The mapping applications available on wildsteelheaders.org have just been updated and now include two new cutting-edge map viewers – a wild steelhead Conservation Atlas and a steelhead fishing trip planner. Both maps are presented in an interactive format, allowing users to select layers to show on the map, pan and zoom to an area of interest, click on layers …
DeFazio: Smith is a place worth preserving
In the first of three videos from the Oregon delegation, Rep. Peter DeFazio talks about why Oregon/California’s Smith River is such an important resource to protect. Get your comments in today to encourage the BLM and Forest Service to implement a 20 year mining withdrawal on the headwaters of the Smith.
Angler Science on the Olympic Peninsula
It is sometimes amazing how one small act of giving can multiply into many. Last year, I was looking for donations to encourage people to get involved with Trout Unlimited’s fledgling Wild Steelhead Initiative. The donation would be the prize – incentive – for TU chapters to get involved in the fight for wild steelhead. The first person I …
Another opportunity to protect the Smith
Please Take Action now to help Wild Steelheaders United preserve this amazing wild steelhead fishery from top to bottom. See “HOW TO COMMENT.” Comment period closes May 27, 2016. The jade-green waters of the legendary Smith River are hauntingly beautiful. But for the better part of a century this stream has haunted anglers primarily for another reason: it’s consistent runs …
The Skagit River open for catch and release, why?
Recently a few of our members raised some questions and concerns about opening a spring catch-and-release (C&R) fishery on the Skagit River. Their primary concern was to protect the healthiest remaining wild steelhead run in Puget Sound — meaning there should be no C&R season — to prevent another population collapse like the one that resulted in the closure …
Oooh-Ooh, That Smell…
By Bill Herzog Can’t you smell that smell? It starts with the first real spring day, usually in early March. It rises to a crescendo in mid April, when hard rains or even a trip to midtown cannot dampen the olfactory onslaught. I’m talking about the tree bloom scent from alder, cottonwood, just the wild flowers in general that produce …
News flash: “Jailed hatchery steelhead released after being held captive for two years! Anglers rejoice!”
By: Rob Masonis That was essentially the message spread by various Puget Sound media outlets this week when the federal government allowed the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to release fish from several steelhead hatcheries after two years. The hold-up had been, until last week, the hatcheries had not received permits establishing they did not jeopardize wild steelhead protected …
What “once was” may still come for steelheaders
As steelheaders, we’re all familiar with conventional wisdom about steelhead fishing. The fishing isn’t what it used to be. You should have been here 50 years ago. Stories of huge fish and numerous multiple fish days, of fishing places that no one else had fished for weeks, or months. Tales of what once was, all centering around …