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Science Friday- Just how much diversity can one creek support? Asotin Creek provides an example

In Science Friday, Snake River, Steelhead Files, Washington by Kyle Smith

If only it was as simple as an adipose fin.  The presence of an adipose fin is universally recognized as the mark.  An individual with an adipose fin is, with a few exceptions, considered a wild steelhead.  On the other hand, those marked, clipped, or ad-intact fish, they are the hatchery ones. Although it is but a small mark, the …

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Of chukar and steelhead in the Snake River country

In Idaho, Oregon, Snake River, Steelhead Files, Washington by Kyle Smith

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 …

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WDFW grants permission to Cooke Aquaculture to raise triploid trout in Puget Sound

In Steelhead Files, Washington by Kyle Smith

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 …

Commission denies petition to prohibit wild steelhead harvest in SW Oregon

In Oregon, Steelhead Files by Kyle Smith

By Kyle Smith, Oregon Field Coordinator Over 50 wild steelhead advocates turned out last Friday for a meeting of the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission in support of a petition that would have enacted emergency rules to prohibit harvest of wild steelhead in the southwest corner of the state. After almost five hours of public testimony, with the majority in …

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ODFW Commission to vote on harvest of wild steelhead in Southwest Zone

In Oregon by Kyle Smith

By Kyle Smith For almost all steelhead waters up and down the West Coast, harvest of wild steelhead is not permitted. This policy is longstanding for many rivers and is based on a combination of factors (primarily the depletion of many wild stocks). And the prohibition of sport harvest of wild steelhead in Washington, Idaho, California, and much of Oregon …

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Science Friday- What Have We Lost?

In Columbia River, Oregon, Science Friday, Steelhead Files by Kyle Smith

Imagine going back in time 100 years to the Columbia River. What do you think the steelhead looked like then? How long were they? How much did they weigh?   In the early 1900s scientists working with the federal Bureau of Fisheries visited the Columbia River, which was considered the center of steelhead abundance for the Lower 48 – and frankly, …

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Remembering Russell Chatham

In California, Steelhead Files by Kyle Smith

  Renowned landscape painter, writer and fly fisherman Russell Chatham passed away on November 10 at the age of 80.   I never knew Chatham, but his book The Anglers Coast and the film Rivers of a Lost Coast – in which he is a main character – are gospel to northern California fly anglers. He was our prophet, spreading …

Steelhead days

In Oregon by Kyle Smith

Among the many charms of autumn is the advent of steelhead runs in many rivers. Where I live, on the central California coast, most streams aren’t yet connected to the ocean—until the rainy season begins in earnest, the sandbars that have set up over the summer between their mouths and the salt remain intact. That doesn’t mean there aren’t steelhead …