All eyes are cast on Henry Paulson, CEO of Goldman Sachs and chairman of the board of directors of the Nature Conservancy, who will likely be the new Secretary of the Treasury in the U.S. As supporter of the Kyoto treaty to limit greenhoues gas emissions -- which the Bush administration does not support -- Paulson has been criticized by pro-business political action groups. At the same time, the Nature Conservancy is considered by some environmentalists to be too closely tied to business interests and government, and too quick to sell out to development. It is possible Paulson will be too consumed by U.S.-China economic relations to continue work on environmental tasks, but then again being CEO of Goldman Sachs, a firm famous for demands on its employees, didn't keep him from thinking about conservation issues. Here's a fairly even-handed treatment by Ron Hutcheson and Kevin Hall in the Miami Herald.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 5:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Cabela's is the 800-pound gorilla in catalog marketing to sportsmen, with more than 3 times the number of buyers as second-place REI, according to this report by Sherry Chiger on MultichannelMerchant.com.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 5:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The National Wildlife Federation is about to release a study showing the effects of global warming on coastal Florida and its fish, and the picture isn't pretty. Next to Louisiana, Florida is the state most vulnerable to small rises in sea level, and the study shows that even a 15-inch increase in sea level would result in some pretty dramatic changes: half the upper Keys under water, and 10 to 35 percent of some coastal areas under water. "The computer-modeling analysis, commissioned by the National Wildlife Federation and Florida Wildlife Federation, predicts that about 90 percent of Florida Bay's flats would be inundated in two decades, with only 1 percent remaining by 2100." Curtis Morgan in the Miami Herald.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 5:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Fulling Mill recently chose the Upper Connecticut River Valley in New Hampshire for the location of its first U.S. distributorship. CFO Raymond Hickey explains: "'Something about the place reminded us of England — the old mill buildings typical of many northern English towns and, for businessmen in a lifestyle industry, trout and bass fishing rivers nearby meant we had to pull over and take a good look.'" Pat Hammond in the New Hampshire Union Leader.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 5:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the past year-and-a-half fly fishing blogs have been hatching so fast they are starting to clog the windshield wipers. As with any blogworthy topic, most authors get by with intense navel-staring (lint flies) and self-chumming, but once in a while folks deliver something unique, as in the case with Tom Chandler's Trout Underground. What's good about Chandler's site? Writing, mostly. Tom is a wordsmith by trade and by all appearances an intense angler. Mostly he spins thought and humor around recent trips to the wild, but lately he's been taking time to parse other fly fishing blogs for worthwhile content.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"What's a biot?" you may ask. Well, Ben Spinks has taken the time to deliver a thorough explanation, along with a recipe for tying an attractive no-hackle biot emerger. "Biots are the sturdy barbs found along the back edge of this feather. The narrow set of barbs in other words. All birds have biots, they are compulsory, flight simply couldn't happen without them." On SexyLoops.com.

Here's another example of biots used in a pattern, Rene Harrop's CDC Biot Parachute. On Danica.com.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 5:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I usually hear a pause on the other end of the line when I tell folks that my favorite all-around bonefish rod is a nine-weight. There are plenty of anglers who can't afford more than one or two saltwater rods, but often the advice they get from a fly shop is to make a six- or seven-weight one of those rods (usually a ten-weight is the other). I'm guessing the reason is that the person giving advice fishes only in winds less than 10 knots.

As Joe Doggett explains, larger rods help defeat the wind, which in some places -- like Los Roques -- is ever-present and powerful. "A vivid memory was meeting A.J. McClane on a bonefish trip to Deep Water Cay in the Bahamas during the early '80s. McClain was one of the pioneers of modern fly fishing, a world-class talent. I watched as he strung up a 10-weight rod. I waggled my 8-weight and commented on his manly tackle." In the Houston Chronicle.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 5:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Personally I'm guessing it won't be long before we can watch a television show about fly fishing for silver salmon in Alaska, press the "Buy" button after noticing a particularly clever vest configuration or fetching conehead pattern, and have the show pause while we place our bids on EBay. (A mini-window will allow us to monitor bids while we watch the rest of the show.) According to Joyzelle Davis in the Rocky Mountain News, Ted Turner has been thinking along those lines for quite some time. "Dish also carries all eight of Turner's interactive-TV channels, which meld product placements and original programming. Viewers watch shows like adventure fishing program Wild on the Fly that don't seem like ads, but viewers can click their remote to find out more about the fishing rods and gear."

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"It was one of those aggressive spring days, as bright as a flash bulb, without the mercy of a single cloud in any direction. A lousy day for stream fishing. Wild trout respond to direct sunlight the way an escaped convict reacts to a searchlight." Ed Culhane talks about stream researcher Bob Hunt and the reasons why careful wild trout habitat management is the only way to go. In the Green Bay Press-Gazette.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Proof that search engines are not perfect, and that some of fly fishing's more insightful comments are made by people who can't write. LiveArticles.org published their treatise on fly fishing, which pretty much tells you everything you need to know: "There is something special about this type of thing that not everyone will enjoy."

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We're pretty excited about seeing the next film from the Angling Exploration Group. After reviewing "The Trout Bum Diaries: Volume I, Patagonia," we learned from Ryan Davey that they had finished filming Volume II, which is set in New Zealand. Now we notice on the AEG site that they've posted a whole bunch of great still shots from that trip, taken by Mike Greener. Talking about the new film, Davey said, "It’ll be a much more in-depth look into the Life and Times of a trout bum and a lot more character development." We can't wait.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ken Allen observes our tendency to think that the fish of yore -- fish our grandfathers seemed to luck into with regularity -- were monsters of proportion and strength. In fact, his investigation uncovers, sometimes stocked fish grow much larger than wild fish, especially in the case of Maine's landlocked salmon. "Later, I wish we had measured and weighed both salmon with my Zebco De-Liar before releasing them, but the fights had lasted so long our immediate concern began and ended with getting the fragile salmon off the barb-less hooks." On MaineToday.com.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Opponents of Vermont's idea to stock the Batten Kill with 1000 rainbow trout as part of its plan for the river's recovery point out that the river and its tributaries are one of only five "wild trout fisheries" in the state. Even though rainbows were reportedly introduced in the 1950s and failed to reproduce, T.U.'s Eric Rickstad and others think that the risk of rainbows endangering brook and brown trout populations is too great. Neal Goswami in the Bennington (Vermot) Banner. (Link via Moldy Chum.)

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Every year at the end of runoff, all sides in the dispute over access to some of Montana's best trout fishing begin playing their cards. Last year, for example, the charitable branch of media giant Cox declared "no more money for Montana" after the family was named in legal disputes over access to river frontage on the Ruby. This after a judge labeled the Mitchell Slough -- a favorite fishing stream of locals and out-of-staters that also happened to run through land owned by Huey Lewis and Charles Schwab -- a non-natural body of water and therefore not protected by the state's 1985 stream access law. As John Adams notes in the Missoula Independent, "stream access debates are becoming as perennial as the lilac bloom."

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I know a guide who says he can smell tarpon. Apparently certain grandmothers and their panfish-hunting offspring can also smell bream beds and use their olfactory receptors to great benefit. "'Granny would patiently explain that she had 'smelled the beds.' When pressed to elaborate, she would say that she couldn’t describe the scent, but that 'you’ll know it when you smell it.' To an adolescent boy, that sounded like what I’d heard about true love."

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 5:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Somewhere in the middle of the afternoon, as the breeze rises off the river, he lifts his canoe onto the pickup and drives it into the woods, where he hauls it down the riverbank and, in his own unorthodox technique, paddles out onto the Penobscot, standing up. No small athletic feat in a canoe." That's Tony Chamberlain writing about Maine fly fishing and hunting guide Wiggie Robinson, who just happens to be 84 years old. In the Boston Globe.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 5:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's an illustrated discussion of the various influences on fish location and behavior in the surf, focusing on rip currents or "out-sucks" that fish tend to use as ambush spots. From the StripersOnline.com bulletin board. (Thanks to reader Jack Rooney for this link.)

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Before the "rubber hatch" at 10 AM, when the entire student body of Boise State University begins its daily water ritual, fly fishing the Boise River in downtown Boise can be downright phenomenal. Bob Borgwat offers this excellent guide on Rocky Mountain Game & Fish magazine.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 4:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Roger Wheaton gives a thorough look at insect species, patterns to match and riverine hatch events in this piece on Colorado's bugs of 2006. Of course this year is like most others, and the bugs Wheaton talks about are common all over the Rocky Mountain west and even into eastern parts of the country. "A four-year lifespan makes several species of stoneflies available all year, making these meaty morsels a major part of a trout's diet. The salmonfly is the largest stone, but its distribution is limited. Little yellow and golden stoneflies are slightly smaller and widely spread." In Rocky Mountain Game & Fish magazine.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"'I realized I could spend the rest of my life thinking about ways that I might have handled the Jayson Blair scandal rather than ordering the publication of the 7,400-word story that I read while John McPhee cast his fly tirelessly from the bow of Mike Padua's boat. ... '" From his new book, that's part of Howell Raines's summary retrospective on the scandal that ended his career at the NYT. Reviewer Elizabeth Spears suggests that Howell Raines might have put more effort into emotional richness.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"I'm from Detroit and I've never seen anything like this." In a quite funny piece about immersing two ex-execs in Yakima River culture, Randall Sumner uncovers some of many subtleties of the guide-angler relationship.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"'I guess you could throw something about 4 inches long and black and maybe round something up,' said Brian Kampf of Duranglers Flies and Supplies in Durango, where the muddy Animas River was scooting past Tuesday at a lively clip, 3,300 cubic feet per second." The good news, included in Ed Dentry's report on various Colorado fishing spots, is that the runoff should end earlier rather than later this year. In the Rocky Mountain News.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 4:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Robert Crooks talks about the ins and outs of dressing for float tubing on his StillwaterTrout.com site. Good info here, including the tip on always wearing a Gore-Tex shell and opting for the lower-profile float tube over the pontoon when lake fishing in any kind of wind. "Some larger PC's have a platform that keep the anglers entire body out of the water, except for his legs from mid-calf down. In cold weather, this is an advantage to keeping warm except that such high profile craft are a frustration to control in any sort of moderate wind so common in spring and fall."

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 3:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Trout Unlimited is sponsoring an effort to restore Conowingo Creek's 34-mile drainage to something of its previous glory. The consulting firm they hired filmed the creek bed with high-definition video to help map out trouble spots. "Phosphorus, contained in fertilizers and manure, can chemically stress fish, and goose an overabundance of underwater vegetation, which robs oxygen needed by fish and the aquatic insects they depend on for food. Yet the main branch is fed with nearly two dozen tributaries, some of them spring-fed and pristine water." Ad Crable on Lancaster Online.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 3:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Orvis's willingness to match customer contributions for Casting for Recovery, an organization devoted to helping women recover from breast cancer, has meant more than $300,000 in aid to the group's efforts. Not everyone knows that Orvis also donates 5% of pretax profits to conservation and environmental education causes.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 3:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and Wal-Mart Stores announced a grant to Trout Unlimited that will help preserve 28,000 acres of the St. Joe River basin in Idaho. "The site, located in Shoshone County, lies within the St. Joe River and Coeur d'Alene/Spokane River basin in the panhandle of northern Idaho. It supports the only remaining spawning populations of threatened bull trout in the basin, and has been described as the best cutthroat trout fishery on the west side of the Rocky Mountains." From a press release on Biz.yahoo.com.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 3:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Al Raychard lists Grand Lake Stream, the West Branch Penobscot River, New Hampshire's Lake Region, the Upper Androscoggin River and the Winooski River as springtime salmon hotspots. "Across northern New England, fishing for landlocked salmon and springtime go together like baked beans and franks. Challenging these silver-sided fighters in moving water is the pinnacle of the fishing season for many anglers." In New England Game & Fish magazine.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Unfortunately that figure refers not to feeding fish but to the number of times you can expect to be bitten by mosquitoes in Alaska if you are not wearing insect repellent. This piece by Deborah Franklin in The New York Times peruses the questions and answers surrounding the growing popularity of treating clothing with permethrin, the chemical used in the Buzz Off clothing marketed by Ex Officio, Orvis, L.L. Bean and others. "Permethrin is a synthetic, longer-lasting cousin to a natural insecticide found in chrysanthemums. Since 1977, it has been incorporated in various products approved by the Environmental Protection Agency for killing or controlling insects."

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Trying to predict the post-spawn pike bite in Colorado is a little like reading tea leaves, according to Ed Dentry. "Spawning pike are almost never interested in anything but spawning. The big females then dive for the deep and rest for a week or more. Next comes the 'post-spawn' season, that delirious time when pike junkies cut work and run away from home." In the Rocky Mountain News.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 5:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Are the impacts of the Clean Air Act finally being felt in the Adirondacks? Researchers are encouraged by the fact that adult brook trout have survived the spring -- and the associated spike in acid levels -- in Brooktrout Lake. "Brooktrout Lake is the only one that has recovered to the point where fish could be reintroduced. 'Basically, we are getting a second chance here, and hopefully we can take advantage of it,' said Cliff Siegfried, director of the New York State Museum who has been studying the effects of acid rain in New York since 1979." Colin McDonald in the Albany, New York Times-Union.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 5:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

British newspaperman Sir Jocelyn Stevens is selling one of the most complete collections of fine classic angling books ever to be put on the market. "One star item in Stevens’s angling library, which Bonhams believes will fetch upwards of £600,000 in total, is the fisherman’s bible – a first edition of Izaak Walton’s Compleat Angler published in 1653. There is also the world’s first ever printed book on fishing, Oppianus’ Halieutica, published in 1478, and printed in French." Ian Watson on London's TheBusinessOnline.com.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's been pouring rain for weeks. Everyone agrees that this year is a wash-out. Perhaps there is a better sport for spring.

Nick Mills doesn't let prevailing sentiment keep him from going out and trying something a little different -- tiny bugs -- at the East Outlet of the Kennebec River near Moosehead Lake in Maine. Result: no crowds, fantastic fishing. "The conventional wisdom, that streamers were the way to go, seemed to be largely outdated by Friday. The first anglers I encountered, in the parking area on the south bank, had just come out of the river and had been skunked." From Mills's blog on MaineToday.com.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 5:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This preview of upcoming Bassmaster magazine content -- effective flies and how to fish them -- is quite well done, with some excellent tips on materials and presentation. "The white EHR [egg, hackle, rabbit] is invariably the first to get wet. Through the years it has proved itself the most consistent, but [guide Brian Gambill] also ties the EHR in a ginger-brown and purple."

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 5:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Inspired to action by the likelihood that hardware slingers might be recruited to cull trout-hungry bass, local fly fishing clubs have risen to the challenge of removing hundreds of the predators from Davis Lake themselves. "Somebody dumped bass into the natural, fly-fishing only lake in the Deschutes National Forest in south/Central Oregon in the mid-1990s, and the fish have put a dent in the trout ever since, including munching on federally protected bull trout." Henry Miller in the Oregon Statesman Journal.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Like many of his fellow anglers in the Baghdad School of Fly Fishing, Navy Lt. Joel Stewart thought an afternoon of casting on one of Saddam Hussein's lakes could make him feel as though he had escaped the war and was back in his native Montana, fishing for trout." Article by Aamer Madhani of the Chicago Tribune.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Seems like everyone loves a big shark story, if you noticed the play Dr. Martin Arostegui's 385-pound lemon shark on fly got this past week. Of course even Europe finally took notice, sort of. Finlay Wilson gives a Scottish perspective on the catch and world records in general on Scotsman.com. "On Tuesday, the International Game Fish Association certified Arostegui's latest catch as a world record and the largest documented fish caught on fly tackle, eclipsing a 356lb goliath grouper caught in 1967."

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Glacier National Park's 50-odd lakes get much less pressure than one might imagine -- unless of course one takes into account the number of grizzly bears that also frequent the area. "Getting to most of those lakes entails a hike, although some are accessible from roads. Michael Sample says in his book, Fishing Montana, that only about 10 percent of the people who visit the park fish, and few of them fish for more than a couple of hours." In the Great Falls (Montana) Tribune.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Fly Fishing and Tying Journal editor Dave Hughes recently referred irreverently to fishing Woolly Buggers as 'depth-charging' trout. 'It's a terrible thing to do, and I'm ashamed when it works,' Hughes quipped." Ben Moyer talks about the perpetual effectiveness of the Woolly Bugger in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Post-Gazette.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bronzeworker Jim Brothers noted an interesting fact about his sculpture of Dwight Eisenhower, who made the final decision about when to send troops into the maelstrom of D-Day. Deciding that he must talk with the individual troops first, Eisenhower touched on an unlikely subject. "At one point, Brothers said, Eisenhower and the men 'were talking about fishing in Michigan. So that's an invisible fly rod he's holding.'" Neil Harvey in the Roanoke (Virginia) Times.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ed Dentry reveals more about putty-based weight for nymph fisherman than you could ever hope to know in this article about the demise of Shape-A-Wate, an inexpensive lead-based substance long favored by Colorado guides. "Twistons, thin lead strips, work OK, but they tend to slide up and down the leader and aren't as smooth and adaptable as putty. The trouble with the tungsten stuff, bismuth stuff, tin stuff and other nontoxic alternatives to lead putty is their consistency leaves much to be desired and they eventually dissolve in water." In the Rocky Mountain News.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you've ever sat on a deck overlooking a Montana trout stream, you'd know why realtors don't want rules for setbacks imposed on their customers. But float the same river and you'll likely see why guides and conservation groups are complaining. "The evidence is clear on the Bitterroot River – on high banks, some houses are perched as close as they can get to the water outside the legal floodplain. In spots, the bank has been heavily rip-rapped, the riparian vegetation removed to make way for landscaping." Dana Green on NewWest.net.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"The perceptive reader will notice that this is a specialty line, developed and designed for troutfishing. And that's exactly what I've been using it for, although strangely enough I've exceeded my powers and caught a few grayling with them as well…" "Viking" Lars reviews the SA Mastery Trout series line on Sexyloops.com.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With trout water in its veins, the home of Orvis and the American Fly Fishing Museum in Vermont should be an example to the rest of the world about how best to preserve wild fish populations. Yet Manchester is growing rapidly and some -- including local guide Chuck Kashner -- say its attitude toward conservation is less than ideal. "The wild trout populations of the Batten Kill have declined by 70 percent over the past 20 years, according to an Orvis newsletter. In-stream woody debris and overhanging trees have been removed from the river by floods and development, reducing the river’s ability to sustain the abundant wild trout that gave it premier fishery status, according to two Vermont state studies." (From an article in today's Worcester Telegram & Gazette.)

Fortunately both Orvis and Trout Unlimited are focused on brook trout habitat restoration. How well they succeed in places where wild trout populations most deserve attention is certain to be a bellwether of fishery conservation trends.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Joseph Kennedy Fisher III, proprietor of fly rod manufacturer J. Kennedy Fisher, Inc., died on May 7 at the age of 76. Fisher's company made the blanks used by R. L. Winston in its early fiberglass fly rods and later became known for the quality of their graphite rod tapers, which in the 1980s became a favorite of rod builders.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Howell Raines, out promoting his new book The One That Got Away, is interviewed by fellow journalist David Andelman of Forbes magazine. Apparently Raines is working on a Civil War novel and fished every day in April that the weather was good. There are links to video segments of the interview, but unfortunately Forbes is much better at delivering ads than they are video online.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The more one reads about knots and more practice one has in tying them, the easier it is to understand why how well a knot is tied makes as much -- or more -- difference in its strength than its purported "percentage." So whenever I read an article that touts a particularly suspect knot -- in this case the Improved Clinch -- I try to quickly lose my Knot Professor's grimace.

Truth be known, I still use an Improved Clinch sometimes, and I have never had one fail. Does that make it a good knot, or is it a bad knot because if I put it on knot-testing machine it fails at 74% of labeled line strength? As with flies and most things fly-fishing, it's often about confidence and technique. But if you are teaching someone terminal knots, do them a favor and chose the Palomar or Trilene or some variation of those. GlobalFlyFisher has one of the better sets of "2D" instructions for tying these and other knots.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

66-year-old Sam Crutchfield was back on the water after being attacked by an alligator while wade-fishing last month. He comments rather plainly, "'I don't know what the odds are, maybe a million to one, but you can throw those odds out the window when one bites you in the [butt] like it did me.'" As an article by Tim Povtak in the Orlando Sentinel points out, the later-than-usual mating season -- when gators are particularly hungry -- may be responsible for this and other attacks that have claimed the lives of three women in the past few weeks.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 5:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Most know Rick Pope as the president of Springbrook, the Texas company that makes Temple Fork Outfitter fly rods (www.templeforkflyrods.com). But Rick is also a float tube aficionado, and in this piece by Ray Sasser he gives a good intro to various types and uses of "gasoline-free" transportation for anglers. "'Float tubes are still the least expensive of the self-powered fishing craft,' Pope said. 'They have limited mobility, but at least you're not stuck on the bank. You can still find the doughnut-style float tubes, but you can also find U-shaped models that offer more back support and more comfort.'" On MercuryNews.com.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)