Alone in the Absarokas

The deliberate, unglamorous, sometimes painful process of fishing, writing or building a business is the work.

Headed to the Yellowstone, Stillwater County, MT.

Alone in the Absarokas

Last week we had the opportunity to spend some time in Absarokee, MT on the Stillwater River with Lincoln and Judi Powers of the Montana Fly Fishing Lodge. Flowing out of the Absaroka Range to the west and the Beartooth Mountains to the east, this big, freestone river can often remind you what the west and fly fishing “used” to look and feel like: miles of clean, unobstructed water, afternoon hoppers and stoneflies and happy, free-rising fish.

The “what” that’s missing from this quieter part of the state–industrialized fly shops, artisanal breweries, $11 coffee and main streets lined with sprinter van bros taking selfies–happily reinforces a do-it-yourself work ethic, stubborn resistance to development and a stoic indifference to the racing world of technological efficiencies.

Yes, you might wait for seven minutes behind the rancher’s pickup at the only yellow light in town as he chats with neighbors, or watch a rafter of turkeys wander across the overgrown Absarokee Huskies’s football field, but you also can spend evenings hunting mouse-eating browns on Rosebud Creek without a soul around. Or if you’re tired of more fishing after an entire day of exploring and fishing, you can simply sit out back and stare at the yawning fields of stars.

Whatever you decide, no one will really care what you do, the size of the fish you put in the net, the brand of fly rod you line up, or the number of followers you have on social media. These are warm and generous people, but they also have ranches and land to maintain, animals to tend to, trucks to fix and boats and clients to run. Here, living, working and surviving is the something that you do, as long as it’s executed with humility and grace.

Work is Not Luck

Josh Homme–the legendary frontman for Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age, drummer for Eagles of Death Metal and the creative auteur behind the multi-year Desert Sessions musical collective–has always been fond of saying, “I don’t believe in luck, so you can have mine.” And I’m sure if he had to answer the question, “Then, what, exactly, do you believe in?” the response would simply be: good, old-fashioned work.

Homme grew up in the Palm Desert, California music scene (early 1990s), when there were no record executives hanging around next door, and making it required a single-minded artistic vision, ruthless work ethic and almost monastic self-reliance.

So, for decades, he’s written and toured relentlessly with his different bands and projects, disregarded critics and built an army of loyal followers. In the process, he’s also endured divorce and public custody battles, survived medical adversities (near-death experiences, cancer, surgeries), had his band (EODM) attacked by terrorists (the Bataclan Terrorist Attack), lost close friends (Mark Lanegan, Taylor Hawkins, Anthony Bourdain) and generally been beaten up by life, as most people are.

But despite all the challenges, he’s never been a “wallower” and ascribes his plodding, lifelong success to a stoic, “find your way through it” mindset. “No one knows the answer to most of the big questions that I’m comfortable with. ‘Why are we here?’ The temporary answer for me is, because you are, so get started. And it won’t be long. What do you want to do with the time you have left?”

For Homme, the concept of “luck” is simply a psychological shield (learned helplessness) for people unwilling to do the necessary, self-reflective work–either to diminish the effort of others or excuse their own failures. At some point, you have to take complete ownership of your life and decisions, and come to peace with both the good and ugly.

What does any of this have to do with fly fishing or running a fly shop? Well, if you’re the kind of individual who values iterative process over spreadsheet numbers (Looking for a Driveby) as it relates to learning a hyper-specific skill, like fly fishing, or running a business, just about everything. When you’re willing to do the painstaking, daily work, the concepts of “good” and “bad” luck become rendered nearly meaningless.

Iteration isn’t a one-off business tool to patch your broken marketing funnel once a quarter; it is the mechanism by which an organization or the angler is continuously adapting to a shifting environment.

Yes, someday as you float your favorite western river, you’ll be able to throw consistent, 60-foot casts just inches off the bank–but only after you battle through the wrong rods, wrong lines and the hundreds, maybe thousands, of tailing loops to get there. ¹

The deliberate, unglamorous, sometimes painful process of fishing, writing or building a business is the work. There aren’t any magic numbers.

The Primacy Effect

You only get one first chance. This is true in business, marketing, human interactions and even fly fishing. In psychology this is known as the primacy effect, or primacy bias, which states that the very first piece of information we encounter about a person or experience is what sticks and anchors in our brains (genetically, we are probably predisposed to bias the first information we encounter as a survival mechanism).

In fly fishing, this plays out when anglers are presenting flies to feeding, difficult-to-catch fish–your first cast will always be your best opportunity to get eaten, and every additional delivery will necessarily result in diminishing returns. Yes, there are techniques to improve your odds on additional attempts (the “live with it” kind of thinking from guides like the Missouri River’s Pete Cardinal), but in general, that first shot is the shot. ²

So, it’s often confounding why we spend so little time as an industry (media, fly shops, outfitters) investigating and analyzing the basic building blocks (skills, techniques and work) that might optimize that first chance, in lieu of more secondary concerns. Does the fly rod, fly line, leader set-up and fly selection matter to your on-water success? Of course, to varying degrees, but even more so are your casting ability (have you practiced?), physical fitness (strength and mobility), visual acuity (do you have the right glasses?), mental fortitude (do you wilt under pressure, i.e., “buck fever”?) and a dozen other mental and physical considerations.

Our social feeds are overflowing with the daily catastrophe of big fish grip & gins, but no one really wants to teach you how to consistently catch the very fish you’re fawning over. How do I know this is true? Because I was a guide, instructor, have spent a considerable amount of time on western rivers and have witnessed the baseline casting ability of most anglers–and it’s a five-alarm grease fire out there.

If we were smart we would emulate the $2 billion (U.S.) golfing instruction industry and prioritize fly casting technique and instruction, in the same way that golf has evolved its “instruction” footprint (shifting from an old-school, subjective “opinion and feel” model to a more scientific, data-driven and accessible ecosystem) over the past decade. ³

John Juracek, the noted fly casting instructor, likes to point out that ninety-eight percent of anglers have major fundamental flaws in their casting strokes. Even if this assessment is only half true, that’s still an eye-opening number of anglers walking around the water (rivers and saltwater flats) without the ability to execute a basic and meaningful fly cast. Imagine ninety-eight percent of the golfing public unable to swing a club.

I’m not suggesting the tiny, niche fly-fishing industry should mimic the golf vertical and start constructing (eyesore) “Topcast” venues–I’m simply highlighting the well-known physiological fact that the human brain is wired for learning, skill development and work, and the industry’s stakeholders should (earnestly) identify this trend as a growth opportunity and retention strategy.

New and old anglers want to learn, and our retail, teaching and outfitting instincts should reflect this fact. Happy, confident anglers will also have better experiences on the water, travel more and care about public access and resource conservation.

Whether we’re running fishing lodges, rowing boats, learning to cast or writing music–the impulse to learn and create is fundamental to our human experience. ⁴ And the more we evolve and learn, the more difficult it becomes to create output that isn’t hopelessly clichéd against the backdrop of our past efforts. ⁵ From that perspective, teaching, learning and iterating are not only smart ways to stay sharp and engaged in our expressive endeavors, they are more likely the essential daily sustenance of any serious craft.

What we should be hoping to grow and sustain is a community of thinkers and explorers rooted in lifelong learning–an epistemic mindset that values questions more than answers, process and journey more than one-fly awards and fish on the wall. All art–even fly fishing–is a work in progress. ⁶ There is no “perfect” cast; and even if there were, it would be the next one… – Andrew Steketee

East Rosebud Creek, Stillwater County, MT.

Montana Stream Access Rally

Yellow Dog Flyfishing is helping to defend your public fishing access in Montana. If you’re near Bozeman in mid-September, save the date and support public fishing access in the west. The Montana Stream Access Rally kicks off September 17, 2026 (5:30 - 8:30 p.m.) at the Emerson Center, West Lawn Bozeman, MT. Featured speakers, great food, live music and a cash bar. This should be a great evening with great people.

Why do events like this matter? Because on the public lands/river access battle front there are full-frontal assaults like the ones from elected officials in Utah, but there also are more insidious attempts from your basic backyard billionaires, guys like Paul Tudor Jones on Colorado’s Blue River, who buy up vast swaths of riverfront and adjacent land, position themselves as “environmental stewards” (through conservation org donations), then systematically challenge and impede the public’s right to access “their” water through land maneuvers and frivolous legal challenges. It wastes a lot of people’s time and money, and that’s their intention. All of these petty distractions and effort could be going to conservation. It’s really that simple.

Roadless Rule Review

As policymakers consider potential changes to the 2001 Roadless Rule, onX has released a new analysis and interactive map, providing context and critical information on the recreational opportunities in America’s inventoried roadless areas.

From onX, “The resource is designed to help journalists, stakeholders and the public better understand the recreational, access and land-management characteristics of these areas as the federal review process continues. When the public comment period opens on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on the Roadless Rule, this map could help the public reference specific locations and provide relevant data or expertise.” Bookmark the page, so you can add your comments.

Powered by onX Maps, TroutRoutes is a premium fly-fishing app that helps anglers find access points, map out future adventures, download offline maps and target specific fish species. Grab a one-month free trial of the PRO membership to check out the app (link says “PRO 7-day trial,” but it’s a month). It’s an awesome tool for your fly-fishing kit.

Find some untouched dry fly eaters off the beaten path.

Recent News

The public lands grift and assault rolls on…

• The Forest Service is being deftly gutted and potentially transferred to the states: Forest Service Chief Considering Giving States Control of National Forests. “For nearly 120 years, the Forest Service ran on a structure its first chief, Gifford Pinchot, designed for one purpose. Independence. Nine regional offices, drawn around forests and watersheds instead of political boundaries, staffed by career professionals who answered up through the agency instead of out to the nearest statehouse. That design was the wall between your forests and every governor, senator, and timber lobbyist who ever wanted a piece of them. Pinchot built it because he’d watched what happened to land when politics ran it.” This is one of the dumber ideas of 2026 in a year of endlessly dumb decision making. The administration also wants to reduce your legal right to weigh in on how national forests are managed. Submit your comments and tell them otherwise.

• Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard that the administration, along with Utah Senator Mike Lee and Utah Governor Spencer Cox, have stripped nearly three million acres from the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments. The plan has always been about extraction, money grubbing and now clearly an attempt to legally challenge the Antiquities Act. “What Utah’s leadership actually wants out of this is much bigger than any single [extractive] mill or seam, and they’ve said so out loud for anyone who cared to listen. The lawsuit Spencer Cox and the state filed against Biden’s restoration was never really about acreage. Utah’s goal is to get the Antiquities Act in front of this Supreme Court. That’s the prize Cox, Mike Lee, and decades of Utah anti-public lands fanatics have been chasing for years, steering a case toward the one venue where the law that guards every monument in the country might finally be broken, and on June 23 the Tenth Circuit handed them the opening, ruling two to one that a president’s monument designations can be hauled into court after all and sending the case back down to be reheard under that looser standard. Utah Attorney General Derek Brown called the decision a win for every Western state tired of watching the Antiquities Act treated like a blank check. Mike Lee, who’s spent his entire miserable career in Congress trying to gut that same law through legislation and losing every round, now gets to watch it happen through the courts instead.” Wes Siler also writes on the planned challenges to the Antiquities Act. It’s all pretty appalling, ruthlessly selfish by one state (Utah) and very un-American, unless you’re hoping to sell off the country’s public lands to extractive industries. It’s time to punish these people in the voting booth.

• Public lands (political) warfare from Re:Public: In deep-red Idaho and Wyoming, a new breed of single-issue political action committee is turning a bipartisan cause into primary-season firepower. “Idaho isn’t turning purple anytime soon, but [Alexis] Pickering, [a co-founder of the PAC for Public Lands], and other activists have noticed that protection of public lands is an issue that can draw support from both sides of the aisle. In March, the state legislature adopted Joint Memorial 111, a symbolic measure that calls on Idaho’s congressional delegation in Washington, D.C., to always bear in mind that ‘selling or transferring [public] lands would not only jeopardize access and tradition, but also place unsustainable and unpredictable financial burdens on states, local governments, and Idaho taxpayers.’ In Wyoming, a similar joint resolution passed easily during the 2026 session, asking Congress to place a priority on public lands protection and saying that ‘disposal of lands should not occur without meaningful input from state and local governments and affected communities.’”

• New Mexico river access conflicts from Outdoor Life: New Mexico Landowner Arrested on Felony Charges for Threatening Fishermen at Gunpoint. “On June 1, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez announced the arrest of Erik Briones, who was charged with five counts of aggravated assault for allegedly threatening multiple fishermen while holding a firearm. These charges came just a few weeks after a judge held Briones in contempt for violating a 2025 court order requiring him and other landowners to remove barbed wire fencing and other illegal barriers from along the Pecos River.” It’s probably a smart idea for anglers to have geo-mapping apps (TroutRoutes, onWater) on their phones, so they have clear knowledge of public/private property boundaries and can be informed stewards for public access.

• The American Prairie Reserve: “The boldest idea in American conservation” and the scheme to destroy it. “The goal is a single connected reserve of 3.2 million acres in north central Montana, which would be the largest nature reserve in the lower 48 states, larger than Yellowstone and Grand Teton combined. Not a fenced zoo. A living, breathing, fully functioning prairie ecosystem with its native species restored and room enough for them to actually behave like themselves. And here’s the part that should disarm even the skeptics. They’re building it the most American way imaginable. By buying ranches, one at a time, from willing sellers, on the open market, and stitching that private land together with the surrounding public land into one continuous whole. No eminent domain. No federal land grab. No one forced off anything. A check, a handshake, and a deed. American Prairie now stewards more than 600,000 acres of deeded and leased land in north central Montana, a land base that would rank it among the top ten largest national parks in the lower 48. And it keeps growing.” AP is a smart idea, and we need more of them.

• The Salmonfly Project: Bug Fest 2026. A fly angler’s entomology education event, hosted by The Salmonfly Project at Three Dollar Bridge, Madison River, MT Jul 25, 2026. “Awareness of aquatic insect hatches, identification, and ecology has declined as modern fly fishing trends shift away from ‘matching the hatch.’ At the same time, aquatic insects across the Rocky Mountain West are in measurable decline–threatening the trout populations, fisheries, and economies that depend on them. Bug Fest is designed to address this issue by reconnecting the angling public with the foundation of our sport–the bugs. In this hands-on event, participants will learn from professional entomologists from The Salmonfly Project about the aquatic insects that sustain the world-class Madison River. Learning will focus on basic insect identification and on the differences in life stages and behaviors among major hatches. Ultimately, the event aims to help participants to become better anglers and stewards of their local waters.”

• From Field Mag: Why Snow Peak Made the PNW Its Base Camp in North America. “The roots of Snow Peak’s Pacific Northwest presence go back to the 1990s, when Tohru Yamai, Snow Peak chairman, CEO, and son of founder Yukio Yamai, moved to Portland to expand into the US market in 1999. ‘He’s an avid fly fisherman and Oregon has some really great fly fishing. [He] opened up over here and just fell in love with the naturescape,’ said [Noah] Reis (senior managing director of Snow Peak’s Western hemisphere operations). ‘The scenery, the fly fishing. Temperate zones, climate-wise, it’s very similar to Japan. So, I think a lot of those components make Oregon kind of a natural, original landing spot for us.’”

• Record western heat last week: Parts of Montana were almost as hot as Death Valley on Sunday. “A high temperature of 115 degrees in July would be normal in Death Valley, California. But not in Glendive and Miles City in eastern Montana. It reached 115 degrees in both of those places on Sunday, breaking their all-time records. This remarkable heat came up just short of the 117 degrees reached in Death Valley, the U.S. national high temperature for the day. Temperatures also soared to 111 degrees in Billings, Montana; 110 degrees in Worland, Wyoming; and 109 degrees in Salt Lake City–new all-time records.” We’ve been doing this drive for 30+ years–Livingston to Colorado–and it’s hard to articulate how face-meltingly hot it was. What can we do? Start getting educated and engaged. Learn more about The Miracles of the Clean Energy Revolution (and real climate science) with Bill McKibben, the founder of the climate action groups 350.org and Third Act. Despite the U.S.’s feet dragging on green energy and finding ways to address the warming planet, the rest of the world is moving on and accepting the challenge (with shocking speed).

• From Dan Coe at The Brand Report: Your Brand Doesn’t Have a Reach Problem. It Has a Frequency Problem. “Americans are taking 5 percent fewer outings per year than they did in 2019, and average outings are well below where they were in 2012. The base keeps widening; the behavior keeps thinning. In 2024, core participants–the people who go out often–jumped by 5 million, and it looked like the trend might break. In 2025 it reverted: core participants fell by 3.9 million, back onto a decade-long slide. Net growth in total participants slowed to 1.1 percent, down from a 2.9 percent average over the prior three years. OIA’s director of research, Kelly Davis, named the thing the curve implies: after 30 million new arrivals since 2019, the industry may be approaching saturation, and the job now is retention.”

• DUN Magazine (women’s fly fishing) is becoming DUN Outdoors. From The Fishing Wire: “‘DUN Outdoors isn’t about leaving fly fishing behind,’ said Jen Ripple, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of DUN Outdoors. ‘It’s about recognizing that women don’t live their outdoor lives one passion at a time. We hunt. We hike. We paddle. We camp with our kids. We travel. We garden. We build lives outdoors. For years I’ve watched women searching for one place that reflects all of those passions instead of asking them to fit inside one category. Every woman has an outdoor story. DUN Outdoors exists to help tell it.’”

• Mayfly Outdoors media news: Renzetti, the premium fly-tying vise manufacturer, has moved its manufacturing operations from Titusville, FL to Mayfly Outdoors’ campus in Montrose, CO. “We hadn’t originally planned on moving Renzetti’s production to Colorado, but a close look at the full operation made it clear as we are seeing increasing costs to aluminum, electrical, and running multiple facilities. Additionally, having Renzetti’s machines alongside our engineering, quality, and anodizing teams in Montrose, plus the benefit of enhanced Swiss machining for Ross and Abel, made a compelling case,” said Jeff Wagner, CEO of Mayfly Outdoors.

Fly-fishing Media

Gary Gillett on the demise of outdoor content creators: What Went Wrong. “There is a genre of fishing content on Instagram that has perfected the golden hour. You know it when you see it. Drone footage. A dog on the bow of a skiff. Redfish that are always copper. Light that is always amber and backlit and the water is always shin-deep and the whole production is so beautiful it makes you want to throw your phone into the Indian River, which would be fitting, because the Indian River is filthy and so is your screen time report. These accounts run a hundred thousand followers or better. The dog never moves. The fish are always lit like they’re auditioning for a Patagonia catalog. Every frame looks like a beer commercial directed by Terrence Malick. And somewhere behind the camera is a guy who has figured out that the fastest route between a fly rod and a following is to make loneliness look expensive.”

What went wrong

• From Todd Tanner: What I learned at the School of Trout. “The fly pattern you’re using at the moment is rarely responsible for either your successes or your failures. I know that goes against the prevailing wisdom you’ll hear espoused in fly shops or whispered on the banks of our finest rivers. But it’s true nonetheless. And it doesn’t matter how many guides or fellow anglers you’ve heard make those claims. As long as your fly is a solid choice for the conditions, and unless you can rule out all the other variables first–the fish, the water, your approach, your casting, your mending, your presentation, etc.–you can be reasonably certain that your fly is not holding you back.” It’s probably your casting, your approach and the Turtlebox blasting in your drift boat…

• From Andrew Luter: Go Play Hooky. “The irony is that success can pull you indoors. The more the operation grows, the more it needs from you, and the easier it is to let the thing that started all of this quietly fall away. Don’t let that happen. The founder who fishes is a better investor in fishing companies. The entrepreneur who rides trails understands trail culture in a way no market research can replicate. The skiing CEO shows up to the buyer meeting with something you can’t fake–they can tell you actually live this life. That’s your edge. Protect it.”

• Your hands from Lindsay Kocka: The Most Neglected Tool in Fly Fishing. “Perhaps the biggest mistake is believing this conversation belongs only to ‘older’ anglers. In reality, hand health is a lifetime practice. The choices we make in our thirties and forties often shape how comfortably we fish in our sixties and seventies. In an ideal world, longevity isn’t something we begin addressing only once decline arrives. It’s something we should be intentional and proactive about regardless of age. As someone who experienced hand dysfunction in my early twenties while working as a full-time bike messenger, followed by hand dysfunction again in my early thirties during a season of obsessive rock climbing, to again experiencing hand dysfunction in my late thirties due to a neurodegenerative condition, I can loudly attest to the importance of hand health.”

• Hunter Leavine on what Homosassa taught him about memories, change and arriving too late: “Like any legendary place, Homosassa carries the burden of its own reputation. Some of those who used to give it praise have resorted to a kind of shit talking usually reserved for exes. What was loved ‘at its best’ gets reframed to something else. In their stories, the numbers were unmatched. The fish were enormous. The schools were endless. The whole place seemed to demand recognition as something more than a fishery. It was an era, a proving ground, a kingdom of guides, writers, anglers, and unimaginable fish. I do not doubt their stories. I do question the conclusion people sometimes draw from them: that because Homosassa is no longer what they remember it to be, it should not be celebrated for what it is today.”

• From Skwala: “Jorge Ariel Angulo Tut grew up on a small farm in rural Mexico. At 17, he stepped onto a boat bound for a remote fly fishing lodge–he’d never seen the ocean, couldn’t swim and had never heard of fly fishing. Twenty-five years later, he owns and operates Blacksmith Lodge, one of the most successful fly-fishing operations in Mexico.”

Sunglasses for Photographers

While on location at Montana Fly Fishing Lodge last week, we discovered another surprisingly specific use case for Ombraz sunglasses: photography.

From founder Tim Romano: “For most of my professional photo career, sunglasses have been a small but dependable nuisance. I’d push them onto my head to look through the viewfinder, leave them sitting somewhere dumb, or rip one side loose from the Croakies while moving too quickly between shots. Ombraz solves the problem by simply not having arms. They hang around your neck when you’re shooting, then go right back on when you’re done. No balancing act. No abandoned sunglasses. No one-sided eyewear incident while trying to look professional. They may, in fact, be the perfect sunglasses for photographers.”

Armless is the only way to go for Romano.

Gear Buzz

On the road last week in Livingston, MT, we had a chance to visit with Colleen Tuohy of WYATT OUTDOORS in her new retail location recently opened downtown (110 W Callender St, Livingston MT). It’s a classic, old-school space, thoughtfully designed to reflect the west, adventurous, fly-fishing women and what she describes as a “cowgirl spirit.” Her signature piece is the WYATT shirt, designed with a UPF 50+, moisture-wicking and quick-drying fabric that is supposed to “take you from first light to last call.” She’s happy to be building a small, thoughtful brand that is thinking about style, functionality and the people who will eventually wear her clothes. She’s also tinkering with the idea of men’s shirts soon. “I built the shirt I was always looking for–something made for women who love the outdoors. Pieces that take us from sun to stars, last for years and proudly made in America.”

The original WYATT shirt from Livingston, MT.

• We’ve been testing some self-draining wading socks this summer in the rivers and heat–old school, non-draining wading socks have (thankfully) been replaced with more functional and usable product offerings (too much water, debris and smell). Enter the Skwala Backeddy Wet Wading Sock ($59, 3mm) and the Korkers I-Drain Neoprene Guard Socks ($45, 3.5mm), which both do a great job of draining high-quality, knee or ankle neoprene, and provide way more comfort and functional mobility (think about jumping in your truck and driving to the next spot with 12 ounces in your boots). The Skwala socks, which cost a bit more, are more durable and ergonomically shaped than the I-Drain, but they both are well conceived and designed. Nice offerings from both brands.

• Skwala also has launched the Sol Breeze Shirt, their first-ever button-down fishing shirt and newest addition to the Sol Collection of warm-weather technical apparel. “At its core is the Dot Air microporous fabric–the same ultralight, quick-drying, air-permeable textile used in Skwala’s best-selling Sol Wading Pant, but redesigned into a 40+ UPF button-down shirt that’s so light and breathable, you barely know you’re wearing it. ‘The Sol Breeze was devised out of a real gap we kept hearing about,’ said Kevin Sloan, Skwala Founder and CEO. ‘Anglers wanted sun protection but didn’t always want to pull a hoodie over their head. The button-down format changes that–it still fishes great, and it looks sharp doing it.’”

• From Field Mag: The Twelve Best Sun Shirts and UPF Hoodies for Keeping Cool and UV Protected. “For some, it might seem counterintuitive to wear a long sleeve shirt or hoodie in high temps, but with the right fabric, walking around in your own cooling shade will convert even the most diehard ‘suns out, buns out’ devotee. Trust us–we run, hike, bike, and fish in sun shirts anytime the sun is out and temperatures are rising. That’s also how we tested a whole slew of sun shirts and sun hoodies to find the ones we’ll continue to wear for years to come.” The most comfortable sun shirt: Free Fly Bamboo Hybrid Hoodie ($78).

• Another product roll-up from Field Mag and Danielle Vilaplana: The Nine Best Men’s Hiking Sandals of 2026. “Whether you have flat-feet or ballerina arches, whether you’re hitting the trail for a day hike or a backpacking trip or spending a day in the water, I have found you the best hiking sandals to let you rock the deep strappy tan lines that indicates a summer well-lived. In this guide, I’ll dive into the nitty gritty up front then get to our top picks, selected from experience and many miles hiked in lightweight open toe sandals.”

• St. Croix is coming out with a new line of spey rods this fall: five rods ranging from a 12-foot 1-inch 5-weight to a 12-foot 8-inch 8-weight, built to handle “summer-run half-pounders to winter-run fish on the PNW coast.” From the in-house tech deck: “Fortified Resin System (FRS) technology combines a fortified super resin with computer-operated curing ovens delivering precise temperature and time management throughout all stages of blank curing. FRS prevents microbuckling, keeping carbon fibers in alignment and resulting in blanks tested to be 33% stronger than those built with standard resins and curing methods.” That’s a mouthful and, hopefully, means the rods are durable at nearly $1,000.

Boating News from SCS

Earlier this week, Small Craft Sales hauled a newly acquired but decidedly oldish Grand Canyon dory, the Canyon Wren, to Moab for some long-overdue attention from the women at Big Drop Boatworks. After a smoky night in the Colorado high country and a little after-dark fishing, I hightailed it across Utah in brutal heat, with the boat riding behind me like an aging passenger headed to a highly specialized spa. This is the start of a new series following the Big Drop crew as they peel back the years, modernize a few things and return the Canyon Wren to something resembling her late-’80s and ’90s glory.

• Anyone who rows, paddles, fishes, or has ever dragged a boat through a skinny late-summer channel knows the West has a water problem. This short film below from The Freshwater Trust is a very educational look at the history behind how we got here: a century-plus of moving water around the landscape, reshaping rivers and building systems that are now showing their age. It’s worth a watch.

• We probably covered this sobering reality many years ago (1993) in Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water by Marc Reisner, but here’s the story (again) from Re:Public and an interview with Taylor Hawes, a special policy advisor for the Nature Conservancy’s Colorado River Program: The Colorado River Math Problem. “[T]he problem is that we have 20th-century governance and promises for a 21st-century challenge. The Colorado River Compact at the time it was written was a really important document. It promoted peace on the river by allocating it in a way that felt fair. The intentions were good, but it created a sense of entitlement, a promise that every state is supposed to get a certain amount of water. And yet, because of the first two factors I mentioned, especially the climate change–driven drought piece, the water isn’t there. This is what we call the math problem: it describes what was allocated, with the Upper Basin and Lower Basin receiving 7.5 million acre feet plus an extra million acre feet to Arizona from their tributaries, and 1.5 million acre feet for Mexico. If you add all that up, it’s 17.5 million acre feet. However, the river in the last 20 years has been averaging less than 12.5 million acre feet. People were promised something that is no longer there, and yet no state wants to give up that promise.”

Fly-fishing Jobs

Royal Wolf Lodge: Fly-out Fly-fishing Guide (Katmai National Park, AK). Royal Wolf Lodge is looking for an Alaska fly-fishing guide at a premier remote fly-out lodge with a strong desire to work for “faith based” owners/operators. Monthly salary based upon experience, plus additional weekly gratuities. Must have the following criteria: strong fly-fishing skills, pass a drug test, ability to work in remote locations for four months (June - September), energetic personality, positive attitude, experience running an outboard and-or raft/drift boat, six-pack (Captain’s) license preferred (or willing to get one), no heavy alcohol use, Alaska experience preferred, but not necessary.

Head to flyfishingjobs.com to search for more listings.

Music

In a summer of fires, drought and land grab doom and gloom, the new song Easy Street from Josh Homme and the Queens of the Stone Age should put everyone in a better mood. From Pitchfork, “‘It’s kind of a funny song,’ Homme said in a press statement. ‘It’s like hitting your funny bone, where it’s funny because it hurts and it hurts because it’s funny. You’re serious, but it’s funny. We made it the way you’d make a demo. No click track, mistakes left in. It speeds up, it slows down, the claps aren’t great, but they’re not bad, and a bad clap adds this human thing you can’t fake.’” In a world flooded with the 24/7 banality of online poseurs and influencers, I find it hard to believe anyone ever accused QOTSA of being fake or not caring about every song they’ve written. – Andrew Steketee

1. I think it was J.J. Watt, 3-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year, or his self-help guru, who said: success isn’t something you own; it’s leased, and the rent is due every day. Jack Torrance agrees: “Words of wisdom, Lloyd. Words of wisdom.”

2. Castwork: Pete Cardinal excerpted from Castwork: Reflections of Fly Fishing Guides and the American West. 2002.

3. The North America golf instruction services market is valued at approximately $2.02 billion (Dataintelo Consulting). There are also over 80,000 golf instructors and coaching businesses in the U.S., operating at public courses, country clubs and indoor simulator facilities (IBISWorld).

4. Josh Homme: “Play for yourself, because if you expect too much from music, if you expect anything from music, you expect too much.” The Basis Point, 2017.

5. Josh Homme: If writing feels harder now than it used to, that isn’t a sign of failure–it is a sign of growth. You are forcing yourself not to copy your past self. “I have to keep going forward, and that gets more treacherous–standing on that pile [of old work] gets more difficult now.” Tone Deaf, 2021.

6. A core philosophy from Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act: A Way of Being.