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Fitting it all in before it snows
Fall beauty in southern Colorado Fall means trying to do a little bit of everything before the snow flies: the last mountain bike rides on dirt, climbing peaks to glass for elk, leaf peeping before they turn brown and litter the ground and of course, the last warm days of fishing. I celebrate this time of year and find…
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Tips for urban angling
Several streams draining from the mountains that enhance my urban viewscape snake their way through Anchorage, paralleling urban trails, bordering neighborhoods and sometimes disappearing underground for blocks at a time. While the aesthetics and natural state of the creeks range from non-existent to surprisingly impressive, for an angler it’s difficult not to look at the flowing water, assess the potential lies of hungry fish, and subsequently…
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Tying in the dreaded bucktail
The bucktail wing is one of the elementary ingredients in a number of popular flies, from Clousers to Coachmen ... even some caddis patterns call for bucktail. But, man, can it be hard to work with or what? I've always struggled with bucktail—I either lash it too tightly to the hook shank, which makes it…
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Breaching Lower Snake dams could help water temps, say scientists
Ice Harbor Dam/U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo by David Lewis We've talked a lot about the impact four dams on the Lower Snake River have on dwindling populations of salmon and steelhead as they migrate hundreds of miles to and from their natal streams in Idaho. But last week scientists highlighted one more data…
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STREAM Kids family event, a model program
Students learn about the hidden, underwater world of macroinvertebrates during TU's Annual Meeting with Headwaters Youth Program Coordinator, Tara Granke. Each year since 2016, Trout Unlimited offers a family-friendly outdoor event at our Annual Meeting. It’s a nice change of scenery from the all-indoor conference center presentations. Don’t get me wrong, I love the hospitality…
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Jeff Blood’s White Death
It's steelhead season, although here in the Northwest, most folks aren't nearly as excited about it as they used to be thanks to dismal fish returns in the Columbia River system—it's an unfortunate recurring theme for anglers in the region who are helplessly watching our prized ocean-going fish dwindle seemingly every season. But for those…
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That guy…
We’ve all been there. It’s summer. We’re headed somewhere fishy and the sooner we get there, the sooner we can assemble the 4-weight and hit the water. We’ve squeezed a weekend’s worth of beer and grub into the back of the SUV, and we’re ready to stand knee-deep in a trout stream and wash away…