Editor’s Note: Each year, participants at Trout Unlimited regional Youth Fly Fishing and Conservation summer camps are invited to enter the TU Teen Camp Essay Contest. The prompt for 2019 was “Why is conservation important to fly fishing?” We received many wonderful entries and are pleased to share the top five essays over the course…
I often think of my life in decade intervals. The first ten years was the goofball phase; 11-20 years old involved anything with a ball; 21-30 was consumed by conservation—you get the idea. If we are lucky, we will get eight or nine of these opportunities to think about the new decade in front of…
Anchor could be connoted as negative, as something heavy weighing you down, but if you look at some of its synonyms, things start looking up. Cornerstone, lynchpin or foundation; these more aptly describe what rivers mean to me, especially lately. Rivers feed my soul, rejuvenate my spirit and bring solace during life’s challenges, and boy has life shown me challenges. After my…
The drawing of the trout is from the hand of a small child. The description even more so: “This was the first fish I ever cot [sic] on a rod. When I first felt the feeling of reeling in the fish, I was amased [sic].” In the span of 15 years, Jeremy Brooks’ writing and…
Not everyone is responsible with their waste, but we as good stewards can help pick up the slack. Pack out all trash you pack in. Take that granola bar wrapper out with you. Maybe bring along a small grocery bag to pack out other trash you find.
Often the top predator in rivers and streams, the coastal cutthroat’s eagerness to bite and acrobatic displays when hooked all make it a highly sought-after catch
Roger Phillips photo. By Roger Phillips They’re big, they’re hard-fighting, and they’re one of Idaho’s most overlooked trophy fishing opportunities, but many anglers are still confused about whether they can target bull trout for catch-and-release fishing. The short answer is yes. When bull trout were listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act in…
I have the same discussion with a lot of different folks about this time every year. Are flies that imitate worms … ethical? My take? Absolutely. They mimic a naturally occuring prey base in rivers, lakes and streams all over America, and, with high flows approaching in some of our snow-locked rivers, worm patterns are…
Sportsmen and women stand behind protections for North Umpqua Washington D.C. — The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee marked up a bill that would protect more than 100,000 acres of habitat important to North Umpqua steelhead in Oregon. The Frank and Jeanne Moore Wild Steelhead Bill, S. 513, honors World War II Veteran, Frank…
title=”application/pdf” />170330_SENR-Hrg-TU-letter-multi-bills-FINAL.pdf On Thursday, March 30th, the US Senate Committee on Environment and Natural considered and advanced several bills of interest to Trout Unlimited and our members. TU submitted the attached comments outlining our comments on the following bills: TU Supports: S.513, a bill to designate the Frank and Jeanne Moore Wild Steelhead Special Management…
A fly fisher in Stanley, Idaho, casts to the edges of the Salmon River during high water over the weekend. I spent the weekend driving along a couple of Idaho’s more fabled trout waters—first, the Salmon near the “top of Idaho” in Stanely, and then the Big Wood as it roars through Ketchum near Sun…
About us Montana Troutfitters has been helping anglers with their fly fishing needs since 1978. For well over 30 years we have worked hard to provide our customers with the most accurate Montana fishing reports, best fly fishing guides, and finest selection of fly fishing gear and flies. What we do We offer a complete…
This past summer Trout Unlimited partnered with Girl Scouts of Michigan Shore to Shore to bring the STREAM Girls program to scouts in Michigan. STREAM Girls, which stands for science, technology, recreation, engineering, arts, and math, is an exciting watershed-based program that introduces girls to STEM education and fly fishing in a fun, hands-on, experiential…
TU was founded in 1959 by local people who saw their home waters being impacted by a range of man-made and environmental factors, and who wanted to take action to halt and reverse that damage. They worked together to protect the rivers and watersheds from further damage; to reconnect them by removing dams, culverts and…
It’s stonefly season in the West—the big, adult bugs will be popping on a river near you before you know it. And, while the dry-fly imitations are easily the most popular—and the most fun to fish—it’s the nymph patterns that likely catch more trout. And there are some great stonefly nymph patterns out there. But…
Simply put, the smolt-to-adult return ratio (SAR) is the percentage of smolts that survive and return to spawn: ADULTS / SMOLTS = SAR For example, if 100 steelhead smolts pass Lower Granite dam on their downstream migration and 2 adult steelhead from that group return and survive to pass Lower Granite on their way to…
“It’s go time” – Luke Kelly On the wild coastal rivers of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, Trout Unlimited is removing migration barriers, reconnecting floodplains and restoring critical spawning and rearing habitat for struggling populations of wild salmon and steelhead. Working alongside our partners at federal and state agencies, regional tribes and the Cold Water Connection Campaign,…
Protect The Waters You Love! Your support empowers Trout Unlimited to protect and restore vital freshwater ecosystems, conserve threatened fish species, and advocate for sustainable fisheries management, ensuring healthy rivers and streams for generations to come. With your help, we can protect, restore and reconnect millions of watershed landscapes, thousands of miles of rivers and…
