That obscura you see in the background is Henry's leg. I'm trying to get him out more. He weighs 95 pounds and I don't know how that happened. This rain and snow might kill the mushroom harvest. Or it might make them pop up like crazy. We will see. 

It's the end of the semester and I've come to the conclusion that I could just as well play old Sam Cooke songs to my students rather than going on and on about MLA rules and what to do in the case of three or more authors. The river is murky, and will remain murky. I deal in murk.  And it helps a bit as the trout can't see your leader, or you and your dogs patrolling the riverbank. The hot fly is the brassie, in size 16. Don't make things more complicated than they already are. Do the right thing. There's no reason to fish with bead eggs or Squirmy Wormies. Got back to your roots. Tie on an actual fly, and get to work. Have a beer on the way back to town (but only drink while driving on the dirt roads). Find an Oldies station to guide you homeward. Am I advocating for breaking the law? Hell no. I'm advocating for simplicity. 

I have a new essay about fishing for salmon in the May/June issue of Gray's. For those of you who still read, you should check it out. 

I used to live in rural Kansas and this is the time of year we always looked forward to. To be In the woods as the first birds begin to sing, to hear the turkeys fly down off their roosts. I loved fishing for bass with my fly rod at the various church ponds. In the spring we caught huge bass and crappie.  Here's two kids with their birds on opening day. Steve Schroeder sent me this photo of his son and his son's friend. .Next year I'm going back to see if I can get a tom myself.

  You can listen to my latest podcast via Sound Cloud by going here:  The Drake Cast.    And, if you are suffering from the winter blues you can read my latest post for VisitCasper.com here: March Madness. 

The Cast, a fly fishing newsletter I am working on with VisitCasper.com  has launched its newest feature, You can check it out here: ​The Cast  I managed to get wild horses, Jim Harrison, and Chad Hanson all in the same piece.

We had a rare nice day this week. The winds were light and the temps soared to the mid 40s. I went out to the public access along the North Platte to try for an early season rainbow. I didn't move a fish. But the evening was nice and the dogs got a chance to stretch their legs. 

I have a new project to announce. Working with Visitcasper.com , we've come up with a 12 episode newsletter we are calling The Cast. Here's a link https://visitcasper.com/the-cast-the-sweet-stuff/ to the first episode. The Cast will be a place where we will celebrate the fishing around Casper and beyond. I hope you'll sign up and read some issues.

Fresh off the presses, the new edition of The Drake is out. My feature, Mosquito and Char, is in this issue right beside one of my literary heroes, Tom McGuane. My story is a fishing story with a twist. Bill Mixer, my hand model and coffee epicure, is in this version, though we cut his role severely. 

I went out with Chad Hanson to look at wild horses and wet a line. The horses cooperated, but the fish did not. I used to not give up so easily, but when your guides are full of ice the line won't flow through your rod, and when you can't cast, why bother? It was a beautiful day and Henderson got to scare up a flock of 14 wild ducks as a bonus.