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Weighted flies? Or a sinking line?
Pike will do real damage to your flies. Check out the thread damage to the fly on the left, which is weighted with dumbbell eyes. I just got back from an epic adventure in northern Manitoba—my son and I spent eight days chasing pike and walleye on McGavock Lake at Laurie River Lodge. I love…
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Video spotlight: High Country Cutthroat
Featuring Heather Hodson of United Women on the Fly, this great new Todd Moen film shows why those of us who live in the West absolutely love native cutthroat trout. These are the fish that always seem to be looking up, always seem to be hungry and, when we're chasing them, the wallpaper is pretty…
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Trout Tips: Edit your water
One of the biggest challenges for new fly fishers is learning water, understanding where trout might hold and approaching water with a solid fishing strategy. Trout Tips | Edit your water from Trout Unlimited on Vimeo. Above, Russ Miller of Fishpond does a great job describing how to approach a classic meadow stream, and offers…
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Voices from the River: The plastic hatch
By Mark Taylor Trout anglers love a good hatch, when popping bugs create a feeding frenzy. I was on Virginia’s J ackson River recently when a different kind of hatch came off with a fury. I heard it before I saw it: Happy shouts and the echoing booms of plastic kayaks hitting river rocks. Soon,…
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Voices from the River: This one’s for Sam
By Eric Booten Excuse the grip and grin, but this fish and smile come with a story. I enjoyed talking fish with Sam, my fishing buddy and coworker. Several hours of the work week were routinely lost to these discussions, but when you work to protect fish and their habitat, sometimes you just take some…
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Fly of the week: Bird’s Nest Sulphur Emerger
Sulphurs. Lots and lots of sulphurs. A lot of people tend focus on the insanity of the evening’s spinner fall without thinking about the just as productive — if a bit more unpredictable hatch. With the millions of nymphs necessary to create that epic spinner fall, just think about how many bugs trout manage to…
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Red light — Green light
By Chris Wood The other morning, my friend, Brent Fewell, an attorney who worked at the EPA under President George W. Bush, wrote: “Had dinner and a very encouraging conversation last evening with seven prominent GOP Senators who want to make the environment and conservation a greater priority for the GOP, a return to Teddy…