Give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, he’ll eat gas station food for a lifetime. We’d planned on fishing Michigan’s Pere Marquette on Thursday, but nearly every river in the state blew out. So we took aim at a tailwater and drove to the Boardman River in…
Sometimes rain is your best friend, and sometimes it’s your worst enemy. Today was the latter. Our first stop was near the mouth of a mid-size Lake Huron trib. We were soaked before our rods were strung. Jason went upstream with an indicator rig while I stayed low to swing down to the mouth. A few hours…
Chuck and Duck blogger Alex Cerveniak goes roadtripping steelhead-style this week. His mission: To fish tribs to all five Great Lakes, while cultivating epic facial hair, dining on gas station grub, and writing about all things along the way. Part II, from a barstool in Cecil Bay, MI, starts here. —Ed As a fisherman, I’m…
Chuck and Duck blogger Alex Cerveniak goes roadtripping steelhead-style this week. His mission: To fish tribs to all five Great Lakes, while cultivating epic facial hair, dining on gas station grub, and writing about all things along the way. “Part I” starts here. —Ed I’m rolling into my mid-30s and everything is going just fine. Got…
John Wark’s vertigo-instigating work bucks the confines of terra firma in exchange for a rarefied view: one that starts high in the sky, via the cockpit of his Husky A1 bush plane. Those images—including recent shots of Ma Nature doing her best to drown Colorado during last month’s biblical flooding events—continue to be featured everywhere…
Not-So-Fictional Fiction [Brickhead originally ran in the Summer 2010 issue of The Drake. For the all new Part II, click here. —ed] QUINTANA ROO, MEXICO. HIS DOGS WERE torched. He’d forgotten to put sunscreen on his feet the day before. He had taken his wading boots off after a mile walk on the flats and just spaced it.…
Thanks to an armed populous wielding image-capturing devices of all calibers the “outdoors photographer” has become a dime-a-million lately. But most of us have never inhaled the intoxicating chemical fumes of a stop bath, nor spent much time wrapping our brains around the nuances of f-stops and apertures… because, quite frankly, it’s hard to find…
The hoarding phenomenon was evident as John Custer peered into his refrigerator. The right side of the door was jammed with a varietal of hot sauces. These sauces – many way, way past the date of expiration, hailed from distant and exotic locations – the islands of the Caribbean, Central America, and South America.
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?”
It’s been one of those weeks when you forget to pace yourself. You hop around, fishing a different stretch of a different river every night, chasing bugs that were supposed to be here a week earlier. You can’t take a night off, because if you do, you might miss it. The hatch lasts a couple…
[There is some irony that a blog about the best photographers in the business is shot with a busted up iphone and a lens that came out of a crackerjack box.—WR] Surface Film is a fundraising event that showcases the work of some of the best established—as well as new—flyfishing photographers in the country. The…
What winter 2013 will mean for singed fins across the country Two years ago winter delivered. Snowpack stacked at 100-, 200-, and even 300-percent levels—depending on where in the West it dumped. A year later, La Nina bitch-slapped us with one of the worst droughts in recent winter memory. These massive swings look a lot…
Ketamine, vision quests, and the answers we’re searching for… from artist and flyfisher Bob White Two years ago I interviewed artist, writer, guide, husband, father, and all-around good dude, Bob White. If you read Scott Sadil’s piece in the Spring ’12 issue of The Drake you already know a little about Bob. But to this…
One year of limited mitigation efforts and wrist-splaps for the energy firm that continues to lace the DSP with toxic levels of benzene Today marks exactly 365 days since Denver-based angler Trevor Tanner noticed an oil sheen flowing from Sand Creek into the South Platte River just downstream of the Suncor oil refinery at Commerce…
So I found a lump near one of my testicles last winter. I can assure you, that’s a tough pill to swallow for a dude. And since it’s breast cancer awareness month and my story might help a girl or a guy find a lump before it’s too late, I’m going to tell you all…
It’s October and that means three things: incredible fishing, purdy colors, and the veil between the world of the living and the dead is at its thinnest. Some people who believe in ghosts have a theory for the presence of the paranormal. They call it “Recordings of Past Events.” According to this theory, ghosts are…
How to secure your rod in an ultra-cheap tube for less These days you can burn upwards of $200 on a space-age rod tube, or you can just toss your stick in a sack and hope for the best. I’ve been on the road and in the air quite a bit this summer. The people, places,…
Invasive species poses massive ecological threat Ninety-feet below the surface with a mile of blue oblivion below, I approach her slowly as she stalks her prey. She hypnotizes a small snapper with her crimson mane, but I send my spear through her head before she can strike. I slip her into a bag full of…
Slow boats, picked pockets, and damaged goods From B.C. I headed south via the Tsawwassen ferry station en route to Victoria. Final destination, Forks, WA. We wove through Gulf Islands such as Galiano, Mayne, and Pender. From there, I switched boats and crossed the Strait of Juan De Fuca—just in time to catch a bomber…
Busses and studded boots Three days after returning from Mexico, I was on another plane. This time from Seattle to Vancouver, B.C. When we touched down there was standing water on the tarmac. It was raining hard.
Majszak/Gregson bring home the bank at 2012 Simms Ice Out Shoot Out BOZEMAN, MT—Photographer Bryan Gregson and hometown filmmaker Ian Majszak of Detonation Studios captured first-place and $2,000 with their banger film edit “Untitled” at this weekend’s 2012 Simms Ice Out Shoot Out.
Planes, trains, and automobiles… and pangas, ferries, bare feet, hard boats, and catarafts I left the corporate world on Friday. I was on a plane to Mexico on Saturday. On Sunday morning I was perched high upon a spiny, jagged ledge looking down into the green Pacific Ocean looking for the rooster that swam between…
Tequila (Spanish pronunciation): [teˈkila]) is a spirit made from the blue agave plant, primarily in the area surrounding the city of Tequila, in the highlands of the western Mexican state of Jalisco. “You have chosen a great bottle,” said one of the cooks from the lodge. He was stoic and serious. It was early evening…
Knee deep in PIT tags and swamp poons Sometimes the best fishing is in uncomfortable settings. Our prey often seeks refuge in difficult to reach areas, areas fishermen eagerly expend high energy to access due to the potential for high returns. This is the sort of location I found myself in during a recent research…
Introduction to Self Monday morning. Standing ankle deep on a Bahamian sand flat with a friend and a guide. It doesn’t take long to realize this line of work has its perks. After all, I haven’t met too many people that have skipped class to hunt for their first bonefish.
2011 was quite a year. I’m thankful. Before I wax nostalgic and get sentimental, I want to close with one last field report from the South Platte River.
Here lies: “Steve” the Great Lakes Steelhead, Flyfishing Badasses, Priests, and Public Access Another year of fishing is about to smash through the door. But before it does we take a moment to remember those who passed in 2011, while leaving indelible marks on our evolving flyfishing culture.