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Answering the call for help on the Upper Snake
When flows on the Upper Snake in Wyoming were quickly dropped, TU and the people of Jackson showed up to document the impacts—and save stranded cutthroats. Major drops in the Snake River coming out of Jackson Lake Dam happen each year at the end of the irrigation season, but the drastically dry summer of 2021…
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What’s your favorite TROUT magazine cover from the past 10 years?
As we approached my 40th cover TROUT, I asked the editors which covers they liked best, and they came up with these.
Our team at TROUT magazine likes to think that people can judge a magazine by its cover … at least in part. The cover image sets the tone for everything that follows, so we put a lot of collective thought into our choices. Sometimes we want to provoke you. Sometimes we want to cause you…
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Surveying what’s left of Eklutna River’s Salmon
Standing on the edge of the bridge, staring down the dry riverbed, I wondered what the Eklutna River would look like when it was allowed to flow again.
This past fall I found myself frequenting the Eklutna River often, after plans solidified for the owners of the Eklutna Hydroelectric Project to briefly return water to the river for the first time since its construction in 1955. The water release was part of the study looking to mitigate the projects impacts on fish populations.…
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’Tis the Season
When big browns are spawning, it’s a good time to stop and relish the moment What’s not to love about brown trout? They’re crafty, tenacious, mean, strong, and damn near invincible. Jason Bourne, Derrick Henry, Kaiser Soze, and Dracula all rolled into one fish. Increasingly concerned about the plight of North America’s native salmonids, I…
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Tying the Steelhead Coachman
If you were to look in the box of a seasoned steelheader on the banks of the Snake, Grande Ronde or Clearwater chances are good you'll find.
I can distinctly remember the first few flies I started fishing with. As I would imagine the case is with many people, that selection of a dozen flies was a 'who's who' of the classics. The Adams, Elk-hair Caddis, Muddler Minnow, Pheasant Tail, and Royal Wulff seem almost like names from scripture in the pantheon…
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Naxiyam Wana and the Uniter
A stream roiling dark with Chinook salmon in central Idaho’s wilderness high country. A throb, a pulse of life into a pristine river, the abundance of the ocean arriving in the flesh of thousands of salmon in a wild mountain river hundreds of miles inland. This was. This was life itself, for the land, for…
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Mike Simpson – Conserving the future
Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson champions removing four dams on the Lower Snake River to save salmon, not because he fishes for them, but because he says it’s the right thing to do. Since Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson’s dad died about 20 years ago, he’s been meeting his mom and two uncles occasionally at restaurants around…