by Sam Davidson Maybe the most difficult thing about being an avid winter steelhead angler isn’t the guaranteed frigid digits, abominable weather, mostly blown-out rivers or the challenge of actually hooking one of those transcendent slabs of muscle. For me, anyway, it is coming to terms with March 7, and the increasing probability of wearing…
I grew up chucking big Rapalas and Beetle Spins at bass in farm ponds and lakes in Kansas—it was a great way to learn some basics of casting and working a lure. I remember my Dad (who in most respects is not a patient man) patiently showing me how to tie an improved clinch knot…
By Chris Hunt As a kid, I remember seeing little jon boats cruising up and down the Sabine River along the border with Texas and Louisiana, their pilots running trot lines for channel cats and generally looking like they were having an excellent time. The boats, squared off in the front and pushed by a…
By Sam Davidson I came across a video recently, on sockeye salmon migrating to the spawn in the Lake Iliamna area in Alaska. The productivity of this region for salmon is nothing short of amazing—and makes the proposed Pebble Mine, looming like the guillotine over the entire Bristol Bay ecosystem, that much more troubling. Watching…
Fishing the Bear River. This reach would be inundated by the proposed Centennial Dam. By Chandra Ferrari With California just emerging from five years of punishing drought, there continues to be a lot of discussion about creating more water storage. While the fastest and most affordable way to capture and store more water is to…
The fishing rig on the banks of Alaska’s Chena River. By Chris Hunt It was the first brand-new vehicle I ever bought. I showed up at the dealership, pointed to the model in the catalog and simply said, “Order it.” Since that time, it’s been from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean. It’s…
by Kirk Deeter I love catching big fish. How can you not? After all, size is the benchmark that is ingrained to matter most to many anglers. My mother doesn’t fish much, but when I call her to say I spent the day fishing, she always asks: “Did you catch any?” Question two… “How big?”…
The Kootenai River starts and ends in Canada. It runs 485 miles with about a third of those miles dipping into Idaho and Montana. The Kootenai Tribe lives along the river and once relied on its sturgeon for food. Chuck Cathcart/Idaho Public Television Native white sturgeon in the Kootenai River need some help and researchers…
By Chris Hunt There’s a fine line between fishing from a drift boat and fishing from a source of chaos. The first time I rowed a drift boat, I damn near put it into the bridge abutment just above Ashton Dam on the Henry’s Fork while my two passengers—one of whom owned the boat—watched helplessly…
As Gray’s Sporting Journal reviewer Chris Camuto wrote back when it was first published, in the February – March 2008 issue, : “There are two books in one here: a superbly written and beautifully illustrated history of the evolution” of the boats “and a how to book on building the traditional drift boat. Fletcher’s purpose in this truly masterful book is as lyric as it is practical.”
Signatories to the Klamath Basin Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement, including Trout Unlimited, held a press briefing on November 12 and said they are in a “sprint to the finish” to achieve the pact’s principal goal of removing four old dams on the Klamath River. The signatories, including Tribal leaders, a representative of the ranching community, and…
Editor’s note: The float season has begun. The first oar stroke has likely been taken. We’ve shoved off into the flow of the known and inherently the unknown. As rivers go, the formula is simple. There’s one direction to go. What happens between boat ramps is up to you. With that, we at Trout Unlimited…
Brooke Harris briefly holds a Yellowstone cutthroat for a picture after she caught is as part of her efforts to complete the Utah Cutthroat Slam. Brian Harris photo. By Brian Harris I recently opened my home mailbox and was pleased to find the beautiful medallion and certificate recognizing my fourth completion of the Utah Cutthroat…
Little Lost River bull trout. Photo by the author. I first fished Idaho’s Little Lost River in the early 2000s. I’d heard rumors of bull trout swimming in the high-desert stream that would hit dry flies intended for rainbows and require two hands for the “hero shot” after the battle. The latter might be true…
Chicken of the woods mushrooms. Photo by the author. By Chris Hunt A little over a year ago, I stood up to my thighs amid a thick run of pink salmon in a remote, rainforest stream on Alaska’s Prince of Wales Island, trying like hell to tempt one of the few early cohos that were…
Region: Southwest/Southern RockiesActivity: FishingSpecies: Apache, rainbow and brown trout Where: The Black River courses through the two million-acre Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests and the San Carlos and Fort Apache reservations in the White Mountains of east-central Arizona. This is not the desert country that Arizona conjures up, but forested terrain criss-crossed with cold, clear-running streams and…
Region: Northern RockiesActivities: rafting; fishing, hiking campingSpecies: Rainbow and brown trout Where: The Smith River flows some 120 miles in a northwesterly direction through west-central Montana, emptying into the Missouri southwest of Great Falls. Much of the river borders private lands, but a 60-mile section that flows through Smith River State Park (beginning near White…
By Sam Davidson Nowadays there is no age limit, apparently, for quarterbacks. Or for fly fishing. Last weekend, my eighty-year-old mother joined legends such as Lefty Kreh and Frank Moore in providing more proof of the latter, as she waded up and down the banks of t he South and Clark forks of the Stanislaus…
By Brett Prettyman MILLCREEK CANYON — The moment of truth. It comes with the first spoonful of a new chili recipe delivered at a family hunting camp. The first cast to slurping trout on the hand built rod on your favorite water. Waiting to see if the patched hole in the waders is stream worthy.…
Kamchatka’s trout streams are simply magnificent. Sadly, I only know this by reputation, not direct experience. I had an opportunity to go last year, but I had a conflict and, painfully, had to turn it down. As you’ll see in the film above, the Zhupanova is loaded with big rainbows, and they’ll eat streamers and…
