TROUT Magazine - September 2024

THE BLUE LINE PROJECT

venture off the beaten path to the thin blue lines. Find adventure. Find solitude. Find conservation.

Discover the magic of blue lining with the new Abel TR Blue Line Edition - where adventure meets tranquility.

Blue lining is all about escaping the crowds and exploring sections of unpressured rivers, hidden streams, and less-traveled natural beauty. Blue lining offers a unique and intimate connection with nature, allowing you to fish in serene, often overlooked locations teeming with fish.

Through the Blue Line Project, Abel, Airflo, OnWater, and Trout Unlimited seek to inspire anglers to spread out and seek the thin blue lines on the map. Chasing the blue lines enhances conservation efforts by reducing pressure on popular stretches of water and encourages adventure and solitude. Your purchase supports Trout Unlimited through a giveback from Abel Reels and Airflo.

Embrace the journey off the beaten path responsibly and uncover the true essence of fly fishing. Go blue line – where every cast is an adventure, and every catch is a story worth telling.

ABEL TR BLUE LINE EDITION $600

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Photos by Josh Duplechian, Sammy Chang, and Tim Romano.

Trout Unlimited Leadership

Board

of Trustees

Chair of the Board

Terry Hyman, Washington, D.C.

President/Chief Executive

Officer

Chris Wood, Washington, D.C.

Secretary

Linda Rosenberg Ach, san FranCisCo, CaliF

Treasurer

Larry Garlick, Palo alto, CaliF

Chair of National Leadership Council

Rich Thomas, starlight, Pa

Secretary of the National Leadership Council

Paul McKay, Wheeling, W.Va

Trustees

Stewart Alsop, sante Fe, n.M.

Tony Brookfield, Park City, Utah

John Burns, neeDhaM, Mass

Amy Cordalis, ashlanD, ore

Josh Crumpton, WiMberley, texas

Mac Cunningham, basalt, Colo

R. Joseph De Briyn, los angeles, CaliF

Paul Doscher, Weare, n.h.

Larry Finch, Wilson, Wyo

Susan Geer, gilbert, ariz

Peter Grua, boston, Mass

Chris Hill, Washington, D.C./haines, alaska

Gregory McCrickard, toWson, MD

Phoebe Muzzy, hoUston, texas

H. Stewart Parker, ChaPel hill, n.C.

Al Perkinson, neW sMyrna beaCh, Fla.

Greg Placone, greenVille, s.C.

Candice Price, kansas City, Mo

Donald (Dwight) Scott, neW york, n y

Kathy Scott, norriDgeWoCk, Me

Judi Sittler, state College, Pa

Joseph Swedish, silVerthorne, Colo

Blain Tomlinson, long beaCh, CaliF

Terry Turner, glaDstone, ore.

Leslie Weldon, benD, ore

Jeff Witten, ColUMbia, Mo./elkins, W.Va

Geofrey Wyatt, santa barbara, CaliF

National Leadership Council Representatives

Chair

Rich Thomas

Secretary

Paul McKay

arizona, Tom Goodwin

arkansas, Melinda Smith

ColoraDo, Greg Hardy

CaliFornia, Trevor Fagerskog

ConneCtiCUt, Beth Peterson

georgia, Carl Riggs

iDaho, Ed Northen

illinois, Mark Wortsmann

ioWa, Tom Rhoads

kentUCky, Gene Slusher

Maine, Tammy Packie

MassaChUsetts, Bill Pastuszek

MiChigan, Greg Walz

MiD-atlantiC, Noel Gollehon

Minnesota, Randy Brock

Montana, Mark Peterson

neW haMPshire, John Bunker

neW Jersey, Peter Tovar

neW MexiCo, Jeff Arterburn

neW york, Jeff Plackis

north Carolina, Mike Mihalas

ohio, Matt Misicka

oklahoMa, Scott Hood

oregon, Peter Gray

ozark (ks/Mo) James Soukup

PennsylVania, Russ Collins

soUth Carolina, Paul McKee

tennessee, Mark Spangler

texas, Joe Filer

Utah, Jeff Taniguchi

VerMont, David Deen

Virginia, Eric Tichay

Washington, Andrew Kenefick

West Virginia, Paul D. McKay

WisConsin, Linn Beck

WyoMing, Jim Hissong

State Council Chairs

arizona, Alan Davis

arkansas, Michael Wingo

CaliFornia, Trevor Fagerskog

ColoraDo, Barbara Luneau

ConneCtiCUt, Rich Mette

georgia, Rodney Tumlin

iDaho, Matthew Woodard

illinois, Dan Postelnick

Coldwater Conservation Fund Board of Directors 2024

President

Jeffrey Morgan, neW york, n y

Executive Committee

Joseph Anscher, long beaCh, n y

Philip Belling, neWPort beaCh, CaliF

Stephan Kiratsous, neW york, n y

Stephen Moss, larChMont, n y

Directors

Bruce Allbright, steaMboat sPrings, Colo

Peter and Lisa Baichtal, saCraMento, CaliF

Daniel Blackley, salt lake City, Utah

Douglas Bland, ChesaPeake City, MD

Stephen Bridgman, WestFielD, n.J.

Mark Carlquist, los gatos, CaliF

Gregory Case, PhilaDelPhia, Pa

Benjamin Clauss, greenVille, s.C.

Bonnie Cohen, Washington, D.C.

James Connelly, neWPort beaCh, CaliF

Jeremy Croucher, oVerlanD Park, kan

Matthew Dumas, Darien, Conn

Rick Elefant and Diana Jacobs, berkeley, CaliF

Glenn Erikson, glorieta, nM

Renee Faltings, ketChUM, iDaho

John Fraser, norWalk, Conn

Matthew Fremont-Smith, neW york, n y

Bruce Gottlieb, brooklyn, n y

John Griffin, brooklyn, n y

Robert Halmi, Jr., neW york, n y

William Heth, eaU Claire, Wis

Kent and Theresa Heyborne, DenVer, Colo

Kent Hoffman, oklahoMa City, okla.

Frank Holleman, greenVille, s.C.

Braden Hopkins, Park City Utah

James Jackson, hoUston, texas

Tony James, neW york, n y

Jeffrey Johnsrud, neWPort beaCh, Cali

Jakobus Jordaan, san FranCisCo, CaliF

Matthew Kane, boUlDer, Colo

James Kelley, atlanta, ga

Peter Kellogg, neW york, n y

Andrew Kenefick seattle, Wash

Steven King, Wayzata, Minn.

Cargill MacMillan, III, boUlDer, Colo

Ivan & Donna Marcotte, asheVille, n.C.

Michael Maroni, bainbriDge islanD, Wash

Jeffrey Marshall, sCottsDale, ariz

Jay Martin, Delray beaCh, Fla

Heide Mason, yorktoWn heights, n y

Paul McCreadie, ann arbor, MiCh

Gregory McCrickard, toWson, MD

McCain McMurray, golDen, Colo

Daniel Miller, neW york, n y

Robert & Teresa Oden, Jr., hanoVer, n.h.

ioWa, David Klemme

kentUCky, Mike Lubeach

Maine, Matt Streeter

MassaChUsetts, Josh Rownd

MiChigan, Gabe Schneider

MiD-atlantiC, Randy Dwyer

Minnesota, Brent Notbohm

Montana, Brian Neilsen

neW haMPshire, Michael Croteau

neW Jersey, Marsha Benovengo

neW MexiCo, Marc Space

neW york, Cal Curtice

north Carolina, Brian Esque

ohio, Scott Saluga

oklahoMa, Bridget Kirk

oregon, Mark Rogers

ozark (ks/Mo) Brian Carr

PennsylVania, Leonard Lichvar

soUth Carolina, Michael Waddell

tennessee, Ryan Turgeon

texas, Chris Johnson

Utah, Scott Antonetti

VerMont, Jared Carpenter

Virginia, Jim Wilson

Washington, Pat Hesselgesser

West Virginia, Eugene Thorn

WisConsin, Scott Allen

WyoMing, Kathy Buchner

Kenneth Olivier, sCottsDale, ariz

Brian Paavola, key West, Fla

H. Stewart Parker, ChaPel hill, n.C.

Anne Pendergast, big horn, Wyo

Michael Polemis, olD ChathaM, n y

Adam Raleigh, neW york, n y

John Redpath, aUstin, texas

Michael Rench, CinCinnati, ohio

Steven Ryan, Wilson, Wyo

Leigh Seippel, neW york, n y

Paul Skydell, bath, Maine

Gary Smith, st loUis, Mo

Robert Strawbridge, III, Wilson, Wyo

Paul & Sandy Strong, lakeMont, ga.

Margeret Taylor, sheriDan, Wyo

Robert Teufel, eMMaUs, Pa

Jeffrey Thorp, JaCkson, Wyo

Andrew Tucker, larChMont, n y

Andrew Tucker, Vero beaCh, Fla

Deacon Turner, DenVer, Colo

Jeff Walters, sCottsDale, ariz

Maud and Jeff Welles, neW york, n y Tyler Wick, boston, Mass

Geofrey & Laura Wyatt, santa barbara, CaliF

Daniel Zabrowski, oro Valley, ariz.

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Sometimes, they’re just where they’re supposed to be. Austin Campbell finds a biggie behind a boulder in Colorado. Andrew Burr © 2024 Patagonia, Inc.

From the President

Blue Lines

[ Chris Wood ]

When I was first introduced to fly fishing by my friend, Bill Sargent, in Vermont, I fell in love with a whisper of a stream that flowed off the Green Mountain National Forest. The brookies were rarely longer than six inches, but the scenery and solitude made up for the lack of fish girth. It was only later that I realized the connection between that small stream and downstream rivers such as the East Middlebury and Otter Creek where I caught larger trout.

To this day, if you offered me quiet and solitude and small native fish or larger, more crowded rivers with big stockers, I would always choose the former. Clearly, that is a personal preference, but blue lines are more than a boost to my psyche.

Blue lines are the sources of our coldest and cleanest water. They harbor the highest abundance of native trout and salmon, as they are generally in less developed higher elevation areas.

Many years ago, I was an architect of a rulemaking that protected nearly 60 million acres of some of the highest quality fish and wildlife habitat in the country. These socalled “roadless areas” are the refuges for native species such as brook, westslope, bull, Gila, Apache and many other native trout.

My job at the Forest Service back then was to take all the meetings relevant to the very controversial Roadless Area Conservation Rule. The regulated community—tim ber, oil and gas, mining and other interests—beat down my door. The environmental community beat even harder. The one community I never heard from was the hunting and angling community.

To this day, that shocks me, because hunters and anglers gained more from the protec tion of wilderness quality roadless areas than any other interest. The sources of our blue lines, roadless and wilderness areas, have the healthiest habitats and best populations of native fish. They supply the coldest cleanest water. They have longest centerfire rifle seasons. Simply put, publicly owned roadless areas are one of our nation’s best sources of blue lines.

We have come full circle. Today, sportsmen and women, led by Trout Unlimited, are the strongest advocates of wilderness, roadless areas, national monuments and yes, blue lines. As sportsmen and women, we share a visceral connection to our lands and waters. We know where the trout will lie. We know the most likely areas to call in a turkey or see a good buck. We understand, at an intrinsic level, the connection between clean water, healthy habitat and good hunting and fishing.

Discovering and fishing blue lines helps to diminish the pressure on our most famous trout and salmon rivers. The pandemic brought us record numbers of anglers, and rivers such as the Madison, the South Fork of the Snake and the Beaverkill are now chronically overfished. To be certain, hiking into the headwaters to catch wild and native trout helps to relieve the pressure on our more popular and famous rivers. I would argue, however, for a more expansive definition of blue lines. Fishing for carp in the Connecticut River helps to reduce pressure on our native trout and salmon. So does fishing for shad in the Rappahannock in Virginia. Dare I say it, as does fishing for invasive snakehead or blue catfish from the Potomac in Washington, D.C.

All that is to say, get away from crowds and discover your local bass, bluegill and carp streams, or strap on some hiking boots and head up to the mountains for some native trout. Tonic for the soul.

From the Editor

Why Blue Lines?

[ Kirk Deeter ]

The more it seems like some of the most iconic (increasingly crowded) trout rivers have become the big box stores of the fishing world, the more I’ve come to appreciate those obscure little blue squiggles on a topo map. “Blue line” streams are the source of a fresher, more adventurous brand of fishing that appeals to all ages and demographics—basically anyone who is willing to explore. So, we decided to focus this issue of TROUT on celebrating those blue lines. We revere the places where the meaning of “trophy” has less to do with “big” or “heavy” and more to do with “native” and/or “wild.” We want to encourage more people to go blue lining—to spread out and give a break to the fish in pressured rivers that are increasingly warming due to climate change. We also want to honor the remarkable right to experience public lands (and waters) in the backcountry. Whether you wish to find solitude and rediscover why you like trout fishing in the first place, or you want a wholesome and rewarding family adventure, blue lining can be the ticket. Blue lines are for every angler, of any skill level, and you don’t have to pay to play. You just have to explore with a conscience, leaving things as you find them—sometimes in complete anonymity. It’s most important to realize that what happens in those little blue lines has cumulative impacts that are felt far downstream. So much of TU’s work focuses on making those little blue lines healthy, because the effects are felt for literally thousands of river miles. Go check out your remarkable work more often. It’s good for your conscience.

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Pocket Water

news bits and bytes

“TroutSpotter”

Could Completely Change (or Affirm) Our Understanding

of Trout

Ever wonder how often a certain trout gets caught? Or how far they might move upstream or downstream? Or how much bigger old “Norman” got between last season and this one?

There’s an amazing new AI-driven technology that might eventually provide answers to some of these questions, and in doing so, solve trout camp riddles that have lingered for years. The cool thing is… you can play a role in it.

The name of this project— TroutSpotter—has two meanings. First, it’s about the spot patterns

on trout that allow for their individual recognition with AI (much like human fingerprints). Second, it’s about the anglers who participate by catching fish, snapping a photo with a cell phone and uploading the photo online. If they want, anglers can then choose to receive a notification every time that same fish is caught again.

This project—a collaboration among the United States Geological Survey, TU and Wild Me (a nonprofit organization specializing in AI for conservation research based in Portland, Ore.) engages anglers

across the nation in USGS research, providing important benefits for researchers and anglers alike. For the USGS, this project enables new analysis of fish abundance, survival, growth and movement through the compilation of virtual mark-recapture datasets (i.e., spatial capturerecapture models). For anglers, this project can deepen their understanding and appreciation of their favorite stream or river and the fish that live there.

OnWater developed the mobile app platform that includes their own capability for AI-driven measure-

ments of fish size. It also captures other information, like temperature and flows, to accompany each photo. Importantly, catch information will be generalized for the public, so you don’t have to worry about your favor-

“We

find that community science projects attract broad and diverse participation, including folks who may not otherwise be interested in fishing alone.”

—Helen

Neville.

ite fishing hole being discovered (no spot-burning!)

TU’s role is to engage the angling community and encourage participation through TU chapters and local leadership. Of course, that means taking photos in “fish-friendly” ways, minimizing air exposure, etc.

The project started this summer with a focus on three initial watersheds: Rapidan River in Virginia, Rapid River in Maine and Deerfield River in Massachusetts. You can expect it to roll out to other select watersheds in places like the Rocky Mountain West in the future.

“We find that community science projects attract broad and diverse participation, including folks who may not otherwise be interested in fishing alone,” said TU’s senior scientist Helen Neville. “We are so excited to work with USGS to develop this opportunity to engage with people about both fishing and science—a true sweet spot for advancing our conservation mission.”

You can learn more at Onwaterapp.com.

Pocket Water

Seven Years On—Learning by Doing and the Fraser Flats

Colorado Trout Unlimited and West Slope communities on the one hand, and transmountain diverters Denver Water and Northern Water on the other, had a long history of battling over water development projects, and were good at it. Whether it was the long-term fight over the Two Forks Dam (ultimately rejected by EPA) or the ongoing environmental challenges created by depletions to the Colorado headwaters from the Colorado-Big Thompson Project, both sides were experienced at forming their battle lines.

In the mid 2010s, under agreements between Grand County, Northern Water, Denver Water and other key stakeholders, those lines began to change as parties on both sides of the Continental Divide began to look at how they might work together to benefit the resource both relied upon: the waters of the Upper Colorado River Basin. Shifting from conflict

to collaboration under a partnership named ‘Learning by Doing’ was a leap of faith, but one that is now being richly rewarded.

Perhaps the most visible success has been the recent collaborative effort to reconnect the Colorado River at Windy Gap Reservoir, allowing fish passage and natural sediment transport to resume

Together, these partners agreed to pursue a first pilot project in hopes of demonstrating that this new way of doing business would prove justified.That project was the restoration of Fraser Flats, a one-mile reach of wide, shallow and largely homogenous habitat that supported limited fish numbers.

on the river after nearly 40 years of being severed. Other important efforts have helped with flow management at key times and with the recent acquisition by Grand County and Northern Water of former irrigation rights that will help provide up to 7,000 acrefeet of added water at key times for the Colorado River and to help meet water user needs during drought.

Back in 2017, though, such collaborations were still concepts at most and participants in Learning by Doing were just starting their proof of concept. Together, these partners agreed to pursue a first pilot project in hopes of demonstrating that this new way of doing business would prove justified.

That project was the restoration of Fraser Flats, a one-mile reach of wide, shallow and largely homogenous habitat that supported limited fish numbers. Half the project was on private land, while half was on land owned by a local

Continued on page 14

Above: Site before work began. Below and right: work begins both within and along the banks.

THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION'S LEADING STREAM RESTORATION AND AQUATIC RESOURCE EXPERTS

Fraser Flats

The Fraser Flats project exemplifies Freestone's holistic approach to river habitat restoration. Rather than focusing solely on immediate trout habitat features, we consider the entire river ecosystem. Our emphasis on natural appearance is essential to creating a thriving environment. As the inaugural project for the collaborative "Learning by Doing" initiative, Fraser Flats represents our commitment to excellence and innovation.

Abell Ranch

The South Platte River at Abell Ranch, once impacted by over a century of agricultural use and altered flow regimes, has been transformed into an exceptional wild trout fishery. Freestone's restoration efforts, including channel repair and extensive riparian rehabilitation, have revitalized this stretch of river. The benefits extend beyond the ranch, positively impacting adjacent public fishing areas.

Freestone Aquatics is a valued partner of Trout Unlimited, helping conduct important restoration

Pocket Water

water district that had historically been closed to fishing but would be opened to anglers following the restoration project.

Building a successful habitat project starts with having great partners at the table, and with the Fraser Flats project, the Learning by Doing collaborative was blessed to be working with some of the very best. In addition to the core Learning by Doing members—Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Trout Unlimited, Grand County, the Colorado River District, Denver Water, Northern Water and the Middle Park Water Conservation District—the Fraser Flats project involved Bob Fanch and Devils Thumb Ranch, owners of the private half-mile of the project reach.

that smothered bug life and pressured coldwater-loving trout. With Freestone’s guidance—and its substantial financial contribution toward the project as well—restoration began with work to narrow the river and build point bars and other structures to increase velocity and the depth of the river. They created riffle and pool sequences through the reach with an eye toward providing habitat while promoting natural and sustainable patterns for sediment transport and deposition.

Trout numbers surged immediately following the project. Combined brown and rainbow trout biomass jumped nearly 250 percent from the year prior to the year after the project’s completion. The number of fish over 14 inches in the reach jumped by 450 percent. Macroinvertebrate sampling saw MultiMetric Index scores improve from 60.3 pre-project to 68.4 by 2020, while scores for more pollution-intolerant taxa improved from 61.5 to 64.4.

— By David Nickum

Packo’s company, Freestone Aquatics, had completed numerous restoration projects in the region including in the upper Colorado basin and had earned a reputation for quality work that focused on restoring river processes and not simply creating habitat features. Continued from page 12

Bob and Suzanne Fanch have a long history of investing in the health of the Colorado headwaters, from supporting important river studies to informing decision-making, to creating the interactive Headwaters River Journey Museum in Winter Park to educate youth and visitors to the region about headwater streams and their stewardship. In 2017, the Fanches stepped up to be the private partner needed to launch the first Learning by Doing habitat project, putting on the line both a reach of the Fraser River on their property and their dollars as the private-sector matching funder for the project work.

With a restoration site identified and private landowner support secured, the next key step was finding the right contractor to complete the design and build project. Enter Clint Packo, who along with wife Kallie brought a long history of conservation efforts and philanthropic support for fish restoration from trout to bonefish. Packo’s company, Freestone Aquatics, had completed numerous restoration projects in the region including in the upper Colorado basin and had earned a reputation for quality work that focused on restoring river processes and not simply creating habitat features.

The Fraser Flats reach had become too wide and shallow, resulting in sedimentation and high temperatures

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Pocket Water

Infrastructure Investments Yield Results

The historic federal infrastructure investments made over the past three years are not just funding work on America’s roads and bridges. They are also kickstarting an ambitious restoration of our rivers and fisheries.

Trout Unlimited is putting well over $150 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act dollars on the ground to scale up its efforts to recover trout and salmon watersheds—work that also makes communities safer and more resilient to floods, drought and wildfire.

The formula is simple. Healthy waters equal healthy fisheries and thriving communities.

With the U.S. Forest Service, TU is restoring streams, cleaning up abandoned mines, and recovering landscapes scarred by wildfire on national forests, home to many of America’s most important trout and salmon species.

In the Colorado River, CaliforniaGreat Basin and Columbia-Pacific

These millions of dollars in federal investments are flowing into largely rural communities, creating family-wage jobs for local contractors and helping cash-strapped towns and counties retrofit their infrastructure.

Northwest river systems, with support from the Bureau of Land Management, teams are making watersheds more resilient to drought, in part by building thousands of man-made beaver dams to slow flows and store water naturally. In the Rockies, Bureau of Reclamation funding is jumpstarting work to improve fish passage and water quality. On Pacific coastal waters, crews are reconnecting rivers for salmon and

steelhead in California, Washington and Oregon with help from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

And across the country, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service dollars are helping TU replace faulty road culverts, reconnect trout and salmon streams and reduce flood risks. The benefits of these water projects—160 so far and counting—go far beyond healthy trout and salmon.

These millions of dollars in federal investments are flowing into largely rural communities, creating family-

wage jobs for local contractors and helping cash-strapped towns and counties retrofit their infrastructure. They are making for cleaner water, better farming and ranching operations, stronger local economies and climateresilient lands and waters.

For example, in Oregon, where faulty road-stream crossings have cut off salmon and steelhead migration—and, during flooding, Tillamook County agricultural communities—infrastructure dollars are knitting watersheds back together. In Utah, where a series of dams fragmented the Price River, this funding has helped open the river for the anglers and river floaters who are helping turn an old rail and mining town into a tourism and recreation destination.

In Pennsylvania, where abandoned coal mines pollute tens of thousands of miles of streams, millions in federal dollars are funding the cleanup of once-dead waters. As Randy Moore, chief of the Forest Service, puts it, “When our natural resources are healthy, we are healthy as a nation and as individuals.”

The bottom line is that with these historic investments in natural infrastructure, TU, federal agencies and local, state, tribal and conservation nonprofit partners are finally working at a pace that approaches the enormous challenges that face America’s rivers, fisheries, and communities.

Learn more about TU’s work across the country and in the communities you care about at https://prioritywaters.tu.org.

— By TU Staff

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Pocket Water

Protecting the Best of What’s Left

Sixty-eight percent of habitat for native trout in the U.S. is found on public lands. Yet these habitats are under increasing pressure from resource development, the warming climate, poorly managed visitation and other influences.

There is no substitute for good habitat. That’s why TU has mobilized anglers, hunters and sporting businesses to better protect millions of acres of coldwater habitat and freshwater sources on public lands—places like Hermosa Creek near my hometown of Durango, Colorado, the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument in New Mexico, and the Copper Salmon Wilderness in Oregon. TU’s efforts ultimately play critical roles in better protecting some of the last, best places to fish in America.

Let’s start with Colorado’s Thompson Divide, on the White River National Forest. The Thompson Divide is home to some of Colorado’s most storied trout streams, including the Roaring Fork, Crystal and North Fork of the Gunnison.

For decades, speculators have been able to nominate vast areas of public lands for oil and gas leasing, even if these lands are not likely to produce much energy. This leasing of public lands with low energy potential and high fish and wildlife values has led to some of our biggest public land controversies. Because 72 percent of the Thompson Divide is classified as being low or no potential for oil and gas development, the highest and best

use of this area is for conservation and sporting opportunity, not wildcatting for oil and gas.

Trout Unlimited has worked since

2009 to protect 225,000 acres on the Thompson Divide from energy development. In part, we have done this by sitting down with oil and gas companies to better understand their interests in this area. Last March, our efforts paid off when the Department of the Interior issued a decision to withdraw the area from future oil and gas leasing for the next 20 years.

Energy development and conservation need not be mutually exclusive, but it takes the right policies to strike this balance. In April 2024, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued a new

Continued on page 20

There is no substitute for good habitat. That’s why TU has mobilized anglers, hunters and sporting businesses to better protect millions of acres of coldwater

habitat and freshwater sources on public lands.

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Pocket Water

Continued from page 18

policy governing oil and gas leasing on public lands. When implemented, this policy will prevent oil and gas leasing in areas vital for fish and wildlife, helping to avoid new conflicts and controversy.

Another example: The San Gabriel Mountains, part of the Angeles National Forest, provide a scenic backdrop and diverse outdoor recreation opportunities for the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area. But for trout, and anglers, their importance

as a source of cold water for the two forks of the San Gabriel River, which provides consistent coldwater habitat in a region where this is rare, is even greater.

TU and conservation partners have gained stronger protections for the habitats and fishing opportunities in the San Gabriels. In 2014, our efforts were rewarded when President Obama established the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. But this designation omitted tributary streams and other areas with high habitat or watersource values. So, TU kept working— and earlier this year, President Biden expanded this monument by over 100,000 acres, including lands and waters that contribute to the popular trout fishery on the West Fork San Gabriel.

Stay tuned for more examples of how TU’s dogged commitment to playing the “long game” is protecting the best of what’s left.

—Steve Kandell

Hardy Crafts a Special Reel to Benefit TU

There is no greater tradition in fly fishing than the House of Hardy. Having celebrated its 150th anniversary last year, Hardy is creating a special reel to honor the work TU does in the U.S. to take down dams and connect waters to the benefit of trout and salmon. Building off classic Hardy model designs, the reel is called the “TU Tealweight.” It’s a click-pawl that will best accommodate 3- or 4-weight lines, and it is hand-built at the Hardy factory in Alnwick, England. There will only be 300 made, each numbered, and TU will have access to 100 of them to support a Griffith’s Circle campaign at year end. The other 200 will be sold by select fly shops throughout the world. We visited the factory and saw the prototype—it’s stunning. Hardy made a special TU green color and is using a proprietary engraving system to etch the TU logo on the reel before the reel is anodized. Stay tuned for more details, or talk to a TU gift officer if you want to get on the list to get your hands on one of them.

craft, the demands we place on little more than a couple of ounces of carbon fibre are considerable. We expect featherlight touch and feel in close, backbone enough to drive a long, fast and accurate loop but with the durability to fight and land that fish of the day, season or even a lifetime. Designed in Alnwick England during Hardy's 150th year our new flagship rod "The Marksman" has been developed and tested with this incredibly varied challenge in mind. A strong, yet considerably lighter blank has been matched with an all new reel seat that further accentuates the weight reduction and promotes an almost weightless in hand feel. Fitted with titanium guides and dressed in a subtle non-flash golden olive, its understated looks hide a capability that needs to be experienced to be understood.

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The Best Life Membership Rod Ever?

If you’re thinking about taking the plunge to be a TU Life Member… or signing someone else up… maybe “renewing your vows” to get a special rod, this is probably the best window ever to do it in. We’re offering a very limited, numbered series of the new Orvis Helios rod that’s causing all that buzz in the fly-fishing world for a special life membership donation of $1,500. These rods have unique graphics, and you can choose between 5- and 8-weight. But you should act fast, because once the numbered series is sold out, that’ll be that. We have fished the rods in numerous situations—5-weight from English chalk streams to Vermont (where we toured the Orvis factory)… to Michigan and the Rocky Mountains, and the 8-weight in the Low Country for redfish—and yes, we will vouch that the new Helios is all that when it comes to pinpoint accuracy and smooth casts at various ranges. We went out of our way to create what we thought was an over-the-top rod offering and think we may have landed on something extra special. Go to tu.org/LifeRodOffer or use this QR code to get an instant classic and make a lifetime commitment to making and keeping trout and salmon rivers healthy.

Pursuant to the provisions of the Trout Unlimited bylaws, the 65th Annual Meeting of the members will be held on Wed., Oct. 16 at 8 p.m. EST via live video-conference to elect and re-elect trustees and to take up any other business that comes up properly before the meeting. Accordingly, voting at the annual meeting will be restricted to active TU members only. The form to vote by proxy at the meeting, the meeting agenda and video-conference access information will be available at tu.org/annualmeeting24at least 45 days in advance of the meeting.

The all-new 4th generation Helios™ is the culmination of a seven-year quest to achieve precision beyond all previous limits of your imagination. Proven four times more accurate than Helios 3, the previous industry benchmark.

IT’S WHERE ACCURACY COMES ALIVE.

TESTED & PROVEN

4X more accurate when compared to Helios 3, the previous industry benchmark for accuracy 25% more durable in extreme breakage testing • 10% lighter swing weight

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Check Out Elbow Chocolates’ Fly Fishing Salted Caramels

If you’re looking for a perfect gift for an angler family member, friend, colleague... or yourself… check out the “Fly Fishing Salted Caramel Collection” by Christopher Elbow Chocolates ($26; elbowchocolates.com). Chris Elbow is not only a master chocolatier, he’s also a manic fly angler, and this collection is something he’s been cooking up for years. I’ll personally vouch for the tastes and textures (though I don’t think I could sample enough), but it’s the distinctive fish and fly art that’s tastefully applied on the candies that makes them truly unique, reminding us to savor every trout. Oh, and 10 percent of proceeds go to TU to help our conservation mission. —K.D.

Erin Block Wins Colorado Poetry Award

TROUT magazine is very proud to let you know that our very own editor-at-large, Erin Block, was awarded the 2024 Colorado Book Award for poetry for her debut collection of poems titled How You Walk Alone in the Dark ($18; Middle Creek Publishing; middlecreekpublishing.com). You rock, Erin.

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Blue Lining with TroutRoutes

Digital maps help anglers find new blue lines.

Istepped out into the creek hoping to clear my line from the log and lowhanging grass that lingered between me and the bank. I knew there should be a trout sitting in the shade across the pool, but I hadn’t yet mastered my fly cast, nor had I remembered to be patient with my approach. I was learning to fly fish on my own, and I found this bit of trout stream by dragging my finger across a Vernon County plat book page until I came to a bridge crossing and a noted stream. I had inadvertently stumbled into blue lining. This approach to fly fishing has been with me ever since, and the pursuit of

well-worn spiral-bound booklet, but I pour over these new maps with the same excitement and anticipation as I did when I was first introduced to trout streams and fly angling. And I’m encouraged by the sheer volume of blue line streams across the country and the opportunities they present for anglers.

With access to information so readily available, knowing where to look and what tools to rely on can help you lean into blue lining and get yourself away from the crowds. TroutRoutes is one of these tools, and I’m firmly convinced that their approach to data visualization and support for Trout Unlimited,

The joy is in the pursuit, rather than the catch, and I’m proud of each time I step into a new creek and I’m able to solve the puzzle and bring a fish to hand.

(often) native fish in a hard-to-access stretch of trout water appeals to my sense of adventure and adds another layer of complexity that is all too familiar in fly fishing. The joy is in the pursuit, rather than the catch, and I’m proud of each time I step into a new creek and I’m able to solve the puzzle and bring a fish to hand. In a nutshell, blue lining is an approach to fishing, usually for trout, that involves identifying a river or stream from its blue line on a map. Once you’re confident that it holds trout, you must determine the access points (if any), and how you might approach it with a fly rod in hand. It’s about challenging yourself, finding something new, and hopefully being rewarded for your efforts.

Blue lining offers more though. It encourages the angler to get off the beaten path, and to explore something new. These days, I’m reaching for maps on a backlit screen instead of a

teamed with encouraging the blue line approach is helping to reduce angling pressure on popular access points and well-known trout rivers.

Here’s a TroutRoutes tip: intentionally filter out the gold medal waterways in favor of “class 3” streams, and you’re well on your way to finding a new blue lining opportunity. Looking for fishing easements can be another key to blue lining success, as well as checking stream flows and finding seasonal waterways often at higher elevations.

As water temperatures climb this summer and the familiar gravel lot gets more crowded, let yourself wander up blue lines. You’ll find a new perspective, push the boundaries of your comfort zone, and you may even find that new favorite spot that has no gravel lot, deep in the backcountry of a public land parcel, for you to enjoy all by yourself.

—Erik Johnsen, onX Maps/TroutRoutes

Pocket Water FOR YOUR BOOKSHELF

Blue Lines, A Fishing Life

By Thomas Reed ($17; Cornmill Press; cornmillpress.com)

This is the book that started all of this… not only this issue of TROUT magazine, but also my being TROUT’s editor, and a whole bunch of great “Blue Lines” columns that followed.

I ran into Tom Reed while I was writing a piece on the Wyoming Range for Field & Stream. Wyoming Range would go down as one of the greatest conservation wins of our time, and I respected Reed for his work on that, but I also immediately respected this little volume of essays he pressed into my paws not long after we first met. “That dude can flat-out write,” I thought. Lo and behold, a couple years later, I was conscripted to edit this magazine. And one of the first things I did was ask Tom if he’d do a column for TROUT. That wasn’t just because I had a shoestring freelance budget and wanted a TU staffer to write for free. It was because I knew TU was lucky enough to have a heck of a writer on staff,

and I’d be stupid if I didn’t tap into that. So I did. And he agreed. And in the years since, the “Blue Lines” column has featured prominently in the mix with great effect—swizzled in with the likes of Gierach, Bruun, Whitlock… now Peterson and Block and many others, Reed’s pieces always set the “conscience” tone for this magazine. And they always exuded a “been there” perspective—delivered with extremely sharp prose—that helped this magazine transcend.

To wit: “My first dog was a black and white mutt named JD. She was born in a dirt tunnel under a house in Carbondale, Colorado, the year I dropped out of college to fish the Frying Pan, bus tables for the rich and famous, and ski moguls in Aspen. She was the bastard daughter of a springer mother and a rogue black lab, black and white just like the label on a Jack Daniel’s bottle. Hence the name. And she was one hell of a dog.”

Good luck conveying that level of honest, pure writing on an Instagram feed.

Reed leveraged the TROUT platform for effect and released the revised edition of Blue Lines through Cornmill Press in 2022. I’m proud that he felt compelled to do so, including some essays he considers some his best and most “evolved” work as a writer.

He’s still climbing. Reed’s “Blue Lines” columns from 2023 recently won the top “Excellence in Craft” honors from the Outdoor Writers Association of America as the best outdoors column in the country. Tom Reed just retired from TU, and the Blue Lines column, and the feature he wrote on blue lining that anchors this issue will mark the end of his contributions for TROUT.

But I’m already working on that.

Meanwhile, do yourself a favor and buy a copy of Blue Lines, A Fishing Life. Don’t do it as a thank you for all the work he’s done on behalf of rivers and trout, though that’s certainly reason enough. Don’t even do it for what he’s meant to this magazine,

though that’s also reason enough. Do it because you actually care about the “why” of fishing. And you care about wild places. And you appreciate writing that’s born of legitimate substance.

—Kirk Deeter

Belgian Flats

By Chris Santella ($24.95; Lyons Press; rowman.com)

The fishing world lost one of its best writers when Chris Santella passed away in May. But he left us with a truly remarkable novella called Belgian Flats. It is a very candid, honest, glimpse at the behind-thescenes “guide life” and I think it’s probably the most profound piece of writing on fishing and guiding since Thomas McGuane wrote 92 in the Shade over 50 years ago. But be warned, this is an “R” rated, sometimes ugly, often funny, always honest depiction of the fly-fishing guide world, replete with plenty of drugs, drink, sex, rock-n-roll, and candid perspectives on what guides really think about the “sports” they ferry down rivers for money. If you don’t want to face up to any of that, this isn’t the book for you. But if you’re curious… if you might want to be a guide yourself… if you’re confident enough in your angling skin to understand what’s really going on… go for it.

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I must say by way of disclaimer that Santella was one of my dearest friends. He was a regular contributor to TROUT, and I traveled with him on a number of trips, from Ireland to Alaska, to a Russian fish camp that actually features prominently in the narrative of this book.

What I can say with absolute confidence, is that Santella got it right. You might not like the “behind-the-scenes,” but he absolutely nailed it. And if you relish gritty, honest writing, well, he absolutely delivered, better than anyone else has in decades.

Santella scored with everything he ever wrote, from 50 Places to Fly Fish Before You Die , to his many fly-fishing columns in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post … and TROUT magazine (because the man had a genuine conservation conscience).

Chris will be remembered as one of the greatest fly-fishing writers of our time, and the words in this book prove that.

—KD

Calling After Water: Dispatches from a Fishing Life

By Dave Karczynski ($29.95 Lyons Press; rowman.com)

If you’re sensing a theme here of elite writers who have penned legitimately

groundbreaking works, you’re right. Dave Karczynski is another master technician (and a professor at a powerhouse Midwestern university) whose writing style is so good, you know who you’re reading by the way the tone and flow, like the way you can tell a Mark Knopfler guitar solo. Dave has written for TROUT magazine and he even shot the cover of our “What Are You Really Fishing For?” issue a couple years ago. He is also the former recipient of the prestigious Robert Traver Award. This book is one you’ll want to read, just because you appreciate good writing… and maybe because you like to fish. Dave proves the notion that there might be a zillion anglers who want to write stories and scant few truly gifted writing pros who happen to fancy fishing.

I was honored to write a jacket review for this book and I meant what I said: “Calling After Water invigorates the natural affinity I have had for lakes, rivers and streams since I was a young boy. Karczynski has always been one of my favorite writers, and this book takes the game to another level. His prose is very much like my favorite little trout stream—cool, crystal clear, flowing with purpose, and most of all… pure.”

Tom Bie, editor of The Drake, wrote the foreword, so that’s an added bonus.

—KD

A Full Net: Fishing Stories from Maine and Beyond

By Susan Daignault ($18.95; Islandport Press; islandportpress.com)

If you’re stocking up on reading materials for the winter ahead, now you have Reed (Rocky Mountains), Santella (worldwide), Karczynski (Upper Midwest) on the list… so you should round it out with a great East Coast voice, and I’d recommend that in the form of Susan Daignault’s A Full Net: Fishing Stories from Maine and Beyond. Sue is a Massachusetts native who grew up surf casting in Rhode Island and Cape Cod. After a career as a U.S. Coast Guard officer, she retired to Maine and has become a registered guide and certified fly-casting instructor. She maintained her passion for fishing throughout her Coast Guard Career, which took her to interesting places that germinated interesting stories on everything from salmon and steelhead to tarpon

and bonefish… and, of course, striped bass. Daignault is an excellent writer with another honest, distinctive voice. I especially like her descriptions, and her ability to capture the notion that fishing is as much or more about the landscapes, riverscapes, seascapes—and most important, the people with whom you share the ups and downs. I was deeply impressed by the personal feel of this book, and I think you will be also.

—KD

Wit and Wisdom of an Old Outdoor Guy or How to Survive in Our New Broken World

by Vin T. Sparano

($19.95; independently published; amazon.com)

Vin T. Sparano is a legendary, award-winning outdoor author of thousands of articles and former Editor-in-Chief for Outdoor Life He has a new collection of stories entitled Wit and Wisdom of an Old Outdoor Guy or How to Survive in Our New Broken World This thoughtful and engaging collection of short pieces covers topics that include fishing, hunting, friendship, family and philosophy, all told in a friendly and familiar way.

Vin’s stories are fun, engaging and easy to enjoy, and the book is designed to be picked up and read in any order. It’s a fun

read to bring along on a plane or to enjoy in a beach chair. Vin’s musings and perspectives on the importance of family, the great outdoors, and modern life will make the reader think as he reminisces about his past experiences and adjusts to contemporary life. A glimpse into the diversity of topics Vin covers will even reveal a great recipe for spicy garlic crab sauce that you’ll want to pair with your next gin martini.

Despite Vin’s many accomplishments and achievements, he employs humility and a down-to-earth writing style that is refreshing to see in this book. It’s clear that Vin enjoys his life, and his voice is honest and sincere. Vin concedes that you may not agree with all his opinions on today’s changing world—and he’s fine with that. The stories are all told with good cheer, and it’s inspiring to read about a life in the outdoors that is well-lived and enjoyed.

If you want the inside story on one of the most influential outdoor writers and editors—who likely wrote or edited— some of the finest stories you’ve read in those epic OL collections, check out the Wit and Wisdom of Vin Sparano. Vin’s book provides a good-natured perspective and a look back in time that will make many readers smile.

—Book Review by Andrew J. Pegman

Author of Outdoor Tales of Northeast Ohio

We Need Climate Change Coordinators

Trout Unlimited was founded by trout anglers in 1959 as a fish conservation organization, and we have done a great job protecting coldwater fisheries since then. We need your help now with the biggest challenge facing these fisheries.

Realizing how climate change posed a significant threat to trout and salmon, TU’s National Leadership Council responded by forming the NLC Climate Change Workgroup (CCWG) in 2013. The initial mission was to raise awareness of climate change.

A 2015 Board of Trustees policy on trout and climate change not only helped raised awareness, but it also provided approaches to address it. The policy stated saving trout and salmon requires "a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from existing energy production as well as a fundamental shift in energy sources from fossil fuels to low-carbon technologies and conservation.” In 2019 CCWG announced support of common sense legislation, such as the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act. The bill would put a fee on fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas to encourage a shift toward cleaner, cheaper options.

Since a survey showed the vast majority of our members recognized the climate is changing, the CCWG developed a new volunteer role, Climate Change Coordinator, to advocate for trout. The current mission focuses more on action: “Empower TU members to become effective champions for TU climate change policy and initiatives, in their communities, regionally and nationally, through science-based education, communication and advocacy.” To support this mission climate change coordinators will be good communicators with a basic understanding of climate chance science and TU's policies. Key characteristics are a commitment to address climate change while approaching others in a respectful manner.

We developed a series of coordinator training modules: the role, science, adaptation, advocacy and education to enable them to be effective advocates for coldwater fisheries. The training is stored in the NLC Climate Change Focus Group library under coordinator Resources and Coordinator Training . This library is available to all CCWG members.

The bottom line is we need your help to protect trout and salmon for us and for our children. Please consider volunteering as a coordinator to help. To learn more contact Jeff Holzem jeff2002h@yahoo.com or Russ Collins Russ@dftu.org

Blue Lines

On Brotherhood and Community

BY THOMAS REED

The packing began a full two weeks before the trip itself. There would be no checking of the contents of the suitcase. This, a homegrown brand of experiential education grounded in the philosophy that if it were forgotten, then he would remember next time. The result? Only one shirt and no underpants for a long weekend but neither of these oversights had much of an impact on his six-year-old sensibilities anyway. He mostly goes commando and shirtless.

Into the suitcase went many things vital to a camping-fishing-plinking trip with friends. A tackle box filled with a tangle of treble-hooked lures of sporting legend like Mepps, Dardevle, Rapala, Roostertail. More serious fishcatching paraphernalia like Eagle Claw hooks, Pautzke Fire Balls, a container of hapless doomed earthworms. Not one, but two fishing rods, one short for the tangled willows, the other a rod capable of slinging a lure far out into a lake or a pond. Other things. The various collections of rocks and “treasures” salvaged from the scattered piles of rusty junk that pepper any farm or ranch like ours. A jar full of .22 brass from the last time we went target shooting. Jan Pritchett’s Bones, for he is a budding osteologist and Dr. Seuss’s Oh, the Places You’ll Go! for he is a traveling man and there’s no place he’d rather be going than camping in the mountains with his dad and his buddies. One extra shirt, zero undershorts.

The eagerness on a high boil manifested not only in the early—if inefficient—pre-packing, but also in almost numberless queries of when the camping trip would begin. Daily, and as the trip approached, hourly. Then the road at last and the “when are we

goings” replaced by the “when are we getting theres.” Hourly, then bi-hourly, then tri-hourly. You get the point. At last the dirt road and the seatbelt is lawlessly clicked off, the window goes down, the head goes out golden-retriever like. The joys of it.

This has become a tradition, meeting Greg and his twins, Gordon and

The big kids once were little kids, the youngest in a clan, but now they shine by leading rather than following and the seeds of becoming a leader are planted.

Luke, in a high place somewhere on the public riches that are taxpayer-owned land. Ours is a fortunate life for we merely have to look at a likely blue line indicating a likely trout stream and drive there with camp and off-season bird dogs and boys and rods and guns. Throw a dart, pick a place, go.

This one is set on the banks of a little creek splashing south from the mountains, a creek of Yellowstone

cutthroat and curious wren. There’s a good backstop for the .22s and the BBs, water in the creek for the dogs and the boys, a firepit and a picnic table. We can see for miles because this is sagebrush country and trees are a rarity.

Scarcity lies not only in the landscape, but in the essence of this experience, the rural childhood untethered. Riding in the back of an open pickup truck on a country road, target practice, fishing, burning, looking for wildlife, eating horrific processed foods. That’s part of it, but not the essence because at the very heart of the adventure is not the tangible barely-controlled chaos of a boys’-only camping-fishing-plinking trip. Instead, threaded through this trip are life-lessons in kindness, mentorship, admiration, brotherhood, community.

Much of parenting is assumption and perhaps a smidgen of arrogance, the “this is how I did it, son, and this is how you are going to do it.” This maxim can mean that your child will be exposed to the same things you were in your youth, or quite the opposite. In this case it is the former. I was a rural wild child and so, too, will he be. Pivotal here is the mentor. My first was a high school friend of my father’s. The second was a man I met in my twenties. My son’s, I hope, are the twins and they may be only the first.

There is attempted manipulation in this course of his life, but at the end of the day it is not up to the parent; children will head in the direction they are headed and the parents only lightly control the rudder that is the setting and the surrounding company. There’s

no figuring the human mind or heart. But I do believe that something happens on these annual outings other than aluminum cans being shot to fragments, marshmallows and hotdogs being burnt to a crisp and trout being stalked with worm-baited hook in a tiny stream bending between sagebrush and willow. The first is a little boy looking up to and emulating boys more than twice his age. But it goes the other way too, boys watching out for younger children, learning something about protecting others, about teaching, about being asked “how-to” rather than being told “you will.” The big kids once were little kids, the youngest in a clan, but

now they shine by leading rather than following and the seeds of becoming a leader are planted. As we age, that schism that is age difference narrows, shrinks and eventually disappears. I am two decades older than Greg and yet it feels as if we are exactly the same age. I suspect I played a mentorship role in his life, but it has never felt like teacher-student to me and even if it did, now, two decades into our friendship, it hardly matters. We are peers, brothers. And in this, we are tribe and family and the “we” is our community.

There is no direct social commentary here about a society crumbling, the family unit disappearing, a world collapsing.

Blood ties and family are of paramount importance in the human experience, but so, too, is the family that you create, the people you hang with, your brothers and sisters of other mothers. The weekend ends, fresh underwear awaits, but the bonds are permanent.

Author Thomas Reed contemplates the rural wild life from his family ranch outside Pony, Montana, where and his wife are local-vores raising food for other families in the region. They also raise Missouri foxtrotting horses, farm animals of all types and country kids. Reed is the author of Blue Lines, A Fishing Life, the revised and expanded second edition of which was released in late 2022.

A Small River in Wyoming

The place had a Spanish name on the mailbox that I thought meant “Little Ranch,” until I learned it’s more nuanced than that. Freely translated, the phrase might mean something more like, “Ranch that’s too insignificant to be an actual ‘ranch,’ if ya know what I mean,” and was probably thought up by someone who spoke the language fluently.

This had once been a multigenerational family summer compound that the owners now rented out to tourists. There were three cabins, assorted outbuildings with the usual sunbleached antler sheds nailed to their walls and, down by the river, a small log and board structure that could only be described as a gazebo. Two of the cabins were available to rent. The third, off limits behind a locked gate, belonged to an uncle who, the story goes, was the single holdout at the family meeting when they decided to rent the place.

The river itself has a mediocre reputation—although it’s known to fish well when it’s in the mood—but this isn’t billed as a fishing resort; it seems intended more for the usual mid-20thcentury-vintage family vacation activities like hiking, lounging, throwing sticks for the dogs, toasting weenies on forked sticks, playing board games at night and, sure, fishing if you go in for that kind of thing. And it has the added advantage of being remote enough to be sheltered from the prevailing WiFi signals.

Our mutual friend Mike spends a week there every summer with his wife, kids and dogs and he invited my friend Doug and me to come up and fish with him on his last day. That’s when the family goes home early and leaves Mike alone with the river until he decides to follow in his own vehicle and on his own schedule. That sounds like a domestic transaction designed to keep the peace, but it could also be the kind of thing that just happens naturally among people who like each other.

Not that Mike ever gets shortchanged in the fishing department. He uses vacation time for fishing trips, fishes around home on days off and his management job at a fishing tackle company also involves plenty of time on the water. (Officially, some of those trips are business-themed and on the clock, but none of the snapshots I’ve seen resembled sales meetings.) Still, he’s as gung-ho as they come, so although a free day on a trout stream isn’t exactly a novelty, he’s still all in.

This was over the long Fourth of July weekend when Doug and I wouldn’t normally go fishing for fear the rivers would be too crowded, but here we were looking at a mile of private water that we’d have to ourselves. It was in Wyoming, but close enough to home in Colorado that if we went up early and came home late, we’d spend more time fishing than driving. And Mike said

popping off that there were rising trout to cast to. And the day itself was warm, but with thick, brooding clouds that looked heavy with rain: the kind of weather fishermen think makes trout rise more freely.

So we made our way up this nondescript canyon that, at first glance, at least, could have been anywhere between British Columbia and New Mexico: more stoop-shouldered than spectacular, sparsely forested in pines and junipers and littered with boulders that had tumbled down from the rim until they plowed to a precarious stop and that, in the fullness of geologic time, would tumble again—which I’d sometimes think about when I walked under a big one.

The fish were the wild descendants of the brown trout that were stocked here after the native cutthroats were fished out and that had since made themselves

There’s no reason to rush and plenty to see if you don’t. If Theroux was right that 20 square miles of countryside can keep an observant walker occupied for a lifetime, then half a mile of small river in Wyoming should be more than enough for a day.

there could be mixed hatches of golden stoneflies and Gray Drake mayflies, so sure, okay. All I ever do over the Forth anyway is listen to my neighbors around the valley touch off their illegal fireworks while the cat hides under the couch.

This had been a dry winter with a skimpy spring runoff, so the river’s early July flow was already at September levels. That was a worrying sign for the late summer and fall fishing and the long run at the mouth of the canyon was already unfishable frog water, but the pocket water above still had good depth and definition and although the hatches were sparse, enough bugs were

at home. They hadn’t been harassed by as many fishermen as the trout in some public water, but they’d seen their share of artificial flies and had their species’ inherent wariness, so they weren’t exactly pushovers, either. The golden stoneflies and Gray Drakes that were petering off are both considered to be among the so-called “super hatches” that are said to drive trout into frenzies of gluttony, but the browns here treated them as business as usual: something else to eat, but nothing to write home about.

I started with a Gray Wulff with white calf-tail wings that would be easier to see in dishwater-colored light under

a dark sky and it seemed like a decent choice. A few fish ignored it entirely and a few others only sniffed at it like curious dogs, but when my drift was good, plenty of others ate it as if it were just another hors d’oeuvre on the tray. That’s how predation has always worked (and even as mostly catch and release fishermen, we’re still symbolic predators.) With diligence and a little skill, you’ll get your share, while most of the prey escapes to maintain the healthy population that allowed you to get your share in the first place. So not only is it impossible to catch ‘em all, but you shouldn’t even want to.

We started out fishing together, but by going at our own pace we gradually drifted apart and ended up fishing alone, which I think we all secretly prefer anyway. Once I’d have been the guy who’d plow on ahead, eager to get the first look around the next bend, but now I’m the one who hangs back to rubber-neck the scenery, idly identify birds (the usual suspects: chickadees, nuthatches, a kingfisher) wait out recalcitrant trout or spot fish working quietly in places that aren’t immediately obvious and, not incidentally, to keep an ear tuned for the warning buzz of an annoyed rattlesnake. There’s no reason to rush and plenty to see if you don’t. If Theroux was right that 20 square miles of countryside can keep an observant walker occupied for a lifetime, then half a mile of small river in Wyoming should be more than enough for a day. By late afternoon I was working a wide bend pool, casting to occasionally rising trout and catching one now and then on the same now-bedraggled Gray Wulff I’d started with. When I arrived, there were a few good-sized trout rising in an eddy along the far bank formed by a wedge-shaped boulder the size of a garage that had tumbled into the river and although I could reach them at the outer limit of my cast, I couldn’t manage the drift and had pooched enough casts to put them down. But by the time Mike came moseying downstream half an hour later, they’d started rising again

and I pointed the fish out to him, even though I think he’d already spotted them on his own. We stood there watching for a few minutes before he crossed at a shallow gravel bar downriver to get a better angle on the fish.

I watched as he waded in next to the boulder at what I thought was the ideal angle to cast from. I’d noticed earlier that the downstream side of that boulder was the usual granite gray mottled with lichen, while the upstream side

was uniformly dark—almost black—but didn’t think anything of it. But then Mike waded in and peeked around the corner of the boulder, stood stock still for a few seconds, then turned around, walked calmly downstream and crossed back to my side of the river.

The trout were still rising over there and when I asked why he hadn’t cast to them he told me the dark face of that boulder wasn’t lichen or mineral stains, but thousands of horseflies, all packed together into a single hellish mass and emitting a low hum reminiscent of an electrical transformer.

No further explanation was necessary. The bite of a single horsefly stings enough to make you yip like a dog and drop your fly rod and it’s easy to imagine thousands of them stripping you to the bone in minutes like a school of piranhas.

The day had been threatening rain since morning, but it didn’t hit until we were almost back to the cabins in late afternoon, and then it came on so suddenly—a blast of cold wind, a clap of thunder and sheets of rain—that although we only had 50 yards to go, we ducked into the gazebo to wait it out. Normally we’d have killed time talking about the fish we caught, the ones we didn’t and why, but we’d have had to shout over the racket to be heard. So instead we stood there, hands in pockets, watching the rain from under a small tin roof that was drumming in the storm.

Twenty minutes later it ended as abruptly as it started. The rain stopped, the charcoal clouds drifted downriver, grumbling with receding thunder, the sky broke out into brilliant blue and everything began to steam in the new warmth.

As Doug and I drove through the outskirts of Laramie on our way home that night, we could hear the scatted popping of firecrackers mixed with occasional sharper reports that might have been gunshots: the usual festive mock warfare that surrounds patriotic holidays in the American West. The same fireworks that are illegal in Colorado because of

the wildfire hazard are perfectly legal and readily available here and even if you missed the welcome sign at the state line, you’d know you were in Wyoming by the ubiquitous fireworks stands, their parking lots packed with cars bearing Colorado plates as their drivers stocked up on the kind of ordinance they can’t get at home.

That had been a long-standing sore spot until 2014 when Colorado evened the score by legalizing marijuana and overnight Wyoming license plates became just as ubiquitous outside the pot shops over the southern border. For a while, Wyoming cops were randomly searching vehicles driving north looking for cannabis, but that was quickly

deemed unconstitutional by the courts. So by now the whole thing has settled into an amiable black-market free trade agreement where recreational drugs are exchanged for recreational explosives. What could possibly go wrong?

A year later we were back and had grown to a party of five. Doug and I wanted to stay a few days this time to explore the river and its hatches more deeply, our friends Ed and Vince were intrigued enough by our reports to sign on and, by way of returning the favor, we asked Mike if he wanted to join us. He did, even though he’d be back there with his family in another week or two.

But this year everything was different. It had been a wetter winter and

spring than last and now the pocket water in the canyon was still in the middle stages of runoff, but that long stretch in front of the cabins that had looked almost stagnant a year earlier was now a luxurious glide with fishy slicks, foam lines and bankside eddies, so that became the honey hole.

The same two hatches as last year were sputtering off again; the mayfly duns coming in sparse pulses with dead spells in between, occasional stoneflies flailing by like shipwreck victims and errant mayfly spinners floating flush and invisible on the surface, giving themselves away only by trout that seemed to be rising to nothing at all.

And there were the mosquitoes.

The year before they hadn’t been too bad, but this year, because of the wetter weather, they descended in squadrons: small, stealthy, quick and lethal. And they were somehow immune to my new-age “plant-based” bug repellent that had recently worked well enough in Alaska and Labrador, but was somehow useless in Wyoming. So after the first hour I walked back to the cabin and got a bottle of bug dope with DEET from the basket our hosts thoughtfully kept by the back door. I applied it liberally, slipped the bottle into my fishing bag and then washed my hands at the kitchen sink because this stuff I’d just slathered on my bare skin is corrosive enough to melt fly lines and blister the varnish on bamboo rods.

The fishing was slow-paced but steady, and since none of us are fish hogs, this became the kind of relaxed trip where patience and careful casting put us all into enough brown trout to keep us happy. And then I got sick. I’d actually felt it coming on as I was riding up there with Vince: that vague tickle at the back of the throat that you tell yourself is nothing, even though you know it’s actually something.

By dinner that evening I’d begun to feel noticeably punky and by the next morning there was no question that I’d “come down with something,” as they say. I was raised by Germanic Midwesterners who wouldn’t complain about their health at gunpoint, so all I’ll say is that I felt crappy enough to want sympathy, but only so I could shrug it off as only a flesh wound.

I’d been under the weather on trips before—colds, flu, food poisoning, intestinal parasites, tendonitis, a sprained ankle and once a crushed thumb on my casting hand from a clumsy accident on a dock in Canada. Each time I’d gutted through it—not out of bravely or dedication, but bewilderment: because I didn’t know what else to do—and this time it was easier than most. That luxurious run at the mouth of the canyon was the ideal spot for an ailing fisherman: a short stroll across a meadow from the

cabins, easy wading as long as you didn’t go in too deep, and with a grassy bank to lounge or nap on—in the sun or in the shade of cottonwoods, depending on whether you were having chills or hot flashes.

Of course, the elephant in the room was that this was the third summer of

bad way to spend sick days—idly opening the doors in my head that the fever had unlocked and wondering, Jeez, who is this guy? until a few fish began to rise. Then I’d wait till they got onto a rhythm, decide what I thought they were eating, tie on what I thought would be the right fly and spot where I’d have to be standing

The fishing was slow-paced but steady, and since none of us are fish hogs, this became the kind of relaxed trip where patience and careful casting put us all into enough brown trout to keep us happy. And then I got sick.

the COVID pandemic when it was either winding down or we’d all just gotten tired of it and gone back to our lives with a collective the-hell-with-it shrug. But it was still out there, fresh in everyone’s mind, and the first thing anyone thought of when someone got sick.

By then all five of us had been vaccinated and boosted six ways from Sunday, but just in case, we kept our distance from each other in the paranoid way we’d all recently gotten so tired of. That was easy enough out on the river and in the small cabin where Ed and I were staying, we each had our own rooms behind closed doors. In the main cabin we ate our meals at a long banquet table that could have seated a dozen or more; the other four clustered together at one end while I sat seven feet away at the head of the table, feeling like the chairman of the board one minute and a red-headed stepchild the next.

It was all pleasantly hallucinatory in a feverish sort of way except that now and then colors seemed too bright and primary, as if I was trapped in a Wes Anderson movie. I never gave up and just went to bed, but I did fall into a fitful sleep on the bank now and then and never felt like I’d missed anything when I woke up. Mostly I just sat in the warm grass watching the river—not a

to make the best cast and drift. Only then would I lurch to my feet, slip into the river and make the throw.

I didn’t catch every fish I tried for, but I got most of them—often on that first, well-considered cast—and began to imagine myself as an ancient ambush predator (something grotesquely cretaceous, like a snapping turtle) that could sit as still and mindless as a stone, only to strike without distraction or wasted effort when the moment was right: the very definition of cold-blooded efficiency.

As soon as I got home I got tested for COVID and came up negative, so when Vince got sick a few days later with what sounded like the same thing, I naturally felt awful, but at least I could tell him what the doctor told me: that it was just the run-of-the-mill crud that’s always been part of the human condition, so get lots of rest, drink plenty of fluids and yada, yada, yada.

Of course, I eventually got well and it’s in the nature of convalescence that the spell breaks along with the fever and the recollection of feeling like death warmed over fades to the point that it might as well have happened to someone else. So now I simply remember those few sick days on the water as some of the best fishing I’ve ever done.

Blue Lines and Blue-Lining

BY THOMAS REED

My fishing pal Chris Hunt

is a big guy. He’s the kind of guy who might have played college ball at offensive tackle for the old WAC back in the day if he had wanted to. But Chris instead went to Colorado’s Western State—or “Wasted State” as it was known in some circles—to fly fish and drink beer back in the ‘90s. Today it is known as Western Colorado University, a fine institution near some fine fishing.

The town of Gunnison is in the heart of the southern Rockies and Colorado’s best trout country. Just west, the spirit of the famed Gunnison River and its legendary willowfly hatch was drowned beneath Blue Mesa Reservoir in the early 1960s. The name, willowfly, went under at the same time; up in Montana and elsewhere we know these colossal amazing bugs as salmonflies or giant stoneflies.

Chris and I were yet to be born when the river was executed, but when I was the editor of Gunnison’s newspaper many years after the dam killed the river in the same act of Congress that created Lake Powell far downstream, the old timers were still carrying the death of the famous Gunnison River trout fishery in their resentful souls. Fishing men like Mac McGraw mourned the river daily and talked of the days of famous anglers like Ernest Schwiebert. Mac snorted that Blue Mesa was the “world’s biggest sucker hole” and he wrote remembrances of the mountain river that caused one to wish he was born a generation earlier just to have seen it, as many of us ponder the great bison herds of the 1800s

In one of life’s crazy near-misses, I was in Gunnison years before Chris,

writing outdoor columns and covering city council meetings, hunting the surrounding hills for elk and deer, and slogging my way into far-back country in search of little trout on small streams. I worked for a Texas oilman who owned the newspaper and miles of the best trout stream around—the Taylor River, the Gunnison’s best-known tributary. I got to fish the Taylor with a famous fisherman named Jimmy Carter who came to visit the same stretch of crystal water dancing between black boulders and harboring brown and rainbow trout as

long as a man’s thigh. Because I worked for the Texan, who was tight with the ex-President who was his guest on the river for several days, I got a one-on-one interview with a man who had held the most powerful job in the world less than a decade after he’d left the White House. Problem was, it fell on the morning after a friend’s bachelor party. This was a stroke of amazingly good luck because my head throbbed and my guts churned with one of the worst hangovers I’ve ever suffered which completely crushed any nervousness a 20-something small town

newspaper editor might have had for the biggest interview of his life, but that is a tale that belongs in another story.

A year or so after I left that job for another in another town near trout, Chris came along and worked for the same paper, doing the same job I’d left.

It wasn’t until years later that we met each other and discovered we’d followed the same paths in career, and the same dim trails into high country streams.

This bit of serendipity was revealed in the Wyoming Range in the 2000s when we were thrashing through thick

willows on a tiny tributary of the Greys River in western Wyoming.

This time, I was following Chris instead of the other way around. We were in thick brush and Chris was the lead blocker, mowing down the shrubbery. We burst out onto the banks of the little

It wasn’t until years later that we met each other and discovered we’d followed the same paths in career, and the same dim trails into high country streams.

Blue lines are the little-known, the seldom-visited, the often-tangled. They start in tall far-back country and cascade through canyon and chasm. A few have boot-tracked trails, but if you walk far enough from your vehicle, if you push into the depths and move those muscles, you will put people behind you and find trout ahead.

stream on a gravel bar that led into a beautiful riffle where the creek bent beneath willow trunks and around algae-slicked boulders. Chris, having done the hard work, earned the first cast. He crawled up to the stream, made one back-cast and put his fly on the water. It bobbed along for a second and then there was a swirl and a fish was on. A 15-inch Snake River cutthroat. Without even taking the fish out of the water, Chris twisted the fly out of its mouth, cast again a little higher into the pool, and caught the twin brother. And again. Triplets. I stood back waiting until it was my turn. Chris turned to me, wiped his hand on his shirt and then wiped the sweat out of his eyes and smiled.

“I love blue-lining.”

“Blue-lining?” I asked.

“You know, fishing those blue lines on the map, those thin blue lines.”

Chris, like me, is a small-stream guy, a guy who would rather be on a creek somewhere in the forest, far away from trails and people, than on the glorious Madison in a drift boat surrounded by rising brown trout.

It occurred to me that day on the banks of the blue line that fed the Greys that feeds the Snake that feeds the Columbia, that I had been blue-lining all of my life. I had just never given it a name.

Blue lines are the little-known, the seldom-visited, the often-tangled. They start in tall far-back country and cascade through canyon and chasm. A few have boot-tracked trails, but if you walk far enough from your vehicle, if you push into the depths and move those muscles, you will put people behind you and find trout ahead. Blue lines. Lots of fish. Sometimes broken rods. It’s a country that is tough on fly rods and tougher on tendons.

But I have started to think of bluelining more as a metaphor for all kinds of fishing, maybe even a lesson in life itself. The tough kind. The type of fishing that isn’t easy, that causes you to sweat and curse and prevail. The kind of fishing where no one other than you mans the oars or ties on your flies or hunkers down in a hail storm that throws marbles out of the sky. It’s attitude more than action, blue-lining. You can “blue-line” your

way into a flung-back mountain lake, or a fish-less day on a big famous river can call for a “blue-lining attitude.”

Indeed, it’s more a paradigm for life. It’s not easy. There will be tough days— maybe even years—and thin reward. But once in a while, if you prevail, if you pick yourself up, climb one more scree and talus slope to another pool up ahead, swipe away the tornado of mosquitoes at your temples, rub dirt in a few of those scratches on your forearms, push on, you will find reward for your hard work.

The worst boss I ever had gave me the best piece of advice in a long career: “If it were easy,” he said, “anybody could do it.”

That is blue-lining. That attitude has gone a long way in life, whether dealing with insufferable bureaucrats in the office, or crawling up a tiny trout stream in the middle of nowhere.

Big rivers speak of adventure, of mysteries in deep holes and around shadowed bends. They talk to you of downward flows, of going places guided by gravity and water. They entice you into their currents. You want to go, to launch a drift boat into whispering water, and to float away around and down those curves.

Small streams, on the other hand, call you home, call you to the heart, to the source. I have seldom been on a small stream without wanting to climb up to the birthwater, to see the ground in high country where the stream begins. When in doubt, go higher. Perhaps this place is a spring shaded by purple monkeyflower. Perhaps the stream is the offspring of several parents—multiple branches draining big country. But even more than calling me to climb into the high country, small streams call me back to my roots, to a time when I carried a worm-baited hook instead of a fly rod, to a time when a trophy fish was an eightinch-long brook trout that was cooked on a stick over a campfire and eaten with a sprinkling of salt and pepper.

In the end, given a choice, I will take the small stream. I will take the small stream for its cold and clear current, for the way it challenges and shapes the land, for the way it bends and drops and pools. I will take the small stream for the grizzly bear and cougar tracks that line its banks, for the elk and moose scat that sprinkles its shoulders, for the gravel bars clean of bootprint. But more than anything, I will take the small stream over the river for its trout. They won’t be as large, nor as sophisticated, but they will be wild. Even the non-natives in my West will be deeply feral, as untamed as alley cats. Brown, brook or rainbow. Deeper still in my heart are the natives, the trout that the gods themselves planted in the high mountain holds with names that sing like the country itself: Snake River, Yellowstone, Colorado River, Bonneville,

Lahontan, Gila, Apache, Greenback, San Juan, Westslope, Redband.

I have never fished the mountains of the East but I know that they, too, harbor blue lines with pure-strain native brook trout and feral rainbow and brown trout. Blue lines don’t require Western skies and sage-scented breezes. They do require effort, attention and dedication.

A stream, in my thinking, is any water that is too small for navigation, even in the smallest of kayaks or canoes. A small stream, too, has a personality. It has fast water and slow, but each of these stretches is short enough to not be boring, and full of enough structure to have character.

Observation plays an important role in fishing a blue line. One of my favorite outdoor writers was Ted Trueblood. I’d read his articles by flashlight late at night growing up, way past my bedtime. Ted often wrote of sitting down and

smoking a pipe when he got into a place where there was game or fish. It’s a good image. Slow down and observe the way.

Once on a small stream in Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountains, I was drawing a complete blank with a hopper pattern. I couldn’t figure out why because there were hoppers along the stream, and good numbers of them. But then I realized something: it wasn’t windy, which for Wyoming, caught me off-guard. The fact that it was dead calm had been nagging at me all day long. I couldn’t figure out what was going on until it dawned upon me that there wasn’t even the slightest puff of a breeze and the hoppers simply weren’t getting blown into the water. As I sat there, I started looking not at the more obvious terrestrials like hoppers, but at the aquatic insects. I then realized that there was the standard hatch of brown caddis coming off the water. I switched to a caddis nymph,

In

the end, given

a choice, I will take the small stream. I will take the small stream for its cold and clear current, for the way it challenges and shapes the land, for the way it bends and drops and pools. I will take the small stream for the grizzly bear and cougar tracks that line its banks, for the elk and moose scat that sprinkles its shoulders, for the gravel bars clean of bootprint.

added a strike indicator and started catching fish.

Probably the best thing about small streams is that you can fish them without your whole arsenal of flies. Find a fly in the box that has never taken a fish. On a blue line, it will.

And so. Blue Lines. The names must be changed to protect the innocent. We who fish—or hunt—are a verbose lot. We sit at bars and lean

our elbows on slick wood sticky with old beer and we talk about the things we have seen, the trout we have caught, the places we’ve been. While our tales may be embellished with glory and strife, they will mostly be true. But the names will be changed. No fisherman in his right mind reveals his secrets. They are personal, private, protected. These are sacred places where our great rivers are born, where our passion is

sparked and regenerated as surely as winter snowfall regenerates a summer fount. Find a map and find your own. This is blue line country.

Thomas Reed lives with his family on their ranch outside Pony, Montana, where they raise and sell mountain horses and country kids. Well, the kids are not for sale. He is the author of several books including Blue Lines, A Fishing Life, excerpted here.

Small Stream Soliloquy

BY JOEL W. MARTIN

If ever I would leave you, it wouldn’t be in summer . . . Seeing you in summer I never would go.

It’s a very small stream, what I grew up calling a creek. But in places, it is surprisingly deep, the current surprisingly strong. I step into it again, feeling in the water your arms immediately embracing me, unsure of my footing as always, the water shy and strong, the air and your breath on my cheeks, both colder than they should be. It’s one of those blue days, not the sky blue or robin’s egg of summer but the dull gray-blue of steel, the China blue of winter, your eyes and my hands shake again slightly as I fumble for the right fly. Match it, they say, try your best to match it, and the choice, always the choice, when it would be so much easier if someone would just tell me. But in such a small stream, I am guessing that the choice is not that important. Opportunities, mine and those of the residents, are few and far between.

I close my eyes to feel your hand in mine, then reach down to pick up a stone, the water so cold that it stings. I feel its heft, its smoothness. The rock is ice cold and there is life beneath it, moving slowly, crawling; it is nature, a warmth of a different kind. I lift a mayfly nymph with the tip of the fingernail of my left hand and marvel that it lives, it moves. No one else in the world has seen this sliver of life I am about to release. I look at it closely from several angles. My hand has forgotten and is numb. The small nymph drops off and does not make a splash when it hits the water. I might have killed it by removing it from the water, keeping it too long into the frigid air. No one will ever know.

But if I’d ever leave you, it couldn’t be in autumn . . . How I’d leave in autumn I never will know.

The sooner I adjust to the chill of the air and water the better off I will be, not relaxed but not in danger either, the cold air entering my lungs, awakening them, my capillaries greeting it, welcoming it, transforming the oxygen into something else as I breathe. Shadows are falling within and without, a coldness that I fear and welcome. I am not dressed warmly enough, despite so many layers. I am never warm enough.

And could I leave you running merrily through the snow, Or on a wintry evening, when you catch the fire’s glow?

I cast the short distance needed, down and to the right. The line goes out, and with it some of the weight, not enough, but with more casts more is lifted, until the line is carrying only itself and the fly. The fish and I do not care; they and I both know that I will need many more casts before leaving to go home again. The fly misses the water; I reach for it; a slight prick of the hook into cold skin made soft by the water, and there is some slight bleeding.

The wind has picked up and the water, even here where it’s sheltered by the rhododendron and laurel, is no longer smooth, the light dimming until I can no longer see beneath the surface and do not know where to place my feet, the boots slipping along unsure. A stumble, a misstep, an error, just one but it is enough to remind me that I am growing old.

The cast unrolls beautifully, more on its own than because of me, as if the rod and the line have made amends and decided to spend their lives together. But the cast is not for the fish, nor for myself, not even for the sake of the cast, for the sheer grace of the flowing line. It is for you, it was always for you, it will always be for you. And I will miss you, see you reflected in the eyes of your children, our children, our grandchildren, until the day that I die. I will tell them about you.

If ever I would leave you, how could it be in springtime Knowing how in spring I’m bewitched by you so?

It’s time to go now. I smile at the stream and could swear that it smiles back.

No, never could I leave you At all.

A LOVE LETTER TO TROUT TOWN

BY NICHOLAS BLIXT

PHOTOS BY TIM ROMANO

There’s a knock on the door at 3:00 a.m., barely loud enough to register. I turn back in bed and begin to drift, but a subtle rap-rap-rap follows. Cody gets up from the other queen bed and walks across the room to check the motel room peep hole. He cocks his head and turns to me, confused.

“There’s a guy out there in his underwear…?” Cody says, his voice rising with the last word, as if caught halfway between a statement and a question. I get up from bed to offer a second opinion. Looking through the peephole, I confirm that we do have a visitor; he is wearing nothing but a pair of tighty-whiteys; and he apparently cannot help us understand why.

The knocking continues unabated, persistence that only a handle of whiskey might muster, while Cody and I attempt to negotiate in vain. We’re in Trout Town for two nights, staying at our usual motel of choice, and we had not planned on having a third party along for the weekend mission. Behind the underwear man, a few feral cats scurry around a fish-cleaning station and

a crusty hot tub. A Denny’s sign in the background gives the man a holy aura, but savior or not, we decide to keep the door shut and locked.

I’ve been coming to Trout Town for 11 years. Before I came here, I’d stare out at the hills from the window of my office job, straight out of college in a strange city, wondering what lies beyond them. Eventually, I found out, arriving here by accident, as most folks do, on the way to somewhere else. “Somewhere else” shortly became just that, and the destination instead became Trout Town. A two-lane highway doubles as the main road through town, a sleepy corridor lined with fast food joints, gas stations, motels ranging from $70 to $200 per night, local eateries and two dive bars, only one of which you’re actually supposed to go into (I can never remember which). At night, you can walk the entire length of the downtown section, the neon lights of motel billboards and vacancy signs guiding the way. I consider walkability a key requirement for any town carrying the title of Trout Town. Other requirements exist, not the least of which is access to cold, clean water and wild, willing trout.

You probably have your own Trout Town, even if you don’t know it yet. I’ve been to others and love them all dearly. I do not name them here, because half the fun lies in discovering them on your own. But they share a certain quality beyond food, drink, lodging and fishing that often becomes clear only in time. They feel like home. Not necessarily like where you live or where you grew up, but familiar and comfortable like a well-worn pair of boots. They lack all the burdens that ski resorts might bring to a small town, namely inflated lodging, wait lists at restaurants and propane fire pits.

I considered moving here many times over the past decade. It certainly would cut down on the four-hour weekend commute. When the pandemic began and the great urban exodus ensued, I had pangs of regret watching the real estate values here climb and climb. But

AT NIGHT, YOU CAN WALK THE ENTIRE LENGTH OF THE DOWNTOWN SECTION, THE NEON LIGHTS OF MOTEL BILLBOARDS AND VACANCY SIGNS GUIDING THE WAY.

underneath that indecision, I harbored the anxiety that if I moved here, it would cease to be Trout Town. Instead, it might become what it already was to most—just a regular (lowercase) town, in the middle of nowhere, with a bunch of feral cats and a few beautiful fish that I might start to take for granted. Years ago, three weeks into a multi-weekend carp bender on a nearby reservoir, my friend and I began to joke that we only drove back to the big city to find enough money to come back—as if our time here depended on some perverse form of foraging among the concrete.

Despite never having lived in Trout Town, I’ve forged some of the most important friendships of my life here, often through an odd combination of circumstance, fate and a shared love of fish and feathers. All said, every trip

here seems to include some unforeseen side-quest, which has only served as a catalyst to fish-based friendships.

There was the fire seven years ago that torched the entire riverside campground on the outskirts of town, leaving the status of my buddy’s trailer and all our belongings in question for almost 24 hours. We drank away our sorrows together in town, making small talk with our fellow campground refugees and plotting late night reconnaissance to assess the status of the vehicle. Ultimately, the trailer survived, as did my camp chair, which had thwarted the flames by blowing into one of my favorite holes on the river.

There was the snowstorm on Thanksgiving, when we snuck to the river before they could close the roads and sat on the banks eating turkey

DESPITE NEVER HAVING LIVED IN TROUT TOWN, I’VE FORGED SOME OF THE MOST IMPORTANT FRIENDSHIPS OF MY LIFE HERE, OFTEN THROUGH AN ODD COMBINATION OF CIRCUMSTANCE, FATE AND A SHARED LOVE OF FISH AND FEATHERS.

stuffing from a local Mexican joint and still caught fish on dries. Or the many times we got lost on the backroads, one locked cattle gate away from a new pond or riverbend, Google Maps and false optimism having led us astray. In Trout Town, I’ve learned that consolation prizes are always close in hand, whether they be alternate waterways, warm showers or just cold beverages shared on a tailgate.

This might be a better story if these friendships came to include our aforementioned underwear-clad visitor, but unfortunately, that turns out not to be the case. In the morning, we wake late, barely in time to check out. The kid at the front desk apologizes profusely for the late-night interruption—apparently, the other guest was in room 115, next to our 113. A simple mistake, one anyone with some liquid confusion could make. Questions remain, namely why he was outdoors in his underwear the first place, but we decide to leave it at that. Carrying our rods and bags to the truck, we see a “Do Not Disturb” sign on room 115 and briefly consider knocking.

Instead, we grab coffee and drive down the main drag of Trout Town, hoping to sneak in a few hours on the water before the long drive home. Still fog headed from the evening visit, I try to decipher the logo on the side of an official-looking pickup truck stopped at a red light in the lane next to us. In the process, I barrel through the red light, avoiding collision but finally managing to make out a Fish & Game logo on the truck door. The warden flips on his lights and pulls me over into an Arby’s parking lot. We chat about the river conditions, then about an off-season goose hunt kicking off in the valley. We chat about the underwear man and my crappy driving performance that morning. He lets me off with a warning, and I, in turn, promise to always pinch my barbs, but I don’t think the joke really lands. We wave an awkward goodbye, I say a quiet “hallelujah,” and Cody and I continue on our way out of Trout Town.

It All Comes Together

BY KEVIN PARSONS

Almost 30 years ago, Brandin made a demo rod and liked it enough to sell it (a rare occurrence). He sold it to Dr. Jim Yarrow (“Doc”) of Granite Bay, California in 1997. It was a one-of-akind, and Doc knew it.

Doc Yarrow was a highly accomplished neurosurgeon in Northern California. According to his wife, Sandy, Jim sought perfection and total immersion into whatever he did in his life. He brought this part of his personality to his hobbies, which included fishing, fly tying and cooking. According to Sandy, when Doc passed away in 2019, he had a “pile” of rods (perhaps 30 to 40) and thousands of flies. The pile was divided up amongst his children who were introduced to the sport by their dad. Sandy had no idea what Doc had tied up financially in his rods and reels (she admitted with a snicker that she never asked, and he never offered… and she never discussed what she had tied up in her substantial bicycle hobby either.)

forgotten something along the river he went back to find it, and when he returned to the truck the rod was gone.

Years later, Doc met up with Per at a bamboo rod gathering at the Harriman

Per quickly discovered this was Doc’s stolen rod and that he, in fact, had the rest of what was needed to put the whole outfit back together. But it was stolen. What to do?

Doc’s great friend, Jack Parker, described Doc as a very deliberate, softspoken man whom he had introduced to the fly-fishing world, including an interest in cane rods. Jack, Doc and their friends particularly loved fishing cane rods on the Yuba river and other iconic places like the Henry’s Fork in Idaho.

A few years after Doc acquired the Perfectionist rod, he took it to the Yuba River. After some hours of fishing he retreated to his truck, and set the rod on the rooftop while he removed his waders and gear. After realizing he had

Ranch on the Henry’s Fork, where he told the unfortunate story of the missing rod, and offered to Per the original tube, sock and extra tip it came with.

I can’t help but wonder what prompted Doc to do this. Why? Was he just being a kind man trying to make something out of a terrible loss? Was it intention, a subconscious yearning, or was this action being directed from a higher power? Whatever the reason, I’m glad he did it.

Fast-forward to August, 2019. Per called me because he needed my advice. He is not only a client but a good friend

and mentor in many ways, and he related a rather intriguing story. Jim Adams, a notable re-seller of collectible fly-fishing rods, reels and gear in Berkeley, California, had called Per to say he acquired a Brandin rod from a guy who claimed to have found the rod in a storage unit he was cleaning out and wanted to sell it. Jim, of course, recognized what the rod was and bought it on the spot, and called Per to see what it might be worth… without a sock, tip and case. This sounded familiar to Per, so he asked Jim for the numbers off the rod as he wanted to see who owned the rod and otherwise get the details. Per quickly discovered

this was Doc’s stolen rod and that he, in fact, had the rest of what was needed to put the whole outfit back together. But it was stolen. What to do?

When faced with clients soliciting advice, I often say: “Well, if it was me, I would do this…” In this case I asked Per if he could get in touch with the original owner, but Doc had unfortunately passed a few months prior. I then asked if Per could get in touch with Doc’s family. Sandy and Per collectively resolved to have Jim sell the entire kit, take what he needed out of the sale to make him whole, and give the balance to Sandy.

Eight days later, I was laying on my sleeping bag in a tent in Kamchatka, waiting for a day-late helicopter ride out (after we had literally had our last supper for breakfast) and wondered aloud about that bamboo rod, “What are the chances of this happening?”

Paul Young in his shop (above) and one of his “Perfectionist” parabolic taper rods (right).

Upon returning home from my trip, I called Jim. He still had the rod along with what Per had sent to him. He had just finished taking photos to put up on his website so he could sell it. I inquired how much he wanted. Already knowing what a Brandin rod was worth, I bought it on the spot. Jim was happy, I was happy, and Per was soon to be happy also. Jim subsequently provided more information on his communication with Doc’s wife including what he paid to her. Jim was a bit taken back when he found this was a stolen rod. Having sold 3,000-4,000 rods over decades, he had never knowingly taken in and attempted to sell a stolen rod. The story he had heard from the seller seemed plausible. I received the rod a few days later. I went to Per’s shop where he did a full review determining it was all in great shape and I had gotten a fair deal on the purchase.

A cane rod maker’s intention is to bring pieces of an organic matter (water

grass) to create an implement that clearly is a unique for the purpose of delivering a fly to a target. As Per indicates in his recently released book on E.C. Powell, “Each cane rod has a soul… each cane rod is unique.”

My rod, this rod, not only has a soul it has a story. It has meaning. It has intention. It is together and it has come home.

My rod, this rod, not only has a soul it has a story. It has meaning. It has intention. It is together and it has come home. Was this coincidence or intended by Doc, the thief, Per, a higher power? I think it is all the above. I am blessed.

Per Brandin in his shop (above and right), and one of his hollowed shaft designs (below).

The author’s rod, together again.

BY CHRISTINE PETERSON

ne warm, mid-May morning, some friends and I rented a raft to fish our home tailwater. We’d never floated the river before; usually we spent our days wading the winding river’s public stretches. So we decided to pool enough money to rent one for a day.

Rafting meant we could hit the holes we’d never seen before, ones flanked on either side by private land and miles out of reach to anyone without a guide or friend in the right place.

The river ran high that year, and fast, and we were blowing past promising stretches. In one particularly good-looking one, we back-rowed to swing through again. And that’s when we heard it, a voice from a guide screaming at us from 20 yards away to never back row a run.

It was jarring to be yelled at on a river by a stranger, and it became my first introduction to one of the many unwritten rules of fly fishing, some based on biology, some on ethics, some on culture and more than a few based on nothing more than an individual’s opinion and mood at the time.

Fishing Our Conscience

In the last 15 years since that day, I’ve heard most of those rules related to trout fishing, and especially trout fishing in the West. I’ve also learned that having polite conversations can sometimes change attitudes, using scientific studies can help even more, and just like in the rest of life, screaming opinions across bodies of land or water will rarely achieve the desired effect.

But the fact is, as more people become interested in fly fishing, the guiding industry continues to grow, and the grip and grin of the social media post becomes ubiquitous with the sport itself, biologists, anglers and others concerned about the health of our streams and rivers and the viability of our passion’s future have been offering their own set of rules—guidelines, really.

A list I’ve compiled over hundreds of interviews with fisheries biologists from New York to Nevada are less an admonishment about rowing twice through a run and more gentle reminders from people who’ve spent their lives studying how we can all contribute to a fishery’s sustainable future.

Some of these guidelines may sound familiar. Others might surprise you. They’re all worth thinking about. Because ultimately these rivers, streams and lakes we fish are our collective responsibility. While many of the threats they face, from climate change and pollution to invasive species and dams, feel weighty and out of our control, we as an angling community also impact our fish and waters, and that is something we can change.

Capture more than the fish

We’ve probably seen this recommendation before, and yet one scroll through any anglers’ Instagram account—mine included—will offer more than one picture of some trout, bass or other fish gripped between our hands for the camera.

According to most biologists, if you didn’t play the fish for too long, water temperatures aren’t too hot, and it’s only briefly out of the water, that grip and grin is probably fine. Take off any gloves you’re wearing, get your hands wet, and don’t squeeze the fish too hard.

Not only could a fish picture be safe for the fish, that image could also be what connects people with what lives in the waters that many blithely ignore. Pictures

help people see what swims beneath, and may help them understand why those waters are important to help protect.

But let’s not pretend grip and grins don’t take their toll. Fish are meant to be wet. So the next time you’re fishing, consider taking pictures of only one or two, the most remarkable ones or the ones with the best memories for you. Do a quick release on the rest.

And then when you share those pictures, include scenes from the rest of your trip. Maybe it’s the chaos of the back of your truck, a bald eagle perched on a tree near the bank, or a particularly stunning flower.

Fishing, is about more than just the fish, and we should show people that, too.

Leave the rodeo to the cowboys

There’s often little more thrilling than hearing a reel scream a round of ZZZZZs as line rips down a river with a trout at the end. And it’s tempting to let that trout run before you reel in as fast as you can, then run again. But do that too long, and you’re no longer catching fish but playing with them.

And playing fish, especially on hot

days, can take an exceptionally large toll. So consider using a heavier tippet, even if you worry it might be a touch more visible. Then focus less on chasing the fish downstream like a whitewater rodeo and instead land it as soon as you can.

Chances are, you’ll still have a heck of a fight, and done right, both of you will live for another round.

Think about your tackle

Increasing numbers of rivers across North American require anglers to pinch their barbs and reduce the number of flies. But not everywhere.

Even if it’s not a regulation, consider pinching your barbs anyway. Yes, a barbed hook does stay in a fish’s mouth better, but leaving the barb means the fish is being handled more, out of the water longer, and also, leads to tearing skin and flesh.

Multiple hooks on lines also lead to increasing odds that a fish could be

snagged somewhere you don’t mean to, like a soft belly, fin or even an eye.

I’ve met plenty of purist anglers who only fish the smallest, single dry fly hooks with pinched barbs, and I’m not suggesting we should be those purists. If you’re fishing with your kid or someone who is new, and you want to use a slightly bigger hook or a couple flies (where allowed) you can, but especially after you’ve caught one or two, think about ways to challenge yourself or make fishing just a little harder.

Also expand your tackle kit to include a thermometer. It may sound strange, but in late summer, when runoff has long since ended and water heats up, you may want to take that river’s temperature. Water temperature in the upper 60s can be taxing and above 77 degrees Fahrenheit can be deadly to trout. Added stress from catch and release angling only increases the odds of dying.

A thermometer can tell you if you’re in that window or not, and let you know if you should go ahead and fish or head somewhere else for the day.

Keep some fish

It may sound counterintuitive in a fly-fishing culture built on catch and release, but sometimes the best way to conserve fish is to keep a few.

Take brook trout in Wyoming’s high mountain streams. The nonnative species has flourished with little competition from any other fish, and their tiny

Sometimes being a responsible angler means something more than doing the right thing on the banks of a river or while floating a riffle. Sometimes it means giving back.

bodies—flaked with glints of gold and fin stripe of white—will voraciously strike at anything that touches the water’s surface. But the problem with their desire to eat anything and love of cold, clean water, is they begin to eat themselves out of house and home.

For years, I’ve listened as fisheries biologists ask people to think about those limits of six or even 10 and keep a few to fry for lunch or dinner.

One reservoir that straddles Wyoming and Utah like a massive bathtub has so many lake trout, the region’s biologist has been pleading with anglers to keep some, or even more than some. The limit currently sits at 12.

Lucky for us, little beats a lunch or dinner of fresh fish. The smaller ones

you can simply gut, clean, salt and pepper before frying with the skin on and bones in.

It’s a delight to the angler and nonangler and another good way to connect people with fish and water.

Get involved

Sometimes being a responsible angler means something more than doing the right thing on the banks of a river or while floating a riffle. Sometimes it means giving back.

That could be joining your local fly-fishing group. But also consider registering for one of your state’s naturalist programs to learn more about your region’s plants and animals, the aquatic ones and terrestrial ones. Join river cleanups and invasive species removal days.

Then consider documenting those plants and animals you see and uploading them to databases like iNaturalist. Researchers from across the globe use information collected from people like us to understand more about what’s going on in our natural systems.

It may seem hard to imagine how uploading one image of a flower, mussel, fish or bird into a database of tens of millions of images makes a difference, but in many ways it’s like picking up a solitary piece of garbage. The sum of those small acts helps create sustainable conservation.

Actionline NEWS FROM THE

TU Expeditions in Wyoming

Youth in Action build Beaver Dam Analogs on Trout Creek. pg 70

Collaboration in Pennsylvania

ACTU and the Conewago Access Partners make improvements in Adams County. pg 72

Stream Champion

Andrea Koenig, Trout in the Classroom educator. pg 74

Tools & Tips

2025 Regional Rendezvous Series, custom TU gear and the Headwaters Youth Program. pg 76

From Beavers to Leaders: Youth in Action on TU Expeditions

The wind howled through Fire Hole Canyon, a ceaseless voice carrying tales of the land. Each explosion of wind held a purpose, pushing sand and sweeping across the sagebrush. With growing gusts, the temperature dropped, threatening below-freezing temperatures. The scene was a stark contrast to the gentle breeze that had welcomed us to Trout Creek earlier that morning. Fighting the wind to hold down our bending and breaking tent poles, we experienced our first taste of “real

Wyoming” as a rattlesnake made its home in our campsite’s only shelter.

But how did we get here? Let’s take it back a moment. In 2023, the Bureau of Land Management granted TU an $8.8 million 5-year grant. While a majority of this grant funds our field projects, a subset of the money is intended for youth involvement in restoration and conservation projects on our public lands. Thus began TU Expeditions, providing opportunity and experiences to youth across America. Seeing

the potential and importance of this work, the Bass Pro Shops Outdoor Fund provided a generous supplemental grant, ensuring the success of this program.

In the late afternoon of June 16th, we accomplished our first challenge: all eight high schoolers from Maine to California arrived at the Salt Lake City airport, gear in hand and an extra bounce in their step. After shuffling into the 12-person passenger van, the group set off on our 10-day journey through the Green River watershed.

With an early wake up to start the first day, our expeditioners embarked on their mission to construct Beaver Dam Analogs (BDAs) under the instruction of TU’s Project Manager Nick Walrath. As calluses toughened and arms became stronger over the first four days, they witnessed the immediate impact of their efforts. With each carefully placed branch, the swift and narrow waters began to pool and spread, creating new habitats and rejuvenating the land. The transformation was almost mystical, the work of their hands mirroring the ancient, instinctual practices of the beaver.

Building BDAs is the key component to low-tech, process-based restoration (PBR). In its simplest form, PBR is the act of restoring a stream to its healthiest state by mimicking beaver activity, specifically in building dams. While seemingly simple, BDAs have a large impact on the ecosystem. From increasing riparian zones by flooding the surrounding areas to creating meandering rivers, BDAs restore riparian habitat, the zone between terrestrial and aquatic habitats. This zone is responsible for filtering sediment, trapping pollution and moderating water temperature among other benefits1. Building and maintaining this habitat is crucial for our ecosystems as 60 percent of vertebrate species and one third of plant species are dependent on riparian zones, which only exist in 2 percent of the western U.S.2 While there’s no true ecosystem engineer like the beaver, the work of our expeditioners will greatly supplement and encourage the rodent’s impact.

Tired and tanned, the group moved camp north to Seedskadee Wildlife Refuge. For the remainder of the trip, students focused on sharing the knowledge acquired while building the BDAs. There’s no greater test of your knowledge than having to teach it and no better audience for environmental education than elementary students. Equipped with games, knowledge and

stories, expeditioners headed to the local summer day-camp in Green River, Wyo. After hosting games demonstrating predatory relationships and teaching entomology through brightly colored crafts, expeditioners and day-campers alike left the day with joyful grins.

While our small but mighty group can create great impact, there’s no stronger changemaker than community. To leverage this key player, expeditioners hosted a river clean up in partnership with Rivers are Life, a fellow non-profit focused on improving and protecting river ecosystems by giving them a voice. After walking the banks of the Green River, the group of expeditioners and local community members collected over 15 bags of trash, three tires and other various oddities. Arms tired, the group gathered

around the BBQ, sharing stories of fishing, conservation efforts and community.

As the crew built each dam and taught new lessons, you could see their interest growing through their conversations and excitement in their eyes. The seeds of conservation and stewardship have been successfully planted in each expeditioner. Now all that’s left is to continue nurturing this next generation of watershed champions.

— By Cecily Nordstrom and Zoe Mihalas

1. https://library.weconservepa.org/guides/131-the-sciencebehind-the-need-for-riparian-buffer-protection

2. https://extension.oregonstate.edu/water/riparian-areas/ overview-riparian-systems-potential-problems

Collaborative Public, Private and Non-Profit Partnership Leads to Land and Stream Preservation and Restoration in Adams County, PA

One of the more notable, recent achievements by TU in Pennsylvania, and a perfect example of TU’s commitment to fishing, conservation and community, is the permanent protection of 58 acres of land along and adjacent to Conewago Creek in Adams County. This section of the creek, located in the southcentral part of the state, is the only “Special Trout Regulation Water” in Adams County (i.e., restricted to catch and release, fly-fishing only activity). The Conewago, an iconic, high-quality trout habitat, is a tributary to the Susquehanna River, which empties into the Chesapeake Bay.

In late 2019 the owner of the 58-acre parcel, Knouse Foods Corporation, informed ACTU and other environmental and conservation-minded organizations of its intent to sell the property, which comprised undeveloped woodland and agricultural land, and that abutted approximately one-half of the 1.1-mile regulated section of the creek.

Knouse had been making the section of the creek abutting their property accessible for public fishing for more than three decades, during which time ACTU had been managing and improving the creek’s banks and waters through the volunteer efforts of its members, thereby enhancing the trout habitat. Access to the remaining regulated sections of the creek, via two other abutting properties, had long been allowed under informal agreements with those private landowners.

Both Knouse and the notified parties were concerned that a new owner might develop the property in a manner detrimental to the recreational resource or might not allow public access for fishing, so the parties agreed to try to work together collaboratively to find a solution that would continue to allow access.

As a result, ACTU and its partner organizations began exploring the possibility of purchasing a permanent fishing easement along the half-mile section of the creek that could potentially be affected by the sale. The organizations that were teamed with ACTU included the following: Northern Virginia chapter of Trout Unlimited, Adams County Conservation District, Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, Watershed Alliance of Adams County, Land Conservancy of Adams

County, Adams County Office of Planning and Development.

Together, this team was known as the Conewago Access Partners.

As plans to acquire the easement progressed over the following year and public knowledge and encouragement of the effort grew, strong support developed among the partners for not simply acquiring an easement, but for seeking to preserve

sections of the creek, thereby formalizing agreements which enable access to this entire section of the creek going forward as well.

The first major project that ACTU completed under the lease agreement was the construction of a 10-car parking lot, including two handicapped spots, plus an approach trail from the lot to the creek, enabling greater access to the creek.

the entire property in its natural state in perpetuity, thereby protecting and preserving not only the fishing access but also the riparian zone and the land surrounding this section of the creek.

In late 2020, the partners started raising funds to enable the purchase. Over the following year the team worked relentlessly, and their innovative fundraising efforts resulted in raising over $430,000, more than enough to facilitate the purchase.

This effort successfully culminated on December 30, 2021, with the acquisition of the 58 acres from Knouse. For a variety of reasons, it was decided that the property, referred to as the Site, would be owned by the PFBC.

But ACTU’s volunteer efforts regarding the Site didn’t stop there. In May 2022, ACTU entered into a 25-year lease agreement with the PFBC under which it is responsible for maintaining and improving the Site for the benefit of anglers and other nature lovers alike. At the same time, ACTU negotiated a10-year fishing easement agreements between the PFBC and the two private landowners of the remaining properties abutting the downstream and upstream

This project, which was estimated to cost over $60,000, was completed in August 2022. Importantly, the construction project was completed at no cost to ACTU, as it was funded entirely by generous contributions of materials and labor from supportive engineering and construction businesses and members of the local community.

But again, ACTU’s volunteer efforts regarding the Site didn’t

stop there. In late 2022, ACTU applied for and was awarded a generous grant from the South Mountain Partnership, a collaborative network of organizations protecting the natural resources of the region, to help implement the next phase of improvement programs at the Site. The scope of this work, which was completed over many months in 2023, included: Installing a 60-foot-long stream habitat improvement device, creating a 900-yard nature trail planting over 300 native trees and shrubs on retired farmland to expand the riparian buffer and removing invasive plant species over five acres.

Completing the above work required more than 700 hours of volunteer labor, which was provided by ACTU and other community members.

Fittingly, on April 30th of this year, ACTU was an honored recipient of a 2024 Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence for its work preserving and improving the Site. In a press release announcing the awards, DEP’s Acting Secretary Jessica Shirley noted “This year’s Environmental Excellence honorees showcase the innovative ways we can protect our environment and shape a more sustainable future here in Pennsylvania.”

Looking forward, ACTU will continue fulfilling its responsibilities under its 25-year management agreement with the PFBC by implementing additional improvement projects to enhance the attractiveness of the Site and the creek to fly fishers, hikers, bird watchers and nature lovers alike.

The scope of this work, which was completed over many months in 2023, included: Installing a 60-foot-long stream habitat improvement device, creating a 900-yard nature trail planting over 300 native trees and shrubs on retired farmland to expand the riparian buffer and removing invasive plant species over five acres.

STREAM CHAMPION

Andrea Koenig

Trout in the Classroom Idaho Style

BY CECI BENNET

“Will we be famous? Like Taylor Swift?” one of the students asked.

I wondered if Ms. Swift ever raised anything from an egg. Educator Andrea Koenig has been incorporating “Trout in the Classroom” into her science curriculum for over 15 years, at four different schools and at different elementary grade levels. As she moved along in her Idaho teaching career, her fish tank and tank accessories moved along with her.

Trout in the Classroom is TU’s environmental education program and stewardship experience for students. It creates young advocates for local watersheds and the fish in them. Easily integrated into existing classroom curricula, the course is appropriate and easily adapted for elementary and high school students. Idaho’s TIC program is made possible through a partnership with TU’s Idaho Council (and its seven regional chapters) and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. Between the two agencies, TIC educators receive a coldwater fish tank setup, about 80 trout or salmon eggs, a full curriculum guide and excellent support. Over her 17 years as a TIC

facilitator, Koenig’s tank water filter and chiller unit died.

The TU Council office in Boise responded to her SOS (save our salmonids!) and replaced them immediately. When looking for a class to follow on its release day, my go-to was Sabrina Beus, the TU Idaho staff member in charge of the TIC program. She sent out an email to the 56 or so TIC teachers in our area and we got a resounding response. From 3rd grade to high school teachers, we heard about releases in the last two weeks of May. The release on May 16 with Adams Elementary in Boise worked best for my schedule. I hit the trifecta that day as I tagged along to photograph this local 5th grade class on their TIC field trip. The 27 students were exuberant, the spring day was gorgeous and Keonig was a true champion of the TIC program. The kids knew I was there to document their day as a board member of TU’s Ted Trueblood Chapter. And of course, to make them famous.

Considered STEAM learning, Koenig’s students incorporated a range of skills within TIC. In the four month period from receiving the eggs at the end of January until the

Andrea Koenig, above left, with her students

TROUT IN THE CLASSROOM EDUCATOR

mid-May release of the parr, the students teamed up to track the tank’s pH and nitrate levels, discuss natural selection and hatch rates and observe the life cycle of the rainbow trout. Koenig has a particular advantage with the TIC program. Her husband, Martin Koenig, is a fisheries biologist with Idaho Fish and Game and has infused his professional knowledge into her classroom program (like suggesting she

raise the tank water temp a couple degrees to grow larger fingerlings faster). She also has her own deep experiential knowledge from all those years of TIC. When asked if the students had a feeding schedule for the fish, she confided that in past years they tended to lavishly and zealously overfeed the fish, so that task was now left to her sixth grade son.

In the four month period from receiving the eggs at the end of January until the mid-May release of the parr, the students teamed up to track the tank’s pH and nitrate levels, discuss natural selection and hatch rates and observe the life cycle of the rainbow trout.

Tenacious and dedicated, Koenig is also creative. When COVID hit in March of 2020 and schools across the world went home to learn remotely, Koenig’s fish tank was up and running. She recruited a school custodian to look after the fish and feed them. He sent photos and videos to her to share with her students and keep the curriculum continuum. After the bus ride from Adams, Martin met us at the venue for the trout release, the Boise WaterShed, the city’s water renewal (wastewater) facility. Adjacent to the Boise River, it was a short walk to the release spot. From the classroom up to this point, the fish were living in a Coleman cooler set in a folding wagon. Seated on riverside benches, more lessons were in store before the big release. Led by Martin and the WaterShed staff, the students discussed what creates a riparian zone, the cycle of food and life in the river, and the importance of cold, clean water for aquatic life and surrounding wildlife. The cooler housing about twenty 2-inch parr-marked fingerlings was finally opened and each student took a turn grasping for the darting targets and then placing them gently, one by one, in the river eddy. With the day’s main goal accomplished, everyone then hiked to a nearby WaterShed pond, donned mucking boots and waded into the water to access stillwater quality, harvest and identify macroinvertebrates and discuss pond water and river water qualities.

The culmination of their TIC course was celebrated on the bus ride back to Adams Elementary with a wildly raucous sing-along event. Ironically, it did not include any Taylor Swift tunes.

Save the Date for TU’s 2025 Regional Rendezvous Series

Trout Unlimited is excited to announce the dates for the 2025 Regional Rendezvous series.

Pacific Regional Rendezvous in collaboration with the Fly Fishing Show

Dates: February 28-March 2, 2025

Location: Pleasanton, Calif.

Join us for The Fly Fishing Show in Pasadena, Calif. This will be an opportunity to connect, learn and share your passion for fly fishing and conservation with TU leaders and other attendees. Attendees will also learn from TU staff, partners and other volunteers in Rendezvous-specific sessions.

Rockies Regional Rendezvous in collaboration with the Wasatch Fly Tying and Fly Fishing Expo

Dates: March 28-29, 2025

Location: Sandy, Utah

Partnering with the Wasatch Fly Tying and Fly Fishing Expo, this Rendezvous promises a blend of educational sessions, workshops and networking opportunities with fellow fly-fishers

and conservationists. Attendees should plan extra time to explore the beautiful fly-fishing destinations Utah has to offer!

Eastern Regional Rendezvous

Dates: April 25-27, 2025

Location: Shepherdstown, W.Va.

Our Eastern Regional Rendezvous will take place in Shepherdstown, W.Va. at the National Conservation Training Center on the banks of the Potomac River. This event will focus on conservation strategies, chapter leadership and seminars. In 2026, we will return to Northeast and Southeast Rendezvous, so don’t miss this chance to connect in the Mid-Atlantic with your TU peers.

Mark your calendars, put a line in your chapter and council budgets, and plan to join us (and send three new, up and coming TU leaders) for these inspiring weekends of community, coldwater and conservation in 2025! For questions or to learn more, visit tu.org/regionals or e-mail Maggie Heumann at Maggie. Heumann@tu.org. We look forward to seeing you there.

—Maggie Heumann, Manager for Volunteer Operations

New Volunteer Orientations

Interested in volunteering for TU? We welcome you! A great place to start is to connect with us on one of many live new volunteer orientations. The next two orientations are scheduled for Sept. 10 and Nov. 12 at 3 p.m. EST. To register, find the events on tu.org/events or e-mail Nick Halle at nick.halle@tu.org.

TU’s Fundraising & Discounted Gear Program for Chapters

Looking for auction items for your next chapter event or banquet? Need to replace all those rod outfits you’ve got sitting in your chapter’s storage unit? Want to get your chapter’s name—and logo—out into the community? We’ve got you covered! Through the generosity of our partners, the TU Fundraising and Discounted Gear program allows your chapter to purchase a wide variety of items for fundraising and chapter programming at a steep discount. Partners include well-known fishing brands such as Orvis, Yeti, Hardy, R.L. Winston, Scientific Anglers, Waterworks/Lamson, Abel, Ross, Temple Fork Outfitters and more! (Pro Tip: auction or raffle off a rod to be ordered later and let the winner choose the weight and size!)

Fly tackle items not performing well at your last couple banquets? Looking for something a little outside the box? No problem! Consider an e-Bike from QuietKat, or a custom piece of art from Cody Richardson made with license plates from your state. You can also customize products from Yeti, New Phase Fly Fishing or use our exclusive CustomInk platform to put your chapter logo on some cool swag to increase your visibility.

Just a few of the products available through this program are pictured above and products are always changing. This program is for TU chapter and council purposes only. This discounted gear is not available to TU members, volunteersor others for personal use. To see what’s available through this program, to place an order, or to learn more please e-mail Volunteer Operations Coordinator, Nick Halle, at nick. halle@tu.org —Nick Halle, Volunteer Operations Coordinator

Dear Miriam...

Leaving No Trace

BY CHRISTINE PETERSON

Sometime shortly after you turned 3, you started picking up every piece of garbage you saw. Every used straw, stray candy wrapper and beer bottle you insisted we retrieve from every campground, trail and dirt road.

It’s like those pieces of garbage personally offended you, even though I’m not sure about a 3-year-old’s capacity to be offended. Even at a young age, you somehow knew it was our responsibility not only to remove evidence of our presence, but also cleanup after those who had come before us.

Five years later, that desire hasn’t waned. We carry extra bags for cleaning out fire pits that people treated as garbage cans. We reserve the back left corner of our truck for beer cans found along the way. We shove stray wrappers in pants pockets and plastic water bottles in backpacks.

I discouraged garbage collecting when you were younger—it’s hard enough to keep a 3-year-old’s hands clean on a multiday camping trip. And we were in a pandemic, so adding human refuse to the deal made me even more nervous. But now we have systems for disposing of stray litter.

Because what we have realized—your dad and I and anyone else who spends time outside—is that litter isn’t restricted to interstate shoulders and abandoned city lots. It’s almost unbelievable how far back in we will find some stray piece of garbage, or in one case, six empty Avian water bottles. Sometimes trash is callously left behind by someone who doesn’t care. More often, I hope for humanity, it’s accidentally left behind—a casualty of a gust of wind or pack not

secured tightly enough. And with every passing year, especially since the advent of the COVID pandemic and a surge of people interested in mountains,

Because it’s our job to help preserve the spaces we love—from the banks of the creek that runs through town to the state park to the high mountain lake 20 miles from any road. It’s up to us, and everyone else, to watch out for each other and these

landscapes.

lakes and rivers, we can’t just plan to remove our trace.

In early summer, as we checked into a remote ranger station on an island just over the Canadian border, a perky young park ranger named Stacey asked us to please not burn garbage in our fire pits. Burned plastic could pollute the watershed and put toxins in the air, and tinfoil, despite everyone’s deepest desire, just doesn’t burn as well as anyone believes.

She ended her spirited introductory lecture to the Canadian wilderness that included a plea to not set wildfires,

with one last ask. She said it almost sheepishly, and I hope one day she asks with a little more force: If you see any tinfoil or garbage in any of the fire rings, please consider perhaps adding it to your trash bag and taking it out.

I don’t blame her for couching the request with “please” and “consider.” It’s not our jobs to clean up after everyone else, and it’s even trickier to clean up garbage when all our belongings must fit in bags in a canoe that we then throw on our backs and portage from one lake to another.

But as backcountry users who enter these spaces for their unsullied nature, it’s even more important for us to contribute to their sustainable future.

We also never know what we might be leaving behind. Try as we might, it may one day be our wrapper that blows out of our pack because our straps aren’t tied down well enough.

So I won’t stop you the next time you want to pick up a fruit snacks wrapper, beer can or plastic water bottle (though I will still pause when you reach for the dirty face mask stuck in a sage brush bush).

Because it’s our job to help preserve the spaces we love—from the banks of the creek that runs through town to the state park to the high mountain lake 20 miles from any road. It’s up to us, and everyone else, to watch out for each other and these landscapes. And it starts with one of the simplest acts of picking up garbage.

Thank you for reminding me of one more way we can care for these places. Love, Mom

OUTFITTERS, GUIDES & FOR RENT

ALASKA

Guided day trips near Denali National Park for Arctic Grayling in the heart of the Alaska Range. www.denaliangler.com.

MONTANA

Turn Key Fly Fishing Vacations in Missoula Montana Trip includes All food and drink, ground transportation, accommodations and 3 days guided float trip on Blackfoot, Clarkfork, Bitterroot and Rock Creek $2500 Single / $2250 Double www.mmtroutadventures.com Call for details 602-448-4834

NORTH CAROLINA

Exclusive Fly-Fishing Club for you and your guest. Enjoy a mile of wild, trophy trout stream in western N.C. www.armstrongflycasters.com

PENNSYLVANIA

Pennsylvania Guide Service, Sky Blue Outfitters, ½ day, full day and overnight trips available. Penns, Spring, Letort, Little Juniata, Pine and many more. Call 610987-0073 or visit www.skyblueoutfitters.com for details.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

Reel in Relief with Specialized Fly Fisherman Physical Therapy! Expert Care for Anglers, Onsite and Online: Are you an avid fly fisherman struggling with injuries that dampen your fishing experience? Our specialized Physical Therapy services cater to the needs of passionate anglers. We’ll work closely with you to create a personalized rehabilitation program, getting you back to fishing. Call 720-352-0678 for a free 15’ consultation. www.neuromuscularstrategies.com. Mike Kohm PT, BS. Schedule Online: Boulder https://mikekohmptboulder.youcanbook.me/

FOR SALE

Property For Sale By Owner - 17.1 acres along the banks of the Beaverkill River - one of the most iconic trout streams in the U.S. The property features 3 auxiliary buildings (including a 3-story barn), a pond for stocking trout, a brook with an outlet to the Beaverkill, an orchard and two meadows. The bluestone foundation from the original farmhouse serves as a perfect location to build a custom residence.

CLASSIFIEDS

With the purchase of the property, the owner is entitled to an individual membership at the Beaverkill Stream Club which provides 4 miles of private river rights in perpetuity on the Beaverkill for fly fishing; as well as a membership option to the Beaverkill Mountain Club with access to about 65 miles of scenic trails. In addition, the property benefits from a local conservation easement that will preserve the pristine beauty of this unique area for generations to come.

Whether you are looking for a permanent residence, or a vacation home, this is a rare opportunity to own a tranquil, private country property in the Catskills, just two hours outside of New York City. Send inquiries to beaverkill.farm1@gmail.com

FLIES & GEAR

4-piece bamboo flyrods handmade with bamboo ferrules. cgbamboorods.com chuck-g@comcast.net”

Handcrafted wooden fly-fishing furniture and fly boxes – Handcrafted fly fishing furniture and wooden fly boxes. Built from the finest hardwoods. Visit woodbyroy. net or contact Roy at 804-930-2113.

Fly or Spin Rods- Veteran Owned www.stanleycanyon. com james.a.boyless@stanleycanyon.com

Custom Fly Rods built to your exact specifications. Carbon fiber blanks, Portuguese burl cork handles, nickel silver seats, fine wrapping threads. Professional Certified Rod Builder. LakeLady Custom Rods. rodbuilder@ lakeladyrods.com

Custom made wooden fly boxes, no two are alike. Contact Jim at jimwhip@q.com for details

EZ-P Waterproof Wader Zipper - $80 Installed in any brand. Guaranteed for the life of your waders. Pressure tested for dry suit SCUBA. Contact: bjuniata@verizon. net or 814-569-8843

BAMBOO RODS Buy Sell Consign www.coldwatercollectibles.com (616) 884-5626

No Touch Hook Release™. This tool saves fish, flies and cold hands. Easy to use, it releases most fish quickly without handling and works even for #22 hooks and bead heads. Buy at NoTouchTrout.com ($20 ppd) or Orvis.com

FLY ROD RULER Measure your catch with a Rodrule. The micro-thin Rodrule adheres to your rods without hampering the action or finish. Guide approved! Order at: www.rodrule.com

BOOKS AND MAGAZINES

Sermons in Stones - Tales of family, friends, and flyfishing by David Ammons is a collection of eighteen beautifully crafted short stories on the author’s life experiences in a “mountain wilderness carved by a river”. Five-star rated on Amazon! Visit www.puremountainliving.com

WEST VIRGINIA: GO TROUT FISHING by TU Life Members. WV is home to some of the most wild and wonderful trout streams in the US! Find your next trout fishing destination at GoTroutFishing.com Fly or Spin Rods Veteran Owned www.stanleycanyon. com james.a.boyless@stanleycanyon.com

Tributaries: Fly-fishing Sojourns to the Less Traveled Streams: “We’re recommending it because we think it’s the coolest concentration of Pennsylvania- (and a bit Catskill-) centric short essays we’ve read.” — Trout magazine. Visit www. coastforkpress.com

Full Circle by David Van Lear is a book of short stories about adventures had during a lifetime of fishing, mostly fly fishing, including being treed by a mother grizzly in Yellowstone and nearly falling to his death when he tried to climb down into the Black Canyon of the Gunnison---don’t try it! The author has dealt with a mild form of bipolar disorder called cyclothymia most of his life and used fishing as a positive addiction to help stabilize his mood swings and have a productive and happy life. Van Lear is a life member of Trout Unlimited and received their Distinguished Service Award in 2010 for leading his chapter’s efforts to restore stream habitat and helping to bring back the brook trout to South Carolina’s headwater streams. Available at Amazon for $11.99.

FLY FISHING THE SOUTHERN ROCKIES: Small Streams & Wild Places by TU Life Member Paul Downing. Covers Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming. Available at Amazon.com. Special Club Discount — $20/ppd. Contact majesticpress@aol. com.

ART

Beautiful four-color fly-fishing poster will look great on your man cave, office, or den wall! Wholesale inquires welcomed. Details www.fishingthoughts.com

Advertise

in TROUT

Classifieds

Reach more than 150,000 anglers for just $2.25/word ($2.05/word for members).

Send text of ad and payment to:

TROUT Classifieds

1777 North Kent Street, Suite 100 Arlington, Virginia 22209

Ads may be faxed to (703)284-9400 or e-mailed to samantha.carmichael@tu.org

Classifieds must be prepaid. Count phone number, fax number, ZIP code, street number, abbreviations and email or website address as one word each.

December issue deadline: October 15, 2024.

To request a media kit for display advertising, call (703) 284-9422

Support Trout Unlimited’s Business Members

Expedition Broker

BUSINESS

ALASKA

Alaskan Angling Adventures LLC.

Mike Adams Cooper Landing, AK 99572 (907) 595-3336

alaskananglingadventures@gmail.com www.AlaskanAnglingAdventures.com

Alaska Drift Away Fishing

Jeremy Anderson Sterling, AK 99672 (907) 529-8776 info@guidekenairiver.com www.guidekenairiver.com

Alaska Fly Fishing Goods

Bradley Elfers Juneau, AK 99801 (907) 586-1550 brad@alaskaflyfishinggoods.com www.alaskaflyfishinggoods.com

Alaska Kingfishers

Rob Fuentes Dillingham, TX 99576 fish@alaskakingfishers.com www.alaskakingfishers.com

Alaska Rainbow Adventures

Paul Hansen Wasilla, AK 99687 (907) 357-0251 info@akrainbow.com www.akrainbow.com

Alaskan Remote Adventures Ryan Kocherhans St. George, UT 84770 (801) 725-1025 info@alaskanremoteadventures.com www.alaskanremoteadventures.com

Alaska Rainbow Lodge King Salmon, AK 99613 info@alaskarainbowlodge.com www.alaskarainbowlodge.com

Alaska Sportsman’s Lodge

Brian Kraft Kvichak River – Lake Iliamna, AK (907) 227-8719 brian@fishasl.com www.fishasl.com

Alaska Trout Guides Josh Hayes Sterling, AK 99672 (907) 598-1899

josh@alaskatroutguides.com www.alaskatroutguides.com

Alaska Troutfitters

Billy Coulliette Cooper Landing, AK 99572 (907) 595-1212

info@aktroutfitters.com www.aktroutfitters.com

Trout Unlimited Business members are TU ambassadors in protecting, restoring, reconnecting and sustaining North America’s coldwater fisheries. To become a TU Business Member, contact Zack Dingus at (571) 919-8083 or Zachary.Dingus@tu.org.

Outfitters Guides Lodges

Alaska’s Bearclaw Lodge

Rob Fuentes

Dillingham, AK 99576 (907) 843-1605 info@bearclawlodge.com www.bearclawlodge.com

Alaska’s Fishing Unlimited, Inc.

Dave Tyson Port Alsworth, AK 99653 (262) 515-3714 (WI – Dave) info@alaskalodge.com www.alaskalodge.com

Alaska’s Wild River Guides

John Jinishian Dillingham, AK 99576 (203) 247-9070 john@wildriverfish.com www.wildriverfish.com

GOLD LEVEL

Alaska Wild Caught

Seafood

Matthew Luck Ketchum, ID 83340 (208) 720-4226 matt@alaskawildcaughtseafood.net www.alaskawildcaughtseafood.net

Aleutian Rivers Angling

Dan, Jeff & Pat Vermillion Livingston, MT 59047 (888) 347-4286 pat@sweetwatertravel.com www.sweetwatertravel.com

Angler's Alibi

John Perry King Salmon, AK 99613 (561) 222-9416 jmperry05@gmail.com www.anglersalibi.com

GOLD LEVEL

Bear Trail Lodge

Nanci Morris Lyon King Salmon, AK 99613 Lodge: (907) 246-2327 Cell: (907) 469-0622 gofish@bristolbay.com www.fishasl.com/naknek/

Brad’s Igiugig Lodge

Brad Waitman Wasilla, AK 99687 (907) 360-1856 bradinalaska@gmail.com www.alaskaslodge.com

Bristol Bay Lodge

Steve Laurent Bristol Bay, AK Office: (509) 964-2094 Cell: (509) 899-0734 slaurent@bristolbaylodge.com www.fishasl.com

Greg Schlachter Haines, AK 99827 (907) 766-3977 (877) 406.1320 travel@expeditionbroker.com www.expeditionbroker.com

Explore Kenai

Dallas Voss Soldotna, AK 99669 (907) 690-6477 Contact@explorekenai.net www.explorekenai.net

Lost Boys Fishing LLC

Drew Petrie Anchorage, AK 99502 (907) 202-6422 fishguide@kenaineverland.com www.kenaineverland.com

Mister Kenai Sportfishing

Jack Mister Sterling, AK 99672 (301) 752-3551 misterkenaisportfishing@gmail.com

No See Um Lodge

Chasing Tales Alaska

Shawn Coe Sterling, AK 99672 (907) 741-7944 chasingtales.alaska@gmail.com www.chasingtalesalaska.com

Chosen River Outfitters

David Stelling Banner Elk, NC 28604 (828) 386-6216 highcountryguides@gmail.com www.flyfishthehighcountry.com

Classic Casting Adventures

Tad Kisaka Sitka, AK 99835 (907) 738-2737 tadkisaka@hotmail.com www.flyfishsitka.com

Cooper Landing Fishing Guide, LLC

David Lisi

Cooper Landing, AK 99572 cooperlandingguide@gmail.com www.cooperlandingfishingguide.com

Copper River Lodge

Pat Vermillion Iliamna, AK 99606 (406) 222-0624 info@copperriverlodge.com www.copperriverlodge.com

Crystal Creek Lodge

Dan Michels King Salmon, AK 99613 (907) 357-3153 www.crystalcreeklodge.com info@crystalcreeklodge.com

Denali Fly Fishing Guides Rick McMahan Cantwell, AK 99729 (907) 768-1127 2fishon@mtaonline.net www.denaliflyfishing.com

Deneki Outdoors

James Kim Anchorage, AK 99503 (800) 344-3628 info@deneki.com www.deneki.com

EPIC Angling & Adventure

Don Mutert

Alaska Peninsula, AK (512) 656-2736 don@epicaaa.com www.epicaaa.com

Equinox

Cameo Padilla & Brooks Areson Sitka, AK 99835 (907) 738-4736 info@equinoxalaska.com www.equinoxalaska.com @equinoxalaska

Fish Em, LLC Travis Price Alaska (907) 317-4706 Travis@fishem.net www.fishem.net

Fishe Wear

Linda Leary Anchorage, AK 99503 (907) 854-4775 linda@fishewear.com www.fishewear.com

Frontier River Guides of Alaska

Marty Decker Anchorage, AK 99523 info@frontierriverguides.com www.frontierriverguides.com

Grizzly Skins of Alaska

Rochelle Harrison and Phil Shoemaker King Salmon, AK 99613 (907) 376-2234 info@grizzlyskinsofalaska.com www.grizzlyskinsofalaska.com

Iliamna River Lodge

Bill and Melanie Betts Pedro Bay, AK 99647 (719) 371-6177 bill@iliamnariverlodge.com www.iliamnariverlodge.com

Kenai River Drifters Lodge

Jonathan Hulcher Cooper Landing, AK 99572 (336) 354-9582 info@drifters.com www.drifterslodge.com

Kenai River Trout Anglers

Josiah Brown Cooper Landing, AK 99572 (907) 599-0086 Kenairivertroutanglers@gmail.com www.kenairivertroutanglers.com

Kenai Riverside Fishing Cooper Landing, AK (800) 478-4100 info@kenairiversidefishing.com www.kenairiversidefishing.com

Kenaiflyfish

Ian McDonald Sterling, AK 99672 (907) 301-6957 Kenaiflyfish@gmail.com www.Kenaiflyfish.com

Kulik Lodge

Bo Bennett Anchorage, AK 99502 (907) 243-5448 (800) 544-0551 info@bristoladventures.com www.kuliklodge.com

Lakeview Outfitters

Phil Hilbruner Cooper Landing, AK 99572 (907) 440-4338 info@lakeviewoutfitters.com www.lakeviewoutfitters.com

AZ Fly Shop

Chris Rich Phoenix, AZ 85032 (602) 354-8881

info@azflyshop.com www.azflyshop.com

Financial Planning First, LLC. Matthew Sullivan Tucson, AZ 85718 info@fpftucson.com www.financialplanningfirst.com

John Holman King Salmon, AK 99613 (907) 232-0729 john@noseeumlodge.com www.noseeumlodge.com

Outer Coast Charters

Captain Christopher Paul Jones Sitka, AK 99835 (907) 623-8290 contact@outercoastcharters.com www.outercoastcharters.com

Outgoing Angling

Jordan Carter Anchorage, AK 99507 (907) 830-9545 jcarterflyfishing@gmail.com www.outgoingangling.com

GOLD LEVEL

Pride of Bristol Bay

Steve and Jenn Kurian Bloomsburg, PA 17815 (570) 387-0550 contact@prideofbristolbay.com www.prideofbristolbay.com

Rainbow King Lodge Iliamna, AK 99606 800-458-6539 info@rainbowking.com www.rainbowking.com

Rainbow River Lodge

Chad Hewitt Iliamna, AK 99606 (503) 720-5063 chad@rainbowriverlodge.com www.rainbowriverlodge.com

Royal Coachman Lodge Pat Vermillion Dillingham, AK 99576 (406) 222-0624 info@royalcoachmanlodge.com www.royalcoachmanlodge.com

Tikchik Narrows Lodge Bud Hodson Anchorage, AK 99522 (907) 243-8450 info@tikchik.com www.tikchiklodge.com

Undisclosed Excursions, LLC Ethan Welch Juneau, AK 99801 (907) 982-9674 undisclosedexcursions@gmail.com www.flyfishjuneau.com

Wilderness Place Lodge Jason Rockvam/Cory Wendt Anchorage, AK 99519 (907) 733-2051 wildernessplacelodge@gmail.com www.wildernessplacelodge.com

ARIZONA

Arizona Flycasters Gene Hechler Phoenix, AZ 85016 (520) 203-4140 president@azflycasters.org www.azflycasters.org

Lees Ferry Anglers Marble Canyon, AZ 86036 (800) 962-9755 anglers@leesferry.com www.leesferry.com

Oxbow Ecological Engineering, LLC George Cathey Flagstaff, AZ 86005 (928) 266-6192 george@oxbow-eco-eng.com www. oxbow-eco-eng.com

Spiral Creative Services Graphic Design

Susan Geer Gilbert, AZ 85234 (602) 284-2515 Susan@spiral-creative.com www.spiral-creative.com

Wilkinson Wealth Management

Eb Wilkinson Tucson, AZ 85715 (520) 777-1911 (877) 813-4985 eb@wilkinsonwealthmgmt.com www.wilkinsonwealthmgmt.com

ARKANSAS

Dally’s Ozark Fly Fisher

Steve Dally Cotter, AR 72626 (870) 435-6166 info@theozarkflyfisher.com www.theozarkflyfisher.com

Freedom Fire Pro

Michael Cormier Rogers, AR 72756 (479) 631-6363 mcormier@freefirepro.com www.freefirepro.com

Natural State Fly Shop

Jane Hatchet Cotter, AR 72626 (870) 471-9111 (870) 321-2792 (Cell) flyfishcotter@gmail.com www.naturalstateflyshop.com

Peglar Real Estate Group

Matt Hershberger Mountain Home, AR 72653 (870) 405-4144 matt@peglarrealestate.com www.peglarrealestate.com

The White River Inn

Steven Sonnamaker Cotter, AR 72626 (870) 430-2233 info@thewhiteriverinn.com www.thewhiteriverinn.com

White River Trout Lodge

Jo Anna Smith Cotter, AR 72626 (870) 430-5229 info@whiteriverlodge.com www.whiteriverlodge.com

Support Trout Unlimited’s Business Members

CALIFORNIA

Bix Restaurant and Supper Club

Douglas Biederbeck San Francisco, CA 94133

info@bixrestaurant.com www.bixrestaurant.com

Buff, Inc.

Kevin Walker Santa Rosa, CA 95403 (707) 583-8995 customerservice@buffusa.com www.buffusa.com

Confluence Outfitters

Andrew Harris Red Bluff, CA 96080 (530) 632-3465 andrew@confluenceoutfitters.com www.confluenceoutfitters.com

FishMammoth

Jim Elias Mammoth Lakes, CA 93546 (760) 582-2195 jim@fishmammoth.com www.fishmammoth.com

Fly Fishers Club of Orange County

Brian Mayer Santa Ana, CA 92711-3005 (562) 619-9169 bdmayer@hotmail.com www.ffcoc.org

GOLD LEVEL

The Fly Shop

Terry Jepsen Redding, CA 96002 (530) 222-3555 terry@theflyshop.com www.theflyshop.com

Merriam Vineyards

Peter Merriam Healdsburg, CA 95448 peter@merriamvineyards.com www.merriamvineyards.com

Mongolia River Outfitters/Fish

Mongolia

Michael Caranci Palo Cedro, CA 96073 (530) 604-2160 michael@mongoliarivers.com www.mongoliarivers.com www.fishmongolia.com

Mountain Hardware and Sports Bran Nylund Truckee, CA 96160 (530) 587-4844 Brian.nylund@yahoo.com www.mountainhardwareandsports. com

Rodney Strong Vineyards

Kim Sayre Healdsburg, CA 95448-9523 (800) 678-4763 www.rodneystrong.com

Trout Creek Outfitters

Miles Zimmerman & Scotty Koper Truckee, CA 96161 (530)563-5119 info@troutcreekoutfitters.com www.troutcreekoutfitters.com

Wild on the Fly Adventure Travel

Kevin Bell Fullerton, CA 92833 (800) 543-0282 marriotts@wildonthefly.com www.wildonthefly.com

COLORADO

5280 Angler

Jay Baichi Arvada, CO 80004 (720) 450-7291 info@5280angler.com www.5280angler.com

8200 Mountain Sports

Joel Condren

South Fork, CO 81154 (719) 873-1977 (800) 873-1977 info@8200sports.com www.8200mountainsports.com

Abel Reels

Jeff Patterson Montrose, CO 81401 (970) 249-0606 info@abelreels.com www.abelreels.com

AGORA Search Group

Rob Lauer

Colorado Springs, CO 80919 (719) 219-0360 info@agorasearchgroup.com www.agorasearchgroup.com

Alpacka Raft Mancos, CO 81328 (970) 533-7119 workshop@alpackaraft.com www.alpackaraft.com

Alpine Bank Battlement Mesa

Anne Kellerby Parachute, CO 81635 annekellerby@alpinebank.com

An Angler’s Bookcase

Craig and Catherine Douglass South Fork, CO 81154 (719) 221-9027 books@ananglersbookcase.com www.aabks.com

GOLD LEVEL

Angler’s Covey

David Leinweber

Colorado Springs, CO 80904 (719) 471-2984 info@anglerscovey.com www.anglerscovey.com

Angling Trade Magazine

Tim Romano Boulder, CO 80304 (303) 495-3967 tim@anglingtrade.com www.anglingtrade.com

Aspen Outfitting Company

Jarrod Hollinger Aspen, CO 81611 (970) 925-3406 contact@aspenoutfitting.com www.aspenoutfitting.com

AvidMax

Cory Anderson Centennial, CO 80112 (866) 454-5523 customerservice@avidmax.com www.avidmax.com

Big Trout Brewing Company

Tom and Emily Caldwell Winter Park, CO 80482 (970) 363-7362 bigtroutbrewing@gmail.com www.bigtroutbrewing.com

Black Canyon Anglers

Matt Bruns Austin, CO 81410 (970) 835-5050 info@blackcanyonanglers.com www.blackcanyonanglers.com

The Broadmoor Fly Fishing Camp

Scott Tarrant Colorado Springs, CO 80906 (719) 476-6800 rbabas@broadmoor.com www.broadmoor.com

Budge’s Wilderness Lodge

Ryan McSparran Gypsum, CO 81637 Lodge: 970-422-1311 (July - October) howdy@budgeslodge.com www.budgeslodge.com

Coldwell Banker Realty

Erin Hoover, Realtor Evergreen, CO, 80439 (303) 668-3625 erin@erinmhoover.com www.erinmhoover.com

GOLD LEVEL

Cutthroat Anglers

Ben McCormick Silverthorne, CO 80498 (970) 262-2878 anglers@fishcolorado.com www.fishcolorado.com

DiscountFlies

Chris Nielsen Castle Rock, CO 80108 (303) 741-4221 support@discountflies.com www.discountflies.com

Drifthook Fly Fishing

Matthew Bernhardt Westminster, CO 80021 (773) 359-3474 info@drifthook.com www.drifthook.com

Duranglers Flies & Supplies

John Flick and Tom Knopick Durango, CO 81301 (970) 385-4081 duranglers@duranglers.com www. duranglers.com

Ed's Fly Shop

Ed LeViness Montrose, CO 81401 (970) 301-1272 ed@edsflyshop.com www.edsflyshop.com

Fishpond, Inc.

Ben Kurtz Denver, CO 80223-1346 (303) 534-3474 benkurtz@fishpondusa www.fishpondusa.com

FlyWater, Inc.

Corey Engen Fort Collins, CO 80524 (970) 217-3182 corey@flywater.com www.flywater.com

GOLD LEVEL

Freestone Aquatics, Inc. Clint Packo Littleton, CO 80127 (303) 807-7805 clint@freestoneaquatics.com www.freestoneaquatics.com

Front Range Anglers

Antonio Rodriguez Boulder, CO 80302 (303) 494-1375 antonio@frontrangeanglers.com www.frontrangeanglers.com

The Guide Network Ethan Whitson Golden, CO 80401 ethan@theguidenetwork.com www.theguidenetwork.com

Home Team Builders, LLC. Matthew Templin Telluride, CO 81435 matt@hometeambuilderstelluride.com www.hometeambuilderstelluride.com

JP Fly Fishing Specialties

James Pushchak (719) 275-7637 Canon City, CO, 81212 jamespushchak@gmail.com www.jpflyfish.com

Kebler Corner - RV Resort Somerset, CO 81434 (970) 929-5029 info@keblercorner.com www.keblercorner.com

L4 Construction Matt Lamar Greeley and Lyons, CO 80540 (970) 628-0047 mlamar@l4construction.com www.l4construction.com

LoKation Real Estate Libby Earthman Longmont, CO 80501 (720) 487-3126 libby@libbyearthman.com www.libbyearthman.com

Monic Fly Lines

Martha Britton Boulder, CO 80301 info@monic.com www.monic.com

The Next Eddy Sarah Briam Salida, CO 81201 (719) 530-3024 info@thenexteddy.com www.thenexteddy.com

North Fork Ranch

Hayley Horner Shawnee, CO 80475 (303) 838-9873 info@northforkranch.com www.northforkranch.com

North Fork Ranch Guide Service

Jeff Poole Shawnee, CO 80475 (303) 478-1349 info@nfrgs.com www.northforkranchguideservice.com onWater Fly Fishing Patrick Straub Louisville, CO 80027 team@onwaterapp.com www.onwaterapp.com

QuietKat, Inc. Logan Holtz Eagle, CO 81631 logan@quietkat.com www.quietkat.com

Rainbow Falls Mountain Trout Richard Johnson Woodland Park, CO 80866 (719) 687-8690 rainbowfallsmt@yahoo.com www.rainbowfallsmt.com

GOLD LEVEL

RepYourWater Garrison and Corinne Doctor Erie, CO 80516 (303) 717-0267 customerservice@repyourwater.com www.repyourwater.com

RIGS Fly Shop & Guide Service Ridgway, CO 81432 (970) 626-4460 info@fishrigs.com www.fishrigs.com

Riversmith John Koza Boulder, CO 80301 (888) 795-1483 info@riversmith.com www.riversmith.com

Ross Reels Jeff Patterson Montrose, CO 81401 (970) 249-0606 customersupport@rossreels.com www.rossreels.com

The San Juan Angler Cole Glenn Durango, CO 81301 (970) 382-9978 sanjuanangler@gmail.com www.thesanjuanangler.com

Scheels All Sports Johnstown, CO 80534 (970) 663-7800 communitycolorado@scheels.com www.scheels.com/johnstown

She’s Fly Ft. Collins, CO 80524 (970) 682-4704 info@shesfly.com www.shesfly.com

St. Peter’s Fly Shop –South Ft. Collins, CO 80524 (970) 498-8968 shop@stpetes.com www.stpetes.com

Scott Fly Rods Montrose, CO 81401-6302 (970) 249-3180 info@scottflyrod.com www.scottflyrod.com

Seek Outside

Dennis Poirier Grand Junction, CO 81504 (970) 208-8108 info@seekoutside.com www.seekoutside.com

SET Fly Fishing

Kevin Landon Denver, CO 80247 (720) 425-6270 kevin@setflyfishing.com www.setflyfishing.com

Steamboat Flyfisher

John Spillane

Steamboat Springs, CO (970) 879-6552 johnnyspillane@gmail.com www.steamboatflyfisher.com

Telluride Angler

John Duncan Telluride, CO 81435 (970) 728-3895 fun@tellurideoutside.com www.tellurideoutside.com

Umpqua

Russ Miller Louisville, CO 80027 (303) 567-6696 Umpqua@umpqua.com www.umpqua.com

Uncompahgre River RV Park

Mark Hillier Olathe, CO 81425 (970) 323-8706 info@urrvp.com www.urrvp.com

UpRiver Fly Fishing

Andrew Maddox Buena Vista, CO 81211 (719) 395-9227 shop@upriverflyfishing.com www.upriverflyfishing.com

GOLD LEVEL

Upslope Brewing Henry Wood Boulder, CO 80301 (303) 396-1898 henry@upslopebrewing.com www.upslopebrewing.com

Volpe Law LLC Ben Volpe Parker, CO 80138 (720) 441-3328 ben@volpelawllc.com www.volpelawllc.com

Western Anglers Ned Mayers Grand Junction, CO 81501 (970) 244-8658 info@westernanglers.com www.westernanglers.com

Willowfly Anglers Three Rivers Resort Almont, CO 81210 (970) 641-1303 fish@3riversresort.com www.3riversresort.com

Wolf Creek Anglers, LLC

Brad Shallenberger South Fork, CO 81154 (719) 873-1414 info@wolfcreekanglers.com www.wolfcreekanglers.com

Zen Tenkara/Zen Fly Fishing Gear

Karin Miller Loveland, CO 80538 (970) 412-8392 (844) TENKARA zenflyfishingear@gmail.com www.zenflyfishinggear.com www.zentenkara.com

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Interior Federal Credit Union Washington, DC 20240 Reston, VA 20192 (800) 914-8619 info@interiorfcu.org www.interiorfcu.org

CONNECTICUT

Acme Monaco Corporation Lucas Karabin New Britain, CT 06052 (860) 224-1349 acmecorp@acmemonaco.com www.acmemonaco.com

J. Stockard Fly Fishing Kent, CT 06757 (877) 359-8946 service@jsflyfishing.com www.jsflyfishing.com

Old Riverton Inn Adam Towers Riverton, CT 06065-1016 adamtowers2018@gmail.com www.rivertoninn.com

FLORIDA

Outpost On The Nush Dave Pishko Bonita Springs, FL 34134 info@outpostonthenush.com www.outpostonthenush.com

Support Trout Unlimited’s Business Members

GEORGIA

GOLD LEVEL

Alpharetta Outfitters

Jeff Wright Alpharetta, GA 30009 (678) 762-0027

shop@alpharettaoutfitters.com www.alpharettaoutfitters.com

GOLD LEVEL

Atlanta Fly Fishing School

Mack Martin Cumming, GA 30040 (770) 889-5638 mack@mackmartin.com www.atlantaflyfishingschool.com

Escape to Blue Ridge LLC, Blue Ridge, GA

Pamela Miracle Alpharetta, GA 30023 (866) 618-2521 (706) 413-5321 pamela@escapetoblueridge.com www.EscapetoBlueRidge.com

Hulsey Fly Fishing

David and Rebecca Hulsey Blue Ridge, Georgia 30513 (770) 639-4001 (706) 838-4252 info@hulseyflyfishing.com www.hulseyflyfishing.com

Noontootla Creek Farms

Emily Owenby Blue Ridge, GA 30513 (706) 838-0585 (voice) (706) 809-6055 (text) emily@ncfga.com www.ncfga.net

Oyster Bamboo Fly Rods

William Oyster Blue Ridge, GA 30513 (706) 897-1298 shannen@oysterbamboo.com www.oysterbamboo.com

Reel Em In Guide Service

James Bradley Ellijay, GA 30536 (706) 273-0764 jbradley@ellijay.com www.reeleminguideservice.com

River Through Atlanta Guide Service

Chris Scalley Roswell, GA 30075 (770) 650-8630 chrisscalley@bellsouth.net www.riverthroughatlanta.com

SweetWater Brewing Company

Brian Miesieski Atlanta, GA 30324 (404) 691-2537 info@sweetwaterbrew.com www.sweetwaterbrew.com

GOLD LEVEL

Unicoi Outfitters

Jake Darling Helen, GA 30545 (706) 878-3083 flyfish@unicoioutfitters.com www.unicoioutfitters.com

Unicoi Outfitters General Store

Jake Darling Clarkesville, GA 30523 (706) 754-0203 flyfish@unicoioutfitters.com www.unicoioutfitters.com

HAWAII

Alagnak Lodge

Anthony Behm Honolulu, HI 96825 (808) 227-9301 tonybehm@alagnaklodge.com www.AlagnakLodge.com

IDAHO

GOLD LEVEL

Alaska Wild Caught Seafood

Matthew Luck Ketchum, ID 83340 (208) 720-4226 matt@alaskawildcaughtseafood.net www.alaskawildcaughtseafood.net

The Bent Rod Outdoors

Greg and Cheri Webster Challis, ID 83226 (208) 879-2500 thebentrod@custertel.net www.thebentrod.com

Elevate Fly Fishing

Trevor Sheehan Boise, ID 83703 (208) 514-7788 trevor@elevateflyfishing.com www.elevateflyfishing.com

Henry’s Fork Lodge

Jamie Short Island Park, ID 83429 (208) 558-7953 info@henrysforklodge.com www.henrysforklodge.com

The Lodge at Palisades Creek

Justin Hays Irwin, ID 83428 (866) 393-1613 palisades@tlapc.com www.tlapc.com

The McCall Angler

Reba Brinkman McCall, ID 83638 (208) 315-6445 info@themccallangler.com www.themccallangler.com

Northwest Outfitters

Mike Beard

Coeur d’Alene, ID 83814 (208) 667-2707 info@nwoutfitters.com www.nwoutfitters.com

Quadrant Consulting

Steve Sweet Boise, ID 83705 (208) 342-0091 steve@quadrant.cc www.quadrant.cc

RIO Products Idaho Falls, ID 83402 (800) 553-0838 rio@rioproducts.com www.rioproducts.com

RIVHAB Engineering Design

Jeanne McFall Eagle, ID 83616 (208) 401-6129 jeanne@rivhab.net www.rivhab.net

Silver Creek Outfitters

Terry Ring Ketchum, ID 83340 (208) 726-5282 office@silver-creek.com www.silver-creek.com

South Fork Lodge & Outfitters

Zach Peyton / Guide Manager Swan Valley, ID 83449 (208) 483-2112 fish@southforklodge.com www.southforklodge.com

Tight Line Media

Kris Millgate Idaho Falls, ID 83405-0242 (208) 709-0309 kris@tightlinemedia.com www.tightlinemedia.com

Trout Jousters, LLC

Travis Swartz Meridian, ID 83646 (208) 283-1780 travis@troutjousters.com www.hankpatterson.com

GOLD LEVEL

WorldCast Anglers

Mike Dawkins Victor, ID 83455 (800) 654-0676 gofish@worldcastanglers.com www.worldcastanglers.com

ILLINOIS

GetOut Networking Spencer Kaehler Winnetka, IL 60093 spencer@getout.network www.getout.network

IOWA

The Kelley Group Co. Chris Kelley Hull, IA 51239 (712) 746-6500 chris@gotkg.com www.gotkg.com

Pescador on the Fly

Jeff Ditsworth West Des Moines, IA 50266 (515) 240-6774 info@pescadoronthefly.com www.pescadoronthefly.com

Trout Buddy Driftless Guides

Mike Warren Cross Plains, WI 53528 (608) 792-2521 mjw54601@icloud.com www.TroutBuddy.com

Wilderness Lite LLC

Phillip Hayes Maurice, IA 51036 wildernesslite@gmail.com www.wildernesslitefloattubes.com

KANSAS

Great Blue Heron Outdoors

Robert Marsh Lawrence, KS 66044 (785) 856-5656 info@gbh-outdoors.com www.greatblueheronoutdoors.com

MAINE

Appalachian Mountain Club

Maine Wilderness Lodges

Jenny Ward Greenville, ME 04441 (207) 695-3085 jward@outdoors.org www.outdoors.org

Chandler Lake Camps and Lodge Jason and Sherry Bouchard North Maine Woods, ME 04732 (207) 731-8938 info@chandlerlakecamps.com www.chandlerlakecamps.com

Eldredge Bros Fly Shop & Guide Service

Jim Bernstein Cape Neddick , ME 03902 (877) 427-9345 info@eldredgeflyshop.com www.eldredgeflyshop.com

HMH Vises

Jon Larrabee Biddeford, ME 04005 T: (207) 729-5200 F: (207) 729-5292 jon@hmhvises.com www.hmhvises.com

Sam Lambert

Keller Williams Realty Brunswick, ME 04011 (207) 522-7728 samlambertrealestate@gmail.com

L.L.Bean Inc. Mac McKeever Freeport, ME 04033-0002 (207) 865-4761 www.llbean.com

Rangeley Region Sports Shop

Brett Damm Rangeley, ME 04970 (207) 864-5615 rangeleyflyshop@gmail.com www.rangeleyflyshop.com

MARYLAND

Boatyard Bar & Grill

Dick Franyo Annapolis, MD 21403 (410) 267-0145 dick@boatyardbarandgrill.com www.boatyardbarandgrill.com

Rich Dennison Fly Fishing

Rich Dennison Parkville, MD 21234 (443) 668-3535 richdennisonflyfishing@gmail.com www.richdennisonflyfishing.com

Ecotone, Inc.

Scott McGill Forest Hill, MD 21050 (410) 420-2600 chall@ecotoneinc.com www.ecotoneinc.com

Flys in Disguise

Bryan Donoway Jarrettsville, MD 21084 (443) 567-0663 info@flysindisguise.com www.flysindisguise.com

Resource Restoration Group, LLC Tracys Landing, MD 20779 info@rrgroup.us www.rrgroup.us

Savage River Lodge

Mike Dreisbach Frostburg, MD 21532 (301) 689-3200 mike@savageriverlodge.com www.savageriverlodge.com

MASSACHUSETTS

BlueLines Fly Fishing

Andrew Morgens Sherborn, MA 01770 (508) 330-8080 andrew@bluelinesflyfishing.com www.bluelinesflyfishing.com

Cheeky Fishiing

Ted Upton (339) 707-3017 North Adams, MA 01247 getcheeky@cheekyfishing.com www.cheekyfishing.com

High Hook Oregon Wines

T. Mark Seymour Leverett, MA 01054 (413) 218-0638 mark@fishhookvineyards.com www.fishhookvineyards.com

Krag Silversmith

Wendy O’Neil Stockbridge, MA 01262 wendy@kragsilversmith.com www.kragsilversmith.com

Postfly

Brian Runnals Newbury, MA 01951 brian@postflybox.com www.postflybox.com

Recur Outdoors, Inc.

Brian Runnals Newbury, MA 01951 brunnals@recuroutdoors.com www.recuroutdoors.com

Swift River Fly Fishing

Rick Taupier New Salem, MA 01355 (413) 230-1262 swiftriverflyfishing@earthlink.com www.swiftriverflyfishing.com

Vedavoo

Scott Hunter Lancaster, MA 01523 (307) 399-0780 campfire@vedavoo.com www.vedavoo.com

Wild Soul River, LLC

Justin Adkins Williamstown, MA 01267 (413) 597-1172 info@wildsoulriver.com www. wildsoulriver.com

Wingo Outdoors

Ted Upton (339) 707-3017 North Adams, MA 01247 info@wingooutdoors.com www.wingooutdoors.com

The Wooden Fly Bart Estes Easthampton, MA 01027 (413) 588-1125 bartestes42@yahoo.com www.etsy.com/shop/TheWoodenFly

MICHIGAN

Au Sable River Guide Service

Captain Tom Quail Lake Orion, MI 48360 (248) 495-2615 ausableriverguideservice@gmail.com www.ausableriverguideservice.com

Country Anglers Jac Ford Saginaw, MI 48609 (989) 280-3238 canglers@aol.com www.countryanglers.com

Diem Investments, Inc. Grand Rapids, MI 49503 HFF Custom Rods Steven Haywood Taylor, MI 48180 stevenh@hffcustomrods.com www.hffcustomrods.com

HomeWaters Real Estate

Chad Brown Traverse City, MI 49686 (231) 258-5309 chad@homewaters.net www.homewaters.net

Indigo Guide Service

Kevin Morlock Branch, MI 49402 (231) 613-5099 indigoguidekevin@gmail.com www.indigoguideservice.com

J. A. Henry Rod and Reel Company

Andrew Mitchell Rockford, MI 49341 j.a.henryusa@gmail.com www.jahenryusa.com

MothBear Outfitters

Tylor Witulski Alpena, MI 49707 (989) 884-3288 www.mothbear.com support@mothbear.com

North Rivers Lodge

Joe Neumann Luther, MI 49656 (231) 266-6014 northriverslodge@gmail.com www.northriverslodge.com

Northern Lights Guide Service John and Trish Kluesing Baldwin, MI 49304 (231) 745-3792 jtkluesing@gmail.com

Oshki

Jackson Riegler Muskegon, MI 49441 (231) 955-1392 jackson@oshki.us www.oshki.us

PM Trailhead Lodge

Bonnie Price Baldwin, MI 49304 (810) 247-0972 pmtrailheadlodge@gmail.com www.pmtrailheadlodge.com

Pere Marquette River Lodge Frank Willetts Baldwin, MI 49304 (231) 745-3972 staff@pmlodge.com www.pmlodge.com

Red Moose Lodge Cast Away Guide Service

Clint and Debi Anderson Baldwin, MI 49304 (231) 745-6667 info@redmooselodge.com www.redmooselodge.com www.castawayguideservice.com

Salmo Java Roasters

Fred Taber Kalamazoo, MI 49048 (269) 806-6829 salmojava@gmail.com https://salmojavaroasters.com/

Upper Peninsula Concrete Pipe Co.

Craig Vanderstelt Escanaba, MI 49829 (906) 786-0934 cvanderstelt@upconcretepipe.net www.upconcretepipe.net

Fund your passion and keep it wild

“I wanted to provide for my own needs but also protect and restore the wild mountain waters I love, so I contacted Trout Unlimited about a charitable gift annuity. I signed a contract and sent in a check. Now I have income for life, a charitable deduction, and the knowledge that cold, clean fishable waters will continue to provide joy to future generations.”

—LULU COLBY, GIFT ANNUITANT

Secure your financial future and the future of wild and native trout and salmon. A Charitable Gift Annuity provides peace of mind with regular fixed payments during your lifetime and ensure future generations can know the joy of a cold running stream. NEW – If you are 70½ or older, you can now transfer up to $50,000 from your IRA to acquire a charitable gift annuity. Contact Sue Thomas at (703) 284-9421 or Legacy@TU.org to learn more about these and other gifts that benefit both you AND Trout Unlimited.

MINNESOTA

The Driftless Fly Fishing Company

Melvin Hayner Preston, MN, 55965-1096 (507) 765-4915 melvin@minnesotaflyfishing.com www.minnesotaflyfishing.com

Namebini

Carl Haensel and Jade Thomason Duluth, MN 55804 (218) 525-2381 info@namebini.com www.namebini.com

Rose Creek Anglers

Rich Femling Roseville, MN 55113 (763) 807-5878 rich@rose-creek.com www.rose-creek.com

Solid Rock Masonry

Eric Moshier Duluth, MN 55803 (218) 343-2978 info@solidrockmasonry.com www.solidrockmasonry.com

Trout Buddy Driftless Guides

Mike Warren La Crosse, WI 54601 (608) 792-2521 mjw54601@icloud.com www.TroutBuddy.com

TroutRoutes

Erik Johnsen Minneapolis, MN 55413 ejohnsen@troutroutes.com www.troutroutes.com

Bob White Studio

Bob White Marine on Saint Croix, MN 55047 (651) 433-4168 bob@bobwhitestudio.com www.bobwhitestudio.com

MISSOURI

Jim Rogers Fly Fishing School

Jim Rogers Lebanon, MO 65536 (417) 532-4307 ext. 2 www.jimrogersflyfishing.com

MONTANA

Alphagraphics Missoula Troy Peissig Missoula, MT 59801 tpeissig@alphagraphics.com www.alphagraphics.com

Alpine Foot and Ankle Clinic

Dr. Gregg Neibauer Missoula, MT 59801 (406) 721-4007 www.alpinefoot.com

Angler's West Fly Fishing Outfitters Matson Rogers Emigrant, MT 59027 (406) 333-4401 info@montanaflyfishers.com www.montanaflyfishers.com

Dan Bailey’s Outdoor Company

Dale Sexton Livingston, MT 59047 (406) 222-1673 info@danbaileys.com www.danbaileys.com

Beartooth Flyfishing

Dan and Nancy Delekta Cameron, MT 59720 (406) 682-7525 info@beartoothflyfishing.com www.beartoothflyfishing.com

Big Hole Lodge

Craig Fellin Wise River, MT 59762 (406) 832-3252 info@bigholelodge.com www.bigholelodge.com

Bighorn Fly and Tackle Shop

Duane Schreiner Fort Smith, MT 59035 (888) 665-1321 bighornfly@gmail.com www.bighornfly.com

Big Sky Anglers

Justin Spence West Yellowstone, MT 59758 (406) 646-7801 info@bigskyanglers.com www.bigskyanglers.com

GOLD LEVEL

Blackfoot River Outfitters, Inc.

John Herzer and Terri Raugland Missoula, MT 59808 (406) 542-7411 trout@blackfootriver.com www.blackfootriver.com

Casting for Recovery, Inc.

Faye Nelson Bozeman, MT 59715 (406) 624-6583 www.castingforrecovery.org info@castingforrecovery.org

CrossCurrents Fly Shop

Chris Strainer Helena, MT 59601 (406) 449-2292 crosscurrentsflyshop@gmail.com www.crosscurrents.com

ERA Landmark Real Estate

Kelly Bresnahan Bozeman, MT 59715 (406) 586-1321 kelly@eralandmark.com www.eralandmark.com

Eventgroove

Lance Trebesch Bozeman, MT 59715 (406) 600-6321 lance@eventgroove.com www.eventgroove.com

Fay Ranches

Greg Fay Bozeman, MT 59715 406-586-4001 info@fayranches.com www.fayranches.com

Flint Creek Outdoors

Matthew Churchman Philipsburg, MT 59858 (406) 859-9500 matthew@blackfootriver.com www.flintcreekcoutdoors.com

Gallatin River Guides

Mike Donaldson Big Sky, MT 59716 (406) 995-2290 gallatinriverguides@gmail.com www.montanaflyfishing.com

Gallatin River Lodge

Steve Gamble Bozeman, MT 59718 (888) 387-0148 sgamble@grlodge.com www.grlodge.com

Glacier Anglers

Mike Cooney West Glacier, MT 59936 (406) 888-5454 info@glacierraftco.com www.glacieranglers.net

GOLD LEVEL

Healing Waters Lodge

Mike and Laura Geary Twin Bridges, MT 59754 (406) 684-5960 hwlodge@gmail.com www.hwlodge.com

Hubbard’s Yellowstone Lodge

Nancy Hubbard Emigrant, MT 59027 (406) 848-7755 nancy@hubya.com www.hubbardslodge.com

GOLD LEVEL Linehan Outfitting Company

Tim Linehan Troy, MT 59935 (800) 596-0034 info@fishmontana.com www.fishmontana.com

Long Outfitting

Matthew A. Long Livingston, MT 59047 (406) 220-6775 info@longoutfitting.com www.longoutfitting.com

Madison Valley Ranch, LLC Manu Redmond Ennis, MT 59729 (800) 891-6158 mvr@3rivers.net www.madisonvalleyranch.com

LV Wood James and Tara Caroll Bozeman, MT 59715 (406) 624-7273 west@lvwood.com www.lvwood.com

Denny Menholt Honda

Matt Smith Bozeman, MT 59718 (406) 587-0761 matts@dennymenholthonda.com www.dennymenholthonda.com

Support Trout Unlimited’s Business Members

Montana Angler Fly Fishing

Brian McGeehan Bozeman, MT 59718 (406) 522-9854 business (406) 570-0453 cell brian@montanaangler.com www.montanaangler.com

Montana Angling Company

Max Yzaguirre Bozeman, MT 59715 (406) 579-9553 info@montanaanglingco.com www.montanaanglingco.com

Montana Fishing Outfitters

Garrett Munson Helena, MT 59601 (406) 431-5089 heymfo@montanafishingoutfitters.com www.montanafishingoutfitters.com

Montana Fly Company

Jake Chutz Columbia Falls, MT 59912 (406) 892-9112 jake@montanafly.com www.montanafly.com

Montana Fly Fishing Lodge

Lincoln Powers Billings, MT 59106 (406) 780-0015 info@montanaflyfishinglodge.com www.montanaflyfishinglodge.com

Montana Troutfitters

Justin King Bozeman, MT 59715 (406) 587-4707 mttrout@troutfitters.com www.troutfitters.com

Montana Trout Stalkers

Joe Dilschneider Ennis, MT 59729 (406) 581-5150 joe@montanatrout.com www.montanatrout.com

Parks’ Fly Shop

Kody Marr Gardiner, MT 59030 kody@parksflyshop.com www.parksflyshop.com

P3 Properties

Patrick Pozzi Missoula, MT 59808 pozzi.patrick@gmail.com

PRO Outfitters

Brandon Boedecker Helena, MT 59624 (406) 442-5489 pro@prooutfitters.com www.prooutfitters.com

Realty ONE Group Peak

Bryan Atwell Bozeman, MT 59715 (406) 579-7616 bryan@bryanatwell.com www.bozemanrealtyone.com

The River’s Edge

Dan Lohmiller Bozeman, MT 59715 (406) 586-5373 info@theriversedge.com www.theriversedge.com

The River’s Edge West

Dan Lohmiller Bozeman, MT 59718 (406) 284-2401 info@theriversedgewest.com www.theriversedge.com

Riverside Anglers, Inc.

Alice Owsley MT Outfitter #9435 West Yellowstone, MT 59758 (406) 640-1698 riversideanglers@gmail.com www.riversideanglers.com

Royal Bighorn Club Dan Vermillion Livingston, MT 59047 (888) 347-4286 dan@sweetwatertravel.com www.sweetwatertravel.com

Ruby Springs Lodge Paul Moseley Sheridan, MT 59749 (406) 842-5250 info@rubyspringslodge.com www.rubyspringslodge.com

Dan Rust State Farm Insurance

Dan Rust Bozeman, MT 59715 (406) 587-8287 dan.rust.b60w@statefarm.com

Simms

Diane Bristol Bozeman, MT 59718 (406) 585-3557 info@simms.com www.simmsfishing.com

Stillwater Anglers Outfitters

Chris Fleck Columbus, MT 59109 (406) 322-4977 info@stillwateranglers.com www.stillwateranglers.com

Stockman Bank – Bozeman

Paul Pahut Bozeman, MT 59718 (406) 556-4100 paul.pahut@stockmanbank.com www.stockmanbank.com

Stockman Bank – Missoula

Bob Burns Missoula, MT 59801 (406) 258-1401 bburns@stockmanbank.com www.stockmanbank.com

Sweetwater Travel Company Dan, Jeff & Pat Vermillion Livingston, MT 59047 (888) 347-4286 dan@sweetwatertravel.com www.sweetwatertravel.com

TicketPrinting.com

Lance Trebesch Bozeman, MT 59715 (888) 771-0809 support@ticketprinting.com www.ticketprinting.com

Toyota of Bozeman Jayden Schaap Bozeman, MT 59718 (406) 551-6642 marketing@resslermotors.com www.toyotaofbozemancom

Trail Head & Trail Head River Sports Todd Frank Missoula, MT 59807 (406)543-6966 tfrank@trailheadmontana.net www.trailheadmontana.net

Triple-M-Outfitters

Mark Faroni Dixon, MT 59831 (406) 246-3249 mark@triplemoutfitters.com www.triplemoutfitters.com

TroutChasers Lodge and Fly Fishing Outfitters

Jason and Julie Fleury Bozeman, MT 59718 (406) 763-9049

jason@montanatroutchasers.com www.montanatroutchasers.com

Trout On The Fly

Nate Stevane Outfitter #8533 Bozeman, MT 59718 (406) 580-7370 nate@montanatroutonthefly.com www.montanatroutonthefly.com TroutRoutes

Zachary Pope Columbia Heights, MN 55421 (612) 965-8039 zpope@troutinsights.com www.troutinsights.com

Trout Scapes River Restoration, LLC

Brian Cowden Bozeman, MT 59715 (201) 230-3383 bcowden@troutscapes.com www.troutscapes.com

Trout Tales Fly Fishing Ian Secrest Bozeman, MT 59718 (406)539-4327 ian@trouttalesflyfishing.com www.trouttalesflyfishing.com

Wild Montana Anglers

Mark Fuller Martin City, MT 59926 (406) 261-4343 mark@wildmontanaanglers.com www.wildmontanaanglers.com

Wild Trout Outfitters, Inc. J.D. Bingman Big Sky, MT 59716 (406) 995-2975 fish@wildtroutoutfitters.com www.wildtroutoutfitters.com

Yellow Dog Flyfishing Adventures, LLC Bozeman, MT 59715-4630 (406) 585-8667 info@yellowdogflyfishing.com www.yellowdogflyfishing.com

Yellowstone Fly Fishing Co.

James Pappas Livingston, MT 59047 yellowstonefishingco@gmail.com www.yellowstoneflyfishingco.com

Yellowstone River Outfitters

Brogan Ballard Livingston, MT 59047 (406) 531-1838 yellowstoneriveroutfitters@gmail.com www.yellowstoneriveroutfitters.com

NEVADA

Outlaw Rod Company

Anthony Saling Sparks, NV 89431 (775) 636-2945 anthony_saling@yahoo.com www.outlawrodco.com

NEW HAMPSHIRE

American Fly Outfitters

Dan Tilton Winham, NH 03087 info@americanflyoutiffters.com www.americanflyoutfitters.com

Hobbs Brewing Company Ossipee, NH 03814 (603) 539-3795 info@hobbsbeer.com www.hobbsbeer.com

Lopstick Roderick DeGreef Pittsburg, NH 03592 rod@lopstick.com www.lopstick.com

Schilling Beer Company

Jeff Cozzens Littleton, NH 03561 (603) 444-4800 jeff@schillingbeer.com www.schillingbeer.com

Stone River Outfitters

1 State Route 101A, Unit 1 Amherst, NH 03031 (603) 472-3191 (800) 331-8558 sales@stoneriveroutfitters.com www.stoneriveroutfitters.com

NEW JERSEY

Keystone Reclamation Fuel Management LLC Morristown, NJ 07960

oakpool

Alex Ford Jersey City, NJ 07302 (908) 642-8930 alex@fordhamilton.com www.oakpool.xyz

Ramsey Outdoor Marty Brennan Succasunna, NJ 07876 (973) 584-7798 mbrennan@ramseyoutdoor.com www.ramseyoutdoor.com

RoxStar Fishing

Mike James Howell, New Jersey 07731 (973) 704-1323 mike@roxstarfishing.com www.roxstarfishing.com

South Branch Outfitters Abraham and Lindsey Beates Califon, NJ 07830 (908) 867-8067 info@sboutfitters.com www.sboutfitters.com

Suburban Fly Fishers Tim Glynn Maplewood, NJ 07040 (973) 220-3031 timothyglynn@verizon.net www.suburbanflyfishers.com

Tightline Productions

Tim and Joan Flagler Califon, NJ 07830 (908) 832-6677 tightlineproductions@comcast.net www.tightlinevideo.com

NEW MEXICO

Chama Trails Motel Austin and Karlee Phippen Chama, NM 87520 (575) 756-2156 chamatrails@windstream.net www.chamatrailsmotel.com

FishSki Provisions

Rob and Tania McCormack Alcalde, NM 87566 (720) 442-0814 fishski@fishskiprovisions.com www.fishskiprovisions.com

Fly Fishing Outpost

Santa Fe, NM 87506 (505) 629-5688 trout@loeflyfishing.com www.flyfishingoutpost.com Land of Enchantment Guides

Noah Parker Velarde, NM 87582 (505) 629-5688 trout@loeflyfishing.com www.loeflyfishing.com

Steve Lynch Wealth Management

Stephen Lynch Albuquerque, NM 87110 (505) 881-7526 stephenclynch@aol.com www.stevelynchwealth.com

Questa Economic Development Fund

Lindsay Mapes (575) 586-2149 lindsay@questaedf.com

Rezo Systems

Marc Harell Taos, NM 87571 (505) 603-1342 info@rezosystems.com www.rezosystems.com

Rio Grande del Norte Outfitters, LLC

Chris Michael Questa, NM 87556 (575) 776-6216 hcadventurescm@gmail.com

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Rocky MTN Tenkara

Casey Canfield

Rio Rancho, New Mexico 87124 (505) 252-1667 contact@rockymtntenkara.com www.rockymtntenkara.com

A. Rubey Rod Company

Andy Rubey Corrales, NM 87048 (614) 546-7828 andy@rubeyrods.com www.rubeyrods.com

Sitzmark Sports & Lodge

Payton Martinez Red River, NM 87558 payton@sitzmarknm.com www.sitzmarknm.com

GOLD LEVEL

Taos Fly Shop

Nick Streit Taos, NM 87571 (575) 751-1312 info@taosflyshop.com www.taosflyshop.com

NEW YORK

Black Dog Outdoor Sports

Target Sports

Steve Borst Glenville, New York 12302 (518) 355-8923 www.blackdogsports.com

Douglas Outdoors

David Barclay Phoenix, NY 13135 (315) 695-2000 info@douglasoutdoors.com www.douglasoutdoors.com

Evans Group Global Real Estate

Asset Management Trust

Emmet Evans New York, NY 10021

Fly on the Water Allen Rupp New York, NY 10023 (872) 205-9211 allen@flyonthewater.com www.flyonthewater.com

Fly Shack, Inc.

Michael Bokan Gloversville, NY 12078 (800) 801-2318 info@flyshack.com www.flyshack.com

High Peaks Adirondack Outfitters

Brian and Karen Delaney Lake Placid, NY 12946 (518) 532-3764 info@highpeakscyclery.com www.highpeakscyclery.com

North Flats Guiding

Captain David Blinken

East Hampton, NY 10028 (917) 975-0912 northflatsguiding@gmail.com www.northflats.com

Old Souls

James and Tara Caroll Cold Spring, NY 10516 (845) 809-5886 hello@oldsouls.com www.oldsouls.com

Remote Control Media

Jordan Harvey New York, NY 10001 (646) 761-6664 info@remotecontrol.media www.remotecontrol.media

Tailwater Lodge Brian Benner Altmar, NY 13302 (315) 298-3435 bbenner@tailwaterlodge.com www.tailwaterlodge.com

West Kill Brewing Michael Barcone West Kill, NY 12492 info@westkillbrewing.com www.westkillbrewing.com

NORTH CAROLINA

Brookings Anglers

Matt Canter Cashiers, NC 28717 (828) 743-3768 info@brookingsonline.com www.brookingsonline.com

Chosen River Outfitters

David Stelling Banner Elk, NC 28604 highcountryguides@gmail.com www.flyfishthehighcountry.com

Coastal Cottages

Mark Milby Kitty Hawk, NC 27949 obxcottageplans@gmail.com

Creel Lodge at Middle Creek

Keith Foster Otto, NC 28763 keith@creellodge.com www.creellodge.com

Davidson River Outfitters

Kevin Howell Pisgah Forest, NC 28768 (828) 877-4181 (888) 861-0111 davidsonrivr@infoave.net www.davidsonflyfishing.com

Support Trout Unlimited’s Business Members

Headwaters Outfitters

Jessica Whitmire Rosman, NC 28772 (828) 877-3106

jessica@headwatersoutfitters.com www.headwatersoutfitters.com

High Country Guide Service

David Stelling Banner Elk, NC 28604 highcountryguides@gmail.com www.flyfishthehighcountry.com

Hunter Banks Company

Frank Smith Asheville, NC 28801 (828) 252-3005 staff@hunterbanks.com www.hunterbanks.com

Nantahala River Lodge

Mickey and Annette Youmans Topton, NC 28781 (912) 596-4360 (800) 470-4718

mickey@nantahalariverlodge.net www.nantahalariverlodge.net

Pesca Muerta

Winston Salem, NC 27104 (336) 355-4561 info@pescamuerta.com www.pescamuerta.com

Pisgah Outdoors

Heath Cartee

Pisgah Forest, NC 28768 (828) 577-3277 heath@pisgahoutdoors.com www.pisgahoutdoors.com

Primavera Leathers

Evenlight Eagles

Blowing Rock, NC 28605 (828) 773-6256 evenlighteagles@gmail.com www.primaveraleathers.com

SWCA

Kyle Halchin Charlotte, NC 28205 kylehalchin@gmail.com www.swca.com

Whitetail Fly Tieing Supplies

Nancy Richardson Chapel Hill, NC 27516 (630) 294-2947 nancy.richardson55@gmail.com www.whitetailflytieing.com

OHIO

Time Timer, LLC

David Rogers Cincinnati, OH 45243 (877) 771-8463 dave@timetimer.com www.timetimer.com

Wildwood Anglers

Bradley Dunkle Sylvania, OH 43560 (419) 540-8585 brad@wildwoodanglers.com www.wildwoodanglers.com

OKLAHOMA

K R Parker Holdings, LLC

Ken Parker Tulsa, OK 74137 krprkr@gmail.com

OREGON

Alpine Archery and Fly

John Appleton La Grande, OR 97850 (541) 963-4671 alpinearcheryllc@gmail.com www.alpinearcheryandfly.com

GOLD LEVEL

The Caddis Fly Angling Shop

Chris Daughters Eugene, OR 97401 (541) 505-8061 caddiseug@yahoo.com www.caddisflyshop.com

Creative Resource Strategies, LLC

Lisa DeBruyckere Salem, OR 97317 (503) 371-5939 lisad@createstrat.com www.createstrat.com

The Fly Fishing Shop Mark Bachmann Welches, OR 97067 (503) 781-6468 flyfish@flyfishusa.com www.flyfishusa.com

The Fly Fishing Place Nick Nickens Summerville, OR 97876 editors@theflyfishingplace.com www.theflyfishingplace.com

Fly Water Travel Ashland, OR 97520 (800) 552-2729 info@flywatertravel.com www.flywatertravel.com

Loon Outdoors

Brett Zundel

Alan Peterson Ashland, OR 97520 (800) 580-3811 service@loonoutdoors.com www.loonoutdoors.us

Minam Store Outfitters

Grant Richie Wallowa, OR 97885 (541) 431-1111 grant.minam@gmail.com www.minamstore.com

Paul’s Pipes

Paul Menard Bend, OR 97703 info@paulspipes.com www.paulspipes.com

The Rogue Angler Mark Koenig Eugene, OR 97402 (800) 949-5163 customerservice@therogueangler.com www.therogueangler.com

Royal Treatment Fly Fishing

Joel La Follette West Linn, OR 97068 (503) 850-4397 joel@royaltreatmentflyfishing.com www.royaltreatmentflyfishing.com

Sawyer Paddles and Oars Zac Kauffman Gold Hill, OR 97525 (541) 535-3606 zac@paddlesandoars.com www.paddlesandoars.com

PENNSYLVANIA

ARIPPA

Jaret Gibbons & Cristy Sweeney Camp Hill, PA 17011 (717) 763-7635 jgibbons@arippa.org csweeney@arippa.org www.arippa.org

Arnot Sportsmen’s Assoc., Inc Ron Signor Arnot, PA 16911 (570) 638-2985 sms2333@PTD.NET

Creamton Fly Fishing Club Bethlehem, PA 18015 jms1701@gmail.com www.creamtonflyfishingclub.com

Cross Current Guide Service and Outfitters

Joe Demalderis Starlight, PA 18461 (914) 475-6779 crosscurrent@optonline.net www.crosscurrentguideservice.com

Drop Tine Taxidermy LLC

Mason Farnell Albrightsville, PA 18210 (570) 983-4054 droptinepa@outlook.com

The Fly Fishing Show Ben Furimsky Somerset, PA 15501 (814) 443-3638 ben@flyfishingshow.com www.flyfishingshow.com

Flyway Excavating, Inc. Brad Clubb Mount Joy, PA 17552 (717) 560-0731 bclubb@flywayexcavating.com www.flywayexcavating.com

The Forest Lake Club

Colleen Van Horn Hawley, PA 18428 (570) 685-7171 gm@forestlakeclub.net www. forestlakeclub.net

Gleim Environmental Group

Stephanie Rider Carlisle, PA 17013 (717) 258-4630 srider@jwgleim.com www.jwgleim.com

Gorski Engineering Jerry Gorski Collegeville, PA 19426 (610) 489-9131 jgorski@gorskiengineering.com www.gorskiengineering.com

The Lodge at Glendorn Shane Appleby Bradford, PA 16701 (814) 362-6511 sappleby@glendorn.com www.glendorn.com

The Lodge at Woodloch Josh Heath Hawley, PA 18428 (800) 966-3562 jheath@thelodgeatwoodloch.com www.thelodgeatwoodloch.com

Milestone Financial Associates

David S. Coult, CFP® Macungie, PA 18062 (610) 421-8777 dcoult@milestonefa.com www.milestonefa.com

PA Fly Company

Doug Yocabet Mount Pleasant, PA 15666 (724) 322-0037 doug@paflyco.net www.paflyco.net

PA Troutfitters

Bill Nolan Slatedale, PA 18079 (717) 875-7426 patroutfitters@gmail.com www.patroutfitters.fish

Perfect Hatch Fly Fishing

Tony Grubb Lansdale, PA 19446 (800) 523-6644 tony@rayrumpf.com www.perfecthatch.com

GOLD LEVEL

Pride of Bristol Bay

Steve and Jenn Kurian Bloomsburg, PA 17815 (570) 317-2200 contact@prideofbristolbay.com www.prideofbristolbay.com

Robindale Energy Services, Inc. James Panaro Ebensburg, PA 15931 (814) 322-2294 jim.panaro@resfuel.com www.robindale.energy

GOLD LEVEL

Sky Blue Outfitters

Rick Nyles Fleetwood, PA 19522 (610) 987-0073 rick@skyblueoutfitters.com www.skyblueoutfitters.com

Spring Creek Trout Camp

Mark Lauer Bellefonte, PA 17356 (800) 519-8467 info@springcreektroutcamp.com www.springcreektroutcamp.com

That Fish Place-That Pet Place Stephanie Welsh Lancaster, PA 17603 (717) 345-4671 swelsh@thatpetplace.com www.thatpetplace.com

Thomas Spinning Lures, Inc. Peter Ridd Hawley, PA 18428 (800) 724-6768 info@thomaslures.com www.thomaslures.com

Troutman Wealth Management, LLC

Steve Troutman Malvern, PA 19355 (877) 393-9660 steve@troutmanwealth.com www.troutmanwealth.com

Wild East Outfitters

Nick Raftas Coatesville, PA 19320 (610) 500-3147 wildeastoutfitters@outlook.com www.wildeastoutfitters.com

Wild for Salmon

Steve Kurian Bloomsburg, PA 17815 (570) 387-0550 info@wildforsalmon.com www.wildforsalmon.com

Zach Johnson Medland Designs

Zach Johnson Medland Lancaster, PA (570) 460-1169 zachjohnsonmedland@gmail.com www.zachjm.com

RHODE ISLAND

EA Engineering, Science, and Technology PBC

Sal DeCarli Warwick, RI 02886 (401) 244-5485 sdecarli@eaest.com www.eaest.com

SOUTH CAROLINA

Dodson Fishing Company

Drew Malone Travelers Rest, SC 29651 (864) 704-4658 info@dodsonfishing.com www.dodsonfishing.com

Fenwick

Jim Murphy Columbia, SC 29203 (800) 334-9105 info@purefishing.com www.purefishing.com

Hardy Fly Fishing

Jim Murphy Columbia, SC 29203 (800) 334-9105 info@purefishing.com www.purefishing.com

Hellbender Nets Bailly & JD Wagner Easley, SC 29640 hellbendernets@gmail.com www.hellbendernets.com

Jocassee Outfitters Fly Shop Kevin Clinton Salem, SC 29676 kevin@Jocasseeoutfitters.com www.jocasseeoutfitters.com

TENNESSEE

Dun Magazine/Fly Squared Media

Jen Ripple Dover, TN 37058 (734) 846-3708 jen@dunmagazine.com www.dunmagazine.com

The Lodge at Green Cove Green Angler Store

Jason McConkey Tellico Plains, TN 37385 (423) 252-4014 greencoveangler@gmail.com www.greencoveangler.com

Outfitter Marketing Pros Paul Wingfield Kingsport, TN 37663 (423) 250-9405 paul@outfittermarketingpros.com www.outfittermarketingpros.com

Ranger Outdoors, LLC

Dave Luzader Charleston, TN 37310 (865) 690-1814 (877) 462-4682 marketing@anglersportgroup.com www.rangeroutdoorsllc.com

River Run Angling

Taylor Klarman Johnson City, TN 37601 (423) 408-9438 taylor@riverrunangling.com www.riverrunangling.com

Smoky Mountain Angler Harold Thompson Gatlinburg, TN 37738 (865) 436-8746

info@smokymountainangler.com www.smokymountainangler.com

Smoky Mountain Spinnery Frederick Thompson Gatlinburg, TN 37738 nancy@smokymountainspinnery.com www.smokymountainspinnery.com

The Strike Indicator Company LLC

Barry Dombro Joelton, TN 37080 (615) 945-0104 info@strikeindicator.com www.strikeindicator.com

Toccoa River Outfitters

Andrew Bruce Copperhill, TN 37317 (423) 548-0066 toccoariveroutfitters@gmail.com www.graylightoutfitters.com

TEXAS

Action Angler

Chris Jackson New Braunfels, TX 78132 (830) 708-3474 info@actionangler.net www.actionangler.net

Castell Guide Service

Dan Cone Round Rock, TX 78130 (325) 423-0045 info@castellguideservice.com www.castellguideservice.com

Fly Fisher Pro Ben Kepka Dripping Springs, TX 78620 (512) 333-1896 ben@flyfisherpro.com www.flyfisherpro.com

GOLD LEVEL

Gruene Outfitters

Tiffany Yeates New Braunfels, TX 78130 (830) 660-4400 tiffany@grueneoutfitters.com www.gueneoutfitters.com

HB Systems Inc.

Corey Allen Plano, TX 75023 www.hbsystemsinc.com

GOLD LEVEL

Living Waters Fly Fishing Round Rock, TX 78664 (512) 828-3474 chris@livingwatersflyfishing.com www.livingwatersflyfishing.com

Yeti Coolers

Jake Drees Austin, TX 78735 (512) 394-9384 info@yeti.com www.yeti.com

UTAH

The Coleman Collection Tyler Coleman Logan, UT 84321 (480) 202-6872 mrtylercoleman@gmail.com www.thecolemancollection.org

Support Trout Unlimited’s Business Members

Headwaters Bamboo

David Rogers Washington, UT 84780 (208)789-4391 david@headwatersbamboo.com www.headwatersbamboo.com

Park City Outfitters

Brandon Bertagnole Park City, UT 84098 (866) 649-3337 bbertagnole@hotmail.com www.parkcityoutfitters.com

R.A. Smith Custom Fly Rods

Ross Smith Fountain Green, UT 84632 (435) 445-3497 smary@cut.net www.bamboosmith.com

Tactical Fly Fisher, LLC

Devin Olsen Springville, UT 84663 (801) 870-7091 info@tacticalflyfisher.com www.tacticalflyfisher.com

Twin Territory

A.J., Jace and Cameron Garcia South Weber, UT 84405 (801) 663-4162 calynogarcia@gmail.com www.twinterritory.com

Utah Whitewater Gear

Clinton Monson Midvale, UT 84047 clinton@utahwhitewatergear.com www.utahwhitewatergear.com

VERMONT

Early Riser Coffee Roasters

Kim Bryant Dorset, VT 05251 (802) 579-4799 hello@earlyriser.co www.earlyriser.co

Three Rivers Equine Veterinary Service

Tyler McGill Barnet, VT 05821 tmcgillvt@gmail.com www.threeriversequinevet.com

VIRGINIA

Atlantic Bulk Carrier Corporation

Mark Short Providence Forge, VA 23140 mshort@atlanticbulk.com www.atlanticbulk.com

beag+haus | creative + modern small home design

Marc O'Grady Ashburn, VA 20147 (888) 984-1853 contact@beaghaus.com www.beaghaus.com

Beaverdam Falls, LLC

Beau Bryan Covington, VA 24426 info@beaverdamfalls.com www.beaverdamfalls.com

Dunburn Farms Bed and Breakfast

John Lentz

Glade Spring, VA 24340 (276) 475-5667 dunburn@naxs.com www.dunburnfarms.com

Ecosystem Services, LLC

Kip Mumaw Charlottesville, VA 22903 (540) 239-1428 kip@ecosystemservices.us www.ecosystemservices.us

Hutton Fly Expeditionary

Fly Fishing Travel

Derek Hutton Lexington, VA 24450 (208) 399-1888 info@huttonfly.com www.huttonfly.com

Interior Federal Credit Union Washington, DC 20240 Reston, VA 20192 (800) 914-8619 www.interiorfcu.org

Matt Miles Fly Fishing

Matt Miles Lynchburg, VA 24504 (434) 238-2720 matt@mattmilesflyfishing.com www.mattmilesflyfishing.com

GOLD LEVEL

Mossy Creek Fly Fishing

Colby Trow Harrisonburg, VA 22801 (540) 434-2444 store@mossycreekflyfishing.com www.mossycreekflyfishing.com/

New River Fly Fishing

Mike Smith Willis, VA 24380 (540) 250-1340 msmith@swva.net www.newriverflyfish.com

Potts Creek Outfitters

Daniel Walsh Paint Bank, VA 24131 (540) 897-5555 pco@pottscreekoutfitters.com www.pottscreekoutfitters.com

South River Fly Shop

Tommy Lawhorne

Kevin Little Waynesboro, VA 22980 (540) 942-5566 shop@southriverflyshop.com southriverflyshop.com

Stonegate–An Elegant Guest House

Margaret Hutton Lexington, VA 24450 (208) 399-1887 hutton@stonegatevirginia.com www. stonegatevirginia.com

Virginia River Guides

Derek Hutton Lexington, VA 24450 (208) 399-1888 trips@VirginiaRiverGuides.com www.VirginiaRiverGuides.com

WASHINGTON

DRYFT

Sam Thompson and Nick Satushek Bellingham, WA 98229 (360) 818- 4047 contact@dryftfishing.com www.dryftfishing.com

Grundens Poulsbo, WA 98370 (800) 323-7327 support@grundens.com www.grundens.com

Methow Fishing Adventures

Leaf Seaburg Twisp, WA 98856 (509) 429-7298 methowfishingadventures@ gmail.com www.flyfishersproshop.com

Redington Bainbridge Island, WA 98110 (800) 253-2538 info@redington.com www.redington.com

Red’s Fly Shop

Joe Rotter Ellensburg, WA 98926 (509) 933-2300 staff@redsflyshop.com www.redsflyshop.com

Sage Fly Fishing Bainbridge Island, WA 98110 (206) 842-6608 (800) 553-3004 sage@sageflyfish.com www.sageflyfish.com

Silver Bow Fly Fishing

Sean Visintainer Spokane Valley, WA 99216 (509) 924-9998 flyfish@silverbowflyshop.com www.silverbowflyshop.com

WEST VIRGINIA

Angler’s Xstream Parkersburg, WV 26101 (877) 909-6911 fishing@anglersxstream.com www.anglersxstream.com

Fife Street Brewing

Josh Dodd Charleston, WV 25302 (304) 941-8269 josh@fifestreetbrewing.com www.fifestreetbrewing.com

WISCONSIN

Driftless Angler

Mat Wagner Viroqua, WI 54665 (608) 637-8779 info@driftlessangler.com www.driftlessangler.com

Lund's Fly Shop

Brian Smolinski River Falls, WI 54022 (715) 425-2415 brian@lundsflyshop.com www.lundsflyshop.com

Trout Buddy Driftless Guides

Mike Warren La Crosse, WI 54601 (608) 792-2521 Mike@TroutBuddy.com www.TroutBuddy.com

WYOMING

Angling Destinations

Clark Smyth Sheridan, WY 82801 (307) 672-6894 clark@anglingdestinations.com www.anglingdestinations.com

Arrow Land and Water, LLC

Chad Espenscheid Big Piney, WY 83113 (307) 231-2389 chadespen@gmail.com

Bighorn Drifters

Dean Schaff Lander, WY 82520 (307) 349-9573 307BHDrifter@gmail.com www.bighorndrifters.com Dunoir Fishing Adventures, LLC

Jeramie Prine Lander, WY 82520 (307) 349-3331 jlprine@gmail.com www.dunoirfishing.com

Fish the Fly Guide Service & Travel

Jason Balogh Jackson, WY 83001 (307) 690-1139 jb@fishthefly.com www.fishthefly.com

Frog Creek Partners

Brian Deurloo Casper, WY 82601 (307) 797-7720 brian@frogcreek.partners www.frogcreek.partners

Frontier Brewing Company and Tap Room

Shawn Houck Casper, WY 82601 (307) 337-1000 www.frontierbrewingcompany.com

Grand Teton Fly Fishing

Scott Smith and Mark Fuller Jackson, WY 83002 307-690-4347 ssflyfish@rocketmail.com markwfuller@gmail.com www.grandtetonflyfishing.com

Graylight Outfitters

David Collom Elsinore, UT 84724 (435) 720-7440 graylightoutfitters@gmail.com www.graylightoutfitters.com

Guild Outdoors

Adam Guild Afton, WY 83110 (307) 799-6409 guildadam@yahoo.com www.guildranchwyoming.com

JD High Country Outfitters Jackson, WY 83001 (307) 733-7210 scott@jdhcoutfitters.com www.highcountryflies.com

Koyoty Sports Warden Patzer Saratoga, WY 82331 Trophyroomtaxi@yahoo.com www.koyotysports.com

Live Water Properties

Macye Maher Jackson, WY 83002 (866) 734-6100 macye@livewaterproperties.com www.livewaterproperties.com

North Fork Anglers

Blair Van Antwerp Cody, WY 82414 (307) 527-7274 flyfish@wavecom.net www.northforkanglers.com

North Platte Lodge

Erik Aune Alcova, WY 82601 (307) 237-1182 info@northplattelodge.com www.northplattelodge.com

Park County Glass Cody, WY 82414 (307) 587-9303 pcg@bresnan.net www.parkcountyglass.com

Rock Creek Anglers

Clark Smyth Sheridan, WY 82801 (307) 672-6894 rockcreekanglers@wyoming.com www.anglingdestinations.com/ rock-creek-anglers

Sweetwater Fishing Expeditions, LLC

George H. Hunker III Lander, WY 82520 (307) 332-3986 phunker@wyoming.com www.sweetwaterfishing.com

Thermopolis Fly Shop

Dan Pass Thermopolis, WY 82443 thermopolisflyshop@gmail.com www.thermopolisflyshop.com

TyOutdoors

Ty Hallock Casper, WY 82609 (307) 315-8287 ty@tyoutdoors.com www.tyoutdoors.com

Westbank Anglers

Michael Dawes Wilson, WY 83014 (307) 733-6483 info@westbankanglers.com www.westbankanglers.com

GOLD LEVEL

Wind River Outdoor Company

Ron Hansen Lander, WY 82520 (307) 332-7864 ron@windriveroutdoor company.com www.windriveroutdoorcompany.com

INTERNATIONAL

BAHAMAS

Mangrove Cay Club

Dan, Jeff & Pat Vermillion Livingston, MT 59047 (888) 347-4286 dan@sweetwatertravel.com www.sweetwatertravel.com

BRAZIL

Agua Boa Lodge

Dan, Jeff & Pat Vermillion Livingston, MT 59047 (888) 347-4286

dan@sweetwatertravel.com www.sweetwatertravel.com

CANADA

3 Rivers Steelhead Expeditions

Dan, Jeff & Pat Vermillion Livingston, MT 59047 (888) 347-4286

jeff@sweetwatertravel.com www.sweetwatertravel.com

Lower Dean River Lodge Dan, Jeff & Pat Vermillion Livingston, MT 59047 (888) 347-4286

jeff@sweetwatertravel.com www.sweetwatertravel.com

Steelhead Valhalla Lodge Dan, Jeff & Pat Vermillion Livingston, MT 59047 (888) 347-4286

jeff@sweetwatertravel.com www.sweetwatertravel.com

MONGOLIA

Mongolia River Outfitters/ Fish Mongolia

Michael Caranci Palo Cedro, CA 96073 (530) 604-2160 michael@mongoliarivers.com www.mongoliarivers.com www.fishmongolia.com

Mongolia Taimen Camps Dan, Jeff & Pat Vermillion Livingston, MT 59047 (888) 347-4286

dan@sweetwatertravel.com www.sweetwatertravel.com UK

WALES

Llyn Guides J. Noel Hulmston Nefyn, PWLLHELI LL53 6LF T Int + (0)1758 721654 C Int + (0)7774 610600 llynguides@dnetw.co.uk www.llynguides.co.uk

AUGUST & OCTOBER FLY FISHING CLASSES

August 18th - 23rd

"The School of Trout brings together some of America’s finest and most talented instructors, and offers its students a chance to learn from the very best of the best.”

∼ Marshall Cutchin in MidCurrent ∼

"When I look back at my evolution as an angler, School of Trout will stand out as a defining experience. The opportunity to pepper some of the greatest anglers in the world with questions is the kind of chance that doesn’t come to many, and certainly doesn’t come often.”

∼ Andrew Reichardt in Hatch Magazine ∼

“I can't think of a better way to either learn the sport or enhance existing skills than getting a Masters degree with the folks at the School of Trout.”

∼ Monte Burke in Forbes ∼

RENEGADE

Seen a Renegade Lately?

BY PAUL BRUUN

Some say, “There is no coincidence.” But following an unforgettable September in Idaho, I’m not sure.

In 1967 it made perfect sense for a lieutenant changing Air Force bases from Missouri to California, to visit a certain indelible author’s Central Idaho grave. In 1961, the Ketchum Cemetery became the final destination for Ernest Hemingway.

A friendly Hailey gas station owner provided excellent directions. After paying homage and clicking a picture of Hemingway’s grave marked by tiny twin-evergreens, Sun Valley exploration progressed to Dick Alf’s Fly Shop. My one-day license came with a tip to an afternoon fishing spot. Mention of my cemetery visit elicited, “You missed Jack by a few minutes!”

A short drive outside Ketchum and I was rigging beside the inviting Big Wood. With a dry Renegade’s assistance, I played and released rainbows that acted larger than their actual size.

Over dinner I noticed a Wood River Journal story about Ernest’s widow, Mary, again hosting a belated birthday party for her late husband. Phoning Dad to report on my travels, he suggested a Miss Mary interview would suit my intermittent columns in his Miami Beach newspaper.

Our impromptu visit went well, possibly because I recalled Mary was suing Random House to halt the publication of intimate information in Hotchner’s Papa Hemingway. Slyly she nodded to my probe about future books from saved Cuban manuscripts with, “Yes, but don’t be in a hurry!”

scheme into a nearly year-round destination. An elite staff introduced guests of all skill level to skiing, skating, shooting, fishing, riding, hunting and pack trips.

Among these masters was a resourceful standout in his 50s. Leaving Kentucky in 1912 Taylor Williams joined the new Bureau of Reclamation on Idaho’s Snake River irrigation projects.

According to Lloyd Arnold, the UP photographer turned Sun Valley’s photo biographer, Colonel Taylor Bear Tracks Williams was a bundle of steel wire-energy; a medium-small man with the face of a hawk; as an outdoorsman, atavism personified.” Arnold defined Williams as “a man to reckon with in his capacity.”

Any Williams mention was guaranteed to feature his Renegade fly. A Renegade begins with a gold tinsel tag on the hook bend followed by a brown hackle and peacock herl body. A white hackle in front completes the pattern. Williams sometimes tied white hackles fore and aft. Besides his Renegade, an all-season mint bed was Williams’ second trademark, which earned his Colonel nickname. The Colonel’s unparalleled bourbon-based Mint Juleps savored by UP and resort brass became Hemingway favorites upon his 1939 Sun Valley arrival.

Looking back to 1967, were the situations of unknowingly using a Renegade where it was popularized; visiting Miss Mary who asked the condition of Ernest’s gravesite twin pines she’d just planted; and her nod of more tropical Hemingway books ahead with the 1970 Islands In The Stream release, simple coincidence?

Aside from my Hemingway fascination, Sun Valley’s creation was intriguing for another reason. Devised by Union Pacific Railroad Chairman Averell Harriman to attract passengers to UP’s opulent winter resort, Harriman hired renowned publicist Steve Hannagan to lure A-Listers.

In December 1936, a welcome snow opened the world’s first ski chairlifts. Hannagan’s strategy had film stars of the day such as Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman and Clark Gable flocking to the stunning lodge.

Tranquility and the wildlife-rich Wood River Valley spurred Hannagan’s clever operatives to parlay UP’s winter

Were later episodes added coincidence? Returning to Miami in 1969 and becoming friends with Doris Hemingway and husband Leicester, Ernest’s brother; After missing Jack Hemingway at Dick Alf’s, meeting in September 1973 at the Umpqua’s Steamboat Inn; Enjoying many Octobers fishing the Little Wood River in the Taylor “Bear Tracks” Williams Recreation Area donated to Idaho Parks by Jack Hemingway.

I can’t forget that Hailey station owner mumbling, “I don’t understand why so many people want directions to that cemetery.”