Another water rights battle rages on in Colorado. As the Front Range’s population grows, it is Denver Water’s responsibility to make sure residents have enough flow to run their dishwashers. To satisfy the demand, Denver Water is looking at the threatened Fraser River, sixty percent of which is already diverted to the Front Range. The…
DetailsThe God Squad isn’t a new Marvel spinoff. Nor is it the latest chart-topping Christian rock band. But it just might be another nightmare for ESA-listed salmon and steelhead on the Snake River.
If you’re looking for a 20+ pound cutthroat, you’re either high or you’re fishing Pyramid Lake. Maybe both. In the center of northern Nevada’s elevated-desert lie the remnants of Lake Lahontan, once covering more than 8,000 square miles. Today, the largest body of water left is Pyramid, home to legends of spell-casting mermaids, human-snatching babies…
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Flyfishing businesses occupy a tempestuous microcosm tied to the sea-sawing health of rivers and oceans. Example. If there are no fish (participation catalyst), there is no you (potential consumer). And for brands that appreciate a prosperous tomorrow, backing nonprofits working to keep trout, tarpon, salmon, steelhead swimming makes sense.
People of Zwolle, a Netherlands municipality located east of the Amsterdam haze, are known as Blauwvingers (blue fingers). Story goes, way back when cash-strapped citizens sold church bells to a neighboring town for a pile of worthless coins. Counting the copper turned their fingers a unique shade of North Sea indigo. LOOP’s predator team may have…
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This winter, Alyssa Halls of Owl Creek Flies is gathering a group of aspiring steelheaders for an inspiring sesh on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. The Ladies Winter Steelhead Fishing Retreat & Workshop is a hands-on clinic hosted in conjunction with Brazda’s Fly Fishing that includes Skagit-style casting, steelhead fly-tying, wade fishing and swung-fly presentations—plus plenty of time…
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Lund’s opened its doors to the people of River Falls, Wisconsin in 1873. A. W. Lund Co. sold wooden carriages. As the town grew, the Lund family’s operation grew. In 1881, they opened a general store on Main Street that focused on hardware. The Kinnickinnic River ran behind the store and sometime in the 1970s,…
DetailsNational Park Service (NPS) killed a record 366,000 cutthroat-gobbling, nonnative lake trout in Yellowstone Lake this year. Part of the park’s desperate effort to restore tanking native cutthroat populations, the program has dispatched about 1.5 million lakers in the last five years.
More than a month has passed since work on a decrepit diversion dam sent a trout-killing mud slurry into Wyoming’s Shoshone River. And so far, the lethal discharge is still flowing strong.
Rolling over from my plywood perch on the top bunk, I peer down to see all three of my cabinmates asleep. So I rule them out. Slipping the headlamp from beneath my pillow and turning on the light reveals not one but two Alaska-sized mice sitting on top of a cooler, munching saltines. I stare…
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“My father was very sure about certain matters pertaining to the universe. To him, all good things—trout as well as eternal salvation—come by grace and grace comes by art and art does not come easy.” —Norman MacLean ABOUT TEN YEARS AGO, JAY BREVIK AND I SPENT A DAY FISHING several of the Olympic Peninsula’s winter…
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I STOOD IN THE NEAR DARK AT THE TOP OF THE TRAIL THAT LED DOWN a series of switchbacks to the river. A neighbor had told me that for several days there’d been grizzly tracks all down the trail. I thought that grizzlies probably liked these low light levels and could see well enough to…
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STATE OF ARMS AS WOULD ANY GUY SPAWNED FROM THE gravels of Oregon, I had deep reservations about driving the backroads of my home state in a rig blasphemed by California plates. It was a red Tacoma with a watertight canopy and a rod rack permanently bolted to its hood, an otherwise brilliant fishing truck,…
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FLOWING WATER, BY DESIGN, HAS A SANCTIMONIOUS way of pre-qualifying its clientele. Gentle riffles and wide gravel bars lure the false-casting masses, and boiling black holes rimmed with mossy ledge rock frighten them away. That said, I suppose there’s really no great mystery why the easy flows produce the fussy little degree-candidate fish, while the…
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Texas is growing. Every month, thousands of people pack their bags and make the move to the Lone Star State, partly because it’s filled with opportunity and a thriving workforce. And as Austin spreads its arms, so spreads word-of-mouth about flyfishing in central Texas. In recent years, flyfishing has exploded in the heart of Texas…
DetailsApproximately 200 federally-listed adult steelhead were discovered dead last week in the tailrace below the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Dworshak Dam on the North Fork of the Clearwater River near Orofino, Idaho. Cause of the mortalities is still under investigation, but it’s believed the injuries stemmed from non-routine upgrades of the Dam’s turbine unit.
Anyone who bought an Alaska fishing license online in the last year received an email from AK Fish & Game this week. The reason? The price of a fishing license is going up. Whether you live there or not, you’re going to have to shell out a few more bucks to the state.
Day-tripping Utah’s Green River, via Sean Slobodan. “Flaming Gorge is absolutely otherworldly. Home to the Green River and arguably the best fishing on the planet. We were just along for the ride on this one while Grant and Grant Jr. got to catch some fish and make some memories.”
Some trout get all the hype. That’s not the case for the aloof one in the lineup. Bull trout are no one’s celebrated state fish. No boutique digs cater solely to the species. They don’t mix well with nonnative riffraff. And they cast doubt on those who call climate change a hoax.
This month, Simms is again honoring our nation’s combat veterans by donating proceeds from sales of its WQW Limited Edition wader. Simms launched the special G3 Guide™ Wader last year to help benefit the Bozeman-based Warriors and Quiet Waters Foundation (WQW). WQW helps reintegrate post-9/11 combat veterans into society by building hope and resilience, facilitating camaraderie,…
DetailsHooké’s full-length version of “Along the Way” is finally live. Here’s looking at you, Canada. “We produced this movie with all the encounters and all the great moments we shared by the river in mind. Gaspé, New-Brunswick, Baie-James, Labrador and British Columbia were all incredible places, but the things we’ll remember the most are the people we…
DetailsIn the final days of the presidential campaign, Republican nominee Donald Trump broke from his swing-state rallies and made several unexpected tour stops over the weekend. In Dutch John, Utah, on Sunday, Trump and his entourage exited the billionaire’s gold-plated chopper and hit the drift-boat littered streets of Guide Row, where the nominee was snapped…
DetailsAfter shuttering coho and steelhead fishing on the Columbia River two weeks ago, the Washington-Oregon Columbia River Compact recently reversed course, giving the green light to fishing for the two species from Buoy 10 near the mouth of the river to the Highway 395 Bridge near Pasco, WA. The fall chinook fishery will remain closed.
EVEN IN THE END, Cliff Hansen—one of the most influential advocates of local control and state rights in Wyoming history—thought it was a good idea. But thank the river gods he didn’t get his way back in the day. Otherwise, the Snake River in what is now Grand Teton National Park would be a whole…
DetailsKeys to surviving an extended camping expedition on the remote West Side of Andros Island, in the Bahamas? Beer and a love for bonefish. In the 4th installment of Xplor Andros, Frankie Marion, Jeff Rybak, and flats guide Solomon Murphy focus on the “capture”. Read more about the crew and their mission in flats-fishing minimalism at…
DetailsWashington steelheaders will have fewer options this fall, as the Upper Columbia River tributaries will remain closed. In recent fall seasons bombers and muddlers motored through classic steelhead streams like the Methow and Wenatchee. This year only about 6,300 steelhead are expected to make it upstream of Priest Rapids Dam on the Columbia. That paltry sum…
DetailsIceland has the world’s happiest people, a hot tub in every town, and “WIND, WIND and fucking wind,” says Swiss angler/filmmaker Luc Malbois. In The Land of Endless Days Malbois and Romain Mettaz spend 10 days sight-fishing the country’s lakes and rivers for Arctic char and prehistoric-looking browns. “The first day the Varma was really low. The second day,…
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