Looking out into the standing room only crowd packed into Kitsumkalum Hall in Terrace, British Columbia, Shannon McPhail, Executive Director of the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition (SWCC), needs a reality check. She asks the crowd, just shy of 1,000 people: “Is this actually happening?”
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…
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…
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.
This past weekend was big, at least as far as Colorado waters are concerned. Rivers like the Frying Pan gushed at near flood levels, while the Colorado and Roaring Fork also gauged in at monstrous cfs proportions. Crashing Aspen for the first annual Outside in Aspen festivities, this weather scenario of rain, runoff, and muddy…
Dallas, Texas. There is one scene, early in the film adaptation of David James Duncan’s The River Why, where flyfishermen will undoubtedly connect with the movie. It comes the day Gus Orviston, played by Zach Gilford, ditches his parents and his life and moves into a run-down cabin along an Oregon coastal stream. After bringing…
“I think a writer owes the readers a new way of telling a story.” —Ken Kesey As the 15th Drake makes its way across the country this fall, I find myself intrigued by all the recent chatter on the downfall of magazines, most of it coming from new-media pundits shouting their favorite proclamation: “Print is…
These ten flies* were found hanging on a wall in central France. Whoever can tie the best replicas of these ten flies (real muskrat not necessary for Muskrat strip–but it couldn’t hurt), and present them in a photo on The Drake board by July 1, will win a brand new Bauer Jr Mac reel (MSRP:$230).…
New Owners Ensure a Future for the Flyfishing Film Tour A mass e-mail went out on December 31st from the four “Fish Bum” members of AEG—Thad Robison, Justin Crump, Chris Owens, and Brian Jill —to all of the 2009 sponsors of the Flyfishing Film Tour. The message contained three short sentences, with the important one…
It actually began in late September, with a couple steelhead on the Grande Ronde and a huge win by Oregon State over USC. The fish:
One of the most common saltwater fishing questions that I get asked or that appears on The Drake message board is some variation of, “I have to go to some stupid/gay/waste-of-time/soon-to-be-divorced-anyway wedding/business conference/family reunion down in Cancun. I’mstaying at (fill in name of cheesy resort, usually within walking distance of Outback Steakhouse or Bubba Gump’s),…
If I’ve had better domestic fishing trips, I can’t remember them. Blitzing Albies, fish from the beach, pool and locol luches at the BT, fantastic food and one questionable movie night. Others have made posts on the forum, but now, you get to the REST of the story… k:
1) Because there’s just something about a dude wearing camo, holding a bloody bear carcass. (Headline inside: “Do Goldilocks a Favor.”) Sure, you might not ask him to take your SATs for you, but when your gutless little hippy car slides off the road in a snowstorm, guarantee this dude rolls up in an F350…
I’m sick of waiting for Bie to make a new blog post. He’s been fighting that shark for like two months. So here’s a quick rundown since July, like Berman’s Fastest Three Minutes:
I’m fried. Fighting butt buried deep in my belly, my left hand bends backwards on the foregrip of a 12-weight while my right hand palms the bottom of a Tibor, trying desperately to slow the spinning. The 80-pound blue shark at the end of my line is heading deep for another run (again), and I…
by Tom Bie Blue-winged olives are sometimes called “drab” – defined by Webster as “monotonous” or “dull”. But I think that’s a wholly inappropriate term. Winter is monotonous. Waiting for bugs is monotonous. Frozen lakes and rivers are monotonous. Bluewings are the bridge leading away from monotony, not toward it – they’re almost always