Even on the West Coast, where things are a little warmer in the fall and winter months, we sometimes struggle to find the motivation to get out fly fish.

Things are starting to cool off and, before long, it will seem like the fish get more sluggish as well.

But now isn't the time to put your fly rod into hibernation.

In fact, the fall and winter months are ideal for surfperch and other saltwater surf-zone species as noted in our piece about fly fishing for barred surfperch.

Barred surfperch photo by Brian Milne

The National Fly Fishing Championships were held in the State College, Penn., area Oct. 24-26, 2009, with anglers from around the country vying for a spot on the U.S. world championship team scheduled to compete in Poland next June.

Despite difficult conditions stemming from fall downpours, the 10 teams made up of 50 anglers landed more than 420 trout on the Little Juniata River, Penns Creek, Spring Creek and Fishing Creek.

Local pro George Daniel took home the individual gold medal, followed by Utah's Lance Egan and New Mexico's Norman Maktima. They will be joined on Team USA by Devin Olsen, Mike Sexton, Anthony Naranja, Pete Erickson and Josh Stephens.

For complete results from all 50 competitors, along with reaction from the anglers, read our in-depth article on the 2009 U.S. National Fly Fishing Championships.

Want to know what it's like to compete in the World Championships? Check out our Q&As with Egan following the 2008 and 2009 World Fly Fishing Championships.

It's no secret athletes like to fly fish. I've written about fishing jocks, and coaches, a handful of times on About.com. (See: Ken Griffey Jr., Nnamdi Asomugha, Ted Williams, Bob Knight and Ryan Newman.)

But I haven't written about many NBA players who enjoy fly fishing in their down time.

That was until I heard Cleveland Cavaliers general manager and former player Danny Ferry enjoys the push and pull of the fly line.

In a recent Q&A on Cleveland.com, Ferry says if he had a day all to himself, he'd spend it fly fishing. In fact, Cleveland has more fly fishing options than you might think.

Just read that Fly Rod & Reel magazine is celebrating its 30th anniversary.

As I wrote in a previous post about the inaugural edition The Flyfish Journal, it's good to see some quality fly fishing magazines are still alive and well.

I respect Fly Rod & Reel because it's one of those magazines I grew up with -- in fact, I was born only a couple years before Fly Rod & Reel first hit the newsstands in 1979.

Lee Wulff's great back-page "Wulff's Run" columns were always a must read, the last of which ran in the Jan./Feb. 1992 issue shortly after he died in a plane crash.

If you never had a chance to read any of Wulff's work, it's definitely worth looking up.