Brown trout, a fine art photograph by Pat Clayton (fisheyeguyphotography.com) It might surprise most fly fishers that it's almost easier to catch a big fish with your bare hands than it is with a fly. I learned this while fly fishing with my good friends and mentors Craig Mathews and Yvon Chouinard on the Granger Ranch in the Madison Valley of southwest Montana.  To the uninitiated, the Madison Valley cradles the Madison River, part of the famous triumvirate of streams that come together at Thre...

In June 2004, I went fly fishing for the first time on Mill Creek in Montana with my Dad and brother.  By the end of the day, I was pissed because Logan, who is older than me, had invaded my fishing hole and stolen fish I thought were mine.I had been working an eddy behind a big boulder without success. The fish were there.  I could see them. And then Logan moved up behind me. He made one cast into the hole and immediately hooked a monster brown trout.  When I told the story to Dad, he became an...

I love maps. They let me know where I am, where I have been and where I might be headed in the future.  But I never expected that my interest in fishing might lead to me becoming part of a map-making team.
It was already past the time of the solstice when I left home for my summer “job” in the Madison Valley working on the historic Granger and Longhorn cattle ranches. Part of my assignment was to help map the reach and path of a spring creek that functions as an important tributary and spawning...

It might surprise most fly fishers that it is almost easier to catch a big fish with your bare hands than it is with a fly.  I learned this while fly fishing with my good friends Craig Mathews and Yvon Chouinard on the Granger Ranch in the Madison Valley.
It was during finals week at school, and I decided I needed a breather from all the stress that I’d built up from studying. After losing it a couple of times, I decided to call Jeff Lazlo, the owner of Granger Ranches to ask if I could come dow...