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Short casts: 25 years since “The Movie,” saving Colorado’s greenbacks, India’s mahseer
This fall, the film iteration of Norman Maclean's "A River Runs Through It" turns 25. The film made fly fishing trendy (too trendy, some would say), and it helped put Montana on the fly fishing map. While the film and the book centered on the Blackfoot River near Missoula, the film's fishing was actually shot…
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Fly rod building pioneer Tom Morgan dies
The fly fishing world lost one of its guiding lights this week when Tom Morgan, the former owner of the R.L. Winston Co., and, more recently, the founder and owner of Tom Morgan Rodsmiths, died peacefully at home with his family in Montana. Morgan molded Winston, already a hallowed name in fly fishing when he…
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Video spotlight: Find Your Water—Backcountry Solitude
We're close to backcountry trout season here in the West, but we might have to wait a bit longer this summer, given the copious runoff we're seeing in the region. Nevertheless, wandering off the beaten path—parking at the end of the road and then wearing out some shoe leather—is my favorite kind of trout fishing…
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Fly tying: The Flying Squirrel Nymph
I love "mash-up" flies—inventions at the vise that work on trout for no particular reason at all. Just this week, I tried a simple wet fly pattern I "created" at the vise a couple weeks ago for Firehole River trout, and I was rewarded with some of the most aggressive brown trout takes I'd ever…
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Kenai king salmon management under scrutiny
An angler boasts an 80-pound Kenai River king. These fish are becoming much more rare thanks a number of factors in the drainage. Wikipedia file photo. Many have heard about declining king salmon stocks throughout Alaska in recent years. The world-renowned Kenai River has also seen a decline in larger stocks, the 6- and 7-year-old…
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Video spotlight: Safe wading techniques
Wading while fly fishing is one of the more visceral experiences the craft offers. There's something very primal about feeling cold trout water working its way around your legs—I've always felt that is makes me part of the river rather than just a visitor. But wading safely is important, and Orvis' Tom Rosenbauer, in the…
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Short casts: A year later on the Penobscot, Oregon lakes, advice from Camille Egdorf
Coalition members celebrate the removal of Veazie Dam on the Penobscot in 2013. A year ago, ocean-going fish in Maine's Penobscot River regained access to some 2,000 miles of spawning and rearing habitat thanks to the final step in a restoration project designed to bring the Penobscot drainage back to it's former glory. With the…
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