Just as a snake sheds its skin, we must shed our past over and over again. – —Gautama Buddha By Sam Davidson Recently I saw a post on social media reminding people that as spring comes on strong, so do snakes. The post offered visual proof (see above) of this, in the form of a
Photo by Mike Sepelak By Chris Hunt FOLKSTON, Ga.— I’ve never been a boat guy, choosing instead to find my best fly fishing using my two feet, usually after driving to the end of the road, and then wandering on a bit farther to the water few others bother to reach. It’s a preference thing.
By Chris Hunt The first time I visited a blackwater swamp, I was probably about 12. My dad rented a little jon boat from the marina near Uncertain, Texas, and he manned the tiller as we glided over the glassy waters of Caddo Lake. I was instantly enchanted. At the time, 35 years ago, East
“Oh, these vast, calm, measureless mountain days, inciting at once to work and rest! Days in whose light everything seems equally divine, opening a thousand windows to show us God. Nevermore, however weary, should one faint by the way who gains the blessings of one mountai n day; whatever his fate, long life, short life,
By Chris Hunt I got lost last night. Not your traditional, “I have no idea where I am,” kind of lost. But lost just the same. My daughter is home for a scant month between jobs—she’s returned from Colorado’s ski country and is a month away from her next gig at Colter Bay on Jackson
TU’s Brian Johnson, the Steelhead Whisperer, and Scott Yates at the end of the steelhead season on California’s central coast. By Sam Davidson The steelhead season ended almost exactly the way it began. I spent both the opener and the close at the same place, with the same crew. With the same results. Which is
The Arroyo Seco River. By Sam Davidson Not long ago, on an unseasonably warm Saturday, I went fishing in the desert. Well, technically the Arroyo Seco River isn’t desert—the fishable section flows through a rugged canyon sheathed in cha parral. But it might as well be in the desert. It’s hot and dry there much
By Dave Ammons On her 60th birthday my mother led me to the summit of Mt. Elbert, the highest among Colorado’s fourteeners. She was a mountain goat, small and sinewy, always seeking challenges in the wilderness. She was also determined, reticent to concede to limitations, and stubborn to the core. Not long after that climb
By Eric Booton There is a general rule of thumb that many of us live by: the bigger the challenge to access the fishing hole, the better the fishing is likely to be. With that in mind, a 30-minute flight on an Alaskan “bush” plane, plus a 45 minute drive in a beater truck on
As anglers, we have more in common with these folks than you might think. By Chris Hunt Years ago, when I first started working in advocacy for Trout Unlimited, one of our focus issues had to do with off-road vehicles and how some riders tended to take liberties on our public lands by pioneering new
Sometimes the fishing is secondary to other priorities. The author of this fine reminiscence with his father, Gordon VeneKlasen. By Garrett VeneKlasen Feb. 5, 2018 Twenty years ago today, the single engine plane my father was piloting went down in the mountains east of Taos. I remember that day like it was yesterday. Dad was
The one that got away. In November, I made the bi-annual stumble across the lawn, ungracefully lugging fly rods, waders and tackle to the shed to make way for ski gear in our indoor gear closet. Since catching the last fish on the fly of 2017 (a respectable leopard spotted rainbow trout from a small
I love Montana. I even like Bozeman. Sometimes those are two different things, as lots of Montanans will be happy to tell you. If I were going to pick a place where I could be close to Bozeman and still feel like I was in “real” Montana, I’d stay with some friends at their ranch
Beer at the ready, it’s time to start tying. By Mark Taylor My local Trout Unlimited chapter recently jumped on the trend of hosting fly-tying gatherings at bars. The inaugural gathering at Ballast Point Brewery in Daleville, Va., drew about 30 people, which is about how many people show up to the chapter’s monthly meetings.
By Chris Hunt Years ago, when I was cranking out fishing content for my old blog, I did a feature each Friday titled, “20 Questions,” which was a thinly veiled homage to the back page interivews of Vanity Fair where folks were asked off-the-wall questions via the famous Proust Questionnaire, like, “What is your greatest
When is too much water a bad thing for a river and its economy? Montana’s fabled Bighorn River is struggling these days thanks to a flawed water management strategy that is having a serious impact the wild trout fishery below Yellowtail Dam. There’s simply too much water in the river, almost all the time, and
If you’re on social media, I’m confident you have noticed that #vanlife has swept the nation. Powered by social media, modern day van life is inspired by the romantic excursions of previous generations who loaded up VW Westfalias and Transporters to chase down their favorite musical acts, post up at the river in a trout
The Steelhead Whisperer and his daughter with a jewel from the Big Sur River. By Sam Davidson On Martin Luther King Day three men and a diminutive young lady went fishing on California’s Big Sur River—a tiny but fierce watershed on the central coast with a bona fide steelhead run—and the smallest member of the
“The best thing one can do when it’s raining is to let it rain.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow By Dave Ammons It was going to be a wet one. In the days prior to my trip up the canyon the forecast promised showers over the weekend, although I was hoping for the intermittent variety. Nope.
Ice fishing can be fun. Right? By Mark Taylor “Ice fishing?” The text popped up the other day, a week into the unusually frigid spell that had gripped much of the continental U.S. “I don’t think so,” I replied. I’m usually up for just about any kind of fishing, especially if options are limited. And
