Today we review a study on the impacts of catch and release angling on wild steelhead in the Bulkley River, the largest tributary to British Columbia’s legendary Skeena system. Conducted by Will Twardek and several others, this study looked into the effects of catch and release, air exposure and fight time on behavior and survival to spawning. The study …
Steelhead 101: Estimating steelhead run size
Recently we have described the various methods used by biologists and resource managers to estimate steelhead escapement, which is the number of fish that escape and survive fisheries (all forms of angling) to actually spawn in a watershed. Run size is the total number of steelhead that return to a watershed each year. In order to estimate run size …
Wild Rivers, Wild Steelhead
What are the keys to successful wild steelhead conservation? What can you do to help this cause? How do steelhead differ from other salmonids in their sexual behavior? For answers to these and many other questions about wild steelhead, as well as some of the best steelhead stories ever told, please join Wild Steelheaders United for an evening of science, …