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Photo Tips for the Camera Happy Fish Bum

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Mar/07/2023

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DIY fishing adventure travel photography tips techniques for the camera happy fish bum living life day by day, cast by cast and photo by photo. You know who you are! The casual, wayword photographer. There are a whole lot more of you than there used to be, especially with the way photography, technology and cell phones are rocketing as a trio into the future, a relationship not soon to end. Because of this relationship, taking snapshots of anything and everything is not only possible, it’s happening! With that being said, the goal for this article is to help our readers approach photography with open minds, discipline, ingenuity and ultimately, inspiration. I’m gonna stick to the actual photo taking part of photography in this article. Not gonna pretend like we don’t do some post editing in Lightroom or Photoshop… or even Instagram! Cuz, we do! However, the goal is to do...

Baja Mexico Fish Bum Guide to Road Tripping Baja

Chasing Baja: A Fish Bum Gear Guide to Road Tripping Baja Mexico

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Mar/01/2023

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Ryan Bonneau

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Lifestyle, Road Trip, Travel

Baja is inexpensive, remote and has endless opportunity for a huge variety of fish! Having just come off two major Baja road trips, we wanted to put together a list of essential gear based on our experience… often learned the hard way. The biggest overall lesson (which is truly a mantra when comes to planning your adventure) is BRING ONLY THINGS YOU NEED. Vehicle People use a huge variety of vehicles to blaze trails around the Baja peninsula. However, for the fish bum who’s really looking to explore, camp and hit the most remote tasty water, I believe a 4X4 TRUCK WITH A POP-UP CAB-OVER CAMPER is the best set up. 4WD, or at the very least AWD, is essential for driving in sand and sketchy two tracks to access camping and fishing areas. One thing that Baja is famous for is heavy wind. Having a sturdy enclosed area to...

Fly Fishing: What a Hassle

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May/14/2021

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Brock Munson

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Creative Writing, Lifestyle

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

Patagonia Fly Fishing Road Trip Adventure Part 4: The Final Slice Patagonia Fly Fishing Road Trip Adventure: Coyhaique to Tierra del Fuego Patagonia Fly Fishing Road Trip Adventure. 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....

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

Fly Fishing Patagonia Road Trip Adventure Part 3: Onward and Southward Fly Fishing Patagonia Road Trip Adventure: Our chase continues through Patagonia Fly Fishing Patagonia Road Trip Adventure. 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...

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

Fly Fishing Road Trip Adventure Patagonia Part 2: Triumph and Humility Fly Fishing Road Trip Adventure Patagonia: Welcome to fly fishing in Patagonia Fly Fishing Road Trip Adventure Patagonia. “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...

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

Fly Fishing Road Trip Patagonia Adventure Part 1: One the Verge Fly Fishing Road Trip Patagonia Adventure: 1 week away Fly Fishing Road Trip Patagonia Adventure. 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...