I’m going back to Christmas Island in February. I’m so looking forward to getting another crack at that big GT and seeing some triggers and seeing what all might bite out at the Korean Wreck. Such a cool place. That brings me to y’all. One of the group just dropped out, meaning we have a ..read more

I wanted to take the boy to one of my favorite places, the Lower McCloud. It is one of the most beautiful places on earth (ya know, to me). I got him some Redington waders and boots just to be ready for him to stand in cold water. Crucially, I didn’t call the Ted Fay Fly Shop for a stream report. We started heading down to the river, leaving the paved road and hitting the kind of dirt/rock road that a city kid doesn’t see too often. We passed Ah Di Nah (I wanted to name my daughter Ahdinah but her mom thought it sounded like a 70 year old waitress who smokes 2 packs a day in a truckstop town ..read more

I’m headed up to my old headwaters this weekend with the boy. He’s excited to go. I mean… does it get any better than that? My kid wants to go fishing ..read more

Kirk Deeter wrote this personal tribute to Chris Santella, and from the looks of it, he knew Chris well and counted him among his people. Chris was a fishing acquantance of mine and our paths really only intersected once, but that was a memorable experience as it involved fishing the waters of Cuba. It was a long time ago now, right about 12 years from my count, and I got brought to Cuba by Yellow Dog to fish with a bunch of really interesting guys. Chris was one of those guys and I know I shared a skiff with him one of the days we were there, although the details of that day’s fishing have fa ..read more

The dredging has been temporarliy suspened on Will’s Flat (named after Will Bauer), aka Angelfish Cay, but the fight goes on. Such a bummer when “eco” operations overlook the horrible effects of dredging. You can’t paint yourself in eco green and destroy the flats at the same time. Check out this good write up by the folks over at Flylords. There’s a link to a petition there. There’s this post from the folks over at Yellow Dog. Belize is just a fantastic place full of natural wonders and there will always be those who want to break just a little piece of it for their own. The problem is that t ..read more

If I’m going to Kauai, I’m going to get some time at Anini. This is not because the fishing is fantastic there. It isn’t. It is horrible fishing. It is one of the only places you can sometimes, maybe, almost see bonefish in Kauai. It is also the first place I ever saw a bonefish, back in 2008. This place has kicked my butt more than any other place I’ve ever fished. It just doesn’t give up its fish easily… at least not to me. Maybe there’s an angler out there who just crushes here, but I don’t know that angler (and if real, I kind of jealous-hate them). The flat is big… really big… and is a ru ..read more

Aloha! I’m in Kauai for vacation (kid is off school this week) and of course I brought a rod (two, actually) along. I decided to pass some time right in front of the resort and was rewarded with a few Christmas Wrasse. I mean… how are these even real? Look at those colors! This fish didn’t put me into my backing and barely put a bend in my 8 wt., but… I could look at this fish all day. This is one thing I love about these kinds of places… the fish are often glorious. I had to drop down from a #6 to a #8 for this guy. Otherwise they couldn’t fit it in their mouths ..read more

Well… it is booked. The deposit is paid. This thing is happening. I’ll be heading back to Christmas Island Feb. 11 of 2025. I can’t wait to be back out there. It is just such a cool environment. I really enjoyed it when i was there in 2019, before the world shut down for a few years. I loved the trigger fish, the GT shots, the bonefish, the BFTs and all the wierd and beautiful stuff you’d catch near the Korean Wreck. I just loved it. And I’m headed back. We’ll be at Christmas Island Lodge, which seems a good operation. Here’s to the days and hours of anticipation. Get out there ..read more

I never met Cathy Beck, but I certainly knew of her, and her husband Berry. Word came out earlier this week that Cathy passed away while they were fishing down in Argentina. Condolences to Barry and all those who knew and loved Cathy, and that seems like a lot of people. Here she is talking casting and hauls ..read more

Years ago… many years ago… I had the Helios 2 sent to me to bring on a trip (Cuba, maybe?). I fell in love with the thing. It was my go-to rod for bones and I caught a lot of fish on it. I liked it so much I kept it… I traded some ad space on the blog for the rod. That was back when someone would actually give you someting of value for a banner ad on your niche fly fishing blog (oh, those were the days). Recently, I was an idiot. It wasn’t the first time. It won’t be the last. My idiocy, in this case, manifested with my snapping the tip off the rod. The good folks at Orvis are going to take a ..read more