As predicted for summer steelhead in the Columbia River and many other watersheds in Washington and Oregon, something has happened to the fish. There are precious few of them this season. But it’s important to remember that ebb and flow in population size is part-and-parcel with these fish — and for all salmon in general. We likely pay more …
Don’t reel up just yet
By Bill Herzog We of the swung fly club have to deal with quite a few of our brethren these days on the river, especially the more popular waters, sections and times. If we aren’t first through the run, then all we can hope for is a moving fish to come into swinging range or the rare one that …
Science Friday: Turn up the A/C
Summer-time is here. That means hot weather and hot water, two things that don’t mix well with a cold-water fish like steelhead. As we suffer through the largest heat wave of the summer, we wanted to review a piece of research that looked at how adult steelhead alter their behavior and use micro-habitats to cope with warm weather and …
Stand Up For Clean Water
When anglers think of steelhead water, we tend to think of big, muscular rivers like the Skagit, Umpqua and Eel. We don’t usually think of tributary streams small enough to step across, or even that go dry at times. We should. Such streams are very important for steelhead, particularly for spawning and rearing. In California, for example, 64 percent of …
Science Friday: Ephemeral Streams Provide Key Steelhead Habitat
Previously we wrote about the importance of ephemeral streams to steelhead. These are smaller waters, typically in headwaters and tributary drainages, segments of which dry back in summer or that flow intermittently. Today we pick up the topic again because of recent developments on the federal policy front that threaten these important habitat areas. On July 27, …
How to rig a spoon
By Bill Herzog Casting and retrieving/swinging spoons for steelhead has made a bit of a comeback the last ten years. Nice to see the oldest technique for steelhead experience a bit of career resurgence. Rigging our spoons- that is the configuration of swivels and hooks- has to not only be the right size and style but also serve a …
Science Friday: Hitch-Hiking Smolts
Last week we talked about the importance of spill for out-migrating kelts and smolts in the Columbia Basin. Increasing spill is only one method employed to enhance downstream survival of smolts. As early as the mid-1950s smolts were loaded onto barges and moved downstream past the dams through the lock system. While fisheries managers experimented with this tactic early on …
Science Friday: Increased flow and spill in the Columbia River is important for more than just smolts
Steelhead in the Upper Columbia and Snake Rivers undergo some of the longest journeys of any anadromous fish — some travel more than 600 miles. Returning adults must navigate numerous dams on their upstream migration to reach spawning grounds. Those offspring that survive to become smolts must make that same migration downstream, past the same dams, in order to …
Science Friday: Steelhead invade the east!
While our Initiative is focused on the West Coast where steelhead are native, there is also interesting research being done elsewhere in areas where they are not native. For example, nearly every angler knows that we also have “steelhead” in numerous streams draining the Great Lakes in the Midwest and East Coast of the United States. Those fish in the …
Anglers ask NOAA to expedite Skagit decision
Hundreds of anglers, industry representatives and community businesses all signed on to a letter urging the National Oceananic and Atmospheric Adminstration to expedite a review that would re-open the Skagit River for the 2018 winter/spring steelhead season. The following letter was recently submitted: Barry Thom West Coast Administrator Peter Dygert Branch Chief Anadromous Harvest Management National Marine Fisheries Service …