Visit Yellowstone National Park whenever the park’s roads are open (typically April to late October), and there’s always the possibility of crowds at popular highlights (e.g., Old Faithful), long waits at restaurants, and gridlock caused by animals on the road or nearby. The possibility increases to certainty – particularly crowds…

Trips to Montana in early October can mean a possibility of cold and snow. But then again, an October trip to Montana means a chance to see the autumn colors and wildlife, and an opportunity to fish for spawning brown and rainbow trout. My wife Terri and I made the…

David James Duncan is the author of The River Why and The Brothers K. He is also a committed environmentalist who speaks with his own memories of the salmon that once swam up the Columbia/Snake river system. He adds his voice to the call to remove the lower four dams…

I went to Narrows Park today, hitting the beach at the tidal change on the ebb. I had two goals in mind. The first was to test out the new integrated Commando Smooth line from Olympic Peninsula Skagit Tactics (OPST). The second was to see if I could entice a…

Tom McGuane is credited with saying that a passport is the best piece of gear a fly fisher can have. The meaning, of course, is that travel to a far-flung location can offer opportunities for better fishing with relatively pristine and under-pressured fisheries and fewer people. And it certainly seems…

Fly fishing in Puget Sound in August often means high temperatures (as has been true the past weeks) and hazy skies from distant forest fires (as was true last year). But there is another consistent issue in parts of Puget Sound in August and that is the kelp forests that…

The above picture was posted online in the last several days. It shows a dead newborn Orca calf being carried around on its mother’s back near Victoria, British Columbia. As heart-breaking as the image is, it’s even more disturbing when one realizes this was the first Orca calf born in…

National Geographic has a troubling article on how one fish has, and is, changing the ecology of Yellowstone National Park (YNP). The introduction of lake trout into Yellowstone Lake has led to the demise of the native cutthroat trout (see photo above). That in turn has led to a cascading…

Twelve Minutes. That’s the average length of time a single-use plastic bag is used. Five hundred years or more. That’s how long it takes that single-use bag to biodegrade. And even that might be overstating it. And what’s left after any biodegradation? Plastic particles that exist in the environment indefinitely….

Montana is the iconic face of fly fishing. Trips to its famous rivers are the on the bucket list of many, if not most, fly fishers. What exists in preconception – to those who dream of fly fishing in the state – is more than matched by the reality of…