
El Pescador, one of my favorite tarpon lodges since it opened – over 40 some years ago. Image of the lodge dock.
Doing the next right thing in Belize. Gillnets Prohibited
Belize Press Office / Belmopan / November 6, 2020
In a demonstration of commitment to maintain a vibrant and sustainable fishery sector, Dr. Hon. Omar Figueroa, Minister of Fisheries, Forestry, the Environment and Sustainable Development, has signed into law Statutory Instrument No. 158 of 2020 titled Fisheries Resources (Gill net prohibition) Regulations, 2020, banning the use and possession of gill nets in the marine waters of Belize. The area covered by the ban includes all the sea under the jurisdiction of Belize.”
Check out the full press release Banning Gill Nets from Marine Waters in Belize here.

Colorado River cutthroat trout like this one didn’t take long to use a fishway on Poose creek in Colorado. Brian Hodge/Trout Unlimited. Brian Hodge is the Northwest Colorado Director for Trout Unlimited’s Western Water and Habitat program.
Habitat connectivity helps trout take care of themselves
In our work at Trout Unlimited, we often rely on scientific theory to plan and implement conservation projects. In some instances, we also test hypotheses by monitoring projects and comparing predictions with outcomes, and in doing so contribute towards the broader body of scientific theory.
For TU and our local agency partners, the Poose Creek Project in Colorado served as an opportunity to test, validate and perhaps even contribute toward a framework of knowledge around fish passage and habitat connectivity.
2021 Official Show Schedule Update – Fly Fishing Show
Atlanta, Pleasanton, Lancaster Still on Track
DENVER FLY FISHING SHOW CONFIRMS APRIL 30-MAY 2;
MARLBOROUGH, EDISON DATES POSTPONED UNTIL 2022
The ongoing medical battle with COVID-19 mixed with local and state show attendance regulations, including numbers of attendees allowed, has severely impacted the fly fishing industry with dramatic changes for the 2021 Fly Fishing Show, announced President and CEO Ben Furimsky.
“After seemingly endless negotiations with show sites, hotels, and government health agencies, the Fly Fishing Show reluctantly makes the following changes to the 2021 slate:
Denver – Originally scheduled for Jan. 8, 9 and 10 will now be held April 30-May 2 in its usual location at the Denver Mart, 451 E. 58th Ave. “The April 30-May 2 Denver dates were the best options we could coordinate between exhibitors, facilities and government entities. We are hopeful for a safe and successful spring event in Denver.”

Despite soaring outdoor recreation use levels, discussion of impacts has often been downplayed, denied or deflected by almost everyone, including users, commercial tourism operators, conservation organizations and government agencies that are supposed to be managing for resource protection. After a year like this when public lands and waterways were overwhelmed and all government agencies could do was engage in triage and try to minimize the damage, will discussions of limiting use to protect resources and maintain quality experiences finally start to happen? The answer clearly is not to simply build larger parking lots at boat put-ins and take-outs. Photo courtesy Kirk Deeter/Angling Trade magazine
An Influential Voice In US Fly Fishing Decries ‘Rivergeddon 2020’

Kirk Deeter is the editor of TROUT magazine published by Trout Unlimited. He is also an editor-at-large for Field & Stream, and the editor-in-chief of Angling Trade. A lifelong angler and writer, he has produced award-winning stories from the tip of Tierra del Fuego in Argentina, to north of the Arctic Circle in Russia. He lives in Colorado and has been a regular visitor to Greater Yellowstone.
By Kirk Deeter / Mountain Journal / October 20, 2020
Like Yogi Berra used to say, “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”
And it’s not just fishing pressure. It’s bottles, cans, and other litter… trampled banks… abused facilities, and so on.

And he’s not quite done with us.
Trump has rolled back more than 125 environmental safeguards. Here’s how:
The administration has allowed more pollution, drilling and logging while weakening protections for animals such as bees, bears, birds, salmon, and more
By Juliet Eilperin, Brady Dennis and John Muyskens / The Washington Post / October 30, 2020
President Trump has spent the run-up to next week’s election touting himself as the finest steward of the nation’s air and water in generations. “Who would have thought,” he boasted during one stop in Florida, “Trump is the great environmentalist?”
But over the course of nearly four years, his administration has steadily loosened oversight of polluting industries, eroded protections for endangered wildlife and stymied Obama-era efforts to address the globe’s most daunting environmental threat: climate change.
A Washington Post analysis has found that as Trump’s first term winds to a close, he has weakened or wiped out more than 125 rules and policies aimed at protecting the nation’s air, water and land, with 40 more rollbacks underway.
The administration has accelerated its push to deregulate in the weeks before the election, to ease requirements on power plants that leak waste into waterways, weaken efficiency standards for dishwashers, scale back oversight of mine safety and approve seismic drilling in an Alaska wildlife refuge.