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A fly I have developed, which I originally called the "Ancient Chinese Secret" is my favorite new fly. I combined a few of my favorite flies, the Yong Special, the Mercury patterns of Pat Dorsey, and Rim Chung's Plebby. Then, I stripped them down to their essential essence of what I believe makes them each so effective. It is an Andy Kim Yong Special combined with a Pat Dorsey Mercury bead head. It's very simple to tie and it's killing it on the stream. Rim Chung, a close fishing friend of mine, also devised somewhat of a similar pattern in his Plebby, which features a tail made from the thread, together with a peacock colored bead and a wire ribbing. My Calgon fly is tied in Coats and Clark thread, summer brown, olive, cream, chartreuse and medium grey and charcoal grey, with an extra-small glass bead, mercury colored. Currently the medium grey is my favorite, the same grey color that Andy Kim uses for his Yong JR. I always fish these Calgon flies in a two fly rig, with the other fly being a Rim Chung RS2, in a variety of sizes and colors. Calgon-Ancient Chinese Secret Materials needed • Hook: Tiemco 101 in sizes 18-24• Bead: Mercury clear and silver glass bead, Extra Small• Thread: Coats & Clark, Dual Duty Plus, in Summer Brown or   Charcoal (available at any Wal-Mart in the sewing aisle) Tying instructions • Put a Mercury clear extra small bead on the 101 hook.• Start wrapping the thread right behind the bead.  • Make a few wraps toward hook bend and remove tag end of thread.Once reaching the bend, twist thread clockwise about 30 spins of the bobbin, to form

Andy Kim is a legendary guide on the San Juan River for the past 20 years, after having fished extensively in Colorado and Utah. His 13 fly patterns are relatively simple impressionistic flies, yet they are the most deadly effective that I have ever come across in having fished with lots of guides and well-known anglers. The key, as he has told me several times, to his often imitated but never duplicated thread bodied nymph is "in the exact right shape and thickness, with a reasonably close color, not the exact material." The quest for his Yong Special tying thread, believing that is the secret to his fish catching success has become a hobby within a hobby to many. The truth is he has used a lot of materials over the years, but he is very meticulous about following the exact method of tying, as any deformity in the shape or abnormal tapering, etc., will effect the effectiveness of his simple midge patterns described in this Fly Fisherman Magazine article from 2001. Further, he is a master at presentation of the fly, using many different techniques. He teaches all of this to his clients so hiring him for a day is the key to starting to learn how the hell he catches so many fish. I have been hiring him for 20 years and took his three day one-on-one school, and I've just begun to scratch the surface, as he spends so much time on the water, that his methods and flies continue to adapt and improve with time. The name of the game on the San Juan River, where Andy guides, is to fish midge imitations (tiny ones). The San Juan River is filled

OK, so you need 5 pounds of ground deer meat for this recipe.   You can use very thin slices if you want, but it won’t come out as tender as if you use the ground deer meat and a jerky cannon, we like the Cannon by LEM.   Which you can get at Bass Pro shops.  Grind up your meat if it’s not ground already, season it with the packet seasoning below and make sure that it has the pink spice already in the mix or otherwise there’s a separate packet for that and some of the brands. We’ve tried all of the homemade recipes and these brands that you can buy premixed are already the best you can get.   Normally, I prefer everything homemade but here it’s simply not as good.    Mix your meat with the seasonings and the cure very well and put it in a Ziploc baggie and throw it back in the fridge overnight or at least for a few hours. Then start feeding it in the jerky cannon and squirting it out over a Food dehydrator with several layers of sheets.  We like this one which is also available at Bass Pro shops, but it only comes with three sheets, you have to buy three more sheets, made by Open Country sportsman kitchen.   Then once you have it squirted out in ringsyou can start drying it Our favorite jerky mixes are: Hi-Country Snack Foods J Johnsons Original Recipe Home Jerky Spice Kit, 16.95-Ounce is the best family favorite, which we all really like. PS Seasonings Cracked Pepper & Garlic (my favorite). Hickory or Mesquite Uncle Buck’s seasoning (now sold as Backwoods LEM brand hickory or mesquite at

As Americans, we have become the first indoor species in the world. Yet, 7 in 10 Americans live within a two-hour drive of a national forest, all of which are vitally important to our connection to the outdoors, yet they are being used less and less. If you spend time in nature, odds are you’ll see the importance of the outdoors. You’ll feel the calming power of simply being outside, the connection to something bigger. And it’s not surprising, because we used to spend our entire lives there. But unfortunately, today many of us are disconnected from our natural habitat. The average American spends 95 percent of their life indoors. Never mind, all of the statics on the rampant increasing usage of video games and screen times with youths these days spending large portions of their lives in virtual reality, instead of reality itself. Simply being indoors all of the time, will eventually make anyone as crazy as a horse gorged on locoweed. As a result of becoming an indoor species, our health and well-being is suffering. And the less we value our outdoor spaces, the less likely we are to protect them. It’s a slippery slope. The long march indoors is not inevitable. We’re at a crossroads, each one of us as people, as parents, as being part of something greater. Our decisions now will dictate our future. Being outside teaches you to be adaptable to your surroundings. It helps you grow, it literally helps you become alive. Being is all that is left, being is who we are, if we calm down the mind. Spend less time in the world of thought and more time in the real world doing, with your body

For more information on instinctive shooting, pick up a copy of Buz's book, https://smile.amazon.com/Instinctive-Shooting-Making-Master-Gunner/dp/1620877023/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1546550173&sr=8-1&keywords=buz+fawcett but we are excited to share these two newly recovered magazine articles with you from back in the day.