By Chandra Ferrari Theodore Roosevelt once said, “[d]o what you can, with what you have, where you are.” Many colorful quotes have been attributed to him but this is one of my favorites. It cautions against waiting for the perfect situation and moment to arise before moving forward. You could be waiting a long time.
Photo by Travis Rummel Contact: Sam Snyder, Trout Unlimited, (907) 903-5811 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Alaska sportsmen celebrate victory for the Susitna River Opponents of the Susitna Watana dam proposal celebrate future of free-flowing Susitna River ANCHORAGE, AK – Today, Alaskas Governor announced the state is shutting down the Susitna-Watana Dam project. In so doing, Trout
by Chris Hunt My hands are cold. The wool mittens, even with the little flap that covers my fingers when I’m not using them to tie tippet to the leader or a fly to the tippet, just aren’t cutting it today. There’s absolutely no reason for me to be here, knee deep i n water
The home away from home on the Ruby River, Montana. Public lands. by Chris Hunt Last spring, as I prepared for a lengthy summer trip to the Arctic, I marched myself into my local RV dealership and signed away a significant chunk of change for a brand new camper. The trip was amazing—I crisscrossed Idaho
TU’s own Tom Reed casts to native Colorado River cutthroat trout in the Wyoming Range. by Chris Hunt I got a note today from someone who read a piece by my fellow Trout Unlimited communicator, Brett Prettyman, on John Weis, a late TU volunteer from Utah who was involved in his local chapter in the
Dave Freeman with his chosen mode of transportation for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota. Courtesy Dave Freeman. Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Dave Freeman. He spent a year in the wilds of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness with his wife, Amy, to raise awareness about proposed mines in
As I sit here in Idaho Falls watching two feet of snow melt into a slushy pond at the foot of my driveway, my buddy Kirk Deeter is likely stringing up a 5-weight with members of one of my favorite TU chapters in the country and preparing to chase some fat, tailwater trout. In Texas.
Trout Unlimited member Tom Johnson released his second book, “Threaded Journeys,” last summer. The book is a series of essays about two of Johnson’s passions: fly fishing and bowhunting, with interweaving discussions on conservation, health and our national welfare. Johnson grew up in central Massachusetts with a father and four brothers who shared many similar
by Sam Davidson Maybe the most difficult thing about being an avid winter steelhead angler isn’t the guaranteed frigid digits, abominable weather, mostly blown-out rivers or the challenge of actually hooking one of those transcendent slabs of muscle. For me, anyway, it is coming to terms with March 7, and the increasing probability of wearing
I grew up chucking big Rapalas and Beetle Spins at bass in farm ponds and lakes in Kansas—it was a great way to learn some basics of casting and working a lure. I remember my Dad (who in most respects is not a patient man) patiently showing me how to tie an improved clinch knot
By Chris Hunt As a kid, I remember seeing little jon boats cruising up and down the Sabine River along the border with Texas and Louisiana, their pilots running trot lines for channel cats and generally looking like they were having an excellent time. The boats, squared off in the front and pushed by a
By Sam Davidson I came across a video recently, on sockeye salmon migrating to the spawn in the Lake Iliamna area in Alaska. The productivity of this region for salmon is nothing short of amazing—and makes the proposed Pebble Mine, looming like the guillotine over the entire Bristol Bay ecosystem, that much more troubling. Watching
Fishing the Bear River. This reach would be inundated by the proposed Centennial Dam. By Chandra Ferrari With California just emerging from five years of punishing drought, there continues to be a lot of discussion about creating more water storage. While the fastest and most affordable way to capture and store more water is to
The fishing rig on the banks of Alaska’s Chena River. By Chris Hunt It was the first brand-new vehicle I ever bought. I showed up at the dealership, pointed to the model in the catalog and simply said, “Order it.” Since that time, it’s been from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean. It’s
by Kirk Deeter I love catching big fish. How can you not? After all, size is the benchmark that is ingrained to matter most to many anglers. My mother doesn’t fish much, but when I call her to say I spent the day fishing, she always asks: “Did you catch any?” Question two… “How big?”
The Kootenai River starts and ends in Canada. It runs 485 miles with about a third of those miles dipping into Idaho and Montana. The Kootenai Tribe lives along the river and once relied on its sturgeon for food. Chuck Cathcart/Idaho Public Television Native white sturgeon in the Kootenai River need some help and researchers
By Chris Hunt There’s a fine line between fishing from a drift boat and fishing from a source of chaos. The first time I rowed a drift boat, I damn near put it into the bridge abutment just above Ashton Dam on the Henry’s Fork while my two passengers—one of whom owned the boat—watched helplessly
As Gray’s Sporting Journal reviewer Chris Camuto wrote back when it was first published, in the February – March 2008 issue, : “There are two books in one here: a superbly written and beautifully illustrated history of the evolution” of the boats “and a how to book on building the traditional drift boat. Fletcher’s purpose in this truly masterful book is as lyric as it is practical.”
Signatories to the Klamath Basin Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement, including Trout Unlimited, held a press briefing on November 12 and said they are in a “sprint to the finish” to achieve the pact’s principal goal of removing four old dams on the Klamath River. The signatories, including Tribal leaders, a representative of the ranching community, and
Editor’s note: The float season has begun. The first oar stroke has likely been taken. We’ve shoved off into the flow of the known and inherently the unknown. As rivers go, the formula is simple. There’s one direction to go. What happens between boat ramps is up to you. With that, we at Trout Unlimited
