Every fisherman in the parking lot seems to have a thirty-inch fish story, don’t they?

You know what I hear when someone says a fish was “about two feet long?" I hear: "I didn't measure the fish."

Bass guys don't put up with this stuff. My friend, Sawyer (a dedicated bass and musky guy), is dumbfounded by the cavalier way trout fishermen throw estimates around. In his world, if you didn’t measure it, you don’t put a number on it. They take it seriously. We trout fishermen embarrass ourselves with estimates.

Continue reading Thirty-Inch Liars at Troutbitten.

I walked around the bend and saw his blue truck, but I couldn’t see Gabe until the lean man sat up. He stretched and slid slowly off the tailgate, onto his feet and into his sandals. The climbing sun made the blue paint of his pickup bed too hot, and when the shadows were gone, the dirty fisherman’s rest was finished.

Gabe leaned back on the hot paint again and grabbed the duffel that he used for a pillow. The faded bag was stuffed with clothes: some stained, some clean, and most half-worn-out. He pulled a thin, long-sleeved shirt from the bag and changed, tossing his wet t-shirt toward a damp pile of gear by the truck tires. The long sleeves were his sunscreen; the beard protected his face; the frayed hat covered his head, and the amber sunglasses filled the gap in between.

Gabe was a trout bum. Not the shiny magazine-ad version of a trout bum either, but the true embodiment of John Geirach's term: authentic, dirty, and dedicated to a lifestyle without even thinking much about it. He fished on his own terms. He was a part-time fishing guide for the family business and a part-time waiter. We never talked much about work, though. I just know that Gabe's life was fishing, and everything else was a cursory, minor distraction.

Continue reading The Dirty Fisherman at Troutbitten.

Big trout are on the lookout for non-escaping prey. Yes, even the largest trout in a river would rather snatch an easy meal that won’t run away from them. Big trout are lazy — let’s call it efficient — and they avoid chasing down their dinner whenever possible. What the heck is non-escaping prey? What […]

Continue reading Ask Landon Mayer | One key habit of BIG trout, and the flies to match at Troutbitten.

Here’s one from the Troutbitten archives, an on-the-water story with one of my favorite tips stuck in the middle. Take Five … The lack of production today is killing me. I’ve looked forward to this trip for weeks: tying flies, scanning maps, reviewing old photos and telling stories to anyone fishy enough to listen. I […]

Continue reading Backcast | Take Five at Troutbitten.

The modern streamer approach asks trout to get up and chase something down, to kill it and eat it, while the old school streamer game presents an easily available chunk of protein to the trout. It doesn’t ask the fish to chase very much. In essence, old school streamers come to the trout, and modern streamers flee from the trout . . .

Continue reading Streamers as an Easy Meal — The Old School Streamer Thing at Troutbitten.

We know that different patterns work for trout at different times, but it’s helpful to acknowledge that some flies move trout a lot further than others.

So what kinds of flies motivate trout to move a little further?

Continue reading What Moves a Trout to the Fly? at Troutbitten.

That pivotal moment when everything changes. The event that makes the trip. The defining instance that separates all the memories that come before from the ones that come after. It’s what I wait for — what I look for every time I’m out there — and it’s why I keep fishing . . .

Continue reading Wait For It . . . at Troutbitten.

My story, Thirty-Inch Liars, is over at Hatch Magazine today. Here are a few excerpts….. — — — — — — — — — — … I once read through a publication that printed, “Thirty-inch wild trout are common in this stretch of water.” Now, I don’t care what river in the continental United States you […]

Continue reading Thirty-Inch Liars at Troutbitten.

My Dad and I have often visited a campsite in the same remote spot atop a state forest mountain for almost fifteen years now. The spring trip is a four or five day event focused on fishing for wild brown trout in the limestone waters at the bottom of the mountain, and through the years we’ve […]

Continue reading Spring Camp With Two Boys | 2016 at Troutbitten.

Why do we value wild fish over stocked fish? What are the benefits, and what exactly are these distinctions?

Continue reading Wild vs Stocked : The Hierarchy of Trout in Pennsylvania at Troutbitten.