The Best Fly Fishing is Everywhere - 01.31.2025

Ramblings & Readings, Creativity & Conservation, Happenings & Hope

My Fishy Friends,

Packing for fishing trips is an interesting exercise, if you’re inclined to (over) analyze, like I am. For example, are there correlations between the duration of the trip or distance traveled to time spent packing? At some point, I remember talking to a friend about how the packing part of a fishing trip is also part of the fishing trip, so the longer the better, right? I suppose we are always packing for some trip or another…

Cheers,
Jesse

Banner photo: A grand canyon, also known as a Grand Canyon.

The Best Fly Fishing is Everywhere Playlist, Vol. 2

As a follow-up to The Best Fly Fishing is Everywhere Playlist, Vol. I, here’s a second collection of fishing-, river-, or water-related tracks for your next angling road trip.

Listen Here!

Three Days, One Boat, Six Students

I’ve been a fan of author Chris Dombrowski for years and when I read his writing, I find myself repeatedly asking, How did he come up with that? How did he even think to use that word that way? He’s a Montana-based author, poet, essayist, fly fishing guide, and professor, and he also just announced an in-person writing workshop this spring that has me daydreaming. It’s called Astream and is worth checking out. For a fun dose of Dombrowski, check out this reading of one of his poems.

Call for Submissions

Submissions are now open for the 2025 Robert Traver Fly Fishing Writing Award. This is the 31st year of the award which recognizes “distinguished original stories or essays that embody the implicit love of fly fishing, respect for the sport, and the natural world in which it takes place.” Submitted stories and essays must fall into one or more of these categories — the joy of fly-fishing; ecology; or humor — and are due on May 31.

Half as Long

Is it cliché to reference and link A River Runs Through It in a fly fishing and writing newsletter? Maybe, but do we care? Maybe not. Regardless, the “half as long” scene came back to me when I was attempting a similar exercise for work recently. It’s a worthy task, to say just as much with half as many, if you have the time and patience, and a fun and challenging one at that. Still, I often struggle with the ‘kill your darlings’ philosophy because, why not just say what you want to say (within reason, of course)? Perhaps it comes down to that that other writing cliché about writing shorter letters, if only given the time? You tell me.

Still Sometimes

There is a necessity to be still sometimes and let life happen to you, to let your manner of being in the world be changed by what happens to you so that you will have a different self out of which to write.

~ Louise Gluck

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