Articles

What Color?

by Mike Sepelak - Wednesday, Jun 18th, 2014

Troy went tutti-frutti. I, chartreuse and white.

Color. It’s the key. Find the right combination and you can fill the boat with rockfish. If not, you’ve got a long day ahead. It’s all about color.

For the most part, fly fishing for stripped bass as they move up the river to spawn has a basic formula; eight or nine weights, 350-500 grain sinking lines (depending on flow) and sizable clousers. Chuck and duck, count it down to the bottom, and retrieve in short, snapping strips until you feel the leader tick into the rod tip that you’ve buried as deep as you can off the side of the boat. Wait for the thump. It’s hard work and a day of it will wear on you.

So us the sun rose, we opened the boxes and ruffled through the deer hair. Troy started with his favorite pink-and-white while I tied on red and yellow. Nothing happened. Troy switched to tutti-frutty (pink and chartreuse) and I pulled out chartreuse and white and we each boated a couple in a five-minute spurt, proving nothing. As quickly as they started, the bites went away.

TU Asking Anglers to Act NOW to Save Clean Water Act Protections for Trout, Salmon and Steelhead

by Chris Hunt - Tuesday, Jun 17th, 2014

Headwater Trout Stream

A spending bill in the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee shouldn’t be the place the Clean Water Act gets neutered, but if a handful of senators on the committee have their way this week, that’s exactly what could happen.

Earlier this spring, the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers announces a proposed rule to clarify the protection given to small headwater streams by the Clean Water Act—a couple of misguided Supreme Court decisions in the early and mid-2000s muddied the water and left some of the most important trout and salmon habitat unprotected under the CWA.

This rule is now out for public comment, and will be well into July. But, if committee allows the spending bill to be amended by senators willing to play politics with clean water, then the rulemaking just becomes a colossal waste of time.

Counting Mississippis

by Mike Sepelak - Monday, Jun 16th, 2014

Counting Mississippis

Huddled under the dense rhododendrons in a futile attempt to escape the downpour, we tried to remember how many Mississippis there are in a mile. You know, Flash, 1-Mississippi, 2-Mississippi, 3-Mississippi, … , Boom. Divide the number of Mississippis by 5 (or is it 10) and you know how many miles away the lightning strike was. The question was academic, though, as our flashes and our booms were now little more than a startled heartbeat apart. Whatever your metric, the distance was more appropriately measured in meters than miles. It was no time to be in the water. All we could do is sit and watch the river rise, taking on the color of a nice mocha java.

That, and pray.

Sound travels at 1,125ft/sec. A mile is 5,280 feet, making it a little less than 5 Mississippis. The National Lightning Safety Institute recommends taking precautions if the F-B interval (their term, not mine) is less than 25 Mississippis (my term, not theirs).

Sage Intros SALT and ACCEL Fly Rods, 'Reinvents' G5 Technology

by Ben Kryzinski - Thursday, Jun 12th, 2014

The new Sage SALT fly rod series.

Always on the move, Sage has announced two new rod series for its 2015 lineup.

The new SALT series is, you guessed it, an all-new addition to Sage's saltwater lineup that will replace the Xi3 series. The new SALT rods are Sage's first saltwater fly rods built on its newer Konnetic technology, which Sage's very popular and award-winning ONE and METHOD series of rods are built upon. Like all of the Konnetic-built rods, Sage has proclaimed a focus on quick loading, high line speeds and pinpoint accuracy when developing the SALT series. According to chief rod designer Jerry Siem, “The ability to adapt to quickly changing conditions is imperative when saltwater fishing, and Konnetic Technology allows deft sensitivity and the ability to track extremely straight. The new SALT shines in all fishing scenarios.”

The SALT rods feature a dark sapphire blank with distinctive black wraps, oversized Fuji ceramic stripper guides, hard chromed snake guides and an anodized aluminum up-locking reel seat which includes a hidden hook keeper. The SALT series has offerings from weight 5 through 16. All of the rods in the series have an MSRP of $850 and are slated to be available come August 2014.

Chile Cancels Massive HidroAysén Dam Project in Patagonia

by Chad Shmukler - Wednesday, Jun 11th, 2014

Confluence of the Baker and Neff Rivers in Patagonia, which would have been flooded as a reservoir if dam construction had gone forward (photo: James Q. Martin.

An almost decade-long effort that began as a small grassroots campaign and grew to an international effort to stop dam construction on two of Patagonia's most wild and celebrated rivers has finally come to an end. Yesterday, Chile's Community of Minsters, its highest administrative authority, made a unanimous decision to formally cancel the HidroAysén plan, a $8 billion project which sought to build a five dam hydroelectric generation system on the country's Baker and Pascua Rivers. The Baker and Pascua rivers flow through Aysen in Patagonia, a mostly roadless, remote region of Chile where powerful rivers that teem with wild trout descend from their Andean roots flanked by glaciers and course their way to the sea through breathtaking mountainous scenery and lush green countryside.

According to International Rivers, "the Committee, which consists of the Minister of Environment, Health, Economy, Energy and Mining, Agriculture, and Tourism, evaluated 35 appeals which were filed by the Patagonia Defense Council and local citizens in response to the project’s Environmental Impact Assessment after it was approved in May 2011. Though it [took] more than three years, with meetings and decisions being repeatedly delayed and eventually passed on to the new administration, [the] decision is a recognition of the technical and procedural flaws surrounding HidroAysén as well as the significant impacts the project would have had on one of Chile’s most iconic regions."

The people of Chile have been vehemently against to the project since it was proposed, with over 75% of Chilean citizens opposed to the HidroAysén plan being approved.