Author

Mark Taylor

  • Restoration Conservation

    Long road trip a journey through TU wins

    “You’re driving?”  The question came with an unmistakable tone of incredulity.  I had just told a friend that I would be driving from my home in Virginia to a conference in northern Vermont. Their surprise was understandable. The shortest route from my home in Roanoke to Jay Peak Resort is 824 miles.   There was a method to…

  • Trout Talk Featured

    Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good

    Wadering up on the banks of a Pennsylvania trout stream last week I faced a dilemma. Which rod? I had three choices. An 8-foot 6-inch 3-weight that’s perfect for dry flies. An 11-foot 3-weight Euro nymphing rod that is perfect for, well, Euro nymphing. And a 10-foot 3-inch 3-weight that is perfect for swinging wet…

  • Public Lands Month Featured

    Whittlesey Creek National Wildlife Refuge gives hope to coaster brook trout

    For two decades, Whittlesey Creek National Wildlife Refuge has been the site of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service efforts to restore self-sustaining populations of coaster book trout. Trout Unlimited has been a partner in the work. The efforts haven't been successful, but have increased knowledge about this unique form of brook trout and what could be needed to restore the fish to Lake Superior tributaries.

    Of the many forms of brook trout, one of the more unique is the coaster.  Coasters are potamodromous, spending much of their adult lives in nearshore waters of the upper Great Lakes and then migrating into streams to spawn. They can grow to larger sizes than brookies that live their entire lives in streams, and…

  • Living with Fire

    North Umpqua fire changes complexion of an iconic river

    We stopped first at Swiftwater Park.  My brother, Greg, and I always start there when we fish the North Umpqua searching for summer steelhead.  It’s not much of a park, really. Just some parking next to the river, along with his and her’s vault toilets.   The river is the attraction. This is the final upstream spot before reaching the North’s famous fly-only water. We…

  • Trout Talk

    Finding trout ‘hiding’ in plain sight

    Remember the approach we took as kids when fishing? “The big ones are all out in the middle.” So we’d cast as far as we could because, well, we wanted to reach the fish that no one else could. We know now that such an approach is (usually) misguided on a literal level, but it’s…

  • Featured

    Headed to the beach for vacation? Bring some fishing gear

    Millions of Americans in the East will head to the Atlantic's beaches for vacation this summer. Even anglers who don't own saltwater-specific gear can use their freshwater equipment to have fun and catch some fish

    An angler fly casts over the first trough between the sand and the surf. Chris Hunt photo. Two weeks ago I was crawling along Interstate 75 north of Tampa, Fla., in the family vehicle. My nav program Waze warned of multiple accidents ahead. Not coincidentally, every 200 yards or so along the road a large billboard advertised legal help for…