Adventure Travel Creative Fishing Essays Stories Articles

Fly Fishing: What a Hassle

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May/14/2021

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Fly Fishing: What a Hassle. [To all you fly fishing purists out there: don’t get your knickers in a twist over this headline. The following essay is not an indictment on the sport of fly fishing. Give it a chance. It might just resonate with you. In the very least I’m hoping you’ll get a chuckle or two out of it. I will preface the following story with this: I’ve been a fly fisherman for 25 years. If you’ve been a fly angler for a while, more than likely you’ve experienced a situation akin to the one I am revisiting here.] The words rang out across the water as clear as day: “Those guys are fly fishing. What a f*cking hassle.” It was a comment sent out into the ethos. It seemed to freeze time on that blissful afternoon. The proverbial scratching of the record stymied my fly casts. On...

Fly Fishing Adventure Travel Cuisine on the Fly

Scaled Down: Cuisine on the Fly

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May/01/2020

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Ryan Bonneau

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Creative Writing, Culture, DIY Fly Fishing, Lifestyle, Travel

Fly Fishing Adventure Travel Cuisine on the Fly Fly Fishing Adventure Travel Cuisine on the Fly. At the moment, the COVID-19 pandemic has a choke hold on life as we know it. Some of us are working essential jobs like delivering goods, managing gas stations or stocking shelves at the market. Some of us are on the front lines caring for victims in hospitals and care centers. But most of us are at home doing our part to distance ourselves from the virus and society. As I sit here in my deluxe apartment in the sky (Telluride, CO), a great fog obscures any detail regarding planned adventures on the horizon. My Alaska trip was so close I could taste it!… just wasn’t meant to be. Now, everything’s up in the air. With nothing but time on my hands (I already finished Tiger King), toilet paper to hoard and rice to...

Unfinished Business: Sight Casting to Molokai Bonefish

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Feb/22/2019

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Brock Munson

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Creative Writing, Culture, DIY Fly Fishing, Film, Lifestyle, Photography, Travel

Sight Casting to Molokai Bonefish with fly rods and inflatable kayaks Sight Casting to Molokai Bonefish with fly rods and inflatable kayaks … and Natty Lights Sight Casting to Molokai Bonefish. Every direction was a vision. Golden, shallow flats extended from the western horizon to its eastern counterpart. Waves repeatedly hammered the outer reef to the South. The rippled, folded shoulders of Kamakou to the northeast towered into dark, stormy skies. The good news is we had already caught a few fleeting glimpses of the fish we came for, scarce as they were like needles in a sandy haystack. Up until that point the o‘io, the Hawaiian bonefish, the “gray ghosts” of fly fishing royalty, had remained just beyond the reach of our fly casts.The bad news is it was only our second day on Molokai and we were faced with increasingly adverse conditions. With a frightful forecast ahead, it...

Meanwhile, Out West: A Western Australia Fly Fishing Road Trip Adventure

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Jan/02/2019

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Brock Munson

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Conservation, Creative Writing, DIY Fly Fishing, Film, Lifestyle, Photography, Travel

Western Australia Fly Fishing Road Trip Adventure Western Australia Fly Fishing Road Trip Adventure — Yankees wandering the bush with rod, reel and goon chasing queenfish, permit, giant trevally, golden trevally and blue bones. “Every man’s got to find themselves, and I found myself in bloody Western Australia, of all places – there was as far away as I could.” – Nick Cummins Western Australia Fly Fishing Road Trip Adventure. Sharks. I was wading alone… a couple hundred meters from shore in waste-deep water. It was sudden. They appeared out of nowhere. I was surrounded… more than fifty, maybe. They were mostly reef sharks. But, a couple big bullies* were also in the mix… ————–^———- I know… I’m dangling a juicy carrot in front of you. But, before I continue with this toothy tale let’s move away from the click bait and gain a sense of place....

Western Australia: Journey Before the Journey

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Oct/16/2018

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Brock Munson

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DIY Fly Fishing, Lifestyle, Travel

This is a list of what was on my plate one day ago: clean my Maui bungalow rental so I get my deposit back clean up copious amounts of pig shit in the yard (part of the rental agreement) finish 3 websites design projects sort and pack the scattered gear on the bed catch up on sleep (sufficient sleep patterns: a distant past) eat (quality nutrition intake: a foggy memory) This was yesterday on Maui–two days ago if you consider that I’ve just crossed the international date line over a seemingly endless Pacific. At that point it felt that I would either crash and burn or ascend with grace upon embarking on this newest adventure. As it turned out, I fell somewhere in the between. I’m dehydrated. Luckily I just downed a mini Jack Daniels and Coke. My stomach is gurgling. My checked bags… well, let’s just say even the...

Just A Number Chasing Scale Fly Fishing Film

Just A Few Questions: an interview with Rick Mendel

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Jul/24/2018

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Brock Munson

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Creative Writing, DIY Fly Fishing, Film, Lifestyle, Photography

Fly Fishing Film Interview with 70-year-old Rick Mendel. Get your phone out… jump on Instagram… look up “fly fishing”. You’re soon to see a bunch of gratuitous hero shots. You might even notice a few scantily-clad women in Brazilian bikinis holding a fish caught by someone else. If you’re new to the sport, there’s a good chance that you’d think fly fishing is an industry full of pretentious, top-notch anglers none of whom have ever been beginners or have done the doggy-paddle in the shallow end of the pool. Do you want the truth? I’ll answer that question for you: of course you want the truth. 1) We’re not all pretentious. 2) There’s much more time fishing… and lot less time catching and taking gratuitous hero photos. And, 3) Many of us sure as hell don’t look good in bikinis. The point is, there’s much more to the life of...

Patagonia fly fishing road trip through Chile and Argentina

Patagonia, The Final Slice: Coyhaique to Tierra del Fuego

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Jun/12/2018

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Brock Munson

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Creative Writing, Culture, DIY Fly Fishing, Film, Lifestyle, Photography, Travel

Expect Nothing, Anticipate Everything We were barreling down a dirt road at “the end of the world”, a nickname given to the nether regions of South America. We were headed across South America’s southernmost terrain on, what would be, our last dark and dreary day of a month-long journey through Patagonia. I had made a commitment to document the last leg of the trip through written word. In fact, I can pinpoint the exact moment when my thoughts drifted from the actual road to this very essay. It was when, in triumphant relief, we finally spotted solid, bonafide earth after having to gingerly negotiate unstable and precarious ice and snow, limping our van (sans brakes and beat-to-hell) back over the last of two dangerous mountain passes. It was our third and final day in Tierra del Fuego. We were returning from heavenly settings located as far south as any Chilean...

Patagonia Fly Fishing Road Trip Blog Post

Onward and Southward: Our Chase Continues through Patagonia

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Mar/26/2018

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Brock Munson

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Creative Writing, DIY Fly Fishing, Lifestyle, Photography, Travel

Well, I’m just gonna come out and say it: Patagonia is a pretty nice place. More specifically, it might just be the best place. It’s a place of wonder, limited only by the great oceans flanking its periphery. Defined in just a few words: jagged canyons and sweeping valleys… craggy horns and weathered domes… parched steppe and muddy escarpments… fair skies and wicked weather… untamed rivers and placid lakes… golden brown trout and flashing rainbows… washboard roads and butter highways… cramped spaces and questionable body odor. Yes, this is living Patagonia through our eyes. (And yes, that was more than just a few words.) With the heaps of pre-trip planning under our belts you’d think we would have hit the ground running. T’was our goal. We flew into Puerto Montt and were thrust into an exciting, new abyss—a place we had never been before. It felt like we were trying to control something...

Triumph and humility. Welcome to fly fishing in Patagonia

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Mar/16/2018

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Brock Munson

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Creative Writing, DIY Fly Fishing, Photography, Travel

“I have never touched a cloud before. I want to touch a cloud.” These aren’t my words. They’re the gleeful words of a little girl just a few rows up from me on one of my flights. Patagonia is my cloud. My mind wandered… shuffling through ethereal scenes—images I’ve conjured up of Patagonia based on television documentaries, travel books and the internet. This mythical place has captivated my imagination for so long and that moment of truth was so close. Although it’s not quite Amazonia, Patagonia does cover quite a bit of South America. It spans 1 million square kilometers and is peppered with pyramidal volcanos, craggy peaks, turbulent rivers, wind-swept lakes, imposing glaciers, steep fiords, and arid steppe. Just trying to wrap my mind around it brings on an overwhelming feeling of insignificance. It would take many lifetimes to cover it with any glimmer of success. We have 29 days....

Patagonia: on the verge of something big, maybe.

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Mar/05/2018

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Brock Munson

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DIY Fly Fishing, Film, Lifestyle, Photography, Travel

Patagonia: 1 week away. I visited Patagonia once. Patagonia, Arizona that is. I remember it was a sleepy, little town in the far south of that great state, not more than 20 miles from the Mexican border. I was 18 years old, innocent(ish), on Thanksgiving break during my first college semester up in Flagstaff. My older brother was living in Tucson at the time. I drove down to spend the holiday with him. We decided to get out of the city and visit a buddy of his for the 4-day weekend. I remember casting a spin rig with rooster tails to eager blue gill in the neighbor’s tiny, stocked pond. We landed fish after fish. I remember the surrounding area being beautiful in that simplistic, desert sort of way. The hills were tinted in soft hues of earthy pinks and light browns. The cottonwoods were draped in the warm, yellow...

The Dirty “DIY” Truth for Fly Anglers

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Jan/02/2018

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Brock Munson

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Creative Writing, DIY Fly Fishing, Lifestyle, Travel

DIY Fly Fishing Debate: Truth or Slander? Note: This essay is about a quasi-controversial topic gaining momentum in the fly fishing world today. The topic centers around the DIY (Do It Yourself) approach to fly fishing. On the surface of this issue there’s a question that commonly comes up: How is the DIY approach to fly fishing impacting local fisheries? Another, more specific question is: How is DIY fly fishing impacting business for local guide companies? (Can you guess who’s asking that question?) Let me pose a few other questions that need to be asked: Who is and who isn’t a DIY fly angler? What does “DIY fly fishing” really mean? And: Should the DIY’er be considered the “bad guy” in this fishy saga? Answers to these questions might help all of us in our collective path toward a common goal of having healthy, sustainable fisheries for all to enjoy. What say you...

Chasing Louisiana Redfish in Bayou Country with Kayaks and Fly Rods

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Nov/30/2017

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Brock Munson

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Creative Writing, DIY Fly Fishing, Lifestyle, Travel

Chasing Louisiana Redfish on the Fly. Kayak Fly Fishing Louisiana Redfish. Kayak Fly Fishing Louisiana Redfish. Why do we travel to new destinations to fly fish? Is it about triumphantly hoisting an exotic, new fish species, carving another notch in the fly fishing bedpost? Is it about scratching that “exploration” itch that builds up while sitting in an office for 40 hours per week? Is it about the tertiary stuff… like exciting food and interesting local flavor that lures us away from our home waters? Maybe it’s a little bit of each. Whatever it may be, while planning this fishing trip we had grandiose visions of stalking and sight casting to big, spotted, red tails in pristine Louisiana marshes. It turns out there was a little bit of sight casting, a lot of blind casting, a lot of weather watching and copious amounts of beer drinking (shout out to Dixie). The...