Articles

Otterbox joins the cooler game

New Venture line of coolers offers a handful of unique features

by Chad Shmukler - Friday, May 12th, 2017

Photo: Ansel Watrous

Otterbox, a company best known for its rugged cases for iPhones and other smartphones, announced this week that it is joining the premium cooler fray with its introduction of its new line of Venture coolers. The Venture is only the latest entry into the increasingly crowded injection-molded high-end cooler space, which is mostly filled with poorly disguised (or not disguised at all) knock-offs of existing products from premium cooler pioneer and 800-pound gorilla, YETI.

Survivor

Stop fighting dandelions and embrace them

by Johnny Carrol Sain - Wednesday, May 10th, 2017

Photo: Johnny Carroll Sain

I’ve never had a manicured lawn. I like the hodgepodge of interesting flowers that pop up in my yard starting with the trout lily in late winter to the golden rod that ushers in autumn. Plus, manicured lawns are bad for our rivers and streams and, in many ways, just plain stupid.

Review: Vedavoo Beast Sling Pack

Everything you need and nothing you don't makes Jack a happy angler

by Paul Snyder - Monday, May 8th, 2017

Photo: Yoshinori Nakazawa

Long before I started taking gear into the field with the intention of writing about it, I was pack obsessed. As manufacturers have refined their designs over the last decade or so, advancements in build, comfort, weight and features have often been hard to resist. 10 years or so later, and the packs we anglers get to choose from before we head out to to water are better than they’ve ever been.

Seafood Watch downgrades (some) wild steelhead to "avoid"

Monterey Bay Aquarium's decision is a step in the right direction, but far from enough

by Chad Shmukler - Friday, May 5th, 2017

Photo: Gary Vonherohe

Anglers are a group that seem to need constant reminders of how influential they can be when organized and motivated. Recently announced changes by Seafood Watch, a service provided by the Monterey Bay Aquarium that guides thousands of consumers in their seafood buying decisions, should serve as just such a reminder.

In the belly of the brown

Are brown trout eating too many native, western cutthroat trout?

by Kris Millgate - Thursday, May 4th, 2017

Bradley Stokes, Idaho Department of Fish and Game fisheries intern, analyzes the contents of a brown trout’s belly. Three white fish and some bugs (photo: Kris Millgate).

Long, stringy probes drop down. A loud, gassy generator starts up. The jet boat’s captain applies throttle and the work begins. It’s a frenzied few minutes of fish going belly up while electricity streaming into the water stuns them long enough for quick capture.

One full net after another empties into the tub in the middle of the boat. Spawning rainbows, native cutthroats, pucker-lipped whitefish and predatory browns stewing together in the after shock.