A Hole the Size of Texas
By Hayden Mellsop / February 12, 2019
The smooth face of the earthen dam spans the gap between two flat-topped mesas a half-mile distant, the mesas pockmarked with snow...
Read More
Riding the Rainbow
By Hayden Mellsop / December 18, 2018
The tires rolling across fresh snow made a muffled chirp, reminiscent of the soft trill of a flock of grebes, floating on...
Read More
What’s it All About?
By Hayden Mellsop / November 5, 2018
Traveling thirty miles down a gravel road generally rewards one with a degree of solitude. So it proved as we crested the...
Read More
The Lake
By Hayden Mellsop / September 5, 2018
As lakes go it is not particularly impressive, rather an elongated pond with an inflow at one end and an outflow at...
Read More
How Much to Tip Your Guide?
By Hayden Mellsop / March 2, 2018
Ever since society evolved to the requisite level of sophistication where someone could call themselves a fishing guide without being laughed out...
Read More
Run Coyote, Run
By Hayden Mellsop / February 3, 2018
I climbed the small knoll to get a better view of the land ahead. The meadow in front of me was a...
Read More
Ruby Canyon Revisited
By Hayden Mellsop / January 12, 2018
We pushed the boats away from the beach and into the flow. For a time, river and interstate ran side by side—two...
Read More
The Accidental Angler: Rainbow’s Reward
By Hayden Mellsop / January 5, 2018
It is my least favorite climb. Not because it is the steepest—it isn’t—or the longest—not so. Rather, for its duration it keeps...
Read More
The Accidental Angler: Doctor’s Orders
By Hayden Mellsop / December 29, 2017
Terry was from the Texas Panhandle. He never spoke in a rush, each vowel the length of a short story. He was...
Read More
The Accidental Angler: Two Miles More to Camp…
By Hayden Mellsop / December 14, 2017
I scrambled up the lose rock of the bank, slipped off my pack and, sitting with my back against a sun-warmed boulder,...
Read More
The Accidental Angler: Two Miles More to Camp…
By Hayden Mellsop / December 14, 2017
I scrambled up the lose rock of the bank, slipped off my pack and, sitting with my back against a sun-warmed boulder,...
Read More
The Bother of Fish
By Hayden Mellsop / December 7, 2017
“We’re going after big fish this afternoon. Enough of this little fish nonsense.” I reached under the seat for my fly box,...
Read More
The Bother of Fish
By Hayden Mellsop / December 7, 2017
“We’re going after big fish this afternoon. Enough of this little fish nonsense.” I reached under the seat for my fly box,...
Read More
Once Upon a Time on the Mohaka
By Hayden Mellsop / November 30, 2017
My boots settled into the soft pea-gravel of the river bed. I stood silently, thighs and calves braced against the steady press...
Read More
Solitude on the Bighorn
By Hayden Mellsop / November 16, 2017
There came, for a brief time in the afternoon, an impression of being completely alone on the Bighorn. Beneath a breaking sky,...
Read More