Back in 2010 Amato Books published something I wrote about my home water, namely the book pictured on the left, a collection of essays & short memoirs with a section on fly patterns that pretty much reflects what I was thinking, tying & fishing twenty years ago.  Recent evidence indicates the book is still in print & available from Amato or Amazon. I know the book is still in print because, a few days ago, curious, I checked. I was curious because in accord with my contract with the publisher I’d received a modest royalty check about six months after pub ..read more

  ART   ~   GUIDE KNOWLEDGE   ~   LITERATURE   ~   WORKHORSE FLY PATTERNS SOFT~HACKLE JOURNAL, delivered to your mailbox, quarterly! Don't miss out on SHJ Volume 3 Fall, & our special feature on October Caddis, "the most important 'big fish' insect of the West", with dressings for six killing October Caddis patterns, wet & dry. Also, Dave Hughes on two killing spiders; Lance Hidy on Pete Hidy's Honey Dun Mayfly; stories from Greg DeYoung, Mark Hagopian, Steve Bird, & a lot more.   ..read more

Presentation is everything.  We are dedicated to presenting the best in North American flyfishing --  useful, informational articles, art & literature -- from the heart of our game.  Simple.        ..read more

  Now a flyfishing print quarterly – zen simple, without full-page ads cluttering the content, just an eclectic mix of the very best art, literature, fly dressings & useful how-to articles, written straight from the soul of our game. If you've been a reader & like the approach to flyfishing the SHJ blog presents, we think you'll appreciate we've extended the approach in quality print & want Soft~Hackle Journal in your mailbox, on the john, beside the bed, on your bookshelf. A refreshingly unique angling journal, & a satisfyingly fat read.  Subscribe: Soft~Hackle Jo ..read more

  Presenting the first book ever on the subject of Trout Spey, including a comprehensive discussion of the downstream wetfly presentation, rigging, water, conditions, methodology, & a catalogue of over 100 color plates of swung wetfly patterns & dressings for the game. Now available in hard cover from Swing The Fly Press.    https://swing-the-fly-magazine.myshopify.com/products/trout-spey-the-art-of-the-swing-by-steven-bird ..read more

Summer River ~ Watercolor by Doris Loiseau      Hope everybody is wintering well & not struggling too badly with now-unraveling resolutions made on new year's eve. Resolving to be in the moment, I didn't make any this year. The procession of winter storms has kept me off the water, so nothing to report there.  Doris drew contributor's names out of the hat & those of you who won stuff have been contacted. All who contributed to SHJ in 2019 will receive quality, signed prints of 'Summer River', a watercolor by Doris Loiseau that appears in my book, 'U ..read more

  The medium is the message. Or, more certainly, a major part of it. Anybody who owns a book shelf lined with books on fly fishing subjects knows this to be true. There is a satisfying, timeless quality expressed through the tactile, printed book or angling periodical. An authenticity that cannot be duplicated online, & a simplicity of operation that can’t be duplicated digitally. You can take hard copy with you anywhere, no power source required. You open the cover & turn the pages. Nothing simpler. Maybe I’m just a Luddite, but everything I’ve ever done online I had to learn ..read more

Autumn River ~ Doris Loiseau                                                        Transitions September is the month of the ambiguous hero. Transient. Melancholic. At the beginning of the month Autumn sneaks up in the cool of the night & lingers into the chilly morning until the conquering sun of high summer tops the ridge. Yet even the sun, still winning at midday, can’t defeat the ever tilting parallax. The hubcap bright heat of summer i ..read more

    "Have you also learned that secret from the river, that there is no such thing as time? That the river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the current, in the ocean and in the mountains, everywhere, and that the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the past, or the shadow of the future."   ~Herman Hesse              Haven't posted anything here since June, & I came back to find that clandestine international drug & weapons (& who knows what else ..read more

  When something is true it is true across all systems.   If you understand that when a forest is thought to have no value until it is cut down, or that a prairie has no value until it is turned under, or that a river has no value until it is girdled with dams, then you’ve begun to understand the root of our ecological crisis.   The idea that some lives matter less is the root cause of all that is wrong with the world.   Go to the stream or sea. Fish. While you are there, be thinking. Consider the immeasurable value of all things. Be. Thinking a system for which there is ye ..read more