BEMIDJI, Minn. – Every fall, about the time most outdoors enthusiasts across the Northland put away their rods and reels and set their sights on hunting, Steve Young gets serious about fly fishing.

There’s rarely a warning. Not with pike. When a striped bass attacks a topwater fly, you often see a boil or a swirl before the toilet flushes. Snakeheads will track a foam frog and wake the surface ...

There are a few times in the year when fly rods and northern pike meet in the shallows of large reservoirs. Springtime spawning is a welcome arrival after a long winter dealing with ice and snow in ...

Trout flies are usually less than an inch long but pike flies can be more than 6 inches in length. The big and gaudy flies are made to dart sideways when retrieved set off a pike's predator instincts.

Anglers who follow the calendar, yearning for the next fly-fishing challenge, look ahead to ice off. When the ice thins and begins to recede on lakes and reservoirs, fly fishers get first shots at ...