Currently browsing… fishing
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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…
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A step forward for America’s fish & wildlife
After the Recovering America's Wildlife Act resoundingly passed the House, it's time for sportsmen and women to urge the Senate to support this important legislation. The nation’s valuable fish and wildlife resources are a step closer to benefiting from important legislation that will fund conservation measures to help at-risk wildlife and restore fish and game…
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The magic of water
An angler no longer asks himself, ‘Why do we fish?’
An angler no longer asks himself, ‘Why do we fish?’ My grandfather was a fishing fool. He lived down the Jersey Shore and would fish for bluefish or whatever else was running whenever he could. The fishing gene didn’t really pass to Dad. He was too busy playing hoops to ever really get into angling. …
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What are you fishing for?
Deb Turner had always loved fishing, but hadn’t been out for a number of years. Then she got a call from Casting for Recovery. “I’d never fly fished,” she recalled. “In fact, I think the last time that I’d gone fishing, it was with a Zebco rod for sunnies. But people kept saying that I…
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A foray into ‘centerpinning’ for steelhead
When was the last time you fought a hot 10-pound fish on a reel with no drag? For me, the answer was “never.”
Another fishing experiment in a lifetime full of them. The strike was surprisingly violent. Really, it was just surprising. How often does that happen? We take a minute off. Or maybe just a few seconds. And boom! In this case I had been flipping the end of the fishing rod in hopes of removing a…