On Monday, I gave a talk about the Storied Waters tour at Orvis headquarters in Arlington, Vermont to about 25 Orvis associates. Nearly everyone in the audience was a fly fisher and a reader of the fly fishing literature, of course, so the Q&A session was a good exchange of experience about fishing along my route and authors. I picked up some good contacts for help in Michigan and the Adirondacks, plus an offer to use a camp up in Maine off the Golden Road. I swapped books wi

After launching the Storied Water tour at Walden Pond, where Thoreau "lived deliberately" in 1845, I moved on to Manchester, Vermont where Charles F. Orvis founded the Orvis Company in 1856. It is funny to think of the two men as contemporaries. Thoreau never made it to Vermont to get casting lessons on the Battenkill. (He made it as far west as Mt. Greylock near Williamstown.) But Henry's ghost came along with me get some pointers from Pete Kutzer, the star of many Orvis cas

What does one pack for a six-week fly-fishing and writing excursion? Good question. I do most of my fishing in the remote backcountry here in northern New England. I usually try to get as far away from the crowds as possible, so when packing to go fishing, I bring along everything I will need for two or three days away from civilization. If I don’t have it, I make do. This trip will be a bit different. If I forget something, I can always stop somewhere to buy it. So, I am no