Washington Steelhead, IGFA and Joan Wulff
Tell me that the most recent issue of Fly Rod and Reel hasn’t printed what I am sitting here reading, oh my GOD! After such a stellar issue last month, dedicated to steelhead, FR&R just took about 5 steps backwards and took Joan Wulff with them.
In this industry it is easier and unfortunately safer to steer clear of hot topics, leaving them open to debate amongst many who are seeking guidance on these issues from those they trust and respect. I would wager thousands of anglers are looking for someone to be an authority on the topic and yet has anyone besides a handful of conservation organizations in the region been willing to step up to that plate? No for fear it might, “offend and turn off prospective customers or existing ones…” author will remain anonymous and clearly a glass half empty type of personality.
Rather it should maybe be viewed as if you are passionate enough to stake your reputation on the well being of a species that doesn’t speak English or any other language to my knowledge, for the betterment of society and those who rely on them for their livelihood, maybe you will attract like minded clients/customers and turn existing ones into life-long believers with you.
Unless you live here in the Pacific NW, have had your life affected by these magnificent fish and what they endure to become a part of that said life, then you don’t have a right to say, endorse or have anything to with the future of these species. Nothing!
Why does Joan feel the need to associate herrself with this unfortunate story? For her to introduce such an article shows the uninformed and removed state of those who do not live and breathe the plight of these fish day in and day out as a part of working in this industry and more importantly in this region.
In fact it is quite cavalier for her act this way while at the same time have this in every FFF Flyfisher magazine:
Can you be anymore hypocritical…this is not what these fish or this industry needs. We need well respected and world renowned anglers and conservationists to positively politicize acts like this for the benefit of the fish.
While on the subject, why does the IGFA have, allow or even accept applications for species in peril? World Record status of steelhead and other species around the world that are in serious trouble with regards to their long term sustainability should simply be put on hold or closed to change until they have regained at least a portion of their former populations.
As an organization that is supposed to represent our industry they too should have a higher standard and conscientious view of what it means to remove such a species from the gene pool.
The mention that this was the largest steelhead ever caught by IGFA records also shows a gross negligence in making sure they have compiled what is out there on record so as to give a more competent detail of their history.
Hey, IGFA, I did some of your work for you:
Idaho State Record
http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/fish/steelhead/
New York State Record
http://www.outdoorsniagara.com/new_york_state_record_steelhead.htm
British Columbia Records, scroll down to Area Records
http://www.noelgyger.ca/
RELEASED!
RELEASED!!
I feel sorry for someone who needs to have their namesake based on the killing of such a magnificent fish. Especially when looking to the not so distant future could find that is was also the beginning of the end of their race. Hind sight being 20/20, that might have been a good question to ask yourself before giving it the granite helmet huh Pete.
I would hope that when I die, my kids and with luck grandkids will look at what I believed in and fought for and be proud, knowing I was attempting to allow them the same pursuits I enjoyed growing up.
NONE of us out here believe the “it was bleeding” story. I have not seen one picture supporting this claim to be true and by the undertones in Pete’s article, he knew exactly what he was doing, where is the closest certified scale IGFA will accept that I can find…absolutely deplorable.
And as for Joan Wulff, make up your mind. Do you “Hold the future in your hands, and then release them” or do you kill them and grab the worthless little bit of history and run? What sort of lesson does this teach our up and coming generation of anglers? I am sorry to say I lost much of the respect and admiration I had for you.
As for FR&R, by simply printing the story without a side bar of comment by the magazine, you have endorsed this. A publication of this stature should be first in line to “police” such a story by putting the right spin on it. Only hope is to have it create enough awareness to help alter the policy here in WA but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
WDFW shoulders a good portion of the blame for this as well. Several years ago they took a step in the right direction by making ALL wild steelhead in Washington mandatory catch and release. Pressure from a small town called Forks made the entire fisheries management board back off this decision, allowing 1 wild steelhead be kept and we have been in a back peddling tailspin since. Their disparaging numbers currently compared to historical figures should easily warrant such a decision.
I LOVE this industry. I have dedicated 20 years of my life to it and to helping others marvel at its wonders and will continue to do so. But at times I am floored by the selfish nepotism abound in certain circles of our industry and it is time to grow up.
I will end this on these words:
“We have reached the time in the life of the planet, and humanity’s demand upon it, when every fisherman will have to be a river-keeper, a steward of marine shallows, a watchman on the high seas. We are beyond having to put back what we have taken out. We must put back more than we take out.”
The Longest Silence – Thomas McGuane
Was this too harsh? Tough, it needed to be said and thank you Dylan for pulling on the reigns.
Written by: emeraldw
Tags: Emerald Water Anglers, Hoh River, IGFA, Joan Wulff, native steelhead, steelhead, Washington, WDFW, Wild Steelhead
Love the McGuane quote buddy. Great post…….but also why does Washington State still allow 1 fish to be killed per year in certain rivers? That still makes no sense to me and there’s no way what fish gets killed if it weren’t legal to do so.
How much is one wild native steelhead worth?
That is what it boils down to; it seems nearly everyone in the community has their price, a price in exchange for allowing the extinction of a species. For some, the price is as small as selling the right flies or line or reel or rod or eggs to the gear fisherman or the IGFA for keeping themselves relevant. After all if anyone has seen the IGFA hall of shame recently it is a massive building, monuments don’t erect or pay for themselves! For others, with much loftier standards, they require the fee from a guided trip to cast aside what is right. Even fewer that are, nearly uncorrupt able, will fold for sponsorship deals or trips to exotic locations to target these mighty fish in one of their last strongholds like the Skeena system and get it on video. The wild native steelhead is going to be snuffed out by the people that “care” for it the most. As long as fishermen are more willing to point fingers at others rather than at themselves, the species is doomed. You can’t place 100% of the blame on the Pebble Mine or the tribes. A lot of the gear guides buy their eggs from the tribes, eggs that were raped from the innards of a wild native steelhead hen, that don’t care about the fish as long as restaurants, guides and friends continue to buy them for meat or sperm sacks or whatever it may be. The tribes will continue to net them because there is a market for the harvest. The tribes will continue to flex their muscle and the WDFW and the indecision makers in Olympia will continue to cow-tow to them because they are afraid of being called out for being racist or being the people, for ONCE, to stand up to the tribes and say “NO! You don’t get to eradicate and entire species in exchange for your ancestor’s comeuppance!” I forget who said it but we clearly are NOT the right ones for this job because we have done a pretty piss-poor job of conservation thus far. Steelhead conservation is something that we, as a people, have failed at almost completely. Discontinuation of the brood stock program is a great start. The brood stock program shouldn’t be looked at as a way to help the species but as a way to further assist in its extinction. I propose a ten-year moratorium on fishing for steelhead in those watersheds that still have wild native fish gracing their waters. Ten years to let nature do her thing, ten years to let her do what she does best. I think we owe it to the steelhead to leave them alone for a while and let them prove what a great critter they really are. As for me and my house we will not target wild native steelhead. Only for the moment am I saying nothing further.
Isaac makes some great points in his response. With as many Steelhead anglers out there that care deeply about the plight of these fish, why has it been so difficult to make real change in their protection? Clearly, the model of creating a powerful society of conservation minded anglers is broken, as it’s still legal to kill a 30 lb wild fish in this state. We all know there are limitless variables that figure into this failure, but the bottom line is that we all must continue to champion the cause. Even if we are the last Samurai about to be massacred by a machine gun toting army.
The moratorium makes sense on some levels, but it needs to be a comprehensive policy. Fly anglers making a conscious decision to avoid fishing for them means nothing if gill nets are still being stretched from bank to bank, and bait anglers are braining them. The danger of these fish falling victim to a an out-of-sight, out-of-mind condition is very real, when anglers stop participating in the fishery. Not to mention the reduction of hatchery rats being removed from the system. If it came down to the rivers permanently closed to EVERYONE, including nets, then count me in.
I like the idea of a moratorium, but you have to get people to care. People who fish catch-and-release for steelhead should care, and do, but the rest of the population doesn’t. As steelheading gets harder because there are fewer fish, there will be fewer fishermen, and fewer people who care. When that happens wild steelhead truly are doomed. We need a moratorium on killing steelhead, yes. We need education on the subject, absolutely. We need more steelheaders out there being the champions for the fish, the rivers and the environment. And we certainly don’t need more IGFA records
Dear Peter (New World Record Holder and “the fish was bleeding out of the gills” ) whatever your name is:
Karl Mauser landed a 33 pound steelhead on a fly in NINETEEN SIXTY THREE. In case you missed that Peter (“I landed the biggest fly caught steelhead recorded”) whatever your last name was. Recorded by the IGFA? They reside in Florida, which by the way is a bit far from our cherished steelhead rivers. After all you end that embarrassment of an article in the last Fly Rod and Reel with just that nonsense. Mauser killed that fish in 1963 but since that 33 it has been shattered hundreds of times on rivers from Skeena County, to lower 48 and hell, probably somewhere in Russia more than once. And since 15 pound Maxima is the everyday workhorse big fish tippet a lot of us use in winter and in places like the Kispiox, Thompson, Babine and others that have summer/fall run giants, I have a suspicion a majority of the fish landed over 30 pounds on fly the last 40 years or more fall right into your joke of a world record tippet class. Peter, you know why none of them were sent in to the IGFA as new fly caught steelhead records? Because they were released Mr. “My fish was the biggest steelhead ever recorded on fly”. I just thought if you were delusional to believe your own crap, I’d be nice enough to call you on it. After all you wrote that yourself right? Hell Clay Carter from Ketchum Idaho landed a fish over 37 on the fly years ago and released it, and just last year a kid from Montana landed a 39 and change. I don’t want to get into that one, it’s been beat up enough but his intentions the whole time (he took 77 pictures, I know) were to release it and he did so — call it youthful ignorance and excitement and magazine cover dreams (no need to jump in, it’s been beat to death steelhead bums). You Peter actually broke no laws and what you did was legal. But to use the old “bleeding gill” story with pics of the fish hooked clearly and solidly in the corner of the mouth is complete horseshit as it your mad dash to run to Gooding’s in Forks to get it weighed immediately. Hell 24 hours later you were still looking for a certified scale and were sweating like a whore in church because you knew it’s body weight was dropping as were your chances at immortality. Just grab some nuts and be a man. Say “Screw all of you, it’s legal to keep one in Washington State, go bitch to WDFG about their cowardice to keep it legal, I wanted my one fish this year and wanted a record, as phony as it is.” Hell we can all live with that one, (well, not really but it’s honest and you were completely legal so I think we’d have to) but you my friend went for the smoke and mirrors approach didn’t you? By the way in reality your fish landed on 16 pound tippet at 29 doesn’t even make the top 100 in the last 30 years. But since none of those were reported to the IGFA and since fly anglers landed all of them and obviously released 95-99 percent of them (I am sure there was some mortality there as much as we hate it) congratulations on the cheapest chickenshit world record we have out there in steelheading and maybe in all of flyfishing. It means nothing except you slaughtered another piece of our gene pool that must survive, must spawn, must pass on those massive, perfect unrecoverable genes now wasted forever and hanging on your wall. Tight lines and good luck next year on the OP. Maybe your’re next fish will be 30 and it will be “bleeding” also! We didn’t need that fish spawing anyway in the HOH. It will look much better on your wall with the big gold plaque that says “Biggest Steelhead ever landed on fly rod at 16 pound tippet.” Unreal……. Tight lines The Coach
Isaac, I like what you said about the fact that the gillnets at the mouths of those rivers will keep killing fish as long as there is a demand for them. If we can stop the demand, there’s a chance tribes will stop killing steelhead. From what I can tell, they mainly sell to three places: fishmarkets and seafood distributors, resturaunts, and to individual consumers like the bait guys. These populations dont know what we know, so it is our job to educate them. Let’s find out where this fish is going and educate the masses involved.
I think that’s the most powerful thing here…..education of the general public who basically knows nothing. That goes for any conservation isuue, but steelhead and the pebble mine are big ones in our face right now. The moratorium idea is good, and I’d like that too, but the public might not get educated and when the 10 years is up we’re right back to ten years ago and ready to watch the species decline again.
We can go around to fishmarkets and resturaunts all we want and it will help a little, but we’ve GOT to get this thing in the mainstream. If we can get people to understand, (awareness like Q said) and the numbers are certainly there in our support, then we’ve got a chance.
Here’s a closing thought: you know those little Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood cards that tell you which fish is safe to eat based on health as well as environmental impact? Steelhead aren’t even on it! So your “avereage joe” fish consumer at a market or a resturaunt thinks he is living an environmentally sound life when using the card, but that is not the case.
Coach Duff, oh yes thanks you
I think I may be somewhat naive concerning the whole Steelhead issue in the PNW but it seems that everyone is pointing to netting and bonking of the fish as the reason for the demise. But I am not entirely convinced that is the whole picture. In fact, I would say that it is only a second order problem and that more fundamental issues exist. Lets consider for the moment that climate change could be drastically affecting Steelhead populations. This could be occurring in a variety of ways. The most obvious is that climate change affects the physical environment in the form of snow packs, which influence stream flows and temperature and not to mention that the ocean itself is drastically changing. We have to think that Steelhead are not only affected by being caught but throughout their life-cycle. It is important to ask question like how have we altered the rearing grounds for juvenile Steelhead? Or, how have we degraded the river, estuary, and ocean environs? There has been significant degradation. We are all to blame for this and just simply stopping fishing will likely do little in the way of rescuing the population. Maybe it will allow them to go peacefully but it won’t stop what seems inevitable. If you think as a fly fisherman that performs catch and release, you are minimal impact, then you are frankly wrong. Simply driving along the river is likely to have adverse effects as your car is likely to distribute foreign agents to the surrounding environment which will eventually leach into the river. Now think about all the cars that drive along the river.
Frankly, I am not sure why they still allow any commercial harvest, or netting for that matter, of Steelhead. It seems antithetical to the basic precepts of sustainable fisheries management. But, I am still not sure that it is a first order problem. It definitely exacerbates but is not the root cause for low returns in the first place. Think that a low return this year meant poor spawning or rearing or ocean conditions in the three to four years proceeding. While it is hard to pin down a root cause, I think it is important to consider the environmental factors and how as a society we are contributing to degradation of the entire Steelhead ecosystem.
In short, you can “care” and still hurt the ones you love. It is not enough to get people to stop eating or bonking Steelhead. We have to do more and very soon. More than likely, we will have to confront questions about urban development. This will bring up questions concerning what is more important: Steelhead on the one hand and human development on the other. I haven’t been to many of places around the rivers that are being hit hard, but I can imagine that anecdotal evidence would say that they have become more developed. Simply developing around a ecosystem is going to drastically change it and I think that is what is occurring. More houses and businesses means less water in the summer. This is a classic problem and the PNW is not immune. I guess I have said a lot with out offering much of a solution but my take away from this is that as humans to minimize our impact on the Steelhead ecosystem, we need to focus on slowing quantitative growth and focus on amelioration our surroundings so that they are more conducive to supporting the natural environment in which Steelhead thrive.
Anyway just some thoughts. I would support a moratorium on fishing for Steelhead if it was actually going to do something and I don’t think that it has been proven it will.
Coach! Muhaaahahaaaaa!! So awesome.
I haven’t read the article yet but on my way throught SeaTac I will grab & go.
The comments here are perfect, awesome, to the point, passionate & well deserved. Ted is right – change has to happen in a much bigger platform, because as long as demand is in place the fish will be laid to rest. Fishing for steelhead is a priviledge, but one I am willing to give up if it means these amazing creatures are around decades from now so my sons can experience them. Hell even if they can’t experience the priviledge I’d still give it up (then I’d have a good excuse come to Hawaii and chase bones!) for a planet rich with amazing wildlife.
The debate on any of the aforementioned measures to stop the killing of wild steelhead will continue until ALL parties involved are restricted from fishing for these creatures of the deep. And just because we are allowed to fish & take doesn’t mean we have to do either. I’m not a guide so the pursuit of steelhead doesn’t put food on my table, so it’s easy for me to say “stop fishing for steelhead”. But if the issue here is protecting & prolonging the existence of mykiss put the rods away and rally all the anglers & guides who admire the species, join forces with American Rivers/TU etc and make a statement. Otherwise continue to fish alongside those making poor choices, make tracks in relatively wild places, hook a few fish here and there, and continue to hope there are steelhead to follow in years to come.
Colin, Well said man, that’s absolutely true. Of course climate, environmental and development issues are of top concern. If we stop killing these fish at the mouths of the rivers and in the rivers, I think we’ll have a better idea of exactly what needs to be done to the rivers in terms of protection of the habitat to maximize returns. In addition, we can continue the study of how climate change affects the return.
If nobody killed any, period, wouldn’t that at least do something? And we won’t know how much progress would be made there until we do it. From there, we can tackle issues like the balance of human development vs. fish habitat conservation as well as the much larger, broad issue of climate change.
Let’s use this energy as a platform to really do some good here……anything has to help. Colin’s right, there are larger issues at hand and they probably contribute to the demise of the species more than tribal fishing or the English Pete’s of the world, but we’ve got to start somewhere and stopping people from killing them will at the very least bring some back.
I still think awareness is the big issue. Same with the Pebble Mine. It is amazing what a huge population of people can accomplish if they are well educated and stand up for what they know is right. The problem is that all of these people don’t yet know what is right or wrong or even that there is a problem. When the masses are educated, energy and hopefully solutions will come.
I met two graduates of the SAFS at UW (Masters program, not undergrad) the other night that did not know all five pacific salmon off hand and neither could define a salmonid. Seriously: Masters degree in fisheries in the PNW, couldn’t define a salmonid. Needless to say they had no idea about the state of the steelhead or the Pebble Mine. That is not a knock on UW or that department, it just put things into perspective as to what level most people’s general knowledge of these issues are on. I’m not saying I know everything about these issues either, but I’m trying my best to figure this shit out.
Ideas? Thoughts?
Coach Duff is the man.
I dont understand what offense Joan Wulff has committeed? Care to elaborate?
Colin,
Good point to bring up brother. I have to say when you bring something like that I up I look at what Gary Loomis and friends with fishfirst.org did with Cedar Creek. They took a dead stream and with work and ten years time the run went from 32 coho to over 16,000. As Dr. Ian Malcolm said, “nature, uh, finds a way”. I am at the bottom of a steep learning curve when it comes to the species and conservation of it but I have to believe that Mother Nature is a better steward than any tribe is. If the nets are out of the water and people aren’t giving natives the old granite helmet(or whatever Pete the chest thumping pirate calls hitting a Steelhead on the head) I have to believe that the runs will grow and restore themselves. We have laws in place to control erosion due to logging and other laws in place to control just about every factor we now can in regards to the land around the rivers and I am fairly confident in those. I am not confident that the current attitude by the ESA, the tribes, our Federal and State governments, CCA and even the Wild Steelhead Coalition are going to mean anything less than the demise of a species. EVERYONE is terrified to tell the tribes and sportsman, NO. The tribes don’t care, a fish is a fish to them, wild or hatchery it makes no difference. The QIN claim in their mission statement that respect all things and all people, that must not extend to Steelhead, White Sturgeon or King salmon because the nets that they stretch across the mouth of the Chehalis river is a small enough mesh that all but the puniest Steelhead, Sturgeon or Chinook could swim through it. They are harvesting the biggest, strongest fish and letting nothing through that is going to be strong enough or big enough to sustain the resource that they claim in their sovereignty. I mentioned my idea for a moratorium (or the “M” word as CCA refers to it) to a WDFW enforcement officer the other day and he said, “don’t bother, nobody will enforce a moratorium until it is too late, and besides you can’t tell people not to fish”. Alright then, the Confederate Tribes of the Colville are using purse seine nets at the mouth of the Okanogan with a 99% or BETTER rate at releasing wild fish un-harmed to go on their way. Why won’t the other tribes play along? They can still catch their hatchery fish and get their 50% of that resource but why do they need to kill everything that swims along? My opinion, laziness. Pure and simple laziness, you have to tend to a purse seine or beach seine net, you actually have to WORK at it. The CFC are willing to do that because they recognize how fragile the ecosystem is and they don’t want to harvest it into extinction. There are answers out there to helping the problems the Steelhead currently face but nobody is willing to ask those questions to the tribes or the sportsman. As long as nobody is willing to ask the tough questions, the fish are doomed. Coach Duff, you are a bad-ass, Semper Fi!
There are a number of other issues at hand here and some are much larger than just our little industry or this particular species of fish. Here is a short list:
Dams on many of the rivers in the region have kept steelhead from reaching their natal spawning grounds. These dams also simply eliminated spawning habitat that would have allowed for MORE steelhead to spawn. Some of these didn’t have fish passages and trucking them over didn’t occur, there is one factor.
Secondly, by killing off or losing a large percentage of the Orca population, their lack of numbers have allowed more direct predators, such as seals and sea lions to increase in numbers while their food supply diminishes. Thus you see so many of them at Bonneville, it is the only place where their primary food source is in the abundance they are accustomed to having.
Thirdly, I still believe more by catch occurs by commercials than is let on.
Mortality of catch and release anglers is a factor as is poaching in more secluded areas of rivers where laws are in place.
Native netting practices are certainly in the mix of this quagmire as well.
Lastly on the obvious list here is the counting methods or how our state comes up with their numbers for escapement or returning adult fish. This has had very little science done and has always been done in favor of making sure numbers of fish support the decision to keep rivers open and sell licenses.
My hope is this is about to change and the result will likely be that more rivers don’t support the numbers that have been used in the past and we will find ourselves with little water to swing flies in for native fish for awhile. It will be a tough pill to swallow but as with anything ailing, it must be taken in order to get better.
As for Joan Wulff, the article itself and Joans intro are fairly “benign” and my beef here is that this catch and kill was a tragedy and as someone who is so vested in the longevity of our fisheries, even though she knows Peter, I don’t think it was a good idea to have the association with this piece however benign it is. She is still saying one thing in the FFF magazine ad and then making sure her name is alongside the killing of a fish like this. It is like putting your stamp of approval on it even if you don’t mention it directly.
We know that the pursuit of world record fish in the end kills a giant specimen from that species, no matter what. Some would argue that is species are in peril then why do we keep breaking records? Well, our technology in the industry continues to improve, anglers skills are getting better as we have decades of R&D now under our belt that we didn’t 50 or more years ago. Had we, many of these records may likely have been put so out of reach we would rarely if ever see them broken these days as the abundancy of larger fish whether that be Tarpon, Bluefin Tuna, Chinook Salmon, Swordfish or Steelhead was much higher back then.
My guess is Joan has no idea how bad a state we are in out here with these fish, even though she should having married a gentleman from our state. Look at what the FFF even has on their site under Status of Steelhead:
http://www.fedflyfishers.org/Default.aspx?tabid=4958
Washington isn’t even mentioned. So maybe it is unfair to lump Joan in on this except as I mentioned, from my perspective as one of our true ambassadors in this industry she should have a better pulse on the state of these fish and have opted out of introducing this story. She should have made story out of her refusal to be involved with it and why. It even says exactly what should have been her reaction right on the title for FFF’s website:
Federation of Fly Fishers
Conserving-Restoring-Educating-Through Fly Fishing
WA is just really not on the map anymore for destination steelheading, at least not from much outside the PNW. We are overshadowed by the likes of Oregon and BC on either shoulder of us where once you cross the border out of WA, numbers of fish grow exponentially and my only question is, “Why?”
In the end, maybe this in some wierd twist helps us out, puts a brief spotlight on this situation out here, God knows it needs it. After Pete killed that fish, I had a number of phone calls from all parts of the world, France, Russia, Japan and Chile, people I didn’t know at all and they all asked the same question, “Are you really allowed to kill a native steelhead in Washington still?” After answering, “Yes, in some places you can.”, reaction each time was utter disbelief.
I think the post and comments illustrate exactly how our society fails steelhead and salmon: we waste time and energy fighting over half-truths. We point fingers and claim that the sky is falling, then pile in our SUVs for another road trip where we will do our best to “battle” these fish we supposedly “love.”
Picking on Joan Wulff? Claiming that people outside of the Pacific Northwest shouldn’t speak up for steelhead? What a crock of shit.
Rob,
My wife and I are only two people but we did our part and didn’t participate in the extinction. We took a guided trip with Dave McCoy and I had the best time I have had fishing in a long-time. I would sit at home and watch videos of Tom Larimer, and other “names” in the sport just casting on the river. I was completely transfixed by spey-fishing for Steelhead. I read, and watched just about every book or video about spey-fishing for Steelhead. I was ready to pick up my spey rod and join the likes of people like Dec Hogan in chasing these noble fish. Then I watched a movie that Dave and R.A. put together about the plight of the wild Steelhead in our part of the country and was stopped in my tracks. I naively believed that with the current regulations in our state and the sheer number of steelheaders that they are that the fish were fine. I was WRONG! Now by this point in our story, I had already purchased a 20+ thousand dollar river sled and waders and more gore-tex pro shells than you could shake a stick at. We were all in buddy. Once I opened my eyes and listened to the right people(NOT CCA) about what was really happening, I almost had a panic attack. How could I, contribute to the snuffing out of a species? I am not saying that I am anything more than an absolute beginner at fly-fishing but I lost a lot of sleep over deciding to stick with it or not. In the end I decided that it would be best for us to not pursue the fish at all. I tell everyone I come in contact with, that is willing to listen, about the story of the Steelhead, because there may be a day very soon where there aren’t any wild ones left. The sky is falling Rob, the returns on wild fish were in the single digits compared to their historic norms. 1-2% of the fish are in the systems that used to be there. How can you view that as anything other than mortal danger to this species of fish?
I feel like I can point fingers because I am doing my part. I have the luxury that a lot of people don’t have, in that this isn’t my livelihood. My wife and I will go on living just fine without fishing for Steelhead. We can target sunfish species with a completely clear conscience and have a great amount of fun in the process. So, feel free to point fingers at the people that have the heart to say something about it, and claim that we are the ones at fault. It probably makes it easier for you to sleep to think that those of us on this side of the fence are just as much to blame as the guys fishing with bait who say a fish is a fish is a fish. The only crock of shit I see is the one you are bathing in on a daily basis.
Steelhead fishing is unlike anything else. Only thing that can compare is fishing for salmon. Beautiful fish, love it so much. Can’t wait til their spawning runs real soon here.