For all of you who love the Tongass National Forest as much as me, this is a must read for perspective. I was born in the Tongass and spent much of my youth there, and I put myself through college commercial fishing around the Tongass. Today I visit each year to fish salmon and trout, and I want that opportunity to be there for my girls, too. Check it out. Must read in my opinion. Continue reading
Must Read: Tongass Rainforest Op-Ed
Posted in Alaska, Conservation, Northwest
Tagged Tongass National Forest, Trout Unlimited
Leave a comment
Video: Norway’s Gaula River Atlantic Salmon
As you know, I’m all fired up about my recent trip to Quebec, Canada’s Gaspe Peninsula and the Bonaventure and Salmon lodges. I had a great experience and am booked in for another round next September. And I have a newfound appreciate for Atlantic salmon. Here’s a little snippet, a work-break length video on Norway’s Gaula River. Enjoy the bright fish.
AC/DC Full Concert Video With Bon Scott
Not much I have to say about this, except that your boss is paying you money to work, so you may think twice about clicking play. Maybe something to do after work so you don’t make the same mistake that my pal, Geoff Moore, and I made—we started watching this thing and couldn’t really stop. Moore says he burned a half-hour of work time. He did better than me.
Here you go: Continue reading
How to Keep Your Polarized Sunglasses Clean
Poached this story from my friends, Kent and Louis, at the Web site, Gink & Gasoline. I’m always struggling to keep my glasses clean, especially at this time of year extending on through winter and into late spring when each day could bring rain, hail, sleet, full on snow. I haven’t tried the wipes they discuss here, but it sounds like they would be the ticket to carry with and use when the weather is blowing or a fish sends the spray your way on release. Give it a read and don’t hesitate to check out the whole Gink site. Good stuff there. GT
My polarized sunglasses are a critical piece Continue reading
Nimmo Bay, British Columbia—where the plugged-in world melts away
Lately I’ve been thinking, How do I rate so high? That’s because I’ve enjoyed three trips of a lifetime in just a couple months, one on Oregon’s Deschutes River for steelhead; another on Quebec’s Gaspe Peninsula for Atlantic salmon; and just recently, from October 4 through 10, flying around in a five-seat Astar helicopter in British Columbia, landing on remote streams to cast flies for coho salmon, sea-run cutthroat trout and dolly varden char. That I also threw for black sea bass and rockfish in the saltwater was icing on the cake.
I got an invite to visit Nimmo Bay Wilderness Adventures last April and after talking to the lodge managers and looking Continue reading
Tying Sea-Run Cutthroat Flies
You probably know by now that I’m a fan of sea-run cutthroat trout, which in my opinion are one of the best fishes you can go after with a fly rod whether casting in fresh or saltwater. They are eager to take flies, fight like crazy, and can reach 25 inches long. Most range between 10 and 17 inches.
I just came back from a great trip to coastal British Columbia and was able to set up a three-weight and catch some great cutthroats on small flies. If I had the trip to do over, I might have spent less time casting for the larger coho salmon and more time in the faster water looking for a 20-plus inch sea-run cutthroat. We caught Continue reading
Thomas Wins Society of Animal Artists Award
Super excited to announce that my father, Fred Thomas, just won the Leonard J. Meiselman Memorial Award for Realistic Painting for a piece that was accepted in the 2012 Society of Animal Artists show. His work, called Rocky Bottom Grayling, depicts a couple of those fish in classic habitat, somewhere in the northern latitudes. And it indicates his interest in that fish. I would say that Fred doesn’t really care about Continue reading
Posted in Conservation, Culture, Industry
Tagged Fred Thomas, Grayling, Society of Animal Artists
1 Comment
Idaho’s Boise River Trout Rebound … and how it could be better
Saw this article from the Idaho Statesman today and thought many of you would be interested to know that the mainstem Boise River is offering as many as 5,000 trout a mile, a 16-fold population increase since 1994.
Biologist Joe Kozfkay says, “Anything over 1,000 to 1,500 trout a mile is pretty good,” adding, “Four thousand per mile is really good.”
If you live in the area or visit Boise, give this a read:
Tens of thousands of trout were trapped in irrigation ditches that were shut off from the Boise River earlier this month.
Fish are left stranded each year in the 45 diversions that bring water to farms and homes and turn the Treasure Valley into a verdant, thriving community.
They range from a few inches long to more than Continue reading
Montana Cleans Up Yellowstone’s Soda Butte Creek
Thought all of you might like to hear this news. Cook City, Montana, of course, is one of fly fishing’s great destinations, offing easy access to the Lamar River, plus Soda Butte Creek, Slough Creek, Trout Lake and many other solid trout waters. I haven’t been to that area for a few years but I used to fish it a lot and the native cutthroats were at once challenging and solid. If you get a chance this coming summer, hit Soda Butte and the rest of them and return to Cook City in the evenings for true western flavor and big steaks. Here’s the story from the Billings Gazette.
Huge strides were made this summer to clean up Soda Butte Creek, once considered the most polluted stream to enter Yellowstone National Park.
Despite the challenges of working in a wet meadow in a high mountain valley, reclamation of the McLaren Mill tailings site just east of Cooke City is a year ahead of schedule and under budget in its first year of moving dirt.
“The thing that makes the job fast is it was dry this year,” said Tom Henderson, of the Montana Department of Environmental Quality’s Remediation Division.
The $20 million project is the most expensive remediation work the state has ever … Read more: http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/yellowstone-river-tributary-benefitting-from-m-project/article_342076a4-58db-5a54-b330-f0c5931625b9.html#ixzz2910S2JFr
Posted in Conservation, Montana
1 Comment
One Bad-Ass Woman—Audrey Sutherland
So, again, this isn’t strict fly fishing, or angling in general, but this is interesting and I thought some of you might enjoy this interview and then, perhaps, by Audrey’s book, Paddling North, which details a kayak trip through some of the best country in the world, Alaska’s panhandle. That’s where I spend a good deal of my life and you can’t take off alone in that country without finding interesting stories to tell. Read the interview, then check out the sample chapter. Buy the book, read it, let me know what you think. Then plan your own adventure, with more fly fishing, of course.
Our good friend Dale Hope took the long drive from Town out to the North Shore of O‘ahu and sat down with Audrey Sutherland. While they sat on her deck (which overlooks the surf break named Jocko’s, named after her son Jock) they talked about Audrey’s new book, Paddling North, just out from Patagonia Books. Here’s that conversation.
DALE HOPE: Tell me about your latest book, Paddling North.
AUDREY SUTHERLAND: It’s a story of a trip I took from Ketchikan around Revillagigedo Island and then across to Prince of Wales Island. I then hitchhiked with my boat deflated and folded up from Hollis to Craig, and then continued on the water to Point Baker and across Sumner Strait. From there I went up to Kake and crossed over to Baranof Island, then on the outside of Chichagof Island. I ended up in Continue reading