Drake Magazine Daily Fly Fishing News and Blog
So far this year, the bison are winning. In June, a 62-year-old Australian man was tossed like a shrimp on the barbie while stepping in for his close-up with a 1,400-pound Yellowstone National Park grass grazer. A couple weeks earlier, a 16-year-old Taiwanese girl suffered a similar fate after a bison gored her while she…
If you named your first born “Madison” you’re definitely part of the problem: A river that’s gaining drift-boat traffic despite the audacity of its trout population to stick to status quo numbers. According to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, angling pressure on the upper Madison River, the roughly 50 miles between Ennis and Quake Lake,…
A poet and Texas songwriting legend, Townes Van Zandt left a powerful, if not destructive, legacy in his wake. And for his son JT, viewing Townes’ musical fervor encouraged him to find his own passion for the outdoors. “My takeaway from my dad and how he wrote songs was a particular perspective and aesthetic about…
In the southeastern corner of Montana, Fort Smith stands out as a no-stoplight town with a handful of fly shops, a drift-boat littered trailer park, and a premier trout fishery running through the backyard. It was also the scene of a grisly murder that came to light in 1999, when local authorities discovered the strangled…
Summer 2015 left Snake River salmon and steelhead hankering for relief. The thermal barrier created by the four lower Snake River dams contributed to soupy water temps nearing 70 degrees. And thousands of federally threatened and endangered returning adults and out-migrating juveniles met their demise.
Hilary Hutcheson’s father, Dave, has dedicated his life to the outdoors. After spending decades as a Park Ranger at Mount Rainier National Park, he retired to Montana’s Glacier Park and all but retreated from the wild activities that defined his career. But Hilary is changing that, by taking her father out on the water to…
Oregon’s proposed wild steelhead sanctuary named for North Umpqua River angler-in-chief Frank Moore is set to receive a jolt of grassroots support after the bill engineered to give it life sits stalled-out in congress.
Area waters expected to reopen to fishing soon OLYMPIA, WA—Following the stalemate that temporarily closed many Puget Sound fisheries, state and tribal leaders this week shook hands on a deal that should open specific summer salmon seasons for recreational fishing, “within a few weeks.” Co-managers agreed on this year’s Puget Sound salmon seasons after several…
In what amounts to a well-played verbal bitchslap, the hactivist group Anonymous has released a video condemning Florida Gov. Rick Scott for not doing enough to prevent Lake Okeechobee discharges from spewing marine life-killing pollutants into the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. The video states the obvious: that Scott’s in bed with Big Sugar and protects…
Back to summer basics—check out Dillon Renton, from Renton River Adventures, and Sterling Dillingham, from River Runner Outfitters, fishing for Oregon steelhead with single-hand fly rods and skaters. Filmed By Tyler Orton and Curtis Ciszek. Edited By Curtis Ciszek, @nwsteelheadanglers.
This June marks the kickoff of the Mile High 25—a Colorado-based tourney, where two-man teams target muskie, carp, bass, trout, suckers, splake and more across two days of fishing. The team submitting photo evidence of the most elaborate mixed-bag (from a list of 25 eligible gamefish) takes home the cash.
It’s a time of uncertainty. Unrest grips the rivers as the influence of Sasquatch, iffy weather and foul-smelling waders spreads, but a glimmer of hope remains in the heroic offerings of Petru VIZITIU. As he struggles against the dark might of the enemy, this brave hero may yet awaken the technology needed to forge a…
Cohutta Fishing Company’s 2nd Annual Southern Bassapalooza fly tourney kicks off on June 25, 2016, in the bass-y promised land of Cartersville, GA. This year’s lineup? STRIPED BASS – HYBRID BASS – WHITE BASS – SPOTTED BASS- SHOAL BASS- LARGEMOUTH BASS.
Brent and Ashley Hodges own and operate ReelFly Fishing Adventures fly shop and guide service in Canyon Lake, TX. Watch them find their own escape as they float through Devils River State Natural Area in search of bass and solitude. Via Redington’s Find Your Water series.
The team at MOTIVFISHING is about to hit a coveted Wednesday night cable slot as part of Animal Planet’s “Fish or Die” series. A repackaging of their Four Fishermen, Seven Continents theme—Jay Johnson, Thad Robison, Brian Jill, and Chris Owens have found the right formula of stuck-in-the-ditch drama meets bitchin’ fishing. So says the ratings.…
Portland, OR—The U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon this week scrapped the federal government’s 2014 Columbia Basin salmon biological opinion (salmon plan or BiOp). Judge Michael Simon ruled that the latest plan—like each of its four predecessors—violates the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) and additionally the National Environmental Policy Act.
In the fourth installment of “The Field Coffee Diary” filmmaker Rolf Nylinder navigates stillwater mayflies and a new season. “Summer had arrived at the forest lakes and something beautiful was about to happen.” Let it begin.
TU asks: How did this happen, and how can it be prevented from happening again? DENVER, CO–Trout Unlimited is calling out Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) for its delayed reporting of a construction accident that killed more than 5,600 wild trout on the Big Thompson River near Estes Park on March 7.
Join the Puget Sound anglers determined to pry the lid off a tightly sealed Skagit River steelhead fishery This Saturday, the civil disobedience event known as Occupy Skagit is staging its fourth annual “Wade-In” to protest the continued closure of the Skagit River’s spring catch-and-release steelhead season. Puget Sound winter steelhead were listed as threatened in 2007,…
NOAA approves plan to release hatchery steelhead into five Puget Sound rivers this week despite threats to native fish Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) began dumping 500,000 hatchery steelhead smolts into five Puget Sound rivers this week after receiving the go-ahead from the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The Nooksack, NF Stillaguamish, Wallace,…
In the third installment of “The Field Coffee Diary” filmmaker Rolf Nylinder focusses his lens and longings on the Baltic salmon. “It starts deep in the Norwegian salmon fishing culture but leads us to the Swedish rivers,” Nylinder says. “The Baltic Sea is a dark chapter in the history of northern Europe, but the salmon…
Utah Stream Access Coalition (USAC) is teaming with Green River guides and a Season 12 Top Chef contender for this June’s Gourmet on the Green fundraiser. So far they’ve gathered 10 top river pros to offer their boats for a day (at $1,000 per boat) to float the Green during prime cicada season. Chef Katie…
Jumpstart your Wednesday with impenetrable jungle, preposterous poons, and the words of Joseph Conrad in filmmaker Peter Christensen’s “A Day in Nicaragua”. Via Tapam Lodge, Nicaragua.
In the second installment of “The Field Coffee Diary” filmmaker Rolf Nylinder and friends mission to Fiskonbäcken for midges and big trout. Nylinder says, “I was as always forced by the weather gods to follow their plan. Last year was the warmest one ever on earth, but it was not the warmest spring ever in northern Sweden,…
The battle over rotenone is flaring up in New Mexico. This go round, the state Department of Game & Fish (NMDGF) wants to use rotenone to nix nonnative rainbow and brown trout from 24 miles of Whitewater Creek, on the Gila National Forest, where federally threatened Gila trout once swam in peace. The creek experienced…
In the first episode of “The Field Coffee Diary” follow filmmaker Rolf Nylinder and friends Erik, Mattias, Acapulco and the half-god, Patrik Daugaard, on a fishing trip to a valley carved by the legendary mountain creek known as Fiskonbäcken. Says Nylinder, “They say you collect less memories if you bring a camera on a trip.…
Author and outdoorsman Jim Harrison passed away on Saturday morning at his home in Patagonia, Ariz. He was 78. The Michigan native spent his recent summers near Livingston, Mont., where on occasion he could be found bellied up at the Murray Bar or casting flies on the Yellowstone River.