Articles

The very cruelest thing

Sometimes you can get so mad about something it festers and becomes part of your brain

by Jon Tobey - Wednesday, Jan 9th, 2019

Photo: Justin Hamblin (edited)

I don’t think of myself as a cruel person. Maybe when I was younger I did some cruel things. You know, mostly saying the most painful thing at the best time to hurt the one you love the most. I tried to get over that. Of course, it’s easy to be kind once they leave and you’re alone. Anyway, I thought I was past all that, but recently I did the very cruelest thing.

The windshield test

When trying to match the hatch, use all the tools at your dispoal

by Chris Hunt - Tuesday, Jan 8th, 2019

A blue winged olive sits solo on a car windshield (photo: B. Eatpharm).

About 20 years ago, I was driving south on Interstate 15 in the dim afterglow of a patented eastern Idaho sunset over the Snake River Plain, just north of the community of Blackfoot. The Snake flows southwest here, right under the freeway, and as I approached the river in the dim light, I heard what I initially thought were raindrops.

Fly for a try

A day on Scotland’s famed River Tay

by Shane Townsend - Friday, Jan 4th, 2019

Photo: Shane Townsend

Scone, Scotland may not be the epicenter of the flyfishing world; but this morning, it feels like it. A hundred thirty miles north, the River Spey runs past the Gordon Estate where in the mid-1800s, the spey cast was born. Twenty miles south sits Loch Leven where – just a generation later – brown trout eggs were gathered and sent to America to build a wild population. And, beneath the rising fog before me slide the waters of the River Tay—from which in 1922, Georgina Ballantine hauled a 64-pound salmon that stands as the record in the British Isles. The clock strikes 9 a.m.

The descent of Ducks Unlimited

How big NGOs get body-snatched, a case study

by Ted Williams - Thursday, Jan 3rd, 2019

Lead-poisoned eagles are often debilitated, weak and non-reactive, exhibiting depressed mentation, open mouth breathing and other symptoms (photo: The Raptor Center, University of Minnesota).

For an understanding of what happens to big NGOs when they become dependent on rich donors, both private and corporate, consult the last paragraph of George Orwell's "Animal Farm": "Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

The 10 most read stories of 2018

Reader favorites from the past year

by Chad Shmukler - Monday, Dec 31st, 2018

Photo: Chad Shmukler

Each December, as we look back on the most popular stories of the year, we're reminded of a couple of facts that never come as much of a surprise. Fly anglers like to read about gear. They also like to read about how to become better fly anglers. And so, each year, stories about new fishing tools—rods, reels, boots, waders and what have you—and how to best leverage those tools and others to find more success when on the water invariably dominate our annual list of reader favorites.