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Video spotlight: Fly Fishing the ‘Land of Bones’
New Zealanders really do have it all. Not only do they have some of the best dry-fly trout fishing on the planet at their fingertips, but they're a short hop away from tropical destinations like Aitutaki, the "land of bones." I realize that we here in North America enjoy our share of quality trout and…
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Voices from the River: New water
By Chris Hunt Every move I made seemed amplified in the little jon boat—every time I set my fishing sling down on the aluminum deck or shifted my flip-flopped feet or repositioned a fly rod, it sounded as if I was ringing an off-key church bell. The little boat was new to me, as was…
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Video spotlight: Above Iliamna
Alaska's Bristol Bay is home to the most important run of sockeye salmon on earth—about half of all commercially harvested sockeye come from this run, and they provide about 14,000 American jobs every single year. This fishery, as we've noted for well over a decade, is priceless. Yet the threat of Pebble Mine looms like…
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Video spotlight: Chalk
The origin of modern-day fly fishing can be likely be traced to the fabled chalk streams of Britain—those clear, cold spring creeks where the art of presenting the upstream dry fly was pioneered. Rivers like the Test come to mind when I think of chalk streams, but the video below gives me a bit of…
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Voices from the River: The plight of California salmon
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…
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Video spotlight: Once You Pop, You Can’t Stop
Who doesn't like catching fish on top? With poppers, no less. Several years back, while fishing with a great group of guys on Alaska's Tongass National Forest, I was introduced to the fact that pink salmon—yes, pink salmon—will hit poppers just as they're reporting for spawning duty from the saltwater. We spent one glorious afternoon…
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Fly tying: Whip finishing by hand
About a decade ago, while sitting at a table in the dining room at what is now Calder Mountain Lodge on the northern, roadless tip of Prince of Wales Island, I busied myself tying up a few bright orange streamers for the next day's fishing for Dolly Varden in the island's tannin-stained salmon streams. An…
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