A town without one is a barren town, where there are no shamrocks drawn in foam, where sparkling wine is allowed to be ordered, and where Shane Macgowan is heard only in minivan commercials.
A town with one has a first line of defense against Applebees.
Beacon for the weary
The fly line entangled in some shoreline debris and I looked down to yank it free, and at that moment a green shape chose to cut through the water to my popper. I had no tension on the line so I watched its fat profile surge and descend on the popper, create a brief interlude of chaos and disappear.
The excessively corpulent type of largemouth, the kind that would give FLW types arrhythmia, has eluded me for 12 years, ever since a memorable encounter on a small lake in Michigan. Since then I’ve had to settle for the small to decent to merely large.
In the end it gets added to the personal rolodex of frustration, along with the monster snook that broke free on the jump, the convincingly stuck tarpon that did the same, the bluefin tuna that spit the hook boat-side and the striped bass that straightened the hook before you even saw it.
It can reduce your evening to a good walk and and some attempted pictures of wading birds.
Tagged: largemouth bass
Tagged: lurgemauth bayse, real photographers
…could be because something’s bogging it down.
Tagged: Fly Fishing, largemouth bass, poppers
The thing I like to read when the alibis and distractions start piling up.
–Charles Bukowski, The Last Night of the Earth
Tagged: Bukowski
Tagged: advancements in fishing marketing, Bahamas, bonefish
After September 11, 2001, longtime friends of my in-laws sent around an email detailing a new emergency response plan. Should all forms of modern communication cut out once again, we were to follow one simple directive: Head to McSorley’s.
The establishment.
Located at 15 East 7th Street in the once dangerous but now hipster Lower East Side, McSorley’s serves beer. You must buy two–either light or dark–and you must keep drinking to keep your seat. When I first moved to the area we went once a month on Saturday afternoon, crammed around tiny wooden tables and ordered rounds. And plates of cheese and crackers, with slices of onion and extra sharp mustard. There was nothing hip, cool, insider, or happening about it but to me it represented the best of New York.
Until 1998 when I caught a striped bass.
The first one.
The best essay published to date on the city was was written in 1949 by E.B White. The best book detailing its modern infrastructure is The Powerbroker by Robert Caro. There are countless others but no matter how many books you read, nothing will emotionally prepare you for the moment when you look up to see the other passengers move from one end of a crowded subway car to get away from the half-naked, face-painted man twisting animal balloons. And he’s sitting next to you.
I once lived in Hoboken, New Jersey, which a friend of mine from Brooklyn referred to as, “The Gateway to the West.”
There is the idea that New York is the center of the Universe. (And the idea, pointed out by residents, that the least “New York” area of the city is its most visited.) This is just an article of faith, but at least one aspect about New York is grounded in fact: the heart of the city sits on an island in the tidal section of a striped bass spawning river.
The young fish that show themselves in the backwaters of the boroughs and suburbs of the Sound each spring are Hudson fish. News travels fast in the big city (and everywhere) and if you blink you’ve missed it.
Young in the boroughs.
Spring is a great time in New York.
Tagged: Comedeyeahah!, EB White, New York City, striped bass
Maybe it’s the need to further simplicity, maybe it’s a stubbornness to stick with a go-to that continually works over a broad spectrum of species and conditions. But fish that eat other fish tend to like these hard-headed flies with big eyes and synthetic hair. With stuff like Clear-Cure Goo they take two minutes to tie and last until you lose them or your knot fails.
I’ve likely repeated this thought far too many times in photos and typed words, but until something doesn’t work, it does. Know what I’m saying?
Tagged: eat me flies, fIREHOSE, peacock bass, simplicity
Pulp Fly, coming to a kindle, pad, tablet or miscellaneous near you. April 1st.
Roll Call:
Tagged: fly-fishing literature, Pulp Fly
