Articles

October brook trout

The beauty of even the most diminutive brookies eclipses all others

by Chris Hunt - Saturday, Oct 5th, 2024

Photo: Rueben Browning.

Some years ago, while working as a newspaper journalist in the mountains of Colorado, I remember having an epiphany that I couldn’t help but include in a piece I did for the paper on fall fly fishing. At the time, we were enjoying a really nice Indian summer — we had a blustery start to September and then, as things are prone to do in the southern Rockies, those perfectly blue and cloudless skies came back, along with warm temperatures and that flawless golden hue that graces the aspens and the cottonwoods of the West every autumn.

Beloved author John Gierach passes away at 78

Gierach was one of fly fishing's most iconic voices

by Hatch Magazine - Friday, Oct 4th, 2024

John Gierach signing the guest book at John Voelker's cabin (photo: Tim Schulz).

Iconic storyteller and self-described trout bum John Gierach died on Thursday, Oct. 3, after suffering a massive heart attack. His passing was first reported in a Facebook post by Gierach’s long-time friend, AK Best.

Due to alarming king salmon bycatch, feds close Alaskan pollock trawl fishery

Excessively high bycatch numbers continue to challenge the idea that trawl fisheries are sustainable

by Chris Hunt - Wednesday, Oct 2nd, 2024

Chinook salmon (photo: USFWS).

The notion that Alaskan pollock are a sustainably caught fish took a mighty blow last week when the National Marine Fisheries Service closed the Gulf of Alaska pollock trawl fishery after a pair of midwater trawlers reported the bycatch of 2,000 increasingly rare Chinook salmon in a single day.

Protecting California's Medicine Lake Highlands

Nestled within three national forests, these water-rich, geologically unique lands demand greater protections

by Tom Hazelton - Tuesday, Oct 1st, 2024

Mt. Shasta looms over the Pit and Fall Rivers (photo: Kimberley Hasselbrink).

The first time I saw a spring was the first time I fished with my friend Erick Johnson. He brought me to his favorite bend on a famous northern Michigan river, where he showed me a muddy depression covered in pine needles. He swept them aside to reveal a small dark pool of cold, clear water, watercress-framed, into which he sank a pair of stubby Coors bottles. Later, after a decent spinnerfall and a few good trout at last light, we drank those numbingly-cold beers on the bank, listening to the fish, still rising in the dark.

Behind the scenes with G. Loomis

The Woodland, WA rodmaker hopes its new video series will help customers "feel connected"

by Chris Hunt - Friday, Sep 27th, 2024

Photo: Darcy Bacha.

A new five-part video series from G. Loomis aims to show the company’s loyal customers how it crafts its fishing rods and how the process is worthy of the Loomis tagline, “Handcrafted in Woodland, Washington.” The series, which launched earlier this month, offers viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the G. Loomis brand and the intricate work that goes into making some of the most reputable fly rods in the industry. The idea, says, G. Loomis Creative Director Red Kulper, is to help the legacy rodmaker’s customers “feel connected” to the rods they use when they hit the water.