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Coaching an elder to success
“One more cast,” I say to my brother from the bank above the Frying Pan River. A monster trout is rising with regularity and taunting my brother’s last nerve. I’ve been coaching him to place his fly in the exact spot from his perch on the opposite side of the run for what seems like forever. …
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The mouse-muncher
I can feel myself shaking but for some reason I still hold my hand out for visual verification. The sort of tremble a fish hasn’t left with since putting a rooster fish in the net or landing my first steelhead. My adrenaline is spiked and the only way my grin could be any bigger is if I’d brought the fish to hand, but that’s of surprisingly…
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Out of sight, out of mine?
An abandoned mine overlooks Lion Creek drainage near Empire, Colorado By Randy Scholfield We are bouncing along in four-wheel drive vehicles, high in the Clear Creek watershed west of Denver, overlooking beautiful forest vistas and steep hillsides laced with snowmelt creeks. We are here with a group of reporters to show them a dark secret…
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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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Rapanos
Interpretive sign on the Carmel River, spring 2019. It was while walking a seasonally-dry side channel of my local stream, the Carmel River, over the weekend that I started thinking about a guy from Michigan named John Rapanos. You should know this name, because this fellow—unintentionally, no doubt—could really put the hurt on your fishing.…
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Tomatoes for trout
Earlier this month the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change put out a report that told us what every good mother has been saying for decades: Eat your vegetables. Clean your plate. Eat less beef. Finish your beans. True, that's an oversimplification. But for me it hits home. I spend a fair bit of time worrying…
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Woodworking for brook trout in the Vermont forest
By Zack Hoisington On July 14, 2019, I found myself in uncharted territory, driving north through upstate New York on highway 87 into Adirondack State Park. As the sun started to lower, I noticed a sign for Montreal. Although I have spent very little time in this part of the country, something told me I was going the wrong direction. I had…
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