Issue 45 Released

[Aaron Zagrodnick]

Issue 45 of TrailGroove Magazine is now available! Click the preceding link or the cover below to take a look:

In This Issue:

Jargon: Mud Season

Trail News

Trail Tip: Library Planning

Backpacking in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Dominguez Canyon Wilderness

REI Co-op Backpacker Gaiters Review

Gear Mash

Trail Quesadillas

Backpacking and Fly Fishing

106 pages dedicated to backpacking and hiking. Special thanks to all of our readers and contributors for your support and contributions towards the latest issue! If it's your first time viewing the magazine, we suggest starting on Page 1 for viewing tips and tricks. Prefer a different format or want to view the magazine offline? A PDF is also available individually or included with a Premium Membership. Your input is highly appreciated. Let us know what you thought about Issue 45 here on the TrailGroove Forum, or contact us anytime. Thanks for reading and keep an eye out for Issue 46, due out this spring.

[Steve Elder]

Nice new issue! Thanks! I resonated with Aaron's "big trip" concept. My "birthday epic," of at least a week in the wilderness in late July/early August, fuels me all year long from planning in the winter through memories in the fall. I'm scheming right now! 

One criticism of Sean's fly fishing for backpacking article. These days, it is incomplete (or worse) for an article on this topic not to at least mention Tenkara as an option. Tenkara equipment and know-how has been widely available in the US for 10 years, thanks to excellent companies like Tenkara USA and others. It has proven to be a simple, effective, and accessible approach for backcountry fly fishing, because that was what it was DESIGNED for by the Japanese.

I have no interest in any of these companies. As a long-time Colorado-based fisherman and trail lover, Tenkara transformed the way that I relate to the backcountry; others should be aware of that opportunity. 

[Aaron Zagrodnick]

Hey Steve and glad you liked the issue. Regarding the fly fishing article we did want to keep the focus on traditional fly fishing with that one, especially considering we've already done a deeper dive into Tenkara more specifically here: 

https://www.trailgroove.com/issue16.html?autoflip=89

and here:

https://www.trailgroove.com/issue9.html?autoflip=79

...with some future content possibly upcoming on the subject as well. With this most recent article we wanted to maintain the (traditional) fly fishing focus and not get into fishing methods in general, traditional vs. Tenkara, or go even further and get into spin etc. (perhaps in a future article or two or few, though!).

[Steve Elder]

Thanks for the response, Aaron. Makes sense and I had missed or forgotten that article in 16. I still think that with the wider adoption of Tenkara in the backcountry (and beyond) now, it's strongest to state up front in an article on backcountry fly fishing what you said in your message -- that THIS article is focused on what has become known as "Western-style" fly fishing. "If you want to know more about Tenkara, see Issue 16 and these other resources..."

[Aaron Zagrodnick]

Cross referencing is certainly an idea / possibility on articles like this for further reading if we have time to fit it in, have the space, and it fits the article. With this one the focus for us was really on an intro to fly fishing (whether we call that traditional / western / etc.) - so we kept our focus there - it was basically what our Issue 9 article was for Tenkara.

Maybe we’ll have more of an overview fishing article in the future that includes Fly Fishing / Tenkara / Spin etc...another Tenkara specific article...spin specific...all these different types of articles are always fun to work on - and hopefully just as fun to read!