Not a lot of surprises: most of the great lodges here cost well over $4,000 per week, not including air fare. Then again, we can name a handful of do-it-yourself expeditions that would cost as much or more and not provide the level of service that places like Bristol Bay Lodge and the Firehole Ranch do. “The [Firehole] lodge does the little things right: Everybody, from the guides to the chambermaids, knows your name from the moment you arrive.” Chambermaids? Really?

Fly fishing Utah: Somewhere in the Rocky Mountain backcountry, rafting and throwing dries for healthy freestone browns.

Produced by Ian Provo

Anglers Seda Witten and Judith O’Keefe run rapids and throw dry flies for cutthroat trout on Idaho’s Salmon River.

Produced by Simms Fishing Products

Catch Magazine: Issue 11

Featuring “Snookzilla” video by Todd Moen, Bavaria photo essay by Thomas Wolfle, golden mahseer by David McCoy, and a “Moving Water” photo essay by Brian O’Keefe.

This Is Fly: Volume 2 Issue 1

Ryan Hammond on a Zambezi River trip, Los Roques bonefish with Paris Fleezanis, Great Lakes steelhead with Tim Miller, and an interview with AEG media–all on a new platform.

• Commercial fishing coastal towns in danger: San Francisco Chronicle
• Venice, LA fisherman help with clean up: New York Times
• Environmental disaster for Gulf Coast wildlife: Wall Street Journal
• Louisiana’s $2.5-billion commercial fishing industry in peril: Los Angeles Times

This past Sunday anglers from as far away as Montana gathered at Gates Au Sable Lodge in Grayling, Michigan to celebrate the life of Rusty Gates. Gates, who lost his battle with lung cancer in December at the age of 54, had been the voice of the Au Sable River for more than 30 years.

For those who were fortunate enough to have met “the Gator,” as he was called by those close to him, it is impossible to look at the Au Sable without feeling Rusty’s presence. Even after his passing, Rusty continues to inspire others to stand up for the river he loved so dearly. His spirit and tenacity had an affect on everyone involved in environmental causes, from hikers and hunters, to the many who came to northern Michigan to fish the Au Sable and its neighboring streams.

Dave Smethurst of Gaylord, 66, said, “Rusty was a teenager when I met him, and he’s been a friend ever since. When I was the state Trout Unlimited chairman, Rusty usually was the source for getting information we needed to fight the excesses of the oil companies in the Pigeon River Forest. He understood the scientific and legal issues as well as the scientists and lawyers.”

Gates, who was named Fly Rod & Reel’s “Angler of the Year” in 1995, founded the Anglers of the Au Sable in 1987. Through Rusty’s leadership and ability to rally those around him, the Anglers of the Au Sable were able to win numerous battles in the name of the river, including: Catch and Release on the Holy Waters, National Guard noise pollution on the North Branch, Oil exploration along the South Branch, and toxic chemicals on the main stream.

“A tap on the shoulder, a glance, and a short conversation. That was usually all it took. We set to our tasks with a brio, partly for the cause, partly not to let him down.”

TV adventurer, British biologist, and fisherman Jeremy Wade of River Monsters talks about his 25-year career chasing down rare and fearsome freshwater creatures, the allure of bizarre species, and his most elusive quarry:

“…I would like to revisit some of the species I have caught — including the alligator gar and Amazonian piraiba catfish — and catch the bigger ones that I know are there. Also I’ve heard a lot of stories now about monster-sized catfish in US waters, scaring divers out of the water and the like, and it would be interesting to get to the bottom of these.” Interview by Yang-Yi Goh of Men’s Journal.

Tim Romano, photo editor for The Flyfish Journal and contributer to MidCurrent, interviews fly fishing videographers Ben Knight and Travis Rummel of Felt Soul Media about years of collaboration, river guiding, and their new film Eastern Rises.

Ben Knight on his most memorable fishing trip: “Russia. It was brutal. I’ve never been so miserable in my life. Trying to film with thick swarms of insects drawing blood from any exposed skin they could find… It may be the last fishing film for me. Sure, maybe I’m just a pansy, and not a true fisherman. That’s fine, I can take it.”

• Great Lakes’ Asian carp and water rights: CNN
• California’s costly trout recovery: AP
• Gulf of Mexico oil spill threatens fishery: The Wall Street Journal
• Salmon returning to the West Coast? Los Angeles Times
• Saving endangered fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta: San Francisco Chronicle