“How are the fish doing?” a small voice piped up from the back seat. “Huh?” I replied. “You know…how are their homes doing?” “Oh…you mean where we helped on that project last summer?” “Uh huh” Seven months had passed, but it is remarkable what sticks in a five year old’s mind. My daughter and, Read More
Shuffle… shuffle… drag. Mr. Teavendale, my sixth grade science teacher, taught me that movement is one defining characteristic of life. Shuffle… shuffle… drag. Inching through the bowels of an airport qualifies, I suppose. Shuffle… shuffle…drag. But it’s not my ideal form. Step… step… glass. Slinking through broken timber is movement too. Step…step… glass. The, Read More
Passing the frozen reservoir, on the way to our closest tailwater, my daughter asks if we can go ice fishing. My parents are from Minnesota, but despite midwestern roots I’m not much of an ice fisherman. Sure I went a few times as a kid, but since then it’s been all open water for, Read More
The Angling Bookstore must have 30 different nymphing technique books on the shelf, but when I asked the proprietor for a recommendation, he didn’t hesitate. “There’re lots of great books on the subject, but this guy’s the real deal,” said Ben as he handed me a copy of Dynamic Nymphing. He was right. George Daniel’s, Read More
After years of talk we finally pulled the trigger and got a boat. We had debated the merits of a raft vs. drift boat, new vs. used, and mostly how the heck we could pay for either. In the end a used drift boat with a price we couldn’t resist fell into our lap., Read More
Dear Winter, It’s true, 20 below keeps the riffraff away. So let me begin with a heartfelt thank you. You’ve been generous. At the risk of sounding ungrateful though… it is quite cold. The dog comes back whining after a pee cold. The kid gets a Slurpee headache walking to the truck cold. Maybe,, Read More
Purple mountain majesties get all the ink. But for every picture-postcard perfect acre of Tetons, Big Horns or Snowys in Wyoming, there are ten of high desert sagebrush steppe – and they do the heavy lifting. They never make the movies or the magazine covers. They just make the antelope, sage grouse and elbow, Read More
Separated by a thousand miles, we head to church with the rest of our family. While my mother peers into the casket, we drop the boat into the river on a sunny January day. Water drips off the oars after every stroke. Tears of sadness and joy stain the faces of those in attendance., Read More
Tears streaming down her face, I agreed to head back to the car and and hang out for the last 20 minutes of shooting. The sound, and even the thought, of shotgun blasts had her terrified. We had never had this problem before and the two younger kids were unfazed, simply wanting to shoot, Read More
“Dada… um… what… um… what are we going to doooo today?” It was a good question. We’d been batching it for a few days and the seams were starting to show. Three consecutive days of no mom, no nap, and long hours hunting in the elements had combined with the post-Christmas hangover to produce, Read More