Tikal

Tailwater Weekend: Tikal

Like many extinct civilizations, the ancient Mayans may have eventually just grown too big for their own brilliance. Tikal, for instance, once supported 60,000 to 80,000 inhabitants—part of an estimated population of five million in the overall Maya lowlands by AD 700. And like us, they also relied on dams to manipulate environments to help…

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Carpy

Wham Bam Carp Slam

Since synchronized carp fondling didn’t make this year’s list of esteemed Olympic alternative sports, Denver once again will play host to the 6th Annual South Platte Carp Slam. The pro-am event, which raised more than $30k last year for local river rehab efforts, kicks off on August 25. Tickets for the New Belgium-fueled Evening on…

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Elwha_Beach

Back to the Beach

Ma Nature continues to show she’s a badass on the Elwha River, where top to bottom changes are unfolding fast. Since the dams dropped the river has started coughing up millions of cubic yards of sediment and other debris trapped in its reservoirs since the early 1900s. According to experts on the scene the river…

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fidel_castro

Havana Affair

HAVANA—Cuban President Raul Castro recently said that his government is willing to mend fences with the United States and sit down to discuss anything. A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G. If this means a chance to rap unlimited access to permit, tarpon, bonefish, mojitos, and the mambo… we’re listening.

hoback

Cutthroat Wage Hoback Comeback

JACKSON—The Hoback River cutthroat fishery is rebounding well since Wyoming Game and Fish stopped stocking it with hatchery-raised fish. For years, the Hoback was run as a put-and-take trout factory jammed with 4- to 6-inch fry that mostly failed to reproduce in the wild. The waterway, along with several other rivers around Wyoming, was slowly weaned off…

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Pal1

Permit Props and Propaganda

Although we’re not huge on corporate newsletters, our own included, the latest edition of the Palometa Club’s version was dripping with enough permit porn to make us stand erect and salute. It also includes our Passports Mexico piece on Punta Allen and additional words on Mexico flats fishing by Drake contributor Chris Santella in the…

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poudre

High Park Fire Update

For those following the High Park wildfire outside of Fort Collins, containment is coming full circle and looks like our backyard Poudre River is—at least for now—back in business. According to Forest Service officials, Highway 14 has been reopened. Big thanks to our local fire crews and Red Cross workers who’ve had their hands full…

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Hell_Yeah

Highway to Hell Defeated

That’s a big “Hell yeah!” from our friends at Save Our Wild Salmon, who tell us the threat from Exxon to the lower Snake River and Idaho/Montana Highway 12 is over, at least for now. Imperial Oil, owned by Exxon, has withdrawn its application to the Montana Department of Transportation to transport massive tar sands…

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japan_boat

Washed Up in Washington

The mystery 20-foot fiberglass boat that recently washed ashore at Cape Disappointment State Park on Washington’s Long Beach Peninsula has been linked back to Japan’s March, 2011, tsunami. The long migrating, barnacled vessel spent 15 months in the Pacific Ocean before it hit the beach for a much needed breather.

Carptourney

Bighorn Carp Tourney

Last year we were introduced to some wicked Bighorn Lake carping thanks to The Bighorn River Alliance’s annual carp tourney in Fort Smith, MT. Carp patrol consisted of 25 teams, launching en masse from the Ok-A-Beh Marina, and sourcing big lips hoovering down dry flies—cicada style. The 2012 “Big Lips International Carp Tournament” takes place…

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SanClemente

Goodbye Dam, Hello Steelhead

The California Public Utilities Commission has approved the largest dam demolition project in California history, calling for removal of the aging San Clemente Dam from the Carmel River on the Monterey Peninsula. Removing the dam will restore access to 25 miles of critical steelhead habitat, in addition to reestablishing ecological connectivity for other threatened species…

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Bacon

Billionaire Pledges New Easements

COLORADO—For those unfamiliar with Louis Bacon—no relation to Kevin—he is a billionaire New York hedge-fund manager with buckets of land in Colorado’s southern Rockies. He has also pledged to protect 90,000 acres of his ranch properties from future in-state development (read: eminent domain) as part of federal conservation easements, the largest to date in the…

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What’s going on in Guyana?

River Monsters

One of the many appealing aspects of tarpon fishing is that tarpon come up for air, allowing anglers, in most cases, to view their quarry before casting to it. Just seeing a group of 100-pound ‘poons rolling on the surface can be almost as exciting as that first strip-set. So imagine taking the largest tarpon…

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CANNED BEER: 7 STANDOUTS

Canned Beer: 7 Standouts

Way back in August of 2010, we celebrated the 200th anniversary of the can—canned soup, canned beans, canned tuna. This summer, it’s about the beer. Once considered a sub-par compromise when bottles weren’t available, cans are quickly becoming the preferred vessel for many a craft beer-drinker, particularly flyfishers, rafters, and other marginally employed types. Cans…

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