Author Archives: bcarmichael

Atlantic Salmon Flies as Art

by by: bcarmichael

“Toward the end of the twentieth century, we began to see a disconnect between the art of Atlantic salmon fly tying and the sport of Atlantic salmon fishing. In the right hands, a workhorse fly pattern like the Jock Scott became a large, immaculately crafted object, suitable for framing and hanging on one’s wall. Though many like it have hooked thousands of salmon over the last century and a half, this particular fly will never see water, much less the business end of a dime bright Atlantic salmon.”

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Chasing Spring Stripers in Rhode Island

by by: bcarmichael

This is a hard time of year for fly fishermen living in New England. At every turn, nature deceives: It’s warm, and yet the water is still cold; the flowers are budding, but the waters aren’t teeming with fish; the birds have arrived and are breaking the silence of the early morning more loudly, and more frequently, but the stripers aren’t breaking the surface. The land is bursting, but our water bodies? Still calm, still waiting the arrival of fish.

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Cheeky Reels Schoolie Tournament: Registration & Dates

by by: bcarmichael

A few days ago, I got the below in the my inbox: an invitation to the Cheeky, the Boston-based reel manufacturer, for their annual Cape Cod schoolie tournament. I’ve yet to attend, but judging from the video, this is guaranteed to be a fun time, with decent prizes. Plus, the guys behind the company, Peter and Ted, are good guys. Go if you can — but don’t wait to enter. Space will fill up quickly!

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Casting Ponds: New England Alternatives?

by by: bcarmichael

For many fly fishermen — even those who fish through it — winter is a time when we reconsider our gear and, having fell victim to a series of good sales, we restock for the new season. There are new lines to be cast. New rods to be flexed. The risk of all of this, of course, is that should you not test this gear on the water, instead of upon the excitable waters of your mind, then you could easily find yourself on a riverbank, hours from a store, with very expensive pieces of monofilament and graphite who are about as well-matched as a 12 year old to his first cigar.

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Weekend at the Vise

by by: bcarmichael

Facing a weekend with apartment to myself, I did what I suspect many fly fishermen in the Northern Hemisphere are doing: tying flies in preparation for the rapidly approaching season. As one tier said to me recently, “If I don’t start tying now, my boxes will be empty!” While that’s not entirely true — fishermen always fear a scarcity of flies, but rarely face it — the feeling is accurate: with the days warming up, it’s now a race.

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Spring Cleaning: Fly Tying Desk

by by: bcarmichael

This evening, trouble rode into town. I opened a bag of hackle and there they were: the dried husks of bugs. As I counted the husks, and ran what had been feathers but was now a fine dust between my fingers, I also counted the hours ahead that it would take for me to clean it up and to prevent all the other materials in my burgeoning collection from becoming infected.

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