Editor’s Note: Five students from the TU Costa 5 Rivers Outreach Program have embarked on a once-in a-lifetime journey in pursuit of 16 native trout species, all on public lands. With support from the U.S. Forest Service, Costa Sunglasses, Simms Fishing Products, Fishpond and Post Fly Box, these students will tell the stories of our
Editor’s note: The following is experpted from TU’s new book, “Trout Tips,” which is available for overnight delivery. When prospecting for trout, don’t flock-shoot and cast to the top of the run where you think there might be a fish and let your fly drift throught the whole run. Split the pool or run into
I hear from a lot of anglers who prefer chasing big trout on big water that small-stream fly fishing is easy and that the fish aren’t as sophisticated as big-water trout. This may be true, in some instances, but I’m here to tell you that you’ll need more casts in your toolbox to effectively cast
Trout in small, backcountry streams are opportunists, but that doesn’t mean theyr’e stupid. The old rule still applies: If you can see the fish, chances are, they can see you, too. When I fish small water, I like to put structure between me and the fish whenever possible, and I like to make my profile
Editor’s note: The following is exerpted from TU’s book, “Trout Tips,” available now for overnight delivery. If a trout misses your dry fly, or refuses it, move a short distance away. Give the fish a break; then go back with a different fly. That may be the one he’s looking for. — Dan Beistel, Oviedo,
Editor’s note: The following is exerpted from TU’s book, “Trout Tips,” available for online purchase and overnight delivery. I recently took a long drive through Kootenay, Banff and Jasper national parks along the border with British Columbia and Alberta. Throughout the entire drive, delicious, glacial-tinged trout water paralleled my path. Trouble was, save for the
Sometimes, you can learn an awful lot more about a river, and specifically where fish will be holding in a river, by looking at it from above, rather than standing in it. Granted, that’s not always that easy when you are fishing in flat terrain. But I know plenty of anglers who have been driven
Editor’s note: The following is exerpted from TU’s book, “Trout Tips,” available for overnight delivery. On native trout water in some parts of the West, sometimes large chunks of water seem unoccupied, making you think that maybe the stream is completely barren. Not so. Cutthroat love to occupy certain stretches of habitat and leave other
Remote sensing is being used to measure improvement in Lahontan cutthroat trout habitat in Nevada. By Dan Dauwalter, Kurt Fesenmyer and Helen Neville Have you ever assisted your local DNR biologist with a painstaking habitat survey on your favorite trout stream where you tediously measured the stream channel, substrates, wood, undercut banks, and so on?
Photo by Chris Hunt By Chris Hunt < p dir="ltr">There’s something primal about dark water shrouded by cypress. The color of strong coffee, these stained swamps of the South nurture mystery and offer refuge to critters that hang on in acid-tinged water filtered through layers of eons-old peat and sand. The gators come to mind
In New Zealand, where the waters are typically very clear, and the trout are always very smart, the exact spot where a fly lands near a trout can matter down to the inch. The Kiwis will tell you that as you are casting upstream at a fish’s position, it’s always best to miss to the
The following is exerpted from TU’s book, “Trout Tips,” available online for overnight delivery. To enjoy fly fishing, the following tips have proven to be extremely helpful and true: take the time to learn how to cast, and practice, practice and practice. Practice is not for the day you go fly fishing! Similarly, take the
As noted in the video below, “cruising trout are feeding trout.” When we see pods of trout working certain stretches of the river, it’s tough to keep our cool sometimes. The prospect of an afternoon spent wandering a small stretch of river while catching several trout is pretty appealing, right? Video of How to Catch
When I was a kid fishing with my grandfather on bigger water, the first thing he always did was flip over rocks as we walked along the river. He’d give each rock a good look, and he’d point out squiggly little bugs to me and my brothers and cousins. “See that?” he’d ask, pointing to
Foam fly boxes float. If you want to see your flies again, make sure fly box floats, too. Several years ago, I was steelhead fishing on Idaho’s Salmon River. I’d spent the week leading up to the trip tying flies and gearing up. Steelhead on the Salmon were—and still are—a fish that came calling on
Here’s one from the archives, and I picked it because a lot of fly fishers around the country are dusting off the gear and getting ready to hit the water for the first time this spring. It’s simple, really. Don’t forget to practice. Practice Casting Intro from Trout Unlimited on Vimeo. Ask Kirk Deeter shows
Fishing in late winter and early spring, before runoff kicks in, can be pretty tricky, given short windows for dry-fly action, the likelihood that, even though the calendar reads April, an out-of-nowhere snow squall is certainly possible and the general finicky nature of cold-water trout. The solution, as Garrison Doctor of Rep Your Water describes
By Chris Wood Some define conservation as overseeing loss. Loss of wetlands; loss of open space; loss of water quality; loss of species. Aldo Leopold harkened to this when he wrote in the Sand County Almanac that “One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds.
Many native trout species, like these bull trout, are rare or endangered. Photo courtesy of USGS. By Jack Williams Sometimes you need to take a step back to see the whole problem. Or in this case, a whole lot of steps because the problem is the decline of native trout across the entire Northern Hemisphere.
Russ Miller of Fishpond joins Trout Tips this spring to offer some great advice on getting ready for the summer ahead. And the first thing Miller recommends is checking your gear as you prepare to head to the water. Trout Tips | Preparing for a new season from Trout Unlimited on Vimeo. As Miller notes,
