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A poem about fly-fishing inspired by Bela Bartok

“I need to go away for a while. Let’s put some time and space into this.” Read the first chapter of Derek Grzelewski's book Trout Bohemia.

This was one of those fish that staid glued to my inner eye for a long time. The largest pike I ever caught gave up a very good and pretty harrowing fight.

This particular fishing trip was ignited by a photo. Or actually by a handful of photos.

Pike are potentially large, almost always aggressive and not too easily spooked

I usually don't take much pride in catching kelts, but ... they are fun to catch!

Moonfish are memorable fish with their odd, flat shape and kinda innocent look.

I've fished for tarpon a few times and caught a few, but never felt the thrill that I see people get from fishing for these fish

This was one of those days where things just worked out, and I took advantage of it and behaved slightly out of order.

Back in 2002 I was visiting GFF partner Steve Schweitzer in Colorado. The story has been told before in this article. We fished a lot of different waters and caught quite a few fish during our stay, but I want to pick out one certain trip and fish from that journey.

A story about a group buying some of the Ernie Schwiebert fly collection.

I used to do a lot of float tubing in the ocean. A friend who worked in local tackle shop convinced me to try one, and ended up almost giving it to me, so suddenly I had a float tube in the garage. Tubing for sea trout didn't make much sense to me, not least because most fish were caught very close to the shore and could easily be reached wading.

This is about a steelhead - a sea run rainbow trout

Due to health reasons my fishing has been severely on the backburner for some years. Inability to walk far, wade, fatigue and general lack of energy has reduced my annual fishing days from 70, 80 and even 90 to maybe 5-10, which includes longer trips together with friends.

Before I was ill, I'd go on any hunch several times a week, and if the family situation and weather permitted it, I'd generally be on my way out.

The idea for this series of articles was sparked by being sentimental. I was thinking back trying to remember some defining moments in my fly fishing career. I couldn't really think of any.

Author Dominic Garnett went on a fly fishing trip in London with magazine editor Garrett Fallon

When I turned to see where the small voice came from, I saw a youngster, half a century different in age and his Dad on the bank just slightly behind me.

This story is an excerpt from Tom Alkire's latest book, River Stories: Headwaters to the Sea, a full of stories about rivers and most of them are about fishing as well. Sometimes meditative, other times humorous.

Another crowdsourced video is emerging, and we at GFF think it deserves some support, so we call upon the GFF army to chip in and get some nice perks.

Fish speak out for the first time ever! Learn why trout don't think a Royal Wulff is edible, why they jump when hooked and much more in this exclusive interview with the world trout spokesfish.

Travis Swartz spends a lot of time on the water alone, but this past weekend he spent a couple days on the Big Wood River in Ketchum, Idaho fishing with his friends Reese, John and Zach.

"Yous fellas fishin'?" a Maori guy asked on the shore of Lake Otomangakau. I said we were having a look. "Plenty a fish here, bro. Big bastards, too. But bloody hard to catch, ay."

That Maryland bank clad in stone offered no line of credit. The business, best described, was an angle of line to rock beside which a redbreast sunfish held suspended in shaded water.

This was my first serious flyfishing trip on my own. I’d done a fair amount of spin-fishing in my younger days, and had tried flyfishing a few times with a buddy or guide over the years. But now, approaching age 50, I decided to get serious about flyfishing.

Author ron P. swegman writes: "When thinking about reading and writing, I am also drawn to the home of the book: the library. This institution has been a constant throughout my life." and ends his story with a list of further reading. 

"Did you get a brownie?" The voice the author heard was young; a girl’s voice that floated gracefully over the soft, almost melodic, water tumble of the creek. He was releasing a small brown trout that had patiently watched his patterns float by for close to half an hour.

Knots have challenged author ron P. swegman all his life. When he was a preschool boy, he demanded his mom buy him “buckle shoes” because he just could not get the hang of shoestrings.He reflects further over knots in this latest chapter of the online novel "Small Fry".

Light gear is best for little fish for two big reasons: first, light or ultralight outfits provide the most sport by giving these fish their best fighting chance; second, lighter outfits make fly fishing possible in unforgiving casting situations that leave little room for human error.

More than a sport fish, the brook trout has, throughout its range, become a barometer for the environmental health of North American rivers and streams. It seems fitting in this context that a little fish plays such a big role.

The father of English fishing literature, Izaak Walton, devotes two chapters of The Compleat Angler to chubs (or “cheven” in the archaic plural), and in one scene his Piscator takes pleasure in catching the largest one of a school of twenty to the amazement of his companions, Venator and Auceps.

The white perch is actually an anadromous silver bass in the fish family Moronidae. This game panfish is the little cousin of the striped bass and shares much of the same habitat: the brackish tidal estuaries and adjacent rivers of the mid-Atlantic and New England states.

I have been an amateur musician for many years, comfortable on both keys and strings, and to use an analogy from that facet of my life I will state that, to me, the rock bass is akin to a punk rock song — It hits you hard, is pugnacious and tough up front, and though it doesn’t last too long, it is undeniably a strong, clever, and classic rocker.

Lepomis auritus, the redbreast sunfish, does not receive the front-page press of its cousins the bluegill, the crappie, and the black bass. This species deserves increased specific attention, though, especially from fly anglers who prefer to fish flowing water, because the redbreast is the stream sunfish.

The smallmouth bass is the headliner of small coolwater venues and that fact is understandable. Micropterus dolomieui bends fly rods and performs top water acrobatics throughout the course of the fishing season, even during the hottest dog days, as long as the human on the other end of the line knows his or her art and craft.

A treatise on small fish and small waters; an eclectic collection of classic fly pattern variations; a survey of some of the better literature on the art and sport of fly fishing; a portrait of the angler as a young man... All of these descriptions apply to "Small Fry: The Lure of the Little" brought to you by ron P. swegman.

Perfection is as illusory in fishing as it is in any other aspect of life, yet practice brings with it certain plateaus of near-perfection. Such stages in a fly fisher’s practice provide a good time and opportunity to branch out.

Saturday evening was as Saturday evenings often are in the summer: kids playing outside, tidying the kitchen, having a cup of coffee and just looking out the window. Outside my kitchen window, I can see my 'wind tree'. My guess is that all Danish coast fishermen have a wind tree or something like it: a flag, a chimney -- something to judge the wind from. Force and direction.