Each fall, TU Camp and Academy graduates are invited to enter the TU Teen Essay Contest in which they share their camp experiences. This year we had four finalists, and Alexander’s essay is the second in this series as the second runner-up. Alexander is from California and traveled all the way to Virginia to attend…
I hereby state for the record that I would much prefer to catch small trout, rather than larger fish. Not that size doesn’t matter, of course. So there are caveats. The first is that this predilection doesn’t apply to steelhead or salmon. The second is that it only applies on streams with a mix of…
Prolonged horseback trips into remote wilderness areas was actually part of the job description when I started working for Trout Unlimited.
When the world feels on the brink, can a child bring us back?
Trout Unlimited Media Resources Trout Unlimited is the nation’s leading conservation organization uniting people behind clean waters, healthy fish, and thriving communities. Are you a reporter on deadline? Reach out to one of our communications directors to get the information you need. Working on a longer piece about trout and salmon, rivers and streams, and…
Author Dan Ritz hits the end of the road while trying to get to a better of idea of why he couldn’t fish for the Little Kern golden trout. Dan Ritz photo. Golden Trout Wilderness Area is closed, but a connection to the Little Kern golden trout was still made Daniel Ritz is fishing across the…
As the largest river restoration effort in history moves forward, Oregon and California plan for fish reintroduction and monitoring
It’s easy to suggest to new anglers that they become immediately familiar with the rules and regulations, but it will take time to teach the little things to newbies as they hit the water in greater numbers and frequency
By Eric Crawford If only it was as simple as an adipose fin. The presence of an adipose fin is universally recognized as the mark. An individual with an adipose fin is, with a few exceptions, considered a wild steelhead. On the other hand, those marked, clipped, or ad-intact fish, they are the hatchery ones. Although it is…
America’s public lands are meant for multiple uses: fishing, hunting, hiking, camping, general outdoor recreation, and of course, industry—where it makes sense. But for too long, oil and gas leasing and drilling on public lands throughout the nation have enjoyed priority status. It is past time to grant all uses equal footing — and there…
Katy, with support from her friend Tiffannie, was able to land this beauty of a brown trout at the last bend before the boat ramp during the Women’s Fly Fishing Float. Photo by Miguel Valdez. By Sadie St. Clair When the Seedskadee Chapter of Trout Unlimited started the annual Women’s Fly Fishing Float five years…
How TU’s team in New Mexico is restoring the state’s most enchanting waters and lands in 2025
By Garrett Hanks Wolf Creek pass in the San Juan mountains of Colorado serves as the tipping point between the westward San Juan basin, home to the recently rediscovered San Juan cutthroat trout, and the Rio Grande cutthroat’s namesake river to the east. Unlike trout, bear, mule deer and other wildlife are unhindered by the ridgeline; their tracks freely cross the divide. Look north and you’ll notice the burn scar from the West Fork fire of 2013. Setting off south along the Continental Divide Trail, you quickly…
We are broadly familiar with the plight of the salmon, hatching in freshwater, moving downstream as smolts and, entering the ocean. Their magnificent return to the rivers during spawning migrations, hundreds of miles up the Columbia and Salmon rivers, illustrates fish movements at a grand scale. Few people know the same phenomenon occurs with inland native trout such as the cutthroat
Measuring 20 miles long with nearly 100 miles of shoreline, it’s difficult to ignore Blue Mesa Reservoir. Sitting on the western flank of Gunnison County, Colorado’s largest body of water is a pivotal cog of the Colorado River Storage Project and the centerpiece of the surrounding Curecanti National Recreation Area, a sport fishing and outdoor…
By pack mule and on foot, the Forest Service and Colorado Parks and Wildlife members went in to save the previously thought-to-be extinct lineage. Less than 100 individual trout were removed and taken to the Durango fish hatchery for safekeeping and possible brood stock development.
In a first, a salmonid is on track for delisting from the list of threatened and endangered species
While I’ve never met President Jimmy Carter, he’s been a part of my life for a long time. I came of age politically in the early 1970s when the end game in the Vietnam War still stoked furious debate and the constitutional crisis of Watergate brought down the Nixon presidency. Historians, presidential scholars, and politicians…
The Roan Plateau in northwest Colorado. Sharing creates advocates, while oversharing creates problems “To share or not to share…” If Hamlet were a fly fisher instead of just an angst-ridden 30-something pining for his dead father, this might have been what he uttered as he pondered the value of his own life. For, much like…
