Voices from the river
Inspiration
Fishing lore, wisdom and humor are an antidote for troubled times.
Room to breathe
“Mom, has something like this ever happened to you?” Clara looked up from the snowy tire ruts where she was struggling to keep her cross country skis. “You mean like Coronavirus?” “Yeah.” I immediately thought of Sept. 11, 2001, when the planes flew into the towers,...
The home float
As the old Toyota truck bounced over the river rocks and headed toward the water I couldn’t help smiling to myself. My brother and I sat together in the cab, our dad behind the wheel. He was dropping us at the river for a day fishing, like so many times before. “You...
Fishing through trying times
A beautiful day on the water can’t be beat. Photo credit: Two Fisted Heart Uncertainty can be trying. Fishing is replete with uncertainty under normal circumstances and can test our patience and resolve. But the entire world is living in much more trying...
Honoring a legacy through wild and scenic designation
This remote section of the Middle Fork of the Gila calls to adventurers who are willing to explore the depths of this incredible place worth permanently protecting. By Dan Roper Restoring watersheds and protecting clean water are at the heart of Trout Unlimited’s work...
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Ice fishing for the converted
Ice fishing in Montana When I was a kid, I had this recurring nightmare. I was probably around 7 or 8 at the time. In it, I would be walking down a dirt road with my dad and in the road were a series of big, muddy puddles, the kind you get after a long spring rain. As...
Querencia: A love of place
In 2011, when I was still president of New Mexico’s Santa Fe (Truchas) Chapter, I was approached by Nick Streit, president of the Taos (Enchanted Circle) Chapter and owner of the Taos Fly Shop, about restoring a section of the Red River in Questa. The Red had been a...
Take a child fishing and make a difference
By Mike Enos The bobber began to twitch and then it submerged twice just before taking off in an arc across the glassy surface of the lake. Just as her line, seemingly possessed by a supernatural force, started to move, the quiet was pierced by...
Trout art and paraphernalia
When I was young, our family had a condo in a nearby ski town that was affectionately known as the ‘hatchery’ due to the copious amounts of trout art and decorations adorning the walls and tables. I recall attempting to count them at...
Meet the Bristol Bay guides working to stop Pebble
Meet the 42 Bristol Bay guides working to stop the proposed Pebble mine from ruining a million dollar economy, a fishing paradise, and a world-class fishery.
Still on top
Efforts to fix habitat are as much for people as they are for the planet It’s legislature season in New Mexico, a time I’ve come to abhor for how it represents my species and, perhaps more likely, my deficiencies as a chess player. Sausage making is a circus,...
Kudeniuk
Cameron donned the headphones in the co-pilot’s seat, the splendor of McGavock Lake spread out before him through the windows of the DeHavilland Beaver. He had a little spring in his step that morning as he jog-walked his way down to the dock where the Beaver...
Missouri launches Blue Ribbon Trout Slam
By Kyle Pokorny Anglers creating a list of states to fly fish for wild rainbow trout on pristine streams will not likely consider Missouri as a worthy candidate. However, you would be remiss to leave Missouri off the list entirely. The state of Missouri has within its...
Skate punks and disc golf
In praise of urban trout streams The thought occurred to me while I was fishing under the Highway 20 bridge over the lower Yuba River in California’s Gold Country. To reach the water I had crossed a floodplain so altered by quarrying, mining and off-road vehicles that...
The quest for Mr. Big
Mr. Big Lived in a deep, cool pool in a tiny, unnamed tributary to the South Umpqua River in Douglas County, Ore. I spotted him for the first time on a chillly early summer morning in the late 1970s, when I was probably 12 or 13. Mr. Big became my...
Ponderosas have secrets
The giant ponderosa peers over blue-green water cascading and flowing around boulders, plunging into pools and meandering in eddies. This tree must be well over 100-years old. It stretches skyward with giant, twisted branches leading to more twists and turns extending...
Ode to the stocker
It was a cold, rainy day in April in the southern suburbs of Denver. I looked out my bedroom window, anxiously hoping the spring squall would go away. I’ll never forget my mother coming downstairs with the bad news. I was dressed and ready to go. Fishing shirt. Blue...
Saving Bristol Bay one bag of coffee at a time
It might be fair to say that Alaskans love coffee as much as we love our wild salmon. Coffee helps us get through the long, dark winters, and it powers our fast-paced and adventure-filled summer days. For the Trout Unlimited staff based in...
Warm winter days are nice — when they are rare
By Mark Taylor I probably shouldn’t have been surprised. The first truck was parked just past the “Special Regulations Trout Water” sign. A few hundred yards farther up the gravel Forest Service road I met an SUV coming my way. Two friends from my local Trout...
May they catch fish
Nine years ago, when I was quickly approaching motherhood and really had NO clue what we were about to embark on, one of the things I was most apprehensive about was the impact the pending kid would have on our outdoor pursuits.
Birding while fishing
Sometimes it’s tough to fish when the scenery is so gorgeous One of my favorite parts about fishing is the spectacular places it takes you. From high mountain streams with peaks towering overhead to desert rivers with cliff walls reflecting the day’s heat, there...
The autumn swindle
It got so cold so early this year that our aspens and cottonwoods didn’t really turn. Their leaves simply froze in place when the mercury dipped below zero in early October, and they’ve spent the last few months drying into sickly, gray, paper-thin ghosts and falling...
Going to the birds
The fishing had been ok that morning years ago when Corey Fisher and I waded up a small creek in Utah trying not to scare fish — or rattlesnakes. We had each caught a couple, but nothing like the fish we had heard about coming from this remote destination....
What Esther Garcia meant for fishing
Growing up in New Mexico, I took for granted that there were fishing spots where no one would want to go. Steep hikes, brush and snags everywhere, places that required too much work to get to. “Joke’s on them,” was my thinking; if only people knew that...
Lean season for Washington steelhead (and what anglers can do about it)
Editor’s Note: John McMillan is the science director for Trout Unlimited’s Wild Steelhead Initiative, and one of the preeminent steelhead scientists in North America. He is also an accomplished angler and, like his father before him, a dedicated coldwater...
Winter in Leadville … get used to it
Years ago, while working in the upper Arkansas River Valley as a small-town newspaper reporter and editor, I shared layout space with a number of other local newspapers. Our papers were owned by a small chain based in Salida, and every week, editors from Buena Vista,...
The old lady
There’s a lot of white on that black muzzle these days. Flecks of canine wisdom. I never thought Phoebe would get old, but then, I had a hard time imagining me getting old right along with her. Several months back, she stopped trying to jump into the truck. It was...
Midges and anchors to the rescue
Anchor could be connoted as negative, as something heavy weighing you down, but if you look at some of its synonyms, things start looking up. Cornerstone, lynchpin or foundation; these more aptly describe what rivers mean to me, especially lately....
Misadventures in sleep while in grizzly country
Sleeping in bear country is not really sleeping at all. Our family enjoys tent camping and we love the wildest parts of this country. The combination leads to an instant case of temporary insomnia — at least for me. I am envious of people who can sleep in tents while...
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