Reading this will make you feel the need…for a drink
When I was a kid I used to watch sports every second I could steal away from school, and when I wasn’t actually playing sports. I’d sit and watch the Sonics and then head across the street, to Richmond Beach Park, to shoot hoops, take on all-comers and dream Continue reading
Moscow Mule
I’m sitting in the Melrose Bar a couple weeks ago. It’s 8 a.m. and all of a sudden some copper mug rocks off its post and clanks on the floor. My friend grabs his head and says “Ouch.” He’s staring into the maw of a bloody Mary.
I ask the barmaid, “What’s that mug for?” And she replies, “Moscow mule.” Say what? Continue reading
Burma Madnes
It had to happen. Over the past 20 years I’ve driven somewhere in the neighborhood of 500,000 miles, many of them in bad weather over tricky roads and I’d never gone off the side…until Saturday.
That’s when I took the plunge off Burma Road, which Continue reading
All Day Capacity
I spent last winter wandering around western Washington with this pack on my back, casting to sea-run cutthroats and chasing steelhead on big rivers.
At first I was ready to dismiss the pack as a burden, but Continue reading
Brownzillas of the Yellowstone
If you’ve had your head in the sand you may not have seen what recently came out of the Yellowstone River— a massive 27-inch brown. The fish was taken on a white sculpin, which is a pattern and a color that takes most of the Yellowstone’s Continue reading
Some of the most progressive and important conservation work in the country is going on right out my backdoor in Montana’s Madison Valley, courtesy of a landowner who loves fish and wildlife, a person who put together a significant team to save his wetands. And in the process, he just may bolster the Madison River’s trout Continue reading
Screaming Trees
While Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Alice and Chains placed a stranglehold on the 1990s Seattle rock scene, another band, the Screaming Trees, was quietly jostling for position and pumping out some awesome tunes under the radar.
Some of my music-minded friends think the Trees Continue reading
A breathe through your nose eventSouthwest Montana’s big-name streams are best known for their massive salmonfly hatch, an event that brings large trout to the surface and anglers to the rivers in droves.
If you choose to fish Continue reading
Clear, concise, hatch-matching knowledge
We’re moving into big-time hatch season in the northern Rockies and that means anglers could soon be perplexed by emergences of Baetis, Callibaetis, caddis and pale morning duns. After that it’s the salmonfly parade, along with smatterings of golden stones, yellow sallies, green and brown drakes, and then Tricos, red quills, Continue reading
Crazy ice every winter.
Each year, typically in November, the Madison River backs up with ice and overflows its banks, the river creating new channels and winding through farm fields. In the Continue reading