Sparrows began to pile up on my desk, but I still didn't have enough. The pheasant skin lay nearby, and I had plenty of rabbit and squirrel dubbing. The more sparrows I tied, the faster I got, and the better they looked. Jack Gartside's Sparrow is a fly pattern that fish like.
Gartside was a Boston fly tyer with a larger-thanlife personality. I fished with him in Boston Harbor for stripers one day, and I recall he was as good a storyteller as he was a fisherman. At one point, he jumped overboard in thrift store suit pants with a cigarette in his mouth and waded to one of the harbor's many rocky islands. He was one of those grand guys who pursued fish and fun with equal passion.
I tie easy flies, and I usually follow the recipes carefully, at least the first few times, but then I'll change things up. I'm the same way with food, too. Make the recipe the way the author intended and then change it to suit the tastes of the customers whether they be fish or humans.
I love the simple elegance of the sparrow pattern. Three different feathers from a cock pheasant tied on a streamer hook with a rabbit and squirrel body. As a chef, the sparrow appeals to me the same way a good food recipe does. I wondered, maybe pro fly tyers feel the same way about food as this chef does about tying? So I decided to call the best fly tyer I know.
Denne historien er fra Summer 2024-utgaven av The Upland Almanac.
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Denne historien er fra Summer 2024-utgaven av The Upland Almanac.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Tail feathers - STANDARDS AND PRACTICES
\"An armed society is a polite society,\" the NRA says in one of its dicta, cribbed from Robert A. Heinlein, a 20th-century American science fiction writer.
Day's End - IN PRAISE OF FENCEROWS
Driving north along the Hudson River, I gazed at a pastoral autumn scene: sere fields of faded yellow harvested corn, stubbly and broken amongst the clods of black earth, almost smooth from my vantage point. Spiky brown veins of wild growth marked barriers between plots. Occasionally, the gray bones of a mature oak rose among the brown shrubs to stand over the yellow fields. A sentry, keeping silent watch as white frost crystals slowly melted into invisibility.
That Time of Year Again
Without doubt. The most idyllic form of hunting in Ohio is seeking the woodcock. - Merrill Gilfallan, Moods of the Ohio Moons: An Outdoorsman's Almanac (1991)
I Don't Wanna'!
I'm an old hand at being retired, though - have been practicing for 25 years.
Hunting the Huns: Alberta's Big Sky Country
The prairies of southern Alberta are vast, beautiful and full of prime bird habitat. Crop fields are interspersed with abandoned farms, rolling hills are intersected by coulees and creek beds, and Hungarian partridge and sharptailed grouse occupy some of the best and most picturesque habitat on the continent.
Side Dish - End of Season
Sporting trips are not only about sport, as many other experiences are discovered alongside. And my trip to Lakewood Camps in Maine was certainly just that.
AN EXTENDED STAY
There is no reason to leave Michigan in the fall unless the opportunity of a cast and blast adventure at a historic sporting lodge in Maine comes calling.
KEEP IT HANDY
If you think shooting a ruffed grouse on the wing with a shotgun is tough, try shooting one in flight with a still camera.
A Longtime Love Affair
It's possible to hunt your favorite birds in a lot of different places, I suppose, but I don't do that.
Profile of an Artist: Harley Bartlett
Harley Bartlett was born in 1959 near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. However, having lived in Rhode Island for most of his life he considers himself a Rhode Islander.
