When it finally happens, you’ll know. First, you’ll feel an unmistakable sensation of weight, building and causing an ever-deepening bend in your rod. Then you’ll feel your brain, now infused with adrenalin, on fire with the realization that a steelhead has indeed grabbed your swung fly.
Twenty Years of Snake River Hindsight
Eric Crawford is the North Idaho Field Coordinator for Trout Unlimited and the Wild Steelhead Initiative. Before coming to TU, Eric worked a 25 year career as an enforcement officer with Idaho Fish and Game. He’s based in Moscow, Idaho. It was a fishing trip on a balmy November day, back trolling plugs with an old boss in an even …
ODFW Approves Thermal Angling Sanctuaries on the Columbia
Earlier today, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission adopted temporary rules for the 2020 fishing season that limit angling for steelhead in thermal sanctuaries at the mouths of Herman Creek, Eagle Creek, and the Deschutes River. This rule change is a win for endangered Columbia basin steelhead stocks, including the legendary B-Run steelhead that return to the Clearwater each year. …
Support the John Day Steelhead Project
The John Day Steelhead Project is raising funds for a collaborative research project between the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, graduate students at Oregon State University, the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, and other partners seeking to better understand John Day steelhead migration patterns and how Columbia River dams may be impacting the health and abundance of these fish.
A Steelheaders Quarantine Reading List
Stuck-at-home? Here are 16 Steelhead Book Recommendations for the Quarantined Steelheader With many of us spending more time at home and indoors than we’re used to, the team at Wild Steelheaders United thought we’d share some of our favorite reads to keep the fire for conservation and fishing alive while we’re all hunkered down. John McMillan, Wild Steelhead Initiative Science Director Steelhead Fly Fishing …
Take Action: Restoring the Lower Snake
As a steelheader, you may already know the incredible story of Snake River salmon and steelhead, and the precarious position those populations are in now. Today, we have a chance to help Snake River steelhead and salmon. TAKE ACTION TODAY: TU has setup a website with all the information you need to get a handle on Snake River issues and …
Early History of Great Lakes Steelhead
Time for another Science Friday. As followers of these posts know, we like to bring you interesting and useful knowledge about steelhead from a variety of sources. This week,we have a guest author: Brian Morrison. Brian is a scientist and angler who lives in Ontario, Canada, and he was kind enough to drop some knowledge about steelhead in the Great …
Senator Ron Wyden’s Office Receives More Than 15,000 Nominations for Wild and Scenic Rivers in Oregon
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden today announced he has received more than 15,000 nominations for more than 4,000 miles of rivers and streams in Oregon that enthusiasts believe deserve to be added to the national Wild and Scenic Rivers designation list. TU and Wild Steelheaders United have strongly supported Senator Wyden’s leadership on this legislative effort. Wild and Scenic River designation …
Of chukar and steelhead in the Snake River country
By Michael Gibson Nothing clears the mind like a good chukar hike. So, when the boss called for a work/chukar retreat in lower Snake River Country, I got excited. Late-season chukar in some of the best, and most rugged, chukar country the planet has to offer. About now, you are probably wondering, what’s this got to do with fish? We’ll get to that. Our new North Idaho …
WDFW grants permission to Cooke Aquaculture to raise triploid trout in Puget Sound
By John McMillan, Wild Steelhead Science Director Conserving and restoring our wild steelhead runs requires a blend of habitat work, adjustments in management and angling policy, and advocacy from the angling community. As anyone who follows us here at Wild Steelheaders United knows, one of the issues we look at frequently is the impact of captive-hatched or reared fish on …