A River Seen Right

"A River Seen Right" is the title of a book about the North Fork of the Umpqua river that features a lot of stories about the former owner of the Steamboat Inn and true friend of the North Umpqua... Frank Moore.
Now those of you who use weighted flies, lead core line or conventional fishing gear probably do not think much of Mr. Moore especially those that fish the North Fork.
I think Frank Moore is one of the best friends the wild steelhead of the Umpqua ever had.
I met Mr. Moore last Saturday at the Fly Fishing Show in Portland and felt compelled to tell him that I really considered him a hero as far as wild fish and river conservation goes. My friend Don Nelson said he was a dear man! Pretty fitting tribute I would say.
We seem toss around the word "hero" maybe a little too much these days and that is especially true among the angling crowd. Because someone is a good fisherman and catches a lot of fish does not make that angler a hero! Webster's defines a hero as...a man admired for his achievements and noble qualities or one that shows great courage.
I think Frank Moore fits that definition perfectly and Bill Bakke is another. These heroes fought hard for what they believe in and that was the conservation of a precious river and it's wild fish. Had it not been for Mr. Moore the North Umpqua would be just another unremarkable river littered with monofilament and bait containers. He and others went against the conventional wisdom of the times to preserve this jewel among Oregon streams and I have no problem calling him a hero.
Thanks Frank for truly seeing a river right.

Spring Is In the Air

Can there be any surer sign of spring than these glorious words?

"Pitchers and Catchers report on February 16th"

After the cold and gray days of winter and the boredom of the NFL it is time for the world to right itself once again. Yep baseball is almost here!!! Every team starts out full of hope and confidence of the coming season. None more truer than my beloved Los Angeles Dodgers, one of the lasting gifts my father left me is my love for this team. Not since that magic season of 1988 when a crippled Kirk Gibson achieved immortality has my Dodgers reached the promised land but...This is the year I just know it.
The lyrics from this classic song by John Fogerty says it all.

Centerfield

Well beat the drum and hold the phone
The sun came out today
We're born again, there's new grass on the field
A-roundin' third and headed for home
It's a brown-eyed handsome man
Anyone can understand the way I feel

Put me in Coach
I'm ready to play today
Put me in Coach
I'm ready to play today
Look at me
I can be
Centerfield

Well is spent some time in the Mudville Nine
Watchin' it from the bench
You know I took some lumps when the Mighty Case struck out
So say Hey Willie tell the Cobb
And Joe DiMaggio
Don't say it ain't so
You know the time is now

Put me in Coach
I'm ready to play today
Put me in Coach
I'm ready to play today
Look at me
I can be
Centerfield

Got a beat-up glove, a homemade bat,
And a brand new pair of shoes
You know I think it's time
To give this game a ride
Just to hit the ball and touch 'em all
A moment in the sun
It's gone and you can tell that one goodbye

Put me in Coach
I'm ready to play today
Put me in Coach
I'm ready to play today
Look at me
Gotta be
Centerfield

A Time For Tough Choices

Points to ponder to any of you that read this blog and also fish.
What are you willing to sacrifice for the betterment of the resource? Could you give up your fly fishing for trout on the Deschutes for instance? How about the wonderful coastal cutthroat trout on the north coast? How about those of you that fish the Columbia river for spring chinook?
The point I'm trying to make here is there very well may come a time when we face these tough choices. Face it folks the once abundant runs of wild anadromous fish are but a shell of their former selves. Over harvest, pollution, hydro-electric dams, gill nets and loss of habitat has decimated these runs to the point of extinction in many instances.
We can get outraged at the TV news footage of hungry pinnepeds devouring spring chinook salmon below Bonneville dam and rightly so to a degree. The thing is the problem is just a symptom of a much larger problem. The regions gluttony for hydro power necessitated these dams or so they tell us. So now we have the four nearly useless lower Snake River dams that serve no viable purpose other than blocking wild salmon escapement into spawning areas. Nearly everyone agrees that these dams could and should be removed but of course they have become sacred cows to those that think the earth is ours to plunder.
With man made climate changes and other man caused problems we may see the end to many endangered fish runs.
Not many people realize that the Pacific steelhead trout ranged as far south as Baja California! In just a couple of generations those runs are just a long gone memory. The extinction has crept up the coastline and the now virtually all wild spawning steelhead runs are in trouble.
Add to all this the mismanagement of the resource by state and federal agencies and therein lays the problem.
It's time to quit wasting our money with poorly designed and managed hatchery programs and spend that money where it will do the most good! We are not entitled to have fish to harvest and it is selfish to think so. Couldn't that money be better spent in wild fish habitat restoration?
A perfect example of wasted money is the shrine to logging in the Tillamook forest that was built along the Wilson river. It's a very impressive display of how the giant timber companies pillaged that forest for so many years. Do you think maybe those millions would have been better spent on the regions endangered wild fish? I think so.
This opinion is not popular among the "coastal" folk who make their living in the forest but can't we still harvest trees and keep our rivers and their wild fish viable? I think so!