Nick Halle, TU’s volunteer operations coordinator, kept at it even after falling in over his head and was rewarded with this nice buck steelhead from Ohio’s Conneaut Creek during a recent TU staff steelhead outing. By Mark Taylor “I’ve lost all faith.” The admission came from Keith Curley as we stood in the snow on
I absolutely love fishing with streamer flies. After all, streamers elicit a predatory response, particularly when trout fishing. Streamers are what turn a trout’s instinct dial from meek and mild dun sippers and nymph inhalers to full-on carnivorous beasts.
Trying to convince automakers to stop marketing their trucks and SUVs that depict those vehicles splashing through rivers has been a Sisyphean task.
At the end of May, a crew of spirited friends and I coasted out of Eklutna Lake campground with trimmed packs, tents and miscellaneous items strapped to our bikes, bound for the head of the glacial valley…or at least its vicinity. It was a fresh adventure for all, and for me, the opportunity to witness the East and West Forks of the Eklutna River beyond Eklutna Lake and set eyes on the glacier, where the Eklutna River begins
It looks like an out-of-place slip-and-slide placed into a meadow alongside a tributary of Rock Creek. It is, in fact, a fish screen. Like so many western trout streams, Rock Creek and its tributaries are important sources of irrigation for farmers and ranchers. In the past, many irrigators would dam a creek, and divert its
Thanks to Arlin Grimes and his Aqua Terra Restoration business, the Rattlesnake Dam near Missoula, Mont., is now down
The Roan Plateau in northwest Colorado. Sharing creates advocates, while oversharing creates problems “To share or not to share…” If Hamlet were a fly fisher instead of just an angst-ridden 30-something pining for his dead father, this might have been what he uttered as he pondered the value of his own life. For, much like
By Eric Crawford If only it was as simple as an adipose fin. The presence of an adipose fin is universally recognized as the mark. An individual with an adipose fin is, with a few exceptions, considered a wild steelhead. On the other hand, those marked, clipped, or ad-intact fish, they are the hatchery ones. Although it is
The framework will determine management strategies for approximately 3.7 million acres of public lands in portions of Lincoln, Sweetwater, Uinta, Sublette, and Fremont counties in southwest Wyoming. Contacts: Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released the Rock Springs Field Office Resource Management Plan (RMP), a framework for managing approximately 3.7 million acres of public
The Trout Unlimited Veterans Service Partnership (TU VSP) will host the annual TU VSP veteran couples trip to Slough Creek and Yellowstone Park from September 1-7. Veteran couples were chosen from nominations submitted by TU VSP chapters from around the US and from alumni veteran couples who have participated on previous VSP trips. The upcoming
Dr. Jim Strogen was named the 2020 Outstanding Citizen Wildlife Contributor of the Year by the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies
We just released an issue of TROUT magazine that focuses most of its 100 pages on the need to remove four dams from the Lower Snake River. That was an easy call for me as editor because I think removal of the Lower Snake dams, thus giving a huge percentage of steelhead and salmon in the
By Josh Duplechian Frank is a man with a knack for organization. His black Richard Wheatley fly boxes are neatly arranged in order of size, color and pattern. Frank pinches barbs on all his flies, most of which are either elk hair caddis or nymphs. He is not much of a big, chunky streamer fan.
Let’s get a win for clean water and healthy trout and salmon populations This month in Congress, we have a remarkable opportunity that doesn’t come along very often—a chance to advance a handful of issues that Trout Unlimited has worked on for more than a decade. Passing these priorities would put Americans back to work
Trout Unlimited and the Caribou-Targhee National Forest announced today that the Tincup Creek Stream Restoration Project’s second phase is currently under way in eastern Idaho. The project is a large-scale, multi-phased project begun in 2017 to improve ecosystem function and habitat for native cutthroat trout and other native fish species on four miles of degraded
I often think of my life in decade intervals. The first ten years was the goofball phase; 11-20 years old involved anything with a ball; 21-30 was consumed by conservation—you get the idea. If we are lucky, we will get eight or nine of these opportunities to think about the new decade in front of
When I reflect on the past couple decades of climbing the fly-fishing learning curve, I am often amazed that I caught any fish at all, given the many dopey habits I fell into.
There’s trout water, and then there’s trout water that also holds mountain whitefish. The latter is likely healthier. Whitefish (Prosopium williamsoni) are often greeted by anglers with the same enthusiasm they might afford a creek chub or a sucker. The slightly downturned snout may not be as appealing as the maw of a wild brown
There’s a reason for this. It’s incredibly simple to use, intuitive as hell and just flat out works. It’s key features show nationwide public and private lands, waypoints, lines and areas, as well as Topographic and 3D maps. You can track your route, location and elevation profile and can build custom map layers. My personal favorite global feature is the incredibly high resolution off-line map setting. Simple download a, 5, 10, or 150 mile wide maps and boom you’re in the game without any cell service.
Like many anglers, I often found myself wondering what the fish were actually doing beneath the surface…. Eventually, my curiosity got the better of me
