fishing | The Filson Journal

Dispatches from the North: Kotzebue Sound Salmon

Will Kutscher — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 21:29:09 +0000

"Fish are hitting already, splashing. Seals surface nearby. Andrew whoops, “Rich!” and roars down-current to find a spot. I wring my sopping gray gloves, curl stiff cold fingers around the lines, and start pulling in salmon.”

Seth Kantner has fished commercially in Alaska for 49 seasons. He’s also a best-selling author, wildlife photographer, and wilderness guide. During changing seasons in the arctic, we’re excited to have Seth writing for us about his life in Alaskan Arctic and on Kotzebue Sound. Read the first of the series exclusively on The Filson Journal.

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How to Make a Pole Spear

Will Kutscher — Thu, 16 Jun 2022 16:00:14 +0000

Just under the surface of the frigid ocean is a bounty of saltwater fish to be foraged. Many an outdoors person would agree that, in a survival scenario, the ocean can often be a far more productive source of food than the land, especially the cold, nutrient-rich waters that circulate around our shores. But how to pursue these fish? Here, we’ll show you how to build a pole-spear, a time-tested, simple tool that is incredibly effective for putting fish on your dinner plate.

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Casting Comedy and Conservation: Eeland Stribling

Will Kutscher — Fri, 29 Apr 2022 18:37:00 +0000

For fisherman, outdoorsman, and comedian Eeland Stribing, comedy and fishing are very similar. Creating a joke and making a cast both take thoughtful preparation, the perfect setup, and impeccable timing to land the hook.

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Revival of a Trout Hatchery

Angela Becia — Tue, 05 Apr 2022 15:29:39 +0000

Cold water creeks and rivers course through Appalachia like veins and arteries. Over the eons, their breadth and depth have carved through earth and stone to spread life across this mountain chain. Forests of rhododendron, maple, and dogwood trees line their banks, along with healthy carpets of lush ferns. Beneath the surface of these streams hovers of trout swim year-round, and whenever Ty Walker of Smoke in Chimneys wades into the water and casts his fly, he now holds the trout in higher esteem than ever.

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Chloe Ivanoff: finding her sea legs

Angela Becia — Thu, 13 Jan 2022 17:31:32 +0000

Shortly after Ivanoff began working seasonal jobs in geology, she started to feel she’d missed an important rite of passage by not having spent a summer living and working aboard the New Dawn. She decided to train for it by joining her father’s crew for the annual sea cucumber harvest, typically done in October. The excursions were short, just 3-5 days at a time, and took place in calm bays, which helped Ivanoff build her confidence aboard the New Dawn.

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Hunt Gather Talk Podcast | Season 3

Angela Becia — Wed, 12 Jan 2022 23:52:43 +0000

Renowned wild game chef, Hank Shaw, has spent a lifetime gathering wild edible plants, hunting, and fishing the land and waters of North America. This season of 'Hunt Gather Talk' dives deep into, fish and seafood.

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DIY Wooden Landing Net

Angela Becia — Thu, 22 Jul 2021 00:31:22 +0000

A wooden landing net is not only one of the angler’s best tools to ensure the swift catch—and, where necessary, release—of a fish, but also a durable part of the kit that can be passed down from generation to generation.

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Halibut Hooks of the Northwest Coast

Angela Becia — Wed, 21 Jul 2021 16:00:44 +0000

Traditionally, a náxw, or “halibut hook” in the Lingít language, was carved out of two pieces of wood attached with cordage (natural fiber) to form a V-shaped hook. A piece of bone (later metal) would also be wrapped to the bottom piece of wood and angled towards the inside to create the barb. The upper piece of wood might be plain or carved, with a fishing line attached. The line would run to the surface, where it would be affixed to a wooden float or inflated buoy made of seal stomach, while the fishhook could be weighted at the bottom with a simple stone sinker. The finished assembly was designed to keep the hook near the ocean bottom, where large halibut feed.

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Chuck Ragan: The Flow

Will Kutscher — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 18:40:43 +0000

Music would still be his mistress but being outdoors on the water was his true love. His business, Chuck Ragan Fly Fishing, introduces others to the haunts he knows so well near his home. As he ties flies for clients and they swap tales as all anglers do, he knows that he has found his home, his place in the cosmos. It’s next to the ever-flowing water.

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The punk rockers of fly fishing – angling on the LA River

Angela Becia — Mon, 29 Mar 2021 20:01:11 +0000

Few Angelinos are aware that prior to the 1930s, the LA River was home to native rainbow trout and seasonal runs of steelhead and Chinook salmon. The Los Angeles River was, in fact, a trout stream. Then, in 1938, the Army Corps of Engineers began a nearly 20-year process of channelizing the river, encasing its banks in concrete in an effort to control flooding. Today, the concrete canyon of the LA River is not the idyllic, catalog-ready backdrop that comes to mind when most people think of fly fishing. When the water is low, it makes a great location for Hollywood car chase scenes, but it’s not a typical destination for the average fly angler. Luckily, the community of misfit fisher-folk who call the LA River their home waters is anything but average.

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