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TU Business: Sweetwater Fly Shop
Dan Gigone and Diane Early are the owners here, and they run a great business. Dan is a licensed Montana outfitter, and their guide staff is second to none. If you want to book a trip on a host of different waters in this part of Montana, look no further.
They don’t call it Paradise Valley for nothing. The Yellowstone River makes its way from the base of Two Ocean Pass in Wyoming, through Yellowstone National Park and into Montana. The Yellowstone is the longest undammed river in the lower 48. Once it leaves the park, it makes its way through Paradise Valley, south of…
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Hope in dry times
How we’re making key Western streams more hospitable for trout and people in the hotter, drier present As the West grapples with extreme and unprecedented drought, Trout Unlimited’s restoration pros and partners are pushing forward with on-the-ground work to make waters and fisheries more resilient to changing conditions. In Idaho, we are decommissioning a hydropower…
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Be the beaver
Finding new appreciation for sleeping outdoors, for water, and for the work TU is doing to restore streams Falling asleep under the stars next to a crinkling creek is the best way to end a day. I learned this quickly as I began two months of conservation work in Oregon with the Northwest Youth Corps…
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Simms Head Coach
What happened when the Montana fishing gear manufacturer took on mental health amid a global pandemic Anglers know that fly fishing can be a mental health salve to help get through the crazy times, but in recent years the fishing gear company Simms has taken it one step further to help build mental resiliency for…
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Striper hunting in steelhead country
TU’s Wild Steelhead Initiative shifts into turbocharge—and takes on a voracious predator Oregon’s Umpqua River features some of the most famous salmon and steelhead waters in America. It’s an amazingly productive watershed by almost any measure. Trout Unlimited volunteers and staff have worked hard to keep it that way. I tested this productivity on a…
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On protecting prime fishing spots, a balancing act
The Catch 22 of conservation: Can we love sensitive places to death? On a cloudy June day, a buddy and I found ourselves on a remote wildlife refuge in southwest Montana. This year, Montana has seen plenty of spring rain, and it had been raining hard before the trip. (Though, as the saying goes, we…
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They don’t make fly guides like this anymore
A warm farewell to Terry Gunn, the guru of Lees Ferry, Arizona The other day, my good friend, Terry Gunn, announced that he was officially retiring from guiding. For those of you who do not know Terry Gunn, he has, since the early 1980s, been the guy (the guru) at Lees Ferry, Arizona, which is…