Monday, November 20, 2023

Ground Zero - The Global FlyFisher Site


* Note the books: Martin's self published gem about sea run brown trout angling nd my humble contribution, The Curtis Creek Manifesto (of course he already has a copy dammit!).

On a recent visit to Denmark, I reached out to one of the founding fathers of Fly Fishing on the Internet: Martin Joergensen of the website Global Flyfisher. This was one of the first sites that I found when exploring fly fishing resources on the internet and I remain a huge fan. We are talking ages ago. Remember, I am the knucklehead who still uses an AOL address (don't worry, I also have gmail). 

One of the topics often covered in his site is angling in Scandinavia for sea run brown trout. What has been fun to note is the parallel between this pursuit and that for sea run cutthroats in the Pacific Northwest. The similarities are huge. In the course of our fun hang on a rainy day at the national library in Copenhagen, Martin also told me of spawning gravel restoration project in Denmark for these migratory browns. It sounded so similar to what happens here in the West. He and I are currently talking about my contributing some content reflecting issues in the Western United States. Take a good look at his website and enjoy! It is full of gems. If you have been a fan for a long time or decide that you want to support his site moving forward, he is also taking donations.  Go to: https://globalflyfisher.com/

In his own words: "I started out in 1994 with my site Fishing Denmark aimed at people wanting to fish for sea trout in the Baltic. It was made as a response to people inquiring about our coastal fishing through mail, and after having sent the same reply many times, I decided to embrace this new thing called the World Wide Web, and make a web site with what had grown to be quite a lengthy mail. At the same time GFF partner Steve Schweitzer made a site about his favorite subjects called the Midwest Flytyer. This site concentrated on fly-tying as the name implies and took its outset in the Midwest. All this was back in 1994-1996 - the true infancy of the web more than 25 years ago."