Drake Magazine Daily Fly Fishing News and Blog

Carpology

Montana’s Missouri River is beloved for its prolific insect hatches, ready-made drift-boat water, and thousands of trout per mile. But for Brian Kimmel and Adipose Boatworks’ founder Tracy Allen, the flyfishing flip-side—shallow-water carp “hoovering” bugs in the froth—is equally addictive. Via Todd Moen, at T-Motion Theater.

Run, Beer, Fish—Brilliant

Flyfishing and exercise are strange bedmates. Waving a 3-oz. rod, for instance, doesn’t require Arnold’s biceps or Lindsey Vonn’s glutes. And that fried-chicken-case-of-Miller combo from last weekend’s drift-boat session negates rock hard abs. But if you like to run and hanker for craft beer and good fishing, Andrew Todd’s Rocky Mountain Flyathlon is a Colorado-based calorie…

Last Weigh-In on WA Wild Steelhead Zones

WASHINGTON—The final public meeting for the Puget Sound Wild Steelhead Management Zone selection process will be held tonight in Sequim. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) plans to designate at least three Puget Sound rivers to promote wild steelhead recovery in the region where steelhead were listed as threatened in 2007. The department will…

Bristol Bay, Minor Bust & Big Boom

Pebble Mine scored a small victory last week when the Alaska state Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling denying the Lake and Peninsula Borough (which borders Bristol Bay) from enforcing a voter-approved mining ban. Borough residents passed an initiative in October 2011 that sought to ban both large-scale topsoil removal and mining activity impacting…

TENKARPA!

Tenkarpa revealed. Don’t forget your PFD. “Here’s what happens when six guys get together at the greatest carp flyfishing destination in the US, and decide to make a fly fishing movie with no script, props or budget.” Brought to you by a Beaver Island carp trip with Indigo Guide Service.

Mining Sidelined in the State of Jefferson

The Bureau of Land Management has temporarily banned new mining claims in several sensitive salmon and steelhead bearing watersheds in southern Oregon and northern California. The affected areas include waters within the Wild and Scenic Rogue and Smith River watersheds and coastal drainages Hunter Creek and the Pistol River in Oregon. Nickel strip mines have…

AK on Fire

After a warm winter with almost no snowpack, Alaska is experiencing hot, dry conditions and, consequently, a rash of more than 50 wildfires. The Sockeye Fire, just north of Anchorage, and the Card Street Fire, on the Kenai Peninsula, are listed as highest priority in the country and Alaska Governor Bill Walker has declared a…

Why the Bahamas Needs a Plan B

[The Government of the Bahamas, Dept. of Marine Resources, on June 17 released a draft for consultation on regulation of the island nation’s flyfishing industry. That suspect piece of potential legislation would nix non-guided trips, making DIY defunct; charge foreign anglers add-on daily fees; and eliminate foreign-owned flats fishing lodges—like those up and down Andros and to…

Panga Patrol

In the ’70s, Mexican President Luis Echeverría spearheaded the building of pangas throughout the country. World Bank financed the project, and Yamaha partnered with Mexican builders to produce the boats, to fit them with engines, and to make a bundle of dough in the process. Still kicking today, nothing says roosters, jacks, bones, poons, permit,…

Shades of Green

There are green rivers; and then there is the Green River. In the latest edit from Bloodknots, the crew strokes oars in the brown- and ‘bow-rich waters below Utah’s Flaming Gorge Dam. Featuring Zeal Optics, Western Rivers Flyfisher Guides, some baetis, and one badass Airstream.

Tracking Disappearing Steelhead

Puget Sound steelhead populations are in severe decline. And most stocks have earned a “threatened” designation under the ESA, including Nisqually River fish. This year scientists are tracking juvenile steelhead from the Nisqually in an attempt to find out why they are not surviving long enough to make it to the ocean.

CA Coho Seek an Unlikely Sanctuary

Warm Springs Dam was completed in 1983 to control flooding and provide drinking water for Sonoma County, CA. It backs up miles of Dry Creek in the Russian River watershed. Salmon and steelhead in the Russian suffer from a plethora of problems, including the current drought. Its coho are particularly imperiled, and up whole California…

Skiff Stories

Every flats skiff has a story and Hell’s Bay Boatworks has teamed with angler/videographer Trapper Rudd to chronicle those narratives. Rudd will be traveling the coastal US to feature HB owners and their unique whips starting this spring. This is the series intro.