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Photo: Louis Cahill In this fun story from Justin Pickett over at Gink & Gasoline, we get to read about Pickett’s first time seeing a balloon used as an indicator. It took him by surprise, the same way it did me when I first saw it on the Green River below Flaming Gorge Dam. I actually have a friend here in Wyoming who uses them, too. This story is a fun way…

Grundens has a new boot out that has Joshua Bergan, over at Fly Fisherman Magazine, ecstatic. These boots, according to Bergan, are everything he’s been looking for in a slip-on, waterproof boot. The Sherpa Ankle Boot is, as the name implies, only ankle-high, but it’s waterproof and fleece-lined, so it’s perfect for stomping around in shallow mud or snow. You can see all of Bergan’s thoughts on the boots here. The post…

Photo: USFWS Pacific Southwest/Flickr The reintroduction and subsequent success of Lahontan cutthroat trout in Pyramid Lake is nothing short of a miracle. The fish barely survived being wiped out by a wildfire almost 40 years after the lake-strain Lahontans were extirpated in Pyramid Lake. A small population of lake-strain Lahontans were found on Pilot Peak, near the Nevada-Utah border. The fish were captured and taken to a hatchery shortly before…

In this week’s edition of Tying Tuesday, Davie McPhail walks us through how to tie a size 20 blue-winged olive dun while utilizing an exciting new tying material from Fulling Mill. Ultra Dry Yarn is a new synthetic material that is made from hollow fibers that have been treated to give them even greater buoyancy. This material is perfect for tying wings, parachute posts, trailing shucks, or a wide variety…

Photo: USFWS Fish and Aquatic Conservation/Flickr Last week, we reported on the concerning discovery of quagga mussels in the Snake River. Mussels pose a series of significant problems to any waterbody they’re found in, including a potential collapse of the food web since they rely on similar food that trout and other fish need. That’s not to mention the quagga’s ability to clog water lines, which can cost millions of…

Photo: USFWS Mountain-Prairie/Flickr If you really want to put a big fish in the net, then you should probably read this recent story from Matthew Calderaro over at the Orvis blog. Calderaro is a former rod designer at Orvis who now operates an outfitting business in Europe. In this story, he illustrates his points about catching big fish with the marble trout – a trout I desperately want to catch…

The folks over at Fly Fisherman Magazine and Side Channel Productions have released a brand-new fly fishing film. This one doesn’t focus on trout, but on an exotic, wonderful species – the golden dorado. Anglers are probably familiar with dorado. They’re big, mean fish that you chase with giant streamers. But in the Rio Dorado, anglers chase these voracious predators with dry flies. It’s an incredibly unique fishery, and this film makes…

In the most recent episode of the Orvis podcast, Tom Rosenbauer sits down to talk about trout DNA with Helen Neville. Helen is the senior scientist with Trout Unlimited, and she shares a wealth of information with listeners about current trout research trends. In particular, you’ll hear about how scientists use DNA to determine if a fish has bred with a hatchery fish, as well as how certain subspecies of…

In this week’s Tying Tuesday, Lindsay Simpson teaches us how to tie the caddis cormorant fly. This is timely with October caddis starting to come off, and fish keying on these big bugs. This looks like a pattern that would be perfect for some of the picker fish on my local spring creek. I look forward to tying a few up and trying them out. The post Tying Tuesday: Caddis…

Photo: USFWS Fish and Aquatic Conservation/Flickr Last week, the Idaho State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) announced the discovery of quagga mussels at the Centennial Waterfront Park (near Twin Falls) area along the Snake River. For those of us who’ve had quagga mussels invade our home waters, we understand the threat this discovery poses. Growing up where I did in Utah, quagga mussels were a fixed part of the landscape, and…

Fall fishing is in full swing here in my corner of the Rockies, and if you’re anything like me, you’re looking forward to the fall hatches. I love the finality of the last trico and blue-wing hatches, because they bring out some of the best trout I’ll see all year. In a recent story over at the Orvis blog, Phil Monahan shares his four top dry flies for fall fishing….

In news that will certainly make you smile, an English teacher in Maine has built a curriculum that involves taking his students fly fishing. Where was this class when I was in high school? According to an article by Pete Warner in the Bangor Daily News, Nick Miller teaches English at Nokomis High School in Maine. As part of an alternative education class that he teaches, Miller built an English…

If you’ve ever wondered what exactly goes into building a high-end graphite fly rod, then you should read through this story from Tim Schulz over at Hatch Magazine. Tim walks us through a recent trip he took to the Orvis Rod Factory, where the guys showed him parts of the rod building process. For anyone interested in rods, or gear in general, this is a must-read piece. Tim also does a great…

This week’s Tying Tuesday is one of the more interesting flies I’ve seen in a long while. The Miracle Piglet is a trout fly tied up by Nordic Anglers on YouTube, and I’m honestly not sure how you beat that wonderful name. The fly looks like it’ll fish, but I’d love to use it just so I can say I caught a nice trout on a Miracle Piglet. Imagine the…

Photo: See1,Do1,Teach1/Flickr Last week, we reported on a new study from Trout Unlimited that shows definitive proof of hatchery fish having a detrimental impact on wild salmonids across the globe, with the focus specifically on salmon and steelhead. Today, we’ll dive into the details to help you understand why hatchery fish are harming wild salmonids, and what this means for the future of our fisheries, and fisheries management itself. A…

Photo: Tom Hart/Flickr Steelhead returns haven’t been great in 2023, and that trend is unfortunately showing itself on the legendary Skeena River. In an open letter on Steelhead Voices, Bob Hooton (a retired fisheries biologist who worked on the Skeena River) laments the current state of Skeena steelhead. “The 2023 Skeena steelhead return is anything but stellar,” Hooton writes. “It is the latest in a continuing downturn that those paying…

Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/Flickr The Biden administration announced on September 6 that they have canceled oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), per a press release from the Department of the Interior. A total of nine leases were sold during the Trump administration, totaling “more than 430,000 acres” in ANWR. However, President Biden issued an executive order in 2021 that prompted a review of…

Photo: Oregon State University/Flickr We’ve recently reported on issues with the Winchester Dam on the North Umpqua River in Oregon, but we haven’t gone into the problems in detail here at MidCurrent. To help you stay abreast of this pressing problem in the fly fishing community, I’ve compiled a comprehensive overview of what’s going on with the Winchester Dam. The Winchester Dam sits on the North Umpqua River in Oregon….

Before breathable waders, what did anglers use to stay dry in the river? Neoprene and rubber, largely, which are both materials fraught with their own issues. Breathable waders are a remarkable innovation in the sport, which is why Ross Purnell over at Fly Fisherman Magazine put together this wonderful feature story on them. If you’ve ever had any interest in how breathable waders work, you should read the story. You’ll learn the…

Photo: USFWS Mountain-Prairie When Soda Butte Creek was treated to remove nonnative brook trout a few years ago, many anglers breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that another milestone for cutthroat trout conservation had been reached. Earlier this year, however, brook trout were rediscovered in Soda Butte Creek, which meant fisheries managers had to once again poison the river and remove them. Brook trout are highly competitive fish, and will…