The outside bend.
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Wednesday night ties: year of the rabbit.
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This year, get involved in a good cause.
It’s the beginning of a new year, and I’ve been roped into tying a box of smallmouth bugs for a local conservation nonprofit’s silent auction. Wednesday, the local Trout Unlimited chapter wanted insight on where they could plan a tree planting, or some sort of stream habitat work, to benefit coldwater streams in the state.…
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One bite at a time.
Man, is it tough taking decent photos while chainsawing, between the bar oil and sweat and grime, tucking the phone deep inside my Kevlar jacket so it isn’t dropped somewhere in the woods, pulled out into chilly, damp air to record progress. I apologize in advance. Back last fall, a tornado took out a big…
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What are you doing differently in 2023?
The confetti’s cleaned up, the hangover worn off. Another year will slip by before you know it, so what are you doing differently in 2023? Where will you go? What will you catch? What will you try, that you haven’t tied before?
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Do anglers amount to a conservation challenge?
It’s a provocative thought, penned by Trout Unlimited’s Kirk Deeter in a recent article over at tu.org. Angling pressure was voted the #2 conservation concern of respondents to a poll run by Angling Trade magazine. Deeter’s solution tears at the numbers game- shift techniques, hone different skill sets. From the perspective of conservation, and for…
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Beer. Bonfire. Bowl of hoppin’ john.
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Forest Service launches Great American Outdoors Act Dashboard
You’ll be forgiven if, with all that happened in 2020, you missed passage of the Great American Outdoors Act. The legislation permanently funded the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), which provides matching funds to state, federal, and local governments for the acquisition of parks and easements designed to protect fish, forests, and wildlife. The…
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Looking backward. Looking forward.
Another trip around the sun, another solstice tradition- a big meal, a nice bottle of wine, some time around the fire, welcoming the sun’s return on the shortest day of the year. A little bit pagan, sure- but based off something I can see. Something I can make sense of. Something I can get my…
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Last best streams: year in review.
I’ve been holding back on writing up fishing trips this season, save the monthly trip to the local trout water. I wanted to save something for the cold of winter. It was a good year. Maybe not epic by the definition of some, more back roads and brook trout than monster fish on name-brand streams.…
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The value of wilderness.
When we think of western wilderness, we think big. Big landscapes, big game, mountains and buttes and brawling rivers, broad meadows with elk and moose and bear. We think less often of smaller things, of native fish like Yellowstone cutthroat trout. Each subspecies of cutthroat trout is typically restricted to a few major watersheds, each…
The outside bend. 