Technically, I’m not on the road yet. But I will be shortly — headed north to fish the Rogue with Dave Roberts.
I try to fish with Dave as often as possible, which — given the pace of my life — means we don’t fish together nearly as much as we should.
When we haven’t been […]

The hugely complex Klamath Basin Restoration Deal was announced just a couple days ago, and already the dissent has been withering.
In one sense, we shouldn’t be surprised; it’s a loaded issue, and any agreement would likely add fuel to the firestorm over the Klamath’s dying salmon runs.
I was willing to chalk up much of […]

Ian & Charity Rutter — who just posted a cool fly fishing the smokies in winter report on their blog — know it’s been a somewhat trying winter at Trout Underground World Headquarters.
Crippled by a succession of colds (well, my own incessant whining about it), I’ve struggled with balky computers, power outages, Satan’s Snowblower, […]

Somebody’s buying a lot of dog beds; Orvis continues funding worthwhile conservation causes with some pretty aggressive matching grant programs (in partnership with the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation)
This one’s aimed at revitalizing the Penobscot River — a river I’ve actually driven over. If that doesn’t lend a dramatic aura to this money raising effort, […]

Per Brandin builds some of fly fishing’s most sought-after bamboo fly rods, and he’s developed a reputation as the industry’s “professor” when it comes to hollowbuilding and rod tapers.
His hollowbuilt quads are exceptional casters, and in fact, his tournament series hollowbuilts have placed and won the accuracy division of several casting contests, shaming high-tech […]

First we found the New Zealand Mud Snail in Lake Shasta; now we’re faced with the news that Zebra mussels — the scourge of the Great Lakes — have been found in a Hollister area reservoir (Hollister’s located south of the San Francisco Bay Area).
Zebra Mussels cover every available surface in very high densities […]

Are we one step closer to seeing the four Klamath Dams removed? Will the Klamath finally escape the decades of environmental degradation that have left its salmon runs teetering on the brink?
Maybe.
After more than two years of behind-closed-doors negotiations between 26 different groups — including Native Americans, irrigators, conservation groups and county, state, and federal […]

As if we needed further proof that fly fishing can be great for the economy, I awoke this morning to learn Citigroup lost $10 billion.
The Underground’s solution to this fiscal crisis is a simple (and requires no additional capital).
Simply send Citigroup’s employees on an extended fly fishing trip, so the mokes can’t lose any […]

Better than 60 miles of the Owens River — dried up when its water was diverted and shipped to south to Los Angeles almost a century ago — has been rewatered for a year, and the results are stunning. From the New York Times:
One of the largest river-restoration projects in the country has sent a […]

I live in a town overrun with backdountry skiers — the kind of folks willing to hike most of the way up the mountain just to ski back down.
In that context, skiing on a barely inclined, snowed-over road isn’t exactly the stuff of high adventure, but when you sweeten the pot with a shot […]

I’m way behind on a lot of things (including book and blog reviews), so I’m going to fire off a couple of blog notices right now.
First, we’ve got the Neil Creek Chronicles — which right now is holding a closeout flea market near-giveaway of some excess equipment.
 
An interesting read — their latest post […]

Every time some developer, timber company, or Axis of Evil member Nestle wants to compromise our rivers and streams, they trot out bullshit economic forecasts and promise a few menial jobs, and outdoorsmen are left sputtering, saying “Yeah, but fishing’s good for our economy, and fish are pretty, and gosh…”
Thankfully, we’re not shooting blanks […]