Getting the flavor of...Winter fly-fishing in Michigan

Winter fly-fishing in Michigan

You don’t need to catch anything to enjoy a day of winter fly-fishing, said Ellen Creager in the Detroit Free Press. “As odd as it sounds,” this growing pastime offers rewards that make up for the fact that trout aren’t as active when water temperatures drop. On a river in northern Michigan near Boyne Mountain’s ski resorts, I set out one sunny January morning with two guides from Boyne Outfitters (boyneoutfitters.com). Our boots and waders kept us warm as we walked knee-high in the current, stopping here and there to cast our lines. “The winter river, with its bowing cedars, yellowish and curving, is something to see.” Ice clings to twigs overhead, and the winter sun “looks as chilly as a circle of lemon sorbet in the sky.” The guides grilled steaks and asparagus at lunchtime, and across six hours, we caught nothing. But I’d be happy to fish the same river next January. “You can breathe out here. Deeply.”

St. Augustine at 500

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The celebration has begun in St. Augustine for Florida’s 500th birthday, said Barbara Marshall in the Palm Beach, Fla., Post. America’s oldest city, founded 42 years before Jamestown, Va., claims that it is also the site where, on April 3, 1513, Spain’s Ponce de León became the first European to set foot on the continental U.S. Though some historians place the landing farther south, the quincentennial celebration offers a great excuse to visit. History is “steeped into the coquina walls and brick streets” of the walled Old City, where the oldest residence, the Father O’Reilly House, sits on a 1580 foundation. Also stop in at Castillo de San Marcos, a 17th-century fort, and at Flagler College, built in 1888 as the Ponce de León Hotel. The Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park “maintains a tongue-in-cheek connection” to the most enduring Ponce de León legend: Visitors can drink from the fountain, but the sulfur-laced water “tastes like Hell.”