The first time someone rifled through my truck console and glove box I was a little shocked to put it lightly. They stole all my spare change and just trashed everything else. It looked like a racoon had a bachelor party in the cab. My doors were unlocked and I was parked on the street soContinueContinue reading “Smash and Grab”
Category Archives: Stories
Mahahual Y Bacalar
The open wounds on Brady’s feet were starting to leak clear fluid into the nylon Chaco straps as most of the blood had washed into the crystal clear Mexican ocean. Somehow he had forgotten his wading shoes ninety miles away at the cabana on the edge of the Bacalar Lagoon. But the fish were here,ContinueContinue reading “Mahahual Y Bacalar”
Questionable Instincts
It must have been the first of July. When the dry heat sunburns everyone on the Colorado Plains and it’s so ungodly hot in Texas old people drop like flies while mowing their lawns. The high mountains somehow have a cupcake layer of white snow frosting and the rivers and streams throughout the high countryContinueContinue reading “Questionable Instincts”
Honey Holes
It occurred to my friends and while the conversation turned to our various childhoods that every town, be it large or small contained off-the-map locations that held a certain treasure. On the outskirts of one of their towns sat a crumbling hospital the feral boys on bicycles referred to as “The Insane Asylum”, given theContinueContinue reading “Honey Holes”
Know Your Junk
My grandad had this old creamy brown flat bed Dodge feed truck. A purely utilitarian piece of equipment. Zero aesthetics. This was before he could afford a proper push button feeder so it was piled high with fifty pound feed sacks of the same color of the truck. Dusty tan. The grime and splattered cowContinueContinue reading “Know Your Junk”
Arkansas
“Are you going to fish the White River?” Tell any fly fisher you are headed to Arkansas and you will immediately hear all about floating a nymph under a bobber to monster brown trout down that river. Yawn. Sounds like watching an amateur golf tournament on TV. Sure, there will be some memorable shots, butContinueContinue reading “Arkansas”
Key West Salt
“Mama, I’m freezin’ (mama, I’m freezin’), I wanna go to the su-un (to the sun)These icy winter breezes (winter breezes) are chillin’ all my fun (all my fun)”. Yes, Village People. F’ing yes! Hwy. 1 through the Keys. When I was doing what I could in high school to fit in and attract “babes”, IContinueContinue reading “Key West Salt”
Frozen Ferrules
After taking three wrong turns on unfamiliar snow-packed roads we found what looked like the road we were hoping would lead us to catching enormous wild trout. You know what that road looks like. There was only one set of tracks in the snow and if we met that other car the drive in reverseContinueContinue reading “Frozen Ferrules”
Elusive Hill Country Hogs
By the time the lonely wild boar wandered into the clearing under the high tech deer feeder, I had neglected my lookout post and was talking in sort of hushed tones to my lifelong hunting buddies about range management or high school girlfriends. I can’t recall now, but it was important, I promise you. “IContinueContinue reading “Elusive Hill Country Hogs”
A Cleaner Clear – 2020
Ever find an object on the side of the road that is just so disgusting and revolting, you know in that moment you’ll surely have PTSD from even seeing it? There were a few of those objects found on September 12 at the first ever A Cleaner Clear river cleanup. Prizes were given for theseContinueContinue reading “A Cleaner Clear – 2020”
Counting Days
There is a problem with our fly fishing community. In our beloved Colorado especially. When you talk to a skier about the ski season, they are quick to point out exactly how many days they have skied that year, and then what their average tends to be. It’s odd actually. Like guys bumping chests beforeContinueContinue reading “Counting Days”
No Better Time Than Now
This morning, I looked down at my beat-to-hell tennis shoes. I had purchased them in early spring to be sported as hip, casual office attire. Although at forty-one, being hip is failing me miserably. These sweet “kicks” saw the office a only few times before the Stay-At-Home order relegated them to being my everyday shoes.ContinueContinue reading “No Better Time Than Now”
A Cleaner Clear (Stream/Pond Cleanup)
Hello friends of Planet Earth. Put September 12th on your calendar! Confluences & Influences with Denver Trout Unlimited, Adams County Parks & Rec., The Greenway Foundation, Prodigy Coffeehouse, Rep Your Water, Thrivent Financial, Blue Quill Angler, Trouts, Fishpond, NAPA, and many local businesses are organizing a cleanup of Clear Creek as well as a smallContinueContinue reading “A Cleaner Clear (Stream/Pond Cleanup)”
Wet Wading
If you are a fly fisherman in any sense of its madness, you love summer heat for so many reasons. Throwing stupid big dry flies to gluttonous trout and burbling poppers to a bass or two on your lunch break, and not bundling up like Randy in A Christmas Story. The most glorious aspect though,ContinueContinue reading “Wet Wading”
Pearl Jam and Kansas Porn
Last summer I did what millions of people have done while on their way to somewhere beautiful. I drove through Kansas. With a marathon ten hours of chewing up blacktop, I had time to observe the small variations in the Great Plains landscape. When named “Great”, that word had a different meaning than our modernContinueContinue reading “Pearl Jam and Kansas Porn”
The Blackfoot Attack
As adults we are aware that trust is earned and taken absolutely seriously, but as a parent, there is something inside us that can’t help but test this trust with our children. This may be our worst attribute as adults. This trusting little person has depended on us its whole life and knows nothing elseContinueContinue reading “The Blackfoot Attack”
Pissing in the Wind
We were focused on our streamers when the wind kicked up. In a few seconds the rain stung our faces like fire ants, blowing in sideways across the river. The spring thunderstorm exploded in the clouds above us and the lightning smashed into cottonwoods all around our small boat. The battering wind slammed us helplesslyContinueContinue reading “Pissing in the Wind”
Hands
His palms were crisscrossed with deep weathered lines like the cow trails leading to water. These gnarled hands of my grandfather. Scarred, wrinkled, and thick. Sparse grey hairs here and there. The palms calloused from opening and closing cedar post gates for seven decades. Smooth from the lasso that streaked through them like lightning whenContinueContinue reading “Hands”
Jesus and Tarpon
Every time my better half and I finally tuck our three girls into their sleeping bags for the night, we step out of the tent with a sigh and pour ourselves a whiskey cocktail then drop exhausted into our camp chairs. We gaze up at the stars struggling against the fading light in the west. ContinueContinue reading “Jesus and Tarpon”
Silver Creek
The old lady pulled up next to me in her shiny BMW as I sauntered down the neighborhood street fully wadered and 5 weight poking out behind me like a magpie’s tail feathers. “Hey there!” she said as she idled to a stop. “Howdy”, said I. “You catch any fish today?” I nodded and repliedContinueContinue reading “Silver Creek”
The Confluences 