Did you ever dream of being a fishing guide in Alaska? Well our good buddy Joe did, and now he’s living the dream at the Copper River Lodge.

In this installment of “So You Want To Be A Fishing Guide” Joe Hyde shows his young guide crew how to clean a composting toilet. Joe is a fearless leader, he makes sure to show his crew that he’s not afraid to do the dirty work and thus ensures he will have something more important to do when it comes time to repeat the progress in August.

Thermopolis, WY.

You may have heard about the derailment of a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train into the Wind River just south of Thermopolis last week.  Two locomotives and four freight cars derailed on Wednesday afternoon after slamming into a boulder in the Wind River canyon.  One locomotive and one freight car slid 60 feet down the bank and were partially submerged.  BNSF estimated that 3500 to 7000 gallons of diesel fuel spilled into the river.

When you’ve got a bunch of hazmat in a blue ribbon trout stream and need a jet boat and an expert jet boat driver, who ya gonna call?  Sweetwater! Sweetwater’s jet boat and operator, Scott Schumacher were contracted by the Whitewater Rescue Institute of Missoula to help with the clean-up efforts and biological assessment.  Scott was down helping with the effort for two days — shuttling clean-up workers and biologists, placing containment booms, and removing diesel fuel from the Wind and Bighorn rivers.  With the wreck being in the canyon and having some serious whitewater to negotiate, he also got to see some wild shit, including the sinking of the other jet boat helping BNSF.  Luckily, no one was hurt (other than the jet boat driver’s pride.)  Way to go sweet co!

After intercepting BHK’s first NZ field report of the new year we decided to send our very own Hey Joe Hyde down south to see if indeed NZ trout fishing doesn’t suck ass or if BHK had finally figured out how to use Photoshop…

Hey Dave, Brad says you’re looking for NZ fishing porn.  Here’s today’s catch!  It’s been pretty amazing so far….Brad knows his shit, and the fish (for the most part) have been accommodating.
Anyway, here’s some more pics, and we’ll send you the one of Brad’s 12 pounder tomorrow!

How are things in MT?

Joe

Sweaty Waders field emissary, Bradley BH Kastner recently sent us these pics from his hard winter in New Zealand. Lucky bastard.

Top Guide Aaron “A- Train” Hansen miscalculates the take off last weekend skiing.  Via The Smoking Gun

Santa Claus, he’ll take you fishing.