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Honor Float
Paul Zimmerman teaches fly tying to military veterans. At 91 years of age, and as the sole care provider for his wife Patti, he is reluctant to leave her alone. He conducts all of his lessons at his home, an arrangement that’s also convenient for his students, who are often most comfortable with one-on-one engagement and places where calmness and quiet prevail. “Our situation was different from Vietnam,” says Zimmerman, a…
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How to fish a dry fly downstream
The "upstream and dry" approach is a commonly accepted method—and on some European waters, it's required—for fly fishing. Here in the U.S., we're blessed with a lot of trout water, and, thankfully, a lot of public lands on which we can fish at our leisure rather than being forced to pay rod fee, walk a…
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Fishing with the G Man
The first thing to understand about fishing with the G Man is that he likes to combine wetting a line with some form of law enforcement. This is not all that surprising. When you have spent a portion of your career as a deputy sheriff, and all of it dedicated to conservation of habitat and…
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Totally wicked
I was fishing a mouse pattern just for the hell of it.
My natural inclination when excited is an over-the-top enthusiasm that can be, well, a little much for some. So when I got invited on a flyout fishing trip with a few acquaintances, I decided I’d better keep a low profile. It was a perfectly cloudy, little breezy, kinda’ chilly day in Bristol Bay. There were no humans, roads or fences in sight. The small creek we visited, nestled in…
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Columbia Basin Partnership offers new vision for salmon and steelhead
The Columbia Basin Partnership has been flying mostly under the radar, but it could be the forum with the greatest potential to make a great leap forward in recovering wild salmon and steelhead in the Columbia Basin. Why, you may ask? Because it is the one place where all of the major stakeholders in the…
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An accidental trophy
Every now and then, I like to explore and find new water, even in parts of the world I'm very familiar with. Earlier this week, I spent some time in the fringe country of Yellowstone National Park, along the Idaho-Montana border. It's ranch and cabin country here—there's a lot of private land that borders public…
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Sunny Days
I always look forward to the transition to wet-wading season. Here in the mid-Atlantic that usually hits in mid-May, unless you’re fishing a tailwater just downstream from a dam, in which case waders are still a must. Even with neoprene wading socks, the first steps into a chilly (but not frigid) trout stream can be…
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