Photo by Jim Stenson

Today’s “contemporary sportsman” finds him or herself increasingly at risk of developing an identity crisis. You are here reading this because you get excited by the outdoors. I’d be willing to bet that also means you have at least a passing interest in some of the natural resource issues that pertain to your pursuits of choice.

These days I can sit here in my home office in Cornwall, a beautiful corner of southwest England, and produce work for many different clients all over the world. Technology has given me this ability, but it was not too long ago when I went to my first computer lecture at university and didn’t even know what a mouse was, let alone understand terms like RAW, aRGB, RAM, Gigabytes, and Photoshop!! Talk about times a’changing. If there is one single thing in my working life that I have embraced to the max, it’s the whole digital photography thing. I love it, and I love the control and flexibility it gives to somebody like me who works for themselves and on their own.

Doc Of The Drakes, 5 Min from bryan huskey on Vimeo.

My first video production for Silver Creek Outfitters, filming friend Pete Wood and “The Doc” developed into an incredible story.

Jerry Wagner is a good friend and one of the best all around outdoorsman I know and obviously a very good Steelhead fisherman. Jerry Wagner caught a 41″ long Steelhead that weighed 24lbs, spey casting on the Babine in B.C. Oct. 7th. He was fishing at the Silver Hilton Steelhead lodge. “Hope it’s not my fish of a lifetime, I plan on having a replica made,” Wagner says.

Some people are born lucky. I grew up in a part of the country with hauntingly beautiful mountains and enormous trees, the scale of which could be called mountains in some parts of the world. And from those mountains flowed the most stunning
rivers and streams.

I believe the year was 1984, or maybe it was 1985. My old friend, Joe Hedrick, had just sold me a vintage Leonard Rod and he casually suggested the need for a Bogdan trout reel. I asked where I might acquire this reel and he replied that I would need to dial this phone number (which he had handy) in Nashua, New Hampshire, and then go out to the Crossroads and make a deal with Old Scratch.

Everyone’s idea of the perfect getaway is probably a little different. Maybe your image of bliss is a rustic cabin with no television and no cellphone coverage. Perhaps you would prefer a Japanese-style soaking tub and free Wi-Fi.

In recent years, few trends in fly fishing have captivated its practitioners as thoroughly as Spey casting. We have conclaves, fairs, contests, and all manner of events concentrated on the teaching, demonstration, and thorough examination of that very exercise. There is even a cult of casters so possessed with distance and the competitive aspect of the activity I suspect they rarely apply their considerable skills in the service of fishing. (It could be I say this because these casters are so good, and can throw such a long line, I have to imagine they seldom fish in order to not feel completely inadequate!)

April 21st – May 3rd, 2012
Travel with the writers and photographers of The Contemporary Sportsman to Patagonia to chase some of the largest Rainbows and Brown Trout on the planet. Twelve nights and eleven days fishing some of the greatest waters Patagonia has to offer. The pièce de résistance is a three day float trip down the Rio Lemay. The Lemay is considered by many people the best big trout river in the southern hemisphere.

Email Jim Stenson the Managing Editor and Publisher of The Contemporary Sportsman and The Contemporary Wingshooter for more details at jim@integrateddigitalpublishing.com.

The Contemporary Sportsman’s Subscription Challenge
Enter for your chance to be the lucky winner of a new Tibor Everglades QC.

To qualify all you need to be a current subscriber and recruit 10 friends to be new subscribers.

Remember it’s still free. Just send the first name, last name, and email address of 10 friends to Jim Stenson at jim@integrateddigitalpublishing.com. We will set up their accounts and let them know of your gift and you are on your way to winning. Your name then goes into a drawing and the winner will be selected March 1, 2012.