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Voices from the River: Pushing the season
(Above) The Lost River Range rises in the distance. Photo by Rachel Andona. (Below) The campfire, where winter washes away. Photo by Cameron Hunt. By Chris Hunt I’ve been known to push the season. As a newspaper reporter some 25 years ago in Buena Vista, Colo., I showed up to cover an April town council…
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Short casts: Smith River mining, albies off shore, coho coming home
Photo by Thom Bridge, Helena Independent Record There are a handful of happy boaters and anglers this week in Montana, and a whole lot of disappointed folks, too, as Smith River float permits were announced. You win some, you lose some. The Smith, perhaps Montana's best-known backcountry float-fishing excursion, is a great early season float,…
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A River’s Last Chance
The first time I saw the Eel River flowing under the remote redwood forest along Humboldt County's Avenue of the Giants, I saw a dirty, blown-out river that the locals swore to me was home to massive steelhead. I lived in the small city of Eureka for a couple of years in the late 90s,…
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Voices from the River: Knocking on Heaven’s Door
by Sam Davidson Maybe the most difficult thing about being an avid winter steelhead angler isn’t the guaranteed frigid digits, abominable weather, mostly blown-out rivers or the challenge of actually hooking one of those transcendent slabs of muscle. For me, anyway, it is coming to terms with March 7, and the increasing probability of wearing…
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Short casts: Spring in Montana, steelhead in the Tongass, Minnesota expo
Every year about this time, I'm lured over Monida Pass into the Beaverhead drainage, and, inevitably, after a day or two of fishing, I go a bit farther. I'll venture from there, up the Big Hole to the Bitterroot, or maybe even farther north to Rock Creek, where I tell myself a sqwala might make…
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Video spotlight: The Kamchatka Steelhead Project
Just as Alaska is home to the northern-most populations of steelhead in this hemisphere, Kamchatka boasts big and mysterious chromers, too. The film, "The Kamchatka Steelhead Project" is an example of what can be done with a little collaboration, a touch of creativity and the passion that anglers have for these incredible fish. On Russia's…
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Video spotlight: The North
It's about that time ... the itch among Atlantic salmon anglers is coming on pretty strong. While Atlantics in the U.S. are largely gone (but the outlook is brighter now than it was just a few years ago), anglers in Canada, the British Isles and Scandanavia are gearing up for another season spent chasing perhaps…
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