Articles

An Alaskan graphite mine races towards an unprecedented approval, but at what cost?

Despite posing serious threats to salmon streams and tribal hunting grounds, the project is being expedited towards approval without yet including legally required input from Inupiaq communities
The Kigluaik Mountains in Alaska (photo: Cagan Hakki Sekercioglu / Getty Images).

The Kigluaik Mountains stretch across the Seward Peninsula of western Alaska like a spine, their jagged ridges keeping a record of time. The Inupiaq have long read these ridges and valleys as a living story: Fire and fracture have marked the rock, and glaciers’ slow grind polished it. The talus slopes gleam in the low fall sun, meltwater from the snowfields spilling into streams that thread across the map of caribou trails on the tundra below.

Photo: Robert Annis.

When I planned the trip earlier in the year, I was told the late May week I’d booked was typically in the heart of the annual striped-bass run. I heard stories of anglers hooking a hen and when they stuck the net into the water, two bucks jumped in after her. As the old adage goes, I was to expect so many fish feeding topwater that I’d be able to walk across the river and not get my boots wet. It wasn’t unusual to put more than 100 stripers in your boat, they said.

Biologists use DNA to identify two 'new' species of black bass in the South

Anglers have likely been fishing for these "new" species for generations
Bartram's Bass (photo: UGA).

To the average interested trout angler, the last half century of taxonomic gymnastics in identifying distinct subspecies of cutthroat trout in what’s left of their native ranges has been mind-boggling. When I was a kid, the mere presence of “natives” swimming in some of the tiniest mountain creeks on the slopes of the Colorado Rockies was a closely held secret.

New fly fishing gear: September 2025

What's new on the water this month
Photo: Farbank Enterprises.

This month's roundup of new fly fishing gear is a rod- and reel-heavy collection. With the exception of one fall and winter apparel piece, all of this month's highlighted introductions are new rod or reel offerings. And, with new freshwater, saltwater, and two-hand rods hitting shop shelves, almost every fly angler looking for additions to their quiver will have something to ponder.

Here's a look at what's new on the water this September.

Redington intros new Predator SALT fly rod lineup

The Bainbridge Island rodmaker's flagship big game rod gets reborn as a saltwater stick
Photo: Farbank Enterprises.

A popular wallet-friendly fly rod is getting a salty makeover, a savvy move by long-time rod-maker Redington, as it aims to improve its footprint on the flats. New this month is the company's new Predator SALT, an armored version of the company’s appreciable Predator line of “big-fish” fly rods.

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