If you can’t spend a week building a bamboo fly rod, you can at least get a taste for crafting something from scratch by tying our own flies.
You only need a few tools to get started (a vice, scissors, hook, and super glue). And the materials that form the body of the fly are common household items like yarn; Oyster used hair from his cat for the first fly he tied himself.
Orvis makes fly-tying kits with materials to create several common fly patterns that have been proven to fool fish. Choose large fly patterns (size #10 or #12) first, as they’re easier to complete.
Clamp the curved end of the hook into the mouth of the vice, then start winding yarn around the long arm of the hook to mimic the body of the insect you’re creating. See full instructions here. And if you want professional help, most specialty shops offer hands-on courses in building and tying flies to match the hatch of your local waters.
Masters
of Craft
Meet the visionary artisans who transform nature’s purest elements with time-honored traditions and cultivated experiences.
THE TEACHER
Bill Oyster built his first bamboo fly rod because he couldn’t afford to buy one. In his mid 20s and transitioning from a professional road cycling career, Oyster was spending most of his time fishing the small streams in North Georgia’s mountains, and fell in love with the romance and poetry of catching a fish with bamboo.
“There’s nothing practical about fly fishing with bamboo,” Oyster says. “If you want to catch fish, get a net or a can of worms. The whole point of fly fishing, especially with bamboo, is to do the thing in a more complex and satisfying way. It’s the doing of it that makes it special.”
Almost 30 years after first building that first rod, Oyster is still building bamboo fly rods. His hand-crafted tools, built in his workshop in downtown Blue Ridge, Georgia, are some of the most sought-after in the industry, appreciated for their precision craftsmanship. But Oyster’s greater passion is helping others build their own fly rods; He runs a popular workshop where anglers spend a week crafting their own rod with Oyster’s guidance.
“Most people never have the opportunity to make a functional thing from raw materials with their own hands,” Oyster says. “There will be no better rod to you than the one you built yourself.”
And that first fly rod Oyster ever crafted? It’s hanging above his fireplace. He still uses it to fish the small stream in his backyard.
“It’s not perfect, I don’t show it to a lot of people, but I decided I didn’t want to improve it. I’ve left it exactly as it is, with all of its flaws.”
THE CHEF
Taku Kondo is an internet sensation. A trained sushi chef who has worked in some of the finest establishments in San Francisco, Kondo gave up the traditional culinary path to document his passion for cooking and the outdoors on YouTube.
“I loved being a chef, but being cooped up in a kitchen for ten hours a day was tough,” Kondo says. “I moved to California with my mom and two brothers from Japan when I was young and grew up in the outdoors, roaming free as a kid, so I decided that living in a van would be a good move.”
Now, viewers follow Kondo as he prepares restaurant-quality meals all over the world using ingredients he’s foraged and caught himself, whether it’s looking for clams off the coast of California or catching and smoking salmon in Alaska. You might not think fine cuisine like sushi and camping go together, but Kondo disagrees.
“I’m using live shellfish and live fish,” he says. “As a sushi chef, you can’t ask for fresher ingredients than that.”
Kondo obviously isn’t the only one who appreciates the juxtaposition of fine cuisine in wild landscapes. His YouTube channel, Outdoor Chef Life, has well over 750,000 followers, and he’s releasing a new cookbook, Coastal Foraging, this spring. The steady rise is proof positive of a growing desire for a closer connection to our food. And Kondo is excited to share how these elevated meals can be made in the wild, demystifying the art of foraging for the masses.
“It’s accessible to everyone,” Kondo says. “Fishing is hard. You get skunked a lot, but foraging is easy, especially on the coast, where you can gather mussels and clams, all this delicious protein that’s readily available. And the edible plants that grow all over have more nutrients than the versions you buy in stores.”
Foraging and cooking in the wild is not as intimidating as you might think. While regulations vary on public lands, you can harvest safely and legally on many common plants found in backyards across the country. The most common and arguably one of the most delicious? The dandelion.
Yes, that “weed” that seems to pop up everywhere is edible. In fact, every part of the dandelion is edible, from the root to the flower. The best part, however, is the “heart,” which is the base of the plant found underground and can be tender and buttery when prepared correctly.
First, forage dandelions in spring, if possible, when the plant is young. This also keeps the leaves from being bitter. Dig up the entire base of the plant. The part where the roots sprout from its bottom is considered the heart. Clean the plant thoroughly, and separate the leaves from the heart.
Add butter to a cast-iron skillet and heat over an open fire. Once the pan is hot, add several dandelion hearts to the pan, season with salt and pepper, and sauté for a few minutes until the plant softens and is browned. Add the clean leaves and juice from a quarter of a lemon to the pan, toss together, and serve.
THE BUILDER
Zak Fellman seems restless. The Minnesota-born woodworker has enjoyed a series of successful businesses in the past two decades, founding Sanborn Canoe Co. with his cousin, crafting gorgeous canoe paddles out of woods like red alder, walnut, and cherry, then creating Pillbox Bat Company, where Fellman makes high-end baseball bats for collectors. And then there’s his art studio, HVRNT, where Fellman creates tree-ring prints from stump rounds of various hardwoods.
“I just like the process of making things,” Fellman says of his evolving passion for woodworking in a variety of different realms. “Once you figure it out and master it, it almost loses the magic. It’s the curiosity of making and learning new things that I like. And there’s always something new to learn.”
The first thing Fellman learned how to make from wood was a canoe. He grew up paddling the Boundary Waters with his family, and his grandfather was a dedicated woodworker who offered the tools and guidance necessary to complete the job. Fellman and his cousin spent an entire summer building that first canoe out of strips of cedar.
“We went into the process not knowing anything at all and learned a lot of things that summer,” Fellman says. “The canoe floated. I bet if we would have built a second one, it would’ve been better.”
But Fellman was already on to the next thing: handcrafting canoe paddles out of the extra wood leftover from his canoe project, and Sanborn Canoe Co. was born. And then baseball bats, and then tree-ring prints—the list goes on. Each of these projects requires a different discipline and technique, but a common theme runs through all of Fellman’s creative endeavors. “It’s the marriage of functionality and beauty,” he says. “That’s what’s super cool to me. I make art, but it’s art people can use. That’s what I enjoy.”
Though Fellman started with a canoe, he recommends an easier entry into woodworking.
Follow this easy three-step process to create your own functional art.
Choose a round from a fallen tree that matches the size of the table you want to make. Any hardwood species will do. Clean the stump of any dirt or vines. Then, using a chainsaw, make sure the top and bottom are level.
Next, strip the round of its bark with a sharp hatchet. Sand the entire surface until it’s smooth. Start with a heavier-grit sandpaper and finish with a finer grit.
Finally, apply a clear polymer to seal the round from the elements. The polymer will also enhance the wood’s natural tones, bringing out different shades. (You might need to apply two coats of polymer.) Dry and enjoy.
THE PROCESS
Barley is soaked in water, allowed to sprout, then dried in a kiln—activating enzymes that convert starch into sugar.
The dried malted barley is ground into grist—a coarse flour that’s ready to meet hot water.
Grist is combined with hot water in a mash tun, releasing the fermentable sugars needed for alcohol creation.
Yeast is added to the sweet liquid (wort), kickstarting fermentation and transforming sugars into alcohol.
The fermented liquid called the “Wash,” is distilled twice, separating and concentrating the alcohol from the water. The resulting new-make spirit leaves the still at around 70% ABV.
The spirit rests in hand-selected oak casks, where it slowly develops Aberfeldy’s signature honeyed richness and complex character.
THE VIEWFINDER
Scroll through Sonja Saxe’s social media feeds and you’d think the photographer spends all of her time hopping from one far-flung location to the next. Her photos are stunning, depicting hard-to-reach backcountry scenes full of ice, towering peaks, and serene lakes. The most impressive feat? She does it all as a weekend warrior. Saxe is an established adventure photographer with a nine-to-five day job in Seattle as a product merchandiser for Eddie Bauer. That’s why her weekend adventures are so important, and why she decided to start capturing them on film.
“I’ve found that going on an adventure fills up my cup emotionally even if I may feel exhausted physically,” Saxe says. “I come back from the trip feeling reinvigorated, inspired, and fulfilled. And those are the feelings that keep me going through the workweek.”
Saxe picked up photography shortly after taking up hiking, teaching herself the craft by watching YouTube videos, taking the occasional online tutorial, and lots of trial and error.
“I quickly learned that buying a camera doesn’t make someone a photographer,” Saxe says. “The best photos elicit a physical reaction. They can actually stop me in my tracks or stop my thumb from scrolling further on my phone. They make me forget where I am for just a moment.”
And what exactly constitutes an ideal photo in Saxe’s opinion? It’s all about light and composition. She points to Ansel Adams, arguably the greatest landscape photographer of all time, as her model.
“He composed his photographs in a way that takes your eyes on a journey through the frame,” Saxe says. “That visual journey is what great photography is all about.”
Want to level up your social media photos? Consider each image you make a crafted composition. Here are three questions Saxe asks herself before she snaps a shot.
1. Does the photo work at eye-level, or is it better when you kneel down and take it from ground level so the foreground is filled? Changing the angle you take a photo from can dramatically change its composition.
2. Where in the frame do you want your subject? Putting the subject in the center of the photo is most people’s default choice, but play with moving that subject around in the frame to bring out other elements in the composition. Think about how the viewer’s eye will move through your photo.
3. Where is the lighting coming from, and how is that affecting your subject? Would it be better to take the photo from a different angle to account for the lighting?
reward
Discover the key flavor notes that define an aged single malt worth the wait.
12 YEAR OLD
Aberfeldy 12 Year Old single malt scotch whisky is a honeyed dram with notes of fresh fruit, vanilla and cinnamon spice.
SHOP NOW
16 YEAR OLD
Additional finishing in Oloroso Sherry Casks impart honey, fruitcake, & dark chocolate to this Single Malt Scotch Whisky.
SHOP NOW
21 YEAR OLD
Aberfeldy 21 Year Old is a Single Malt Scotch Whisky with floral heather honey, creamy intensity, dried fruits & toasted coconut.
SHOP NOW4 casks are used across Aberfeldy’s range, each imparts unique flavor notes and character to the scotch whisky.
4 casks are used across Aberfeldy’s range, each imparts unique flavor notes and character to the scotch whisky.
4 casks are used across Aberfeldy’s range, each imparts unique flavor notes and character to the scotch whisky.
4 casks are used across Aberfeldy’s range, each imparts unique flavor notes and character to the scotch whisky.
“Whisky is magical when it interacts with wood, The two elements were made for one another.”
reward
Discover the key flavor notes that define an aged single malt worth the wait.
12 YEAR OLD
Aberfeldy 12 Year Old single malt scotch whisky is a honeyed dram with notes of fresh fruit, vanilla and cinnamon spice.
SHOP NOW16 YEAR OLD
Additional finishing in Oloroso Sherry Casks impart honey, fruitcake, & dark chocolate to this Single Malt Scotch Whisky.
SHOP NOW21 YEAR OLD
Aberfeldy 21 Year Old is a Single Malt Scotch Whisky with floral heather honey, creamy intensity, dried fruits & toasted coconut.
SHOP NOW4 casks are used across Aberfeldy’s range, each imparts unique flavor notes and character to the scotch whisky.
“Whisky is magical when it interacts with wood, The two elements were made for one another.”
