Deeter covers flyfishing

I just returned from an extraordinary flats fishing trip to Christmas Island , in the central Pacific Ocean. And though the fish were plentiful, the crazy El Nino weather pattern is in full effect, which meant plenty of rain and clouds throughout the week. By adjusting our approach, we were still able to catch many bonefish, triggers, and trevally under conditions that would have had many anglers bummed out.

Shortly after daybreak, on a hot, grimy Montana morning, Pete Cardinal and I stood knee-deep in the Missouri River and watched fies flutter by the thousands. Thick gray columns of the bugs wafted like smoke plumes over the foamy eddy upstream. The trout were already dialed in, swirling and gnashing at the surface, their mouths clicking and popping like castanets. An epic hatch was happening right before us—and I was feeling anything but confident.

Nike has its famous “swoosh.” Coca-Cola and Campbell’s Soup have their trademark red cans…but what icon in the world of fishing stands apart most? I think it has to be the G.Loomis “skeleton fish.” This mark was conceived by a hat company roughly 20 years ago, and then tweaked by the company over time (the teeth added, then sharpened, the fins flared and so forth). According to G.