Celebrating a banner year for Mendocino coho salmon
Last year, CCC coho salmon returns surged to their highest numbers since extensive monitoring began!
Search results for “great lakes”
Spring Fishing in the Driftless – dry flies can be the cream of the crop!
March Browns, BWOs, Mother’s Day Caddis, oh my! Although nymphing and streamer fishing can produce great results in the spring in the Driftless area, the season can also offer surprisingly good dry fly fishing action. My personal favorite is still hopper season since fewer folks are out on the water, but the number of bugs on the…
Skills: Counter-wrapping intelligence
Fly tying is always an exercise in patience, at least for me. While I enjoy tying flies, I’m good for about a half-dozen at a time. Then I get antsy. So, the less time I spend at the vise and the more time I spend actually fishing the flies I tie is important to me.…
Fly tying: Down to the wire
I started using wire in my fly tying about a decade ago, and today, I’m not sure what I’d do without it. It’s a versatile tying material that do anything from add weight to simple sparkle, or to toughen up a fly to make it last longer. I’ve even started using really thin wire on…
Fly fishing lifestyle gear for anglers
So, the shopping season is already upon us. STAY TUNED for a comprehensive gift guide from the editors and field testers of TU, that will be coming your way in Trout Magazine, as well as in a digital format, in the very near future. For starters, however, I have to recommend my friend Mark Koenig’s…
Virtual outdoor show? It’s a real thing
The North American Sportsman Show is a free, online “exposition” featuring just about anything you might find at an actual sportsman’s show, minus the convention center corn dogs and the $20 parking bill. It is “show season” after all, with expos, fly tying shows, fishing shows, boat shows, RV shows and the like hitting expo…
Caption contest: Write the best one, win a fly box
Write a funny caption for this photo, win an heirloom TU fly box. Please check out the next issue of TROUT magazine, which should be arriving in your mailboxes any day now. We’re proud, as always, of our mix of essays, from the likes of John Gierach and Chris Camuto. We have a neat photo…
Skills: Tying the uni knot
We have lots of options for tying tippets to flies, and various knots work better for different situations. But, for a good, strong, universal knot, it’s tough to beat the uni knot. Video of How to Tie a Uni Knot Above, Tim Flagler demonstrates how to tie the uni knot. It’s a simple process and,…
TU photography featured in ‘This is Fly’
The photography of Trout Unlimited’s Josh Duplechian is featured the latest edition of This is Fly, an online fly-fishing magazine. Josh is a gifted photographer, and I’ve known him for well over 15 years—he and I worked together at the Idaho State Journal in Pocatello before we both escaped the newspaper industry and came to…
Fly tying: Size 22 Parachute Adams
Small flies intimidate me. I’ve essentially relegated the tying of all flies smaller than size 18 in my fly box to the experts. But I might have to take the plunge after watching Tim Flager tie a size 22 Parachute Adams below. Video of Parachute Adams Size 22 The Adams and its many variants might…
Chapter Meetings
Chapter Meetings to Build Community For the last 60 years, TU’s chapters have followed a membership meeting model that has served us well. That’s a part of our culture and community we don’t want to change, but it’s also a great place to start evolving our model to connect with more members and the community…
Flashback Pheasant Tail nymph
The venerable Pheasant Tail nymph is a fly box staple, and there’s a reason for that. It works. And it’s not the most onerous fly to tie, either, as demonstrated below by Matt Callies of Loon Outdoors, who cranks one out in just a few minutes. These great little nymphs also lend some versatility to…
Climate Change Resources
Customizable Power Point decks to download General Resources From Citizens’ Climate Lobby
Video spotlight: Convergence, the full film
TU and a number of conservation and fly-fishing industry entities helped Conservation Hawks with its newest film, Convergence, on the importance of enlisting anglers in the effort to combat climate change, both on the ground and in the halls of government. We highlighted the trailer earlier this year—the film is featured in the Fly Fishing…
Video spotlight: The Big Eat
There’s some great video footage out there of fish hitting flies. Violent rises to subtle sips, trout are the champions of the “take,” although I’ve seen some pike attacks that make me wonder if there’s a video yet to be shot featuring these voracious predators. The advent of drone videography, of course, has taken fly-fishing…
Video spotlight: National Monuments and Sportsmen
When the Trump administration indicated it would review all national monuments for size, scope and appopriateness earlier this year, one group of American hailing from all points on the political spectrum stood up and denounced the idea. That group? Sportsmen and women. We understand that national monuments that set aside land to protect everything from…
Video spotlight: New England Mountain Fly Fishing
Being a western guy with roots in the Rockies, my angling experience in the mountains of New England is pretty limited. I did spend a great afternoon several years ago chasing fat rainbows in Connectictut’s upper Farmington River before being chased away by a rainstorm, and I got to fish some Adirondack streams for native…
Gear tip: Clean your line
Want to cast better? Maybe a little further, maybe a little straighter? Who doesn’t? I know I need work. Practice is the key, of course. And before you shell out the bucks for a spiffy new fast-action fly rod, take 10 minutes to do the one thing that will improve the cast you have, with…
Video spotlight: Once You Pop, You Can’t Stop
Who doesn’t like catching fish on top? With poppers, no less. Several years back, while fishing with a great group of guys on Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, I was introduced to the fact that pink salmon—yes, pink salmon—will hit poppers just as they’re reporting for spawning duty from the saltwater. We spent one glorious afternoon…
Boat books: Boats and Boating in the Adirondacks
The book is as much about boat design as it is about the Adirondacks and the history of the people and landscape that were both shaped by the boats themselves and how the landscape shaped the boats for pleasure and work.