Currently browsing… Fly fishing
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Tips for chasing coastal cutthroats in the Pacific Northwest
Coastal cutthroat trout from a stream near Ketchikan, Alaska. Chris Hunt photo. By Chris Mayes The coastal cutthroat trout is a fish of many names: sea-run cutthroat, blue-back, harvest, among others. Regardless of the name, most Pacific Northwest anglers agree the coastal cutthroat is a fantastic gamefish for anglers of all ages. Often the top…
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Barbless Flies for happier fish and happier anglers
A big cicada fly prompted me to become an advocate for barbless hooks. It was a great fly, tied by a friend and proven effective over and over on a host of different waters. Like many of us, I was conscious of the importance of pinching down the barb on my flies to make releasing…
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From the vault: Everything but the fish
Editor's note: This piece was published originally in TROUT Magazine in the winter of 2019. Boating and fishing take us to some pretty amazing places. I personally of am the opinion that taking photos should tell a complete story, not just a piece of one. The below piece here is as it was published in…
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Is catch-and-release angling all it’s cracked up to be?
Releasing a nice brown trout back into the river. Kirk Deeter photo. Is catch-and-release angling overrated? It is if the only thing that matters is numbers of fish caught… In 1936, the late, great Lee Wulff said, “game fish are too valuable to be caught only once,” and the “catch-and-release” movement was born. I’m a…
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Chasing wild trout on Pennsylvania’s storied Spring Creek
The famous Spring Creek, Pennsylvania. Derek Eberly photo. Beware the first-cast fish ... it's almost never a good omen Many years ago, I was fishing on the Shenandoah with my friends Mike Dombeck and Bruce Babbitt, who had just stepped down as the director of the Bureau of Land Management and secretary of Interior, respectively.…
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What’s your best day ever?
Could you put a finger on your best day ever fishing? I know exactly when mine was, well at least so far. My dad and brother were visiting us in Glenwood Springs to fish for a few days in early fall. The weather was cool and crisp in the mornings leading to temperatures I live…
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RIO’s Elite Tarpon line did the trick
It might sounds counterintuitive, especially to new anglers, but having a good line can make a long day of casting heavy fly rods much less exhausting. Having just recovered from a year and a half worth of cancer treatments, I was grateful for that fact. On our recent trip to Tarpon Cay Lodge in Rio…