For years and years, fly fishing for trout, for me, was a three-period game, not a four-quarter contest. It was hockey, not football (even though I’m not much of a hockey guy). Depending on the season, the time of day or the weather, I’d go to my fly boxes and choose a fly from one
By Toner Mitchell The boy is back in school, the trees around his soccer field the same blazing gold as the cottonwoods alon g the Rio Grande and the flanks of the brown trout bucks I’m hoping to catch there. The aspens, now bare, were equally stunning a month ago when I hiked up in
Photo courtesy Colorado Parks and Wildlife. By Garrett Hanks Extinction, as the saying goes, is forever. Reincarnation? Let’s just say the jury is still out. But the case for rebirth grew significantly stronger over the summer when Colorado Parks and Wildlife confirmed the rediscovery of a native trout species long considered extinct. Thanks to a
A Firehole River brown trout caught on a small soft-hackle. By Chris Hunt For years and years, fly fishing for trout, for me, was a three-period game, not a four-quarter contest. It was hockey, not football (even though I’m not much of a hockey guy). Depending on the season, the time of day or the
Conservation is a marathon, and if ever we needed proof, consider what is playing out in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Dec. 14, 2014 Contact: Chris Wood, (571) 274-0601 Steve Moyer, (703) 284-9406 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Senate passes public lands measures as part of defense spending authorization Sportsmen-driven bills on the way to the White House WASHINGTON, D.C.The Senate today voted to approve a number of important public lands measures that were attached to the federal
Daniel Ritz places a dry fly hoping to catch an Arctic grayling outside of Delta, Alaska. Gaby Mordini photo. Looking back at Daniel Ritz’s 20 species, 12-state Western Native Trout Challenge journey Editor’s note: Daniel Ritz is fishing across the Western United States this summer in an attempt to accomplish the Master Caster class of the Western Native
Dear Members of Congress: The undersigned hunting and fishing businesses are part of a thriving outdoor recreation industry that contributes $887 billion annually to the U.S. economy. We are writing in support of the Antiquities Act of 1906 and to request that it be used responsibly and in a way that supports the continuation of
New Mexico’s leaders propose the state’s first-ever dedicated funding source for conservation
Settlers quickly learned that the mountains of north central New Mexico were more difficult to penetrate than they looked. In these post-logging days, aspens and conifers coat them like suede, concealing cliffs and box canyons around every corner.
On April 26, Pr esident Trump
Dec. 4, 2014 Contact: Chris Wood, (571) 274-0601 Steve Moyer, (703) 284-9406 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Public lands measures attached to defense bill ensure habitat protection, sporting opportunity Locally driven efforts to protect Hermosa Creek, Columbine-Hondo, Pine Forest Range, Valles Caldera near finish line WASHINGTON, D.C.In a major bipartisan breakthrough, the House voted today to approve
In June 2013, researcher and fisheries biologist Ashley Rust and her family were at their family cabin near Creede, Colo., when an afternoon rainstorm—a frequent occurrence in the San Juans at that time of year—worked through the area
I’m trying to improve my health. Still. Again. Since my hip surgery, working out has required considerably more intentionality than I’ve been able to muster over the last decade or so. Pain speaks in different terms; the “your legs are sore because you’re making them stronger” motivation of my younger days has been replaced by
Native Rio Grande cutthroat trout. Contrary to many conservation-minded anglers, I am one who believes that, along with cockroaches, coyotes and Siberian elm trees, brown trout will survive the apocalypse. They possess many of the traits we Americans admire most: they are intelligent, confident, adaptable, rugged, ambitious and breathtakingly handsome. And for the time being
According to one stereotype, a rancher’s commitment to the lifestyle is mainly self-serving. The fences they build are as much to keep the public out as to detain resident wildlife (translation: elk) for the purpose of selling high-dollar hunting opportunities. When not dewatering streams, they restore and stock them for their own fishing pleasure and that of paying anglers in search of lunkers in a crowd-free
Seven of us pierced the Gila wildlands that day, and, despite the best efforts of a clueless pot-shotter, all seven of us made it out without holes in our hides. We never figured out who was shooting or what they were shooting at
Five years of advocacy on behalf of native fish and wild places in the Gila National Forest
Shortly before departing for the nearly 20-hour drive south from my home in Idaho my contact in New Mexico casually mentioned on a call how the snowpack was only 16 percent compared to the average and to keep my fishing expectations low
Maybe the most etherial flight from Denver follows the spine of the Rockies, the high Divide separating east from west that limbos beneath the Gulf of Mexico and winds its way through the isthmus of Panama, into the South America and on down to the curling tusk of Cape Horn.
