Alaska Gets a New Editor. Facelift Next?

When growing up in southeast Alaska and Seattle, magazines were a staple diet in our house and one of those was the Alaska Sportsman, which printed wonderful stories of adventure, ranging from hunting Dall sheep, moose, brown bears and caribou, to casting for cutthroats, silver salmon and steelhead.

The magazine was based out of Ketchikan, Alaska and was founded in 1935. It sold in 1958 and eventually became Alaska Magazine. For a while, a company called Alaska Northwest Books was located a couple miles from Continue reading

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Book Alaska. Save Bristol Bay

Caught wind of this sweet deal from the Whitefish, Montana-based AlaskaFlyOut.com, which promotes fishing trips in the Great Land, and is heavily opposed to a massive mine in the Bristol Bay drainage.

Through March 10, five percent of revenue from any trip booked with Continue reading

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Suit Filed Against Elwha Hatchery

We just threw out some props to the Seattle, Wash., based Wild Steelhead Coalition and it’s already time to do it again. That’s because they’ve fought hard to salvage the Elwha River, which flows into the Strait of Juan de Fuca and offers one of the best possible steelhead and salmon recovery stories in the history of the world, if  Continue reading

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What’s This Whitetail Score?

I finally shot a big whitetail deer last fall and that head is at the taxidermist right now. A pile of summer sausage, hot sausage, snack sticks and backstrap is in my freezer.

I know a lot of you double up and spend some time in the field chasing deer and other creatures, along with your fishing.  I’m not a big score guy, instead basing the interest and worth of an animal on Continue reading

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Great Moments With Fire, 2

I’ve got a bud up in the Great White North, the Fisherman’s Paradise, Canada you know. He’s a crack shot with a moose rifle, I’m told, and I am personal witness to his skills with a camera.

Geoff Moore lives in Williams Lake, British Columbia, follows Angler’s Tonic, and often shares his images with me. After seeing Continue reading

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Hatchery Steel Get Slapped on Sol Duc

One of the loudest detractors of hatchery-raised steelhead is the Seattle, Wash., based Wild Steelhead Coalition. They take the best biological data and make strong arguments in favor of wild steelhead in Continue reading

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Own A Town on the Yellowstone River

Why just own a house in Paradise when you can own a whole town and be the person who collects the rent?

That’s a question some would-be home buyers might be asking after the town of Pray, Montana just went up for sale for Continue reading

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My Favorite Place to Fish

There are two questions I’m consistently asked, the first being, “Do you know who you look like…” and I always answer, “yes,” before they finish with, “Brett Favre.” The second is, “Where is your favorite place to fish?”

The first time I was asked that question I didn’t know what to say. Too many Continue reading

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Great Moments With Fire

What is is about fire and fishing that seem to go hand in hand. Is it the wine, the whiskey and the beer making us do crazy things. Or is it just the wildness of being outside, living close to nature, with flammable materail in abundance…and nobody telling us not to build that blaze any higher?

I know what a cooking fire is and I know what a good blaze is and I always opt for the latter. In fact, camping and fishing without a good fire Continue reading

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Madison River Debate Hits Bozeman

Montana’s Madison River is the most heavily fished stream in Big Sky Country, but it may not be providing the kind of experience that people desire.

When they look at glossy travel brochures and see a blue ribbon winding through a mostly pristine valley in the middle of nowhere they may expect some solitude. And if they buy a house on the river Continue reading

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