The 2012 flyfishing film season is officially official—with the International Fly Fishing Film Festival debut in Denver last weekend and the Drake sponsored Fly Fishing Film Tour about to launch later this month in Ventura, CA. (Two completely separate entities, in case you were wondering.) Get your tickets and get in on the fresh goods.…
What makes a river “gold medal”? A proliferation of beefy trout, for sure. But little more than that it seems. Colorado’s Blue River near Silverthorne has been a designated gold medal river for years. It’s been re-channelized and “stream enhanced” by professionals. It houses large rainbows and browns—sustained thanks to stocking efforts. But it’s what…
DENVER, CO—An anonymous tip from a Suncor Energy employee alerted state health officials to contamination in tap water on the refinery property near the South Platte River late last week. According to Denver Water authorities the situation appears to be isolated to Suncor’s private system: “Benzene has not been detected in our system. But we are doing…
This week, Western Rivers Conservancy (WRC) purchased 160 acres of critical steelhead habitat along Oregon’s North Santiam River—a vital Willamette River tributary. Historically, the North Santiam was the largest producer of winter steelhead in the Willamette basin and is the source of approximately one-third of its spring Chinook salmon. Today, fish in the basin are…
Oregon photog Darcy Bacha recently punctuated the cover of Powder Magazine’s Photo Annual issue with this sick shot—pretty much the pièce de résistance for any rising ski-industry shooter. (Bacha is only 23.) Turns out his flyfishing images are equally inspiring. Check ’em out.
60 Minute’s Anderson Cooper recently traveled to Cuba’s The Gardens of the Queen (Jardines de la Reina), where he swims with socialist sharks, documents a global model for underwater habitat preservation, and briefly highlights Avalon’s flyfishing operation there. We imagine it’s worth watching… if you can stomach through Phil Mickelson’s minute-long psoriatic arthritis commercial.
“In every one of these valleys there’s some kind of crystal clear creek… and I think that’s what we go up there for. It’s to let go of everything and get into a different state of mind without taking a fist full of pills.” Chicago, Illinois, punk band Pegboy is slated to hit the 2012…
There aren’t many rivers in the Rockies more appealing in late September than Colorado’s lower Taylor, which sits halfway between Crested Butte and Gunnison and is known nationally for its monster, mysis-shrimp-filled rainbows that inhabit the short tailwater section below Taylor Park Reservoir. The river received national attention of a different sort in the spring…
Ever since we were birthed by an 8-pound Jackson Hole cutthroat named Stella back in the late ’90s we’ve been dreaming of this moment. Because nothing says “You have arrived!” like a wicked “DRAKE” tat right across your freakin face. Now that’s commitment right there friends. Who’s next?
Our father, who art in Denver. Tebow be thy name. Many people have experienced the joys of catching an important sporting event in Mexico—scrambling to find a TV at a small Mayan village or finding a radio at a bar in Baja. Like last spring, when several friends from Dallas were permit fishing at the Palometa…
The music of moving water. Flying bugs. A rising trout. And a cast. In case you missed it. Or in case you have a case of the Mondays and need to see it again. Rolf Nylinder’s Trout is all captures the essence.
Drake contributor Alex Cerveniak tells us that some politicians in the State of Michigan feel there’s a problem with too much public land in places such as the U.P. And this epidemic has spiraled so far out of control they’ve proposed “land cap” legislation to strip the state of its right to acquire more public…
This image shows Lewis and Clark fishing at Great Falls long before utilities company PPL built its Black Eagle Dam to pimp the Missouri River for hydroelectricity. Today, the case for who owns the land beneath Great Falls lands in U.S. Supreme Court, with arguments to be presented in the PPL Montana v. the state…
Who Really Owns America’s Riverbeds? Tomorrow is a big day in Washington, D.C. for anyone who likes fishing, rafting, or canoeing public water in the United States. In what is likely the most meaningful river-access case ever heard before the U.S. Supreme Court, PPL Montana v Montana is seeking to answer the long-disputed question of…
There are plenty of uninspired time-lapse videos making the rounds these days, including this rotten one: Tomato time-lapse. Filmmakers Ben Canales, John Waller, Steve Engman, and Blake Johnson of Uncage the Soul Productions, however, skip the low-hanging fruit and tackle a 1,600 mile road trip across Oregon—delivering the Columbia River Gorge, Mt Hood, Mt Jefferson, the…
Stripers Forever is a non-profit internet-based conservation organization, seeking game fish status for wild striped bass on the Atlantic Coast, while optimizing sustainable public fishing opportunities for anglers from Maine to North Carolina. The org’s new video drives home compelling arguments for enhanced recreational, conservation-based measures along the Eastern Seaboard. If you’re a fan of…
DENVER, CO—First responders worked through the night to contain oil and possibly other materials at the confluence of Sand Creek and the South Platte River, north of Downtown Denver and about a mile west of the Suncor Energy refinery.
If you’re familiar with street art documentary Through the Gift Shop—and the work of underground graffiti legend Banksy—you might also want to keep a watch out for Tasso, whose freakish caricatures have been clawing up and out of rivers as of late.
BP’s Grand Oily Shitshow of 2010 may have lost its media legs, but spills on domestic turf are happening a lot more frequently than you might think. See all those little red dots on the blue and green map? Yep, right there. Right now. Over at Stop the Drill an online tool created by Oceana and Skytruth…
Here’s a little tidbit of morning trivia for you: Who was the first and only photog to sail from Antarctica on a Viking ship for 99 days across a pitching Southern Ocean, landed in Jersey City, and then hitch-hiked across the country to find Tom Bie’s couch and intern at world famous Drake Enterprises before…
Southern California is long past its steelhead prime, but a few intrepid fish still return to remote parts of the Santa Barbara backcountry and waters such as the catch-and-release only Sepse and Sisquoc creeks.
If there’s anything to be gleaned from the “Occupy” movement sprouting placards across the nation—other than free speech does not extend to pitching tent camps in Bloomberg’s backyard—it’s that collective noise is hard to ignore.
In addition to being an ultralame Twilight fan and camping out for days on end in Forks, WA, to sneak a glimpse at Bella in a bikini, filmmaker Joey Macomber has an equally unhealthy appreciation for Olympic Peninsula steelhead as demonstrated in this sick little edit. Check it.
Footage of California guide Matt Heron bodyslamming a mega Truckee River brown is making the Facebook rounds this morning. Check it.
Bristol Bay and a view from the Columbia River Thirty million fish. Every year. Thirty million salmon and steelhead returned through the Columbia and Snake River systems. Thirty million.
SUMMIT COUNTY, CO—Public access to a 15-mile stretch of the Blue River, from Green Mountain Dam to the confluence with the Colorado River, could come under private ownership if the Bureau of Land Management approves its preferred draft resource management plan, grandfathering land exchanges already under way… even when properties involve river corridors. The land…
Poler is a Portland-based brand that delivers an intriguing blend of outdoor essentials for streamside slackers the world over. “It’s for people that wonder why everyone is trying to pretend they are going to do first ascents on alpine peaks instead of celebrating the fact that they are having adventures that are awesome in their…