There is a glimmer of hope for Bristol Bay shining out of congress this week. Yesterday, The Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee penned a letter to the Army Corps of Engineers, requesting a new and revised Environmental Impact Statement for Pebble Mine. Chairman DeFazio called Pebble’s permitting process “fundamentally flawed and inadequate.”
Furthermore, Chairman DeFazio criticized the Corps and called into question the legality of issues pertaining to this permitting process: “[b]ased on my review of the Corps’ activities on the proposed Pebble Mine project, the Corps has failed to meet these legal obligations [restoring and maintaining the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation’s waters].”
DeFazio further criticizes the Corps saying, “I am deeply concerned that your agency’s review of this permit application and the associated review of the project under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) are so fundamentally flawed and inadequate as to preclude any meaningful review on the likely impacts of this project – in violation of your responsibilities under both the Clean Water Act and NEPA.â€
This is the type of Congressional leadership that will turn the tide on Pebble Mine and protect Bristol Bay. Chairman DeFazio’s letter can be accessed here. Time will tell, however, if the Army Corps fulfills the Chairman’s requests.
In our latest video of the week, we get to see some epic brown trout from New Zealand. This film features some amazing eats, drone footage, and always ends with a release back into the wild.
One of my favorite things about this film is how diverse these fish look. Some are covered in spots, and others are almost bare. There are no two fish alike. If you didn’t already know, brown trout are not native to New Zealand. A few months ago we had an awesome interview with Jack Kos about the introduction of brown trout, so be sure to check out that article as well.
This video was created by troutboynz on YouTube. Be sure to check out his channel for some more awesome films.
The video of the week is selected and written by FlyLords team member Conner Grimes (@doublehaulfishing).
Trout Unlimited (TU) by the numbers is one of, if not the, largest non-profit organization working in the fly fishing world to protect our coldwater fisheries from coast to coast, and bond together groups of anglers. Facing new challenges every year, the organization has been hard at work over the past calendar year with countless “boots in the water” and dress shoes in the halls of the US government, to ensure a future for our precious waterways.
2019 by the numbers:Â
Volunteer Hours: 737,000 Hours
Acres Protected: 523,127 Acres
River Miles Protected: 1,142 Miles
Miles of Streams Reconnected: 418 Miles
Miles of Streams Restored: 508 Miles
Youth Education Programs: 1,668
Veterans Events: 700
To read more of the 2019 TU Progress Report, click here!
If you haven’t had the chance to get involved with Trout Unlimited yet and live near a trout stream, what are you waiting for? Getting involved is the best way to connect with fellow conservationists and passionate anglers, while simultaneously working together to improve your local fishery! Join now, at TU.org!
In the early morning light, David Blair and Nancy Storwick, owners of Fish Tales Fly Shop in Calgary, Alberta arrived at their fly shop to discover thieves had smashed through the front window and stolen more than 4 dozen reels from their store shelves. The thieves seemed to have been targeting reels and high-end fishing gear as little else was stolen from the shop. The Fish Tales team shared the incident on their Instagram along with a statement below:
Our day started with a call from the alarm company reporting multiple alarms at the shop. Shortly after the call, we arrived at the shop to three police vehicles parked in front and a shattered front door to the shop. The thief or thieves seemed to have been on a targeted mission for reels and were gone before the police (or us) arrived – 15 minutes or less.
Today is being spent assessing all that was taken, completing the police report, getting the door replaced, starting the insurance process, and trying to figure out how to best get the word out to the fly fishing community about the stolen goods.
On behalf of Fish Tales (Dave, Nancy, and our team) please be on the lookout for reels that seem “too-good-to-be-true.” Thieves left here with about four dozen higher-end reels – Islanders, Sage, Nautilus, Brittania, Orvis, Hardy, and Tibor. Feel free to share this post as the more widely it is shared the better.
We will be watching on-line and have already alerted other shops in Calgary. We will list a few specific reels later today so folks can watch for these on their local forums. We’ll notify the police with any possible leads.
Thank you.
David/Nancy”
David and Nancy later shared via another Instagram post that store operations are back to normal as they work with insurance and the police to replenish the stolen property and find those responsible.
The team had this to share, “A couple of things to note if you are watching for any of these items on-line. None of the items listed or pictured will have accompanying reel pouches or boxes. Some of these items have serial numbers which we have shared with the police.”
Fish Tales Fly Shop is asking anyone in the Calgary area to be on the lookout for deals that seem too good to be true or sketchy. The reels will also be sold without boxes or reel cases, as the thieves left those behind.
Flylords caught up with Miles Nolte, the Director of Fishing at MeatEater. Miles has been an outdoor writer and editor for more than a decade and was a fishing guide for even longer than that. Check out the interview below.
Flylords: Who is Miles Nolte?
Miles: Right now, I’m the Director of Fishing at MeatEater, but before taking this job I spent nearly 15 years working as a fishing guide in Alaska and Montana. I’ve also worked as an outdoor writer and editor for more than a decade.
Flylords: What came first the writing or the fishing?
Miles: Fishing. Fishing has been my passion since I was a kid, like 4 years old. Before discovering girls, fishing and baseball were all I really cared about and, not surprisingly, I was drawn to stories about those topics. In college, I majored in English because nothing else held my attention. English degrees don’t exactly translate to career paths, so I wound up working as a fishing guide and found that offered me plenty of good stories to tell. I got my start writing for TheDrake magazine, freelanced for a while, then I wrote the Alaska Chronicles, which earned me some credit in the industry. Then Gray’s Sporting Journal hired me as their angling editor, a position I held for the better part of a decade. Last year, I was offered the chance to work here at MeatEater.Â
Flylords: As a writer in the outdoor industry, I know you have worn many hats, can you tell us a little about some of the jobs you worked on to stay afloat as a full time writer?
Miles: First off, writing is both easy and incredibly difficult. I say it’s easy because I’ve worked a lot of truly shitty jobs in my life: restaurant and bar janitor (don’t forget to scrub the puke off the back of the toilet), dishwasher, construction laborer, server, bar back, adult babysitter. Sitting at a desk tapping on a keyboard doesn’t compare to roofing in the summer, so when I hear writers complain about how hard they work, I can’t help but laugh (sorry Hemingway). That said, writing is work. Writing well requires a great deal of time and discipline. Additionally, young writers are almost always writing on spec, meaning they’re spending a huge quantity of time and energy on something that they may or may not be able to sell. Freelance writing also doesn’t come with any benefits. So, before starting here at MeatEater, I spent the previous decade or so working multiple jobs: I was the angling editor at Gray’sSporting Journal, a full time instructor in the English Department at Montana State University, a freelance contributor to multiple magazines, head writer at Tributaries Digital Cinema, and a fishing guide in the summer.Â
Flylords: Alaska Chronicles is definitely one of our favorite books, what inspired that book to come to fruition?
Miles: Any time anybody chooses to read my work, I’m appreciative. To be honest, I never set out to write a book when I wrote the Chronicles. Initially I just found myself in a situation where I couldn’t make up stories as strange and interesting as my everyday experiences. The most basic writing advice that everyone gets in school suggests, “write what you know.†I just started writing down what was happening to me and publishing it on The Drake website. People really liked it, and a few months later, a Departure Publishing contacted me about making it into a book.
Flylords: Tell us about your new position with MeatEater? What’s it like having a desk job?
Miles: Some days, I miss being on the water and knowing exactly what’s happening with our local fisheries. Other days, I miss the freedom of a freelance lifestyle. But, I honestly could not be more enthusiastic about the work I do and the group of people I get to work with. I get to sit down with an incredibly smart, creative crew and try to invent the future of outdoor media.
Flylords: I know you have basically spent the last 6 months working on Das Boat, how did you help this series come to life?
Miles: My role on Das Boat was writer, producer, and creator, but it took a huge team of people to make that show happen. Our goal was to create a unique fishing show that celebrates American fishing in a way that’s been neglected by much of the fishing media. So much fishing media has focused on going farther away and catching the craziest fish we can think of in the craziest place possible. To be fair, I participated in that in some of my own previous work, but I think a lot of folks have started to find that focus alienating. We saw an opportunity to celebrate accessible and amazing fishing that’s been overlooked in some ways.Â
I also just have a thing for shitty old aluminum boats, and so do many of my friends. I think a lot of anglers got started on those boats, and they gave us our first taste of the possibilities that boats represent—that freedom and access to a world generally inaccessible to terrestrial creatures. As we’ve gotten older, we’ve either purchased or just lusted after newer, flashier, more technologically advanced crafts. Don’t get me wrong, fishing out of tricked out boats is nice, but nothing has ever quite had the same magic as that first boat I used as a kid. We wanted to make a show where one of those boats was the star and people seem to resonate with that. Our episodes weren’t guided; they were all about interesting people enjoying each others’ company, making viewers feel like they could do it, and giving the spotlight to local fisheries and resources.
Flylords: What was the greatest challenge in putting together Das Boat?
Miles: Our timeline. We came up with the idea for the show in April, starting shooting in June, and released the first episode in August. That’s a terrible idea. No one should ever create a show on that tight of a schedule. My thanks go out to all the people who busted their asses in order to meet our deadlines—Steven Rinella, RA Beattie, Bryan Gregson, Sean McCormick, Will Phelps, Paul Bourq, Tim Harden, Sam Lungren, and all the rest of the crew.Â
Flylords: Can you recommend 5 books for our readers?
Miles: Brown Dog, by Jim Harrison, The River Why, by David James Duncan, Trout Bum, by John Gierach, Indian Creek Chronicles, by Pete Fromm, WildThoughts from Wild Places, by David Quammen.
Flylords: How about a beer?
Miles: An admission, perhaps sacreligious in these bitter times: I’m really not into the whole IPA craze. Hops are fine, but I actually prefer a bit more balance to my brew. I also tend toward local fermentations—Gallatin Pale Ale by the Bozeman Brewing Company is my standard, go-to, gullet moistener. That said, I’m also a fan of the brown water, and MeatEater recently partnered with Willie’s Distillery in Ennis, Montana on a particularly delicious bourbon. It’s definitely not an every day spirit, but it’s a good special occasion sipper.
Flylords: What’s next on the radar coming up for the MeatEater Fishing Dept?
Miles: When I started at MeatEater, I had two goals: 1) I wanted to show our current audience that we can do fishing in a way you think is interesting, and 2) I wanted to give anglers a reason to spend some time looking at MeatEater.Â
MeatEater is known for hunting, and so lots of people who fish, but don’t hunt, may not have bothered tuning in. But MeatEater’s approach to outdoor media, our focus on understanding and respecting our resources and fostering a meaningful relationship to those resources, resonates beyond hunting. We’re bringing a similar ethos to our fishing content.
We’ve built out a series of writers and articles that are specifically focused on fishing and conservation issues that I’m proud of. Most folks don’t come to themeateater.com thinking they’ll find fishing, but the fact we’re getting traction and having people come to us for that makes me feel like we’re doing a good job.Â
Our plan is to continue to expand our fishing offerings. We’re working on a video series about ice fishing, another Das Boat season and a few other video ideas. We’re also putting out weekly fishing articles on our website. The MeatEater Fishing Department is only going to keep growing.
You can follow along with Miles at @watermiles on Instagram and also MeatEater @meateater.
In our latest YouTube video of the week, we take a look at a new film by Tort Fly Fishing demonstrating the beauty found within the sport and the delicate rise of a brown trout. The video displays the tranquility of a sport enjoyed in the companionship of friends.
The changing color of the leaves and elegant filming of a beautiful fish serve as a relaxing medium for this story. The video speaks for itself in a light that depicts why so many people are drawn outside from their everyday lives and hooked by this gorgeous past-time.
This film was created by Tort. Be sure to check out more of his films on the Tort Fly Fishing YouTube page.
The video of the week is selected and written by FlyLords team member Sam McLean (@sam_d_mclean).
In this week’s “How to Tie” video feature, Davie Mcphail is here to show us how to tie the Tarpon Bunny fly.
Learn About This Fly:
Difficulty: Intermediate
This week, we head down south to the salty flats of the Florida keys, where over 50 years ago this iconic fly made its debut. For tarpon anglers, this fly is an absolute go-to and an essential in their fly box.
Because of its long zonker style tail and its thick rabbit fur body, this fly moves with beauty and grace throughout the water, and will surely entice even the most fickle fish. The great part about these flies is that even with their name making them sound “Tarpon” specific, they can be used to fish a plethora of species such as snook and even trout (for those who love the tie, but not the airfare).
Considering this fly’s long history it has undergone many variations, and like many other flies, benefits from creative thinking. If you’re looking to make small variations, these flies do great in colors besides the one shown above. By tying them in purple, black, chartreuse, etc. you can not only add more flavor to the suggested pattern, but diversify your arsenal. Also, when it comes to those less experienced on the vice, this is a great tie in order to gain practice tying more complexed patterns. While the design may look intimidating, the overall construction is fairly straightforward.
Ingredients:
Hook, Mustad C68SZ Tarpon sive 1/0
Thread, UTC 140 Fl.
Fire Orange Under Tail, Orange Bucktail and Orange Krystal Flash
Tail, Spirit River Fire Tiger 1/8 Zonker Strip
Throat, Fire Tiger 1/8 Zonker Strip and a Orange and Yellow Hackle
No, they’re not talking about bonefish and tarpon connecting to the internet, but how interconnected the populations of these two iconic species are to the health of the Caribbean fishery.
The Bonefish Tarpon Trust just released this fun and informative video about the spawning and migratory behaviors of their 2 namesake species, displaying how interwoven the populations are and why conservation protections need to be put in place everywhere these species swim.
After decades of conservation and research, BTT can now prove how linked the populations of the two species are. For instance, when bonefish spawn, they utilize the currents of the Caribbean to disperse the larvae (which hatch within 24 hours of the spawn). Meaning the larvae from a bonefish spawning event off South Andros, Bahamas can end up spending their lives on the northwestern flats of Cuba!
The film also emphasizes the need to protect tarpon as they make their annual migration for their own spawning and feeding. Outside of Florida, protections for these fish are left wanting, and we need to ensure that they receive similar levels of conservation everywhere they swim.
Coming in hot for the winter fishing season, Costa just released their newest sport performance frames, the Diegos. We’ve had these out on the water for a few weeks, and we love them! The light-blocking arms and new venting system make these some of the comfiest frames we’ve tested on the water.
Costa® Sunglasses, long-committed to creating the highest quality performance sunglasses for the most discerning watermen and women, used those very people as inspiration to create the new Diego frame. Constructed to keep you on the water longer, Diego is the most feature-laden, highly engineered frame the company has ever produced.
Named for the diverse and dynamic fisheries around San Diego, California, the Diego frame is up to the task, whether chasing Yellowtail or the mighty Bluefin. Simply stated, this next evolution in eyewear is performance perfected—designed with capability in every detail:
Innovative vented hinge system to maximize airflow and maximize comfort
Vented nose pads reduce fogging
Integrated top and side shields block light
Sweat management system cools and wicks away moisture
Flexible and keeper-ready temple tips enhance fit
“At Costa, we put our all into every frame we create, and we strive to bring innovation into our performance collection with each new design,†said John Sanchez, vice president of product development at Costa Sunglasses. “Our team doesn’t just live for the water, we come to life on the water and that’s exactly why we created Diego. This high-tech frame was over-engineered to provide maximum-performance features to keep even the most hardcore adventurers on the water longer.â€
Diego features Costa color-enhancing 580® lens technology in both Lightwave® glass and impact-resistant polycarbonate, which provides 100 percent UV protection and polarization. This patented 580 lens technology selectively filters out harsh yellow light for superior contrast and definition while absorbing high-energy blue light to cut haze and enhance sharpness. In addition, Costa lens technology reduces glare and eye fatigue, and its Lightwave glass is 20 percent thinner and 22 percent lighter than average polarized glass.
Diego is a large fit and comes in three frame colors, including Matte Black, Matte Midnight Blue, and Matte Gray. The new style ranges in price from $199 to $279 depending on lens selection. For more information on Diego and the full line of Costa sunglasses, visit CostaSunglasses.com.
The Flylords team caught up with the fellas over at Chums, the Utah based outdoor brand is known for pioneering and inventing sunglass retainers. A common accessory among anglers. Check out the interview below to learn more about the company and some of the new products they are offering like the Storm Series Waterproof Bags.
Flylords: Can you tell us a little about where the Chums story began?
Chums story starts back in 1983, when a river guide was sick of watching his glasses sink to the bottom of the Colorado River (pictured above). He had the ingenious idea of holding his sunglasses on the a shoelace. 35 years and a few iterations later here we are with a huge line of sunglass retainers (Chums) and an expanding product line.
Flylords: Where is your company based? What are some local adventures that your team enjoys?
Chums currently has 3 different locations: Hurricane Utah (where we continue to manufacture many of our products), Salt Lake City and Sun Valley Idaho.
Chums was started on the water and our hearts are still out there. Rafting and fishing are what we focus on and how we spend most of our time.
Flylords: I know you recently dropped some killer dry bags (which we had a chance to test out in Belize) can you tell us a little about these products, and what makes them unique?
With our Dry Bags we were really trying to focus on a demographic that we felt like was missed. Not everyone has a couple hundred bucks to drop on a bag from the big guys. We designed a bag that could stand up to the harshest conditions while remaining affordable for anyone.
Flylords: Do you want to highlight any conservation efforts Chums has been working on in 2019?
Here at Chums we are always trying to do a little better, from creating product from sustainable material to donating to local and national non profits. We focus a lot on river restoration and do a lot of work with American Rivers and American Whitewater.
Flylords: If you were going to put together a dream fishing trip for the Chums team where do you think you would go?
It’s hard to beat the fishing in our own backyard of Sun Valley: Big Wood, Silver Creek and Big Lost. But we always love shaking it up and hunting something new, maybe go chase some Marlin around Australia.
Flylords: If you had to name three Chums essential products for a day on the water what would they be?
Our Rolltop Backpack for sure, make sure that you can carry all your essentials and keep them dry. You can’t go wrong with any of our retainers but our Cotton Stripes are a staple for all of us around here. Something we all have on us here at all times is our Surfshorts Wallet, we take them with us everywhere.
Testimonials from our Belize Trip:Â
“A versatile waterproof bag that doesn’t break the bank. I used the Chums Rolltop Backpack for a couple of days of flats fishing down in Southern Belize and loved how lightweight and simple the bag was yet it still stood up to the saltwater like a pro. The water bottle side pocket is a great feature many other dry bags don’t have.” -Patrick Perry, Managing Editor of Flylords Mag.
Be sure to check out Chums’ Fishing Division online here and give them a follow on Instagram @chumsusa.
