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The Drake

www.drakemag.com

Fly fishing prose and photography. Better than it sounds — the writing borrows from outdoor literature traditions and rarely talks about equipment.

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The Drake

Author Jim Harrison is Dead at 78 - The Drake Magazine

Author and outdoorsman Jim Harrison passed away on Saturday morning at his home in Patagonia, Ariz. He was 78. The Michigan native spent his recent summers near Livingston, Mont., where on occasion he could be found bellied up at the Murray Bar or casting flies on the Yellowstone River. With a smoke dangling from his…

Tom BieMar 28, 201635 min read
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The Drake

Video Daze: Skagit River Restoration - The Drake Magazine

In 2011, the Wild Steelhead Coalition teamed with the Skagit River System Cooperative and Orvis to use drone technology to map out and survey a critical habitat restoration project on the Skagit River, which is home to Puget Sound’s largest winter steelhead run. The project’s goal is to transform Barnaby Slough back into a natural…

Tom BieMar 25, 201634 min read
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At Risk Status Sought for Thompson Steelhead - The Drake Magazine

British Columbia’s Thompson River steelhead have been in deep trouble since the early 1990s. Now, after decades of collapsing numbers, and with a fragile run hovering in the hundreds, anglers are petitioning local politicians to get behind the beleaguered fish and consider protecting it under Canada’s Species At Risk Act (SARA). Len Piggin, president of Kamloops…

Tom BieMar 18, 201635 min read
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Video Daze: The Field Coffee Diary, Ep. 3 - The Drake Magazine

In the third installment of “The Field Coffee Diary” filmmaker Rolf Nylinder focusses his lens and longings on the Baltic salmon. “It starts deep in the Norwegian salmon fishing culture but leads us to the Swedish rivers,” Nylinder says. “The Baltic Sea is a dark chapter in the history of northern Europe, but the salmon…

Tom BieApr 18, 201634 min read
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Gourmet on the Green River - The Drake Magazine

Utah Stream Access Coalition (USAC) is teaming with Green River guides and a Season 12 Top Chef contender for this June’s Gourmet on the Green fundraiser. So far they’ve gathered 10 top river pros to offer their boats for a day (at $1,000 per boat) to float the Green during prime cicada season. Chef Katie…

Tom BieApr 15, 201634 min read
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Video Daze: A Day in Nicaragua - The Drake Magazine

Jumpstart your Wednesday with impenetrable jungle, preposterous poons, and the words of Joseph Conrad in filmmaker Peter Christensen’s “A Day in Nicaragua”. Via Tapam Lodge, Nicaragua.

Tom BieApr 13, 201634 min read
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Video Daze: The Field Coffee Diary, Ep. 2 - The Drake Magazine

In the second installment of “The Field Coffee Diary” filmmaker Rolf Nylinder and friends mission to Fiskonbäcken for midges and big trout. Nylinder says, “I was as always forced by the weather gods to follow their plan. Last year was the warmest one ever on earth, but it was not the warmest spring ever in northern Sweden,…

Tom BieApr 8, 201634 min read
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The Drake

Video Daze: The Field Coffee Diary - The Drake Magazine

In the first episode of “The Field Coffee Diary” follow filmmaker Rolf Nylinder and friends Erik, Mattias, Acapulco and the half-god, Patrik Daugaard, on a fishing trip to a valley carved by the legendary mountain creek known as Fiskonbäcken. Says Nylinder, “They say you collect less memories if you bring a camera on a trip.…

Tom BieApr 1, 201634 min read
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New Mexico's Grand Plan for the Gila - The Drake Magazine

The battle over rotenone is flaring up in New Mexico. This go round, the state Department of Game & Fish (NMDGF) wants to use rotenone to nix nonnative rainbow and brown trout from 24 miles of Whitewater Creek, on the Gila National Forest, where federally threatened Gila trout once swam in peace. The creek experienced…

Tom BieApr 4, 201635 min read
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Big Thompson River Mugged of Thousands of Trout - The Drake Magazine

TU asks: How did this happen, and how can it be prevented from happening again? DENVER, CO–Trout Unlimited is calling out Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) for its delayed reporting of a construction accident that killed more than 5,600 wild trout on the Big Thompson River near Estes Park on March 7. In a belated release…

Tom BieMay 2, 201636 min read
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Feds' Columbia/Snake River Salmon Plan Fails... Again - The Drake Magazine

Portland, OR—The U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon this week scrapped the federal government’s 2014 Columbia Basin salmon biological opinion (salmon plan or BiOp). Judge Michael Simon ruled that the latest plan—like each of its four predecessors—violates the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) and additionally the National Environmental Policy Act. The court sided…

Tom BieMay 5, 201635 min read
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FISH OR DIE Scores Prime-Time Slot - The Drake Magazine

The team at MOTIVFISHING is about to hit a coveted Wednesday night cable slot as part of Animal Planet’s “Fish or Die” series. A repackaging of their Four Fishermen, Seven Continents theme—Jay Johnson, Thad Robison, Brian Jill, and Chris Owens have found the right formula of stuck-in-the-ditch drama meets bitchin’ fishing. So says the ratings.…

Tom BieMay 9, 201636 min read
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Video Daze: The Field Coffee Diary, Ep. 4 - The Drake Magazine

In the fourth installment of “The Field Coffee Diary” filmmaker Rolf Nylinder navigates stillwater mayflies and a new season. “Summer had arrived at the forest lakes and something beautiful was about to happen.” Let it begin.

Tom BieMay 4, 201634 min read
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Puget Sound Hatchery Plants Are Back - The Drake Magazine

NOAA approves plan to release hatchery steelhead into five Puget Sound rivers this week despite threats to native fish Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) began dumping 500,000 hatchery steelhead smolts into five Puget Sound rivers this week after receiving the go-ahead from the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The Nooksack, NF Stillaguamish, Wallace,…

Tom BieApr 25, 201635 min read
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Occupy Skagit IV | Let My People Fish! - The Drake Magazine

Join the Puget Sound anglers determined to pry the lid off a tightly sealed Skagit River steelhead fishery This Saturday, the civil disobedience event known as Occupy Skagit is staging its fourth annual “Wade-In” to protest the continued closure of the Skagit River’s spring catch-and-release steelhead season. Puget Sound winter steelhead were listed as threatened in 2007,…

Tom BieApr 29, 201635 min read
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Anonymous Declares War on FL Gov. Rick Scott - The Drake Magazine

In what amounts to a well-played verbal bitchslap, the hactivist group Anonymous has released a video condemning Florida Gov. Rick Scott for not doing enough to prevent Lake Okeechobee discharges from spewing marine life-killing pollutants into the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. The video states the obvious: that Scott’s in bed with Big Sugar and protects…

Tom BieMay 26, 201634 min read
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Video Daze: Single Handers & Skaters - The Drake Magazine

Back to summer basics—check out Dillon Renton, from Renton River Adventures, and Sterling Dillingham, from River Runner Outfitters, fishing for Oregon steelhead with single-hand fly rods and skaters. Filmed By Tyler Orton and Curtis Ciszek. Edited By Curtis Ciszek, @nwsteelheadanglers.

Tom BieMay 24, 201634 min read
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RoboFisher | The Force Awakens - The Drake Magazine

It’s a time of uncertainty. Unrest grips the rivers as the influence of Sasquatch, iffy weather and foul-smelling waders spreads, but a glimmer of hope remains in the heroic offerings of Petru VIZITIU. As he struggles against the dark might of the enemy, this brave hero may yet awaken the technology needed to forge a…

Tom BieMay 12, 201635 min read
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Mile High 25: Multi-Species Flyfishing Tourney - The Drake Magazine

This June marks the kickoff of the Mile High 25—a Colorado-based tourney, where two-man teams target muskie, carp, bass, trout, suckers, splake and more across two days of fishing. The team submitting photo evidence of the most elaborate mixed-bag (from a list of 25 eligible gamefish) takes home the cash. “Join Anglers All for the inaugural…

Tom BieMay 20, 201635 min read
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Hot Ticket: Bassapalooza 2016 - The Drake Magazine

Cohutta Fishing Company’s 2nd Annual Southern Bassapalooza fly tourney kicks off on June 25, 2016, in the bass-y promised land of Cartersville, GA. This year’s lineup? STRIPED BASS – HYBRID BASS – WHITE BASS – SPOTTED BASS- SHOAL BASS- LARGEMOUTH BASS. Registration deadline is May 15. Entry Fee is $150 per team. Southern Bassapalooza on the Fly…

Tom BieMay 12, 201635 min read
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Video Daze: Desert Oasis - The Drake Magazine

Brent and Ashley Hodges own and operate ReelFly Fishing Adventures fly shop and guide service in Canyon Lake, TX. Watch them find their own escape as they float through Devils River State Natural Area in search of bass and solitude. Via Redington’s Find Your Water series.

Tom BieMay 11, 201634 min read
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Video Daze: Anchor Point - The Drake Magazine

A poet and Texas songwriting legend, Townes Van Zandt left a powerful, if not destructive, legacy in his wake. And for his son JT, viewing Townes’ musical fervor encouraged him to find his own passion for the outdoors. “My takeaway from my dad and how he wrote songs was a particular perspective and aesthetic about…

Tom BieJun 16, 201634 min read
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Video Daze: The Last Best Man - The Drake Magazine

Hilary Hutcheson’s father, Dave, has dedicated his life to the outdoors. After spending decades as a Park Ranger at Mount Rainier National Park, he retired to Montana’s Glacier Park and all but retreated from the wild activities that defined his career. But Hilary is changing that, by taking her father out on the water to…

Tom BieJun 7, 201634 min read
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Army Corps Attempts to Engineer Salmon Recovery - The Drake Magazine

Summer 2015 left Snake River salmon and steelhead hankering for relief. The thermal barrier created by the four lower Snake River dams contributed to soupy water temps nearing 70 degrees. And thousands of federally threatened and endangered returning adults and out-migrating juveniles met their demise. To combat lethal temps and prevent future mortality, the dam-managing…

Tom BieJun 8, 201635 min read
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Ex-Fishing Guide Slapped With 100-Year Sentence - The Drake Magazine

In the southeastern corner of Montana, Fort Smith stands out as a no-stoplight town with a handful of fly shops, a drift-boat littered trailer park, and a premier trout fishery running through the backyard. It was also the scene of a grisly murder that came to light in 1999, when local authorities discovered the strangled…

Tom BieJun 14, 201635 min read
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More Hope for Moore Steelhead Sanctuary - The Drake Magazine

Oregon’s proposed wild steelhead sanctuary named for North Umpqua River angler-in-chief Frank Moore is set to receive a jolt of grassroots support after the bill engineered to give it life sits stalled-out in congress. Backcountry Hunters & Anglers (BHA), a group advocating for wild public lands, has taken up the torch to protect more than…

Tom BieJun 5, 201635 min read
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Video Daze: The Orvis Way With Hank Patterson - The Drake Magazine

Move over Lefty, and prepare to snap the shit out of it. Hank Patterson has teamed with Orvis in what may be the most comprehensive instructional flyfishing series ever. Package includes 46 DVDs, piles of NSFW fish porn, scintillating A River Runs Through It reenactments, and 135 hours of bonus Hank footage.

Tom BieJul 6, 201634 min read
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The Drake

Salmon Ranching: Screwy, Illegal, and Gaining Support - The Drake Magazine

OLYMPIA, WA—Does time have the power to turn half-baked ideas into golden (or in this case crimson) opportunity? When it comes to the outlawed practice of salmon ranching, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) has voiced its desire to find out. Earlier this month, WDFW presented the idea of allowing private companies to raise…

Tom BieJun 26, 201635 min read
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Video Daze: Farming Fish - The Drake Magazine

When filming flyfishing, a lot of things need to go right. And the only guarantee is that things will go wrong. In the latest episode of Redington’s Find Your Water series, get a look behind the scenes when fish don’t bite in dream locations, anglers can’t set the hook on camera, and Ma Nature tries…

Tom BieJun 25, 201634 min read
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10th Anniversary Flyfishing Video Awards in Orlando - The Drake Magazine

From flip-phone poon footage to an international filmmaking movement that’s spurred show-touring and award-winning cinematography, flyfishing films have made awesome strides in the last decade. So let’s make a party. This summer in Orlando, join us for The Drake’s 10th Anniversary Video Awards, where we pay tribute to upcoming and veteran filmmakers by honoring the…

Tom BieJun 24, 201635 min read