Author: Don Paglia

Tip #74: “When I go fishing I … want to get away from it all, for it is silence and solitude even more than it is fish that I am seeking … As for big fish, all is relative. Not every tuna is a trophy.”                                                                                                 William Humphrey We’ve been over this many times before, […]

Tip # 73: “To ask certain questions is to answer them. The answer to ‘Should we punt?’ is always yes. The answer to ‘Is that Sinatra or one of the other guys?’ is always one of the other guys. The answer to ‘Is this fly too big?’ is always yes.”  Jon Margolis and Jeff MacNelly, […]

Tip # 72: “In the best stories about fly fishing … big fish are caught or lost; people say wild and spontaneous words; event becomes memory and sometimes, in the hands of a master, bleeds into art.”                                 Nick Lyons, author of Bright Rivers and Confessions of a Fly Fishing Addict Gail and Sam have […]

Tip #71: “By the time I had turned thirty, I’d realized two important things. One, I had to fish. Two, I had to work for a living.”                            Mallory Burton I know of three strategies for living a fulfilling and satisfying life. One way is to get a job you really love; one where you get […]

Tip # 70: “There will be days when the fishing is better than one’s most optimistic forecast, others when it is far worse. Either is a gain over just staying home.”  Roderick Haig-Brown, Fisherman’s Spring, 1951 “What’s the worst thing that could happen?” Such a great question to ask whenever you are contemplating doing something […]

Tip # 69: “Angling may be said to be so like the mathematics that it can never be fully learnt.”  Izaak Walton -The Complete Angler  Some things seem to come about with age, along with the vast experiences one obtains from living long enough. Age on its own doesn’t bring about automatic growth. But, with […]

Tip # 68: “After the doctor’s departure Koznyshev expressed the wish to go to the river with his fishing rod. He was fond of angling and was apparently proud of being fond of such a stupid occupation.”  Tolstoy, Anna Karenina Most people surround themselves with their tablets, cell phones, TVs and all sorts of technological […]

Tip # 67: Part Two of Two: A successful marriages require two adults. Each party must bring into the relationship enough maturity and capacity to take care of himself or herself. Self-care is not selfish. It is responsible. Only the Self can take care of the Self. The relationship can only work if it is […]

Tip #67: Part One of Two: “Of course, now I am too old to be much of a fisherman, and now of course, I usually fish the big waters alone, although some friends think I shouldn’t. Like many fly fishermen in western Montana where the summer days are almost Arctic in length, I often do […]

Tip #66: “In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing. We lived at the junction of great trout rivers in western Montana, and our father was a Presbyterian minister and a fly fisherman who tied his own flies and taught others. He told us about Christ’s disciples being fishermen, and […]