[Editor’s Note: “First Casts” is an occasional feature that highlights great fly-fishing content from around the Web—from how-to articles, to photo essays, to interesting reads.]
- At the 2016 Orvis Guide Rendezvous in Missoula, Montana earlier this month, the first annual Women’s Leadership Lab brought together 35 female anglers and businesswomen to discuss how to attract and retain more women in the sport. Writing on The Noisy Plume blog, Jillian Lukiwski offers her impressions of the whole event in a post titled “Fly Fishing Mavens.”
- Many anglers struggle with the backhand cast, a vital tool for casting on windy days or in situations when your backcast is otherwise obstructed. Writing on the Gink + Gasoline blog, Louis Cahill offers” 7 Tips for Making Better Backhand Fly Casts.“
- The site of the 2019 World Fly Fishing Championships was announced this week as Launceston, Tasmania. Having fished down under the Land Down Under, I can tell you that it’s an exciting and diverse fishery. Check out the video that accompanied the Australian Submission below.
- An article in the Reading Eagle highlights not just the fishing accomplishments of the great Joe Humphreys, but his conservation work, as well: “When I had returned home from the Navy,” said Humphreys, “I had seen what had happened to my home waters and was incensed. I knew I had to do something.” Click here to read the article.
- The latest issue of a Tight Loop Magazine, focused on fly-fishing the Midwest, features some cool stories about great rivers, useful patterns, and important conservation issues.
- Members of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe teamed up with the U.S.Fish and Wildlife Service to help some of Pyramid Lake’s famous Lahontan cutthroats spawn in an artificial channel. While the fish have the ability to spawn on their own, survival rates are higher if tribal members assist with spawning and the fish are raised in a hatchery. Click here for the story and a video.
- As part of their empire-building phase, the British imported trout all around the world. In the Kashmir region of India, these trout are in danger from pollution, human intervention, and climate change, according to a story on the Rising Kashmir website.
- In remarks at the National Geographic Society, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell called for a “major correction” in how the country handles conservation in an effort to modernize efforts to protect public land. Click here for the story in The Hill or watch the full speech below.