Archive for the ‘Fishing Tales’ Category

Highland Atlantics

Theo’s saga in the Scottish Highland continues: The streams of the high country of Scotland offer the fly fisher some great angling for Atlantic Salmon. The government has bought up the commercial fishing rights, and the fish are recovering very well. There are several streams on the Inverpolly Estate that host wild salmon. Most of […]

Holland Sea Bass

My good friend, Theo Bakelaar, and I were talking about Striped Bass, and he told me that there is a fish in Holland that they call the Sea Bass, which fights even harder and tastes better than any other fish. Theo takes them on Clouser Deep Minnows and his eel skin flies. They run from […]

Holland Pike

The latest report from Theo is that the big pike are done spawning and ready to eat, bit time. These fish occupy the canals, and there are plenty of canals in Holland. Pike fishing in Europe is a very refined sport, and the huge flies that they tie for these beasts are very creative indeed.

Sea Trout in Denmark

Ever notice that fishermen always see the glass a half full? Theo Bakelaar and friends spent a few day in Denmark fishing for sea trout. The winter’s ice had ripped out much of the near-shore weeds, and the bigger fish were not close in. The trip was great, but the fishing mostly for a few […]

More Night Tarpon

My old friend, Cap’t Jake Jordon is having a great tarpon season. The excitement of catching a big tarpon is only exceeded by catching them after dark. Here’s his latest report. Greetings from Tarpon World April 18, 2012: Tonight, Ann McComas (originally from Woodstown NJ) replaced her ill husband Jim to fly fish with Brian Long […]

Spring Steelies in Wisconsin part 2

The weather and water are not cooperating for me this spring. The day after I got a good report from my fishing friend, John Beth, it rained and the rivers leapt out of their banks one again. The water had dropped to about twice what I consider really fishable, and John managed to find another […]

Long Flies & Big Fish

As I’ve noted a couple of times in the past few weeks, the next book in the Fly Fishing series, entitled Long Flies—Streamers, Bucktails, & Other Big Fish Flies, is at the press and will be available the first week in April. Below is an excerpt from Chapter One. It’s a story about fishing for […]

Spring Steelhead in Wisconsin

My friends John Beth, Dan “Doc” Zavadsky, and Dale Thompson hit the still-high waters of Wisconsin’s Michigan coastal streams on Thursday, 3/22/12 and found the steelhead in numbers. They also found spawning suckers in really serious numbers. The suckers relegated John et al. to egg flies, which they fished with real zeal. The water was […]

Otter’s Eggs on the Clearwater

I had a great note from my friend, Ed Mueller, a.k.a. the Otter. He’s the “Otter” of Otter’s Eggs. Very interesting, indeed: Gary: Got back a week ago from the Clearwater. Conditions were tough- very low water, and super clear. Our guide for 2 days told us the clearest he has seen it in 18 […]

Fall Blues and Stripers

After the International Fly Tying Symposium, Chuck and Ben Furinsky, and our friend from Holland, Theo Bakelaar, went searching for blues and stripers. They fished all day and finally found three large flocks of birds diving over bait. The fish were there and all of them were into both blues a stripers for they couple […]