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Thistles and cutthroat trout
With such abundant water throughout Southwest Colorado this year, invasive plants are thriving. While Canadian and musk thistle, mullen and even spotted knapweed provide gorgeous colors dotting the landscape, I can't help but cringe every time I see a field (or the edge of my driveway) lined with them. Mullen grows so tall it disrupts…
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Finding the perfect soft-hackle water
I love to swing soft-hackle flies. It's one of the best fishing methods I know for trout in steadily moving water with a generally constant depth. Below, RIO Products Brand Manager Simon Gawesworth shows you what kind of water you'll be looking for when you're out to swing soft-hackles, and he'll give you some gear…
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Saying thanks through fishing
Shane walked over to me, standing mid-way between the members of our group along the small Seattle Creek in interior Alaska, near Cantwell. He was holding his 4-weight rod and had the satisfied grin of a new angler experiencing a first successful day of catch-and-release fishing. For a moment, we looked out to the Alaska…
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The new natives
West slope cutthroat trout from Grayling Creek, Yellowstone National Park. Just a quick update from Yellowstone, with more to come (I promise). I had the good fortune to take a quick drive a couple of weeks ago along the Grayling Creek corridor in the northwest corner of Yellowstone National Park, and I figured I'd stop…
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Natural dubbing materials
Fly tying is so sophisticated these days, that sometimes it pays to take a step back and really examine the materials we use as we conjure up the next great pattern at the vise. Take dubbing, for instance. This is the material used in both dry flies and nymphs, generally to craft fly bodies for…
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Topwater Atlantic salmon fishing
Atlantic salmon—at least those that swim wild in the ocean and migrate into the rivers and streams of Newfoundland and Labrador—are a bucket-list fish for a lot of fly fishers. And they should be. They rival any other salmon species when it comes to taking flies and, of course, when it comes to the fight…
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Dry fly floatation
It's dry-fly season. Well, it's what I like to call "hopper season," especially here in the West, where big trout will look up for terrestrial bugs that will occasionally end up in the water, thanks to a timely wind gust or just dumb luck. But fishing hoppers and other terrestrial flies isn't about dumb luck.…
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