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Is it spring yet?
It’s cold here along the northern fringes of the Snake River Plain — snow blankets the ground, and the wind has a sinister bite, even though it’s not even Thanksgiving yet. As I’ve gotten older, this is the time of year I like the least — it’s cold, but it’s going to get colder. There’s…
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Native stories, for fish and people, are still untold
Since 1867, an obelisk has stood in the center of Santa Fe’s downtown plaza to honor fallen Union soldiers in Civil War battles fought in New Mexico, as well as soldiers who fought against “savage Indians." Another structure nearby honors Kit Carson who, as a Union colonel, did as much as anyone to push the Southwest’s Indigenous People to the brink of extinction. A statue on the grounds of one of Santa Fe’s prominent cathedrals honored…
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The amazing trout gender reveal
The alevin at the trailside museum are looking great! How can we tell the males from the females?
Also known as sexual dimorphism — luckily no forest fire risk with this reveal The alevin are looking great and we only need about 291 more names. But, "Are they males or females?" asks Elanor the Animal Expert (age 7) from The Bronx. Thanks for the great question, Elanor. While "gender reveal parties" are the…
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Conservation victories make not fishing tolerable
Fall fishing is typically one of my favorite times to be on the water. The crowds shrink, the colors pop and the trout eat. But this fall, I’m spending more time recovering on the couch than under the cottonwoods with some meat tied to the end of my line. Recovery from my third surgery this year is going…
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Desperately seeking steelhead in Alaska for science
After a long float plane flight back to Juneau, a hurried meal and a handful of Ibuprofen, I turned in for the night with one last thought – Tomorrow. Tomorrow we’ll find the fish and all of this will be worth it.
By Mark Hieronymus After the first couple of hard-earned, bushwhacked miles, about the time we had fished every inch of beautiful holding water in this wild, remote river, and just after we finished post-holing our way through a couple hundred yards of thigh-deep snow, I started to second-guess myself. Months of reviewing fisheries and habitat…
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Keeping a secret, even when the secret’s out
Given its dearth of trout fisheries, the state of New Mexico can boast of very few secret hot spots. One of these, a favorite of mine forever, is prone to extreme high water temperatures during the summer but becomes decent at the end of irrigation season. Its browns and cuttbows come out to play when the leaves turn yellow, hitting…
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Say it with me … ‘Chena’
In time, rivers begin to emote their names ... or maybe it's the other way around There's something in a name. And some rivers ... well, after a fashion, their names are pushed from their currents, roared from their rapids or whispered from quiet slicks where fishy noses poke through flat water in search of…
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