Image(s) of The Week

Posted on December 4, 2015 by Greg Thomas

Spent some time in eastern Idaho this past summer as part of a Patagonia press junket that explained the merits of its new waders (more on that soon), and the advantages of tenkara rods for some situations.

Also got out on the water a bit with my friend Geoff Mueller, who works for the Drake magazine. I know, I know, you think magazine editors butt heads, and sometimes we do for good reason, but Mueller and I have known each other for a long time and when we spend time on the water it’s like hanging out with a like-minded bud. And he’s a good fisherman, which helps with my photo opps. So here are a few shots from the east Idaho trip, including a few images from a secret creek that I plan on Continue reading →

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Alaska’s Marine Resources Not Affected by Fukishima

Posted on December 2, 2015 by Greg Thomas

This is great news for those of us who treasure Alaska’s salmon, equally for its table quality and fighting ability. That goes for halibut, blacked, lingcod, and other species, too. This report tells us that it’s safe to serve Alaska’s seafood to our friends and families, which is exactly what I plan to do this holiday season. If you want to throw a tasty Continue reading →

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Montana Whitetail Hunting With Daughters

Posted on November 24, 2015 by Greg Thomas

Finally, this boy found some time to get into the field. And the only way I did that was by playing hardball with my girls. Did they want to spend the weekend hunting? No way. They wanted playdates and sleepovers and all the things Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Hunting, Montana | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

You Write The Caption—9

Posted on November 19, 2015 by Greg Thomas

This probably isn’t something I would send the kids out to do. Yes, you won’t hear me shouting, “Go play in the fire!” But when someone of reasonable age decides that they have enough moonshine in them to pull off the feat, hey, who am I to thwart good fun? So here’s a shot from the banks of Idaho’s Salmon River, on a very cold night circa 2011. You write the caption.

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Twenty Four Hours for Idaho Steelhead

Posted on November 16, 2015 by Greg Thomas

Giving yourself 24 hours to catch a western steelhead isn’t exactly stacking the odds in your favor. Especially when you spend seven of those driving and eight sleeping. But that’s what I did this weekend, leaving for Idaho after coaching a girls basketball game on Saturday. Had a good nights sleep in a camper and hit the water at 8 AM and spent the entire morning trying to drag chrome out of a great run. No go. And it didn’t help that I kept getting low-holed by jerkers.

Switched locations around noon and fished some water that looked semi-appealing, but definitely not the kind of water I’m used to finding fish in. It was a little shallower and faster than Continue reading →

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Patagonia Say’s “Eat This!” Wild salmon and soup that is.

Posted on November 13, 2015 by Greg Thomas

After conquering the outdoor apparel market and providing fly fishers with some of the best wet-weather clothing on the planet, Patagonia and its founder, tenkara junkie Yvon Chouinard, are now on a mission to change the way we eat.

Their food program is called Patagonia Provisions and the sustainable, high- Continue reading →

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Toyo’s MT (Maximum Traction) Tires and High Country Cutthroats

Posted on November 12, 2015 by Greg Thomas

Sometimes the waters close to home are hardest to reach, often because we just push them aside and say, I can fish it another day, other times because, well, you just can’t get to them.

That’s the case with this little mountain lake I’ve wanted to fish for years. Rumors you know. Big cutthroats. Nobody fishing it. Beautiful setting. I tried twice. Both times my truck didn’t have enough clearance to negotiate what amounted to, basically, a jeep trail. I was sure to get high-centered so I backed down, turned around, and headed to the lowlands to fish streams.

But in September I put a leveling kit on the Ford and got my hands on some mega-beast Toyo Maximum Traction tires and planned a new assault. These tires are aggressive, the kind of treads you want if you are really getting after it, trying to reach terrain Continue reading →

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Last Chance for Fall Caddis

Posted on October 21, 2015 by Greg Thomas

It’s getting pretty late in the game now for October caddis, but you may still find some flying around in western Montana and northern Idaho. If you do, don’t worry about matching them too specifically. In fact, general representations should work well, i.e. oversized elk-hair caddis and stimulators. If you find some picky fish, dig a little deeper and try to turn up a Continue reading →

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Fly Rod & Reel Fall Issue

Posted on October 9, 2015 by Greg Thomas

If you haven’t seen it yet, hit your favorite newsstand and pick up a copy of the new fall issue of Fly Rod & Reel. We busted our tails putting this one together and we have a long list of great contributors who appear in its pages, a who’s who of fly fishing writers, photographers and artists—John Gierach, Ted Leeson, Kirk Deeter, AD Maddox, Fred Thomas, Dave Hughes, Zach Matthews, Don Thomas, Pat Ford, Seth Norman, Ted Williams, Tosh Brown, David Skok, Bob White and Dana Sturn.

And no matter your interests, I think you’ll find some compelling reads in this one. For instance, I penned a piece on the “misery” of snook fishing off Florida’s sand beaches; Continue reading →

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GoPro Session Hero 4

Posted on October 8, 2015 by Greg Thomas

You know what’s not fair in life? I’ll tell you. I don’t own a GoPro camera. And that’s become even more of an issue since GoPro introduced the Session, a super compact amazing piece of machinery that makes documenting a fishing trip a lot easier than it used to be. Really, these cameras are amazing and I know that even though I’ve only been able use one for a short time. That was when I fished the Yukon Territory, for pike and lake trout, and my friend stuck the camera in the water without having secured the protective housing around it. Can you say ruined the first time he’d used it? Not a good thing, either, when you’re a two hour float-plane ride from civilization. Fortunately we had my Continue reading →

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