Digging into Charlie’s, the 6-year-old Arvada, Colorado flyshop mainstay, is akin to entering the box of a tying master. But instead of perusing a dozen rows of meticulously filled C&F foam slits, you’ve stumbled into a dream selection of 2,400 fly bins filled
Outside Magazine recently listed its top-ten adventure stories of the year. Highlights include the heists, high times, and eventual capture of the Barefoot Bandit, Colton Harris-Moore, as well as the tragic death of South African kayaker, Hendrik “Hendri”
New York animator Jared D. Weiss is among many things a “Cartoonist. Animator. Graphic Artist. Writer. Nerd. Detective. Comedian?” For his latest assignment he looks to the bowels of the kitchen sink to tackle fly fishing from a highly literal perspective.
In addition to rocking turtlenecks and stroking hot toddys by the fire, ’tis the season for some good winter reading. Field & Stream’s Joe Cermele runs down a handful of favorites, including Sowbelly by regular Drake contributor Monte Burke, and David Kinney’s excellent exposé The Big One chronicling conspiracy and intrigue at
In what has been coined “Operation Payback,” WikiLeaks and the hacker group known as Anonymous have allegedly targeted Drake Magazine intelligence, stymieing its PayPal systems and scrambling the free flow of its members’ illicit ramblings for more than 24 hours last week. Speaking to us via coded HTML brail documents delivered over dial-up Internet, Deputy…
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SEATTLE—The Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery, built on a tributary of the Wenatchee River, has bolstered artificial spawning grounds for salmon, while simultaneously endangering the remaining bull trout population in Icicle Creek. Kurt Beardslee, executive director of the Wild Fish Conservancy, who recently filed a lawsuit, says his group
Since kooky Harvard–trained mathematician/Unabomber Ted Kaczynski moved from Lincoln, MT to his plush digs at a maximum-security prison in Colorado, he’s lost his cabin to a museum. But his prime Montana land, within striking distance of the Missouri and Big Blackfoot rivers, could be yours for $69,500.
We’ve been called a lot: Dreamy, cute and cuddly, macho, buff… and humble. But the Drake Passage is evidently mean-spirited and ugly. Earlier this week Arctic cruise ship the Clelia II was traveling through the Southern Ocean when it lost an engine, as well as
Saloons tucked away in the small Rocky Mountain communities that survive on the ebb and flow of anglers are where fishing stories either start or end. The more dilapidated, the better. If flakes of hide splinter off a 60-year old mule deer mount, or pornographic cartoons denote the men’s and women’s restrooms, then grab a…
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1. The OCD The OCD boat gets washed at the end of every day, and is always trailered with a cover on. The OCD gets an even more thorough power-washing on days off. The OCD owner will frequently make clients stand around at the takeout ramp while he gives the boat “just a quick sponge…
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John Jackson began snowboarding as a preteen on the powder-strewn spines of the Eastern Sierras, near his hometown in Crowley Lake, California. Soon after, he cast his first flies in that same backyard—in places with legendary names like Inyo, Sierra, Yosemite, and King’s. Fifteen years later and the basic ingredients haven’t changed, just the stakes.…
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This issue of The Drake went to press on May 20, exactly one month after the disastrous oil rig explosion off the Louisiana coast. With 24-hour news coverage providing in-depth, up-to-the-minute details on containment efforts, and with many “experts” sharing their thoughts on television and message boards, we went to the source, and asked for…
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Stiff keys moved toward the carriage like an old man lifting his arthritic knees up a flight of stairs. They rose once, twice and, with effort, three times. A weathered and worn ribbon, now more leather than cloth, slowly began to cough up faint traces of ink with each succeeding stroke. And with each erratic…
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I’m sitting now, on one of the first mornings of the New Year, in a messy, stinky pile of marabou feathers and raccoon skins that nearly canvas the frigid wood floor of my tying room. It’s only ten a.m., and I’ve sneezed at least a couple dozen times by now, and my fleecy home office…
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The Been-There-Done-That Guy He is a walking, yammering Wikipedia of guides, lodges, rivers, oceans, lakes and fish. He’s the best caster he’s ever met. He sets up his vise on the bar during happy hour and forces you to notice his extraordinary tying skills. He owns three obscure IGFA records and is working on six…
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The view from between my wading boots couldn’t be better: a good-looking drift boat anchored in the eddy, a cooler full of barley pops sitting nearby on the gravel bar, the river burbling beyond. Hell, I think I just saw a rise on the far side. But there is very little that could motivate me…
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When you first climb up there, scrambling over the bait well to your perch above the Baja blue, the bow of a panga feels like love itself beneath the soles of your naked feet—warm, slippery, perilous, unstable. The sea, you sense, lies at your command; the authority seems daunting, then reckless, even appalling. For at…
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Hwy 101, from Northern California to Port Angeles, Washington. No stretch of highway in the country crosses more prime steelhead water than this one. Start on California’s Klamath or Smith, then head up to Oregon’s Rogue or the great Tillamook Bay rivers like the Trask and Wilson, and then finish up on the drippy Washington…
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Actress Amber Heard—from the critically (un)acclaimed screen adaptation of The River Why—has officially exited the closet, stage left. We’re still weighing our emotions on this one. Conflicted, perhaps, as in
Today we sit down with the unabashed and articulate Kenny Powers from HBO’s hit sitcom Eastbound & Down. Powers career recently took a turn south, driving to Copales, Mexico, where he’s now rocking cornrows and assumed the alter ego, Steve Janowski. Biding his time throwing pitches, cockfighting, and partying with Aaron the midget, he has…
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Lake Tahoe, not your typical surfing mecca, recently delivered some shred-worthy waves as the result of blowing gusts up to 60+ mph. Photog Grant Kaye was there to capture the action. Neoprene. Mandatory. From the Adventure Journal
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Memories. I remember fall. It was like two weeks ago here on the Frontstrange… before we started hoarding wood and foraging berries for winter hibernation. Field & Stream photog and Drake contributor Tim
Everyone’s got an opinion in the fight over Utah stream access. The Salt Lake Tribune chimes in with a recent editorial addressing short- and long-term solutions in the wake of the new lawsuit recently filed by flyfishers and river runners.
With Turkey Day officially over, we’re switching back over to bacon. Bacon—as a golden rule—is delicious with breakfast (and almost every other meal you can throw at it). But drinking the porky goodness is another story all together. The brave and carnivorous crew at Esquire Magazine today put
ANCHORAGE—In perhaps a poor choice of words, legal opposition to Pebble Mine—according to recent remarks from Pebble Partnership CEO John Shively—has become akin to wading a jihadist thicket. Shively is being lambasted for labeling the due process, designed to safeguard AK
Facing estate foreclosures, Prince William envy, and a bleak British economy, international espionage expert James Bond is liquidating all assets. In addition to booby-trapped attaché cases and Aston Martins, 007 recently listed his boat on Craigslist. For 800 bucks OBO (plus $150, for tuxedo
Proponents of Las Vegas-style development have their sites set on NY’s storied Neversink drainage. Governor Paterson’s plan has been deemed a frivolous dice roll, rife with legal hurdles and environmental