By Mia Sheppard

Growing up as a kid I have found memories of catching fish with my family.  I still visualize clear river bottoms, playing on the shoreline and watching the wiggle of a fish on my line. Those memories kept me going back to rivers and eventually  I started fly fishing. There was a lot to learn about a fly-rod such as, what weight rod and line to use,  how to cast, tye on a fly and where to go, it was intimidating but achievable and something new to learn.

 My first introduction, I borrowed a rod from a friend and he showed me how to tie on a fly and the basic casting stoke of stopping the rod tip at 10 and 2 o’clock, an hour later  I was on the river fishing.

Fly fishing is simple and fun, this is how to simplify.  Start with a singlehand rod...

By: Julie McQueen, co-host of Brotherhood Outdoors on Sportsman Channel.

There is a saying I enjoy that goes like this…

“You are the average of the 5 people with whom you spend the most time.”

In a world where so many young people are striving to become relevant and we are overwhelmed with misinformation on the Internet, I’m proud to work in an industry where I can easily surround myself with like-minded peers. Specifically the women and young ladies who have bravely made the conscious decision to work in the hunting and fishing industries.

Many young girls get their start in hunting from their Fathers or Grandfathers, which may just be a core reason why they have high standards and a good grip on life...

By Land Tawney

The sky was blue, sun was hot, and water was clear.  I could see the rainbow colored Rapala lure working to perfection five feet below the surface of the water and then it happen.  A big juicy trout gave chase and in an instant attacked with veracity.  The line went taught and the fight began, the mighty fish was played to perfection, reeled to the dock and deftly guided into the net.  Cidney had caught her first fish!  When I asked her if she wanted to “keep it or put it back,” she exclaimed beaming with pride, “eat it Dad!” 

Colin and Cidney with a big Montana fish

As a young kid, I remember yearly, week long sojourns to the Bighole River in southwest Montana, timed to perfection at the peak of the salmon fly hatch...

By Rachel Dawson

Recently, there has been an inspiring groundswell of public dialog on women:  our pasts, our modern experiences and our futures.  Like many, I’ve been drawn to this narrative.  Via social media, we are connecting on a global scale unheard of less than two decades ago.  On Twitter, while perusing the burgeoning #YesAllWomen hashtag, I stumbled across a post by a young woman who implored her peers to stop calling her a “female engineer.”  “I’m just an engineer,” she said.  I was struck by the simplicity and poignancy of it.  Indeed, in many male-dominated professions, interests and communities, there is a tendency to label a woman’s participation as atypical, a GIRL-fill-in-the-blank.  This got me thinking about my life as a “sportswoman.”

I was raised to h...

Britt Lamotte

Panoramic Living

Next week I graduate from the University of Idaho. It makes me laugh to imagine opening up the mail after they send out my diploma this summer, how small it’s going to seem compared to what I actually learned during my years at school. It also makes me laugh because I’m job hunting and have no idea where the envelope holding my diploma should be addressed.

Oh, well. Idaho requires an appreciation for the unexpected from its residents. We expect the weather to surprise us as often as the pot holes in the roads do, and with cardigans and four-wheel drive we try to handle it gracefully. It’s only natural in a state famous for ski hills, sand dunes, whitewater and big open spaces; the northern and southern halves connected only by a two-lane scenic highway...