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When ‘fishing ain’t what it used to be’ is a good thing
The fishing ain’t what it used to be. We’ve all heard that familiar lament, usually uttered by an angler trudging back to the parking lot after getting skunked. As conservationists, we know it’s too often true. The losses of trout and salmon fisheries relative to their historic distribution are well known to all of us. But this…
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International Year of the Salmon
This year is the International Year of the Salmon, and it couldn't have come too soon. Wild salmon the world over are in peril—once plentiful stocks are dwindling in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Dams block migration. Proposed industrial development, like the Pebble Mine in Alaska, threaten intact populations. Pollution, salmon-farm escapees and disease…
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‘Catching Yellowstone’s Wild Trout’
Editor's note: The following is excerpted from the new book, "Catching Yellowstone's Wild Trout: A Fly-fishing History and Guide," by Chris Hunt, Trout Unlimited's national digital director. The book, endorsed by TU, is available for pre-order now, and hits shelves on June 17. Several of today’s iconic fisheries in Yellowstone National Park are only fisheries…
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Casting into high winds
Ugh. The wind. The bane of every fly caster. Well, not ever caster, obviously. But those of us who don't often deal with the wind on a regular basis (read: those of us who might get to the bonefish flats but once every couple of years, for instance) can find the wind to be a…
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Time to take the kids outside!
With spring in full swing it’s time to get outside. All over the country, small fingerling trout and salmon smolts are leaving classrooms in the hands of their student caretakers and heading to local rivers and streams via TU's Trout in the Classroom and Salmon in the Classroom programs. Now is the time for other…
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Flashback Pheasant Tail nymph
The venerable Pheasant Tail nymph is a fly box staple, and there's a reason for that. It works. And it's not the most onerous fly to tie, either, as demonstrated below by Matt Callies of Loon Outdoors, who cranks one out in just a few minutes. https://youtu.be/YgyPaFIEw8s Matt Callies ties the Flashback Pheasant Tail nymph.…
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Lessons from abandoned Utah mines
By Lily Bosworth As I waltzed into my summer internship in May of 2018, I quickly realized I had a much different background in water than the two people I would be working closely with all summer — Paul Burnett, the Utah Water and Habitat Program lead for Trout Unlimited and my co-intern, Bobby Boone,…