The 2012 flyfishing film season is officially official—with the International Fly Fishing Film Festival debut in Denver last weekend and the Drake sponsored Fly Fishing Film Tour about to launch later this month in Ventura, CA. (Two completely separate entities, in case you were wondering.) Get your tickets and get in on the fresh goods.…
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Think of Canadian delicacy “Poutine” much like you would a savory ice cream-Sunday—only substitute vanilla for French fries, chocolate for brown gravy, and nuts and a cherry on top for a heaping dollop of cheese curds. Sounds gnarly, but it’s actually quite brilliant… so long as you limit your intake in accordance with the Surgeon…
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What makes a river “gold medal”? A proliferation of beefy trout, for sure. But little more than that it seems. Colorado’s Blue River near Silverthorne has been a designated gold medal river for years. It’s been re-channelized and “stream enhanced” by professionals. It houses large rainbows and browns—sustained thanks to stocking efforts. But it’s what…
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DENVER, CO—An anonymous tip from a Suncor Energy employee alerted state health officials to contamination in tap water on the refinery property near the South Platte River late last week. According to Denver Water authorities the situation appears to be isolated to Suncor’s private system: “Benzene has not been detected in our system. But we are doing…
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2011 was quite a year. I’m thankful. Before I wax nostalgic and get sentimental, I want to close with one last field report from the South Platte River.
Here lies: “Steve” the Great Lakes Steelhead, Flyfishing Badasses, Priests, and Public Access Another year of fishing is about to smash through the door. But before it does we take a moment to remember those who passed in 2011, while leaving indelible marks on our evolving flyfishing culture.
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This week, Western Rivers Conservancy (WRC) purchased 160 acres of critical steelhead habitat along Oregon’s North Santiam River—a vital Willamette River tributary. Historically, the North Santiam was the largest producer of winter steelhead in the Willamette basin and is the source of approximately one-third of its spring Chinook salmon. Today, fish in the basin are…
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Oregon photog Darcy Bacha recently punctuated the cover of Powder Magazine’s Photo Annual issue with this sick shot—pretty much the pièce de résistance for any rising ski-industry shooter. (Bacha is only 23.) Turns out his flyfishing images are equally inspiring. Check ’em out.
60 Minute’s Anderson Cooper recently traveled to Cuba’s The Gardens of the Queen (Jardines de la Reina), where he swims with socialist sharks, documents a global model for underwater habitat preservation, and briefly highlights Avalon’s flyfishing operation there. We imagine it’s worth watching… if you can stomach through Phil Mickelson’s minute-long psoriatic arthritis commercial.
“In every one of these valleys there’s some kind of crystal clear creek… and I think that’s what we go up there for. It’s to let go of everything and get into a different state of mind without taking a fist full of pills.” Chicago, Illinois, punk band Pegboy is slated to hit the 2012…
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Severed by North Dakota, the Saskatchewan plains, Alberta tar-sands, and British Columbia’s snow-covered Coast Mountains, Gaylord, Minnesota, is far removed from a proposed large-scale Alaskan mining operation and the toll it would take on anadromous fish runs. But it’s in Gaylord that Sportsman’s Alliance of Alaska Director Scott Hed had lived a quintessential Midwestern life—playing…
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“Mountains are giant, restful, absorbent. You can heave your spirit into a mountain and the mountain will keep it, folded, and not throw it back as some creeks will. The creeks are the world with all its stimulus and beauty.” – Annie Dillard I grew up in the Catholic Church where, by a certain age,…
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Immediately institute “Finder’s Keeper’s” rule for all bales of pot that wash up in the Marquesas. Ditch Hemingway look-a-like contest and expand Fantasy Fest to the first Saturday of each month. Boobs and feather boas ring cash registers. Old fat white guys with beards, not so much. Student loan relief from Key West Community College,…
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There aren’t many rivers in the Rockies more appealing in late September than Colorado’s lower Taylor, which sits halfway between Crested Butte and Gunnison and is known nationally for its monster, mysis-shrimp-filled rainbows that inhabit the short tailwater section below Taylor Park Reservoir. The river received national attention of a different sort in the spring…
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Ever since we were birthed by an 8-pound Jackson Hole cutthroat named Stella back in the late ’90s we’ve been dreaming of this moment. Because nothing says “You have arrived!” like a wicked “DRAKE” tat right across your freakin face. Now that’s commitment right there friends. Who’s next?
Our father, who art in Denver. Tebow be thy name. Many people have experienced the joys of catching an important sporting event in Mexico—scrambling to find a TV at a small Mayan village or finding a radio at a bar in Baja. Like last spring, when several friends from Dallas were permit fishing at the Palometa…
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The music of moving water. Flying bugs. A rising trout. And a cast. In case you missed it. Or in case you have a case of the Mondays and need to see it again. Rolf Nylinder’s Trout is all captures the essence.
[mit-i-gey-shuhn] noun 1. lessening the force or intensity of something unpleasant, as wrath, pain, grief, or extreme circumstances The situation down on the South Platte and Sand Creek continues to evolve. This river is near and dear to a lot of anglers here in Denver – I was happy to see continued mitigation work when…
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Drake contributor Alex Cerveniak tells us that some politicians in the State of Michigan feel there’s a problem with too much public land in places such as the U.P. And this epidemic has spiraled so far out of control they’ve proposed “land cap” legislation to strip the state of its right to acquire more public…
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Long before Occupy Wall Street spawned from the gritty sidewalk cracks of Manhattan, back in the spring of 2009 when the U.S. economy capped its worst performance in 51 years, the sentiment around town—at least for those working in finance—was less about occupying anything and more about evacuating everything.
This image shows Lewis and Clark fishing at Great Falls long before utilities company PPL built its Black Eagle Dam to pimp the Missouri River for hydroelectricity. Today, the case for who owns the land beneath Great Falls lands in U.S. Supreme Court, with arguments to be presented in the PPL Montana v. the state…
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Who Really Owns America’s Riverbeds? Tomorrow is a big day in Washington, D.C. for anyone who likes fishing, rafting, or canoeing public water in the United States. In what is likely the most meaningful river-access case ever heard before the U.S. Supreme Court, PPL Montana v Montana is seeking to answer the long-disputed question of…
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There are plenty of uninspired time-lapse videos making the rounds these days, including this rotten one: Tomato time-lapse. Filmmakers Ben Canales, John Waller, Steve Engman, and Blake Johnson of Uncage the Soul Productions, however, skip the low-hanging fruit and tackle a 1,600 mile road trip across Oregon—delivering the Columbia River Gorge, Mt Hood, Mt Jefferson, the…
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Denver carp community first on the scene When I was 13 years old my buddy Scott was attacked by a doberman. It was bad. The dog mauled him head on—Scott’s cheek was punctured, one eye was nicked and subsequently swollen shut, and he lost part of a finger trying to fend off the attack. It…
DetailsStripers Forever is a non-profit internet-based conservation organization, seeking game fish status for wild striped bass on the Atlantic Coast, while optimizing sustainable public fishing opportunities for anglers from Maine to North Carolina. The org’s new video drives home compelling arguments for enhanced recreational, conservation-based measures along the Eastern Seaboard. If you’re a fan of…
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DENVER, CO—First responders worked through the night to contain oil and possibly other materials at the confluence of Sand Creek and the South Platte River, north of Downtown Denver and about a mile west of the Suncor Energy refinery.
If you’re familiar with street art documentary Through the Gift Shop—and the work of underground graffiti legend Banksy—you might also want to keep a watch out for Tasso, whose freakish caricatures have been clawing up and out of rivers as of late.