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Reconnecting in the Catskills
Because of their propensity to flood, riverside communities in the Catskills have maintained a complicated co-existence with their rivers and streams.
We’re recovering rivers with committed partners old and new Years ago, when one of my kids was born, I sent out an all-staff note celebrating that and the births of several other children to those in the TU extended family. That note was then forwarded to some TU volunteers, including Catskills residents who had just…
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Four lessons from Espiritu Santo Bay
A blue-collar angler tangles with permit
A blue-collar angler tangles with permit A friend describes me as a “blue-collar fisherman.” I love to fly fish, but also love to spin cast, and occasionally baitfish for table fare, usually down the Jersey shore. On the Potomac, I have saturated Clouser minnows in old hummus to go after big blue cats, a terribly…
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There’s hope for endangered salmon and steelhead
TU’s sticktuitiveness at work on a Priority Water in California A few years ago, the president of the Trout Unlimited Golden Gate Chapter took me to a creek called Devil’s Gulch—a tributary of Lagunitas Creek, an important salmon and steelhead river in California that is one of TU’s Priority Waters. Mike Cronin proudly showed off…
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Fishing is far more than just… fishing.
Fletcher’s Cove is among the finest urban fisheries in the country. Anglers ply its waters for white perch in February. Really big striped bass then follow the forage fish up from Chesapeake Bay. In March, the hickory and American shad appear...
“Griz” leaned on the counter of the boathouse and asked: “What was Ray and Joe Fletcher’s Dad’s name. Was it… Julius?” Dan, who has worked at Fletcher’s Cove since 1969 and worked for Joe and Ray Fletcher—the fourth generation of the Fletcher family to run the concession along the Potomac River in Washington, D.C, looked…
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The best guides
Pete Wood, who after interning with TU became a lawyer in Idaho, taught me to tie my first bread fly (from an old kitchen sponge, and it was deadly on Potomac River carp). I caught my largest native rainbow in Alaska last year with Brian Bowe at the Alaska Sportsman’s Lodge. Pat Berry, who now leads…
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A ‘grand bargain’ on mining
Meeting America’s clean energy needs & reforming outdated mining laws American Fork Creek, located about halfway between Salt Lake City and Provo, Utah, harbors populations of a rare native trout called the Bonneville cutthroat. Twenty years ago, I stood on its banks looking out over the dirt bike paths and all-terrain vehicle trails crisscrossing mining…
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Not giving up on natives
Southeast volunteers of all ages offer brook trout a hand
Southeast volunteers of all ages offer brook trout a hand With all due respect to all the legendary trout states in America, perhaps my favorite Trout Unlimited trip was to my home state of New Jersey. A few TU legendary volunteers, such as Agust Gudmundsson, Rick Axt, Rich Thomas, and the late Rick Ege, offered…
Author
Chris Wood
Chris has worked at TU for 22 years, and is not the best angler, but he is among the most earnest.