Déjà Vu? By Sean Gallagher The wipers strained as sheets of rainwater slammed the windshield. It sounded as if one thousand marbles were bouncing off the roof—we swerved and just missed another puddle. If Larry and I turn around now we have the perfect excuse, I thought. Our destination on this dark, blustery, Saturday morning in November was the …
Wild Steelhead License Plate
Have you ever thought, Oregon has a salmon plate, why not Washington? Well now is your chance to secure the opportunity as a Washingtonian to show your love of Washington’s state fish, the steelhead. WDFW has been working on a plate featuring a wild steelhead, but before this can become a reality they had to reach a minimum of 3500 …
Happy Birthday Wild Steelheaders United
By Shauna Sherard We made it. One year. 365 days passed. 365 steps toward a better future for steelhead. One year down. So many to go. There are those who thought we were crazy. Crazy in what we believed. Crazy in our attempt to unite anglers, to try to solve allegedly unsolvable problems that had plagued steelhead rivers for decades. …
Finishing the job
By Rob Masonis Darn lucky. That is what I consider myself for having been able to make a living for more than two decades protecting and restoring the great steelhead and salmon rivers of the Pacific Northwest. The muscular, jaw-droppingly beautiful rivers themselves have provided plenty of inspiration for my work. But the wild steelhead that swim in their waters …
WSU: Good excuse to go fishing
By Sam Davidson Among the better excuses for going fishing is to celebrate a birthday. One’s own, of course. But also your father-in-law’s, the 4th of July, Christmas, Rutherford B. Hayes’s, and your yet-to-be-born nephew’s. The point is that you can use “celebrating a birthday” as a legitimate excuse to go fishing for any day of the year. I …
Steelheaders amass for Olympic Peninsula
As a rule, public comment periods for proposed regulations are not sexy. They are not attention grabbers. They’re not headline makers. Sometimes, they’re not even interesting enough to garner the attention of a single citizen. For that you need protests. Public displays. But comment periods? While they exude patriotism, practically stinking of the fundamentals of democracy, let’s be honest. …
Oregon’s Nehalem River Fish Passage Project
Oregon’s Nehalem River Steelhead will Face Improved Passage this Year Oregon’s Nehalem River on the North Coast is home to some of the wildest winter steelhead in the region. It also hosts strong populations of chinook, coho, and coastal cutthroat, as well as chum and lamprey. The Nehalem is big water – some 120 miles long winding from its headwaters …
Anger.
By Bill Herzog Anger. Steelheading brings on many emotions- pure joy, anticipation, frustration, wonder, disappointment for sure. But anger, now, that should never manifest itself at any time during an anglers’ day. Unfortunately, most of my days after wandering the banks of my beloved Olympic Peninsula winter rivers the last half dozen winter seasons have ended with an …
When worlds collide
By Gary Strassburg Back in the early 90’s I was drift fishing the upper reaches of the Skagit River above Rockport for winter steelhead. It was nearing the end of February and soon the river would close to the killing of steelhead and the use of bait, and give way to an army of fly anglers that cared less about …
Doing what we can as anglers to ensure the future of the OP fishery
Change is never easy. This is particularly true for anglers. We are passionate about our fishing and our fish – in this case steelhead. We are reluctant to change, if only because we have lost great steelhead fisheries to closure, such as the Skagit, and fear losing further opportunity. But in the face of such change, we must ask ourselves: Would …