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If you look back in time, you’ll find a few legendary anglers who filled extraordinary bags with just one fly, maybe two. Frank Sawyer and his pheasant tail nymph and grey goose come to mind (although he actually had 5 flies in all, including for lakes). Rim Chung and his RS2. Magical flies or perfect technique, a mere mortal would question? Truth is that it is a little of both. By doing 90% of all things perfectly you cannot catch 90% of the fish in a river. Only by doing 100% perfectly will you achieve that kind of success. Sawyer could average 20 trout an hour on just two flies, one in brown, the other in grey, in a variety of sizes, or even more on grayling for that matter on his Killer Bug. I have seen Rim have these banner days as well on public stretches with wild trout here in the West. The wonderful part of many of these flies are that they are very simple to tie, just some pheasant tail and wire, or yarn and wire, or sewing thread on a hook, in the case of a Yong Special. So how can such a simple fly be so effective? So what’s the secret? Perfection of a single technique and fly, in the hands of experts in presentation. Light lines, small flies, tied well and fished without drag, over finicky trout. Flies that are more a semblance of a midge or mayfly nymph with good segmentation. Simple but translucent bodies. Thin, elegant tapering of the fly bodies. Putting the fly where the fish are at, without drag. Exceeding concentration and strike detection. Excellent control of the fish once the hook is set,

"What is the purpose of the choil?" Many knives have a small choil. A choil is the cut away area, or notch, between the heel of the blade edge and the ricasso of a pocket knife blade and between the edge and the guard of a fixed blade knife. For many knives, the reason for a choil simply ad to do with the ability to sharpen the full length of the blade edge. In some instances a choil is not necessary because the blade is wider than the ricasso making it possible to sharpen the edge cleanly all the way to the heel. While a choil often adds to the visual appeal of a blade, that is not the reason for one to be used. A blade that does not require a choil. However, some makes have chosen to exaggerate the choil for use as a line cutter or bird wing cutter like in the knife below.

"A la verga"  -Holy shit... Ayuda me? -...can you help me... Put this shoe back on?  ...esta caballo necessita una herradura.  

The “Calgon” Effect: A Simple Fly That’s Quietly Dominating the Water In fly fishing, innovation rarely comes from reinventing the wheel. More often, it’s about refinement—taking what already works and distilling it down to its most effective elements. That’s exactly the thinking behind my newest go-to pattern: a deceptively simple fly with a tongue-in-cheek origin story and a serious track record on the stream. Originally dubbed the “Ancient Chinese Secret,” this emerging pattern—now better known as the Calgon fly—isn’t built on mystery, so much as mastery. It draws from a lineage of proven performers, blending the DNA of the Yong Special, Pat Dorsey’s Mercury series, and Rim Chung’s Plebby into a single, highly efficient design. At its core, the Calgon fly is a hybrid: the subtle profile and fish-catching instincts of the Andy Kim Yong Special meet the flash-triggering appeal of a Pat Dorsey-style mercury bead. The result is a clean, minimalistic pattern that’s easy to tie and even easier for trout to find irresistible. There’s also a nod to Rim Chung’s Plebby—a pattern known for its sparse elegance. Like the Plebby, the Calgon incorporates a thread-based tail, paired with a peacock-toned bead and fine wire ribbing. It’s a study in restraint, proving once again that less can be more when it comes to fooling pressured fish. The materials are straightforward but intentional. Tied with Coats & Clark thread, the Calgon fly comes in a range of productive hues: summer brown, olive, cream, chartreuse, and multiple shades of grey. Lately, medium grey (charcoal) has emerged as the standout—echoing the same tone Andy Kim favors in his Yong JR and consistently producing results across varied conditions. But perhaps the real secret to the Calgon’s success isn’t

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