Articles

Gear we love right now: October 2022

What's working on and off the water

by Hatch Magazine - Thursday, Oct 6th, 2022

The Simms Dry Creek Z backpack (photo: Simms Fishing).

Fly anglers are overloaded with gear choices—rods, reels, boots, waders, lines, packs, bags, boxes, vests, apparel and more. It seems harder and harder to know what's worth coveting and what's worth ignoring. Gear reviews are a great way to explore in-depth what might be right for you, but not every piece of gear is suited to a full-length review and, even if it were, there's simply too much of it to get to. With that in mind, we periodically showcase what's working for us right now, to hopefully offer more helpful feedback on gear that's worth a second look.

Fly fishing's classic films free to view online

The American Museum of Fly Fishing and Scientific Anglers are joining forces to save some of fly fishing's most iconic films

by Chris Hunt - Monday, Oct 3rd, 2022

Some of fly fishing's most classic and iconic films are now available to view free online.

Fly fishing is a visual craft. From the dry-fly take to the ubiquitous trophy photo, it’s a pastime that, for many, is best shared in pixels.

But, for generations, fly fishing photography and film was hopelessly analog — the early fly-fishing practitioners, for whom the video arts were their chosen medium, filled boxes of 8-mm film and, later, cases of VHS tapes, each packed with footage that, the instant it was recorded, began to degrade.

Today's rivers wear the scars of our past

Abandoned mines of yesteryear continue to take a toll on our rivers

by Jody Martin - Sunday, Oct 2nd, 2022

The abandoned Eagle Mine in Colorado. According to the US EPA, the mine left large amounts of arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc in the soil, and led to large fish kills in the Eagle River and threatened drinking water (photo: el-toro / CC 2.0).

It looked like our trip to Colorado was going to be canceled. The report was that the trout were stressed out and needed a break. Our first thought was heat, the usual culprit for stressed fish. Hailing from southern California, Bob and I were well aware of the ravages of drought and heat on coldwater fisheries, not only locally but throughout the U.S. as climate change continues to wreak havoc and elected officials continue to ignore it. But the year had been a mild one, and in fact the amount of snow and rainfall had been heavier than in most years.

Greenback cutthroat trout spawning in native range for first time since restoration efforts began

Last week, Colorado Parks and Wildlife announced that the first-ever documented spawning of greenbacks from the genetically pure Bear Creek lineage

by Chris Hunt - Tuesday, Sep 27th, 2022

A foot-long greenback, one of the fish originally stocked in Herman Gulch from the genetically pure Bear Creek population (photo: CPW).

Greenback cutthroat trout, the state fish of Colorado that was once thought to be extinct, are now spawning in their native watershed, Gov. Jared Polis announced on Friday.

Review: Lone Bison Heritage fly tying table

Putting Lone Bison's handmade, distinctive tying tables to the test

by Chris Hunt - Monday, Sep 26th, 2022

Photo: Chris Hunt

I enjoy tying my own flies. That doesn’t mean I’m particularly good at it.

I’ve reached a certain level of acceptable competency with my tying, however — I have a few patterns down pat, and can tie them fairly well and fairly quickly (the latter is important, because I often find myself tying right up to the 11th hour before a fishing trip). That said, anything that can make my tying more efficient is something I’m interested in.