Field guide
17 published stories
Fishing
Fishing stories and practical lessons about rivers, tackle, technique, fish handling, and the hard-earned judgment that develops on the water.
Fishing tools & community
Latest in the field
Stories worth your time
Fishing
The Bare Hook and a Wad of Bread That Outfished Everything in My Box
I spent forty-one dollars on a single minnow-colored crankbait the week before, and the fish in Boone Creek did not give one single damn…
Read the story
Fishing
Five Straight Weeks of Skunking Ended When an Old Man Said to Fish Like You Were Late
The first thirty-five days I fished that stretch of river, I did not catch one…
Fishing
The Fast Retrieve That Caught What the Slow Cast Couldn’t
I had been throwing that Whopper Plopper for an hour and four minutes. I know…
Continue exploring
More from this section
Fishing
The Fish Was On, the Knot Was Old, and the River Kept Both
The first fish I ever lost out of my own pride was a smallmouth I am still mad about, and…
Fishing
The River Was Never the Problem
The catfish hole had been mine for years. A bend in the river just past the second bridge on County…
Fishing
Nine Skunks on One Lake, Same Guy on the Bank
I used to keep a little tally in the notes app on my phone. Not fish caught. Skunks. Nine straight…
Fishing
One Bad Knot, One Lost Fish, Two Worth Learning
The fish hit at the worst possible second, the way they always do. I had the drag set wrong, my…
Fishing
The Fish the Screen Found First
I caught my first musky at forty-one years old, and I spent the entire drive home trying to figure out…
Fishing
The $340 Setup That Lost to a Kid’s Paw Patrol Rod
I spent $340 on a St. Croix rod last spring. Watched seventeen hours of YouTube videos about reading river seams.…
Fishing
Hooking the Biggest Catfish of Your Life and Losing It at the Bank. Here Is What Went Wrong.
I don’t know how long I fought that fish. Fifteen minutes, maybe twenty. Long enough for the sun to drop…
Fishing
Cast Iron Skillet, No Tent Pole: Five Days in the Adirondacks for Brook Trout
My buddy Dave has this thing where he describes terrible ideas like they’re facts. “We’re gonna fly into the Adirondacks,”…
Fishing
Two Years of Fishing the Wrong Water until Someone Finally Said Something
There’s a specific kind of stupidity that only exists when you’re standing in a river at 6 AM, convinced you’ve…