"Fly Paper" Blog

  Fishing in the Amazon can be tricky to time with the massive fluctuation of water between seasons. There are only two seasons on the equator, wet season and not as wet season and the wet season must be something else as water levels fluctuate dramatically, some years over thirty-feet, which makes guessing when the best time to go is a bit of a dice roll. The water’s sometimes up while it’s supposed to be down. Or, the water’s too low for the outboard jet-motor conversion kits to handle. Sometimes

When Hurricane Rafael blasted through Cuba merely days before our arrival, knocking out power in Havana and flooding streets like a bad disaster movie, you’d think it might dampen our spirits. Rather, it set the tone for a wild ride of fly-fishing, questionable nicknames, and more Cuban rum and cigars than should be legal. This is the story of Clark (a.k.a. “Vaca”), James (“Camello”), Steve (“Leche”), Hank (“Aaron”), Jonathan (“Jonathan”), and Teddy (“Reary”), plus a cast of characters that only a Hemingway novel—or Cuba—could produce. The first night was spent

Angling Destinations’ recent two-week fly-fishing adventure in Mexico was one for the books—equal parts success, chaos, and sheer luck. Week one started in Xcalak, where six of us—Clark, Cole, Scott, Brian, Truitt, and Woody—a rag-tag group of quasi-dedicated permit anglers, showed up like a band of lost pirates armed with fly rods rather than swords. Xcalak, Mexico is a quiet little coastal fishing village near the Belize border and it gracefully greeted us with warm hospitality, tranquil flats, some remarkable fishing and some fishing not-so remarkable. We landed plenty of

There is a commonly acknowledged yet seldom discussed debate in fly-fishing: “Right Hand Retrieve” or “Left Hand Retrieve”. It is often assumed that anglers should reel using their non-casting hand, meaning right-handed casters would reel with their left hand and vice versa. While this approach may be more conventional in trout fishing circles, I believe that skilled anglers can successfully land trout without even touching the reel handle, making it a somewhat irrelevant example. However, when venturing to salt flats, the importance of the reel significantly increases, as reeling in

I’m sure some of us are aware of “The Angling Report”, a long-time monthly newsletter dedicated to serve the traveling angler. It seems the publication recently fell victim to the pandemic (if you know otherwise, please let us know). However, for many years it provided information, often anecdotal, on the status of traveling the world with a fishing rod. There was a particularly good segment titled, “the good, the bad, and the ugly” and could serve as fair warning or offer constructive criticism. We all know that on any given

When Jesse and Eron Sturm (twin brothers) graduated from high school in 1994, followed by Mike Gagne, James Ryan and yours truly, from the same school the following year; each heading off to separate colleges and universities, none would have said, “good luck in college, see you in the Bahamas in 2022.” However, twenty-eight years later, we wound up reunited on the front porch of a small Bahamian fly fishing lodge on the north-western point of the Abaco archipelago. We found ourselves discussing tactics, tips and tricks on how to

This trip had been in the works for quite some time. Friends old and new, the gang consisted of 10 total anglers, six of them being saltwater fly fishing virgins. We had two late 20’s insurance salesman, a photographer, a graphic designer, a nervous nelly ranch foreman, a dude ranch manager, a doughnut craftsman and three fly fishing guides. We had all spent time with each other, but never on a beach (or a rooftop palapa). With my fingers crossed, we set sail to Ascension Bay. If you have ever

After our last video on How to Build a Better Permit Leader (see the videocast here), we had some requests for the essential knots to use when building a flats leader. So here they are! Thanks for the questions. Keep them coming and please give us feedback on these hints! See essential knots videocast here. And now that you’ve watched the videocast, here is a summary and also a bit of how-to info on knots. Butt to Fly Line: welded loop to butt via perfection loop or create a new

Clark Smyth and I filmed this short video yesterday. Here we offer, what I think, is a great hint on how to build a better permit leader. This idea offers a more stealthy system and a stronger leader that is easier to cast. See the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oBzep38-f8&t=3s