Currently browsing… Fly fishing
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Dry fly floatation
It's dry-fly season. Well, it's what I like to call "hopper season," especially here in the West, where big trout will look up for terrestrial bugs that will occasionally end up in the water, thanks to a timely wind gust or just dumb luck. But fishing hoppers and other terrestrial flies isn't about dumb luck.…
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Sage Trout LL fly rod
When you find a fly rod that's essentially made for the kind of fly fishing you like to do—and makes that fishing markedly better—you hang onto it. That's why I'll likely never part with the new Sage Trout LL rod. I'm a walk-and-wade stream-fishing junkie. I like the intimate feel of water running around my…
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Small-stream tactics in the age of non-native invasives
Native Rio Grande cutthroat trout. Contrary to many conservation-minded anglers, I am one who believes that, along with cockroaches, coyotes and Siberian elm trees, brown trout will survive the apocalypse. They possess many of the traits we Americans admire most: they are intelligent, confident, adaptable, rugged, ambitious and breathtakingly handsome. And for the time being…
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TU’s diversity, equity and inclusion opportunity
At the Trout Unlimited Annual Meeting every year, we have a tradition of putting the senior staff on stage to answer questions on the fly from the audience of 250-plus volunteer leaders. Last year, someone from the audience asked each of us to state the three most important areas of focus for TU over the…
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Hopper-dropper fishing
With terrestrial season coming on strong throughout the country, it's an obvious time to start flinging a hopper-dropper rig. But what's the best way to do it? What knots make the most sense? How far below the high-floating hopper should the "dropper" nymph be? https://youtu.be/Nz7QQFOPemU The hopper-dropper rig. Here's a great short video from the…
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Back to the vest
I had back surgery last winter—three vertebrae were fused just above my tailbone after a lengthy battle with sciatica and what turned out to a cracked and splitting bone. I was honestly worried about the future of my fly fishing. The first few weeks after surgery were miserable. It was so bad, I questioned my…
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Using different fly floatants
Not all fly floatants are created equally. What's more, not all fly floatants are appropriate for universal use on the water. For instance, CDC flies will do better if the angler applies a silicon-based floatant rather than a gel floatant. Bigger flies might require a liquid floatant that can get down into the hairs used…