Dustin Wichterman and daughter Brooklynn quickly pose with a West Virginia brook trout before releasing the fish. By Dustin Wichterman To say that angling has always been a big part of my life is probably an understatement. It has been imprinted from both sides of my family, and after finding out that several of my…
For the past two years, the DARE team has been providing free pollinator seed to enhance Driftless Area streams. The seed mix is not intended to replace the planned seeding mixture, but to supplement pollinator plants into the mixture.
We often make fly fishing more complicated than we need to. A good example of that is mending our fly line to get a better, more natural drift as our flies work their way downstream. Often, as TU’s Kirk Deeter points out in the video below, our mends are too jerky or move the flies…
The wind is the perceived enemy of many a fly fisher, but, as Kirk Deeter points out in this week’s video, it needn’t be. The key, as Deeter puts it, is to “make friends with the wind.” Or, as he demonstrates, use the wind to your advantage, even when it’s in your face. The key?…
New drilling policies are a win for fish and wildlife. Now a key federal agency needs to modernize its oil and gas leasing rules.
Check out Flylords next week, where it will be all trout all week
When I was a kid, the first fly-fishing technique my grandfather ever shared with me was “dapping.” Rather than burden a 10-year-old with all the details of a complex fly cast, he would simply pull about three feet of fly line through the tip-top and put a hopper or some high-floating dry fly on my…
The trick to knowing what you’re going to catch before you catch it, is knowing what lives in the river. Of course. Some people, however, have dialed it in a bit more. For example, they know the rainbows like the riffles in certain places on the Colorado River, whereas the browns hug the banks and…
Editor’s note: For more great tips on fishing from TU members across the country, get your copy of TU’s book, “Trout Tips,” available online for overnight shipping. This time of year, when I plan out some distant winter fishing trips to places warmer and farther south, I become a lurker. Not the creepy, “Psst! Hey…
Data collected, scientists now set out to gauge how flows affect the river’s wild browns.
‘Tis the season for tailwater angling, even in the coldest of mountain climes, and Garrison Doctor of Rep Your Water has some simple advice for anyone taking to the river this shoulder season: be stealthy. Trout Tips | Be Stealthy from Trout Unlimited on Vimeo. In the video above Garrison offers up some great advice…
We’ve all grown out of fishing with worms, right? Well, maybe we shouldn’t have, especially when this time of year rolls around and runoff strikes, sending a winter’s worth of snow down our rivers in a murky torrent. When high water hits and scours riverbanks, worms that dwell in the earth often find themselves waterborne,…
A bonus for waiting and watching. Photo by Chris Hunt. I spent the weekend in Yellowstone National Park, catching the tail end of the fishing season and enjoying some glorious fall weather that, by late October, is usually only a memory for die-hard anglers who visit the park this time of year. And most of…
Volunteers are a crucial part of a successful Trout in the Classroom program, because they support the teachers. Trout in the Classroom gives Trout Unlimited members and other volunteers the opportunity to get involved with their local schools, while teaching kids about water quality, aquatic life, and other environmental issues. Resources for Teachers and Volunteers Outreach…
Patience is perhaps the most elusive virtue—instant gratification, especially these days, is easier to attain. And it’s no different for fly fishers. Finding a good stretch of water to fish isn’t all that hard, but approaching it correctly, and giving yourself the best opportunity to catch not just one fish, but several fish, can prove…
This study reports the occurrence and details of spawning by coastal cutthroat trout in Indian Creek in the Elwha River, Washington, in October and November. This is unusually early in the season for this characteristically spring‐spawning species and is much earlier than conspecifics elsewhere in the river system and the region. We hypothesize the stream’s…
The following is an excerpt from Fishing Through the Apocalypse, by Matthew L. Miller and published by Lyons Press. The book is available online and in retailers. The last time I’d set foot in Gila National Forest, my quest had proved futile. My dad and I had joined my cousin David and Uncle Bill to hunt…
A couple summers ago, I was fishing Eagle Rock Lake near Questa with a bubble and fly rig on a spinning rod, and was doing well enough to attract the attention of several nearby children who were having a tough go. Eventually they asked me what I was doing, and I showed them. We took turns with my rod for…
When I was young, our family had a condo in a nearby ski town that was affectionately known as the ‘hatchery’ due to the copious amounts of trout art and decorations adorning the walls and tables. I recall attempting to count them at one point, but I couldn’t keep up, especially since I knew of hidden pieces I drew on the studs…
