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.
The Perfect Honeymoon Suite for Wild Steelhead
When it comes to the Lower 48, it’s undeniable. The Snake River basin is the last best place to restore salmon and steelhead. And that isn’t just bias coming from an Idaho guy who loves and cherishes the wild landscapes and waters of the Gem State. The Snake River basin was once the preeminent producer of summer steelhead to the …
Lee Geist: Strobe Probing For Steelhead
Wild Steelheaders United ambassador Lee Geist with some well-worn advice on how to catch steelhead using a spinner- in this case his favorite #5 Blue Fox. Catch Lee on Instagram @lee_geist and check back for his semi-weekly Wild Steelheaders United blog updates. If you told me I could only fish one steelhead lure for the rest of my life I …
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 …
Summer Steelhead, Spring Chinook and the Delicious Thing They Have in Common
By Lee Geist Summer Steelhead, Spring Chinook and the Delicious Thing They Have in Common. Thick lines of fat segmented by beautiful bright flesh all bundled together and sweating on the BBQ. These days I can’t even look at a picture of a Springer without my mouth watering and the same goes for a brand new hatchery summer. It is …
Snake River Week: Why We Need a Free-Flowing Snake River
Science shows the four lower Snake River dams have negative impacts on salmon and steelhead. If we want to recover those fish, the dams must come down. This morning, Wild Steelheaders United and Trout Unlimited launched Snake River Week. We’ll take a look at TU’s new report- “Why We Need a Free Flowing Snake River.” Throughout the week, we’ll bring …
What’s brewing in the Chehalis River Basin (and why it matters for steelhead)
In this era of dam removal, we’re experiencing renewal and recovery across steelhead country. But in Washington’s Chehalis River basin, a new dam proposal is being considered.
New TU film on Elwha River wild steelhead recovery premieres April 17
WATCH THE FULL FILM NOW: Bases-loaded home runs are few and far between in the river restoration game. But for summer run steelhead, those mysterious and long-distance traveling cousins to winter run O. mykiss, that’s what happened when two dams on Washington’s Elwha River were removed over the past decade. While the rebound of salmon and winter run steelhead in …
Meet the team: John McMillan
We’re rolling on with Elwha week with more content on the people that have helped make the Elwha the Phoenix Rising from the Ashes. Today, we have the next post in our Meet the Team series featuring our Science Director for the Wild Steelhead Initiative, John McMillan. You may already know John from his Instagram account @rainforest_steel, or his Barbless …
Rising from the Ashes
WATCH THE FULL FILM NOW: This is a special week for steelhead anglers, and others who care about the magnificent sea-run form of rainbow trout in its native range of the Pacific Northwest. On Friday, Wild Steelheaders United will launch a new film on the resurgence of summer steelhead in Washington’s Elwha River. The film’s release is supported by a …