Endorsed by Gov. Jay Inslee, a bill to phase out net-pen farming of Atlantic salmon in Washington waters made it through the state senate earlier this month. It’s now headed to the House, where the state legislature will cast a final vote to potentially nix the nets via a phase-out period.
Portland General Electric in 2010 began operating a “Selective Water Withdrawal” tower above Round Butte Dam on central Oregon’s Deschutes River. The ecology of the lower Deschutes, one of the West’s premier flyfishing destinations, has suffered ever since. These ecological impacts, in turn, have negatively affected businesses and communities in north Central Oregon that rely…
“In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.”—Franklin D. Roosevelt What a difference a year makes. Just over a year ago, the proposed Pebble Mine at the headwaters of the world’s largest wild salmon run located in Bristol Bay, Alaska was on its deathbed. Then the…
Cocaine smuggler’s former Clarks Fork property returns to the spotlight for a public lands squabble Boat captain Stewart Allen Bost and his pals almost slipped into obscurity after they smuggled more than 3,000 kilos of Columbian cocaine from the Bahamas to South Florida in 1986. With approximately $1.35 million lining his pockets, Bost sought early…
With less than three months remaining, competition is fierce Goatfish, grayling, giant trevally, brown trout, one “huuuuge sunfish,” and many, many more, this edition of the #DrakeMagBigYear has anglers around North America chasing an incredible diversity of fish species on the fly. Which as it were, is pretty much the point of the contest—explore beyond…
In 2008, the feds introduced a new flow-management regime at Yellowtail Dam designed to increase water levels at the Horseshoe Bend boat ramp in Wyoming. Since then eastern Montana’s Bighorn River, on the downstream side, has been gushing—experiencing more days above 8,000 cfs than during the previous 40 years combined. A new report from the…
Cooke Aquaculture found to be at fault for Puget Sound net-pen failure Washington State just closed its investigation of the Cypress Island net-pen failure that caused hundreds of thousands of farmed Atlantic salmon to pour into Puget Sound last August. It found that Cooke’s gross negligence of the net pens caused their collapse and the…
Last year Sunshine State Gov. Rick Scott signed landmark legislation that called for a catch-all reservoir to be built below Lake Okeechobee in order to improve the spiraling health of the Everglades. Unfortunately, designs for the project recently submitted by the Water Management District don’t do enough. And in short, experts say we need a lot…
Snake River angler comes up short Poaching steelhead is a time honored tradition among degenerate anglers. But, hacking the tail off a B-run buck to comply with size restrictions is certainly a new technique.
With runs hovering in the hundreds, British Columbia’s Thompson River steelhead have been in steady decline since the ’90s. The imperiled stock hit a record low last fall, when returns were estimated at less than 200 fish. Despite the numbers, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (“DFO”) permitted commercial and First Nations gillnet chum salmon fisheries during…
This year’s Fly Fishing Film Tour (F3T) won’t be in Denver until March. Meantime, so you’re not feeling too fish-porn parched, Trouts Fly Fishing is proud to announce the Throwback Thursday Fly Fishing Film Fest, presented by The Drake, Felt Soul Media, and our friends at F3T.
Can commercial netting coexist with Columbia River salmon recovery? A Pound net is a wall of netting that stretches from the shoreline out into a river, funneling fish into a compartment called the “heart,” where fish are trapped but not killed. The nets were once common on the Columbia River, but were banned in Washington…
As the calendar year comes to an end, the folks behind the 2018 Fly Fishing Film Tour is just getting into gear. In the past few weeks the F3T has released trailers for Dubai on the Fly, 100 Miles, and Beyond the Horizon. Today, we see a sneak peak into Jako Lucas’s latest adventure to the heart…
NOAA solicits public comment for steelhead fishery proposal Home to a revered population of ESA-listed wild winter steelhead, Washington’s Skagit River and its main tributary, the Sauk, have been closed to spring catch-and-release fishing since 2011. That could all change in early 2018, however, as NOAA is considering granting a harvest permit to the Washington…
Smallmouth: Modern Fly-fishing Methods, Tactics & Techniques Tim Landwehr & Dave Karczynski $29.95 Stackpole Books Most of the how-to flyfishing books at your local library come from accomplished anglers that aren’t very good at writing. This book isn’t one of them. Lifelong smallmouth guide Tim Landwehr of Tight Lines Fly Fishing Company in DePere, Wisconsin,…
Unless you’ve been living under a triggerfish for the past few months, you’re likely one of the millions of viewers who’ve watched those incredible teasers of bird-eating giant trevally in the Seychelles, which hit the Interwebs on Oct. 26. The footage was captured by a four-person crew from the BBC’s Natural History Unit during fall…
Even if you’ve been flyfishing for many years, it’s good to occasionally go back and re-visit the basics–both for our own imperfect casting, and for your ability to articulate it to friends who may be asking for advice. If videos like this were available 20 or 30 years ago, maybe many of us would never…
Texans tend to claim that things are bigger in the Lone Star State. That claim seems to hold true when it comes to trout. Starting in November of each year, the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department begin dumping some 300,000+ rainbow trout into waters around the state as part of their annual Winter Trout Stocking…
Did you know that a bonefish’s chance of living to inhale another Borski slider or EP shrimp decreases by as much as sixfold when it’s been overly fondled or gill-fingered by an angler? True story, says the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust, which hopes to increase fish survival odds with its latest series of Bahamas-based educational…
New regulations for Florida Keys permit would heighten protections during the spring-spawn timeframe To ramp up safeguards for spawning permit on the prowl, Florida Fish and Wildlife commissioners will consider adding the month of April to the preexisting no-take closure inside the state’s Special Permit Zone (SPZ)—the waters south of Cape Florida in the Atlantic…
Grande Ronde River institution has been a steelheaders’ hub since the 1940s Boggan’s Oasis, home base for anglers fishing Washington’s Grande Ronde River, burned to the ground last Saturday night. Situated at the bottom of the circuitous Rattlesnake Grade along Highway 129, Boggan’s is the only semblance of civilization for miles. It’s been a hub of…
Though mountain bikers and flyfishers often overlap in their choice of craft beers and flannelwear, for the most part these two subcultures have adopted a “separate but equal” mantra. Salsa Cycles aims to bridge that gap with their new Blackmorow Fat Bike. In their video, “Touching The Sun,” Hansi Johnson and Mike Reimer load their…
British Columbia’s Thompson River has this fall seen steelhead trickle in at the lowest numbers ever recorded. With roughly 250 spawners projected for 2018, the fishery is on the brink. That’s why four groups—B.C. Wildlife Federation, Steelhead Society of B.C., B.C. Federation of Fly Fishers, and B.C. Federation of Drift Fishers—are calling on Fisheries and Oceans…
Our good friend Gray Struznik—this guy—is more than just a fisherman, he’s also an unbelievable mathemagician. He’s been crunching numbers and has come up with a solution to limit his and his clients’ footprint on Olympic Peninsula steelhead rivers: something called the Slow Down. Check out what Struznik’s been up to, and don’t forget to…
In a recent instagram post by fisheries biologist John R. McMillan (@rainforest_steel), the wild salmonid crusader emphasized a little-known necessity for a healthy salmon river. Check out the full text below.
Nearly two months after the Cypress Island spill sent more than 100,000 unasked for Atlantic salmon into Puget Sound waters, Washington’s salmon farming industry continues to blunder along—big time. Recent headlines reveal an attempt at bribery, evidence of another pen on the brink of collapse, and a permit approval from the state for juvenile Atlantic salmon to…
Nearly two months after the Cypress Island spill sent more than 100,000 unasked for Atlantic salmon into Puget Sound waters, Washington’s salmon farming industry continues to blunder along—big time. Recent headlines reveal an attempt at bribery, evidence of another pen on the brink of collapse, and a permit approval from the state for juvenile Atlantic salmon to…