December 28, 2016 It’s been more than two years since Trout Unlimited’s Wild Steelhead Initiative left the boat ramp. This initiative was born of committed steelhead anglers whose hope for a brighter future for wild steelhead is matched by their stubbornness in fighting for the improvements in habitat and policy required to realize this vision. For too long, steelhead management …
Science Friday: Tillamook Bay Steelhead
Do you ever wonder what we might be missing nowadays in terms of steelhead life histories? Although we can’t go back in time to answer this question, we can look at historic data — in this case from Oregon’s Tillamook Bay. By the 1940’s Oregon’s Tillamook Bay was a patchwork of homesteads and farms, appearing more like the present day …
TU comments: Proposed Changes to Listed Salmon and Steelhead Hatchery Programs
December 20, 2016 Chris Yates Assistant Regional Administrator Protected Resources Division NMFS, West Coast Regional Office Attn: Claire McGrath 1201 NE Lloyd Blvd., Suite 1100 Portland, OR 97232 Re: Proposed Changes to Listed Salmon and Steelhead Hatchery Programs . Dear Mr. Yates: Trout Unlimited (TU), the nation’s largest coldwater fisheries conservation organization dedicated to protecting and restoring our …
Important salmon-producing areas protected in final Tongass National Forest Plan Amendment
December 9, 2016 Contact: Mark Hieronymus, Trout Unlimited – Alaska, mark.hieronymus@tu.org, 907-209-9770 Arne Johnson, Bear Creek Outfitters, arne@juneauflyfishing.com, 907-723-3914 PRESS KIT AVAILABLE: including b-roll footage, photos and interview footage at this link. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Important salmon-producing areas protected in final Tongass National Forest Plan Amendment Sportsmen and businesses applaud new direction for country’s largest National Forest. JUNEAU, AK – …
Time to Take Action on Columbia/Snake River Dams
Take Action The Columbia and Snake Rivers were once prolific producers of wild steelhead and salmon. It is estimated that the Snake River system alone produced 55 percent of the Columbia Basin’s summer steelhead and 40 percent of its spring/summer Chinook. But today all Columbia Basin wild steelhead and salmon populations are just a fraction of their historic abundance …
A solid first step
Wild Steelheaders United praises submission of new steelhead management plan, process of reopening Skagit River for catch-and-release wild steelhead angling As we head into the Thanksgiving holiday, recent developments in Washington State give wild steelhead anglers and advocates extra reason for being thankful. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has prepared a new plan for managing winter/spring …
What happened to our Columbia River steelhead?
By now, you have probably heard steelhead returns to the Columbia are well below the most recent ten-year average. As a result, places like the Methow River will not be open to steelhead angling this fall. In short, that is a bummer. There has been much speculation about the causes for the decline and potential fear that changes …
Juvenile steelhead doing what it takes to become a smolt: You grow in summer, I’ll grow in winter
Another Friday, another blog post on the science of steelhead. We love this day of the week! Our topic this week is the growth of juvenile steelhead. Did you know that the growth rate of steelhead can vary depending on the season of the year? This variation in growth rate can be considerable. There are a number of reasons that …
Steelhead biology for anglers
One thing you will notice about anglers who have spent a lot of time on the water, and I mean a potentially unhealthy amount of time on the water, is they catch fish. This can be frustrating to new anglers who are just learning to steelhead fish and spend many fishless days casting. There is no substitute for time …
Time to rethink what you thought you knew about steelhead
John McMillan I bet we all think we know what a steelhead is: a rainbow trout that goes to the ocean and returns to spawn in freshwater. I agree. But, new research indicates that the definition may not be so simple. Jason Hall, a researcher with NOAA in Seattle at the Montlake Lab (Northwest Fisheries Science …