Sustainabl­e? Sounds like a fish story

In “Go Fish,” Mackensy Lunsford shows that it can take a good deal of effort to identify so-called environmentally friendly seafood choices [July 20 Xpress]. Yet it’s much more difficult than she noted. Scientists using DNA technology recently revealed that 20 to 25 percent of seafood products are fraudulently labeled, with the rates of fraud […]

The Practical Fly

It may take awhile, but neophytes eventually figure out where to go fishing locally. Over time, fisherfolk generally find each other and exchange information, but establishing such a network doesn’t happen overnight, and it does take some work. You spot a Trout Unlimited bumper sticker on somebody’s truck and strike up a conversation in a […]

Outdoors: The Practical Fly

I was in seventh grade when I caught my first trout on a fly, using a royal coachman. Lee Wulff, the warrior god of modern fly-fishing, improved on this classic pattern, substituting hair for wings and tail (to make it more buoyant, durable and easier to see in rough water) and dubbing it the royal […]

The Practical Fly

Back in the late 1960s, a new trend arose in fly fishing that was known as “matching the hatch.” A hatch is the specific point where the larval form of an aquatic insect rises to the water’s surface (referred to as “emerging”), shucks its outer shell and metamorphoses into a flying insect. Check your fly: […]

The Practical Fly

The biggest trout I’ve ever caught on a fly rod was snared with an outfit that cost me $20 at the local pawnshop. It’s a 7-foot rod with a cheap reel, and it came with a weight-forward line—all of which probably didn’t cost more than $60 when it was new. The rod is so cheap […]

Outdoors: The Practical Fly

A couple of years ago, I spent about three months restoring the exteriors of the two log cabins at the President James K. Polk State Historic Site, just south of Charlotte. The site is in an urban area, and Little Sugar Creek, a nondescript stream about the size of the Swannanoa, runs adjacent the property. […]