Fish Tales
Trout
I thank the trout. Rainbows for oceans, great lakes; emotions, fierce takes; return to small streams. Yearn and fall dreams. Browns for the depths and the darkness; the steps that bring sharpness; attention and caution. Read more…
Fish Tales
Old School
In late June I floated the big water of the Au Sable with my friend David McMillan, where we hoped, of course, to find big trout eating big flies in the big darkness. Our guide Read more…
Fish Tales
Chasing Geese
Scene I: The Proposition “I know a guy,” my friend Doug whispered, and—although I should have sprinted for the nearest exit—I stayed until he finished his proposition. Following a friend’s “I know a guy” advice Read more…
Fish Tales
Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
When I was a kid, none of the older people were afraid of the dark, or at least that’s what it looked like to me. “Don’t be afraid of the dark,” they’d tell me, as Read more…
Fish Tales
They Never Said It Was Easy
Seize the day, put very little trust in tomorrow. Horace “If you have a day or several free and want to fly over to Beaver Island for carp/smallmouth/pike, please let me know. I had someone Read more…
Fish Tales
The Manistee River Waltz
“Chad told me you are a fly fisherman. One of my favorite songs is about fly fishing and the camaraderie that people find outdoors.” My friend Chad had just introduced me to Chris Buhalis at Read more…
Fish Tales
Trout Fishermen
I love to fish for trout, and I rarely fish for anything else. Sometimes I fish for bass—and I have a blast when I do it—but on those cold, sleepless winter nights when I stare Read more…
Fish Tales
Why I Let Them Go
When someone asks why I release nearly every fish I catch, I have a friend who says “Tim likes to play with his food.” I didn’t always do it this way. Much like Howell Raines, Read more…
Fish Tales
Last Night I Had a Dream
Last night I had a dream. I dreamed that a three-day rain transformed a famous river into a raging torrent, and when the river finally receded my friend Mike took me fishing. I dreamed that Read more…
Fish Tales
Not So Bad
In 1983 John Syrgemaki shot a 400 pound black bear while hunting near his home in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Still wearing a blaze-orange vest with the words DON’T SHOOT, I AM A MAN stamped across his Read more…
Fish Tales
A Future Fly Fisher
But it required a few years before I perceived what a science teacher’s job really is. The goal should be, not to implant in the student’s mind every fact that the teacher knows now; but rather Read more…
Fish Tales
Sweetgrass Versatility
In the sprawling territory between Princeton and Cornell, a storied river cuts and bends its way through land that is as wild today as it was when John Voelker called it “a forgotten region which Read more…