Recently in Fly Fishing Trip Category

In London's Financial Times, John O'Connor joins veteran guide Brendan McCarthy the pursuit of stripers and bluefish in the cold waters of lower New York Harbor. "New York City might not be the first place one thinks of when it comes to catching fish on a fly rod. But some of the best fly-fishing on the eastern seaboard can be found here, just a short subway-ride from Manhattan, in places such as Red Hook in Brooklyn, City Island in the Bronx and our destination today: the waters off the Gateway National Recreation Area in Far Rockaway."

"In Ohio the vast majority of steelhead begin life in the Castalia State Fish Hatchery in Erie County, where eggs and milt are stripped from 'breeder' stock, then incubated, hatched, and reared to yearling size of five to seven inches. Some 400,000 yearlings annually are planted in five central Lake Erie tributaries -- the Vermilion, Rocky, Chagrin, and Grand rivers, and Conneaut Creek. The latter stream also receives stockings by neighboring Pennsylvania." In the Toledo Blade, Steve Pollick and Jeff Basting offer an excellent overview of nothern Ohio's steelhead fishery.

If you wonder just how many king salmon crowd the Pere Marquette during late fall, take a look at the video of John Heider fishing near Baldwin, Michigan and hoping to catch a 10-20-pound fish on an eight weight. "Another type of fly that's worked well for me is what's called a spey fly. It's basically a flashy, billowy type of fly that might strike a salmon as an invader to their space. They'll often nail it with the kind of no-doubt-about-it turn of their whole body, opening of their big, toothy mouth and bite that's a real joy to see and experience." From the Gannett News Service.

The addictions, anger and depression that accompany many veterans aren't well answered by traditional means, but over the past four years Project Healing Waters has proved that simply being on a trout stream can help wounded veterans take a few steps toward normalcy. Cindy Wolff writes about a recent PHW expedition on Arkansas's White River, where the local Delta Trout Unlimited club worked with the Veterans Administration and $14,000 in private donations to arrange a week-long fly fishing experience. "Travis Dulaney keeps an Army-issue tin cup with him -- a touchstone to remind him sometimes when he wakes from a drunken stupor that he's alive. The 46-year-old who has had a few "come aparts" in his life, spent years trying to get put back together. He has prayed with Army chaplains in Georgia, walked in and out of detox, took 12 steps and then some, been on and off the wagon, in and out of jail." On CommercialAppeal.com.

Like anyone who knows a place that is still wild and mostly unchanged, I hesitate to recommend that anyone go spend time there. But I also recognized long ago that many mostly-wild places stay that way only because of public awareness. This has never been truer than in the U.S. wildlife refuges that surround Florida's Lower Keys, where only a continuous, determined effort has prevented economic exploitation from turning them into on-the-water theme parks. In this morning's Miami Herald, Cammy Clark notes the centennial of the Key West National Wildlife Refuge, which stretches north and west from Key West and provides some of the best permit, bonefish and tarpon fishing in the world to those who learn its secrets. "The refuge, located off the coast of Key West, is full of life -- and surprises. Green sea turtles nest on its sandy beaches. Rare Miami blue butterflies flutter along its dunes. Hawks use the mangroves for resting areas to and from the Caribbean."

Kirk Deeter of Fly Talk sent us a note late last night to let us know that Denny Breer, who was featured in his book Castwork, was killed in an accident yesterday. Breer, who also operated Trout Creek Flies and was the author of a definitive guide to fishing Utah's Green River, Utah's Green River: A Fly Fisher's Guide to the Flaming Gorge Tailwater (June 1998) as well as several DVDs, was considered one of the top guides in the U.S. west. Apparently he died during an attempt to jack up one of his large pigeon coops.

Kirk Deeter writes in more detail this morning on Fly Talk.

New West's Bill Schneider takes a sojourn to Oregon's Grande Ronde and finds steelhead doing the thing that makes fly fishers' hearts pound: taking skated dry flies. "This means using a huge fly, extensively doped with floatant, cast roughly at a 45 degree angle downstream and then skated back toward shore until directly downstream. Instead of trying to leave no wake, you want the largest wake possible, which is why they call it either waking or skating your fly."

"A red ball of bait -- tens of thousands of bay anchovies -- pulsed like a giant beating heart as bluefish, their sides flashing like metal, ate their way through the frenzied bait." In this morning's New York Times, Peter Kaminsky takes his daughter fly fishing for bluefish and stripers, a fall activity that often requires a keen eye for birds and an understanding of how predators trap prey.

One of the pleasures of spending lots of time fishing is that it eventually turns almost all of us into "fish watchers." Many of my most memorable fishing days have been about the spectacle of some macro-event -- giant herds of permit, clouds of palolo worms, blizzards of black caddis and rises filling one hundred yards of river. Right now, in British Columbia, the salmon spawn is in full swing and provides even those without rod and reel a chance to get a glimpse of what makes our sport so entrancing. Jack Christie writes about the salmon crowding the Stave and Cowichan Rivers on Straight.com, noting that easy access is provided by several trails: "Trestle 66 is an ideal place to connect with the Cowichan by either heading upriver or downriver on foot or bike. Even if you only walk from the parking lot to the bridge high above the river, pause here. The North Side Walking Trail is an inviting stretch of single track that leads upstream for five kilometres to Skutz Falls."

"In a shallow run on the mighty River Spey in Scotland, an Atlantic salmon has taken my fly and is slaloming around rocks in an attempt to head back towards the sea. I am grateful for the power of my 15ft, Scott double-handed rod as I try to subdue what turns out to be a 9lb salmon, fresh off the tide." Bob Sherwood goes salmon fishing with British politico Charlie Whelan on Scotland's River Spey in London's Financial Times.

Not counting the time I broke a fence post by hitting a barbed wire gate going 30 miles per hour on my mountain bike, I've always followed the simple rule learned in my first days in Montana: always be sure to leave gates in the same state -- open or closed -- as the way you found them.

It sounds obvious, but it also requires that you know how to open and close a barbed wire gate -- not always easy, especially if a rancher strings a tight fence. Sometimes it's a two-person effort. Many pay-per-rod waters, which often exist on working ranches, have stepped walk-overs that allow anglers in waders to simply step over barbed wire. But if you are planning on asking permission to fish water on private land, or if you are taking advantage of laws that allow public access to "private waters" (see the story on new access granted in Utah), be sure you respect landowners' fences.

Here's a little teaser for a new video produced by Justin Coupe and Palmer Taylor. "Rivers of the Lost Coast" covers the history of northwest U.S. coastal steelhead fishing and is narrated by Tom Skerrit. From the Facebook page: "At the turn of the 20th century a handful of pioneers carried their fly rods into California's remote north coast and gave birth to a culture that would revolutionize their sport. For a select few, steelhead fly fishing became an obsessive pursuit without compromise."

I distinctly remember the first time I enjoyed the company of a professional trout guide. The fishing was educational, of course, but the moment that noon arrived and the guide began a setting out a stunning spread of food is what sticks in my mind. I had guided for years in the Keys already, and the idea that a guide would serve food to the client was novel by itself. But it quickly became apparent to me that the "shore lunch" was not just a simple daily event. It was a ritual as important as the fishing itself.

In New West, Bill Schneider expresses a similar amazement at the shore lunch concept and outlines the step-by-step ingredients for a great midday meal. "On our last day we had hor'dourves--blackened pike. Mike kept a small pike so we could have some thin fillets, and then he put the frying pan directly on the fire (not on the grill), so it could get 'white hot.' He soaked the fillets in butter and added a liberal doze of Cajun spice on both sides before searing them for about a minute on each side. They don't make adjectives to aptly describe how delicious it was."

Almost every time Field & Stream's Kirk Deeter does a fly fishing expedition somewhere, I find myself looking at the post-trip images and thinking two things: Man, I wish I had been there; and, Man, I'm glad I didn't have to do that. This time, though, I didn't have the second thought. Despite the twelve-hour bus rides and the flights through "cocaine country," the fishing for 20-plus-pound Dorado in Bolivia looks like a cure for any domestic malaise.

"What do dorado eat? Big flies. Dark flies (and spoons.) With eyes. Sometimes a fish would grab a fly and I'd miss the hookset, yet the eyes of my fly would be torn away. Dorado aim for the head."

Read more about fly fishing for Dorado on MidCurrent.

The Miami Herald's Sue Cocking has the enemy in her sights, makes contact, and manages to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. "One thing about quests is that if they're completed too quickly, they don't really seem like quests. Like locating the Holy Grail, finishing an Ironman triathlon, or writing, as one woman did, a book about doing the wild thing with your husband 365 days in a row, there has to be some suffering and some setbacks and a decent interval before reaching the finish line."

Time magazine covers the spread of brown trout from Europe to its former colonies and suggests that if you want to do something good for the environment you should head down to Dullstroom, South Africa and help them get rid of all those seven-pounders infesting the waters.

The water is rising in Hebgen Lake. After emergency repairs finally allowed the dam operators to lower the flow into Montana's Madison River a few weeks ago, everyone had their fingers crossed that the temporary patch would work. Now it appears that there will be plenty of holding capacity for the Madison through the winter and that brown trout spawning won't be interrupted. "'We're actually gaining water on the lake now a little bit,' said David Hoffman, spokesman for PPL Montana, operator of the dam. 'The more major rehabilitation will have to wait, possibly until the spring or the spring of 2010.'" Brett French in the Billings Gazette.

Just because Buffalo Bill is buried on a hill west of Denver doesn't mean that Colorado has better fishing than the countryside within fifty miles of Cody, Wyoming, according to Charlie Meyers in the Denver Post. "This thing about Glenwood Springs being the best fly-fishing town in America was just so much male bovine dung. A much more deserving recipient, the missive continued, would be Cody, Wyo. Further, John Baughman declared, I should deliver my misinformed carcass up there and see for myself."

Fishing with terrestrials for fall trout in Wisconsin's Driftless Area elicits a wry comment from Steve Engelbert. "'If you are landing a beaver, you're fishing too stout,' says Engelbert." Maybe that will help us set the upper limit for performance on the new stump-puller-style short fly rods. In the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

In Gray's Sporting Journal, John Larison writes a golden fall tale of fly fishing for steelhead after being called by the smell of blackberries. "About when the wild blackberries drip their sweet purple honey onto the emerald leaves below, and the east winds sweep off the Cascades carrying the stoning smell over my little Willamette Valley town, we know it's time to take a day off. Summer steelhead, in the rivers since May or June, will finally emerge from their heat-induced comas and take our dry flies."

Gordon Wickstrom recounts weaving his way through lascivious hippies in the sixties to find his way to the Golden Gate Angling and Casting Club, and then returning more than 40 years later. "It was thrilling for me to revisit this fabled shrine of angling where during the 1940s and '50s, fly-fishing would take on an indelible and thoroughly American character. Here was codified the double haul cast, shooting head lines backed to monofilament, big-water, heavy-river distance casting, and a new dispensation in flies, the big 'attractor' flies capable of irritating steelhead and big trout into savage strikes." In the Boulder Daily Camera.

"The biggest cutthroat of the year come to my egg flies when the chinook salmon do their dance of death and life in South Sound rivers. The Nisqually, the Skokomish and the rivers that flow into Hood Canal also offer great cutthroat trout fishing during the salmon spawn. I usually lose these big cutts to the snags or my own excitement." Chester Allen writes about fishing egg flies for big cutthroat in the many Washington rivers where salmon spawn in the fall. In the Olympian.

After sunset, those in search of the brown trout of a lifetime hunt the shorelines of Colorado's North Delaney Butte Lake, hoping to catch a fat fish before the state begins netting egg-filled fish for hatcheries. "As darkness grows, more monsters join in a display brown trout share with their close cousins, the Atlantic salmon. The late Lee Wulff compared this anxious surface leaping to a hyperactive boy kicking a can, a stirring that expresses some deep emotion, but no real purpose." Charlie Meyers in the Denver Post.

You'd be hard pressed to find a serious trout angler who doesn't have New Zealand on their life list. The brown trout there are legendary for their size and selectivity, and if sight-casting to big fish in complete solitude is your thing, there's hardly a better place.

This week we're showing a segment from theflyfishingDVD.com's new "Backcountry Trout," an example of the trend toward making downloads of high-quality fishing films available over the Web. Australian fly fishing expert Peter Morse, along with guide Nigel Birt, demonstrates how a careful approach, the correct fly choice, and observing fish reactions all make a difference on a bluebird day in the New Zealand lowlands.

An "idiot hole" can be either a spot where anyone can catch a fish, or a place that leaves even expert anglers feeling like they've lost their mojo. Oregon's Metiolus is home to at least one of the latter, but fall's hatches can change all that, according to Mark Morical in the Washington Olympian. "Autumn also brings the second green drake hatch of the season on the Metolius. The green drake hatch in June is well known and brings anglers from across the country when the large, olive-toned mayflies cover the river. The fall hatch, however, is known by relatively few and often surprises even local anglers."

One of the most scenic lodges in the Caribbean (it's actually built on an ancient Mayan fishing camp, with the coral reef within 200 feet of any cabin door) is offering a free DVD on bonefish, permit and tarpon fishing on the Turneffe atoll. The DVD also includes details on scuba diving and other atoll adventures and can be gotten free by calling (888) 512-8812 or emailing reservations@tflats.com.

When fly fishers hear the word 'Bighorn,' they immediately think of the giant spring-creek-like outflow from the Yellowtail dam in Montana. But south of the Montana border, in Wyoming's Bighorn mountains, are plenty of places to fish in complete solitude for trout that don't see anglers every day. In Wisconsin's Leader-Telegram, Joe Knight talks about a recent trip to the Tongue River. "You just might be a trout bum if the first thing you do in the morning, after scaring the mule deer and free-range cattle out of the camp site, is eat a breakfast cooked over a one-burner stove in a cast-iron frying pan, then clamp a fly-tying vise on a picnic table and tie flies until the sun has warmed the streams enough for fishing."

In a short video, fly fishing guide Karl Weixlmann discusses essential gear and flies for catching steelhead from the Lake Erie shoreline.

The accompanying article also gives lots of advice on technique: "After making the cast, I like to tuck the cork handle of the fly rod under my arm pit and use both hands to strip in the fly line and dump it into a stripping basket. You simply cannot outstrip a steelhead that's bent on eating your fly in open water. Another retrieve that works on the lakeshore is to strip the line in erratic spurts from 1 foot to 3 feet long with your line hand while keeping the line tucked under the cork handle with your rod hand."

On NWPAOutdoors.com.

"'A lot of deep-water sanctuary and access, and a variety and surplus of bait to sustain these fish,'' [George] Poveromo wrote in an e-mail. 'Big fish can drop off into the [Sea of Abaco] within seconds and be safe. Those on the oceanside flats can drop off into a channel or deep water within seconds. Then there's less fishing pressure here.''' Sue Cocking fishes the off-season at Green Turtle Cay and still manages to catch fish in only a half day of fly casting. In the Miami Herald.

Forget about those expensive waders. With its art, culture, and nude beach on the Wisconsin river, the Town of Mazomanie would have to be on your list of cool (too cool?) places to live in Wisconsin. "The September issue of Budget Travel named Mazomanie one of the '10 Coolest Small Towns,' noting that the village is saturated with artists. Mazomanie's comeback is partly due to historical society members who saw the potential of their hamlet nestled amid rolling hills, the Wisconsin River, Black Earth Creek (a Class A trout stream) and farm fields."

The crash that killed a guide, pilot and two anglers on their way to Alaska's Royal Wulff Lodge last year was caused by corrosion in the wing, according to a federal accident report. Unfortunately, this kind of corrosion would be undetectable without removing the wings, so the FAA sent a special bulletin on Sept. 9 to all operators of the type of plane involved -- the Helio Courier. "[Royal Wulff co-owner Chris] Branham said he bought the plane from legendary Bush pilot Lowell Thomas in the 1980s, and his lodge uses three other Helio Couriers. The reason his company chose this type of plane for the lodge was its reputation as one of the safest in the world, he said." Elizabeth Bluemink in the Anchorage Daily News.

Like any savvy angler, John Berry knows when a good thing might slip away. With Hurricane Ike on the horizon and the Corps of Engineers reducing water flow on both Bull Shoals and Norfork Dams in preparation, he and his wife make a beeline for Arkansas's White River. "The trout had not seen much of anything but brightly colored San Juan worms in months. With the fish more concentrated in the lower water, anglers able to wade to their favorite holes and fish that had never been effectively fished over in months, it was a prescription for great fishing." In the Baxter Bulletin.

Chris Santella and friends hire an outfitter to fly them, their raft, and their meager gear to Alaska's Kanektok, where they enjoy indifferent bears and some of the best fly fishing in North America. "Seeing the bear seemed to alter our luck. That day, we caught Arctic char and Dolly Varden at will -- 30, 40, 50 apiece. Some were pushing 25 inches and 5 or 6 pounds, brilliantly mottled in black, gold and orange. We found a beautiful campsite that looked out at a mountainside dotted with stands of blueberries." In The New York Times.

As Eric Sharp points out, fishing for St. Marys River pink salmon with indicators is about as easy as salmon fishing gets. The best part is that catching pinks will give you all the experience you need in determining when any type of salmon has taken a fly. "Sometimes the bright green, acorn-size foam indicator jiggled a little without going completely underwater. Other times it suddenly slowed down. Either occurrence was a signal to raise the rod tip and feel the sudden, hard headshake of a hooked fish." In the Detroit Free Press.

Field & Stream fishing columnist and MidCurrent editorial board member John Merwin turned up this very interesting story about research into the age of a monster brown trout caught on Argentina's Rio Grande River last year. The fish, estimated at 41.5 pounds, was caught and released by Brian Yamamoto, a dentist from Fairbanks, Alaska. The University of Montana's Sarah O'Neal, who studies Rio Grande fish, got one of the scales and "read" the fish's history in the rings and scars: "We can't know with 100% accuracy the exact size of this guy at each year of his life. But regardless, they suggest that he was a fast-grower from the get go. Even in freshwater you can see he was larger than the average sea trout. And then he just went nuts out there at sea."

By the way, Merwin's new blogging efforts make a regular visit to his "The Honest Angler" a requirement for smart fishermen. I particularly wish I had had his solution to "bumper bashing" when I was trailering a boat 300 days a year.

A landmark decision by the Belizean government yesterday will provide much-needed protection for bonefish, permit and tarpon. As we noted back in June, Craig Hayes, owner of Turneffe Flats Lodge, and Ali Flota, owner of El Pescador Lodge, were leading an effort to provide the necessary economic data and angler support for the measure, which will stop commercial fishing for these important species. As research now shows, many of the juvenile fish for the Florida Keys and other areas originate in Belize, so these new protections hold great promise.

Thanks to all of those who responded to the original request for support.

Visit the Turneffe Flats Lodge Web site.

Visit the El Pescador Web site.

Read MidCurrent's guide to fly fishing in Belize.

Read the extended entry for the full press release.

"The pervasive stillness on the Teton River makes the fishing all the more intense. Slow currents slide and twist along the hay-lined banks, pulling tricos, the product of a light hatch earlier this morning, around in the river's relaxed spin cycle." Samuel S. Bacon writes a lyrical entry on trico fishing on the Teton in the Denver Post.

Anyone who thinks a guide can be expected to post accurate blog entries while competing with another guide for business is probably not familiar with Ed Zern's wonderful observation: "Fishermen are born honest, but they get over it." Still, it's a step up from word-of-mouth. Adam Edwards describes the blogging efforts of two River Tay keepers, Jock Monteith and Bob White, in the U.K. Telegraph. "The spin-off from this electronic competition between the two men has given those anoraks who eat, drink and sleep fly-fishing unique access, wherever they are in the world, to two short stretches of the Tay. In the past the reputation of a particular beat came from the log books and the stories that were handed down. Neither was always as accurate as it might have been."

You can find Monteith's blog here, and White's here.

"One finds another form of freedom in these high places. Since these headwaters nearly always involve public lands, there's never a question of access. All that's required to claim them is a bit of research and the willingness to walk. Where this involves those special places at high elevation, getting there is a large part of the fun." Charlie Meyers describes using your feet to trace the squiggly blue lines of topo maps as one of the great pleasures of fall, especially in a year like this one. In the Denver Post.

While there have been rumors that New Zealand's Conservation Minister Steve Chadwick would not approve the proposed ban on felt soles in that country, today Chadwick announced that she will indeed follow the advice of the New Zealand Fish and Game Council. According to the Fish and Game New Zealand government Web site, "The new condition is part of the Anglers Notice and comes into affect from the beginning of the fishing season on 1 October. 'The New Zealand Fish and Game Council has recommended that people who hold a licence to fish for trout, and other sports fish, should contribute to the national campaign to halt the spread of didymo by not using felt-soled waders when fishing.'"

August always reminds me of black blizzards of caddis swirling in the Bighorn twilight. Dennis Anderson recently visited Montana's Bighorn with his sons and experienced the angst of watching some big fish get away because the boys weren't quite as quick with the net as he might have been. "Sometime tonight, we'll grill dinner there over charcoal while distant coyotes bay at the moon, and stars sparkle in a black sky that seems to stretch from yesterday to tomorrow, and beyond. For now, this clean, cold river envelopes our boat, as our flies -- nymphs -- drift near the bottom, carried downstream at the exact speed of the current." In the Minneapolis - St. Paul Star Tribune.

A 14,000-acre wildfire has entered the south part of the Nature Conservancy preserve near Idaho's Silver Creek, but officials believe they will be able to contain the blaze by tonight.

John Berry reports that FFF affiliate Mid-South Fly Fishers in Memphis has just come out with latest edition of their indispensable guide book Home Waters, which covers Arkansas and Tennessee. Besides listing all accesses and directions for how to get there, the book includes details on how to fish each location, written by seasoned guides and veteran anglers. "Another feature that will appeal to the traveling angler is the accommodations matrix. It lists all of the accommodations available near the streams in the guide and provides contact information. It includes a lot of data concerning extras (fireplaces, kitchens, pets and adjacent restaurants), fishing facilities and boat rentals. There is also a listing of guide services and fly shops by area with contact information." The 192-page book is available from local fly shops for $34. In the Baxter Bulletin.

It used to be that only Florida Keys bonefish pursued post-graduate educations. With the rise in fishing pressure along Florida's Gulf coast, redfish have become the new doctors of selective eating, according to this Sarasota Herald-Tribune writer: "Head for exotic destinations such as the Bahamas, Venezuela, Mexico, Belize or Christmas Island, and even the most inexperienced fly fisher can become a seasoned bonefish pro. For our money, redfish are tougher than bonefish when it comes to shallow water sight-fishing with flies or artificial lures. Redfish can make bonefish look downright easy."

Retired Houston Chronicle writer Joe Doggett packs more information about Alaskan fly fishing opportunities into this one article than we've seen in entire book chapters. He briefly describes fishing on a number of smaller Alaskan river, but says the Moraine is the "purest Alaskan experience." "It is most famous for consistent numbers of 'mid-20s,' football-fat, brightly colored trout in the 22- to 26-inch class, any one of which might be a season topper -- maybe a career topper -- in public streams in the Lower 48." Be sure to check out the "Resources" sidebar, which details the seasons for the most sought-after fish.

Abe and Patsy Chavez opened the doors to their $5-a-day fishing shop on August 18, 1958, only to see the construction of the Navajo Dam push them into the motel business. Fifty years later, they are selling flies and float trips to anglers on the San Juan -- now a tailwater with a world-wide reputation. Writer Cornelia De Bruin suggests a possible secret to the longevity of their marriage and their fly shop: a sign in the dining room that reads "We interrupt this marriage to bring you fishing season." In the Las Cruces, New Mexico Sun-News.

"A trout in moving water is like a batter in baseball. The fish has a strike zone that's zealously guarded. Like an overanxious batter, a hungry trout will sometimes fall for an outside pitch, but the fish mostly waits patiently until the current delivers a juicy snack right down the middle of the proverbial plate." In the Dallas Morning News, Ray Sasser writes about hopper fishing on the waters of the members-only Marabou Ranch near Steamboat Springs.

We see a lot of newspaper articles on fly fishing. It's nice to see one present coverage of the local fishing in a clean layout and with some truly impressive photos. (Now if they could only bother to include an attribution.) Craig Dilger (we think) writes about fly-fishing guide Jeremy Jones and the seasons on the Provo in the Daily Herald. "Jones is completely serious about fishing year-round. "'The winter fishing is great,' he said. 'It just gets cold, people's hands start getting cold and the eyelets on the fly-rod start to ice up, so it makes it tough to cast. But I have had some of my best days on the Provo River in complete blizzards at negative 10 degrees and still catching fish. Nobody is out there, and everything is so white. It is beautiful.'"

It doesn't quite rank with the Montana guide to fishing locations, but the new Google-maps based page showing all the possible locations to fish for various species in Arizona is certainly crammed with info. One of the coolest features is that you can filter the map icons by species (use the check boxes at the bottom of the map.) We also suggest using the drop-down at the upper right to change the map setting from "Map" view to "Terrain."

Ryan Peterson, who works in the travel department at California's The Fly Shop, posted a long and decidedly low-tech blog entry on a recent trip to Kamchatka. In tow were the crew from Felt Soul Media and Frank Smethurst, who spent some time false-casting in Red Square. Via Moldy Chum.

Ray Petersen, an Alaska aviation pioneer who in the 1950s built some of the first fly-in fishing lodges in Alaska, died at age 96 on Tuesday. "In 1947 he formed Northern Consolidated Airlines, merging his Bethel-based air service, Ray Petersen Flying Service, with several other small airlines. In 1950 he brokered a deal with the National Park Service to build lodges in what was then Katmai National Monument. The five lodges launched a new era of fishing tourism in rural Alaska. Julia O'Malley in the Anchorage Daily News.

Not only will anglers have more options when it comes to lodging when fishing the Henry's Fork, but they'll get their Wi-Fi too when the state is done with major renovations, which began this summer. "'The unfortunate part is there's not a lot of lodging opportunities, and what was there was in need of repair.' So crews from Idaho Falls' SE/Z Construction began work this summer to take some historic buildings back to the new look they had 75 years ago, incorporating more lodging and dining opportunities along the way. They'll restore the Middle Dude, the Harriman Cottage and the Bunkhouse and remodel the South Dude Barn." Dani Grigg in the Idaho Business Review.

In Barrons, Jim McTague describes his horrifying encounter with Ursus wallstreetus horribilis on a trip to Maine's Grand Lake Stream for smallmouth. "They included big-bank economists, bond traders, money managers and financial consultants who have been brought together in this enchanted world of pristine lakes for almost 10 years by David Kotok, an expert fly fisherman and the chairman and chief investment officer of Cumberland Advisors, a money-management firm in Vineland, N.J."

"Anglers driving east on Rio Blanco County Road 8 from Colorado Highway 13 go past miles of attractive water but it's all private property with virtually no access. The Nelson/Prather easement, named after a couple of local ranching families, offered the only public water between Meeker and an easement through Sleepy Cat Ranch about 17 miles east." Dave Buchanan writes about the likely closure of a key access point on the White River in the Grand Junction Sentinel.

One of the impacts of lower airline profits is the disappearance of routes to local airports. That has communities like Butte, Montana trying things like "travel banks," funded by local businesses, which purchase seats to ensure the airlines continue their local flights. But the immediate result is likely to be more traveling anglers fishing closer to hubs like Bozeman and Denver -- good news for hub-based outfitters, but another challenge to the viability of far-flung fly shops and outfitters. "'If people are going to fly into the Bozeman airport, they're more likely to fish with lodges close to the Bozeman airport,' Hanson, partner and manager of the Complete Fly Fisher, told ABCNews.com. 'We are losing our grip by the second.'" Article by Kate Barrett.

It's not postcard beauty, notes Bob Welch, but the incredible richness of southeast Oregon derives from its very remoteness and landscape subtleties. "In two fly-fishing trips on the Donner und Blitzen River, we never saw another line in the water beyond ours. As for 'locals,' if you ignore antelope - we saw dozens - and deduct the, uh, population hubs of Hines and Burns - 60 miles north of Frenchglen - you have 2,885 people spread over a county that's larger than eight U.S. states. That's about 3.6 square miles for each person." In the Oregon Register-Guard.

More about the Donner und Blitzen river.

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While the hundreds of rail cars left immobile by the recession are an eyesore to some, the fishing in the upper Missouri has been fantastic this year. One thing the article by John S. Adams doesn't touch on is the fact that the railroad beds themselves -- often lined with boulders that provide great shelter for brown trout -- have long been a favorite stalking-ground for anglers looking for risers among the rocks. (In fact the photo in the article shows a favorite bank.) "'They don't bother me. I come here to fish, and it's not hurting the fishing,' said Ken Nordeste of Sacramento, Calif. Nordeste has been returning to fish the Missouri River for more than 20 years." In the Great Falls Tribune.

CNBC business news analyst Steve Leisman -- an avid fly fisher -- reported from a meeting of rather pessimistic economists at Maine's Leens Lodge this morning. Of course he was teased by Joe and Becky about his casual attire, but he had a quick comeback for the question of whether he would fish in the rain today: "Fish don't mind getting wet," he said. "And you gotta remember, fish are just like stock pickers -- they've got to pick these small flies out of an ocean of water. A little bit of rain won't bother them."

"For 30 or so miles from Greers Ferry Dam in Cleburne County to the state Route 305 bridge in northern White County, it teems with stocked rainbow trout, a self-sustaining population of wild browns and a sprinkling of colorful brook and cutthroat trout." Cindy and Steve Taylor write about the Little Red, where fishing strategies are ruled by generator output at the Greers Fairy Dam, and about the catch-and-release Collins Creek, which empties into the Red. In Arkansas Game & Fish magazine.

If dropping your 16-foot dory down a 120-foot drop off isn't enough to make you wince, there's the churning, narrow gorge on Blue River that may swallow you before you ever reach "frog water." Scott Willoughby describes a river-boat test in The Denver Post.

Many forward-thinking states have been successful in turning old rail right-of-ways, logging roads and other formally commercial routes into bike paths that reach far into the backcountry. Among them is Pennsylvania, where some 550 miles of biking and hiking trails extend through the western part of the state alone. Ben Moyer writes about some of the opportunities for peddling anglers in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "'Many state forest and state game land roads that are closed to motorized vehicles provide bicycle access to spots rarely visited by fishermen,' said Gregg Rinkus who lives in Franklin, Venango County, within bike-strike distance of trails along the Allegheny and Clarion rivers and Oil Creek."

Bill Graves pays tribute to legendary Atlantic salmon guide Richard Adams with a story about how Adams made short work of a 27-pound fish with some deft use of the net. (There's also an interesting note about how "strumming" a line can make a big fish move.) "'Keep leading him right up beside the boat if you can', Richard said, "but all at once he's going to take off like a scalded cat.' I knew he was right; large salmon are seldom netted from a canoe, they are too wily. Then, all at once, the fish was right alongside. There was a quick flash as my old guide swept the net and snared the passing fish. That's when the salmon really got wild, I thought it would beat a hole in the side of the canoe as I held the net overboard while Richard poled to shore." In the Bangor Daily News.

Not a lecture on how to row a drift boat without annoying others, but rather an introduction to how to best take advantage of a day of guided drift boat fishing, Rosenbauer's latest podcast includes such sage advice as: "Don't turn your guide into a marriage counselor."

Excerpt: "A good guide is going to watch your casts for the first dozen or so casts and see where you're comfortable. The guide will then position the boat so that your comfortable casting distance is going to reach the perfect spot. If you watch a good guide carefully they will weave in and out of the current, and back and forth, to make sure that you're able to put your fly easily in the best spot."

The round-trip air fare may cost you $2000, but as the only scheduled flight between the U.S. and the Russian Far East, Vladivostok Air's new service from Anchorage to Petropavlovsk, Kamchatka is the best thing going. The company restarted the service on July 8 after a seven-year absence of any regular non-stop flights between the two cities.

Read the extended entry for the full press release.

A dry hot summer is leading to extreme low water conditions in some classic Catskill streams like the Willowemoc. "'This is bad, really bad,' says [Jim] Krul, the executive director of the Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum. 'We need about a week of steady rain.'" The Willowemoc is a fly-fisherman's paradise, but not when there's so little water flowing that you can see every rock on the creek bed." Adam Bosch in the Times Record-Herald.

"I could see the excitement in the fish's half-dollar-sized eyes as it finally rose, rolled and centered its mouth on a pigeon-sized fly I'd cast. It was the most exciting thing I've seen in 45 years of fishing. The nearly hour-long fight on a fly rod that followed was certainly the most exhausting." A tussle with a Panamanian sailfish causes a Kansas.com writer to pop a cold one at 9AM.

While the crowds flock to Gray Reef, locals know that some of the best fishing around Caspar, Wyoming is inside the city limits. "'You're catching fish that average about 18 to 20 [inches long] at the Gray Reef,' [Cuylar Cercy] said. 'In town, they average around 13 to 15 [inches], but it's got more of the bigger monster fish. There are more fish more than 25 inches long in town than at the Gray Reef.'" Wes Smalling in the Jackson Hole Star-Tribune.

Writing in The New York Times, Stephen C. Sautner describes his effort to turn a Bermuda cruise ship holiday into a fly fishing sojourn, complete with casts from the ninth-floor balcony and an encounter with Bermuda's sophisticated bonefish. "All of this leaves the do-it-yourself fisherman -- the guy who happens to slip a rod tube and a box of lures or flies into his suitcase-- feeling a little desperate. Which is why I found myself casting, yet not fully thinking through what might happen if I actually hooked something. Would a thrashing jack need to be hauled in hand over hand, past the disco on Deck 7 and the honeymooning couple on Deck 8?"

"Less than a five-hour drive from Chicago, this relatively undiscovered region of wrinkled valleys and limestone bluffs contains 63 spring-fed creeks running 220-plus miles. Called the Driftless Area because glaciers advancing from the north 10,000 years ago didn't manage to flatten the landscape, it boasts some of the best fly-fishing in the Midwest." Brian E. Clark offers a detailed introduction to the interesting fishing for browns and brookies to be found in southwest Wisconsin. In the Chicago Sun-Times.

If you are lucky enough to live in Michigan and can afford an extra tank of gas and an Ontario fishing license, extraordinary fishing for Atlantic salmon awaits on the St. Mary's River, which forms the border between Michigan and Canada. "'I think this year we'll be targeting Atlantics right into August, when the Chinooks arrive,' said [guide John] Giuliani, who draws clients from Europe as well as from across North America. 'They're really fat this year. The 2-year-olds are 5-10 pounds, the 3-year olds are 13-20, and we've seen 4- or 5-year-old fish that were just huge.'" Eric Sharp in the Detroit Free Press.

If you think that true "fly fishing adventures" are for the young and resilient, your preferred way to explore remote Pacific islands might be to watch a film of hale young fellows hopping a freighter toward a small dot on the charts, and then trying to find bonefish while surviving on too little food and water. To be honest, when I first popped the DVD of "The Search - Tahiti" into my player, I wondered if these guys had all gone around the bend. But I'm sure glad they did this trip, if only to show the possibilities that spring from youthful energy and uneven planning.