In the Loop 04.04.11

Anglers heading to fish the Madison River south of Ennis, Montana have a new way to check on water conditions before hitting the road. The U. S. Geological Service has installed a real-time water-data gauge at Varney Bridge, which will provide information on water flow and temperature. There had not been such a monitoring station on that stretch since 1970.

 Last weekend was opening day for many states in the East and Midwest, generating a ton of news stories. The annual First Cast event–at the junction on Willewemoc Creek and the Little Beaverkill in Roscoe, New York (a.k.a. Trout Town USA)–featured Oscar-nominated actor Mark Ruffalo and Grammy-winning jazz pianist Laurence Hobgood. In Wisconsin, Paul Smith explains what is so special about spring steelheading on the Bois Brule. Finally, in the York Dispatch, Andy Snyder descibes all the work that goes on behind the scenes–which he calls “a mind-boggling exercise”–to provide plenty of fish for Pennsylvania anglers. 

 On Fly Rod + Reel Online, A.K. Best waxes at length about  The Magic of the Adams dry fly: “I once watched a guy catch trout after trout on some heavily fished catch-and-release water during a size 18 Blue-Wing Olive hatch by fishing a size 18 Adams dun. This was mind-boggling to me, since I was fishing the same hatch with a perfectly matched size 18 Olive Quill Dun and only doing half as well.”  

 

 Fans of online magazines will spend plenty of time staring at their screens this week, as new issues of This is Fly and flymage came online. This is Fly features articles on B.C. steelheading, saltwater fly fishing in Mozambique, and the editors ask 26 fly-fishing professionals the important question, “What is cool?”  flymage offers an up-close and personal look at the realistic patterns of my Spanish friend Jose Manuel Ruiz, better known as “Cholo,” whom I met in 2009 while fishing in La Rioja. 

  Last week, famed high-end reel maker and fly-fishing celebrity Stan Bogdan passed away in Nashua, New Hampshire, at the age of 92. As the New York Times obituary explained, “owning a Bogdan reel signals high seriousness about the sport and, not infrequently, a fair amount of disposable income.” On his Forbes Magazine blog, Monte Burke reprints his 2009 feature on the man and his reels.

 Writing in The Daily Progress, Ted Strong describes the conundrum of the Virginia fisheries managers who stock brown trout in some areas while trying to eradicate the species in others: “The divergent treatment of brown trout represents a tension in wildlife management: the preservation of the natural versus recreation for the masses. It is also part of the growing question of how to address non-native species such as the brown trout.”

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