Some years back, I had the opportunity to fly fish for trophy northern pike on Reindeer Lake, a massive and unspoiled boreal lake that straddles the border of Saskatchewan and Manitoba. We hit the lake right around the summer solstice — the ideal time for trophy pike in the northern reaches of Canada’s southern provinces. We arrived during a short cold snap that quickly retreated and spent a week watching the lake go from spring to summer in just a matter of days. Fishing was good. Really good ..read more

Yesterday, the Biden administration rejected the “speculative” Amber Road Project that would have constructed an industrial-grade road some 210 miles into the Alaskan interior in order to allow minerals to be transported to market from the Ambler Mining District ..read more

Bliss Perry was a pioneer in American literature. He taught at Williams College, Princeton, and Harvard and edited the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, among others. But I wouldn't know anything about Professor Perry if he hadn't written a book called Fishing with a Worm. His short book—published in 1916—begins with an indictment of the fishing gene: A defective logic is the born fisherman's portion. He is a pattern of inconsistency. He does the things which he ought not to do, and he leaves undone the things which other people think he ought to do ..read more

Flats fishing is an active pursuit, and the terrain isn’t always as friendly as we wish it was. And when you’re wading, it’s all about stealth and balance. Keeping your feet safe and comfortable over a weeklong trip where you’ll wade across everything from eelgrass to jagged Caribbean limestone is every bit as important as the rod you cast and the fly you choose to put in front of bonefish and permit ..read more

Reading the Water is a new podcast presented by Hatch Magazine, hosted by longtime Hatch Magazine contributor and author of the new book A Cast Away in Montana, Tim Schulz ..read more

Spring has sprung. Even considering that mother nature decided to dump big, early spring snowfalls on both the mountain west and northern New England, redbuds and dogwoods will soon be near their peak in Appalachia and, even here in the Rockies, the sun is taking a bite out of the winter snowpack. Across the fly fishing industry, gear and equipment manufacturers are celebrating the new season with some new offerings, including new inflatable crafts designed for anglers, boots and shoes and even some throwback shades. Without further adieu, here’s what’s new this month ..read more

A good friend of mine from Fredricksburg, Texas, proudly wears the mantle of “former biology nerd.” Now and again, Mick McCorcle pulls out one of his microscopes and takes a detailed look at various fly-tying materials. “One cold winter day,” he told me, “I pulled out some peacock herl and began to examine it under increasingly higher magnification. At each level, the herl was iridescent. As the magnification got higher, the field of view got smaller, but the iridescence was still evident. No matter how high the magnification, the iridescence never dulled ..read more

For anglers who fish hard, their gear is everything. It keeps us warm. It keeps us dry. Sometimes, it keeps us upright — on our feet — when the river or the terrain has other ideas. It helps us achieve that desired connection with the fish we’re after. Good gear adds joy to fishing. That’s what it’s supposed to do, and those who scoff at the idea that quality gear is a significant component to good fishing might need to rethink the state of their fly fishing closet ..read more

Last night, I couldn’t find a campsite in the dark and rain, so I parked and slept in the day-use lot at Barretts Park Campground. When I crawl out of my truck this morning, I’m about two hundred feet from the Beaverhead River, which flows beside a four-hundred-foot-wide and sixty-foot-high rock formation Lewis and Clark called “Rattlesnake Cliff ..read more

The bright, 14-inch rainbow trout launched into the air, silhouetting itself against the June sky, mirrored in the shining surface of the stream as it fell back to the water with a satisfying smack. It was not the grandest rainbow of my life, but the one that brought me the most joy. It was my first Silver Creek rainbow. My first western trout. Yes, I said to myself. This is it ..read more