False Casts is the fishing part of this website. It represents everything in this world from fly fishing to stream management techniques and has multiple meanings. In a traditional sense, false casts are the casts necessary to load a fly rod so that it may create the energy to carry the fly line far enough to deliver the fly to where the fish is holding. All the great casters I know are one false cast casters because they have spent most of their lives on rivers becoming part of the water they wade and the fish they seek. They load the rod with a minimum of motion but deliver the fly with maximum line speed created by the expertise of their timing. As all things in life, timing is everything.
Fishing is a timeless space between the then and now. It has given me the peace of mind that I needed so I could deal in the everyday world. Since I was a young child, fishing always soothed me.. I walked most of the Sierra Nevada mountain range as a boy because my dad was the head surveyor for the US Forest Service on the Toiyabe National Forest. I would fish every day on the Truckee River as it flowed through downtown Reno, Nevada. After Little League or Babe Ruth baseball was over, I would go with my dad and stay out in the mountains where he surveyed roads and campgrounds. Most of my life has been spent on the waters of this country. From the Sierras to the Rockies, from the limestone streams of Pennsylvania to the Steelhead waters of the northwest, I have wandered and learned about the timelessness of rivers. It was the first place that I could stop time and live in the now. And now, fifty years later, I can feel the water seep into my soul filling me with the timelessness of the ages.
So False Casts will deal with fly fishing, everything from run-off forecasts to conservation, from fly patterns and how to fish them. It is your best place to get the straight stuff on western waters, hatches cycles and techniques of how to fish them. It will also inform you about the right way to approach water you have never fished before. It will teach you to observe before you wade, observe before you cast, and observe before you move again.
False Casts will inform you about the cycle of life and death of our great river systems. It will explain to you the importance of water management and creative conservation of those water systems from a practical viewpoint. There is one intrinsic difference between my viewpoint and the rest of the people who espouse to know something about the subject. And it is this, We are almost out of water in America, and our population base exceeds our water capacity. If you don’t believe me, ask Las Vegas about Lake Mead.
The Water Wars are just beginning. The upper Missouri drainage and the 9 rivers that form it are the most important water source on the planet. The Missouri River Basin waters the wheat belt, which feeds the rest of the world. Ponder that for a while, and then talk to me about it.