Brian Smith
Brian R. Smith is an avid outdoorsman passionate about fly fishing, wing shooting, Safari hunting, and equestrian activities. He lives with his wife Gretchen in Alabama, and together they enjoy spending time with their horses and sporting dogs on trails, rivers, and in the sporting field. To read more of Brians adventures, you can follow him on Instagram @bohemianadventure
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Fly Fishing in the Pyrenees
Brian Smith, a Bohemian adventurer, went fly fishing in the Pyrenees mountain range in Spain, inspired by Hemingway's classic novel "The Sun Also Rises."
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Tigers on the Zambezi
I was trying to balance on the front platform of the 17-foot bass boat with the waters of the great Zambezi River flowing underneath as we drifted with the current. I had just finished another strip retrieve and lifted my 8-weight rod to do a water haul to load the rod and cast back up river to…
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Fly Fishing at Noccalula Falls
I love to fly fish and I am always looking for opportunities to fish in my home state of Alabama. Most of the fishing opportunities are for warm water species in the rivers, creeks, and lakes around the state and there are a lot of opportunities from fishing the native red eye bass in many of the small creeks across the state, large mouth, and spot bass, small mouth bass, white bass and stripe bass in many rivers and lakes in the state. There are also many opportunities to fish for sunfish, bream, bluegills, etc
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Under Kilimanjaro
This book is an account of Ernest Hemingway's safari with his fourth wife Mary in late 1953 and early 1954. This trip ended abruptly in January 1954 after they had two near-fatal plane crashes in East Africa. While back in Havana, Hemingway wrote his “African Book” and completed it in 1956. He left this manuscript, along with those for A Moveable Feast, Islands in the Stream, and The Garden of Eden, in a safe deposit box in Cuba. Under Kilimanjaro is the last of Hemingway’s manuscripts to be published in its entirety. I enjoyed spending time with Papa while reading his “African Book.” I am about at the end of…
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Horn of the Hunter
Horn of the Hunter is one of my favorite pieces of safari literature by one of my favorite authors, Robert C. Ruark. This book tells of a safari that Ruark and his wife Virginia embarked upon in the early 1950s. They were guided by Harry Selby who began his career under the tutelage of the legendary hunter, Philip Percival, regarded by many as the Dean of African Hunters. Percival was part of Theodore Roosevelt’s famed 1909-1910 safari, as well as guiding for Baron Rothschild and Ernest Hemingway on African hunts.
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Arno Bernard Knives
I love collecting handmade sporting equipment like knives, fly rods, guns, etc. I look at these things as functional works of art and nice pieces can be passed down as heirlooms for generations. I especially like collecting fine, handmade knives. I recently purchased an Arno Bernard handmade knife and I am impressed by the fit, materials and beauty of the newest piece in my collection.
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African Game Trails
By Brian Smith African Game Trails is written by Theodore Roosevelt and is an account of a safari he took with his son Kermit in East Africa starting out in March of 1909 sailing from New York and ending in Khartoum in March of 1910. The purpose of this expedition was to collect birds, mammals, reptiles, plants, and especially specimens of big game for The National Museum at Washington, the Smithsonian, and the American Museum of Natural History, New York. The game mounts from this expedition are on display to this day at these museums. The other members of the main party included Surgeon-Lieut. Col. Edgar A Mearns, U.S.A, retired;…
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Heart Wood Trade Landing Nets
I love unique hand-crafted sporting items, especially when they have a wood component. I just love the beauty of wood grains and the way polished wood feels in my hands; that is why I always prefer wood stocks on my guns. I like a beautiful wood reel seat on my fly rods and exotic wood handles on knives. I also like to support boutique craftsmen that make these heirloom quality items.
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Lords of the Fly
I enjoyed reading this book. It is not what I expected at all. Most of the books and literature I have read on fishing have either been technical or more often reflective essays or stories about the experience in more of a romantic or Zen kind of way...
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Giant Peacocks on the Fly in the Amazon Basin
I lifted the tip of my 9 weight fly rod and flipped it forward to do a roll cast and straighten out the line; with rod tip pointed at the water, standing in the bow of the boat, I lifted it up again and at the hard stop the line laid out behind me, loaded the rod, and then came forward watching the tight loop stretch out before me, straighten, and then the red and yellow streamer landed on the water right on the edge of a mass of roots and limbs in the back of a pocket of water in flooded timber off of the Xeruini River in Brail’s…
