After the last snowfall, the earth cracked open under the sun’s strange heat. The mountains sighed and spilled shimmering streams to gather at their hems; the water rolling east down into the valleys as veins to nourish and awaken the dormant earth to a new spring. The water bodiesrose; the fish re… Become a member […]
A One In A Million Fly
For Hap, it was always a numbers game…
STF Selects: ‘Mad Men’ , Winter 2014
‘Mad Men’ originally appeared in Swing The Fly’s 2014 Winter Issue, We’re honored that ‘Mad Men’ will be a featured piece in Dave’s upcoming book, Calling After Water: Dispatches From A Fish Life, which can be purchased at davekarczynski.com.
Fishing Dogs: Our Bestest Fishing Pards
A testimony to the angler’s best friend.
Death and Renewal on the Bulkley
“A new knee may keep me in the water a few more years, but the keenness of my eye and the strength of my arm are failing. I do not know how my life will help the ones I leave behind after I die. It is not as simple as a rotting salmon in this river. Yet I have faith that I will matter then.”
Æfansang — Fishing the Evening Light
“And then the sun goes down, and long the afterglow gives light.
And then the damask curtains glow along the western window.
And now the first star is lit, and I go home.”
-Henry David Thoreau, Journals, January 7, 1852
The Fall of Testosterone and the Rise of Civility
This less brave new world is coming for most of us boys. Not all of us. In an idle moment nearly freezing to death one morning on the Naknek this year, I sought counsel about these changes from my guide, being knowledgeable about both crazed steelheaders and estrogen.
No Fish Harmed Part III: James Reid
James Reid was asked about the culture behind fly fishing in the beginning of this film. He didn’t have a distinct answer for the question at the time, but he didn’t need to: James Reid IS the culture behind fly fishing: Art. Beauty. Skill. History.
The life of legendary bamboo spey rod builder James Reid in Part III of No Fish Harmed.
The Crest of Chance
The precision of standing far back
and letting the streamer be
as an unknown wild thing.
No Fish Harmed: Bruce Kruk
In part 1 of this new video series, No Fish Harmed, from Swing the Fly and Tight Line Films, we visit with the one and only Captain Kanudia — Bruce Kruk — to learn more about the culture and allure of spey casting and fishing.
Casting with Joe
“Hey, look at what I got today,” Joe said. And he rushed to bring out two new bamboo rods—big rods—one 13 feet long, the other 15 feet. These were overhead casting rods (not spey rods) for an upcoming Atlantic salmon fishing trip with Bing Crosby to the Cockermouth Castle Estate in England for an episode of ABC’s The American Sportsman.
10 Years of Swing the Fly
10 Years. 29 Magazines (9 digital only from June 2013 through 2015), 20 in print (2016-2020). And now four books with a fifth soon to come (2023 Anthology is due out in September).