Friday, February 11, 2005

Best Hopper pattern for SE Idaho

Have you ever had the problem of never catching a fish on a Joe's or Dave's Hopper or similar pattern? After years of fishing SE Idaho streams during terrestrial season, I've found that the parahopper is by far the best pattern to consistently catch all kinds of trout. Use white calf tail for the parachute, mottled turkey quill for the wing case, "legs on a stick" (knotted pheasant tail), brown hackle, a cream/tan colored body material, and a size 4-10 hook and you'll be catching fish when all those joe and dave hopper folks are wondering what the fish are hitting. Check out http://www.fineflies.com/images/Hopper_Parachute.jpg for an image.

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Private Land Public Access Crisis

More and more land is being grabbed by wealthy individuals in this country and then locked up, preventing public access to many fisheries that at one time were open to fishing. How do we preserve fishing access while also recognizing private property rights? Does the fishing revenue supplied to many rural communities outweigh private interests in denying access to fishing waters? Is environmental capitalism the answer to reopen closed fishing waters? Any ideas are welcome.