Articles

The 10 most read articles of 2021

Reader favorites from the past year

by Hatch Magazine - Sunday, Jan 2nd, 2022

Photo: Earl Harper / Harper Studios.

Remember when 2020 came to a close? When most of us eagerly put that pandemic-spiked year into the rearview mirror with zeal, assuming that 2021 would mark a return to all things normal? When we'd gather with friends, return to traveling the country and the globe, and work and play just as we had before a novel coronavirus showed up and turned life upside down? Well, that didn't exactly go to plan. But, at the same time, it didn't entirely not go to plan, either. Life did begin to return to normal—even if it happened more gradually than most of us would have liked or expected.

The Mertrout

All fly fishermen either have something to forget, or something to find

by Jon Tobey - Friday, Dec 31st, 2021

Photo: Mikkel William

Jared pulled off the road, tight to the blackberries, and smiled to himself. Sure, this might be the most famous piece of steelhead water in the world, but you could always find your own corner of the river if you were willing to work a little harder than the guys who stood shoulder-to-shoulder and then bitched about it.

Poppers in the salt might get you more than you bargained for

You can, and should, fish poppers in saltwater—but watch out

by Chris Hunt - Wednesday, Dec 29th, 2021

Photo: Chad Shmukler

Years ago, while fishing a giant flat in the backcountry of Long Island in the Bahamas, I came across my first “mud” — a busy conglomeration of jacks, snappers and barracudas, and a few bonefish — engaged in a mass of moving fish. SIlvery scales caught rays of sunshine and flashed them back into the heavens as they fed on a ball of bait. The larger fish, like the ‘cudas, were chasing the smaller fish that were probably chasing something even smaller, like bunker or shad.

Warming, toxic waters have devastated Pacific fisheries—is Big Oil to blame?

Union leaders say fossil fuel companies must pay for rising ocean temperatures, but not all boat captains are persuaded

by Chris McGreal - Thursday, Dec 23rd, 2021

Photo: Bob Renee / cc2.0.

Dick Ogg, a silver-haired former electrician who switched to making his living catching crabs two decades ago, is a staunch supporter of the union representing fishing boat captains along America’s western seaboard.

But when he heard that the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations was suing some of the world’s largest oil companies for causing the climate crisis, Ogg took stock of the barrels of diesel oil stacked on his vessel, the 54-foot Karen Jeanne, and wondered if the litigation was not only a mistake but hypocritical.

The Big Bang of trucker country

The story of 'Six Days on the Road'

by Tom Davis - Friday, Dec 17th, 2021

Photo: Jim McGuire / courtesy of The Grand Ole Opry

When you’re in college a long way from home, and you don’t have your own wheels, you take a ride from anybody who offers to give you one. This is a roundabout way of saying that I don’t remember whose car I was in when I heard “Six Days on the Road” for the first time, circa 1976-77. What I do remember, though, is that when those irresistibly propulsive licks exploded out of the speakers, I didn’t know whether to shit or go blind.

“Jesus Christ!,” I blurted out. “What the #$%* are we listening to?”