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Video spotlight: Chalk
The origin of modern-day fly fishing can be likely be traced to the fabled chalk streams of Britain—those clear, cold spring creeks where the art of presenting the upstream dry fly was pioneered. Rivers like the Test come to mind when I think of chalk streams, but the video below gives me a bit of…
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Voices from the River: The plight of California salmon
By Sam Davidson I came across a video recently, on sockeye salmon migrating to the spawn in the Lake Iliamna area in Alaska. The productivity of this region for salmon is nothing short of amazing—and makes the proposed Pebble Mine, looming like the guillotine over the entire Bristol Bay ecosystem, that much more troubling. Watching…
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Spotlight on Browns Canyon
What would Theodore Roosevelt do? He’d protect Browns Canyon. By Corey Fisher The green drake hatch on Penns Creek. Browns slurping midnight Hex on the Pere Marquette. Salmonflies on Montana’s Madison River. The brown drakes of Silver Creek. These are some of America’s most celebrated moments in fly-fishing, but Mother’s Day caddis on Colorado’s Arkansas…
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Video spotlight: Once You Pop, You Can’t Stop
Who doesn't like catching fish on top? With poppers, no less. Several years back, while fishing with a great group of guys on Alaska's Tongass National Forest, I was introduced to the fact that pink salmon—yes, pink salmon—will hit poppers just as they're reporting for spawning duty from the saltwater. We spent one glorious afternoon…
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Fly tying: Whip finishing by hand
About a decade ago, while sitting at a table in the dining room at what is now Calder Mountain Lodge on the northern, roadless tip of Prince of Wales Island, I busied myself tying up a few bright orange streamers for the next day's fishing for Dolly Varden in the island's tannin-stained salmon streams. An…
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Beavers: Friend or foe?
What happened to my favorite little trout creek? It's now a series of trout ponds! And most of this happened since last year! Most of you TUers know we've covered the issue of beavers in Trout magazine. In short, beavers can be extremely damaging to trout habitat in some places (like Wisconsin, where removal of…
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Monuments 101
Note: this is the first in a series of blogs detailing the Antiquities Act and national monuments that matter to hunters and anglers. Come back and visit in the coming days to learn more about your public lands and how national monuments conserve our hunting and fishing heritage. And while you’re at it, tell Congress…