Patagonia launches Fly Fishing E-Catalog

Our friends over at Patagonia sent us this release, which since they are our friends, we decided to publish in it's entirety. In the interest of full disclosure, these guys have bought us an adult beverage or two in the past. Notwithstanding their plying us with alcohol, an e-catalog that won't end up filling up our landfills remains pretty darn cool.

PATAGONIA FISH LAUNCHES PAPERLESS E-CATALOG e-Catalog Saves Almost 200 Trees and Eliminates Almost 8,300 Pounds of Solid Waste

www.patagonia.com/fishcatalog

VENTURA, Calif. (March 29, 2010) — Patagonia, the fishing and outdoor apparel manufacturer, launches its first-ever Fish e-Catalog – an online, interactive, 52-page flipbook. With a feel that’s more “magazine” than “catalog,” readers will be able to watch embedded videos, read unique Ambassador commentary, click on technical product information and provides avenues to purchase. The catalog will be distributed via e-mail and social media channels including Facebook, Twitter, blogs and certified Fish dealer websites. The user-controlled e-Catalog replaces the company’s traditional paper-based catalog this Spring, as it is easier to find and is a small step toward permanently eliminating a paper catalog for Patagonia’s Fishing line.

“We’re a catalog company at our core, so a non-traditional e-Catalog is a huge move for us – but a step in the right direction environmentally,” notes Casey Sheahan, Patagonia’s angling CEO. “This is a greener way to be in the catalog business. Our hope is that anglers are psyched to get product information this way so moving forward we can try to avoid sending catalogs to individual mailboxes.”

By eliminating the paper catalog, Patagonia saves about 74,826 gallons of wastewater, 8,279 pounds of solid waste, 176 trees and almost 16,300 pounds of Co2. The company hopes that anglers will take note and embrace the new e-Catalog model, "The success of this experiment depends largely on the fishing community's response. If they like it and it goes viral then the next one will be bigger, better, and even more interactive."

“The fishing market is the right place to launch an e-Catalog. Anglers are online, engaged, and we’re hoping they will help us get the word out on their own Facebook and Twitter pages,” continues Sheahan. “Anglers have turned to the internet to review water conditions, hatches, plan trips, research product news, blog, and more, making them the perfect customer for an online, interactive e-Catalog that feels more like a magazine or multi-media site.”

Readers will also enjoy new features such as “product system recommendations,” where one can learn about which products best suit different types of fishing and environs. Some examples include wet wading for backcountry trout, dry wading for backcountry trout and classic steelhead/salmon fishing. With the new e-catalog, Patagonia now has the luxury of providing its fans and customers more in-depth and individualized product recommendations. Patagonia encourages all bloggers, journalists, websites and anglers to post the e-Catalog link on their pages to get the word out.

Patagonia's World Trout Initiative Grants

WORLD TROUT ISSUES FINAL GRANTS FOR 2009

Eight Global Grassroots Groups Receive $75,000 for Fish and Habitat Enhancement

Ventura, CA (January 12, 2010) Patagonia, Inc, the outdoor gear and technical apparel company announced today their World Trout initiative has issued eight grants totaling $75,000 to global grassroots groups whose diverse efforts to protect and enhance fish and their habitat around the world exemplify the philosophy of World Trout.

Grant recipients include the Wild Salmon Center at $10,00 for their Koppi River Salmon Diversity project; Pacific Rivers Council at $8,000 for their Umpqua River Legacy Program; Truckee River Watershed Council, who’s efforts on Lahontan Cutthroat Trout Restoration received $15,000; Takshanuk Watershed council was allocated $10,000 for completion of their water rights reservations initiatives; Bahamian-based Friends of the Environment was the recipient of $8,000 for their sustainable crawfish campaign, Henry’s Fork Foundation’s film, Watershed, which is about impressive hands-on projects completed over the past 25 years, was allotted $3,000 to help distribute this informative film to anglers and other grassroots groups in the hopes these efforts can be replicated; Bonefish and Tarpon Trust’s research on critical tarpon habitat received $15,000 and Italian group Societa Valsesiana Pescatori Sportivi was sent $8,000 for enhancement of their threatened grayling habitat.

World Trout was founded by Patagonia owner Yvon Chouinard and author/artist James Prosek, who believed that immediate, hands-on action through local grassroots groups can begin to address multiple threats facing our fish and their habitat. Educating the public about these groups’ efforts and raising money to support their vitally important activities was the goal. As a result, original artwork by such renowned artists as James Prosek, Tim Borski and Alan James Robinson, has been used to create unique t-shirts, with $5 from the sales of each shirt set aside to fund these groups. Since 2005, World Trout has successfully generated over $400,000 that has been allocated to 30 local grassroots groups.

Because of increasing requests for support and the significant amount of dollars that have been raised, Patagonia has made the World Trout Grant application process easier. Go to www.patagonia.com/worldtrout and the grant guidelines in the lower left corner will walk you through the process. "This grant process allows us to receive applications from groups worldwide, allowing us to react more rapidly to fund those working tirelessly to protect and enhance fish and habitat," noted Bill Klyn, Patagonia’s international fishing development manager.

About Patagonia
Noted internationally for its commitment to product quality, Patagonia’s Environmental Grants program has contributed over contributed over $35M to grassroots environmental activists since the program began in 1985. Patagonia, with sales last year of $315M, is noted internationally for its commitment to product quality and environmental activism. Its Environmental Grants Program has and its Environmental Internship Program allows employees to work for environmental groups while receiving their full paycheck. Incorporating environmental responsibility in to product development, the company has, since 1996, used only organically-grown cotton in its clothing line, and is noted world-wide for using recycled soda bottles in many of its polyester fleece garments.

www.patagonia.com

About Patagonia
Noted internationally for its commitment to product quality, Patagonia’s Environmental Grants program has contributed over $35M to grassroots environmental programs since it first began back in 1985. Since 1993, Patagonia is noted world-wide for using recycled soda pop bottles in many of its polyester fleece garments. Raising the bar even further, our Common Threads Recycling Program takes back ours and our competitors’ polyester underwear and specific Malden Mills fleece, along with organic cotton t-shirts, to be recycled into new fibers. The company has paved the way for others to get on the garment recycling bandwagon. In addition, Patagonia initiated the Footprint Chronicles, a unique, transparent insight into the impact a product generates from its sourcing of materials until it is delivered to our warehouse. For further information on these programs, visit www.patagonia.com/recycle.

Snowshoes of the Flats

One of our ever alert readers was watching Pirates of the Flats on ESPN and caught a glimpse of some orange snowshoe like foot covers that the famous fly fishers were using to aid wade fishing on the marls. Our reader left us a comment asking if we knew anything about them and we, recognizing the guy holding them in the 3 second clip, used our substantial fly fishing clout emailed our pal B2 at Patagonia to find out the story behind this innovative new product. It turns out they were snowshoes: Here is the email we received from Bill Klyn , Patagonia product Guru.

These were just cheap plastic snowshoes that you can buy for $20 at an Ace Hardware. Not a product we are doing. Just trying to find a better way to wade soft, muddy flats where you usually sink up to your knees.The Marls are famous for these bottoms. More fun to wade fish for bonefish that fish out of a boat. The problem was these are too short so it did not distribute the weight enough. There are longer snowshoes made and will use those next time...

Argentina's Pata-variety

Note from Hilary: I figured since my fishing pal Chad is in so many of my Patagonia pics, he'd better pull his blog weight and write a post. So...here's his quick rundown of the past two days.

From Fishing Pal Chad:
Yesterday the alarm jarred me awake at 5am, stealing away my strange dream. I hit snooze twelve times and stumbled down the stairs for a great breakfast and another day in paradise-- Cholila Valley, Argentina.

If one had to sum up the waters here in a word (besides beautiful, fishy, perfect...) the word would be variety. Every river has a drastically different character and there is a lake around every bend. Throw in a spring creek or two also.

We kicked the day off yesterday hike-wading to a public spring creek near Murmullos Lodge. The fishing was tough, but unforgettable. Large brookies, browns and rainbows cruised a rod length away in gin-clear water, unimpressed with our efforts. We did manage to net a few, including the most beautiful 18" brookie I have ever seen.

After lunch, we trucked over to Nico's (our groovy Argentinian guide) private lake on Murmullos Lodge property. It was somewhat of an exploratory trip since it hadn't been fished in eight years. We decided collectively on the name Crapshoot Lake. It turns out Nico has a lake full of feisty rainbows with unlimited growth potential. Pretty cool.

Today consisted of a seven mile zodiak trip to the inlet of Cholila Lake. We cruised upstream on foot-to-spot sippers. The rainbows we found were tucked up under the banks under thick mats of Chihue Bamboo; safe as a baby in Jesus's arms, so I thought. Hilary managed to wiggle her way through a bunch of bamboo and hook a rainbow by flipping/dapping a beetle. We later landed another by setting up in a tree twelve feet above the river. Exciting stuff. Those pics from up in the tree are still in the camera at the bottom of all of our nasty gear, so Hil will post them tomorrow. You'll want to check back to see them because it's hard to believe the story without the proof. Oh, also, she will probably post that pic of me sleeping next to a cow pie.

More to come!
Pulling my blog weight, Fishing Pal Chad

Heaven in High Water

I'm told it was a colder-than-normal November here in Patagonia, southern Argentina, which slowed down the end of the spring run-off. And it's been warm and sunny for the past week, so the rivers have suddenly gone up quite a bit. They're pretty clear, but high. Since we're at the base of the mountains, we can actually see the run-off happening in the form of long, plunging waterfalls. The high water added a bit of a challenge, but wasn't at all discouraging. We had a wonderful day chuckin' new MFC streamer patterns like Weise's Love Bunny and Yost's Hot Ass Sculpin. I've never thrown streamers for eight hours non-stop before. Right now I am typing with my left hand only, because my entire right arm hates me. We caught some really nice big rainbows and browns, but we also missed a lot because we got too excited watching the beasts chase tail, and ended up yanking the bunnies way too early. Today we'll be fishing a more technical river, and our amazing Argentine guide and fishing program manager here at Murmullos Lodge, Nico, says we'll be changing flies a lot more often. "I am going to ask you to use your brains," he said. Okey doke then. Hilary

And The Latest Fly Fishing Industry Rumor is....

Industry insiders have reported that Outside Media PR Guru, Hilary Hutcheson (who provided coverage of this year's Fly Fishing Retailer show for our readers) is heading to Patagonia next week . We asked her to pick up one of those righteous SST wading Jackets for us, only to find out at the last minute that she is not going to the famous apparel store but rather going to visit geographical area of the world famous for trout fishing and known by the same name.

Since we didn't get our jacket we have told her that she could make it up to us by providing regular updates about her fishing adventures. Be sure to watch for them here next week and also on her blog aptly named "Holler." You can also follow her exploits via twitter @OutsideHilary.