Trail of Highways

The best trout water in the West starts where the road ends. The Forest Service now wants to change that. They’ve proposed rescinding the 2001 Roadless Rule, which would open about 45 million acres of national forest to new roads and logging. The final decision is expected in early 2027. Here’s what the agency’s own draft environmental impact statement says: It’s likely to adversely affect 327 threatened and endangered species and 71 critical habitats, with salmon and trout called out by name. It means more erosion, landslide risk, and sediment pollution. It affects water quality for roughly 24 million people. Timber gains would be modest, about 5–10% more annual sawtimber. The USDA’s case is wildfire. That case deserves a fair hearing. But thinning and prescribed fire are already allowed under the current rule. Ignition density is about 4x higher on roaded forest land in some comparisons, and most fires are human-caused and often tied to roads. For fish, roads mean sediment in spawning gravel, culverts that block migration, warmer water, invasive species, and pressure that small headwater populations can’t handle. Bull trout. Westslope cutthroat. Steelhead. Salmon. Brook trout. This is their last stronghold. The comment period has closed, but the fight moves to Congress and to local forest plans. Anglers still have a say. Full breakdown: saltwateronthefly.com/roadle… #FlyFishing #PublicLands #RoadlessRule

Fluorescent Hot Pink Mallard Spey is in the shop. I've watched fish ignore a perfectly tied natural spey fly all morning and then crush something pink the first cast after lunch. I don't argue with fish. I tie more pink. These are 12 jumbo hot pink mallard spey feathers per pack, picked for steelhead and salmon tiers. Bright enough to show in stained water, with the barring still there to give the fly some life. Two flies I tie with it: a Hot Pink Spey Shrimp for fresh steelhead in the lower river, and a Pink Coho Tube for silvers and pinks. Recipes and how to fish them are on the product page. Wrap a couple of turns as a collar and watch how it breathes in the current. That's what moves fish, not the price tag on the material. If you fish coho or winter chrome, you need pink in the box. Period. Shop Fluorescent Hot Pink Mallard Spey: saltwateronthefly.com/produc… #steelheadflies #speyflies #saltwateronthefly

How to actually fish a jerkbait Most people fish a jerkbait wrong. They crank it like a crankbait and wonder why nothing eats. A jerkbait doesn't catch fish while it's moving. It catches fish when it stops. Here's how to fish the Mini Jerk 2.75": Cast past the target. Long casts give you more time in the zone. Reel down three or four turns. That gets it down under 5 feet. Snap the rod tip on slack line. Short and sharp. You're popping it, not dragging it. Pause. This is the whole game. Watch your line. Most strikes on the pause show up as a tick or the line going slack. The pause depends on water temperature: Above 60°F: snap-snap, one-second pause, keep it moving 50 to 60°F: snap-snap, two to three seconds Under 50°F: one snap, then five to ten seconds. Yes, really. Count it out. Cold fish follow a long way before they commit. If you're not getting bit, pause longer. Gear: 6'6" to 7' medium-light spinning rod, 6 to 10 lb line, loop knot or small snap so it swings free. In rivers, cast across and let the current swing it while you twitch. Let it hang in the soft water behind rocks. One more thing: lots of trout water requires single or barbless hooks. Read the regs, then swap if you need to. saltwateronthefly.com/produc…

Orange is the steelhead color. Nobody really knows why. Doesn't matter. Maybe it looks like an egg. Maybe it looks like a prawn. Maybe it just makes a steelhead mad. Whatever it is, orange gets bites on cold days when other colors don't. Orange Ewing Chickabou is my base for Popsicle-style flies — wrapped orange, red and purple, layer on layer. It looks like a cotton ball in the vise and like a living thing on the swing. For coho in the fall, I tie orange over chartreuse on a Clouser and strip it fast. Coho can't stand it. Get Orange Ewing Chickabou: saltwateronthefly.com/produc… Steelheaders — orange or purple? Pick one. — Capt. Grumpy

Pink isn't just a trout color. Some of the best bonefish I've ever hooked ate a pink shrimp, and so did a pile of redfish. Fl. Pink Semperfli Straggle String is my go-to body material for slim flats flies. It holds its color in salt and sun, sinks clean, and the UV flecks flash every time you strip. On the trout side, two wraps make a hot collar that I'd put up against anything for swinging soft hackles. Two flies I'm tying with it: the Straggle Gotcha, the bonefish fly everybody carries, and a Pink Hot Collar Soft Hackle for swinging caddis water here in Montana and for char in Iceland. Recipes and how I fish them are on the product page. a spool is about 6.5 yards. Shop Fl. Pink Straggle String: saltwateronthefly.com/produc… #SaltwaterFlyFishing #BonefishFlies #SoftHackle #FlyTying #SemperfliStraggleString #SaltwaterOnTheFly

🎣 This fly catches EVERYTHING. Bass. Trout. Snook. You name it — the Bush Fur Leech delivers. Tied with Ewing Hackle Chickabou + Nature's Spirit Monster Bush Fur, this pattern pushes water, pulses on the strip, and looks alive in any current. Grab the fly or tie your own. Materials are in the shop. 👇 🔗 saltwateronthefly.com #flyfishing #flytying #bassfishing #troutfishing #snookfishing #busyfur #leechpattern #saltwateronthefly #flyshop #flyfishinglife

Green sea turtles just pulled off one of the greatest conservation comebacks in marine history. 🐢 After decades on the Endangered list, they were officially reclassified as Least Concern in 2025 — a global population increase of more than 28% since the 1970s. That's not an accident. That's what happens when science, policy, and people who actually give a damn show up consistently for fifty years. But this isn't a victory lap. Six of the seven sea turtle species are still threatened. Bycatch is still killing thousands of turtles a year. Plastic is in the gut of more than half the sea turtles on the planet. Climate change is feminizing entire hatchling populations. The work is far from over. We dug into all of it — all seven species, the threats that remain, what anglers can do on the water, and why the Georgia Sea Turtle Center on Jekyll Island is one of the most impressive wildlife rehabilitation facilities on the East Coast. I've been behind the scenes. The work they're doing there is the real deal. If you spend time on the ocean, this one's for you. 🔗 saltwateronthefly.com/sea-tu… — Sea Turtles: 100 Million Years in the Water and We Nearly Blew It in 50 #SeaTurtleConservation #SeaTurtle #MarineConservation #SaltwaterOnTheFly #SaveTheTurtles #OceanConservation #GeorgiaSeaTurtleCenter #JekyllIsland #SaltwaterFlyFishing #FlyFishing #CoastalLife #OceanLife #WildlifeConservation #MarineLife #ProtectOurOceans

Most fly fishers stop paying attention to the James River when they hit Richmond. That's a mistake. Below the fall line, the James transforms into one of the most overlooked multi-species fly fisheries on the East Coast. We're talking striped bass, red drum on oyster bars, tidal largemouth, speckled trout, hickory shad — all on the fly, all in the same river system. We broke it down section by section from Ancarrows Landing in downtown Richmond all the way to Ragged Island at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay — plus the 15 best flies to cover every species, every section. If you've written off the tidal James as conventional gear water, this one's for you. 👉 Full guide is live at saltwateronthefly.com/fly-fi… . #FlyFishing #TidalJames #JamesRiver #RedDrum #StripedBass #SaltwaterFlyFishing #Virginia #FlyFishingVA #SaltwaterOnTheFly

Before Montana, There Was Lake Charlevoix | Bass on the Fly Before the saltwater. Before Montana. Before all of it — there was Lake Charlevoix, Michigan. Sixteen years on that shoreline is where this all started. A kid, a fly rod, and a bass that changed everything. Well almost, it was truly days on the AuSable that Hooked me. In this video we're breaking down what it takes to chase bass on the fly — the flies that produce, the hackle that ties clean, and the gear that holds up when you're actually on the water. 🎣 Shop Bass Flies, Ewing Hackle & Performance Outdoor Apparel: 👉 saltwateronthefly.com/lake-c… 🔔 Follow for fly fishing content built by anglers who mean it. 📍 Covering Montana, saltwater, and everywhere worth casting. #BassFishing #FlyFishing #LakeCharlevoix #EwingHackle #BassOnTheFly #SaltwaterOnTheFly #MichiganFishing #FlyfishingLife #PerformanceApparel #FlyTying

Three things I want in a fly tying material: 📷 Holds profile when wet 📷 Moves on the pause 📷 Doesn't fall apart when a pike tries to eat your hand Monster Bush Fur checks every box. It's coarse, long-fiber, and built for the kind of flies that actually attract big fish — saltwater baitfish patterns, articulated streamers, predator rigs. Tie it sparse, check it wet, and fish it with confidence. Full article — techniques, color breakdowns, material comparisons — is live now at saltwateronthefly.com Link: saltwateronthefly.com/monste… Go tie something. #flytying #monsterbushfur #saltwaterflyfishing #streamers #pikeonthefly #musky #flyfishinglife #naturesspiritflytying

There's a moment on the swing when everything goes quiet. Not peaceful quiet. The other kind. The kind where your whole body knows something is about to happen before your brain catches up. The line tightens. The hackle pulses in three inches of current between a rock and the undercut bank where that brown has been living since before you knew this stretch of water existed. You didn't cast to him. You cast to the river and let the river do the introduction. I've chased that moment for forty years. Clear water. Low light. Brooks that look painted. Rainbows that shouldn't exist in that color. Browns that make you question every fish you thought was big before. The flies that get you to that moment matter more than most tyers admit. So does what goes in them. That's why my name is on this hackle. Not because it looks good on a package — because it breathes on the swing the way it's supposed to. Hand selected. Built for the moment right before everything goes sideways. 📷 saltwateronthefly.com/.../sc… : #ewinghackle #flytying #saltwateronthefly #flyfishing

The trail doesn't care what's on your calendar. Early summer. Yellowstone country. Just boots, breath, and whatever's around the next bend. 🌲 saltwateronthefly.com #Yellowstone #MontanaTrails #EarlySummer #HikeMore #WildYellowstone #PublicLands #TrailLife #MorningHike #GetOutside #MontanaLife #OutdoorAdventure #WildPlaces #HikingLife #NatureWalks #GreaterYellowstoneEcosystem

You're driving past some of the best freshwater fly fishing in California on your way to Yosemite, and you don't even know it. Lake Don Pedro. Bass Lake. New Melones. Millerton. Lake McClure. Big largemouth, landlocked stripers that hit like freight trains, kokanee, and trout — all on a fly rod, all in the Sierra foothills. I put together the full guide: which lake to fish for which species, what gear to bring, and the exact fly patterns that work. Mid-week, most of this water is empty. Full guide here: saltwateronthefly.com/centra… #FlyFishing #CaliforniaFishing #FreshwaterFishing #BassFishing #StripedBass #SierraNevada #SaltwaterOnTheFly

I found the Great Dismal Swamp while looking for something else entirely. That's how the best trips usually start. Here's what nobody tells you: it's not dismal at all. William Byrd II named it that in 1728 after surveying it from dry ground while sending other people into the actual swamp. Solid strategy. Terrible branding. What it actually is: four miles of paddling down the Feeder Ditch through tannin-black water so dark it looks like strong tea, past great blue herons standing absolutely still in the shallows, until Lake Drummond opens up in front of you — 3,100 acres, cypress trees rising straight from the shallow floor, water so still on calm mornings that the sky and the trees trade places. The lake sits 18 feet above sea level. Nobody's entirely sure why. The ghost of a young woman in a white canoe is said to paddle it at night by firefly-lamp. That part is almost certainly phosphorescent fungi. Almost. The history here is heavy and real. Thousands of enslaved people built free communities in this swamp's interior for generations. The canal you paddle in on is the oldest operating man-made canal in the country — dug by hand, by enslaved labor, between 1793 and 1805. The first cargo through it was bacon and brandy. History is complicated. I put together a complete guide to canoeing and kayaking the Great Dismal Swamp — routes, distances, camping, wildlife, gear list, the whole thing. It's on the site now. Go paddle it before someone tries to drain it again. getlostinamerica.com/great-d… #GreatDismalSwamp #CanoeLife #PaddleVirginia #LakeDrummond #OutdoorAdventure #VirginiaWilderness

cow moose. Twin calves. One Sunday drive. Montana, you never miss. 🫎 Sometimes the best fishing days are the ones where you never even pick up a rod. hashtag#Montana hashtag#MooseSpotting hashtag#TwinCalves hashtag#MontanaWildlife hashtag#SlowDown hashtag#OutdoorLife

You see the rings before you hear the sip. Cinnamon Ant hatch. Small mountain pool. Right there off the trail. The angler with a 4-piece is still digging through his pack, pulling out rod sections, threading guides. You're already false-casting. That's the whole point of the Summit 5-6 Pack Rod. It rides collapsed on your pack all day — telescopic, already lined, already ready. Fish stacking in a pool along the trail don't give you five minutes to rig up. They give you about 60 seconds before they wise up or move on. The Summit gives you exactly that. 60 seconds from pack to casting. Graphite backbone. Glass tip. That smooth, progressive medium action that loads beautifully on small dries, nymphs, and light streamers. Built for the angler who hikes to fish — not fishes to say they hiked. Two sizes: 7'6" 3-4wt for tight brushy creeks. 8ft 5-6wt when you want a little more reach and muscle. saltwateronthefly.com/produc… : #flyrods #flytying #summittackle #backpacking #flyfishing #hiking #backcountryfishing #yellowstone #regalvise #saltwateronthefly

Everyone remembers their first reel. Make it a good one. The South Fork Fly Reel from summit tackle is where the journey starts — smooth, sealed, and built to grow with you. No confusing drag adjustments. No gear anxiety. Just you, the water, and whatever happens next. Named for the headwaters — the place where a stream splits and something new begins. That's exactly what picking up a fly rod feels like. Your South Fork is waiting. 🎣 saltwateronthefly.com/produc… : #BeginnerFlyFishing #LearnToFlyFish #FlyFishingForBeginners #SouthFork #SummitTackle #FlyReel #NewAngler #FlyFishingCommunity #StartFlyFishing #TroutFishing #FlyFishingLife #OutdoorLife #NatureTherapy #FlyFishing101 #CastYourStress #GetOutside

Some days you don't need a guide. You don't need a drift boat, a shuttle, or a crowd. You just need boots, a backpack, and enough sense to follow a trail until the trees open up and the stream finds you. That's where I was yesterday. Western Tanagers working the cottonwoods along the bank — that ridiculous flash of red and yellow against a Montana sky full of white clouds that looked like somebody painted them there on purpose. The kind of scene that makes you stop casting for a minute just to look at it. Just to make sure you're actually standing in it. The water was clear. I mean clear — the kind where you can read the bottom at four feet and watch a cutthroat slide two inches to eat your fly. A #16 Pheasant Tail in the riffles. A Hare's Ear dropped into the slow water behind a boulder. Both working. Neither one being hurried. I had the Summit Pack 7'6" 3-4 weight in my hand and it was exactly the right rod for every inch of that water. Tight willows on the left bank — short, accurate casts with a tip that loads at thirty feet and doesn't punish you for it. Hiked three miles in with that rod collapsed in my pack and never thought about it once. Pulled it out, extended it, and was fishing in under a minute. The cutthroat didn't care what I was carrying. But I did. A heavier, stiffer stick on water that tight and that technical would have cost me fish. The soft glass tip read every take. Kept every tippet intact. Did what a good small stream rod is supposed to do — get out of the way and let the fishing happen. I didn't count fish. I didn't check my phone. I just walked and cast and watched Tanagers until the light went gold and it was time to hike out. That's the whole point. 👉 saltwateronthefly.com/produc… #FlyfishingMontana #CutthroatTrout #RockyMountains #SummitPackRod #BackcountryFlyFishing #PheasantTail #HaresEar #WildTrout #PublicLands #MontanaLife