they warp beneath the wind, wondering aloud about our chances on the open flats of the Yellowstone River.
Fly Fishing Books
Charles Meck's Fishing Tandem Flies
AFTER BOBBING ALONG on the water's currents, many insects sink. The spent Trico spinners that have floated in fast water downriver for a mile eventually end up under the surface, where fish continue to feed on them. Sometimes the largest trout feed on the sunken insects. To catch difficult fish, I often fish a weighted spinner below a dry fly during and after a spinner fall, especially below riffles where the broken currents may have submerged spinners. Several species of mayflies also dive underneath the water to lay their eggs.
