The Year’s Best Flyfishing Vids (Plus Beer)
Join us next week in Orlando, Florida for another legendary party celebrating the hottest flyfishing films from the past 12 months at The Drake’s 11th Annual Flyfishing Video Awards.
Daily Fly Fishing News
Video Daze: Northern Exposure
From Tight Loops, the flyfishing collective with a soft spot for old Volkswagens, Northern Exposure follows Chase and Aimee Bartee as they chase a phantom cicada hatch on Maryland’s Savage River and then reconnect with their Northeastern roots. “Don’t expect to see any geotags of these rivers on Instagram, the folks up there keep it pretty…
Past Champs Dominate 54th Gold Cup Tourney
Facing ripping winds and tarpon of the hard to find variety, podium experience proved to be the key ingredient for top anglers grinding it out at the 54th Annual Invitational Gold Cup Tarpon Tournament in Islamorada, Florida, with the three winning teams having all been past Grand Champions.
FishViews
CTRL + ALT + PUT-IN FishViews, a startup based in Wimberly, Texas, is adding new features to your summer “river float” plans—providing anglers, rafters, government agencies, and conservation organizations with interactive 360-degree digital maps of a growing list of American and worldwide waterways. Similar to the Google Street View platform you use to spy on…
Utah’s Right-to-Use Case—The Continuum
This week, Utah Stream Access Coalition (USAC) will shift back into courtroom mode, once again arguing for a favorable conclusion to the longstanding legal wranglings over constitutionally-bound public fishing access rights in the Beehive State.
Henry’s Fork Days
The Henry’s Fork Foundation was formed in 1983 by a group of visionaries who knew good fishing when they saw it and then decided to swaddle it from future threats. Today, this section of the eastern Idaho’s upper Snake courses through mostly private land, but in part thanks to the HFF, working with landowners, agencies,…
A Steelhead Quest: Portrait of a Rivered Life
Steelheading for most flyfishers is a condensed, two season hustle. We hit pause on the daily grind and shoehorn in a couple weeks to fish peak runs of the “summer” or “winter” variety. But once upon a time of steelhead abundance, the windows were wider. And pulling on an ocean-fresh chromer every month of the…
Striper School
Big brook trout and landlocked Atlantic salmon get all the press in Maine, but there’s an underappreciated striped bass fishery in the easternmost state. So before you load your drift boat and head inland, consider expanding your angling opportunities this spring by attending Striper School.
Fish B.C.’s Babine for a Benjamin
There are a few ways to see and swing northern British Columbia’s legendary Babine River this fall. And while most of them involve a mortgage-size down payment followed by a heli ride to your majestic riverside digs, there’s now a glimmer of hope for the budget-oriented dirtbags in the crowd—assuming we can scrounge up a…
Columbia River Bronzeback Bonanza
While steelhead and chinook salmon fisheries remain a question mark across the Columbia River Basin, a bronzeback boon will keep anglers in the hunt during this raging high-water season. And an extra cooler, along with some eggs and flour, should feature prominently in your kit.
Montana Writers Rally to Support State Public Lands
Clear rivers and one’s right to wade them in search of swirling trout have always been, in the great state of Montana, prerogatives worth fighting to keep. Now more than forty of Montana’s best writers have unholstered their pens to bring original essays and testimonials to the battle, advocating for the protection of public lands…
Rock-Bottom Salmon Forecast Shutters Snake River
A new forecast halving the expected return of spring chinook to the Columbia River and its tributaries led Washington to close Snake River salmon fishing earlier this week. The spring chinook return to the entire Columbia-Snake River Basin this season was predicted to be 160,800. It’s now been cut to 83,000 and recreational fishing has…
Wader Makers: Generations
From our friends at Simms: “Born and raised in Montana, first and second generation Wader Makers Leona and Michelle Helvey reflect on family, fishing, and a mother/daughter bond that continues to help them get through sad times.” Watch the vid, then go give your mom a hug.
Guaranteed Refills for a Thirsty ‘Glades
After months of negotiations, this week Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed into law a bill that could help reverse the 40-year ecosystem decline occurring in the Florida Everglades. SB10, sponsored by Sen. Rob Bradley, will fund the creation of a 78-billion gallon deep-water reservoir (enough water-holding capacity to fill 120,000 Olympic-size swimming pools) south of Lake…
Iconic Cooler Maker Targets “Trump Wall” Contract
Colemann this week announced its bid to construct President Trump’s long-promised southern border wall out of a surplus of unsellable coolers. Company spokesperson Steve Bingham said, “You won’t see us in many drift boats this summer, but a 1,900-mile-long Colemann barricade could be the comeback we’ve all been praying for.” The Colemann WALL®—currently banned in California—would…
Stockers Destined for Washington’s Elwha River
President Trump’s favorite assembly of federal judges, the 9th Circuit Court, backed a lower court’s decision last week, approving hatchery fish to be dumped into the Olympic Peninsula’s Elwha River—once again.
High Country Gems – Uncaught Cutthroat
Grip & grins, screaming reels, and airborne salmonids are the bread, butter, and bacon of flyfishing media. It sure gets the heart thumping to see that tarpon thrash its head side-to-side in midair. The film tours capitalize on this adrenal desire and know how to deliver. But there are times you don’t want your heart to…
The Drake’s Big Year Contest is BACK
The Big Year is back. And for the next 12 months, it’s not about the biggest fish, it’s about the most species caught on a fly rod. Now through April 21, 2018, post a picture of you with your fish on The Drake’s Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter page. Whoever posts the most different species, that they caught starting…
Dirtbag Fishermen Prepare for Forest Service Cuts
As spring runoff works its way out of the nation’s river systems, many underemployed, overfished trout bums fear that their favorite Forest Service campsites will be closed this summer due to President Trump’s proposed budget constraints. As a result, Walmart parking lots across the country are now filling up with tailgating anglers. “It’s cheaper than…
200 Miles of West Coast Salmon Fishing Shuttered
Facing a record-low Klamath River salmon forecast, the Pacific Fisheries Management Council has moved to close 200 miles of coastal fishing in northern California and southern Oregon. Fishery managers expect to see less than 12,000 chinook returning to the Klamath this season.
Video Daze: Atlanticus
Castaway Films’ latest trailer for Atlanticus travels deep up northern Costa Rica’s jungle river systems in search of triple-digit tarpon. The freshwater fishery, fed by seasonal rains, is also stomping grounds for garfish, sawfish, bull sharks, and cute, cuddly caiman. The feature length film is due Jan. 2018. Meantime, here’s a snippet of what’s cooking.
Florida Captains and Anglers Ready to Flood Tallahassee
Florida-based captains and anglers are traveling to Tallahassee this week, urging state lawmakers to follow what was outlined in the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan in 2000. In other words, to build the reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee that would store, clean, and properly convey fresh water, sending more of it south to Florida Bay.
Trump Gifts $78K to Park Service, Not Much Else
President Trump on Monday donated his first-quarter earnings as leader of the free world to the cash-strapped National Park Service—a total of $78,333. The check was presented to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who said, “I’m thrilled,” and noted that the wad would go toward maintaining historic battlefield sites under the NPS domain.
Prescribed Spill for Columbia-Snake River Salmon and Steelhead
Columbia-Snake River salmon and steelhead, thanks to a ruling this week by U.S. District Court Judge Michael Simon, will see increased water releases over spillways at eight Columbia and Snake dams, helping ocean-migrating smolts navigate the concrete cluttered basin.
Video Daze: Contradictions
Redington’s Find Your Water series kicks off a new year with the short film Contradictions, introducing us to a Billings, MT-based angler who’s mastered both his mine and fishing crafts. From a mile underground, drilling and blasting, to miles of open water on the Bighorn River, drifting and casting, Rich Schwend navigates the contrasting elements…
The Balance: Bringing Flow Back to the ‘Glades
The Balance, a new film from Orvis, traverses the Everglades ecosystem and explains how increased storage, treatment, and conveyance of water south of Lake Okeechobee would benefit fisheries across southern Florida. Text WATER to 52866, and tell Florida’s leaders to support SB10 and HB761 and to build the EAA Reservoir, which would restore the flow…
Video Daze: B.C. Spring Tour
T-Motion theater’s latest vid fires up the chopper and points it toward the remote reaches of British Columbia’s Skeena River system to search for big kings (10 to 90+ pounds) on the swing. “Steelhead are the most sought-after fish in this province, but by far the chinook pull a lot harder.” Anglers on camera include…