Nine days ago we posted, after getting pelted by friends and contacts with various emails and calls, a piece regarding the newest (albeit somewhat ill-conceived) attack on Montana Stream Access regs. The issue dealt with concerns being raised over James Cox Kennedy’s (a source of both angsty heartburn and at the same time significant mirth […]
Access and Public Lands
Friend of Chi Wulff Joe Moore, fly fishing wizard and guiding impresario from West Yellowstone, emailed over a gentle reminder we’d missed something last week over on the FOAM blog (Fishing Outfitters Association of Montana). We’d gotten wind of infamous landowner James Cox Kennedy’s (that’s not his image to the right, but an artist’s recreation […]
This month’s issue of Angling Trade popped while we were in our move induced blogging coma last week. They’ve titled it the ‘Opinion Issue’ and there are several thoughtful pieces offered, included one focusing on access issues – a topic near and dear to our collective hearts. From Public Access…Are You Fighting for It? You […]
Sounds like an interesting Madison River scoping meeting in West Yellowstone last night. Here are a couple of early reports from guys we know to understand the fish and fisheries games very well, have pretty level heads on their shoulders and can turn a phrase now and again. Well worth a gander when you have […]
There’s been a fair amount of chatter in the national and regional news as well as among fly fishers since the Supreme Count of the United States issued their ruling on the 22nd in the PPL Montana, LLC v. Montana case. From the SCOTUSblog’s ‘Opinion Analysis: Montana Dunked on Riverbeds’ yesterday (probably the best summary […]
Robin Cunningham of FOAM has posted a couple of nice summaries of the Madison River Recreation Management Planning Process recently held in Ennis and Bozeman. Scoping meetings are still on the calendar for West Yellowstone (28 February) and Whitehall (1 March). Montana’s Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ Madison River Management Plan page has the poop and […]
Wayne writing over at Will Fish for Work put up a very informative post last night about the latest skid steer produced gravel shuffling over on the Bitterroot around the Mitchell Slough neighborhood. He’d done a bit of metaphorical digging himself (well done, by the way), and while there’s no doubt a ‘rest of the […]
Late yesterday afternoon Montanan Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) announced the schedule of events related to the kickoff of the process in developing a Recreation Management Plan for the beloved Madison River. Since the announcement of this enterprise a few months ago, there’s been a fair amount of pub chatter and otherwise thoughtful discussion invested […]
I was born and raised and taught to fly fish in Utah. Now I live a mere 3.5 hours to the north of the Beehive State so perhaps its natural that I tend to have some part of my eyes and ears trained on the state. One way to follow the goings on to the […]
Dear Santa, Greetings to you and Mrs. Claus from the gang at Chi Wulff. We’re tickled pink that you want to set up another exchange of gifts from the North Pole for some river and fly fishing time in Montana again this year. Who knows what the winter’s snow season will bring, though the forecasts […]
The good guys (imagine big white horses, big white hats and handsome grins) continue to fight for river access back home even as the rest of the world seems to forget that Montana exists this time of year. Just for grins here are three updates (well, maybe two and a half) on river issues near […]
Great insight yesterday from friend Wayne Mumford of WillFishForWork, commenting on the Supreme Court hearing arguments in PPL Montana v Montana yesterday: I’m a little surprised to hear that the U of M professors chose to side with PPL on the extent of what constitutes a a useful channel of commerce. Any student of the […]
We warned you back on the 30th of October that this was coming down the pike. Several heavy hitters in the fly fishing news world – Midcurrent, The Drake (today in fact) and The Trout Underground to name a few – have joined a host of mainstream media outlets in reminding us that an issue […]
The issue of river and stream navigability, near and dear to the hearts of fly fishers in Montana and many other states (given its tie to how access is often defined), is about to be heard before the US Supreme Court (oral arguments 7 December). PPL Montana, part of the ginormous PPL energy cartel, has […]
A couple of weeks late on this one, but I wanted to give Fly Fisherman’s Ross Purnell some kudos for bringing attention to the stream access fight. Check out his article here in which he calls Utah a “battleground state.” Money quote: The decision was a time for rejoicing for Utah anglers, but it was short-lived. In […]
