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    Ryan Sparks

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    Fly

    No New Nose Piercings: How to Fly Fish in the Wind

    Ryan Sparks

    Mar 30, 2020

    Wind is one of fly fishing’s biggest challenges. Whether fishing fresh or saltwater, the breeze make casting difficult and at times impossible. With spring on its way in many parts of the country, fly anglers are eager to get outside, but howling spring winds cause many of them to compulsively check the forecast and wait for a calm day instead. After a long winter anticipating lakes and rivers thawing, there’s no reason to stay inside. Learning...

    Restore Cork Handles and Bring New Life to Your Fishing Rods

    Ryan Sparks

    Mar 20, 2020

    Dirt, fish slime, blood, sweat, stink bait— chances are your fishing rod’s handle has all those things rubbed deep into the cork. Throw in hours of sun scorching, slamming in rod holders and beach spikes, occasional drops, or perhaps the teeth of a new puppy, and it’s easy to see why the cork is dried out, cracking, and chipped. Some anglers take pride in their handle’s battle-worn appearance and fish it until it crumbles in their hand like a...

    Freshwater

    How to be a Fish Bum: Lessons from the Best

    Ryan Sparks

    Mar 16, 2020

    “If you’re too successful to fish whenever you want, one could argue that you’re not really a success.”  -John Gierach
    John Gierach coined the term “trout bum” in his 1986 book of the same name. He used the phrase to affectionately refer to hardcore anglers who devoted all their time and money to fishing for trout. “A trout bum,” Gierach wrote, “is someone who has made fishing the center of his life. Everything else is secondary...

    Upland Birds

    How Not to Act Around Someone Else’s Bird Dog

    Ryan Sparks

    Oct 22, 2019

    I grew up around bird dogs. As a kid, my dad bred and trained English pointers. We had anywhere from five to 10 dogs at a time, and I’ve had a dog of my own since the fourth grade. Having a good bird dog is like owning a boat or a prime whitetail lease—you get to pick who tags along. I’ve hunted with a variety of people, from first time hunters to seasoned veterans and everything in between. The first thing to understand about most dog owners is...

    Freshwater

    The Future of Mom-and-Pop Fishing Shops

    Ryan Sparks

    Oct 8, 2019

    I’ve always loved hometown tackle stores. The kind of places with “Beer, Bait, Ammo” advertised in neon out front. Some of them stick to the basics: hooks, sinkers, bait, and licenses. Others are highly specialized tackle warehouses with unique lures for local waters and up-to-date intel on what’s biting and where. They’re places where you can grab what you need and go, or hang out, talk fishing, and not feel pressured to buy anything. Sadly, I...

    Cooking Techniques

    Stop Using the Word “Gamey”

    Ryan Sparks

    Sep 26, 2019

    My wife and I rarely buy meat from the grocery story, instead opting for the variety of game meat and fish stored in our freezer. When we have people over for dinner, we might cook quail, deer, duck, goose, pheasant, some of the fish we’ve recently caught, or any number of wild things most Americans aren’t accustomed to eating. In my mind, our chest freezer is a literal treasure chest and I’m always excited to prepare wild game for uninitiated...

    Freshwater

    Make Your Own Damn Lures

    Ryan Sparks

    Sep 11, 2019

    When I moved to Ontario, our neighbor’s teenage son helped us unload boxes. Spying copious boxes labeled “fishing,” the boy looked at me with excitement. He said he had been fishing almost every day that summer, and I told him to pick out something as a gift for helping us.
    He was a little confused when he opened the first box and found wads of flamboyantly colored feathers and semi-preserved animal skins.
    “What is this stuff?” he asked
    I...

    Fly

    How Fly Fishing Made Me a Worse Fisherman

    Ryan Sparks

    Jul 9, 2019

    Bowhunting sparked my interest in fly fishing. When I first picked up a bow as a teenager, it brought a new set of challenges and added depth to a sport I already loved. When I bought my first fly rod some years later, I knew absolutely nothing about fly fishing, but assumed it would be the bowhunting equivalent to fishing, and, in many ways, it was. I quickly spiraled down the long-rod rabbit hole. Fly fishing became an obsession, one that...

    Carp

    MeatEater’s Guide to Carp: Part Three, Eating Carp

    Ryan Sparks

    Jun 7, 2019

    This is the third installment in a three-part series asking readers to take a fresh look at carp despite their lowly reputation. Part One covered the history of carp in North America. Part Two explained how to find and catch carp using a variety of methods. This installment describes several ways to prepare them for the table.
    When I lived in Iowa, I frequently fished for carp in a large reservoir. One day while wading the shoreline, my feet...

    Carp

    MeatEater’s Guide to Carp: Part Two, Subduing the Suburban Salmon

    Ryan Sparks

    May 30, 2019

    Bugle-mouth, scaled whale, golden bonefish, mud marlin, river Roomba, suburban salmon—those in the know have a variety of colorful names for carp. As more people come to the realization that carp are a plentiful and challenging gamefish, they are challenging the widely-held perception that carp are trash fish.
    This is the second installment in a three-part series that asks readers to take a fresh look at carp and their reputation as a “trash fish...