Those of us who have employed fishing guides know just how hard the work really is. It may seem a romantic profession—and certainly aspects of it border on ethereal—but mostly it’s an up-early and to-bed-late gig with no traditional benefits like health insurance, a retirement plan or a pension. And it’s not an easy job,
Voices from the River: Troutbitten
Domenick Swentosky has it pretty good. An avid trout angler, he lives just outside State College, Pa., in the heart of some pretty killer trout country. Spring Creek, one of the region’s better known streams, is just a few minutes away. He gets on the water quite a bit, though not as much as he
Recovering America’s native optimism
by Chris Wood Al Perkinson looks like a California surfer dude. He’s got wavy long hair and the languid movement of a gracefully aging athlete. He is also the guy who built the Costa del Mar brand, helped TU start the Five Rivers program, and now runs marketing for Simms. I was talking with Al
Reflecting on the Summer | TU Teens of Gallipolis
by Shannon Mayes Our summer started off with a bang on some brook trout streams in WV. The fish were mostly small, but plentiful. WV brook trout are absolutely beautiful fish! On June 27th eight students, four boys and four girls, along with four chaperones and myself left Gallipolis, Ohio to travel 9 hours, crossing
The hardest fly to tie?
The author’s Adams. Or… a distant cousin to the Adams. I love to tie flies. But, like a guy who also loves to sing in the shower, I’m better off keeping my skills to myself. Of late, while working away at the computer, my office has turned into a remote fly-tying station. I’ll tie a
Voices from the River: Of bonefish and Gunsmoke
William Conrad as Marshall Matt Dillon By Chris Hunt Years ago, when I worked as a journalist on the North Coast of California, I got into the habit of falling to sleep to the sounds of old-time radio. Stan Freberg—a Radio Hall-of-Famer—hosted a nightly show on one of the AM stations we could pick up
Growing up with fresh water means never growing out of it
By Mandy Nix I’ve always been a child of water. A native to the North Carolina Piedmont, I spent the stickiest of summers at Kerr Lake (pronounced “Car”), the 50,000-acre reservoir that stretches across the line between the Old Dominion and my own Tar Heel State. Some mornings I’d greet the water as a freshwater