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It doesn’t take long to get from Seattle to Montana. Fortuitously, some of the best early season dry-fly fishing on earth occurs in the far western portion of the state, in and around Missoula, a trout addicted town surrounded by five blue-ribbon rivers and what seems like 500 quality brew pubs. Want to fish the ...

We knew something was up as my fishing partner and I drove along an increasingly snow-covered road to Peterhope Lake on a mid-November day. Not a tire track and certainly no evidence of anyone recently launching a boat. Then, why you might ask, would anyone want to fish with a good eight inches of snow on the ...

It had been a long tough week on the flats. Back-to-back cold fronts replete with a savage easterly wind had churned the crystal waters of Cayo Cruz into a milky soup. Overhead, the towering thunderheads had crowded out the sun, further conspiring to make sight-fishing all but impossible. All week my guide Raffa and ...

All anglers need the occasional freaky good day. Such days clear the system of junk, like an angioplasty for the fishing soul. Depending on where you live, head-shaking days may or may not be frequent. But that’s no matter—the good mojo generated by a single day of stupid good fishing can carry over months and even ...

One look at the Sili-Legs bonefish fly and you might say, “That’s a hybrid Gotcha.” The basic Gotcha, which has been around for a long time, is a must-have pattern for bonefish. I like to think that the Sili-Legs is a new look at an old favorite and that Jim McVay, the originator of the Gotcha, would approve. I created ...

It’s an hour till dark on the Olympic Peninsula’s lower Hoh River. The aquamarine water and neon greens of this temperate rainforest are currently bathed in a muted blue as Shane Anderson takes in the Pacific Ocean. It’s the end of the river and an end to the last steelhead fishing trip for the year. He takes ...

High octane, line-peeling good times are in store for fly fishers hunting hardtails around the world. Hardtails come in all shapes and sizes, from true tuna—such as giant bluefin and yellowfin—to various species of kingfish and mackerel. Following are profiles of several hardtail species, fish that are bound to ...

The Convertible is another top-notch creation from the vise of Scott Sanchez. The pattern gained fame in the Jackson Hole One Fly Contest when Bob Slamal fished it to perfection, producing one of the highest one-day point totals ever recorded. By choosing the Convertible, he was able to match various insects and ...

I once spent a summer in Southeast Alaska when the sun came out two times. I only saw the bright glow while peering out from a dank cannery room where I lined wooden boxes with plastic so the college girls could pack them with salmon eggs. The rest of the time it rained. And then it rained harder. That can be ...

The Canadian Rockies are one of the most pristine pieces of wilderness on earth. Home to breathtaking views, charismatic mega-fauna, and world-class fisheries, it is really tough to beat the biodiversity and raw beauty found in this part of the world. With golden light beaming through the changing ...

These days, there isn’t a fish that you can’t catch on a fly rod: some are just harder to manage than others. King mackerel fall into the “very hard” category despite ranging throughout the Gulf of Mexico and way up the Atlantic coast, even over to the Bahamas. They are everywhere sometimes, and other times, especially if ...

The dogs came out to greet us. Joey first, a slightly lowered, mellowed down look-alike of General George Patton’s beloved English bull terrier, Willie; then came Bombi, another hometown blend with strong visual leanings toward a treeing walker coon hound. Both had been sleeping in the palapa but now needed to ...