FISH HOUSES - Andy Mill's Florida Home Fully Dedicated to Tarpon

This is a fun one with Any Mill of Mill House walking through his Florida home.  Press PLAY...



This is a great idea for a new video series and look forward to Flylords rolling other episodes out.

D MAGAZINE - Meet the Compleat Dallas Angler

Longtime T.F.M. reader and glass junkie, David Hale Smith, has written a fun article for D Magazine that is worth a read.  It appeared in the printed June issue and is now available online.

 

CHECK IT.

AMFF - Fishing the Collection - Season 2 - Episode 3

The Fishing the Collection film series continues with the American Museum of Fly Fishing with an Austin, Texas warmwater SUP trip with Beth and a vintage bamboo Paul H. Young 7'6" 5-weight.



Visit the American Museum of Fly Fishing website and consider supporting their work of preserving the history and heritage of fly fishing with your membership.

LIFE LIST - Notes on Seeing the Kirkland's Warbler

My spring trips to Michigan are typically a whirlwind of getting somewhere to go fly fishing, meeting up with guides for evening or overnight floats, sleeping in the car, and fetching friends from the airport to get them up to the next airport to fly over to Beaver Island for the week.  The days are always a blur and I rarely take time for anything else.

This year's trip was more of a slow down with me having the better part of a day and a half to find my way up north.  It gave me the opportunity to make an early morning stop at Hartwick Pines State Park to take in the Michigan Audubon Kirkland's Warbler Tour, which had been on my list for years.

 

I grew up somewhat of a "Bird Nerd" and that followed me through college with Saturday morning birding trips all around southwest Michigan, trips to Point Pelee National Park for spring migrations, winter trips to the Upper Peninsula and into Ontario, and I was even was on a team for several years for "wild" 24-hour Southwest Michigan Birdathons.  I've more or less pressed pause on any sort of serious bird watching for the last twenty-five years but seem to be getting pulled back in.

On my "Life List" of nearly 40 warblers already seen, the one that has been missing was the Kirkland's Warbler.  This large warbler is rare since it only ground nests in particular jack pine forested areas, which are limited to areas of northern Michigan around Grayling, Wisconsin, and areas of Ontario.  Numbers of mating pairs have held steady but still not a bird that most have seen. 

 

After meeting everyone in our group at Hartwick Pines State Park, the guide led us a few miles away to a sand road parking lot where the dozen of us went for a walk with jack pine on either side of rarely driven road.  Within minutes, the song of the male Kirkland's Warbler could be heard, followed by another some distance away.  These calls were followed by others and through the morning we heard more than a dozen Kirkland's Warblers sing.  They were here but we needed to wait it out until hopefully one would fly up to one of the many dead trees mixed in above the jack pine forest to sing.  We had some sharp eyes in the group, which was a collection of birdwatchers from the deep south to out east and places between.  

Photograph Provided by Beth Fritts

It didn't take too long before someone from the group found a Kirkland's Warbler off in the distance sitting on a limb but in the morning light, all I could see through my binoculars was the dark chunky silhouette of the bird.  No real field markings.  I really hoped that this wouldn't be the only one we saw as I didn't want to check it off in my field guide by just that look.

We continued to walk slowly down the road with the group spreading out over hundreds of feet.  Stopping.  Listening.  Glassing.  More singing was heard but the birds were near the ground and not up in the trees where they could be seen.  This meant more glassing and listening.  

Patience paid off awhile later when a Kirkland's Warbler flew up to a nearby tree and sang for a few moments to allow most in the group to get an extended look.  One of the birdwatchers had a telephoto lens on her camera and snapped a quick photograph that she graciously shared with several of us days later with an email.  

We saw another for just a moment as it flew from one side of the forest to the other and then one other a bit farther back in the woods.  Certainly not as good of a look as the one that you see in this post.  

By mid-morning I was ready to get on the road to head farther north, but what a neat experience.

Just a couple of gear notes to wrap this up that if you're interested in birds as all, the Merlin app is an essential.  It's really unbelievable how handy this application is with identifying bird sounds, photo, and Bird ID Wizard.  It's free and works worldwide.

I am a huge fan of Maven optics and have been using a pair of B.7 10X50 binoculars since last spring.  They are compact, lightweight, and are perfect to always have along for bird watching, sporting events, hunting, and more.  The optics are super sharp with high contrast and these binoculars may be small but offer a lot being waterproof, fog proof, with multi-coated lenses.  I've decided that after this trip that they will always be tucked in my gear bag for impromptu birding and even looking for fish activity when on the water.

If you are ever in the area of Grayling, Michigan in the spring, the Kirkland's Warbler Tour is well worth taking a morning for.  It only cost $20 per person and was easy to sign up for online.

CATCH MAGAZINE - Finnish Troutland

Big browns busting bait?  Yes, please.  Check out the latest from Todd Moen of Catch Magazine...



Dive down a rabbit hole of fine fly fishing films on the Catch Magazine YouTube channel.  

6 Good Reads

Here's a six-pack of great articles to get you through your morning at the office.  From Alaska to the links and everything in between.  Enjoy...

SKWALA - ALASKA STEELHEAD FROM THE ADVENTUROUS

VINTAGE TROUTS - CURRENTS ON GRANDPA'S FISHING VEST

WINSTON FIELD NOTES - CRAIG MATTHEWS ON BAETIS

FISHPOND - THE LONG WAY IN

CTS FISHING - CAMEL CITY CUSTOM RODS

THE OLD GHOSTS - HICKORY GOLF AND HIDDEN TREASURES

What's been on your summer online reading list?  Email to share any favorites.

CAMPBELL OUTFITTERS - A Downstate Float

On most trips up to Michigan, I make a beeline from South Carolina stopping in at my folks house, maybe for an overnight but often not, and then quickly head north.  This trip however, I decided to stick around for a couple of days and reached out to guide Allen Campbell of Campbell Outfitters to float one of his back pocket warmwater streams.  Where most would focus on coldwater fisheries, Allen is going a different direction in spending the majority of his guide time logging floats on various warmwater streams in lower Michigan.  Add to his growing resume that he's a fantastic fly tier and photographer making him a fun follow on Instagram.

We've been talking about doing a day together for a couple of years now and were even a little unsure if this trip would work out since he and his family just welcomed their second child.  Through some careful scheduling his very understanding wife and helpful mother-in-law, we were able to meet up for a morning into the afternoon float on a stream that was surprising close to where I grew up.

Along for the day was artist Jeff Kennedy, who I've known online since the very beginning of T.F.M., which you have to take the wayback machine to 2008 when he was working on Drawing Flies 365.  He's also the artist who created the Retro Fly design that first appeared as No. 158 on his daily fly art project.  

Somehow we've gone all these years never meeting in person and this day on the water was long overdue. 

I can't thank him enough for allowing me to use that piece of artwork as a logo for T.F.M. over the past almost 18 years.  It's showed up all over the world on t-shirts, decals, fly patches, golf tees, and more.  You can read this previous T.F.M. post with notes from Jeff on the inspiration and background of this, dare I say, "iconic" piece of artwork turned T.F.M. logo.

We met before 7:00 a.m. on what was going to be a spring day with a mix of overcast and sun and temperatures that started out cool but warmed through the day.  This stream holds a mix of warmwater fish but we were specifically looking for smallmouth, pike, and heard rumors of musky.  The nice thing about it is that the gaudy flies of bucktail and feathers from Allen's boat box work on all three with a bit of wire leader tied on, just in case.

It wasn't long before we picked off a few smallmouth followed by a decent pike.  This continued through the morning and was topped off with the rush of a three foot long musky who came from beneath a downed tree, barrel rolled the fly, and cleanly sliced the wire leader.  GONE.

What a rush.  I'm not even mad about losing the fish.  I was just glad that I didn't troutset it and the wire parting was just a freak thing to happen.  I can't stop thinking about that fish, though.

An early start meant an early stop for lunch and there will be a follow up post for this A+ lunch of brats and hotdogs that Allen quickly put together on his Blackstone Camping Griddle.  This stop gave me a few minutes to poke around Allen's fly boxes, take some photographs, and see some of the sketchbook art work that Jeff brought along with him.  There will be a fun follow up post to look forward to with a sketch and painting that Jeff created from this float.

So, if you're keeping score, there is a follow up lunch post and art post both in the works.

Our float wound down in the early afternoon with Jeff hooking into a pike that was holding in some structure in stained water.  We pulled Allen's Upriver Boatworks Stream King over to take a few photographs before continuing down the river.  What a day.

If you find yourself in lower Michigan, take a day (or several) with Campbell Outfitters.  Allen runs a great operation and I look forward to future time with him on the water.  Follow along on Instagram, too.