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In reporting on recent legislation passed by the United State Congress, Kirk Deeter, over at Fly Lab, questions whether this new bill is perhaps the biggest environmental win ever for trout anglers. Deeter makes this claim about the recently-passed Good Samaritan Remediation of Abandoned Hard Rock Mines Act, which was approved in “the House by voice vote, indicating near unanimous bipartisan support.” According to Utah representative Celeste Malloy (R), who was one…

This week’s Tying Tuesday features an interesting array of patterns, and in particular, one of the more unique flies I’ve seen in a long time. The Super Mottle nymph from Tim Flagler looks like something I’ll tie a lot of this winter. Up first this week is the latest installment of the Fly Tying Skill Builder series from Fly Fish Food. In this video, you’ll learn about a few different…

Photo: See1,Do1,Teach1/Flickr According to the Wild Fish Conservancy, Washington state is “on the verge” of permanently banning and removing net pen aquaculture from Puget Sound. Net pen aquaculture is the practice of raising fish in pens in the ocean. For years, it was seen as a way to keep robust populations of endangered fish from going extinct (alongside hatcheries located on the mainland) and of course, as a “sustainable” source…

Tom Rosenbauer sat down with Pete Kutzer, a renowned casting instructor, to talk about the basics of getting started in trout spey. This is a style of fishing that I think is underutilized here in the West, and it’s something I’d like to learn more about myself. Pete and Tom are very knowledgeable on the subject, and this podcast offers a wealth of information you just don’t want to miss….

Photo: James St. John/Flickr Places like Ennis, Montana; Durango, Colorado; or Roscoe, New York regularly make the lists of “best trout towns in America.” These are places to move to and fish if you’re an aspiring trout bum. The trouble is, those places aren’t secrets anymore, and they can start to feel a bit crowded with drift boats, guides, and fishing dogs. There’s one town that flies under the radar,…

Photo: Alex Stulce I love fly fishing in the dead of winter. The quiet and solitude are hard to beat, but the biggest stumbling block I hear about from folks who haven’t fly fished with snow on the ground is staying warm. My answer is always the same: ditch the cotton and go for wool. Heck, I’d even suggest folks stay away from the synthetic base layers (mostly polyester-based) as…

Photo: Megan Coughlin/Flickr According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Arctic tundra is becoming a source of carbon dioxide emissions. NOAA says that the Arctic has stored carbon dioxide in frozen soil for “millennia.” As the Arctic tundra burns more frequently during the summer, that frozen soil is melting and releasing that trapped carbon dioxide. This is happening as the Arctic tundra already acts to absorb “record…

We’ve got an interesting group of flies for this week’s Tying Tuesday. Of particular note is the most interesting Pheasant Tail variation I think I’ve ever seen. There’s also “the simplest parachute mayfly pattern” and a fun bugger, as well. Have fun tying, and stay warm when testing out these flies! Up first is a fly from Tom Jarman Fishing, who I don’t think we’ve featured on Tying Tuesday before….

Photo: USFWS Midwest/Flickr Thanks to funding from president Joe Biden’s America the Beautiful Challenge, a tri-state initiative in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York will benefit native brook trout throughout the upper Delaware River watershed. According to Zoe Read from WHYY, this group will get just over $3 million to help “federal and state environmental agencies, as well as local environmental groups, improve water quality and habitat for at-risk native…

Photo: Louis Cahill Louis Cahill, over at Gink & Gasoline, just wrote up an interesting story about steelhead mortality. Now, his story is anecdotal (the information he shares was shared to him by a friend) but it passes the smell test. It goes like this—is it possible to kill a steelhead without knowing you were the one who dealt the fish its final blow? To understand how that’s possible, you…

Photo: U.S. Department of State/Flickr Tom Bie, editor and publisher of The Drake, recently wrote a story on the magazine’s website about a potential new national monument. It’s become common for presidents to designate national monuments on their way out of office, and with Joe Biden leaving in a little over a month, Bie thinks this presents an opportunity to permanently protect a unique area in the West—the Owyhee Canyonlands. Located not…

Photo: Alaska Region US Fish and Wildlife Service/Flickr Salmon Beyond Borders, a conservation group focusing on maintaining and sustaining wild salmon populations in Alaska and Canada, has voiced its opposition to a new gold mine. New plans have been filed to develop the New Polaris Gold Mine Project in the headwaters of the Taku River system, which flows into the Gulf of Alaska just outside of the state’s capital, Juneau….

The folks at Patagonia were kind enough to send over some new gear just in time for the cold weather to hit here in the Rockies. I’ve had the chance to test out their R2 TechFace Pullover, Capilene Thermal Hoody, and the Nano Puff Fitz Roy Trout Hoody. R2 TechFace Pullover I didn’t expect to like this piece very much. It’s a half-zip hoody, and I prefer either full or…

Photo: USFWS Mountain-Prairie/Flickr I’ve never caught a 24-inch brown trout on a fly. I’ve put a few 23-inch fish in the net, and more than a handful of 20-inchers. But I have yet to cross the 2-foot mark with salmo trutta, even though I’m surrounded by tailwaters supposedly full of fish near 25 inches. I reckon a lot of anglers fall into that same situation, which is why this recent…

This week’s Tying Tuesday is streamer-heavy, but that’s to be expected given the time of year. You’ll learn how to put together a Fish Skull River Creature, and Cheech’s secret Complex Twist bugger. You’ll also get treated to a great Catskill dry fly. This first fly is from the folks at AvidMax, and it’s tied from one of their kits. This one is the Fish Skull River Creature, and it…

MidCurrent is proud to welcome Phil Monahan as our Editor-in-Chief. Phil joins the MidCurrent team after a 14-year run with Orvis, where he launched the Orvis Fly Fishing Blog. That blog played an influential role in fly fishing media, and Phil oversaw its consistent success. In the summer of 2017, Phil published the 10,000th post on Orvis News, which he says “felt like a real milestone.” Then, as part of…

Photo: Dom Swentosky/Troutbitten I was speaking with some beginner fly anglers recently, and one of the questions I heard was about how to retrieve a streamer. “There’s not really a right or wrong way,” I replied. “You just have to figure out what the fish want.” In my experience, that’s been largely true. Dom Swentosky, over at Troutbitten, has a slightly different take, however. I think he’s right, as he…

Who couldn’t use some help with their cast? Even the best anglers I know are always willing to look at ways to improve. And if you’re like me—avid but decidedly average—you’re happy to get all the help you can, especially with casting. Mac Brown has a five-second casting fix, over in Fly Fisherman Magazine, that’ll make a big difference in how well you’re able to present your flies to fish. The fix…

Photo: USFWS-Mountain Prairie/Flickr Invasive silver carp are a problem just about everywhere they’re found here in the U.S. But according to Nora Schoenberg at the Chicago Tribune, pollution in the Illinois River may be slowing the silver carp down near Chicago. Carp made it to the Illinois River, about 50 miles from Chicago, nearly ten years ago, but they haven’t moved into Lake Michigan. That’s surprising, since silver carp are known…

Nautilus, the Miami-based reel manufacturer, has just announced the release of their newest reel series, the GTS. The GTS is replacing the NV-G series, which was a standout for Nautilus for years. The GTS building on the current GTX reel, a flagship product for Nautilus. However, the GTX is only available for 12-weight lines, so the GTS will take some of that reel’s tech and implement it into a 5/6…