March Madness - Finding calm amid coronavirus anxiety

March Madness – Finding calm amid coronavirus anxiety

It was a brisk and beautiful morning, the sky cloudless, the sunlight sharp. It was the kind of day that under different circumstances would have you looking forward to the coming seasons of warmth and splendor and carefree fun. We began packing the car. I’ll never forget the looks on some of my neighbors’ faces as I took the bags of groceries—canned goods, pasta, rice and yes, even some toilet paper—to the car. Those faces betrayed thoughts. Wait, should I be doing the same thing? Fear may be the only thing more contagious than this virus.

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Drake Magazine Southeast Alaska Tongass

The Roadless Rule in America’s Salmon Forest

“Judge Sharon Gleason, U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Alaska, ruled last week that the Forest Service violated federal law by approving future logging in the 16.7 million-acre Tongass National Forest.”

I pay my bills here in Southeast Alaska, at least in part, by having short and intense conversations on airplanes. I help wedge wadered clients from all over the globe into DeHavilland Beavers, then drop in on some of the planet’s most spectacular temperate rainforest

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Drake_Magazine_2019_-4

A Wet World that Burns

Spending more time at home lately? Fancy yourself a writer? Could you use $2,500? Then consider entering a submission for the 2020 Robert Traver Fly Fishing Award, sponsored by the John D. Voelker Foundation and the American Museum of Fly Fishing (AMFF). Here is the link to the awards page: https://www.voelkerfoundation.com/traveraward/  and below is the winning submission from 2019—”A Wet World that Burns” by Jimmy Watts (photos by Carson Artac), which first appeared in the summer 2018 issue of The Drake

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Baja Bait Ball in Magdalena Bay.

Mag Bay Magic

Survive, is what an angler does the first few minutes after hooking a striped marlin. My friend Nick and I shout with joy, accompanied by excited words in Spanish from our new friends. We watch a reel getting emptied and watch the fish leap, flip, and dive. Thirty minutes later and it’s the post-release chatter,…

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Alaska West Lodge

American Greed, Inc.

riter and historian David T. Courtwright calls them “limbic capitalists”—people or companies that target our limbic system, the part of our brains primarily responsible for emotion, especially as it relates to pleasure, motivation, and survival. Courtwright is author of The Age of Addiction: How Bad Habits Became Big Business. “Biological evolution shaped the limbic system,…

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Steelhead conservation in Oregon

Can’t We Let Them Live?

As a lifetime Oregon resident, angler, and guide, I spend 40-60 days a year on the rivers of the Southern Oregon coast. I interact with anglers that use all types of methods, and every one of them I’ve talked to has noticed a significant decline in encounters with wild steelhead. How can this be explained?…

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Drake Magazine Flyfishing Movie Awards 2019

Drake Magazine Fly Fishing Movie of the Year – 2019

  Movie of the Year Nominees Big Land Tight Loops/Aimee and Chase Bartee Artifishal Josh “Bones” Murphy/Patagonia Glorious Bastards Capt. Jack Productions One Path Ross Purnell/Tim Cremin Alignment  Eric Jackson & Vantage Cinema Live the Stream: The Story of Joe Humphreys Nomadic Studio/Lucas and Meigan Bell Winner, Movie of the Year: Live the Stream: The Story of Joe Humphreys Nomadic Studio/Lucas and Meigan…

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Drake Magazine Flyfishing Movie Awards 2019

Drake Magazine Fly Fishing Best Cinematography – 2019

  Best Cinematography Nominees: Live the Stream: The Story of Joe Humphreys Nomadic Studio/Lucas and Meigan Bell Bounce  Rockhouse Buffet Series: 3 Olympic Peninsula Capture Adventure Media/Gilbert Rowley & Phil Tuttle Alignment  Eric Jackson & Vantage Cinema Big Land Tight Loops/Aimee and Chase Bartee Winner, Best Cinematography: Alignment  Eric Jackson & Vantage Cinema  

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Drake Magazine Fly Fishing Best Story 2019

Drake Magazine Fly Fishing Best Story – 2019

  Best Story Nominees: Live the Stream: The Story of Joe Humphreys Nomadic Studio/Lucas and Meigan Bell NexGen RA Beattie, Bryan Gregson & Off the Grid Studios Midnight Mission Gilbert Rowley & Phil Tuttle Chasing the Taper  Tin Boat Productions/Jan Jensen & Mark Allen Davis The Mend  Broc Isabelle/Futuristic Films Winners, Best Story (tie): Live the Stream: The Story of Joe…

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Smoke on the Water

Marijuana cultivation’s impacts on our rivers Chris and James stand on the lawn behind Indian Creek Resort, stomping their feet against the cold while passing a joint back and forth. Recreational pot has been legal in California since January 2019, so the two aren’t breaking any laws. Tomorrow the three of us will be rafting…

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A FLY ROD, NOT A GILLNET, IS HOW TO CHASE PERMIT

Hoping for a Net Loss

The push to ban gillnets in Belize At a Guatemalan fish-processing plant in spring of 2019, a team of journalists saw something that would make any flats angler cringe: several 80-gallon drums filled with salted permit. The journalists, from the Belizean newspaper The Reporter, were there to examine Guatemala’s shark-fishing trade, and the problems it…

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