Articles

The Henry's Fork: The Box

Part 2 of a 3-part series on fly fishing's Valhalla
Photo: Bryan Gregson

The Henry's Fork is Valhalla; the place you visit when you've reached your pinnacle as an angler. The Fork, more than any other river, transcends numbers, size, and every other form of tyrannical quantitative analysis; it is a star in the angling sky, a fly fishing temple where the only thing that truly matters is your next cast. I can't tell you "The Truth, The Whole Truth, The Nothing But The Truth" about the Henry's Fork. Nobody can.

Patagonia's new wader fits in a seriously small bag

The Middle Fork Packable wader fits neatly almost anywhere you want it to
Photo: Chad Shmukler

Cold, high-mountain lakes require long, hot, summer hikes. Those are horrid in waders. They're a bit less horrid if you carry your waders instead of wear them, but they're still horrid. That’s why I like wet wading season. I fish and hike in the same shoes. Likewise on clothes.

But wet wading season is shorter than vacation season so you’re bound to drag around your waders at some point. Patagonia knows this and they’re thinking of all you ounce-counting or gear-hoarding backpackers with their new Middle Fork Packable Waders.

Mining near the Boundary Waters makes waves

The battle over increased protections in the land of northerns and lake trout has been anything but calm
Photo: Kris Millgate

I'm on a rock rise in the middle of one of 1,000 lakes. The breeze is at my back and I'm rolling footage on a canoe that's out of arm's reach, but within earshot. Steve Piragis and Reid Carron are in the canoe that's sliding across calm water. Piragis paddling, Carron casting. I'm pleased with what I see, but I'm concerned about what I'm hearing.

"Copper mines really can't prevent polluting the watershed around them," says Steve Piragis, Piragis Northwoods Company co-owner and canoe outfitter. "They all say they won't and they all pay the fine when they do."

New wading boots with BOA for women, finally

Korkers introduces the first women's wading boot with BOA lacing
Photo: Chad Shmukler

I remember well the day I started coveting someone else's wading boots. Summer 2011. I was shooting a film about the Dolores River in Colorado. Trout Unlimited's magazine editor Kirk Deeter stepped into the Dolores after attaching a new sole and clicking a dial. I was scrambling on shore in little boy boots with worn out soles and standard laces hoping to have my camera rolling before Deeter hooked up.

The Henry's Fork: The lower river

Part 1 of a 3-part series on fly fishing's Valhalla
Angler Wyatt Tibbit showcases a cutbow from the lower section of the Henry's Fork (photo: Marc Crapo).

The Henry's Fork is Valhalla; the place you visit when you've reached your pinnacle as an angler. And as a result, the Fork, more than any other river, transcends numbers, size, and every other form of tyrannical quantitative analysis; it is a star in the angling sky, a fly fishing temple where the only thing that truly matters is your next cast.

Pages