Articles

Patagonia's new wader fits in a seriously small bag

The Middle Fork Packable wader fits neatly almost anywhere you want it to

by Kris Millgate - Tuesday, Aug 8th, 2017

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

by Kris Millgate - Monday, Aug 7th, 2017

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

by Kris Millgate - Saturday, Aug 5th, 2017

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

by Todd Tanner - Thursday, Aug 3rd, 2017

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.

How to drink your way through the fishing day: Upper Great Lakes

Your guide to the best beers, wines and spirits in the upper lakes of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan

by Tom Hazelton - Tuesday, Aug 1st, 2017

Photo: Tom Hazelton

It doesn't really feel like summer up here until the solstice hits; I've always felt a little righteous about that. First day of summer, both on the calendar and outside. And in the Upper Great Lakes, the longest day of the year generally coincides with the start of the best fishing of the year. So we—myself and whoever I can drag along; this year, my wife—pack the truck and hit the road for a week or so.