Drake Magazine Daily Fly Fishing News and Blog
Mark your calendars. Saturday night is supermooning time, a drop-your-drawers phenomenon that occurs when the full moon reaches its closest approach to the earth—a distance of 221,802 miles away. The ultra bright orbit should make for some killer covert mousing opps… not to mention big tides, with 42 percent more tidal force through next week.
Trout in Unicoi County, Tenn., are all hopped up on meth thanks to a large lab operation in the area and its accused chief cooker, Gerald Guin.
Earlier today the U.S. Forest Service released its final revision of the Colorado roadless rule, addressing some key concerns raised by the outdoors community. The plan will manage and help safeguard more than 4 million acres of in-state public hunting and fishing lands.
From Mitchell Slough to the Blackfoot, Ruby and beyond, “Greed, insecurity and just plain old ‘I got mine, screw you’ bullshit…” continues to run rampant in Montana. So far the state’s ironclad Stream Access Law has waged a formidable battle against those who would like to see public access stripped for personal gain.
The federal judge who presided over the court battle between Columbia River salmon advocates and hydropower supporters has made his thoughts on the matter clear, stating four controversial lower Snake River dams should be removed. During an interview for a documentary to air later this summer, U.S. District Court Judge James Redden said the government…
The 2012 Ice Out Shoot Out People’s Choice voting is live. Check out this year’s standout lineup of films and vote for your favorite before Sunday, April 29.
The number of dams built in America since 1800 is staggering. This vid by James Syvitski accelerates the country’s 200 years of artery clogging construction into a telling 25-second clip.
The ol’ dirty South Platte is about due for its annual spring clean-up. This Saturday volunteers will storm the Denver area carp mainstay to pick up trash along the riverbanks and its bike paths. Hit the link for more information on how to get involved.
The Environmental Protection Agency will release its draft Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment in just a few weeks. This precedent-setting scientific assessment will likely guide decisions about large-scale mining and other industrial development in the Bristol Bay region well into the future. If the EPA determines that waste from the mine would harm the surrounding clean…
More than $40 million in big oil spoils have been directed toward national forest preservation, with the Land and Water Conservation Fund recently announcing its state-by-state list of land purchases spanning Alaska, California, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Idaho, Tennessee, Montana, Utah, and more. The effort stems from Obama’s America’s Great Outdoors agenda, which taps into fees…
DANIA BEACH, FL—The International Game Fish Association (IGFA) announced today it is awarding a $10,000 cash purse to the angler who successfully docks the Sunshine State’s last world-record tarpon.
What’s up in the U.P.? Evidently bagging more brook trout thanks to a ramped up limit proposal. Michigan DNR is seeking public review for backward brookie regulations that would move catch-and-kill allowances from 5 to 10 fish per day.
Filmmaker Rolf Nylinder of the FrontsideFly squad keeps kicking out the joints. He’s producing six shorts about flyfishing the Vindelälven River, in northern Sweden, for consecutive Monday releases starting early April. They currently don’t have any english subs… but you might enyoy them anyway.
Pulp Fiction gave us the Gimp, a royale with cheese, and more creepy John Travolta dance moves. Meanwhile, Smithhammer’s new brainchild Pulp Fly brings us pulp without the paper, featuring flyfishing writers familiar to this publication and elsewhere. Bob White, Michael Gracie, Alex Landeen, Kirk Deeter, and more. Keep your eyes peeled for the V.1…
The Drake was recently at F3T tour stops in Casper and Fort Collins. Among this year’s line-up of bulls, bones, punk rock scenesters, and arctic char, the lab vs. tarpon footage in Waterline Media’s Riding High was some funny shit. Seems the underwater dog genre is gaining teeth across the interwebs. Chopper doesn’t eat flies,…
This “House of Mirrors” has people seeing carp—gnarcore mirror carp sucking up flies in the soup. From Victor, Idaho, filmmaker Kevin Emery… with Smithhammer lurking somewhere in the mix.
JACKSON, WY—TU’s “Green with Envy” roadshow launches this week, highlighting Flaming Gorge Reservoir and Green River fisheries and the potentially adverse effects of the proposed Million Pipeline. Under the proposal, 81 billion gallons of water would be diverted annually from the Reservoir and the Green River causing a domino effect of negative impacts to local…
The road to the final four all comes down to the fish with the most game over at Cheeky Fly Fishing’s 2012 March Madness: Road to the Final Fish. Another year of big hitters includes mako, marlin, roosters, poons, and permit, vying against underdogs of the underwater league such as snook, walleye, cobia, and carp.
Andrew Madoff is an owner over at Abel reels. But he’s more famous for his father’s mega-million dollar con that rocked the financial world in 2008. Andrew’s significant other, Catherine Hooper, and her “disaster survival business” Black Umbrella are featured on CNNMoney this morning. Scroll down to the barracuda shot. It’s also money.
OLYMPIC PENINSULA—More good news for Washington State’s Elwha River. The dams have dropped, a fishing moratorium is in place, and now that vomity plan to introduce hatchery steelhead into the system has been thwarted, at least for 2012. According to the Wild Steelhead Coalition, non-native hatchery steelhead will not be released into the Elwha River…
Livingston-based artist Derek DeYoung painted the Fall/Winter 2010 cover of The Drake. Cinema Digital’s latest release “Canvasfish” chronicles DeYoung’s career as he strokes the oar, paintbrush, and fly rod through life.
What makes a good guide great? The criteria is seemingly endless: everything from “ties good knots” to “makes miracles happen.” But perhaps the most important is the ability to read and adapt to people along the same lines of reading and adapting to water variables. As “troutopias” go, Montana has bred more freshwater fishing guides…
Conservationists are applauding the recent quashing of the Million/Flaming Gorge Pipeline project—developer Aaron Million’s mega-bucks pitch to suck water from Utah’s Flaming Gorge Reservoir to Colorado’s thirsty Front Range. Feds nixed the proposal yesterday.
There are clearly some discrepancies out there between dreaming of the life and actually living the so-called dream. The dirtbaggish Spey-huggers over at metalheads squash the stereotypes. Some of this may surprise you; some of it will not.
DENVER—Federal authorities raised several red flags in their analysis of a $270 million project designed to pull an additional 21,296 acre-feet of water annually from the Colorado River. Citing bad math and a downplaying of critical adverse impacts, the EPA said the project to divert more western Colorado water to feed expanding Front Range suburbs…
OLYMPIC PENINSULA—Washington’s Sol Duc River is set to undergo a game-changing sustainability plan, becoming the first Wild Salmonid Management Zone for steelhead as designated by the Department of Fish and Wildlife. The zone covers the entire river, spanning 227 square miles—one the most productive systems for wild steelhead in the state.
Big news from the New York Times this week: Carp are officially gaining as a “fly-fishing favorite.” According to an article by carp promoter Chris Santella, this so-called trash fish is providing treasured opportunities because carp “are a species you can sight cast to with a fly rod without traveling to the Caribbean.”