The US Forest Service Needs Your Help, with Paul Hendricks
The Orvis Fly-Fishing Podcast
James Hathaway
4.8 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 13 April 2026
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Many of our favorite places to fish for wild trout are located on Forest Service lands. My guest this week is Paul Hendricks [29:45], executive director of The Conservation Alliance, which is an outdoor industry organization dedicated to maintaining the health of our public lands. Some recent developments threaten the continuing operation of the US Forest Service, and Paul tells us what these proposed changes are--what we can do to help mitigate some drastic changes, and ensure that the dedicated people who help maintain many of the places we love to fish have the resources they need.
In the Fly Box this week, we have these questions and more:
How can I make a 6-foot leader for fishing for trout in small creeks?
I always get tangled when fishing with multiple flies but not with a single dry fly. What am I doing wrong?
Why do brook trout in the Shenandoah area appear to grow bigger than they do in most northeastern streams?
How can I fish subsurface flies for panfish in very weedy waters?
A listener relates yet another story of trout feeding at night when a bright light shines on them.
How do I strip strike? Do I wait until I feel the fish? Is there a difference between tightening with your rod as opposed to tightening with your hand?
When fishing small, unpressured streams for trout and smallmouth bass, how long should I wait in between trips to the same spot?
When floating down a chute in my kayak, fishing for smallmouth bass, I know most of them will be at the bottom of the chute. Should I just float down over them and try to fish for them, or should I portage around the shoot? How spooky are they to a boat floating over them?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi and welcome to the Orvis Fly Fishing podcast. This is your host, Tom Rosenbauer. And my guest this week is Paul Hendricks. |
| 0:23.3 | Paul is the executive director of the Conservation Alliance. |
| 0:27.7 | And this isn't going to be a fun podcast. |
| 0:30.6 | You're not going to learn how to catch more fish. |
| 0:32.4 | You're not going to learn where to go. |
| 0:34.4 | It's a serious podcast. |
| 0:36.4 | And it's one that I think we all need to listen to because the proper |
| 0:42.9 | care of our public lands is at risk. And there are things you can do, and so that you are more |
| 0:51.5 | aware of the problem and know where to go and what to say. |
| 0:56.0 | Paul's going to talk about some of the recent developments with the U.S. |
| 1:00.2 | Forest Service, which maintains many, many, many of our favorite places to fish. |
| 1:06.0 | So it's an important issue. |
| 1:08.2 | But we do have a flybox. |
| 1:09.9 | Before we do the flybox, just wanted to let you know about a couple |
| 1:15.1 | of Orvis and Doris and Doris Operations that you might be interested in visiting this coming year. |
| 1:23.4 | First is our Orvis Endorse Guide, Doc Thompson. Doc Thompson has been a long, long time. |
| 1:30.6 | Orvis Endors Guide. |
| 1:31.8 | He's a great guy. |
| 1:32.5 | I've spent many fun times at the Orvis Guide's rendezvous in the past talking to Doc. |
| 1:38.9 | And Doc specializes in small stream trips throughout northern New Mexico. |
| 1:44.7 | And with Doc, you can fish wild canyon rivers in the Taos, Red River, Eagle Nest, Simmeron, and Angelfire areas of the Sangre de Cristo National Forest. |
| 1:59.1 | Doc is a great, very patient teacher, and you can book day trips with Doc, |
... |
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