-
Tip: Grease your leader for better mending.
Tom Rosenbauer taught me this one, but I’m going to steal it and share it anyway. After you’ve dressed up your dry fly with that greasy, ginky goop that’s now left all over your fingers, don’t just wipe it off on your waders to leave stains like the syrup you dripped on your shirt at…
-
Fly-Fishing for Warmwater Fish in the Summer Heat
Northern Pike, Bass, Bluegill, and other warmwater fish are great fly alternatives when trout need a break. The little headwater stream to a wild native brook trout river in the western Upper Peninsula seemed like a perfect place to find little brookies and no other people. I drove a tangle of muddy logging roads after…
-
Drift Boat Hack…
Use a small cooler (or something fairly heavy that slides) to balance the boat. Cooler in boat hack Just the other day, as my buddy Tim Romano, cousin Andrew Steketee, Andrew’s dog Oscar, and I were ready to shove off from the ramp for what would be an epic (and I mean epic!) float down…
-
Rapid diversification in Salmon and Steelhead Populations Following Dam Removal
John McMillan returns with a guest column about the ongoing recovery of the Elwha River. It’s been eleven years since the Elwha Dam (the lower of the two dams on the Elwha, located at river-mile five) was removed. I still remember the day the heavy equipment started to roll, and the dam started to fall. …
-
The True Cast – Why the United States is the Envy of the Fishing World
There’s always much to celebrate on Independence Day.
There’s always much to celebrate on Independence Day. Sure, we’re living in divisive times and there are things that concern most of us for different reasons and in different ways in America these days. But the bottom line is that this collective “experiment in democracy” is still kicking (and then some) 247 years after a…
-
Boys Becoming Men
Measuring the passing of time during a week in Canada
Measuring the passing of time during a week in Canada. For a few months longer, until Wylie turns 20, I will have three teenage sons in the house. Three sons It is a magical time in their lives, and for me, too, watching the slow but blindingly fast transition from boys to men. I am…
-
Montana train derailment and bridge collapse. Sound familiar? Because it is.
In mid-June, just as high waters were still flushing the Yellowstone River, sixteen railcars derailed after a bridge collapsed. The train, carrying hazardous materials such as hot asphalt, molten sulfur, and scrap metals, is just one of several train derailments making the news this year. This time, in an iconic river with its fair share…