By Chris Hunt As Phoebe danced around the truck, anxious to start the walk up the familiar trail past a few bends in the creek, I donned my wading sandals for what would almost certainly be the last time this year. I was in a gloomy mood. Changing seasons, earlier sunsets and, of course, the
By Dave Atcheson “I cast out and try to be patient, waiting for my fly to sink. On my first cast I’m too patient and snag. On the next I begin my retrieve earlier, an excruciatingly slow retrieve, just a twitch of the line here and there to keep my fly undulating above the weed
Region: New EnglandActivities: Fishing, hunting, hikingSpecies: Brook and brown trout; whitetail deer; ruffed grouse; moose Where: The White Mountain National Forest comprises more than 750,000 acres in the eastern New Hampshire counties of Grafton, Coos and Carroll with a small portion of the forest extending into Maine. The forest includes over 100 miles of the
By Rob Roberts This week, Missoula Mayor John Engen announced the removal of the Rattlesnake Creek Dam, a barrier on a much-loved trout stream that runs through the city. Beginning in the Rattlesnake Wilderness north of Missoula, Rattlesnake Creek is one of the major sources of trout recruitment for the Clark Fork River and a
A desert redband caught with a Tenkara rod. I first tried Tenkara about eight years ago, and I fell in love with the simplicity of it. I also found it to be very helpful when it came time to hone some of fly fishing’s more complex skills— it helped with reach casts, high-stick nymphing, achieving
Region: AlaskaActivities: FishingSpecies: Chum, Chinook, Sockeye, Pink and Coho salmon; Dolly Varden; Steelhead; Coastal cutthroat trout; Rainbow trout Where: The Tongass encompasses 17 million acres of public land, spread across much of Southeast Alaska. It’s a wonderland of hulking hemlock, spruce and cedar western hemlock, Sitka spruce, western red cedar and yellow cedar trees, dotted
Region: Central AppalachiaActivity: Fishing; HuntingSpecies: Ruffed Grouse; Brook, rainbow and brown trout Where: Monongahela National Forest (known locally as “the Mon”) stretches over 919,000 acres of rugged, mountainous terrain along the eastern edge of West Virginia. Though it rests within a day’s drive of half of America’s population, it boasts five federally-designated wilderness areas and
