Region: Southern Appalachia Activities: Fishing Species: Brook, rainbow and brown trout Where: Great Smoky Mountains National Park straddles 800 square miles along the border of western North Carolina and southeastern Tennessee. Within a day’s drive of nearly half of America’s population, it’s the nation’s most popular national park, with upwards of 9,000,000 visitors annually. Why:…
by Jenny Weis The only thing that made sense to do on our second marriage anniversary was to go fishing. A voracious lifelong angler, my husband, Sam, introduced me to fly fishing. He supplied me with the rod, reel, and meticulously organized bead box I used today. The net I used to land the rainbows,…
September is a month tailor-made for sportsmen and women and there is no better place to spend it than on our public lands. The dog days of summer have given way to cooler temperatures and a multitude of opportunities beckon hunters and anglers: brown trout chasing streamers, elk bugles ringing through the mountains, ruffed grouse…
By Jeff Reardon I’m following a green state truck through Freeport, a coastal Maine town best known as the home of L.L. Bean, horrendous summer traffic and outlet malls, when the truck slams to a stop on a busy road. I know this isn’t the right spot, but I check my GPS anyway. No, it’s…
Tom Tidwell is retiring as Chief of the US Forest Service. It is difficult to overstate the importance of the 191 million acres that the Forest Service manages to trout and salmon. Half of the blue-ribbon trout streams in the country flow across national forests. A vast majority of western native trout and salmon depend…
“I remain hopeful that I will be able to pass on to my grandchildren all the pleasures of life in an unspoiled West. Perhaps hope should be replaced by a stronger word. It is a matter of obligation.” — Cecil Andrus By Chris Hunt I first met Cecil Andrus in the early 2000s at an…
Bull trout are the only native char to the interior Northwest. Close relatives to brook trout, Arctic char and Dolly Varden, they require the coldest and cleanest waters to survive and thrive. It’s no suprise that their populations have been greatly impacted by development over the years. Dams have segregated their habitat, generations of logging…
