American Angler magazine gave out its annual awards to standouts in the fly fishing business last week at the Fly Fishing Retailer show, distributing kudos based on a vote among manufacturers, distributors and sales reps. Their award for 2006 Retailer of the Year, given out at a posh coat-and-tie affair (!) at the Denver Athletic Club, went to Silver Creek Outfitters of Ketchum, Idaho. (Accepting were Jerry Eder and Dave James.) And of course they announced their awards given for what retailers think will be the best-selling products in four categories, which got American Angler's "KaChing!" award:

Freshwater -- Cliff’s Bugger Beast, Cliff Outdoors
Saltwater -- Scott X2s fly rods
Fly Tying -- Renzetti Presentation 2000
Softgoods -- Sage Skagit River Softshell Jacket

Meanwhile Orvis and Saltwater Fly Fishing magazine hosted a "Casting Cup" during the early mornings of the show, and the winners of the $3,750 prizes for charity were:

Men -- Jeff Wagner
Women -- Rachel Finn

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 8:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The New York Times Book Review is going to feature Thomas McGuane's new collection of short stories, Gallatin Canyon, on this Sunday's front page. Our sources say that it is going to be a very favorable review. Meanwhile, it was our primary entertainment (besides rubbing elbows with all our fellow bloggers) at the Fly Fishing Retailer show in Denver. While not a fly fishing book per se, Gallatin Canyon (Knopf, July 2006, 240 pages) is written by one of the best fishing writers we have, and whether or not you are a Tom McGuane fan, you owe it to yourself to read this one. It is McGuane's best writing to date, and it confirms that he is a brilliant short story writer.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 8:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

U.S. Fish & Wildlife is studying ways to combat the spread of viral hemorrhagic septicemia, or VHS, a virus responsible for multiple fish kills in the Great Lakes this year and in particular in Lake Erie. "The full effect of this viral disease remains to be seen. But what is known is the economic impact from large die-offs of important game fishes like trophy muskellunge, smallmouth bass, and yellow perch in the Great Lakes region could be profound." Robert Backal, DVM, Aquatic Animal Health Coordinator for the Division of the National Fish Hatchery System writes about what scientists know now and what they hope to do to prevent VHS from creating even more problems. On FishingWorld.com.

By the way, if you care about what you and your friends can do to help prevent the spread of various aquatic nuisance species, be sure to visit the Protect Your Waters Web site (www.protectyourwaters.com). There's a ton of info here on simple procedures that can help control the spread of invasive and nuisance species.

(Thanks to reader Craig Springer for these links.)

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Pete McDonald of FishingJones.com finally posted a link to an excellent video of fly fishing for 10-15-pound bluefin tuna off of Rhode Island done by FliesandFins.com. Not only does it capture some of the excitement of chasing busting schools of tuna in a walkaround boat, but you get to see that in fact Tom Rosenbauer -- Orvis's director of marketing -- is as comfortable with big saltwater rods (in this case a Zero Gravity) as he is hunting browns on the Battenkill.

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

I was one of the first Orvis-endorsed guides in Florida, and in the 1980s the feeling generally was that rod design was falling behind line design (thank you, SA) in producing quick-loading rod/line combos. Orvis was making some effort at that time to design a faster-action rod and the prototypes were promising, but not nearly fast enough for most guides. They kept at it, though (as Orvis usually does), and it is not surprising to find ourselves twenty years later picking up and casting one of the best saltwater rods there is in the form of the Zero-Gravity Series. Sure, Field & Stream named it one of the "Best of the Best for 2006," and Orvis has thrown plenty of marketing weight ("the same [technology] used in the US military’s Apache helicopter blades") behind the rod, but we care only about the rod's castability, which is superb. It is not surprising that Orvis is challenged to keep up with order volume (this from Orvis's chief rod engineer). One feature of the saltwater line not touted in the literature but immediately noticeable to me was the extended grip, which lengthens the grip area substantially, to the point where the second hand can be ideally placed for fish fighting. This seems to me to be an improvement on the old idea of the fighting grip, since it allows the second hand to move down toward the reel to use greater leverage in the butt of the rod.

Among other new Orvis rods worth noting is the Superfine Trout Bum Series. They've taken the same "thermoplastic" resin technology used in the Zero Gravity and applied to their very popular Superfine Series. The rich olive color of the new, stronger rods is quite attractive, and they've added a high-end amboina wood/cork skeleton reel seat.

Tom Rosenbauer of Orvis made sure we also saw the new Battenkill Large Arbor reel, which has an incredible price point of $198 - $249. It is designed for large-game freshwater and saltwater applications, with a cork-to-rulon center drag and ventilated anodized aircraft-grade aluminum bar stock spool and frame.

But probably the coolest new Orvis product was the new Triple Spectrum Sunglasses. Tom drew a graph for me showing how the lenses (which Orvis has an exclusive arrangement for a year with the Japanese supplier on) allow a broader range of light in the three basic colors to enter the eye, producing much greater contrast between adjacent colors. (Most polarized sunglasses permit a flat amount of light -- usually 10-17% -- across all colors to enter the eye.) I tried them on and could see a definite improvement in color contrast between distant objects at the show.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Beyond skillful writing, Tom Chandler of TroutUnderground.com produces marvelous photos, as evidenced by his recent series of closeups of trout from California's Upper Sacramento River. And he does all this with a point-and-shoot camera. "The result was a series of underexposed photos of trout with deeply saturated scales. And when you’re given underexposed lemons, you make richly color-saturated lemonade."

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sage had a ton of new items to talk about at the show, but the one that seemed to be getting the most attention from retailers (Sage was directly adjacent to the first casting pond at the show) was their new Z-Axis series fo rods. Without getting too technical, the Z-Axis concept replaces glass hoop fibers with graphite and reduces the amount of material required. The big news with Sage this year, if you haven't already heard, is the dropping of their XP line of rods, so it will be interesting to see how Sage fans judge this replacement to what has been one of the most popular line of rods in the past 20 years. The Z-Axis series includes rods from 4-weight ($585) to 10-weight ($825).

Marketing manager Paul Johnson was also sure to point out the elegant little 2500 and 3000 Series of reels, which I was lucky enough to see fished on the Eagle River after the show. "Our field tester" (Jonathan Ain) had very nice things to say about these light-weight, large-arbor reels, which have an offset, sealed graphite disk drag and are quite smart-looking in shiny silver and black surfaces.

In "techical" outerwear, Sage has a new Skagit River Softshell Jacket that combines four-way stretch, waterproof fabric with an adjustable hood and a bunch of other features into an all-around fishing jacket that clearly has cold, rainy weather in mind. In Dark Charcoal, this is one of the more edgy and attractive jackets we saw.

And like one or two other vendors, Sage was also highlighting a new fly rod, reel and line outfit that includes a Fli series rod, an 1800 series reel, and a Rio line with backing, all in an attractive zippered rod/reel case.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

TFO has mastered the art of creating affordable products that don't change much year over year but keep the company profitable and retailers satisfied. Every year, though, they introduce several variations in product lines and one or two completely new items. One of the notable additions this coming year is their introductory fly rod, reel and line combo that comes in a nice zippered case. It's called the NXT Rod and Reel Outfit, and beyond coming in at a pretty remarkable $175 price ($185 for the 8/9 weight with fighting butt), it also includes a nice zippered case. As someone who learned to fly fish with a kit, I get excited when I see companies thinking about new fly fishers when considering new products.

TFO's got several more new items worthy of note, including new rods designed by Jim Teeny (in 10' and 9' models), a new narrow-spool ("NS") Terry Hayden reel, and a rod designed exclusively to generate funds for Casting for Recovery, the non-profit group that has done so much to help women with breast cancer.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 8:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"After World War II, fiberglass and an embargo of the world's best Chinese cane threatened to wipe out the tiny American industry. A few die-hards hung on, however, using old and/or circuitously acquired bamboo. Surprisingly, when cheap graphite rods seemed to answer a need for affordable entry-level equipment in the 1960s, they also 'helped to spark a traditionalist backlash from bamboo addicts.'" Irene Black reviews Casting a Spell: The Bamboo Fly Rod and the American Pursuit of Perfection in the Seattle Times.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There were a few items at the FFR show last week that weren't designed specifically for fly fishers (we've already mentioned the Frogg Togg's towel) but nonetheless may prove exciting just because they fit an existing need. I've always had questions about the safety of DEET-based insect repellents and of course everyone knows what DEET can do to any kind of plastic, including the plastic coating of fly lines. So I grabbed a bottle of RAGE insect repellent from their booth, got the demo, and came away impressed by the notion that a repellent with all-natural ingredients -- citronella, lemon grass and juniper berry -- might do the job. We haven't had a chance to test the repellent -- that will probably happen later today in the Official MidCurrent Bug Repellent Test Laboratory (otherwise known as our Florida backyard) -- but like the chances of this stuff being effective. Beyond having ingredients that have shown effectiveness in research -- citronella and lemon grass -- RAGE says their patented secret is the juniper berry. And the "inert ingredients" in their lotion are almond oil and vitamin E, an emollient and anti-oxidant respectively. The stuff even smells pretty good, like you just rubbed up against a pine tree.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I have been trying for years to get Patagonia to "re-issue" the silk-weight Capilene balaclava that I began using for sun protection in the Keys in the late eighties. So I was delighted to hear that they are working on a new prototype "Bandolava" that will appear in catalogs in the spring of 2007. Along with the new facewear comes a new line of long-sleeved flats shirts called Sun Shade Shirts, which are super-comfortable, fast-wicking long-sleeved T-shirt-style shirts with modified collars to help protect the lower neck. Of course the Sun Shade line is designed for high SPF sun protection.

Patagonia is also working on a softer version of its Marlwaker flats boots called the Skiff Sneaker. It accompanies a new multi-soled sandal called the Guidewater for trout and salmon fishermen.

Plenty more to talk about in Patagonia's new line, including an improvement to the award-winning Watermaster series ("Watermaster II") in which they move the inner leg seams toward the leg front a couple of inches to help prevent wear and chaffing.

As could be predicted, Patagonia continues to focus on simpicity and cleanliness in design.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Back from a fly fishing trip to the U.S., where the opportunities are plentiful, cheap and not always correctly managed, from a British perspective, author Tam Leach tries to find the same experience on the Tweed. "Most Tweed salmon beats - stretches of the river - are privately owned and permits are expensive, kicking in at around £75. Prime spring or autumn "rods" on the famous Junction Pool in Kelso are almost impossible to come by, even for those who can afford the rumoured £38,000 six-day, six-person price-tag."

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"In a letter sent last week to athletes and other participants, ESPN Outdoors officials said it is 'shifting its focus and will concentrate its energies and resources on B.A.S.S. and the Saturday Outdoors programming block.'" Alan Clemons in the Hunstville, Alabana Times

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Most teams carried a number of alternates. Along with the shrink and the trainer, the French team - which finished first - had three alternates and five spotters to take notes and provide advice for their team." An article about Todd Oishi, Canadian national fly fishing champion, discloses some interesting detail on how the Europeans take the fly fishing world championships so much more seriously than the U.S. does. Michael Matsumaru in the Maple Ridge News.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I introduce myself to most folks at the FFR as an ex-saltwater guide who has fallen into a few trout rivers, and this usually ellicits a kindly response from the trout gurus, particularly makers of waderwear. The folks at Chota took great pains to explain the features of their Steelheader Boot Foot Waders, which just happened to be named by Field & Stream as one of their best outdoors products of the year. Some of the key features:

-- High-traction hard rubber soles designed to accept the addition of hardened steel cleats.
-- Articulated knees with vented knee pads.
-- Easily convertible from chest-high to waist-high waders with a unique adjustable suspender design.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ted Juracsic was the first person to take saltwater fly reels beyond the acceptable range of performance and make them little marvels of engineering, no doubt helping to spawn the range of high-end fly reels that started appearing in the 1980s. This year Tibor his highlighting a couple of new products, including their Line Master Line Management System, a portable device that simplifies the spooling, removal, and storage of fly lines. (Marianne Juracsik, Ted's daughter, was quick to point out that it also works great with baitcasting reels.) At a $249 price point, it is not cheap, but if you like to take good care of your fly lines in the off-season or, like me, you have a ton of old fly lines wound wrongly labeled spools and you are tired of tired of the pencil-between-the-toes method of keeping tension on a fly line spool, this is the ticket. As with all Tibor products, the design and engineering of the Line Master are nonpareil, with tons of features that might seem excessive until you realize just how practical they are.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 9:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was standing next to wader display yesterday, waiting for my 3 o'clock appointment with Simms marketing director Whitney McDowell, and found the phrase "I am not worthy" repeating itself in my brain. I'm not sure whether it was something left over from the video screening of Thursday night, the space-suit-like variety of water-proof zippers and stretch fabric pockets on the front of the waders, or just knowing that I was going to hear that these waders would set me back more than my new widescreen laptop. I was still in a daze when McDowell told me the price, so I think I heard $699, but better confirm with Simms or check with your local fly shop.

Beyond the top-end G4 Guide Stockingfoots that Simms is introducing this year, they are also:

-- Expanding heavily into the bag and luggage lines. Pete McDonald had brought one of their new dry bags about my skiff last week, and as usual, Simms builds these things right.

-- Bringing out a wading shoe -- the G3 Guide Boot -- that looks both indestructible and incredibly comfortable at the same time. The G3 looks like a very high-end hiking book attached to an extremely solid wading sole; look at they way the felt is glued inside ridges on the sole and you just know it is not going anywhere.

-- Introducing lighter jackets and outerwear pieces that improve on both their waterproof lines and their Windstopper series. I was particularly impressed by the new Superlight Insulated Jacket, which is kind of a high-tech puff jacket -- sleek, ultralight and highly condensable to stuff into its own self-contained pocket.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 9:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I don't know why it seems surprising that Scientific Anglers added over a hundred SKUs (product items) to its lineup for 2007. After all, they have produced more fly lines, boxes and fly-related items on an annual basis than any other fly fishing manufacturer -- except perhaps fly distributor Umpqua, if you want to get technical. Still, this year they've announced a ton of new stuff, including:

-- Dry Tip Technology for Mastery Series Lines. Says fly line engineer Bruce Richards: "We can maintain the exceptional casting properties fly anglers expect from our Mastery Series fly lines, all in a line with a very high-floating tip."

-- An Entirely New System of Spey Lines. Says Richards: "A state of the art loop welding process and machine were designed specifically for these new lines, and literally hundreds of line designs were made and tested to arrive at this selection."

-- Left Kreh Signature Fly Lines. Find one if you can. According to the folks in the SA booth, these things are selling like hotcakes (probably because of the $39.95 price point).

-- Wet Tip Leaders for the L2L Reconnect System. Part of the quick-connect system that SA introduced two years ago.

-- Smaller M Series Waterproof Fly Boxes. Easier to fit in in your pocket than their larger boxes.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 8:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tarpon -- whose historical range was once considered bounded on the north by Maryland and possibly New Jersey -- are showing up in commercial fishermen's gill nets off of Rhode Island. Is it yet another effect of global warming? One thing's for sure: it demonstrates that as a species reacts to changing water temperatures, it increases the risk that that species will be exposed to additional threats.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 8:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Loose feathers and strung hackle — feathers that are plucked and sewn back together — are still allowed into the United States after they’ve been certified clean (steamed at high enough temperatures to kill the virus )." But feathers from China and other east Asian companies are banned if they are attached to skin. John Marshall of the Associated Press gives the straight scoop on the effect of the threat of bird flu on the importation of lly tying materials.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 8:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of the "coolest" items that I stumbled upon this morning was the Frogg Toggs "Chilly Pad," a 33" X 13" light towel that turns cold with the only the application of water. You pick this thing up and and it honest to goodness feels like it has just come out of a refrigerator -- except that that it has not been near ice or refrigeration of any kind. The secret is in the fabric weave, which evaporates water at such a high rate that the temperature of the material drops rapidly as soon as it is wet. And it stays cool as long as it doesn't dry out. If you are planning a trip to the tropics this year, you might want to take a look at these. They're $14.99 but on sale for the next month at half that price.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 2:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

A well-known fly fishing instructor and author last me last week if I knew how to best store Gel Spun (polyethelene), and I admitted that I didn't but figured I might be able to get an answer at the FFR show. (Gel Spun is notoriously hard to tie strong knots in because of its slipperiness and brittleness, and the writer wants to advise readers on how to keep Gel Spun from degrading over time so that knots are effective as they can be.) I figured I'd talk to one of the most respected scientists in the fly line business, so I headed over to talk to Mike Stark, who does all the lab work for Scientific Anglers. The bad news? Mike said, "That's a very good question. I'd guess that it is not affected by UV rays but only by temperature." The good news? Mike is going to research the question and give us a full answer next week.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 9:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For those who don't know, the biggest difference between fly lines manufactured by Airflo, a British company, and those manufactured by most U.S. companies is that Airflo lines use polyurethane rather than PVC in their fly line coatings. Polyurethane, which doesn't require on solvents and a curing process, casts better and allows some special post-production touches, like adding fully fused integrated loops (no transition spots) to the end of lines.

The big thing for Airflo this year has been the introduction of their Ridge Technology, which is exactly what it sounds like: tiny ridges that run parallel to the line from beginning to end. I felt these ridges for the first time yesterday. You can't feel them moving your hand down the line. You actually have to roll the line in your fingers, but they are definitely noticeable. According to Gareth Jones, Airflo's sales director, the ridges decrease friction by reducing the surface contact of the fly lines with the guides, plus they hold water as a natural lubricant during the cast. When I asked Gareth what that meant in terms of extra distance, he said not to expect miracles, but that the Ridge lines should add "about 5% to the average caster's distance."

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 8:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In between collective guffaws and projected sighs, popular music bent copyright laws and the eardrums of most of the crowd (sub-30, by the way) packed into a hot miniature theatre in Denver's Oxford hotel last night. It's the closest I've been to a college party in the past 25 years, and the most surprising thing was that nothing really appears to have changed.

"The Drake" magazine and Cloudveil were hosting a one-and-a-half-hour screening of ten films (I think) in ten-minute segments (I think), for a select subset (it seemed) of the Fly Fishing Retailer show attendees, the general age of which probably trends more toward 50. I don't yet have perfect details on the names of the various producers represented -- hope to get those from Tom Bie of "The Drake" today -- but I can tell you that Frank Smethurst and his pals won the competition for best trailer with their segment on surf fishing for big roosterfish on what I assume was the Baja peninsula. It was funny, frantic, and well-timed. One of the other prizes went to the Angling Exploration Group's trailer of their upcoming New Zealand film, part II of the "Trout Bum Diaries." (See our review of Part I here.) Ryan, Mikey, Brian and Chris have really begun to refine their filmmaking, and it showed last night.

More details later if I can find anyone who attended awake before noon today.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 8:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tim Rajeff and Jamie Hixson of Rajeff Sports and Echo Fly Fishing were showing me an interesting "extension" of the dual-mode fly rod concept today: they have a new rod coming out in 5 and 10 weights that allows conversion from a 9'6" rod to a 10' rod with a simple change of tip sections (the rods they showed me were 4-piece). As Tim pointed out, the extra rod length -- which is also modified in taper -- does two things: it moves the action of the rod down from the tip and toward the grip, making it a better rod for roll-casting and controlling larger amounts of line; and it gives the float-tuber/drift-boater fisherman better line control by keeping the line higher in the air.

While we were testing the rods, Gareth Jones of Air-Flo flylines came up and I asked him whether the 10-footers wouldn't also make better nymphing rods, and he concurred. "The European market is all 10-footers," he said, "you get better Czech nymphing control and lake fishing is much more effective with longer rods." (He went on to talk about how the particular "bounce" of Tim's design helped up-and-down nymphing techniques, but that is perhaps a subject for another day.)

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Costa Del Mar used be known only in buewater fishing and only as producing stylish polarized sunglasses for the fashion-aware. That was quite a long time ago -- the late 1980s to be exact -- and since then they've continued exploring new markets, particularly fresh-water and saltwater sight-casting. Some of what they have lined up for 2006-2007 is eye-candy, but they have done some interesting new things with their 580 glass lenses, which have been around for about 4 or 5 years but now use a new technology to embed their mirrors directly into the glass, allowing them to produce mirrors in multiple colors.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 2:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It didn' take long after I walked in to the Denver Convention Center this morning to realize that there was way too much to see in only 3 days of meetings with manufacturers. I mean, let's face it, we enjoy an sport that is blessed with lots of people who make stuff just because it's fun. If you don't like the way one excellent reel sounds while pulling drag, you have another dozen or so to pick from. And the rods.... well. let's just say that whether or not the number of active fly fishers is growing slowlly, quickly, or not at all, rod designers haven't lost their interest in improving on a good thing. Soft goods manufacturers have been incredibly busy flying down their own chosen tack on materials, assembly and functionality. Somehow they all seem to do cool things in different ways.

In short, the FFR show is a little over the top. Lucky us.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Historically, the Elwha hosted some of the largest Chinook salmon in the country, but two dams now block salmon and steelhead from accessing most of the river. Fortunately, the National Park Service is planning on removing both dams. The removal project is slated to begin as soon as 2008." Luca Adelphio talks about the Elwha and about the many challenges that accompany the removal of dams from once-pristine rivers on the T.U. blog.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We all know that when the fishing is red hot, the weather is tolerable, and we are not freezing cold or dripping buckets of sweat from our boat shoes that fly fishing gear rarely matters. When I first realized this a couple of decades ago I came up with "Four feet of anything" as a catch-all phrase meaning that what you choose for gear is sometimes irrelevant, or at most a matter of personal taste.

But let's just say, as an approximation, that 99% percent of the time something -- or several things -- prevent every fishing outing from turning into a life-changing experience. For that, I sometimes think, God made fly fishing gear. (I think another part of the divine reasoning might have to do with the fact that trout bums and saltwater slide-bys needed at least ersatz avocations.)

So for the next several days MidCurrent will be in Denver attending the annual Fly Fishing Retailer show and poring over all the new products manufacturers hope will appear on your local fly shop's shelves in the coming year. We'll be posting "live" during the show, so be sure to check the MidCurrent news regularly for anything we think deserves mention. Heck, I might even find four feet of something that will make me a better caster.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While in Denver at the Fly Fishing Retailer show on Thursday, we are going to try to make time for the grand opening of Filson's new store there, if only to see James Prosek finish his 18- by 24-foot painting of a cutthroat trout. "Ten percent of proceeds from sales during the grand-opening event will be donated directly to the Denver Chapter of Trout Unlimited, a national organization dedicated to restoring and protecting North America's trout and salmon fisheries and their watersheds." Felicia Hunter in the Connecticut Post.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Carol Oglesby was named by the Federation of Fly Fishers as their Woman of the Year this year. Dave Buchanan catches up with Oglesby, and digs a little deeper into her fascination with fly fishing: "She’s chased trout all across the West, caught carp as long as your arm in the San Luis Valley, and had saltwater adventures with bonefish, bluefin tuna, barracuda, snook and a host of other bluewater species. But her favorite places are those challenging, small mountain streams where little fish grow big attitudes." In Grand Junction, Colorado's Daily Sentinel.

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

Showing that big projects often start as an amalgamation of tiny ones, Trout Unlimited is helping restore a tiny creek in a watershed important to bull and westslope cutthroat trout. "Seventy years after miners upended part of tiny Eustache Creek in search of gold, Forest Service employees and volunteers are overseeing a project to restore 1.3 miles of the creek. An excavator is building a new channel and crews are installing plastic sheeting to force the creek back to the surface in some spots." From the Associated Press.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 5:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Wall Street Journal's Jim Carlton writes about the chaos caused when grizzly bears become accustomed to human presence, particularly around famous fishing grounds like Alaska's Bird Creek. And it's not just the bears that get out of hand. "On the evening of July 26, Alaskan State Trooper Ronald Hayes says he was called to investigate a showdown between two fishermen. According to witnesses, Mr. Hayes says, a fisherman on one side of the creek fired three shots into the air from his .50-caliber handgun to scare a lurking grizzly. Another fisherman on the opposite side of the creek complained that the fellow shouldn't fire a gun with so many people around. In response, the gunman said, 'I've got one of those [bullets] with your name on it,' Mr. Hayes said, citing an audio recording of the incident made by a witness."

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Impending energy development of Colorado's Roan plateau has hunters and fishermen teaming up with their erstwhile opponents -- environmental groups -- to protect remaining wilderness in the Rockies. "Fearing that energy development sweeping through the Rockies could permanently scar the landscape, hunters and anglers are forming alliances with environmental groups like The Wilderness Society and Sierra Club. The two sides, who have sparred in the past, are trying to protect such areas as northern Montana's Rocky Mountain Front, Wyoming's Jack Morrow Hills and New Mexico's Valle Vidal. " From the Associated Press.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Using new federal legislation as ammunition, PacifiCorp, which operates dams on the Klamath River, is fighting a ruling that requires them to install fish ladders in order to renew their operating licenses. This after three years of diminishing returns of wild Chinook to the Klamath forced regulators to shut down commercial salmon fishing on the Oregon and California coasts. "Until now, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries could impose prescriptions on power companies to help fish and wildlife, which sometimes led utilities to conclude that it was less expensive to remove aging dams rather than to make them safer for fish. But the Energy Policy Act enacted last year gave utilities the chance to challenge those prescriptions before an administrative law judge in the course of relicensing, rather than waiting until the end of the process." Jeff Barnard in the Contra Costa Times.

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

"The instant the flies touched, the skinny water exploded in a beaver-alarm ker-sploink, my rod bent double, the line rifled toward the riffle and then snapped back in my face like a bullwhip crack from Lash LaRue, and I found myself sitting down in the river with my pulse racing and that certain tightness in my upper left quadrant that folks of a certain age really don’t want to feel." James Babb, editor of Gray's Sporting Journal, writes about the big one in his own inimitable style.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

When it comes to fly fishing Web sites, "buggy" is a good thing, if TroutNut.com has anything to say about it. They just launched their newly redesigned Web site, hatching a bunch of new features for the insect-minded:

-- 2,000+ new close-up pictures of mayflies, stoneflies, caddisflies, and other trout foods.
-- Hatch-matching details about hundreds of fly species, from the popular Hex hatch and Hendrickson hatch to obscure gems like the armored Baetisca mayflies.
-- Completely integrated common names and illustrated, clickable definitions make the scientific subject easy to follow.
-- Combining the fly fishing forum with the hatch guide to create a library of user knowledge and stories about each hatch.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Jeff Baker reviews Thomas McGuane's latest book in The Oregonian today. "'The Refugee,' a novella that anchors the second half of the book, is a slow-builder with an abrupt payoff. Set in Key West, it's full of enough nautical details to make Robert Stone seasick but has a classic McGuane hero, a good man who washes away memory with drink and can't make peace with himself. Escape is impossible, even on the open ocean, and redemption has a price that must be paid by hand."

Gallatin Canyon on Amazon.

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

No, it's not a sport likely to replace hiking as the number one sport in Mount Rainier National Park, but a way for employee Ben Wright to assess fish populations in the park's various waterways. T.U.'s Luca Adelphio accompanies the researchers and discovers something about how trout behave at night: "It was interesting to observe how comfortable trout are in the dark. These fish were sitting in the middle of pools and they seemed to have little fear of predation. "

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tom Chandler offers a handy bit of advice for those trying to eke effectiveness out of fishing in the almost-dark: sprinkle an excess of fly floatant on your fly. Is it the bubbles, or just the fact that seeing the fly better almost guarantees a better drift? On TroutUnderground.com.

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

Fly fishing and conservation author Paul Schullery writes a brief history of Orvis on the 150th anniversary of the company's founding in Vermont's Manchester Journal. "In 1989, In Search of Excellence author and business guru Tom Peters named Orvis rods one of the best products of the 1980s. Today's rod shop under Jim Logan is just as successful with the new Zero Gravity fly rod recently garnering Field and Stream magazine's 2006 Best of the Best honors, furthering Orvis' well-deserved reputation for innovation."

(You can read much more of Paul Schullery's writing -- including his popular piece on "ratty" flies -- in MidCurrent's Fly Fishing History section.)

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

"'I decided to get out of there and go home but suddenly they all ran towards me waving bats and blocks of wood, shouting, "Get her'" 'I was jostled and they smashed my fishing rod.' As she broke away from the melee, Miss Belson saw another woman being punched in the face and several cars being vandalised." Nigel Bunyon of the UK Telegraph reports on an incident in which activists assaulted several fly fishers at England's Bank House fishery.

Another Telegraph columnist accurately points out that these thugs are not animal-lovers, but people-haters.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Why are blue-winged olives such a favorite of trout everywhere? In part because they are typically abundant, and in because they belong to the "swimmers" group of mayflies, making them more available to hungry trout than "crawlers," "clingers," or "burrowers." Ken Allen talks about why the BWO deserves distinction and about some of the most effective and classic tactics for imitating them. "Fly fishers cast the Pheasant Tail quartering across and downstream, let the submerged fly swing on a tight line and retrieve it by rolling the line over the fingers, which inches the fly along. This simulates the swimming nymph and can keep a rod bent all day long." On MaineToday.com.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"There are plenty of writers far more capable than me (i.e. Rick Bass) who wax philosophical about the Yaak, so if you are interested, I suggest you read their fine works. I’ll just say that the Yaak is one of those places that I might someday visit and never leave. " Luca Adelphio writes about the awesome northwest Montana river that has caused many a writing angler to wax poetic.

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