Category Archives: environment

When Peanut Butter Cookies are a bad thing

Bring Your Own Bottle, of Oxygen Brownlining is fine, but I’ve got to draw the line somewhere. Fishing anywhere in Northern California would be best described as “Brown Lunging” regardless of elevation and venue.

I did manage to sneak out between shifts Saturday morning, fires traditionally dampen down in the evening due to the increased humidity, and the smoke decreases somewhat. I hit the American River at first light and the entire place smelled like Ma’s home cooked Peanut Butter cookies.

I managed to stick a single fish but lost it before it could be identified. I assume it was a Shad – briefly contemplating hanging it from a tree limb for an hour to smoke it …

I headed home before the worst of the smoke returned, nothing like smoking a pack of cigarettes per cast – even the hardiest fishermen would turn tail.

Next week is more of the same, bring your own oxygen mask or stay out of the area.

There’s safety in numbers

John Muir and Sierrasportsmen.org Politics makes strange bedfellows and with declining participation in out-of-doors activities you can expect change. The Sierra Club is appealing to the sporting fraternity with it’s launch of the Sierrasportsmen.org website, with content tailored to both hunters and fishermen.

Environmentalists, according to Sierra Club spokeswoman Kristina Johnson, are embracing sportsmen as allies in the common causes of combating mercury-contaminated water, saving salmon from global warming and protecting elk range from oil drilling.

It’s quite understandable as so many of our issues are intertwined. Pollution and Global Warming cross every boundary imaginable, and with the folks in power turning a deaf ear – it’s up to the little guys to band together.

I say “Welcome” – and am pleased to have someone remind me that the tippet I just discarded is a bio-hazard. I get to remind them that they just spooked my fish, so we’re even.

Likely they’ll warm to us “earthy” types quick enough, and if invited to a cocktail party I’ll be on double-good behavior.

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Moules de Quagga, comes with a large diet Coke

Want Rock Snot with that? It’s the best advice I’ve seen to date and based on our track record would work swimmingly, the downside is you’d have to develop a taste for Zebra Mussel Meatloaf, or Quagga Milkshake.

“How to handle an invasive species? Eat it” – an article from the NY Times suggesting there’s something we can do about a seemingly impossible problem. I can’t name a culinary delicacy that’s not already on the decline or completely extinct, it seems that the best weapon against aliens is our gut.

If these species have only the most rudimentary thought processes, would they be so eager to hitch a ride on the waders of “Mr. Supersize,” or will that dark spot under the rock be “.. just fine, thankee…”

Don’t act all squeamish, as you ain’t tried it yet, some garlic and rosemary and we could be sitting on the next great fast food franchise. Mix a little patriotism in, as it’s an election year, and we could declare a culinary Jihad.

All them catchy McDonald’s jingles you’ve memorized over the years can’t compete with “You want Rock Snot with that?”

We’re not the only ones with the savvy, as Jellyfish Ice cream has made one fellow a small fortune, but there’s plenty more invasive species that taste twice as good. With canny marketing, lobsters could be coerced to invade Nebraska, and perhaps we can get a sentient strain of Blackberries to invade Phoenix, or Illinois – then really hit it big.

The profit potential is limitless provided you can keep a straight face, add a fancy french pronunciation, and the Northern Snakehead becomes anything you want…

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One brief spark of hope – ruthlessly extinguished

Plenty of Wisdom and damn little else We tuned them out once we heard the “lecture” tone, some old SOB wanted to tell us how it’s done, as if he knew anything. Maturity does have value, and fish research is postulating that we’ve got the regulations reversed, and should harvest all them young and dumb fish – as their absence isn’t missed.

“It’s not the young ones that should be thrown back, but the larger, older fish that should be spared. Not only do the older fish provide stability … to the population, they provide more and better quality offspring.

This isn’t going to fly with the “Gurl’s Gone Wild” crowd, you lecherous SOB but it does give you a bit of validation.

“Stability” in fish could be “wisdom” in humans – we’ve been preaching its benefits for years, not that it’s done much good – just count the number of stainless studs in your kid’s nose for proof..

A single large fish will simply grow a little when it gets more food, or lose a little weight when food is scarce. A population of many young, small fish, however, may explode in number or collapse depending on food availability.

Translation: Old guys learned a long time ago that consensus was the root of all societal ills, the younger crowd do everything at the same time causing massive upheaval – ’cause upheaval’s fun as hell.

This is especially important to know when trying to rebuild fish stocks.

This is where the research falls on it’s face, experience has taught us that despite our willingness to “rebuild,” the “grilse” will take one look at the available “mature” genetic material –  holding their breath to make their gut smaller – and the species is doomed.

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Just one more thing to dance around enroute to the crick

Uma Thurman is rash material I figured carp and bass would still be plentiful and assumed I could move to Canada before they close the borders. 

We’ve known the Cockroach is a survivor, and now it’ll have company – as the CO2 enriched atmosphere is building a Poison Ivy superstrain.

New research shows the rash-inducing plant appears to be growing faster and producing more potent oil compared with earlier decades. The reason? Rising ambient carbon-dioxide levels create ideal conditions for the plant, producing bigger leaves, faster growth, hardier plants and oil that’s even more irritating.

Both National Geographic and the Wall Street Journal have published short articles describing how the active ingredient Urushiol has become more virulent since the ’50’s.  CO2 is akin to airborne fertilizer for most plants, Poison Ivy reacts with a hardier plant, larger leaves, and a more virulent toxin.

I suppose we can always “winch” ourselves out of our waders akin to the armored knights of year’s past, or wader technology might simply opt for the disposable flavor – incinerated in a flash of smoke as your wife ushers you through the decontamination room.

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Normally a Salmon contamination would be an angling "call to arms"

Yes, but whose water will you crap in next? A sobering article on Chilean salmon farms is available from the New York Times, in short, after we stomp wild fish to death, we farm them in an unsanitary manner, which stomps other wild fish to death.

Salmon feces and food pellets are stripping the water of oxygen, killing other marine life and spreading disease, biologists and environmentalists say. Escaped salmon are eating other fish species and have begun invading rivers and lakes as far away as neighboring Argentina, researchers say.

Local fishermen have noted an increasing “rosy” tint to fish they catch, the source is assumed to be excess “salmon chow” that falls to the sea floor from the pens.

…the industry needed to limit the escapes of about one million salmon a year; control the use of fungicides like green malachite, a carcinogen that was prohibited in 2002; and better regulate the colorant used to make salmon more rosy, which has been associated with retina problems in humans. It also said Chile’s use of antibiotics was “excessive.”

Costco and Safeway are among the largest importers of Chilean salmon, so if you frequent either – you may want to arm yourself with the facts.

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There’s fish, bait, and hundred dollar bills

Like licking the glass of an empty aquarium I always thought there were only two kinds of fish, those worth throwing flies at  – and bait. “Bait” is a slim category as us hardened Californians pride ourselves on being culinary “shock troops” – we gleefully ingest gastronomic foibles, delicacies, and taboo, which doesn’t leave much in the way of undesirable chow.

I’ve tried the cheap stuff and it’s bait. Despite the clever little cracker, cracked ice, and delicate silver spoon, it just didn’t muster any reaction from me other than “empty an aquarium, butter it, then lick the glass.”

We’re talking caviar, a delicacy foisted on us by folks that fermented potatoes for liquor.

Them same lads are proposing a 5 year moratorium on Black Sea sturgeon fishing to preserve the nearly extinct remnants of the Beluga Sturgeon. The US banned importation in 2005, although a lively Black Market still exists.

Poaching of sturgeon has become a $1 billion-a-year business largely in the hands of organized crime. As a result, the fish faces extinction in the Caspian Sea, home to 90 percent of the world’s sturgeon. Russian sturgeon farms in major Caspian ports such as Astrakhan have tried to revive the fish’s population, but the massive amount of overfishing in the Caspian has made replenishment a losing battle.

At nearly $5000 dollars per pound, the Black Sea’s sturgeon are among the most lucrative poaching targets in the world. Now that the Russian government is looking at a worldwide moratorium, the price will become higher.

Is this the same fate we’ll endure with the paltry remnants of the pacific salmon stocks? Next month yields the initial closure and many suggest may be of two year’s duration.

A thriving Black Market will result, led by all those fancy restaurateurs who insist Wild fish are some much more flavorful than farmed. It’s a double whammy to the Dept of Fish and Game as they’re woefully understaffed and now both sturgeon and salmon will be prized poaching targets.

It may be a test of your ethics as so many fish will be hooked fishing for something else. In poor economic times in a depressed community, that’s a hundred dollar bill on the end of your line.

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If the Medicine chest is that available, I’ll go with the midwife or shaman – I seen what Princeton can do

Bottled water done it I go to the doctor with assorted ailments and he prescribes I eat a carp a day and call him in the morning?

It’s a familiar theme that we touched on before – but as more evidence appears in the press, we might want to cut the big drug companies out of the mix – carp is a lot cheaper than prescription meds..

“Lake Mead is a fortuitous worst-case scenario” for study, said environmental toxicologist Greg Moller, holding a bottle of Lake Mead water he planned to take back to his lab at the University of Idaho. “You’ve got the wastewater, you’ve got the documented impact on wildlife, and you have drinking water uptake.”

What’s new in this topic is some of the effects not yet attributed to trace drugs in the water supply. Much of the focus has been on the larger critters, fish and humans, now they’re discovering that some of the building blocks of a healthy ecosystem are at risk.

Tiny zooplankton, another sentinel species, died off in the lab when they were exposed to extremely small amounts of a common drug used to treat humans suffering from internal worms and other digesting parasites.

No mention of us being targeted as a source of pharmaceuticals, but it’s only a matter of time before trace amounts of fly floatant or desiccant are found in “Catch and Release” water – we’ll have to take our turn in the docket just like the rest of the crowd.

Lake Mead is apparently the poster child for research; it has all kinds of fish to test for effects of human drug waste, but the really tasty part is that it’s the water supply for Las Vegas and the seven states south. The article suggests that outflow of water treatment plants, and the intake of water for citizens may be close together.  Because Lake Mead is only half full and shrinking continues (drought, etc) repositioning pumps is years of work and many millions of dollars.

Antidepressants are mentioned frequently – they might be “longer lived” in water – therefore more virulent. I can’t say that the casino owners would be shedding many tears – why wouldn’t I want my guests hopped up on how good they feel (as I lighten their wallets).

As a fisherman I have to agree, all I ask is that big arsed triploid get a gob full of antidepressants just as my Clouser minnow ambles by..

Gulp, I sure hope nobody runs the statistics on me

Singlebarbed Fly Recovery unit in action I’d just finished another hallway conversation wherein I defended myself, the rest of you louts, and our beloved pastime. I was fumbling for the file to notch my “gunbutt” with another eco-radical kill, when I was brought up short…

It was innocent piece, really – but it cited a statistic that fascinated me:

Each year, more than 12,000 tons of rubbery “soft baits” land at the bottom of lakes, streams and rivers, says Hobbins, who is president and CEO of Waunakee-based Lake Resources Group.

An enterprising lad has devised a new “plastic worm” that resists tearing, doesn’t come off the hook, and lays claim to the ecological “high ground” for low impact artificial baits.

My snappy comeback failed, I’m thinking it has to have TransFat in there somewhere. The old adage of “..if it feels good or tastes good it’s bad for you” leaps to mind, especially for a tactile yummy like a gelatinous worm.

Thankfully we don’t have a similar statistic for lost flies, but it has to be right up there in gross tonnage. I’m discounting the lead split shot, as we’re already drinking a couple hundred years worth compliments of duck hunters.

I’m guessing our lost tackle is nearly two-thirds the worm total, a lot of our flies are smaller and weigh less, many weigh more, but they wouldn’t be representative of the “average” fly.  Tyer’s like me and Daytripper tip the balance, as we’re more comfortable throwing leaden death than the gossamer stuff, even so – 8000 tons of flies wedged in rocks and tree limbs is a economy stimulating total.

As this is a “per season” weight can we turn this into a lucrative profession? Scuba gear is expensive, but there’s a thriving industry recovering sunken golf balls – why not flies?

I’m leaning toward one of those Montana trophy streams – I can lay in wait behind the big rock and pluck stoneflies nymphs off your leader like dollar bills – so long as I give you a couple tugs you’re happy, you’re just going to lie about it anyway’s…

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Fishing a growth industry? Maybe for the legal profession

Englebright Dam on the lower Yuba It sure looks like migratory fish are the new growth industry for the legal profession, another lawsuit filed here in California seeks the elimination of two aging dams on the Yuba River.

The Daguerre Point (1906) and Englebright (1941) dams just upstream of Marysville, they no longer produce power, water, or serve as a flood barrier – but they continue to impede salmon.

Federal agencies acknowledge their continued impact on fish, as neither dam has a functioning fish ladder.

Removal or successful mitigation of the obstruction would add nearly 100 miles of additional spawning habitat. In light of this year’s overall decline in returning salmon, it may add additional pressures on the Army Corp of Engineers, their current owner.

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