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Low water, big problems
Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. You’d think I was checking the score for game seven of the World Series, but I wasn’t. Obsessively, I hit refresh on my trusty Riverbrain app no less than 50 times the day before our trip hoping to see the spike go up on our beloved Colorado River. But the flows didn’t…
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Bury your fly to rid it of unnatural odors
If you’re getting some obvious follows on your streamer, but not getting the takes you want, this might be what gets a trout to make that final commitment. It won’t hurt, that’s for sure
Several years back, while fishing for bonefish on Long Island in the Bahamas, Capt. Markk Cartwright gave me a great tip that translated well beyond the finicky bones on the flats around Dead Man’s Cay. It’s a tip I use every time I cast streamers and nymphs for trout, too. “Bury your fly in the…
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Quick tip: Wrap your glass in duct tape
Most folks know that taking glass containers on rubber rafts is almost always is a no-no. The idea is simple and and, in my mind, pretty much common sense. You break a glass container on the boat there's a real chance you might pop your boat. Plus it's incredibly hard to clean up in a…
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How to know if a caught fish is in trouble
Summer is not quite here yet, but it’s already sizzling in many places throughout America. So it’s extra important to be mindful of water temperatures. Put a thermometer in your fishing pack, and know when to give trout a break. Once water temps push above 65 degrees (which they are, right now in rivers like…
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Twenty tips on how to take better photos on the water
Part two Editor's note: This is the second installment in a two-part series. Read part one here. Cameras have gotten faster, cheaper and a whole lot more powerful. Almost everyone owns a camera or has a very powerful one in their phone and, therefore, everyone can be a photographer. While “happy snaps” can do a…
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Swing wet flies and feel like a kid again
In our family, we had an informal rule about kids fishing on their own—you started out by fishing wet flies downstream, and once you reached a certain age, you got to turn upstream and fish dry flies. It was a tiny, gentle river, really, and there was always an adult looking on, even if we didn’t…
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Roundtable: Dealing with bad behavior on public lands
Kamil Miłkowski photo via Pixabay. Editor’s note: With more and more people heading to the outdoors in pursuit of safe and healthy recreation, reports of bad behavior are becoming more common. From abandoned campfires to litter, we’re seeing impacts on public lands that stem largely from ignorance rather than malice. We asked several long-time Trout…
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