Michael Gracie 

A year and a few months after dumping my Blackberry for a Nokia flip, I’ve turned back to the dark side. Part of the reason was simply needing email in my pocket again – I’ve got several projects going on right now and I’m feeling the heat every time I step away from the desk [...]

As of January 22nd, I had not caught a trout in the year 2010. It was not for lack of trying. On January 1st I hit Cheesman Canyon. And despite decent weather and plenty of spottings I went home empty handed. Last weekend I could be found tromping around the Blue River. The temperature was [...]

You cast. You catch. You land. You smile. You color. You lobby. You lose. And you still smile. This afternoon I checked the mail, and smiled yet again. A pile of schwag compliments of the folks at FishyKid.org. Included in the consolation package was a piece of Buff headwear, a Moffitt Angling System, a copy [...]

At approximately 11:30pm yesterday, after struggling with database queries for most of the evening, I poured a lightly dressed cocktail. The vise was mounted, and I attempted to tie a carp pattern I’ve been thinking about. The vision was a small crawfish, lacking color, much as I’ve seen darting about in certain environs. Using a [...]

It’s winter (and how’s that for stating the obvious?). For some that means peering out the window to cold, dark skies, maybe doing a little gear maintenance, and in the off chance you do hit the water, getting brutally skunked. Fly shop proprietors, like those at Denver’s venerable Discount Fishing Tackle, do things like tear [...]

In the simplest terms, you present the fly and the fish takes it. Drill down however, and things are not quite so easily defined. The fish gets hooked, and subsequently gives up significant amounts of energy trying to break free. Sometimes it does, taking a tiny piece of your spirit along with. Other times you [...]

Not too long ago there was a WordPress exploit running around – the gist was someone was doing brute force attacks on login pages using the default administrator account. The problem, generalized, is that the default administrator account within WordPress is set to “admin” and cannot be changed – all a hacker has to do [...]

Yesterday I took a run down to the South Platte River, just south of the Denver city limits. My good friend Jon Emert in tow, we were ostensibly seeking carp. The South Platte River is considered a dirty place – people don’t expect to see fishermen there, particularly not fly-fishermen. Par for the course, we [...]

Cathy Beck denied this was the case, and said she’s just getting set up. It wouldn’t be the first time, as you’ll soon find out. I had a chance to sit down with Barry and Cathy Beck, the first couple of fly-fishing, at the Denver International Sportsmen’s Expo. They’ve been in the fly-fishing business their [...]

Ask any of my fishing friends what my favorite fly is and they’ll tell you it’s undoubtedly the Sex Dungeon. Who wouldn’t love a fly with a name like that? What a lot of people still don’t get though…trout love ‘em too. Particularly big trout. I’m also known for taking plenty of skunkings, but that’s [...]