Articles

Fire season rages ... in May

Wildfire seasons are starting earlier and lasting longer

by Chris Hunt - Monday, Jun 3rd, 2019

Firefighters, heavy equipment, and aircraft continue to work tirelessly to construct fire breaks in the Slave Lake area of Alberta (photo: Alberta Wildfire).

Late last summer, I drove across parts of British Columbia, Alberta and much of Saskatchewan enroute to La Ronge, where I and a group of friends caught a float plane to a remote North Woods lodge to go fishing for pike.

Review: Simms Essential Gear Bag 90L

A fishing bug-out-bag that’s ready to go whenever — and wherever — you are

by Shane Townsend - Friday, May 31st, 2019

Photo: Shane Townsend

Prepare for the general so you can respond to the specific. That’s the nut of emergency preparedness done right. It’s also a solid guiding principle when it comes to being ready to bug-out for a fishing trip anytime the opportunity arises.

After several months of use, I can say the Simms Essential Gear Bag is built for it.

For my friend Tom Davis

For now they endure, at a place called Eagle Falls

by Tom Davis - Wednesday, May 29th, 2019

Photo: Shawn P. / cc2.0 modified

The letter came out of the clear blue sky.

It was a long time ago, and I’m not going to claim it was one of those the-day-JFK-was-shot events that you retain in perfect memory. But for more than 40 years I’ve been trying to make sense of what lay behind that letter—the needs, the hopes, the desires—and I can’t swear I’m any closer to understanding it now than I ever was.

Review: Simms Bounty Hunter 100 Roller

Luggage that makes it easy to travel with all your fly fishing gear

by Shane Townsend - Tuesday, May 28th, 2019

Photo: Shane Townsend

Americans travel for work. Many of us do anyway. Last year alone, we took some 460 million business trips. Most involved air travel. And, nearly half allowed for what the U.S. Travel Association calls “a leisure component.” That last bit is fodder for hope for my fellow anglers with the fly. It means sometimes we get to fish new water.

Even when my odds of getting out are only one in a million, I now elect the Lloyd Christmas model of optimism:

“So, you’re telling me there’s a chance?”

Way too much of a good thing: Sargassum and the sea

Beach, shore and bay-choking sargassum may be the new normal throughout much of the Caribbean

by Chris Hunt - Friday, May 24th, 2019

Sargassum blankets the sand and near-shore area of a Belizean beach (photo: hat3m).

I was in a bad mood, and for a gringo who’d rented a small house just across the street from the beach in a tiny Mexican fishing village just north of the border with Belize, that’s hard to fathom.

The day before, we’d dealt with a rental car company in Cancun that refused to honor the online bargain I’d found, and we got stuck with a bill that was, to put it kindly, exorbitant. With my rum budget in peril, I figured I’d return the car a week later after leaving as much of the undercarriage as I could on the speed bumps and in the potholes that pocked the road south.