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Visitors: There are many other forums here, only registered users can see them and use them. If you would like to participate here at smallstreams, please register... once you have registered, you will have access to another forum, an area for trial users. Post a brief Bio there and let us know a little bit about yourself in that thread. When you have done that, you will be given access to the rest of the site. Using this process keeps our membership free of spambots, lurkers and viagra pushers...

Thanks!

smallstreams.com is one of the oldest fly fishing web sites on the internet, period.

We are an international group of fishers who have grown into sort of a brotherhood.

The premise of the site is based on not letting the media define who we are. Early on, I stopped purchasing magazines, they made me want to chase my tail like a dog. I felt like I had to look and act like what I saw in the magazine pictures and in the articles in order to be a "fly fisher" and I just wasn't having fun or getting better at having fun. The non-progression was a drag and discouraged me. The crux was when I wrote a beautiful heart felt article and sent it off to a magazine for publication and was rejected.

The editor said what I had written was not what they wanted to promote...

This was in the early 90's.

About that time, my mother gave me her Macintosh computer (she bought a new one) and a co-worker taught me to make a simple web page. People back then were primarily connected by AOL as I was myself. AOL had few choices and followed the same formula as the magazines.

So I went about making my own web page about fly fishing small streams. At that time, I was working part time in the evenings and weekends at a local Orvis shop. A very talented fisher, Dylan Kennedy (fresh out of high school) taught me to "break the mold" by doing what the fish wanted in order to catch them and let all my choices follow inline behind catching fish. The first thing I did was to give away my vest and concentrate on minimizing my kit. The next thing I chose was a one weight rod and continue to choose the line weight for the size fish I was going for.

I began writing about my adventures and placing them online for people to enjoy. I began receiving e-mails and stories like mine and I started posting those stories. I was approached by a friend who helped me develop a forum on "Arizona's Small Stream Fly Fishing" Our forum was the second forum on fly fishing Arizona, the first (and now defunct) was John Shannon's site, "Arizona Fly Fishing" which I was extremely fond of.

The site grew quickly. I began to promote the use of bamboo and started a string of contests to promote the art of writing and fly fishing bamboo rods. It was a difficult task but honorable in that we all enjoyed each others stories and there was a common theme, our members were passionate about fly fishing, pure and simple.

In short, we are a very old site as far as the Internet time line goes.

Our members began writing me to tell me that their writing improved because of the web site. Their articles were being accepted by magazines. Others wrote books on fly fishing and gave thanks for the advice we gave them. There were members who went on to become editors in the magazines, guides on the water and owners of companies, all with just a little help from us.

Early on we began to accept advertising and we started to become a part of the machine ourselves.

But the natural evolution continued and the site slowly found it's way back to where we came from, not wanting to be a part of the machine.

And now we are almost full circle.

I have learned how to make bamboo fly rods and continue to learn new techniques on how to make them. With the help of a few friends, we continue on with our own passion writing about fly fishing and our lives in it.

Thank you Brooks, Ivan (where are you?), Gerard, Chef and now Gus for your honor, loyalty and friendship in helping me keep the faith. There are many many others (you know who you are) that are out there, too many to list who have helped us form our little group.

We make the site as much like the places we like to fish, not elbow to asshole busy on opening day, we are small and quite and we like it that way.

From the mountains to the sea, we are all small streams of information.

adam