I’ve had the opportunity to fish with Kara Armano a couple times and she’s the real deal—no tying this gal’s flies on for her. If you’re interested in bonefish and having a great time, with lots of laughs and even a little good tempered ridicule you should make the start of your new year something special and sign up for this class. Good eats, great bar time, and bonefish after bonefish. While you’re there, learning all there is to know about bones, you can also question Armano on gear and other species, such as trout and redfish. She lives in Colorado and fishes trout often. And she works for Backbone Media, and handles the Sage, Redington and fishpond accounts. So, she knows gear and gets to fish all over the place for Continue reading
Kara Armano’s Bonefish School at Andros South
Irrigation Release into Idaho’s Big Wood River May Devastate Fishery
When I lived in Sun Valley, for six years in the mid-1990s and the early 2000s, I used to wander down to the Big Wood River below Magic Reservoir and fish for rising rainbows and streamer-chowing browns. We caught some nice rainbows and couple browns that stretched to 24 or 25 inches, all in a very cool desert canyon setting. So, the report you’re about to read is a real bummer, as the Big Wood Canal Co. is set to rip up the fishery once again. And, apparently, to fish the river now would be not safe. So give this a read before you head for the lower Big Wood anytime soon. Continue reading
Posted in Conservation, Idaho, Northern Rockies
Tagged Big Wood Canal Co., Big Wood River, Ketchum, Magic Reservoir
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Same Fish on Oregon’s Deschutes River
Hey, I’m not saying this is the same fish, but Peter Crow, marketing director for Smith and Suncloud glasses, and I had some fun yesterday as I was drumming up support for Angler’s Tonic in 2013. I mentioned that I fished the Deschutes River’s lower canyon in August and took some nice fish. Then I e-mailed Crow an image of the best fish, while we were talking on the phone. He got the e-mail and said, “Where’d you catch that one because Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Industry, Northwest, Oregon, Uncategorized
Tagged Deshutes River, Oregon, Smith
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Traveling Light with Gary Arndt
As I travel more often, and live in a smallish house, I’m finding that less may be more. But a guy who truly knows that is a Gary Arndt, who I met in San Francisco last April. He sold his house in Minneapolis and has been kicking it across the world and blogging about it for five years. He lives out of two bags and survives better than most of us. For all of us gearheads, who think we need everything to get by on a three-day weekend, let alone a two-week death march to some hinterland like Russia, this might be an eye-opener and a manifesto on how to pack for your next adventure.
From Gary Arndt’s Everything Everywhere.com
Despite 5 years of traveling around the world I think I am still fundamentally the same person I was before I started traveling. I’m kind of a smart ass and a bit cantankerous. There hasn’t been any sort of spiritual epiphany which has lead to a brand new Gary. That being said, my attitude towards some things have changed. In particular, my attitude towards stuff. Before I started traveling, you could say I lived a good life. I had a nice house on a lake outside of Minneapolis. It was 3,000 ft² (278 m²) and had all the stuff that a 20-30 something bachelor would want: I had a bitchin READ MORE
Seattle Eats
As many of you know, I grew up in Seattle and hold it close to my core. In those days, when traffic wasn’t bad and Efren Herrera was catching fake field goal passes for touchdowns, you couldn’t find a better place to live. I still like the place because all of my family is there and I have a blast each time I visit. A bonus is that the food scene in Seattle is as good as anywhere so I’ll never forgive Anthony Bourdain for not including Seattle in his Pacific Northwest segment. You couldn’t eat your way through that town in a lifetime.
Many of you pass through Seattle on your way to Alaska or British Columbia, Hawaii or beyond, and I thought this article, poached from Seattle Met Magazine, might come in handy during your layover. If you live in Seattle, you probably already know about these places, but it doesn’t hurt to get a reminder.
Here’s the segment on Dick’s Drive-in where Continue reading
Groups Sue to Stop Hatchery Salmon on Oregon’s Sandy River
Two wild fish advocacy groups have gone back to federal court in Portland to stop releases of juvenile salmon and steelhead from the Sandy Hatchery.
In filing the lawsuit, the Native Fish Society and McKenzie Fly Fishers rejected a state settlement offer that would have reduced releases of two species of hatchery salmon and eliminated all spring chinook releases by 2024 if they couldn’t be kept out of wild salmon spawning areas.
The groups contend the hatchery operation violates the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. The suit also says the recent federal approval of hatchery operations is READ MORE
More Groups Join Montana Stream Access Fight
Changes to stream access laws are the greatest threat to anglers in Montana who have had the right to access rivers and streams from bridges. However, landowners are making multiple pushes to get that law erased so that anglers could only access the water from fishing access sites or through private land with permission (good luck).
Here is an update on the access headaches in Montana, right from the epicenter in Madison County. If there’s an opportunity to chime in, do so, because this law would influence access across the state. We’ve always had the right to access public water and we shouldn’t let a few knothead, Continue reading
Posted in Conservation, Industry, Montana, Northern Rockies
Tagged Madison County, Stream Access
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Steelhead Exhibit at the Burke Museum, Seattle
I wish I’d been made aware of this exhibit before they set it up so I could have had my Father, Fred, contribute his work, and so I could have contributed an image or two of mine. The Burke is a wonderful museum that I started visiting when I was eight or nine years old, during my father’s solo exhibits there. This steelhead exhibit would be a great one for you to go to, whether you live in Seattle or the surrounding area or care to do a little art with your traveling. All for a great reason, too: The Wild Steelhead Coalition is made up of a bunch of like-minded bad-asses who Continue reading
Posted in Conservation, Culture, Industry, Northwest, Washington
Tagged Save Wild Steelhead, Steelhead, WIld Steelhead Coalition
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While I’m on the brag about my father rant (see the Society of Animal Artists award post below) I thought I should let you know that Fred was selected to paint the Washington Waterfowl stamp for 2012. The scene is of black brant, likely pictured in the mind of my father along the Puget Sound shoreline between Edmonds and Richmond Beach. That’s where he and I used to walk and check out all the shorebirds and waterfowl, including those brant. Anyone who’s interested in a limited edition print of this painting should contact Fred direct. Visit his Web site and reach him from there. Contact Fred HERE
Posted in Conservation, Culture, Northwest, Uncategorized
Tagged Fred Thomas art, Puget Sound
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Costa Debuts the GeoFish Project
You may be 20 and single. You may be 45 and the father of two. You may be 70 with grandkids. No matter how old you might be, and whether you could ever place yourself in a situation like you are about to view, Costa’s new GeoFish project, and it’s accompanying film on a crazy rush through Mexico, is well worth checking out. That’s because we all love to fish. And we relish adventure. And we would all love to find undiscovered fish and fisheries. But many of us, because of our obligations in life, can’t take a plunge to find it. That’s where Costa, GeoFish and its crew of hard-core fish bums—formerly the AEG crew—take over. They actually put their lives on the line and endure all kinds of discomforts and danger to fish waters most of us can only dream of. I got to talk to the boys in Reno in August and they are a gung-ho crew. They like to live large and on the edge, life never getting stale, nor the fish they pursue. You can own this DVD now and my suggestion is this—do it! This is great adventure action. Check out the trailer here: