The EcoAngler describes a number of these native trout that qualify for the challenge including:

• Lahontan cutthroat  
• Paiute cutthroat  
• California golden trout  
• California rainbow trout  
• Eagle Lake rainbow trout  
• Goose Lake redband trout  
• McCloud River redband trout  
• Steelhead trout  
• Warner Lakes redband trout  

Book and Video Reviews

Sierra Fly Fishing - Volume 2

Like going to a movie after first reading the book, the movie usually disappoints. For me at least, this movie lives up to expectations. And so you know, my expectations were not developed from any book on the Upper Kern River. I had the good fortune to experience the Golden Trout Wilderness with Guy Jean in 2006. As I sat and watched the DVD, with the memories of this wilderness and one-of-a-kind fishery firmly etched in memory, I couldn't help but feel I was re-living the entire five days from that summer. (My mental camera only slightly better than the digital one.)

Read the entire review in Native Trout.

The Longest Silence

Essays on fly-fishing have been written and will continue to be written, but McGuane's work likely represents the apex of the category. If somebody or some new collection of work proves me wrong, then so be it. In my mind, page for page and word for word, The Longest Silence will reign! No arguing McGuane as the master wordsmith, right? Now, combine that quality with a grand sense of humor and keen insights into the sport and you have something special. We'll be lucky to see another book of it's equal in this generation. (There, I said it.)

Read the entire review of this book in the Reviews section.

Get Bent: Fish Eye Video Issue 3

Get Bent offers plenty of rod bending material - translation: lots of big, juicy trout. The jazz track accompanying this section almost keeps pace with the video action on screen. This opening moves with rhythm and energy. A video mosaic of rivers I recognized like the East Fork of the Carson, the Truckee (appears to be footage from Fish Eye #2) with some of the usual faces which Mikey has fished with - including an eight year who takes a rainbow on a dry fly. It wraps up with another youngster Loren Elliott hooking and landing a 20 inch rainbow on the East Fork of the Carson.

Read the entire review of this video in the Fly Fishing Reviews section.

The Season of the Mayfly: Fish Eye Video Issue 2

The video magazine opens with a twisted tribute to the opening scene in the movie Jaws... instead of a young, female swimming substitue a mayfly. Watch the serenity of a mayfly floating carefree. Then witness the death from below reality when a trout goes on the feed.

Read the entire review of this video in the Fly Fishing Reviews section.

Caddisflies

As LaFontaine states midway through the book, "The study of caddisflies is the graduate school of an angler's education." His book clearly mirrors both the diversity and complexity of its subject matter - caddisflies. LaFontaine mastery of the bug and how to present it to trout in it's varying life stages is apparent. But the crowning achievement in these pages is the bridge LaFontaine builds between this insect's world and the mind of the angler. It's a bridge every angler must eventually cross in order to master the complex interaction between these bugs and feeding trout. I couldn't really come up with the number of days and the river miles you would need to wade in order to gain the knowledge Lafontaine distills onto paper... but a lifetime wouldn't be a stretch here (wearing out many pairs of wading boots along the way).

Read the entire review of this book in the Reviews section.

The Trout and the Fly

If you wish to get inside the small, primitive brain of a trout, then read The Trout and The Fly. Most theories passed around in angling circles for how these critters behave is commonly hearsay. The authors, Brian Clarke and John Goddard - both avid fly fishermen, reveal trained and measured observations. More than any sport, fishing lends itself to word-of-mouth and story telling. Clarke and Goddard take a more analytical tact - providing the angler fundamental knowledge of trout behavior.

Read the entire review of this book in the Reviews section.

The Angler's Bamboo

I received Angler's Bamboo as a gift from my cousin, Gib Cooper who along with his wife owns and operates Tradewinds Bamboo Nursery out of Gold Beach, Oregon. The book provides a concise history of how "tea stick bamboo" came to be revered by anglers around the world.

Read the entire review of this book in the Reviews section.

Many Rivers to Cross: Of Good Running Water, Native Trout, and the Remains of Wilderness

M. R. Montgomery goes fishing. Well, to be precise the author goes in search of rare, hard-to-find, native trout. The places and the numbers of native fish he finds are as telling as the sharp observations he gives the reader. I initially picked up the book on account of it's subject matter - fly fishing for native trout around the West. As I read the last couple of chapters I found myself less interested in the author's fishing activity and more drawn into his commentary and writing style.

Read the entire review of this book in the Reviews section.

Fly Fishing Articles

American Angler

Look for my feature article - Secrets of the Sierras 4 Classic Walk-In Trips appearing in the current May/June 2010 issue of American Angler.

You'll learn about some terrific wild trout fisheries of the Central Sierra Nevada.

Southwest Fly Fishing

I contributed a story for the January/February 2009 issue of Southwest Fly Fishing focusing on the Wishon Fork of the Tule River of California.

Arising from the high granite slopes of Moses and Maggie mountains in the Golden Trout Wilderness, this segment of the Tule River flows south and then west through a portion of the former Sequoia National Forest ...

I contributed a feature story for the November/December 2008 issue of Southwest Fly Fishing focusing on the Kings River of California.

Broken down into two classic reaches: the lower Kings River below Pine Flat Dam, and the upper Kings River above Pine Flat Reservior.

It's ultimately a story of two different fisheries. Each reach impacted by vastly different management practices.

I wrote a feature story for the July/August 2007 issue of Southwest Fly Fishing. The article details a five day span spent angling for Kern River rainbow trout along the upper Kern River within the Golden Trout Wilderness.

Northwest Fly Fishing

Another, shorter article I wrote appeared in the July/August 2007 issue of Northwest Fly Fishing. It's a piece about one of my favorite still-water destinations in the entire Sierra Nevada - Heenan Lake.

I contributed a feature story for the January/February 2008 issue of Northwest Fly Fishing. The article covers the upper Merced River in Yosemite Valley flowing down through the Merced Canyon until it meets the South Fork of the Merced.