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A Dad, A Daughter And A Small Stream

Guest Blogger: Jim Murphy, Neenah WI, long-time J Stockard customer and avid fly tyer

We sat on the bank of the stream, my daughter and I, and re-lived a day that will be entered into the photo album of my mind…forever. We had just finished fishing on a pretty little freestone stream that flowed through a flowered meadow which was literally on top of the world. We were somewhere between Red Lodge and Cook City Montana in the high country of the Beartooth/Absaroka Range.

I don’t get to do that much anymore. I mean fish with my daughter and so when the opportunity presented itself I jumped. She had moved to Colorado shortly after finishing nursing school in 1992. The pull tugged so hard she just packed her bags, picked up and left the Midwest to explore the wonders of the mountains.

Continue reading → A Dad, A Daughter And A Small Stream

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Uncommon Knowledge, Part 3

Guest Blogger: Michael Vorhis, author of ARCHANGEL suspense thriller, OPEN DISTANCE adventure thriller & more to come

Part 2 of this post presented some info on body temperature, the language of motion, migration and spawning. Part 3 discusses species origins and diversity, claims to fame, and some points on diet.

Species Origins, and Man as Proliferation Mule

Rainbow and brown trout may be in the same family (Salmonidae), but they’re different species in different genera. Ancestrally, the family divided into two groups between fifteen and twenty million years ago. Oncorhynchus (from which rainbows spring) became isolated in the North Pacific, and Salmo (the browns faction) in the North Atlantic.

So the natural range of brown trout extends from Iceland to the Atlas mountains in North Africa and from Ireland to the Ural Mountains and the Caspian sea. Non-natives to North America, browns were introduced in the second half of the 19th Century from Germany and the UK. And there are no native brown trout of any kind in the southern hemisphere–all introduced by man. Conversely, rainbows are not native to Europe or the British Isles; they were introduced by man around the same time browns came to North America.

Continue reading → Uncommon Knowledge, Part 3

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Uncommon Knowledge, Part 1

Guest Blogger: Michael Vorhis, author of ARCHANGEL suspense thriller, OPEN DISTANCE adventure thriller & more to come

We may think we know our quarry. But I’ve spent part of this past winter doing some research, which has uncovered some knowledge tidbits of which I was unaware and which in many cases lend me an improved understanding. Some of them will result in trying things differently. I thought I’d share some of these facts with you, on the chance you might get a similar benefit.

So many aspects of trout lore are widely known by fly fishermen; but I’ve tried to avoid including the more commonly obvious items in this article. Instead I’m listing only items that could raise an eyebrow here and there. Also, I’ve uncovered one piece of info for one trout species, and another for another; so it’s very much a swiss-cheese-esque picture I can paint. Anyway, here we go:

Continue reading → Uncommon Knowledge, Part 1