by Phil Bourjaily

Our high school trap club recently bought a DryFire laser shooting simulator and already I am a believer. A device that eliminates the noise, recoil and expense of live fire makes huge sense as a teaching aid.

For instance, we took a senior who had never shot a gun and taught him the basics with the DryFire. He shot two rounds of laser trap a few days before his first trip to the range.

--Sarah Smith Barnum

Two-headed trout were a major indicator that something was amiss in the creeks of southern Idaho, near—now this is surprising— a mining operation. The mining company conducted their own research, which the EPA found “comprehensive,” but scientists say “the company’s research wanting”...

From this story in the New York Times:

It was the two-headed baby trout that got everyone’s attention.

Photographs of variously mutated brown trout were relegated to an appendix of a scientific study commissioned by the J. R. Simplot Company, whose mining operations have polluted nearby creeks in southern Idaho. The trout were the offspring of local fish caught in the wild that had been spawned in the laboratory. Some had two heads; others had facial, fin and egg deformities.

by Chad Love

One of the really cool things about attending a gundog-centric event like Pheasant Fest is that you get the chance to see so many different gundog breeds under one roof. It really is a unique opportunity, and I can't think of any other venue where you can see such a diversity of working gundog breeds from, literally, all over the world. Some of them look familiar enough to where you can at least take a guess at what they are, and some of them you simply don't have a clue.

Here are two of the many breeds represented at this year's show. I'd like to do something a little different from the usual caption contest, so what you have to do is figure out what they are. One of them might be an easy guess for some of you, as the breed -- while still very much a novelty -- is gaining in popularity. The other one will be a little more difficult to identify, and even harder to pronounce correctly.

by Tim Romano

This week's Tie Talk "bug" comes to us courtesy of flyrecipes.com.

The Durex Condom Pike Fly is the brainchild of Simon Graham and has one very unusual item that might not be in your fly tying recipe basket: A condom for the tail...

Graham apparently got the idea while reading a piece from an Australian media outlet basically saying that, "despite Australia's best efforts to supply prophylactics to AIDS-ravaged Papua, New Guinea, there's no stopping local creativity in finding unusual uses for the free condoms. Local fisherman cut them up for lures, and women find the lubricant good for their hair and beauty regime."