We can all agree that reading is essential to the well-being, education and entertainment of society. I’m honored that @PatagoniaBooks in association with @PublishersWkly have begun a campaign #BooksAreEssential and I am a small part of their program. Please check it out, and pick up a book or two, for now more than ever before we find that books are indeed essential.

Two-days ago my co-author friends of our book, “Simple Fly Fishing” jumped on ZOOM and had a short face-top-face discussion. Yvon Chouinard, Mauro Mazzo and I wrote our book a few years back and last year we completely revised it adding lots of color photos and illustrations. The book has won worldwide acclaim for its “instructional” and “best guidebook” qualities, and more. Nick Lyons who has written and published many iconic-wonderful fly-fishing books has said about our book, “Simple Fly Fishing is brilliant in its insistence on simple essences….it is a superb primer of core wisdom for all fly fishers”.

Yvon, Mauro and I visited about our book, and how the proceeds from the sale of it go entirely to native/wild fisheries and conservation programs.

Back to ZOOM. Mike Thompson, Dylan Tomine, Rick Koe, Mark Harbaugh, jumped on the call along with Yvon-Mauro and I. Our discussions centered around fly tying and fly design, and of course fishing. Mauro has been locked down in Italy for over a month and Rick, Mike, Dylan and Yvon have not been able to fish trout or steelhead. Mark is from Idaho so he and I were the only ones to report on current fishing excursions. The group listened intently to Mark and my fishing reports while they could only chime in about how many flies they’ve tied and books they’ve read. We agreed to another call next week, stay tuned.

I’ve read and re-read several fly-fishing books this winter. Books written by authors like Mottram, Walker, Skues, Marinaro, Proper, Lyons and others. I’ve written 3 fly-fishing articles and I will keep you posted when and where they’ll be released. Two have been accepted and the final piece I wrote this winter-spring is over 6,000 words so who knows where this one might end up, if at all! I have fished over 60 days since February. And, I’ve spent countless hours, sometimes in snow-wind and cold, gleefully training my bird dogs.

Finn (11 years old), Dozy (5 years) and Gizmo (2 years) love to work and train, and sometimes be with me. They continue to teach me patience and repetitive-consistent focus and concentration, and hard work. They have trained me in more ways than I can recount, or begin to thank them for. Their endless enthusiasm and love for a guy who at times seems helplessly lost in mumbling to himself or the big-blue Montana sky is amazing to me. The tolerate me, all the while wagging their stubby-docked German shorthair tails like 3 metronomes keeping time with each other. I love them. I only wish they’d live much-much longer.

Yellowstone countries conservation organizations are very much in trouble during these hard times. Knowing there’s not a lot of extra cash handy for many of us we have to dig in a little deeper and send what we can to those organizations like Yellowstone Forever, International Federation of Fly Fishers, Conservation Hawks, Madison and Henry’s Fork River Foundations, Montana Wildlife Federation and Western Rivers Conservancy. Please help them out if you can and thank you for doing so. Send me a receipt from the organization to my address listed on the website. For every $25 you send to them I will tie you a fly, in special THANKS for contributions. Send them $100 and I’ll make it 6 flies! Thanks in advance and until next time stay safe and I hope to see you this season if things permit.

@pwpics

@publisherswkly

@patagoniabooks