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Tackling the Anchorage casting course
Six years ago, I felt accomplished if I was able to cast a fly past my feet without snagging the brush behind me or creating an impressively complicated bird’s nest. With practice, time, an observing eye, and a tip or two, my cast has come a long way—though I know it still has a way…
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Which pro athletes are the best anglers?
Paul Deeter and "Chuck Nazty," the Colorado Rockies all-star center fielder. I’ve been very lucky to have had opportunities to fish with some sports professionals over the years. And while they all have some great stories to tell and are mostly really fun to be on the water with, I have to tell you that…
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Trout Tips: Fly selection for lakes
Choosing the right fly for lakes might seem confounding, but here are a couple of rules to stick to—consider these the "foundation" for choosing flies for stillwater reservoirs, lakes and ponds: 1) Most coldwater lakes that have trout also have small aquatic insects called chironomids. These bugs slowly work their way to the surface, and…
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Video spotlight: Rigging and fishing a hooper-streamer dropper
This time of year, when the big terrestrial bugs are out and about, trout are definitely looking up. But trout, like any fishy predator, are opportunists—that's why the "hopper-dropper" set-up with a high-floating bug on top followed a couple feet down by a nymph is so en vogue. But what about a hopper and streamer?…
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Voices: I-186 reminds us we all live downstream
Above: Sun filters down on the mountain town of Pony, Montana By Shauna Stephenson Each year, just about the time the poppies explode in meadow of the gold mine owner's abandoned mansion, just when the quiet main street goes from ghostly to just a little more alive and the occasional tourist totters up to the…
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TU lauds new public lands bill for NW California
The northwest corner of California, between the Russian and Klamath Rivers, is home to some of the best remaining salmon and steelhead streams in the West. This region boasts some of the most famous steelhead fisheries in the world, including the Trinity, Mad, Mattole, and Eel River systems . Trout Unlimited’s North Coast Coho Project…
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Voices from the River: Browned out
By Mark Taylor The river was brown. Coffee-with-heavy-cream brown. It's-been-raining-for-days brown. You-don’t-have-a-chance-in-hell brown. “Top off the raft and get the stuff down to the shore while I go drop off the truck,” I told my fishing partner for the day, Brett Prettyman. “I’ll probably be back before you’re done.” So, if conditions were more appropriate…
