Articles

Yellowstone’s gateway town fears for its future amid Trump funding cuts

"Gardiner is a company town and Yellowstone is the mill."

by Emily Senkosky - Thursday, Apr 3rd, 2025

Photo: Emily Senkosky.

On March 1, hundreds of people gathered in Gardiner, Montana, at the northern entrance to Yellowstone National Park. The crowd — which included residents from across the state and current and former public lands employees — was part of a nationwide protest against the layoffs of federal workers.

Will your fishing trip to Canada be impacted by political tension?

How travel to Canada will — and won't — be affected by the ongoing trade war

by Hatch Magazine - Sunday, Mar 30th, 2025

A shallow water lake trout from the Yukon in Canada (photo: Earl Harper).

Canadians are among the friendliest people in the world. Relentlessly polite, self-deprecating and unbelievably gracious, it takes a lot to get under their skin (unless you’re on a hockey rink, of course). But the freshly minted trade war against one of America’s closest cultural, economic and military allies, for reasons known only to those who are initiating it, has Canadians taking a step back and eyeing their relationship with the United States.

A down-and-dirty nymph with a royal name

Fish it proudly

by Chris Hunt - Wednesday, Mar 26th, 2025

This 5 kilo sea-run brown trout fell victim to a rubberleg version of this classic nymph (photo: Matthew McClure).

Like most fly fishers, I have many mentors who have helped me as I’ve pursued the craft over some 50 years now. Some, like both of my grandfathers, physically delivered me to trout water as a kid. Others, contemporaries like my friend Kirk Deeter or our shared mentor, Charlie Meyers, the late, great outdoor writer and editor for the Denver Post, helped me hone my craft and instill in me not just the desire to go fishing but to get at the root of the passion.

The truth about fly rods

6 observations about trout rods

by Todd Tanner - Friday, Mar 21st, 2025

Photo: Todd Tanner.

Experts always have opinions. As they should. Any expert worth his or her salt will have strong views regarding their areas of expertise, and any expert who isn’t opinionated is either holding back or being disingenuous. In fact, an “expert” without opinions likely isn’t an expert at all, which is something you should consider going forward.

With that in mind, I want to share some relatively detailed thoughts about fly rods for trout.

New Zealand trout: Crass and unsophisticated

Never go in against a Kiwi brown or rainbow trout when your fishing trip is on the line. Or so I’d been told.

by Chad Shmukler - Wednesday, Mar 19th, 2025

Photo: Chad Shmukler.

I’ve had the good fortune — or the extreme displeasure, depending on either your perspective or your fondness for self-immolation — to spend many days and evenings fishing some of America’s most difficult trout water. Fabled rivers like the Henry’s Fork, Missouri, and Delaware, where mayfly hatches can be dizzyingly complex and the fish are so conditioned from almost non-stop interactions with humans that tricking them with one of your fur-and-feather imitations requires delicacy, skill, and a tremendous amount of both practice and patience.