Friendly faces

Molly Simpkins and Dan Gigone of Sweetwater Fly Shop in Livingston, Mont. Marketing a new book is a crapshoot, especially when it’s hyper-local content and writers are asked to a fair bit of promotion themselves to ensure the book’s success. So, when I visited Livingston, Mont., earlier this week for a book-signing and presentation at…

The Pecos is fishing great … for now

The lifeblood of the Village of Pecos, the Pecos River flows through public and private lands in a narrow canyon flanked by in aspen, Gambel oak, and mixed conifer. The Pecos boasts a fun salmon fly hatch in early summer, and I love how spooky the fish are in autumn, when elk bugles echo, the banks blaze with yellow cottonwoods, and the water resembles the air above, cold, clear and…

CORE Act closer to protecting the best of Colorado

An angler walks through an autumn meadow on the Thompson Divide in search of wild trout.

With a pump of their fists and a tip of their caps, Colorado sportsmen and women are celebrating another successful step toward protecting some 400,000 acres of prime public lands and commending the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources for advancing the Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy (CORE) Act out of committee this week. The legislation introduced by Colorado…

Q&A: Pat Byorth

Pat Byorth has long been an advocate for anglers in Montana and with his recent appointment to Montana’s Fish and Game Commission, he is continuing that tradition for the benefit of all Montanans. As a long-time TU employee, he has worked to restore some of our most iconic rivers such as the Madison and the…

Protecting the Rubies

Theodore Roosevelt defined conservation as the application of common sense to common problems for the common good. For 15 years, Trout Unlimited has educated, organized and mobilized sportsmen and women to apply that definition to public lands across the West.  When energy development, for example, threatened the iconic Wyoming Range and its three species of…

Ranches

According to one stereotype, a rancher’s commitment to the lifestyle is mainly self-serving. The fences they build are as much to keep the public out as to detain resident wildlife (translation: elk) for the purpose of selling high-dollar hunting opportunities. When not dewatering streams, they restore and stock them for their own fishing pleasure and that of paying anglers in search of lunkers in a crowd-free…

New bill would clarify management, improve fishing in Colorado

Anglers should rejoice in the introduction of the CORE Act, particularly if they live or fish in Colorado’s iconic Gunnison Valley. The Curecanti portion of the Act, introduced by Sen. Michael Bennet and Rep. Joe Neguse, would establish permanent boundaries for the current National Recreation Area making management simpler and creating improved fishing access.   In 1965, Blue Mesa Dam was completed…