Michael Gracie 

I spent a few months in Florida over the winter, ostensibly for work. But with Tampa Bay just around the corner I decided that was as good an excuse as any to update my gear selection. After a bit of test casting and chatting with guides, I decided a Scott S4S 908/4 would be one [...]

My waterproof wonder, the Pentax Optio W30, finally outlived its useful life started to bore me. That camera was easy to use, had plenty of functionality, and took great pictures (despite its owner). So I upgraded. A few days back the new Pentax Optio W90 arrived on my doorstep. I won’t be providing some detailed [...]

It’s closing on two years since I first dropped a bug on the water with a Scott fly rod. The G2 905-4 is a staple of my quiver, unequal in terms of delicate presentation capability. Unfortunately, I’m prone to throwing meat, particularly at dawn and dusk (and midway between 8am and 10am, at 12pm on [...]

A couple of months back MidCurrent ran a story on going minimalist, with waist packs taking center stage. I’ve been a lover of waist packs for years, and have gone through several, alternately switching back to vests now and again, but always winding up back where I started. I’ve been using one exclusively for the [...]

We’ve seen a lot of unexpected weather in Colorado as of late. Rivers have stayed marginally above normal as a result, and I’ve kept my waders on. Some carping conditions have been decent for wet wading, and I’ve taken advantage of the fact, but it’s been more of a chest wader game outside of the [...]

If you’re a thoroughly obsessive fly fisher (yes, that’s an oxymoron, but bear with me) you’ve probably wondered what the useful life of your fly line is. You may find cracks and nicks in that line and rightly figure it for the trash heap. Other times you may just see that floating line sinking and [...]

Orvis’s TLS line has been around quite a few years, and has certainly been the target of its fair share of reviews. But we fly fish in a world where four piece rods are the norm, and when I found this Orvis TLS Power Matrix 908-2 Tip-Flex 9.5 I figured it would be an oddity [...]

Everybody and their mother knows I can give fly fishing waders a good swift kick in the crotch pants. As gear goes, waders are what I am toughest on, and as a result I generally don’t scrimp when it comes to them. The last full-time use pair, Simms Guides, have just about had it. And [...]

Woe is the person or company who hands me something to review, and only expects me to tear their gear to pieces. No, around here I [unintentionally] destroy all samples, but not until after I’ve extracted a pound of flesh for the benefit of this blog’s vast multitudes…healthy count…minuscule number of readers. A few days [...]

Including a taste of the Grey Reef Following up on part one of the G. Loomis Eastfork 5 weight review, I finally had a chance to put the stick through the paces. The location for testing was the Grey Reef – North Platte River, Wyoming. Casting I’d previously noted that the rod was very accurate [...]