I want this guy to design flyfishing stuff

  I wonder what Da Vinci would have come up with if he had been a fly fisherman?....  Theo might know.....  

Theo Jansen.... can you imagine?   I'd love to fish with a fly rod and reel designed by this guy.  His website has even more information on his creations.

True Films

Gotham Fish Tales ....    stories about how and where New Yorkers fish....    

Trout Grass  is a documentary about making and fishing bamboo ....  the best part of this is the filming on location in China. Seeing how the tonkin cane is gathered and prepared opens up new revelation for every bamboo rod you touch. 

Rivers and Tides  ,  a documentary about Andy Goldsworthy is  art about art. Ephemeral and provocative,  Goldsworthys work is timeless.  Much of his work is created near , in or of water.  I never tire of the mystery found in waters and this DVD will open your eyes to more of the invisible but eternal beauty that surrounds us yet eludes us. 

    Paul Mclean exlpains to his brother Norman in "The River runs Through It" the essence of this notion... " First you see something noticeable, then you see something less noticeable and finally you see something invisible." 

The Fine Art of Angling, Ten Modern Masters

   If you haven't seen this book on my website,  I hope you'll check it out. DiLes Pubishing and Diane Inman   created a beautiful book.  I'm one of the artist featured and the paintings they chose for the book are some of my favorites... some photos of the collector edition here... Fly Fishing Journal. 

     I have some copies available and would be glad to personalize them for you if you want one. You can contact me at Rod Crossman.

Music for the Road and the Fishing Trip...

    Roll down the window and turn up the Allman Brothers.   In Memory of Elizabeth Reed   helps those hours on the road seem shorter. Most of our fishing around here means a road trip.  Jimbo and I always listened to Gordon Lightfoot when we were on our way to a fishing destination.  Habit or superstition ,  it seemed to bring us good luck.  Here's some other music to tick away the miles. 

  Jeffery Foucault is moody and little dark but perfect for hours on the road before dawn.  Miles From Lightning  keeps the sun out of your eyes.  

David Wilcox .... one of my favorite singer song writers....   his music and poetry are right on in  Perfect Storm   

    Pierce Pettis is another great singer songwriter... Alabama 1959  and  Love Will Find You Again are so beautifully written and played. 

    Peter Mayer sings my favorite version of my favorite song.....  you need  itunes to go here   Moon River

  The Silent Fool  by Eric Mongrain is instrumental genius like rain in the river.... art that takes you where you haven't been before

 

Handmade books and" Listening to the River"

 

   Stone Street Press is where Malachi  McCormick crafts handmade books.   I just ordered " Listening to the River"  from him , sounds like a book I needed. A family memoir about a young boy and a Father with a passion for dry fly fishing and for words. 

More on Nets

   When I was a kid, our fishing net was aluminum with a moss green cotton bag, the kind you buy from the local Hardware. We landed a lot of fish from Otter Lake with that thing. It was a reliable companion,  full of memories and always willing to go fishing no matter the weather.

     The bag on the net bellow is injection molded  PVC ,  there is some thinking that the rubber type bags are easier on fish. I don't know for sure but they seem practical  and easy to use.  Wachter nets use beautiful woods and the latest technology in their design. 

        Fishnat produce a line of nets with all rubber  bags that look good.  They claim that it is a better bag for catch and release. 

Landing Net Art

 Hand crafted wooden landing nets are a visual delight, check out Sams workmanship on  Nets that Honor Fish. 

     

Skipping Stones

   I take a break to skip stones every now and then while I'm fishing.... it's a way to connect all the days, months and years of my life together.  My all time record number of skips?.... I think it's somewhere around 19.  It was my dad who taught me how to skip a rock.  I remember the awe and the magic I felt when he danced that rock on the waters surface. It was another of those gifts he left with me that only after all these years I'm beginning to understand. Skipping stones has helped me find a collection of unique rocks or fossils that I store on shelves along side my favorite books.  Each one attached to a memory of  the river.  

      

Classic Angling Magazine with my painting on the cover.

 

 Classic Angling Magazine featured my painting " Wish upon a Star"  on the cover of the most recent issue. Published in the U.K and a great read...  it also has an article on fishing in Mongolia which has always been a dream of mine. 

What I see ...not what I think I see....

   This is a painting I finished awhile back...  it is already sold.  I'm interested in that moment of vision , memory and imagination that collide when you see something beautiful. What a miracle water is.  It's another of those things I'm trying to understand. It's really what this painting is about.  

  

The Art of Fly Reel Design

Fly Reels that are innovative, beautiful, and functional with an emphasis on new ideas and technology.  

Dormisch - Absi R2

Astrid   

   Ari T Hart design , I keep bidding for his reels on ebay .... never won an auction yet. 

 

Swiss Tackle....   

  Aesthetics and Function....    

   Psaros Reel..

   Technology meets Art and Design.....

     

Marco Reel.... form and function create fly reel design that is beautiful....

A perfect reel for fishing the trico hatch 

Trico Take

  One of my latest trout paintings...   it's already sold but I thought you might like to see it. I love fishing during the trico hatch.  One of the most tiny and ephemeral of all mayflies.. hatching, molting, mating , laying eggs and dying in just a couple of hours.  A summer time hatch that can  turn a trip to the stream into a one of those perfect moments we are all in search of. 

Gates of Paradise

  This photo is the first of four sculptured panels I've created for the doors in a fly fishing cabinet I'm working on.  they are cold cast bronze but can also be cast in resin.  I have been in awe of "Lorenzo Ghiberti's  Doors" also known as the "Gates of Paradise" for  a long, long  time.  I guess these are my idea of the fisherman's version.  I'm expecting a lot of trout streams and dry fly fishing in Heaven. 

      G.E.M Skues wrote about his idea of " Fishing in the Hereafter"  in a short story that will captivate you.... you can find it in the Armchair Angler. A anthology of provocative  fishing short stories. 

Three Good Books

    Read the water, read the rise, read the wind, and then read these books..... 

   "Rivers Course through my dreams, rivers cold and fast. rivers known and rivers nameless, rivers that seem like ribbons of blue water twisting through wide valleys, narrow rivers folded in layers of darkening shadow, rivers that eroded down deep in a mountain belly, sculpted the land, peeled back the planet's history exposing the texture of time itself."  - Harry Middleton  ,  Rivers of Memory 

 " The Earth is Enough "  by Harry Middleton  

" Under Cottonwoods"   by Stephen Grace  

"The Run to Gitche Gumee"  by  Robert F. Jones 

  

 

Fly Fishing Lamp

   Photos of the Fly fishing Lamp I designed.....

  

  close-up
 close up, the base is hickory and river rocks....  
   the trout are all Brookies ,  the plexiglass is 1/4 inch thick and i used a dremmel tool to deeply carve  the image so it has a three dimensional look.  

 ....  I designed and etched the pexiglass by hand ...  The furniture company I work with , Old Hickory, designed the base for it... The first photo shows two Old Hickory chairs and end table... the chairs have images my paintings applied to  the leather backs.   

A Smile

  What's in a smile? .... I love Tony Bennett's version of " Smile ."  I'm trying to smile more, even when I don't feel like it...   One thing about my friendship with Paul( photo below)... he could always make me smile... something only really good friends can do , what a gift ...  A smile, it's such a simple thing, yet simple things are not easy to understand. Mother Teresa put it this way, " Peace begins with a smile." 

    A Charlie Chaplin youtube video on the subject. 

   When I can , I still like to wet wade. It makes me smile. Paul  drove down from Michigan last week and we fished old school style, in shorts and sneakers. It was a perfect day for it. Warm and Sunny, cicada's singing,  the fish biting and smiles from old friends. 

A Reason to Wet Wade

   When I was younger I always waded streams wearing old cutoffs and tennis shoes, no fancy waders.  Wet wading a river helps create a reverence and understanding for the water and the creatures that live there. This is one of my flyfishing buddies Paul Steinway with a Kentucky smallmouth. Immersed in memories and water.....

Carp on the fly