An always-appreciated view. Photo by Jeremie Hollman

Salmonfly Questions

Conservation, Daily Drake, Drake Magazine Back Issue Content 2022, Flies, Hatches and Bugs, Homepage Content, Trout, U.S. places1 Comment

Living in Eastern Idaho allows me to fish some of the finest trout water in the country, from the South Fork of the Snake to the Madison in Montana. But lately, nostalgia has drawn me south, to northern Utah’s Logan and Blacksmith Fork rivers, both of which flow through the fifty-mile-long Cache Valley where I grew up. Each of these rivers had healthy salmonfly hatches when my grandpa was a kid, but now only the Blacksmith Fork does, and few people seem to know why.

Stream Access

Photo by Corey Kruitbosch

Public Mistrust Doctrine

Conservation, Daily Drake, Drake Magazine Back Issue Content 2021, Freshwater Fly Fishing, Homepage Content, Policy/Politics/Laws, Stream Access, U.S. placesLeave a comment

“The topic of stream access illustrates one of the most perplexing types of legal conflicts that can arise… Indeed, it is difficult to find a legal issue that is more tangled and uncertain.” —A Wildlife Primer (2009), by Eric Freyfogle and Dale Goble

Colorado’s river laws might be in trouble. Roger Hill, the octogenarian trying to fulfill his dream of legally wade-fishing the Arkansas River, was at the Colorado Court of Appeals on January 27 and got good news about his case—Hill v Warsewa. 

A public-lands debate at your doorstep

Utah’s Monument Problem

Conservation, Drake Magazine Back Issue Content Summer 2017, Policy/Politics/LawsLeave a comment

IN THE SPRING OF 1996, President Bill Clinton created the 1.8-million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, encircling a swath of twisted canyon country in southern Utah. Using the Antiquities Act, he sidestepped Congress—as 16 presidents have done, creating 157 national monuments—and delivered the proclamation in a ceremony on the rim of the Grand Canyon.

Drone Zone

Drake Magazine Back Issue Content Spring 2015, Humor, Policy/Politics/LawsLeave a comment

IN THE SHOWTIME SERIES HOMELAND, Carrie Mathison, played by actress Claire Danes, leads drone strikes against terrorists from the comfort of her CIA station. But the same technology that makes drones—also known as unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs—convenient military weapons, has also helped advance the careers of real-world civilians, including a growing list of flyfishing…

Drake Magazine Colorado Roadless Fly Fishing

Drake Magazine Colorado Roadless Fly Fishing

Colorado Roadless

Conservation, Drake Magazine Back Issue Content 2012, Drake Magazine Back Issue Content Fall 2012, Policy/Politics/Laws, U.S. places2 Comments

“Perhaps the rebuilding of body and spirit is the greatest service derivable from our forests, for of what worth are material things if we lose the character and quality of people that are the soul of America?” Arthur Carhart—widely regarded as a pioneer in wilderness protection—posed that question more than 90 years ago after a…

Western Rivers Flyfisher is based in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Western Rivers Flyfisher

Conservation, Fly Fishing Industry, Flyshop Friday, Lodges, Outfitters, and GuidesLeave a comment

Try this on for size. Close your eyes and imagine a flyshop more interested in amplifying experience than sticking you with spools of $14 tippet, dozens of hyperanatomical flavor-of-the-day flies, and pearl strands of pink thingamabobbers. Imagine that this same flyshop has invested in this “experience giving” commodity for 25 consecutive years, pushing things like…

Drake Magazine Easement Taylor Park Reservoir

Photo: Corey Kruitbosch

Living on Easement Street

Drake Magazine Back Issue Content 2011, Drake Magazine Back Issue Content Winter 2011, Fly Fishing Industry, Lifestyle, Policy/Politics/Laws, U.S. placesLeave a comment

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…