Skip Morris Article Blog

(...not a blog, not an article, but somewhere in between...)




Reflecting on How To Succeed in Fly Fishing

Skip Morris Article Blog— Once you reach an age that gets you into movies at senior pricing (even if you aren't yet retired nor are old enough to start getting Social Security payments) and have fished since you could stand upright without help, you'll have gathered some perspective.

And some wisdom? Perhaps.

Insight? You'd have to have gained insight from all that fishing unless you spent those thousands of hours holding a rod with your eyes shut and your mind switched off (which means you're either long gone from drowning or are actually a robot).



Skip Morris Article Blogs:

Off-the-Cuff Impressions, Thoughts, and Experiences
from a Longtime Fly Fishing Writer


Perspective and wisdom and insight worth writing down and then worth reading?


We hope so, because Skip has put into prose his reflections on all these things, and more, in the pieces below. They're off-the-cuff impressions and thoughts, experiences, suggestions for fly-fishing success, in general a look into the mind and feelings of a longtime fly-fishing writer.

These pieces are too free and loose to be articles, and they're not quite blogs. But whatever they are, they are here. And they are free for you to read at your leisure.


Learning at Your Leisure

In the Skip Morris Article Blogs, you'll learn some things that will catch you more fish and make fly fishing more fun, such as how sharp fly fishers on a Montana river found more tricks for moving pampered trout in a sullen mood than a Mississippi riverboat gambler brings to a card table. And how keen observation can lead you to patches of avidly rising trout other anglers miss.

But you'll find ideas to ponder here too, often the kind only experience provides.

Why, for example, are fly fishers east of the Rockies mad for smallmouth bass while so few seem to care much about this marvelous sport fish in the West, even though western smallmouth water here is everywhere?

And there are stories, such as fishing amid half-clad and unclad sunbathers on a California creek in the liberated 1970s.


The Soft Side of Experience

What these pieces are not is a course in fly fishing or fly tying—in fact they're something of an escape from all that (despite how valuable focused fly-fishing instruction is).

We all need to escape sometimes from information, challenge, and the demands of growing our knowledge and skill, and instead relax and let the soft parts of our consciousness carry us on a gentle ride.



So pick a piece among the ones below,
release the competitive corner of your nature to watch it drift away,
and enjoy the stories, scenes, ideas, and experiences to come.


Click here to hear Skip's interviews on popular podcasts...


Click here to hear Carol's interview on photography
(How to Capture What You See) on AskAboutFlyFishing.com...


*Announcements*



Skip has an essay in Big Sky Journal's annual Fly Fishing issue, called "Montana Hoppers: the Princess and the Brute" released February 1, 2023. Skip rewrote it a bit; I painted and illustrated it here, on our website. Here's the link on our web page to check it out:


Click here to read Skip's essay Montana Hoppers: The Princess and the Brute...



Skip's latest books:

Top 12 Dry Flies for Trout Streams: How, When, and Where to Fish Them, is now available on Amazon as an ebook...check it out! Click on the links below to go to the information page on Top 12 Dry Flies (the link to Amazon is at the bottom of the page...)


Click here to get more information about

Top 12 Dry Flies for Trout Streams: How, When, and Where to Fish Them (the link to Amazon is at the bottom of the page)...

Top 12 Nymphs for Trout Streams: How, When, and Where to Fish Them, 2nd Edition, originally published as an e-book only, is now available on Amazon as a paperback...check it out! Click on the links below to go to the information page on Top 12 Nymphs (the link to Amazon is at the bottom of the page...)

Click here to get more information about

Top 12 Nymphs for Trout Streams: How, When, and Where to Fish Them (2nd Edition). . .



Click here to get more information about Skip's e-book,

500 Trout Streams...

Skip's latest paperback book:

Click here to get more information about Skip's latest book,

365 Tips for Trout, Bass, and Panfish...



Print Skip's chart for FREE:

Skip Morris's Trout-Fly Proportion Chart

Go to Skip Morris's Trout Fly Proportion Chart






Skip's Predator is available to buy...

Skip's ultra-popular Predator—a hit fly for bluegills and other panfishes and largemouth bass (also catches smallmouth bass and trout)—is being tied commercially by the Solitude Fly Company.

Skip Morris's Predator

The Predator


CLICK HERE to learn more about or to purchase the Predator...






Learn to Tie Skip's Predator

Do you want to tie the Predator?

Skip Morris's Predator

Tying the Predator

Skip shows you how to tie it on his YouTube Channel link, listed below:

CLICK HERE to see Skip's detailed video on how to tie the Predator...