Trout Unlimited - A Lifetime Commitment

I decided to do something that I've only done once before. I took out a lifetime membership to Trout Unlimited.
There is a lot that can be said about TU and it's their unwavering commitment to our cold water fisheries that made me go from a year to year member to a lifetime member.
Trout Unlimited's mission is simple
To conserve, protect and restore North America's coldwater fisheries and their watersheds.

Their vision is bold
By the next generation, Trout Unlimited will ensure that robust populations of native and wild coldwater fish once again thrive within their North American range, so that our children can enjoy healthy fisheries in their home waters.

Isn't that what we all want after all? The promise of clean rivers and wild fish for our grandchildren. I know that is what I want!
There are many enemies of wild fish and some do not even know they are enemies. Our coldwater fisheries have been assaulted for the past eight years by an agenda that cares only about profit.
I get angry at the carelessness and ignorance by those that have the "What's in it for me" attitude.
Thus my lifetime pledge to wild fish and clean rivers in my own corner of the world.
Check them out along with other conservation organizations that I have linked her on this blog.....make a commitment and you grandchildren will thank you long after you've made your last cast.

ODFW Wants to Kill Wild Trout

Does the title of this entry shock you? Do you think I'm sensationalizing? Do you think I'm making this up?
Believe me friends I wish I were. It's true and here is proof from none other than Rhine Messmer of Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Messmer says:

We want to make sure members of the angling community know that these proposals are being reconsidered and that there’s still an opportunity for public comment,” he said.
Our biologists have said the cutthroat trout populations in coastal streams and rivers are healthy and can sustain limited harvest,” Messmer said. “Narrowing opportunity on these rivers is counter to ODFW goals to increase fishing opportunities, especially for young or novice anglers.”
Messmer said coastal rivers and streams are great “entry-level” fisheries, and that being able to keep a fish is important to many new anglers, especially youth.
The Commission decided to reconsider the proposal, in part, because of vocal support at the August Commission meeting. Several people testifying supported the proposal as a way to minimize the negative impacts of angling on wild fish.

Wonder who the talkative biologist is? I'm pretty sure it's either Rick Klumph, Chris Knudsen or Robert Bradley of the Tillamook office of ODFW.
Funny thing is when I queried about cutthroat trout populations on the northern coast of Oregon these guys could not give me a straight answer. In fact the information that they refer to shows those populations on a downward downward trend.
ODFW is supposedly rallying the Tillamook kill crowd to come to the final meeting on September 19 to show support for the harvest proposal.
I have written a lot about my love for coastal cutthroat trout on this blog and their welfare is very important to me. I knew ODFW would use the "kid" excuse as a means to boost lagging license sales.
It's a sad state of affairs when a state agency will actually promote the killing of a wild trout and actively campaign for this harvest.
I can guarantee you that my big mouth is going to be heard on the 19th. This reckless, ignore actual science approach to wild fish management is wrong and will not stand. To use the excuse that kids need to kill trout in order to feel fulfilled and flock to the rivers in huge numbers is bogus and weak and shows an agency that is out of touch or just does not care.It does show biologists ODFW employees who lack character and only want to save their own sorry asses from the budget cuts that are sure to come.
On a positive note I know of at least three ODFW commissioners who believe these fish are worth protecting. The seven commission members are the final word on fishing regulations and here is hoping they do the correct thing on the 19th.
Here is a list of the seven ODFW commsioners and their email addresses. If you can please write them and tell them you oppose proposal 150P and support 132P
This is just too important.
Thanks!

Marla Rae (Chairperson) - marlarae@qwest.net The Rae Group
333 High Street NE, Suite 202
Salem, OR 97301

Skip Klarquist - skip@erisalaw.com
Zalutsky & Klarquist, PC
215 SW Washington Street, 3rd Floor
Portland, OR 97204

Zane Smith Jr. - zanegreysmith@msn.com
1243 Delrose Drive
Springfield, OR 97477-1594

Dan Edge - daniel.edge@oregonstate.edu
Department of Fisheries and Wildlife
OSU, 104 Nash Hall
Corvallis, OR 97331-2910

Carter Kerns NO Email Contact
503 N Main St.
Pendleton, OR 97801-2243

Jon Englund - jenglund@eglundmarine.com
Englund Marine Supply Co, Inc.
PO Box 296
Astoria , OR 97103

Bobby Levy - bobby.levy@my180.netPO Box 69
Echo , OR 97826

You can also send comments to Rhine Messmer at ODFW
Rhine.T.Messmer@state.or.us

It's Hotter Than Hell in Oregon

Do you think I could take this one hundred degree plus weather and save it for say January? Yes, yes I know I promised not to bitch about the warm weather last winter.
Yep it's the dog days of summer all right and so that puts a screeching halt to my fly fishing during the warmest of these days.
With water temperatures above sixty five in most areas it is prudent to either fish the first hours of daylight and the last hours before night fall or don't fish at all. Warm water is toxic to cold water species like trout and so I err on the side of caution during these times.
I worked, for many years, in an aluminum foundry. If there is a place called hell then it certainly must be like that foundry was. We poured molten metal into iron molds to make parts for the large semis that blow you off the road as they pass by.
Many times the temperature was over 120 degrees on the molding line and we had to wear heavy cotton clothing because of safety. Polyester melts when molten aluminum comes in contact with it and of course that makes for some very nasty burns.
One other thing that was also by products of such a hot work place is PRICKLY HEAT!!!
Guys know what I'm talking a about and I think I kept the company that makes Desitin ointment in business all those years.
I have a few war wounds (burns) besides a bad back to show from my years of labor though and I am not ashamed that I lived the life of a blue collar union working stiff.
I thought I would never be able to enjoy the summer time because of my aversion to extreme heat and it did take awhile to adjust after retirement. I now just love a summer evening as the sun goes down and the heat relaxes it's stranglehold on the day.
The sounds of a summer evening in a even a modest sized city like the one where I reside are for some reason soothing to me. There is a hum in the air as if the earth is sighing in relief from being baked all day long.
Of course the insect hatches along the Deschutes are absolutely mind boggling in their intensity at this time of day. The caddis are like a thick black cloak as I ply my trade to the trout that slurp bugs like a thirsty dog in the river. I usually inhale a few caddis as I watch the sun dip below the impressive canyon wall of the river...wonder if they are fattening?
My friend, Bamboo Mike, calls this the magic hour and I think that is a nice way to describe it. The trout converge on the piscatorial smorgasbord that the emerging and dying insects offer up.
These are the times that trout seem to cast aside all caution and feed on the surface. This is a dry fly fisherman's joy for sure!
So when the chill of winter invades my well being I will think of days like this and hopefully it will warm me and sustain me through those cold days.

The Knee Jerk Zealot

Let me share with you some criticism I've earned during my time here on The Quiet Pool. They say that one can take pride in who their enemies are and although I have never intended to make enemies in my zeal for wild fish I'm a big boy and can take it.
I thought some of these were actually well thought out and very humorous.
So here goes

"One-trick ponies and knee-jerk zealots of all stripes, in all domains, are always crashing bores. The fact that the point they're unimaginatively hammering away on might sometimes be a correct one is immaterial to me"

Get that? Disliking me is more important than the issue at hand! Well here is more from the same critic.

"Simplistic, bombastic, haranguing, uncritical, categorical pronouncements, and holy-than-thou posturing--in the place of analysis and discrimination and thought--does "the cause" no real good at all. The choir already knows all the old words by heart"

A few other comments by others

"Shane, you always mean well, how much I appreciate the intensity you bring to the cause, but your methods for rallying the troops is about as effective at getting our attention as driving a nail through our collective temples"

Listen folks I'm not here to handle people with kid gloves. To quote an old cliche "If you are not part of the solution then you are part of the problem"
So if you don't care enough to get involved in trying to preserve the last viable populations of wild salmonids then get the hell out of the way. There are plenty who are concerned and your lazy ass is in the way!
Also don't try to sound like you care JLM because we know it's all about the "Kodak Moment"
So if you are offended then great! That was my intention.

United We Stand

This was the day that we friends of wild fish long been waiting for. This was the day where we could let all seven ODFW commissioners know how we felt about how important wild fish are to Oregon's future.
I am proud of my wild fish friendly brethren. We showed up in large numbers to say no to the killing of wild coastal cutthroat trout and no to the killing killing of wild North Umpqua winter steelhead!

We showed up to say no to bait on portions of the legendary Rogue river. We spoke united with one common message.
Wild salmon, trout and steelhead are too valuable to kill. One gentleman from Roseburg so eloquently stated it like this. "We will never look back and say we should have killed more fish"
How true!
Of course there were those that blow their own horn and talk about how much they care about wild and "spiritual" fish. The owner of the largest sports angling website in the Pacific Northwest was, once again, a no show. She talks the talk but never walks the walk.
There were groups that at one time in Pacific Northwest history played a large part in protecting wild fish. Sadly this group is a shadow of it's former self and cowers from the conservation battles it once revelled in.
I am proud to be a member of Native Fish Society and a new lifetime member of Trout Unlimited.
I call NFS director Bill Bakke a friend and TU director Tom Wolf a friend. These two "warriors" have battled for many years in the arena of conservation and I give them all the plaudits that they so richly deserve.
I also thank the foot soldiers, who through their solitary efforts, have made a difference.
I would invite you to check out these two groups that are linked in the Friends of The Quiet Pool list on the left hand side of this blog.
So friends if you are not involved in the fight for wild fish then why not get involved? You don't have to be a big mouth, pain in the ass to ODFW, like me but your quiet support will go a long way towards the betterment of our precious wild resource.
The fight is far from over but today showed that a united group of wild fish advocates can get their message across.
Tight lines!

Gear, Gear and More Gear

I admit it....I'm am a gear junkie! I just cannot get enough and about the time I actually do come to my senses and realize I have enough then something new comes out.
I was the same way when I drift fished and perhaps worse! On the west coast we used a little round drift bobber called a "Lil' Corkie Drifter". They were really very inexpensive at about ten cents a piece and since drift fishing could eat up a lot of these then it was good to have several dozen of various colors on hand. Get that? Several dozen on hand huh? Fat chance! I would usually pack with me at least a hundred in different colors and would have a cache of at least a thousand at home. Of course I needed a few rods for every possible scenario and reels to go with them.
Graduating into fly fishing it's the same thing. I need fly rods and accompanying fly reels for every application. I have Spey gear for just the Deschutes and of course another set up for winter steelhead. For trout I have both a bamboo and graphite in all the popular trout weights. I'm constantly buying, selling and trading gear to get more gear.
I have tippet spools for just about every type of fish I fly fish for and typically I have to buy one at some expensive tackle shop at my destination because I've forgotten the one I need back at home.
As for flies? We don't even want to go there friends. Let's just say I have enough flies of every size to outfit my sons and grandsons needs for years to come.
When I am preparing for a trip I, of course, take too much stuff and like the tippet spools I forget the important gear and have to buy it on the road. You wouldn't believe how many spools of 6X I have.
I've tried every chest pack, fanny pack and vest out there and I think I have finally settled on a nice William Joseph bag that I can sling over my shoulder. So that leaves me with all the ones that I didn't like or didn't work as well as I thought they would when buying them.
Head lamps, scissors, forceps all number in the dozens and I keep my fishing buddies supplied with my discards,
You can probably hear me coming down the stream bank with all the jingling and rattling of all the gear I don't need packed in my bag or in the pockets of one of those Columbia Sportswear fishing shirts of which I have nearly ten of.
The thing about those shirts is I usually lose things in these multi pocketed shirts and usually have to just bout dress down to locate my pipe lighter.
It's an incurable disease I know but hey it's fun to try out new gadgets and the things you convince yourself that you just gotta have.
So any of you have the same affliction? Got anything you want to trade?

He's Back!!!!

After a nice but fish less visit to Central Oregon your favorite angry fly fisherman is back.I met my new granddaughter and spent time with my other two grand kids.
Central Oregon is such a wonderful place even if you are not a fly fisherman and we took in a lot of the clear air of this region.
There is just something magical about living in a town that has the Deschutes River running through it. I tell my son just how lucky he is to be able to live and work exactly where you want to be. Bend is where he has worked hard for FedEx to be and I hope to move to that region some day.
So what lays ahead in the never ending battle for the well being of wild fish? We will be testifying before the full ODFW commission on August 8th. Here is hoping that we get the big turn out of wild fish friendly people at the meeting to show that we are indeed willing to fight for this precious resource.
The proposals are out there to bring back a kill fishery for wild North Umpqua winter steelhead and wild coastal cutthroat trout. Seems like this is a never ending struggle no matter what the status of these wild populations are and ODFW does not seem to care much for the well being of these fish or they would have never allowed these wrong headed proposals to get beyond the review board.
The summer time warm water temperatures have halted my coastal trout fishing and I will not resume until the cooling weather of fall. There are also a huge amount of salmon, trout and steelhead smolt that seem to take pleasure in sinking my dry fly.
With the fall rains comes the returning cutthroat trout and of course the fall salmon.
This year the salmon well has almost gone dry and the bag limits will be severally cut back in most regions.
This is a good idea but I am afraid that it is at least two years too late.
The effect of those dark and inedible females slaughtered for their eggs has taken a toll much larger than the bait slinging, knuckle dragging so called sportsmen are willing to admit.
So after a short respite I am back with all kinds of new rants in mind...stay tuned friends.

Thoughts on Tradition aka An Insomniacs Rant

Couldn't sleep so please excuse the ramble and over zealous punctuation.

Fly fishing is steeped in tradition. Some of the old names associated with our sport are, or should be, instantly recognizable. What fly angler, worth his salt, is not familiar with names like Lee Wulff, Hardy Bros. and Orvis. As a graduate of the gear fishing fraternity I must say there are very few "legends" in that type of fishing that are not just regional names. Sure most gear guys know who Buzz Ramsay, Jim Conway and Clancy Holt are but their fame do not go much beyond the Pacific Northwest.
I do love much of the folklore and tradition of fly fishing but am not so rigid that I have become dogmatic about it like some I've encountered. I do use a split bamboo fly rod for trout but if I were a strict traditionalist I would also use a silk fly line and a gut leader.
I also think that fly fishing, as far as the efficiency of it, is very impractical. Think about that last statement for a minute. If our goal were just to catch a lot of fish in the name of sport isn't there easier ways to accomplish that and still call ourselves sports anglers? I know for a fact there are. Getting past all that crap about "Isn't it cheaper and easier to Safeway and buy your fish" that is what the practical man would say and I say he is full of it. However there are easier ways to satisfy ones hunter/gatherer instincts!
I could have kept my old Lamiglas drift rod with my ABU Ambassadeur level wind reel and tied on a bit of salmon roe then let fly. Been there and done that! Caught a lot of salmon and steelhead that way and while it was fun it became very routine and not very challenging.
Hence my entry into the world of fly fishing. I give homage to the traditions that make this angling pursuit what it is and why the legend and lore of it are so appealing.
Taking that further I think we, who chose this method of sports angling,should at least give a passing nod to tradition.Tradition is all the things, at least to me, that make this sport such a pleasure. Many of we fly anglers do offer something to tradition and I hope that once us old guys have made our last casts that some of those traditions will not die with us.
I wonder though....Would Norman Maclean and his brother Paul have used a strike indicator?
- Tight Lines -

Thank Heaven for Little Girls

My newest grand daughter arrived yesterday at 6:18 PM in Bend, Oregon. She weighed in at 8.8 lbs and is 22 inches long for those of you that find importance in that stuff.

Allyson Rose is her name.
So here is hoping, from a proud grandpa, that she grows up to appreciate the world around her and all the wonderful things about it.Here's also hoping that when she is an adult that she can enjoy clean water, wild fish and a world without war. Yes I know, wishful thinking but it should be every one's goal to insure that our grandchildren will not have to just read about the beauty of the nature but actually get to experience themselves.

Don't Insult the Trout

If our father had had his say, nobody who did not know how to catch a fish would be allowed to disgrace a fish by catching him.
Norman Maclean
"A River Runs Through It"

As I stumble through this angling life I've found that there are few absolutes in fly fishing.
Yes, of course, there are certain commandments that one does not break...ever. Commandments like not cutting off a fellow angler by stepping below him, a commandment I see broken all too often unfortunately. What I'm talking about is the things in the pursuit of trout that are just done and not strayed from.
I think using an indicator for trout is an insult to the trout! There I said and I'm sticking to it. I mean come on guys is that really that much fun? Sure it's effective but so is putting shrimp scent on your fly but anyone who calls themselves a fly fisherman and does this is really beyond contempt don't you think?

An indicator immediately destroys any kind of graceful casting. It makes, what should be a challenge into little more than bobber and jig fishing. No thanks I say, because isn't fly fishing supposed to be kind of a graduate school for anglers?
I took a trip last summer with some of my friends from my fly club to a Willamette Valley river. It has a pretty good rainbow and cutthroat trout population and they can be taken rather easily on dry or wet flies. As we were rigging up for our day of fishing I noticed that every one of them, except myself, installed an indicator with tiny split shot on their leaders!!!! I just shrugged, to myself of course, and headed for the river. I allowed one of these fellows, all great guys by the way all though misguided, the best part of the run where I had success before while fishing soft hackles and dries.
Sure enough one them hooks up with a very nice rainbow measuring about seventeen inches. He got it fishing some kind of nymph or whatever, under and indicator.
Thoroughly disgusted at myself for allowing such an insult to the trout, I set off upstream to try my luck away from these unwashed cretins.
To not come off sounding too much like Henning Hale Orviston of "The River Why" fame I must admit that I once dabbled into the paganism and debauchery that is indicator fly fishing. I found it unwieldy and generally a pain in the ass to put it bluntly. I had served my angling apprenticeship with all the bait,scent, lead and bobbers so decided to travel that road less travelled that I have alluded to in the past. I fear I might have offended some you heathen indicator tossing brethren and to that I offer apologies to you....well not really but it seemed I should offer something at least.
So to my superior and more highly evolved fly fishing comrades I raise my tumbler of single malt and smoke a fine Monte Cristo to you fellows. Alas it's not easy to be an elitist so I will instead toast you with stale Pabst and a White Owl instead.
Cheers and good fishing to all who navigate the road less travelled including you indicator guys.

Gonna Miss Ya George

I just learned of the death of comedian George Carlin. I bought one of his early comedy albums " AM FM " and never laughed so hard in my life. His irreverant commentary on everyday life and his twisted reasonings were timeless...I will miss him

Here are a few of his best

Always do whatever's next.


At a formal dinner party, the person nearest death should always be seated closest to the bathroom.


Atheism is a non-prophet organization.


By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth.


Death is caused by swallowing small amounts of saliva over a long period of time.


Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things.


Dusting is a good example of the futility of trying to put things right. As soon as you dust, the fact of your next dusting has already been established.


Electricity is really just organized lightning.


Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity.


Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck.


Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?


"I am" is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language. Could it be that "I do" is the longest sentence?


I have as much authority as the Pope, I just don't have as many people who believe it.


I recently went to a new doctor and noticed he was located in something called the Professional Building. I felt better right away.


I think it would be interesting if old people got anti-Alzheimer's disease where they slowly began to recover other people's lost memories.


I think people should be allowed to do anything they want. We haven't tried that for a while. Maybe this time it'll work.


I was thinking about how people seem to read the Bible a whole lot more as they get older; then it dawned on me - they're cramming for their final exam.


I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, "Where's the self-help section?" She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.


I would never want to be a member of a group whose symbol was a guy nailed to two pieces of wood.


I'm always relieved when someone is delivering a eulogy and I realize I'm listening to it.


I'm completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.


I'm not concerned about all hell breaking loose, but that a PART of hell will break loose... it'll be much harder to detect.


If God had intended us not to masturbate he would've made our arms shorter.


If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, then I'd have to say the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little.


If we could just find out who's in charge, we could kill him.


If you can't beat them, arrange to have them beaten.


In comic strips, the person on the right always speaks first.


Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist.


Just cause you got the monkey off your back doesn't mean the circus has left town.


May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house.


Most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit.


Not only do I not know what's going on, I wouldn't know what to do about it if I did.


One can never know for sure what a deserted area looks like.


One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor.


People who say they don't care what people think are usually desperate to have people think they don't care what people think.


Religion is just mind control.


Some people see things that are and ask, Why? Some people dream of things that never were and ask, Why not? Some people have to go to work and don't have time for all that.

Dry Fly Perfection

I think one of the biggest thrills in fly fishing is a trout violently grabbing a dry fly on the surface. There is just something about the sudden flash and realization that you did everything right and fooled this trout into thinking, if trout are capable of thinking that is, that your little bit of fur and feathers is something edible.

Last week while plying my craftiness and immense angling skills on an Oregon coastal stream for cutthroat trout, I achieved "Dry Fly Perfection"
The trout were not interested in anything subsurface like my favorite soft hackle offerings but there was a couple trout slurping Mays and yellow stones off the surface. I proceeded to tie on a #14 Royal Humpy to see if it could fool a cutt into eating it.
Sure enough the fly was not on the water two seconds until a large resident cutthroat inhaled it.
The fish did all the normal things these great trout do and what gives me so much pleasure in pursuing them. Spectacular leaps and runs that really pushed my four weight to it's limit.
I brought him in and with a slight pull the barbless hook was out and he was gone to contemplate his sore lip.
I really believe that fishing for trout with a dry fly is fly fishing at it's purest and most basic form. No gadgets or weight forward lines or weighted fly just the line leader and fly...nothing else. It just cannot get any simpler than that can it?
Dry fly fishing must surely be a big reason that this sport so endearing to so many and I wish I were better at it. It's not, however, just tossing your fake bug out there and hoping for the best. You have to make this floating imposter look like a natural insect so manipulating the line in order to produce that elusive and much sought after drag free drift is the key.
Surely this must be what Gingrich was thinking about when he titled his book "The Joy of Trout". Is there anything more joyful than making the perfect connection? When all the stars in the cosmos line up correctly and you put it all together....ah perfection!

Can I Super Size That For You?

So here we sit looking into the abyss that is the current salmon runs on the west coast. We can point fingers at so many things like El Nino or pinniped predation or hydro electric dams or over harvest by commercial and sports fishing interests and all have played a part in the current down turn to be sure.
When things were fat and a lot of salmon and steelhead were returning everyone was happy and everybody got their share of the salmon pie.
Seems like there were new fishing "superstars" everywhere and the number of "expert" guides increased ten fold. The builders of fishing boats and fishing tackle manufacturers reaped the rewards of the years of plenty.
These boom years and the emergence of the world wide web spawned more than a few fishing forums that cashed in on the good fishing.
So let's fast forward to less than ten years later and see what we have. Of course there is even more bickering and infighting amongst the various users groups and with few exceptions the internet fishing forums have petered out.Many of those self proclaimed angling "experts" have vanished.
I will not be surprised if I see a few of the Tillamook bait guides flipping burgers at The Fern restaurant or maybe ushering at the downtown Tillamook movie house in the near future. Yes these carpetbaggers from the Willamette Valley have found that the well is running dry and all those dark hen chinook they kept and discarded the unfit for the table carcasses simply for the eggs has finally caught up with them.Is it any wonder that the owner of ifish.net, a business that has benefited greatly from those fat years of salmon returns, has hinted about selling the popular fishing forum?
It's kind of too bad for some businesses though. There are some that were friends of the resource, unlike those previously mentioned, who will lose out. I'm not totally heartless you see.
During those boom years we would seldom see most of those previously mentioned guides and businesses at important public meetings concerning fisheries. Oh yeah they would be at the ones that served their own selfish interests but when it came to the real conservation stuff they were all no shows!
With the bloated budget of ODFW surely to find the scissors of the governor of this state maybe just maybe we will see some of the worthless and wild fish killing programs die a painful death. Those programs like the steelhead broodstock programs will not go easily though and those who have made a bunch of cash on the backs of wild fish will not give up without a fight.
I will not mourn however, I knew these times were coming and not because I am especially enlightened or anything. I saw it from the perspective of conservation and anyone without any self serving agenda could see the same thing.
So friends don't feel too bad for those that hastened the downturn because after all they did their part to bring us where we are today.I can hear them saying it now "Would you like french fries with that order sir?" I call that poetic justice!

The Quiet Pool Turns Two!!!!

This little blog is officially two years old! To those of you that have been faithful followers of my often incendiary rants and musings I say thank you. I know some if not most stumble upon this blog by accident but some have followed this faithfully since it's inception.
I started this blog as just a way to write down my thoughts and opinions. I have not always been politically correct and I must confess that at least some of that has been intentional.
I'm sure a few have been offended but like I've said before everything I write here has been based on facts and not just something I've pulled out of mid air. I don't believe that feelings should be spared when it comes to matters of conservation. We cannot afford to be nice that way.
I have no idea who the many readers from right here in the Pacific northwest are but if you care about conservation and the beauty of fly fishing then a thank you to you also.
I know there are detractors among the countless millions (yeah right)of you readers out there and hopefully I have not offended you to the point of murderous thoughts. Keep reading though as I am sure we have some common ground somewhere.
To all who care about pristine waters and healthy runs of wild trout and salmon please continue to do your part. We cannot let up for one second in the ongoing struggle to protect our precious natural resources.
So hopefully friends this little wayside among the madness of the worldwide web will continue.
It costs me nothing but a small amount of time. Thank you again for the words of encouragement I've received along the way. Thank you for putting up with bad punctuation,run on sentences and bad spelling. Hope to see at least some of you along the river sometime.
Cheers!
Shane

True in 1968 and True Today...The Words of Robert F. Kennedy

Today marks the fortieth anniversary of the assassination of Robert Kennedy.While we can only speculate about what a second Kennedy administration would have meant for this country. We can appreciate his words of hope in a tumultuous time. His words are as relevant today as they were back in 1968.



This is a speech given by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reflecting on his father. These words by RFK were ahead of their times and could easily be said by anyone sick and tired of George Bush's folly in Iraq.

In 1968, my father, running for President, addressed in a speech, the White House's proposal for a troop surge in Vietnam. Robert Kennedy had initially supported the U.S. intervention in Vietnam. Forty years later, as Congress and the White House debate the further escalation of yet another war that has already claimed the lives of an astounding 640,000 Iraqis, killed 3,256 U.S. soldiers and wounded another 50,000, his words should have special resonance to those of our political leaders who are still searching for the right course in Iraq:


"I do not want--as I believe most Americans do not want--to sell out American interests, to simply withdraw, to raise the white flag of surrender. That would be unacceptable to us as a country and as a people. But I am concerned--as I believe most Americans are concerned--that the course we are following at the present time is deeply wrong. I am concerned--as I believe most Americans are concerned--that we are acting as if no other nations existed, against the judgment and desires of neutrals and our historic allies alike. I am concerned--as I believe most Americans are concerned--that our present course will not bring victory; will not bring peace; will not stop the bloodshed; and will not advance the interests of the United States or the cause of peace in the world. I am concerned that, at the end of it all, there will only be more Americans killed; more of our treasure spilled out; and because of the bitterness and hatred on every side of this war, more hundreds of thousands of [civilians] slaughtered; so they may say, as Tacitus said of Rome: "They made a desert, and called it peace." . . .

"The reversals of the last several months have led our military to ask for more troops. This weekend, it was announced that some of them--a "moderate" increase, it was said--would soon be sent. But isn't this exactly what we have always done in the past? If we examine the history of this conflict, we find the dismal story repeated time after time. Every time--at every crisis--we have denied that anything was wrong; sent more troops; and issued more confident communiques. Every time, we have been assured that this one last step would bring victory. And every time, the predictions and promises have failed and been forgotten, and the demand has been made again for just one more step up the ladder. But all the escalations, all the last steps, have brought us no closer to success than we were before. . . . And once again the President tells us, as we have been told for twenty years, that "we are going to win"; "victory" is coming. . . . It becoming more evident with every passing day that the victories we achieve will only come at the cost of the destruction for the nation we once hoped to help. . . .

"Let us have no misunderstanding. [They] are a brutal enemy indeed. Time and time again, they have shown their willingness to sacrifice innocent civilians, to engage in torture and murder and despicable terror to achieve their ends. This is a war almost without rules or quarter. There can be no easy moral answer to this war, no one-sided condemnation of American actions. What we must ask ourselves is whether we have a right to bring so much destruction to another land, without clear and convincing evidence that this is what its people want. But that is precisely the evidence we do not have. . . .

"The war, far from being the last critical test for the United States, is in fact weakening our position in Asia and around the world, and eroding the structure of international cooperation which has directly supported our security for the past three decades. . . . All this bears directly and heavily on the question of whether more troops should now be sent--and, if more are sent, what their mission will be. We are entitled to ask--we are required to ask--how many more men, how many more lives, how much more destruction will be asked, to provide the military victory that is always just around the corner, to pour into this bottomless pit of our dreams? But this question the administration does not and cannot answer. It has no answer--none but the ever-expanding use of military force and the lives of our brave soldiers, in a conflict where military force has failed to solve anything yet. . . .

"But the costs of the war's present course far outweigh anything we can reasonably hope to gain by it, for ourselves or for the people of Vietnam. It must be ended, and it can be ended, in a peace of brave men who have fought each other with a terrible fury, each believing he and he alone was in the right. We have prayed to different gods, and the prayers of neither have been answered fully. Now, while there is still time for some of them to be partly answered, now is the time to stop. . . .

"You are the people, as President Kennedy said, who have "the least ties to the present and the greatest ties to the future." I urge you to learn the harsh facts that lurk behind the mask of official illusion with which we have concealed our true circumstances, even from ourselves. Our country is in danger: not just from foreign enemies; but above all, from our misguided policies--and what they can do to the nation that Thomas Jefferson once told us was the last, best hope of man. There is a contest on, not for the rule of America, but for the heart of America. . . . I ask you to go forth and work for new policies--work to change our direction--and thus restore our place at the point of moral leadership, in our country, in our hearts, and all around the world."

My Angel on Earth

May 28th marked the ninth anniversary of my beloved grandmother's death at the age of almost 101. She was my angel on earth. She was the rock of our family when my father and uncle, her sons, died within three months of each other and sustained us in our grief while she held the family together as only she could.
She was a simple and uneducated women but the wisdom she had could not be taught anywhere. In her simple southern ways she was the wisest person I knew and her faith in God was unflinching.
She was an excellent cook and one of her specialties was her applesauce cake that me and my brothers literally fought over when she would send one for Christmas. I still have the recipe and make it from time to time and each time I do I cannot help but get sentimental about her.
No matter how much we disappointed her and I know that I did, she never judged us and never quit loving us.I was fortunate enough to attend her 100th birthday celebration in Florida in 1999 but sadly I knew that this would be the last time I would see her. I miss her terribly but am joyful and truly blessed for the many years she gave us all.

I miss you Mama and I love you

Regarding Steelhead Broodstock Programs by Bill McMillan

I've corresponded with Bill McMillan over the last few years about various wild fish conservation concerns in this region.
I know of no one more passionate about the fate of wild salmonids as Bill McMillan is.I thought I would share his comments on wild steelhead broodstock programs, a subject that I have touched on more than a few times.

It doesn't much matter where they have occurred geographically, the basics are the same. It is virtually the same hatchery technology that we began with 130 years ago on the West Coast -- take wild fish from their stream of origin (where they are typically needed on the spawning grounds, not removed from them), strip wild females of their eggs, squirt sperm on them from males, rear the eggs in hatchery trays, and rear the juveniles in hatchery confinement prior to release. British Columbia has used native brood steelhead programs for over 30 years beginning with the Big Qualicum Hatchery. Most of the steelhead rivers on the east side of Vancouver Island have virtually collapsed in the past 10-12 years with closures of many of those rivers necessitated to preserve the remaining wild steelhead. I am a personal friend of the now retired hatchery manager who began the Vedder River Hatchery on the lower Fraser system. It had early success, and has seen significant failures in its objectives since. He is now an outspoken pessimist regarding native brood programs for steelhead who recently spoke out against such a program now being suggested by some for the Thompson River.

As with all hatchery programs, the B.C. native brood programs started out as promising ventures that inevitably deteriorated and failed to accomplish the goals intended: that being to maintain wild steelhead runs and to supplement them with additional hatchery fish for harvest. As in the U.S., the B.C. hatchery programs have tended to replicate what has long happened in the U.S. no matter what the hatchery program, wild brood or otherwise: that is replace the wild fish with hatchery origin fish. In the first generation removed from the wild (that is the eggs from wild brood held in hatchery trays and the juveniles juveniles reared in a hatchery for a year), there are significant changes from the wild fish they originated from. In other words, domestication occurs within the very first generation.

Among the most common alterations to salmon or steelhead in native brood programs are phenotypic changes in body form and fin sizes that occur in the very first generation as initially discovered with Atlantic salmon in Norway.
The best information available on using native broodstock is a very complete assessment done by Bill Bakke of the Native Fish Society. You can find that recent paper online by going to nativefishsociety.org. I have heard from several B.C. biologists who read the paper as well as from two of the most trustworthy scientists I know in NOAA Fisheries that Bakke's collection of quotes from papers and sources is the best piece of work out there to date.
The only success stories I know of regarding wild steelhead recoveries have been those instances where hatchery programs have never existed, or where hatchery programs have been eliminated. Regarding the former, the John Day River is a great example, although hatchery strays due to all the Columbia River barging are increasingly reducing the John Day's wild reproduction and rearing capacity. Despite these compromises to wild John Day steelhead, it remains the only major river system on the Columbia where wild steelhead are considered healthy. Joseph Creek on the Grande Ronde River is also an exceptional example. Even though Joseph Creek steelhead must go back and forth through 8 dams, they do incredibly well when good dam passage conditions are provided with good ocean conditions. Regarding an example where hatchery steelhead elimination has proven of great benefit, unfortunately we have only one river where it has been attempted, but it has been quite successful to date. That is Wind River. I attempted to get hatchery steelhead eliminated on the Wind back in 1980-81. They were eliminated for 3 years but the 1983 El Nino event sent the local steelhead manager there into a panic and he resumed hatchery plants. As the wild steelhead tumbled toward extinction there in the 1990s with numbers down to snorkel counts of 40 steelhead, the WDFW manager finally eliminated hatchery steelhead releases there above Shepherd Falls, and those that strayed he had removed via the Shepherd Falls trap that is in the fish ladder there. As with many rivers, the wild steelhead began to recover with the better ocean conditions in the early 2000s. However, as the wild steelhead numbers have begun to crash again as the ocean conditions have returned to less productive conditions, the Wind River wild steelhead have continued to recover with growing numbers the past 2 years. For the first time in many years, Wind River will likely be opened to a catch and release wild fishery this summer or fall due to this success.

Just What is ODFW's Mandate?

According to Webster mandate is defined as simply this
An authoritative command; especially : a formal order from a superior court or official to an inferior one
So that tells me a state government agency is ruled by public decree correct? Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, being a public agency, should do the will of the public that trusts them to manage fish and wildlife. Seems pretty simple to me!

Let's take it a bit further by looking at the simple Mission Statement of this public agency
"To protect and enhance Oregon's fish and wildlife and their habitats for use and enjoyment by present and future generations"
I think the key word here is future.
I do not think for one moment that this mission statement is being followed and here is why.
Under the agencies priorities for 2007-2008 they show their hand plain and simple so even a dumb guy like myself can understand.
Bullet number two in these strategies is this....
Develop strategies for recruiting and retaining hunters, anglers, and wildlife viewers
What are those strategies?
Anyone who has done the ODFW public circuit of meetings knows that this agency is in fiscal trouble and big time.Angler participation in this state is declining at an alarming rate and it just so happens it coincides with the likewise alarming down turn of returning salmon and steelhead into Oregon's rivers.
ODFW recognizes this and the agencies intentions are clear! They use the clever euphemism of "Increased angling opportunities" but if you read between the lines it becomes apparent that ODFW wants more bodies on the river and lakes and will do what it takes to get them there.
They also use the excuse of getting young anglers involved. That is a noble gesture but teaching them to kill trout is not the way to go about it.
In the 2008-2009 angling regulations developmental cycle ODFW asked the public to participate with regulation changes they would like starting in 2009.
I myself sent in several proposals that I felt were biologically sound and were consistent with ODFW's mission statement I listed above.
I knew not all of them would make the final cut but I thought maybe one or two would. I read all of the public proposals and thought the conservation side was very well represented with some very thoughtful public proposals.
I was impressed by the thought put into those proposals that protected wild fish "for future generations"
Never once did I think that almost every publicly submitted conservation proposal would be summarily rejected by the angling review board.
Seems like all the rumors of license sales before conservation are true. Harvest of wild winter steelhead on the North Umpqua is back and, of course, so is a potential harvest of north coast cutthroat trout. Seems like the review board would rather protect invasive and illegally planted warm water fish than native salmonids.
These harvest proposals are still in the public review and comment process and may not get any further than the several public meetings scheduled this month BUT the fact that they made it this far while sensible wild fish management proposals did not is very telling and disturbing.
As I've stated before there are some very talented individuals working for ODFW. Intelligent biologists that really do care about wild salmonid conservation. I've met a few of them and they are a credit to the agency. There also seems to be a fair amount of arrogance too and it seems to be what drives ODFW.
Needless to say the fight for these wild fish is far from over. While some ODFW staffers believe we will just roll over and let them ride rough shod over wild salmon, steelhead and trout populations in Oregon for the sake of increased angling opportunities. I am certain that it will not happen this year or ever! I have faith in the voices of thousands who cared enough to be involved in trying to make ODFW own up to it's mandate.

Trout

It's that time of year again. A time of year that all we who fly fish wait for. We wait patiently and in my case not so patiently, for the endless storms of winter to pass.
The blooming daffodils are usually the first indication that our winter of discontent is finally coming to an end and then of course the beginning of the baseball season.
What is it that causes us to pursue trout? Why are we drawn to this fish?
I think we as fly fishers have a lot thank trout for. It's trout that brought us into this wonderful form of angling after all. It's trout that gives us camaraderie with other like minded souls and in many cases life long bonds of friendship are formed. It's trout that keeps us young and optimistic and above all else hopeful
In his classic work "Year of the Trout" author Steve Raymond poses these questions.

"What magic quality does the trout possess that compels men to search for it in such dark and desperate weather? What virtue does it offer to command such unwavering devotion?"

He goes on to explain why he loves trout so much.

" I love trout because they are among the most beautiful and graceful of all creatures and because they dwell in some of the most beautiful and graceful of all places.
I love them because I am a fly fisherman and trout inspired the invention of my sport; without them it would be a very different sport, if indeed it existed at all"

I would ask any of you reading this if you feel the same way...I know I do.
Would I love the Deschutes or Metolius so much if it weren't for the wonderful trout that live there? Oh I know I would love those rivers for just their beauty alone but it is the trout that drew me there in the first place.
Has a fish ever been as written about as trout? Think of all the classic fly fishing books devoted to trout. "The Joy of Trout" or "Trout Magic" or "Year of the Trout" just to name a few.
I have staked my reputation, for what it's worth, on the salvation cutthroat trout. Why would I do that? Why would anyone think that this trout is so special as to put so much passion behind saving them?
I cannot explain it except to say trout and the pursuit of them maybe the one thing I may do well and I'm not talking catch ratio either. Trout brings out the little child in us and we know that we want them to endure because it is the right thing to do for everyone, even those who do not fish.
A good friend has taught me this pursuit we call fly fishing is something that is filled with tradition even in this day and age tradition still matters doesn't it? He taught me that it is giving it your best effort. So why wouldn't we give the preservation of trout our best effort also?
Why would I spend my children's inheritance on sticks made out of an asian tall grass? Why would I go to great length to acquire a single action fly reel from a maker who is unknown outside of the fly fishing world and spend as much money on it as a set of fine golf clubs.
The logic escapes the most romantic dreamer except those who share this obsession called trout.
Here's wishing all of you a fine trout season filled with the joy and yes even the frustration of trout.....tight lines!

Now Back To Our Regularly Scheduled Rant

Oh yes friends I have got plenty to rant about too!
I was reading in the latest edition of Northwest Fly Fishing about how the state of Washington is cutting back on hatchery winter steelhead releases in the Cowlitz river and they have raised the bag limit from two fish to six fin clipped steelhead.
Why are they doing this? Why all of the sudden has Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife decided maybe just maybe wild fish are important enough to try to restore in this major Columbia tributary? It's not just hatchery steelhead that are being cut back either. WDFW is also taking steps to restore wild salmon and coastal cutthroat trout.
Now admittedly it may be too late to save SW Washington wild salmonids. The damage has been both severe and long lasting. I recall a day some thirty two years ago standing above the Cowlitz river and seeing the thousands of hatchery winter steelhead stacked up below Barrier Dam. Of course the fishermen were also "stacked up" trying to hook them! It was not exactly what I would call a defining moment of pristine Pacific Northwest angling if you know what I mean. The state of Washington had turned the Cowlitz into just another hatchery fish super highway and the damage may be irreversible but we can hope.
The point of this rant, however, is why can't we get the same enlightenment here in Oregon ? Heck why can't we get the same enlightenment on the northern coast of Oregon for that matter?

I went to an ODFW budget meeting the other night and had the pleasure of meeting Todd Alsbury, a fish biologist for ODFW. Todd is in charge of the winter steelhead broodstock programs on both the Clackamas and Sandy rivers. He told me that they do not use 100% wild stock for the source of eggs for this program like is done on the Wilson, Siletz and Nestucca rivers. They use only 30% and they see to it that the returning generation broodstock off springs do not stray into the upper river to mix with wild fish. Hey I call that pretty progressive don't you? We know that the hatchery spectre is here to stay and we have become addicted to it and therefore it would be impossible to totally end hatcheries. While it is not realistic to think we can end all hatchery plants we can expect and even demand responsible hatchery practices and procedures. We are not getting this on the northwest coastal river of Oregon and you just have to wonder why?
Why is our neighboring state trying to undo years of hatchery fish damage to great rivers like the Cowlitz.Taking it a step further even in regions of our own state progressive thinking fish biologists are trying, within the constraints and agendas put forth by ODFW mind you, to take into consideration the plight of wild salmonids?
This is what you get with no basin management plan and district biologists are given pretty much free reign as far as this program goes.So who is running the show in Tillamook? Why is there such a vast difference between Oregon and Washington and even within different regions around the state? I cannot get information from district biologists as to how much time they actually spend on wild cutthroat populations in the Tillamook basin much less answers to the way the wild fish are managed or should I say mismanaged.
I was,however, able to find a picture of who is in charge in Tillamook and it's posted above.....nyuck, nyuck, nuyck.

Wild Fish are Important

I rant a lot on this blog about wild fish and how important they are but being just a layman I am not eloquent enough to put it layman's terms as to the importance of wild fish . As a matter of fact I don't even try because there are scores of people who know this stuff better than me so the practical thing to do is let them explain it.

I gleaned the following from The Wild Steelhead Coalition website. Whose website is linked in "Friends of the Quiet Pool" column.

All species live in constantly changing environments. To overcome environmental
fluctuations, it is essential for species to exploit all available habitat. The long-term existence of a species is maximized through the adaptation of numerous populations and sub-populations to specific environmental conditions. These adaptations have evolved over hundreds and thousands of generations in concert with a natural, fluctuating environment. As the environment changes so does the composition of individuals within a population.
While the environment acts as a changing variable to individuals within a population, the one constant is that individuals pass their genetic makeup, which includes chromosomes, genes, and non-coding regions of the genome, to their offspring. This inherited genetic material is passed from one generation to the next as the foundation upon which individual uniqueness and population differences are maintained and is known as genetic diversity.The genetic diversity maintained within a species is a genetic reservoir upon which natural selection acts.Populations with unnaturally altered or low levels of genetic diversity can be stripped of their evolutionary future because their ability to respond to changing environments has been reduced. Loss of genetic diversity can lead to reductions in fitness and decrease an individuals ability to adapt to environmental changes. Fitness is a measure of an individuals potential to produce viable offspring. Fitness reductions can be caused by either inbreeding or genetic drift. Inbreeding is often observed in populations with low numbers of mating individuals, and occurs when closely related individuals mate as opposed to unrelated 26 individuals. Inbreeding often increases the frequency of deleterious genes within a population.
A classic example of inbreeding and its effect is the lethal genetic disease hemophilia within the European monarchies, most notably Queen Victoria of England and her descendants.

Food For Thought

I know at least a few of you that read this blog are persons of faith. I would hope the following entry will not offend but perhaps make those of you that beleive in a creator open to opposing ideas/


Science Must Destroy Religion
By Sam Harris
Most people believe that the Creator of the universe wrote (or dictated) one of their books. Unfortunately, there are many books that pretend to divine authorship, and each makes incompatible claims about how we all must live. Despite the ecumenical efforts of many well-intentioned people, these irreconcilable religious commitments still inspire an appalling amount of human conflict.
In response to this situation, most sensible people advocate something called "religious tolerance." While religious tolerance is surely better than religious war, tolerance is not without its liabilities. Our fear of provoking religious hatred has rendered us incapable of criticizing ideas that are now patently absurd and increasingly maladaptive. It has also obliged us to lie to ourselves — repeatedly and at the highest levels — about the compatibility between religious faith and scientific rationality.
The conflict between religion and science is inherent and (very nearly) zero-sum. The success of science often comes at the expense of religious dogma; the maintenance of religious dogma always comes at the expense of science. It is time we conceded a basic fact of human discourse: either a person has good reasons for what he believes, or he does not. When a person has good reasons, his beliefs contribute to our growing understanding of the world. We need not distinguish between "hard" and "soft" science here, or between science and other evidence-based disciplines like history. There happen to be very good reasons to believe that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. Consequently, the idea that the Egyptians actually did it lacks credibility. Every sane human being recognizes that to rely merely upon "faith" to decide specific questions of historical fact would be both idiotic and grotesque — that is, until the conversation turns to the origin of books like the bible and the Koran, to the resurrection of Jesus, to Muhammad's conversation with the angel Gabriel, or to any of the other hallowed travesties that still crowd the altar of human ignorance.
Science, in the broadest sense, includes all reasonable claims to knowledge about ourselves and the world. If there were good reasons to believe that Jesus was born of a virgin, or that Muhammad flew to heaven on a winged horse, these beliefs would necessarily form part of our rational description of the universe. Faith is nothing more than the license that religious people give one another to believe such propositions when reasons fail. The difference between science and religion is the difference between a willingness to dispassionately consider new evidence and new arguments, and a passionate unwillingness to do so. The distinction could not be more obvious, or more consequential, and yet it is everywhere elided, even in the ivory tower.
Religion is fast growing incompatible with the emergence of a global, civil society. Religious faith — faith that there is a God who cares what name he is called, that one of our books is infallible, that Jesus is coming back to earth to judge the living and the dead, that Muslim martyrs go straight to Paradise, etc. — is on the wrong side of an escalating war of ideas. The difference between science and religion is the difference between a genuine openness to fruits of human inquiry in the 21st century, and a premature closure to such inquiry as a matter of principle. I believe that the antagonism between reason and faith will only grow more pervasive and intractable in the coming years. Iron Age beliefs — about God, the soul, sin, free will, etc. — continue to impede medical research and distort public policy. The possibility that we could elect a U.S. President who takes biblical prophesy seriously is real and terrifying; the likelihood that we will one day confront Islamists armed with nuclear or biological weapons is also terrifying, and it is increasing by the day. We are doing very little, at the level of our intellectual discourse, to prevent such possibilities. 

In the spirit of religious tolerance, most scientists are keeping silent when they should be blasting the hideous fantasies of a prior age with all the facts at their disposal.
To win this war of ideas, scientists and other rational people will need to find new ways of talking about ethics and spiritual experience. The distinction between science and religion is not a matter of excluding our ethical intuitions and non-ordinary states of consciousness from our conversation about the world; it is a matter of our being rigorous about what is reasonable to conclude on their basis. We must find ways of meeting our emotional needs that do not require the abject embrace of the preposterous. We must learn to invoke the power of ritual and to mark those transitions in every human life that demand profundity — birth, marriage, death, etc. — without lying to ourselves about the nature of reality.
I am hopeful that the necessary transformation in our thinking will come about as our scientific understanding of ourselves matures. When we find reliable ways to make human beings more loving, less fearful, and genuinely enraptured by the fact of our appearance in the cosmos, we will have no need for divisive religious myths. Only then will the practice of raising our children to believe that they are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or Hindu be broadly recognized as the ludicrous obscenity that it is. And only then will we stand a chance of healing the deepest and most dangerous fractures in our world.

The Great Shute

The Great Shute (Chute) was a name that the Lewis and Clark expedition called the Columbia River Gorge on their voyage west back in 1804.Looking past their spelling mistakes I think they described what they saw appropriately.
What a grand sight it must have been too. The huge river was teaming with migrating salmon, the abundant waterfowl nested along the shore and the deer and elk grazed the meadows along this mightiest of American rivers. Is it any wonder that Chief Joseph fought so hard for his land, this land of the Nez Perce?

Celilo Falls was just one of the major obstacle that the Corps of Discovery encountered on their journey to the Pacific ocean so long ago.
The sheer raw beauty of the river and it's gorge must have taken their breath away as they went from desert to lush Pacific rain forest.
Think about the many legendary rivers that drain into the Columbia. Names likes the Snake, Deschutes, Willamette,Clearwater and Wind just to name a few.Is it any wonder that this river was truly the river of dreams.
Those of us today cannot fathom what the Columbia once was as we travel east along I-84. We encounter man's intrusion upon river almost from the beginning. Hydro-electric dams that have forever taken away Celilo Falls and created one slack water reservoir after another.Water that in the summer time reaches the fish killing mid-seventies in temperature and pollution that makes the windsurfers near Hood River sick. These dams have become fish killing barriers with so many awful consequences that one cannot begin to list them here.
Then there are the ghosts of the huge salmon and steelhead runs of the past. Countless hundreds of thousands of all the salmon species along with steelhead,cutthroat trout and smelt are just memories anymore. Take your pick of reasons for their decline because there are many but at the bottom of it all is, of course, greed. Greed that began when in 1792 Captain Robert Gray first encountered the river which he would name after his ship. Greed when the legendary Lewis and Clark paddled down it and surely greed today.
On this Earth Day 2008 I think it is only appropriate to pay homage to the once mighty Columbia river.

Cutthroat in the Crosshairs

I heard from Rhine Messmer of ODFW that the agency will promote a coastal cutthroat trout harvest starting in 2009.
I will have petitions in River City Fly Shop and Kaufmann's by next week and I will try to get them to other shops if I am able too.
If you cannot get to those shops to sign the petitions then please by all means write ODFW and let them know that you oppose any harvest of these wild trout.
Here are some addresses to send your letter of opposition to
Keith Braun - Keith.E.Braun@state.or.us
Ed Bowles (Fisheries Director) - Ed.Bowles@state.or.us
Rick Klumph - Rick.L.Klumph@state.or.us
Rhine Messmer - Rhine.T.Messmer@state.or.us
You can also contact any or all of the commissioners
at the ODFW website. ODFW LINK
There will be public meetings on 5/22 in Newport and 5/23 in Tillamook. We could use as many people there as possible.
If you believe that these fish are worth saving then please make your feelings known.
With the state of Oregon planting hundreds of thousands of hatchery rainbow trout in lakes and reservoirs throughout the state there is absolutely no reason to kill wild trout!
ODFW is dealing with a revenue shortfall from declining license and tag sales so it appears they think they way to sell more licenses is to allow the killing of these wild trout.
Here is the first paragraph from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's mission statement.
The mission of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is to protect and enhance Oregon’s fish and wildlife and their habitats for use and enjoyment by present and future generations.
You make up your own mind if killing wild cutthroat trout fits into this strategy.

Snow in April???? The Year of Endless Winter

Above photo taken 4/20/2008 in Salem, Oregon

I should have taken a picture of the snow on my truck yesterday morning because I would not have believed it myself.
Isn't April that time of year when I take a trip east of the mountains to the Deschutes? Isn't it time to mow my lawn? Isn't it time to put away the winter steelhead gear for a few months?
I know I complain about winter a lot on this blog but who wouldn't complain after an April 20th snow shower in western Oregon. This isn't Alaska after all! Heck this isn't even Lake Tahoe where my brother tells me they got snow on the fourth of July one year.
Eventually spring and summer will get here...won't they?
Last Saturday it was eighty friggin' degrees and I was wearing shorts for crying out loud! I had to open a few windows in my home because it was so warm. I drove around with the windows on my truck down! The very next day the temperature dropped something like thirty degrees!!!! It's like what the the DJ in the movie "Ground Hog Day" radio DJ would say "Rise and shine campers! Don't forget your booties because it's cold out there. It's COLD out there everyday!What is this, Miami Beach? Not hardly!".
Have I been mysteriously transported into the cold version of that old surfer movie "The Endless Summer"? All I can say is "Cowabunga"
The way I figure it the eighty degree day was just some kind of cosmic tease and I think it may have been directed at me. Call it a conspiracy theory if you will but sorry folks I feel like I am the reason we got an eighty degree day followed by a fifty degree day. I was being punished because of all my winter whining and I dragged all my Pacific northwest neighbors down with me. Have faith though folks because I'm sure winter will not last too much longer. In fact it will arrive by fourth of July...won't it?