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Voices from the River: Mountain Strong
Wes Gwaltney, president of the New River Valley of Trout Unlimited, fishes the West Prong of the Pigeon River near Gatlinburg, Tenn., in late April. Even as damage from 2016 fires remains, the forest in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is greening up with the arrival of spring. (Mark Taylor photo.) By Mark Taylor…
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Skills: Fishing a hopper-dropper rig
My friend Rob Parkins runs the fishing and hunting section at the Jack Dennis Outdoor World on the square in Jackson, Wyo., and he's a heck of an angler, as well as a RIO ambassador. Rob fishes the South Fork of the Snake often, as well as a number of waters here in eastern Idaho…
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Voices from the river: Frank’s trash
By Josh Duplechian Frank is a man with a knack for organization. His black Richard Wheatley fly boxes are neatly arranged in order of size, color and pattern. Frank pinches barbs on all his flies, most of which are either elk hair caddis or nymphs. He is not much of a big, chunky streamer fan.…
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Video spotlight: Trout of steel
The rainbow trout fishery of Bristol Bay is simply legendary. With hundreds—maybe thousands—of miles of salmon streams that flow from the headwaters of the drainage to the sea, it's easy to see why rainbow trout are so vibrant and plentiful, given the food base. Alaska Sportman's Lodge, run by all-star TU volunteer Brian Kraft, is…
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Fly tying: The Last Walt’s
Attractor patterns occupy a special spot in my heart—I love flies that are versatile and might represent any number of buggy possibilities, but no one bug in particular. Such is the case with the Last Walt's, a fly Tim Flagler ties in the video below. As he notes, this bug doesn't match anything specific, but…
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Voices from the River: River thoughts
By Eric Booton Where does the river take you? Well, the obvious answer is downstream. But on the river, I find myself in a better place. I started at a rocky headwaters with a head full of doubt and little sense of direction. The river swept me downstream to a more pleasant place that I…
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Stealing rivers … and less to steal
By Noel Gollehon Two scientific studies published this month captured some pretty dramatic details of how climate change is affecting our rivers, lakes and streams. A recent article in Nature Geoscience described the first known case of river piracy due to climate change. In this case, the climate change pirate stole the flow of a…