Category Archives: environment

Can fly fishing regulation restore fisheries with a stroke of the pen

Increased regulations Outside of some rare conservation program that’s reshaped a creek with instream cover or dredging, regulations, or fish plants, I don’t think any angler will make the claim that his favorite creek fishes better than it did a decade ago.

Intervention at any level is always a temporary boon. The organizations that promote quality public water can’t sustain them for more than a couple of years, and with funding drying up in lockstep with a battered economy, and increased threat to other creeks and rivers, the result is too many chicks vying for a meager worm.

Few in number compared to other anglers, we can still degrade a fishery quickly with constant pressure. All them feet tearing into the bank at the egress points, all those fish mishandled or gut hooked, thousands of crushing feet on the aquatic wildlife, and the continual stream of guides and clients that are part and parcel of the premier waters.

Over time, no matter how slight the mortality rate, we compromise everything.

Kirk Deeter of the Fly Talk blog brings up a worthy point in a different manner, but ignoring the beadhead-bobbercator issue entirely, are fly fishermen willing to adopt even more stringent regulations in return for big fish and watershed preservation?

Not more water reserved for fly fishing, rather more stringent regulations on our existing water, potentially hampering us enough to buy additional years prior to destroying a unique fishery due to our weight of numbers.

It’s something I’ve witnessed first hand. Living on the banks of Hat Creek during it’s reopening as a trophy trout fishery, it’s popularity enhanced due to vigorous magazine coverage, that resulted in most of California making the pilgrimage to test their skills on large wary trout.

About six years later anything over 16” was a rarity, and six years after that it was just another creek, despite the occasional attempt from CalTrout to intervene. A two year stint as CalTrout’s Hat Creek Streamkeeper during its heydays made me privy to the causal agents and much internal discussion, but the meager and uncertain funding meant the creek had to defend itself once the initial makeover was complete.

Certainly there were many issues that were unrelated to anglers, the Baum Lake canal burst, sending a slug of PG&E’s sediment into a spring creek among others. Regulated flows prevented the watercourse from freeing itself of sediment – as it lacked the winter scour so important to sediment flush and ridding itself of foreign objects.

Most of the persistent issues were related to anglers. California hosts a large population, plenty of fly fishermen, and the trophy water being a scant three miles long magnified the impacts of all them feet.

With all the emphasis on invasive species, and watching the Powerhouse riffle widen an additional 50 feet due to wading anglers wearing the bank down by entering and exiting the creek, I’d think a “no wading” regulation is now more pertinent than ever.

“… fishing is Catch & Release only, artificial only, barbless hook, no wading allowed.” 

With the new conservation ethic disposing of the flat felt bottom, cleated rubber soles (equipped with studs to improve traction) may reduce invasives – but due to cleats and steel studs will certainly increase the amount of bank removed by a fishermen scrambling into or out of the water.

Via regulation are we prepared to get us out of that business entirely?

It’ll send half of us back to the casting ponds as the available fishery is what you can throw and mend effectively. It’ll increase the amount of car traffic on nearby roads as we bounce between access points rather than crossing at the shallow spot, and will add “safe havens” for fish – as neither bank affords access or the ability to cast effectively.

Don’t expect vendors to help push this sterile initiative as it’ll remove a third of the gear we’re equipped with and a third of their gross.

“… fishing is Catch & Release only, artificial only, barbless hook, maximum 10 anglers, reservation only.” 

Limiting the human traffic will solve many ailments. Figure a fee-based system that pays for the 24-hour reservation system and limited back office staff to settle squabbles.

There’s brown water aplenty to handle those reserving too late, or turned away at the toll booth.

Profit can be recycled back into the fishery. Assuming a year long season and 300 capacity bookings, a $50 use fee equates to $150,000 per year. Figure half of that being chewed up by overhead and trash collection, road maintenance, and an occasional Porta-Potty, that would leave $50,000 a year for watershed improvements – or a Riverkeeper to maintain a constant patrol during daylight hours …

“… fishing is Catch & Release only, artificial only, barbless hook, dry fly only.”

Gear restrictions of any type would aid fish too, whether limiting the kind and type of artificials we throw, or how they’re thrown, should buy a watershed additional seasons of prominence. “Dry Fly Only” has a purism taint that obscures the conservation issue, but if adopted would impact fishing significantly.

… and no, an indicator is not dry. Nor is a dry fly with nymph dangling below, we’re insisting on only surface fishing – but we might overlook the dry fly pulled under and twitched fetchingly …

Having fished on dry fly only water, with mown trails between small fishing platforms (with seating) at each pool, I can attest that it’s rarified – but still fly fishing.

… and each phase of the aquatic insect would have to be ruled on in advance – and posted whether it’s dry or wet just to avoid your claims of innocence while being carted off in manacles.

I’m not sure that we’re capable of policing ourselves, so each turnstile into the quality water will have to be equipped with brass and tungsten detection…

“… fishing is Catch & Release only, artificial only, barbless hook, floating fly, upstream presentation only.”

There’s a perverted element that would welcome hideous restriction as the bragging rights would be commensurate. Thankfully they’re a minority albeit intensely vocal, but they exist.

Unfortunately as we pile on the restrictions we’re obligating ourselves to an increase in stern eyeballs monitoring all this extra ritual. Wardens being in short supply and with thousands of miles to patrol, we’d have to hire someone to monitor us while we alternate between spirit and letter of the law.

Which brings the spectre of fee based fishing and similarity with Europe.

The antics of Donny Beaver and viability of the private fishing club proves there’s enough rich folks to pay for exclusivity, the question becomes are us less fortunate willing to pay for a similar increase in quality?

“Quality” being a surrogate for less people, bigger fish, catered lunches, or whatever you find most attractive.

Despite their stated intent, many states tap license fees to cover shortfalls in other budgets. In the current economic climate that will persist for some time. Fee based fishing offers some small possibility that the funds would be dedicated to the watershed, the question would be is the angling brotherhood willing to pay for equal measures of restriction and pleasure?

The growth in “farm pond” fisheries suggest that both size and quantity are very compelling to anglers, enough so that many shops feature this type of “private access – hatchery enhanced” fishery – and participants are willing to pay extra for access to artificial lakes enhanced with brood stock.

Regulations are at the whim of the landowner, and some even charge by the hour.

It’s certain to be off-putting to some, but with all of the fanciful threats forecast by global warming, population growth, invasives, and alternate land use, and should only a fraction of that come true, it’s plain that public agencies and their stewardship of the public water could be unsustainable.

“… fishing is Catch & Release only, artificial only, barbless hook, floating fly, no wading, upstream presentation only, and the river is opened only in odd numbered years.”

How about resting the water every other season? That would make patrolling the Precious easier for wardens, as they’d be able to open fire on anyone seen on the bank …

With all we have vested in the sport, and all the conservation dogma we espouse at every cocktail gathering, why not alternate venues or pursue some other noble, more plentiful quarry in alternate years?

It would be curtains for many of the destination shops who are struggling already, but the agile will exploit the Internet, and the fortunate have more than a single watershed to service.

Perhaps three or five year closures might make more sense. Giving our discarded tippet and water bottles more time to flush.

“… fishing is Catch & Kill only, limit two fish over 6”, artificial only, barbless hook, floating fly, no wading, upstream presentation only, and the river is opened only in odd numbered years.”

Limiting our time on the creek might also work, although we’d have to stooge around on the bank waiting for a buddy to get his limit, or convince him to claim one of the carcasses was his. Naturally, you’d have to cough up cash or buy the dinner as you’ve obligated him to cease fishing on his next successful grab …

Local tourism and fly shops would be the benefactors, perhaps a few anglers would take up upland birds – spending the balance of the evening blowing hell out of pine trees.

“… fishing is Catch & Release only, artificial only, no wading, upstream presentation only, barbless hook size 20 or smaller, and no artificials may contain : a) rubberlegs, b) lead, c) beads, d) synthetic fibers, e) or may be predominately Olive, Brown, Gray, or Black.”

Now that most of the stoneflies, half of the dry flies, and three-quarters of your fly box is off limits, remember to get there early … to allow for ex-TSA employees to go through your vest and impound everything you can’t use.

As a fly tier I wouldn’t object too much. Knowing what goes in every fly I’ve tied has me dressing on the other side of the fence, watching you get hustled to the ground for illegal synthetics you didn’t know you had.

I’ll avert my gaze when I hear the snap of the rubber gloves …

The “20-20” Club is something that motivates a lot more anglers than you think, and with hooks being what they are and 18” fish having imaginary extra length there’s many fewer members than claim credit.

How big would the average fish have to be for that kind of rigor? Remember we’re protecting both fishery and fish, and any indignation is worthy…

“… fishing is Catch & Release only, artificial only, no wading, upstream presentation only, barbless hook, and each angler is limited to a single fly in possession.”

Again it’s a time limiter, you can select the fly after much observation the evening of your arrival, I suppose you can take a roundabout way back to the car after you snap it off on a tree limb and get another – which will spawn new paths through the underbrush to avoid the turnstiles and the watchful eyes nearby.

Or you can merely go straight to the extreme and stand in line for what will surely be the new esthetic:

“… fishing is Catch & Release only, artificial only, no wading, upstream presentation only, barbless hook, and each angler must construct his terminal tackle using native flora or the contents of the parking lot’s garbage can.”

Sadly Tonkin cane is in short supply throughout much of Montana as well as the Rockies or Sierra’s. The invasive threat being what it is, it should arrive within the decade however.

Saplings are fair game, and those skilled in furled leaders could conceivably weave some type of weight forward from the native grasses. Small game will suffer – as they’re chased about and disemboweled to return gut leaders to prominence. It’s not much of a reach to plant pen raised squirrels to ensure survival of native fish, and their fur can be utilized to craft both dry flies and nymphs, ensuring full utilization as a resource.

While I’ve strayed fairly far afield from the original question, given the trend of irreparable damage fostered by us stewards, and the outside issues that add to that mix, should we consider changing regulations to restrict our impacts on the Pristine, and in what manner would you make that palatable?

Tortoise and the Hare: How rubber soled wading shoes pose an ecological nightmare

The inherent weakness in the Clean, Dry & Protect doctrine is the lack of attention to the entire wading boot in deference to a nearly complete focus on the sole material.

While the message has been taken to heart, many forums have questions and comments suggesting many anglers have a false sense of complacency regarding their feet once shod in rubber soled wading shoes.

Didymo cell count

Research documents on Didymo from New Zealand show quite plainly that a leather topped rubber soled wading shoe is only half as bad as a leather-upper felt soled shoe. Conversely, you could also make the claim that a rubber-upper felt soled wading shoe has the identical risk as a rubber soled wading shoe.

… and if you’re a neoprene wearing felt soled wader as I am, you’re a bloody plague on two feet.

But wait, there’s more …

“Because of the rapid spread of invasive species such as garlic mustard, Japanese knotweed and wild parsnip, hikers should include a whisk broom or brush as part of their hiking gear,” said Neil Woodworth, executive director of the Adirondack Mountain Club. “By giving your boots or shoes a good brushing before leaving the area, you can help prevent seeds from spreading to the next trail you hike.”

Hikers should also clean their clothing, backpacks and equipment before going to a new area to hike. Campers should shake out their tents before breaking camp to dislodge invasive seeds.

– via the Press Republican

Using Sherlockian Deduction, a rubber soled angler is likely to hike further than a felt soled fisherman, who is conscious that every terrestrial step is wearing down his beloved felt, and therefore …

While you might have the upper hand in the water, you’re a goddamn ecological nightmare once on dry land.

While us “true conservationists” take the long slow slog back to the parking lot in midcurrent – which we’ve irreparably soiled already.

These are the Good Old Days

It really matters little in the greater picture, the invasive species issue is on land, sea, and air. Plants are becoming a bigger issue than aquatic invasives simply due to the available land mass, versus the relatively miniscule amount of water that traverses all those acres.

We’ve got some really burgeoning issues with Knotweed, Mile a Minute vine, and Hogweed, and unlike contaminated ballast water on ships, many invasive plants are common to your subdivision as they’re sold in nurseries.

Given the felt sole bans and legislation cropping up in Alaska, Maryland, and elsewhere, it’s not unreasonable to suggest that some well meaning hiking organization won’t insist that your footwear be antiseptic for the terrestrial pristine as well.

… and while you’re thinking “that’ll never happen” ask yourself why New Zealand confiscated 80,000 pair of rubber soled shoes at their airports.

Tents and pocket lint worse than wading boots

It’s bad enough that we’re forced to endure the obligatory cavity search when boarding the plane – thereby removing all the explosives, brass knuckles, shanks, and belt fed weapons common to fishermen, but our arrival may soon be far worse.

The Nasty live here I stumbled across a New Zealand document outlining their strategy in combating the invasive threat – which includes foreign plants, insects and all the stuff we know about …

The volume of invasives carried unknowingly is enormous – but of particular interest is the items now being routinely confiscated from arriving tourists. Naturally there are the obvious targets like fruit and foodstuffs, but tents are in the high risk group and confiscated immediately.

Shoes have to be declared, and inspected – and may be cleaned on the premises by airport staff, or confiscated, some 80000 pairs were removed from passengers last year.

In 2006-2007, 116,700 seizures were made from 2% (103,000) of arriving air passengers and crew. Contaminated used equipment (e.g. footwear and tents) was the most commonly seized risk good (34%), followed by fruit fly host material (23%) and meat products (10%).

Pathogenic fungus spores, plant seeds, and all manner of biologics are found in debris trapped in the soles of standard footwear.

A study on footwear in Honolulu International Airport recovered 65 species of fungi from 17 shoes (Baker 1966). Pockets of clothing also have been shown to carry potential risk material including dried and fresh foliage, seeds and feathers (Chirnside et al. 2006). Used tents may not only harbour plant and animal debris but also live insects (Gadgil and Flint 1983).
Because tents are potentially going to be used in national parks or other indigenous forest areas, tents were categorised as ‘a major risk’, and carefully screened by
MAFBNZ border staff.

Researchers examined 157 pairs of soiled footwear carried in luggage and found that while the amount of soil and leaf litter adhering to the sole was relatively small, with a median
(range) weight of 1.0 g (0.01-55), this contamination supported a range of bacteria, fungi, seeds and nematodes (McNeill et al., unpublished data). Seeds were present on over 50% of footwear examined, and 73% of all seeds recovered were found to be viable. Nematodes, which are microscopic worms that include a large number of plant parasitic species, were present in 63% of the samples collected.

… and yes, anglers were caught transporting the nasty too.

… used fishing waders and socks have been implicated in the arrival of the invasive freshwater algae didymo (Didymosphenia geminate) from North America to New Zealand.

Assuming a goodly percentage of vacationers wore comfortable footwear due to the walking and gawking necessary to take in the sights, we can assume a significant percentage were rubber soled (soon to be banned on international flights) so we can expect to be replacing all those wading boots again …

Just kidding.

It neatly demonstrates how thin your margin for error is … and if you thought you wouldn’t have to quarantine your rubber soled wading boots, wouldn’t have to freeze them, or wouldn’t have to scrub them with disinfectants and dry them completely … you’re dead wrong.

… and while you’re at it dry those waders and socks too.

Didymo, New Zealand, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry Biosecurity, nematodes, confiscation of tents, invasive species, anglers

The California Delta just another victim of conspicuous consumption

Father Serra and the Missions of Ca Another in a long list of reports on Delta water use, the state’s best and brightest suggest that 75% of the rain and snowmelt of the Sacramento and San Joaquin watersheds must flow through the Delta and into San Francisco Bay to maintain ecological equilibrium.

True to form the report was met with great skepticism by water users;

Big water agencies that rely on the pumps criticized the report in news releases as imbalanced and “purely theoretical.”

In human terms it means we’re already using twice what the report allows, and the tensions between folks holding rights to the water are bound to escalate.

Meeting all of those requirements would require San Joaquin farms, Southern California and portions of the East Bay and South Bay that rely on pumps in the southern Delta to cut their Delta water use by one-third in addition to recent cutbacks required to meet endangered species rules.

For other water users upstream, including utilities serving Oakland and San Francisco, the effect could be even worse — up to 70 percent, because the goal to increase river flows would make more water available in the Delta for pumps to export.

But those figures do not take into account water rights laws that say agencies with older rights — including some in the Bay Area — should not have to give up water for newer users, and that agencies closer to water sources also should not have to give up water to those relying on Delta pumps.

– via the San Jose Mercury News

As the report is non-binding it remains just another data point on what plagues all the western states. Limited water, too many people, rampant construction, and the conversion of desert to irrigable land.

Us fishermen and conservationists might start the teapot boiling, but we’ll be on the sidelines during most of the ensuing legal orgy – as cities sue other cities, farmer pitted against farmer, and decades of legal haranguing ties any real change to the courts.

… and it wouldn’t surprise me to see documents dating back to Father Serra and Sir Francis Drake waved about with great furor …

California delta, water wars, Sir Francis Drake, Father Serra, Spanish land grant, water rights, Sacramento River, San Joaquin River, San Francisco Bay

It’s not Swisher and Richards, it’s Darwinism

alexandra Next time some old codger tells you, “they was thick as flies, big ones, not that little crap what’s in there now” … rather than nodding respectfully you can just backhand the old gasbag …

… and while he’s recovering his dentures you can retort, “Yea, but they were dumber then, and you ate all the idjits or toed them into the brush, and now we’ve got nothing but small fish with twice the IQ!”

Until now, scientists knew that birds – like great tits, zebra finches and European blackbirds – could be picky about new types of food, but hadn’t seen it in other animals.

The new findings suggest that fussiness could be universal among all predators.

After countless decades of weeding fish based on bright stuff, shiny stuff, and now drab stuff – is the selective fish something of our own creation?

As size and aggression determine feeding lie, are the largest fish grabbing one of their smaller brethren – hurling him out of the rock’s protection with the commandment, “try them orange ones and tell me if they hurt …”

Which neatly corroborates why we hook the smaller fish first – and why they rush from the safety of the shade to slay themselves on a Parmachene Belle.

Us fly tiers are constantly adding a bit of this to a dab of that – to outwit the most finicky tastebuds, and when we finally strike paydirt and catch everything within six hundred yards, the moment we bring our pals and promise wholesale slaughter – or return the following weekend expecting similar, the fly doesn’t work.

By then every fish has heard that them wiggly pink things are a free root canal.

The team dyed the sticklebacks’ favourite prey – a tiny plankton-like crustacean called Daphnia – with either green or brown food colouring. Once each fish had got used to either green or brown Daphnia, the researchers introduced the different coloured Daphnia to the fish.

The researchers found that when they encountered the new colour, the fish responded in two ways. They either ate it, which eventually drove the new colour extinct; or they avoided it, which ultimately let this new colour dominate the population.

– via Planet Earth Online

Which suggests that Ernie Schwiebert got the entire thing ass backwards, and all those same colored bugs emerging at dusk are the bugs that taste like spinach …

We should be matching what we don’t see …

One hundred years ago everyone was fishing attractors, and while Grandpa played fast and loose with the fish population he was killing everything with a taste for red, orange, jungle cock, or tinsel.

Your Dad saw the tail end of the Attractor Turkey Shoot and killed whatever Granddad missed – until the 1950’s when big colorful wet flies went extinct as all the fish were trained to avoid them.

Ernie Schweibert was man enough to try some drab concoction out of dog hair and owl feathers, knocked snot out of the fish, and became the New Messiah …

… now, all we’re doing is ensuring whatever Pop missed gets kilt, so your kids can catch less, lose interest, until some new Holy Man emerges.

Neo. The One.

All we need to sleep soundly is a bit of research on how long fish retain these multi-generational messages, or whether they carve petroglyphs in the cobble near the bottom.

Sure it’s scary, but not half as scary as reading Matching The Hatch backwards and finding out the double haul is dead.

Tags: Parmachene Belle, attractor flies, Ernest Schweibert, Matching the Hatch, dumb fish, sins of our fathers, fly fishing, fly fishing humor

Fly fishing responsible for Global Warming

As if we needed another reason not to drink the water You drive a Prius (or it drives you), you only use fur from renewable animals that aren’t clubbed to death, you release all your fish, police your candy bar wrappers, and field strip your cigarette butts so only the wind knows of your passing …

You wear rubber soles and sterile gear for fear of leaving anything behind, and crap a couple of miles from any trace of moisture – using handfuls of leaves or Poison Oak rather than man-made anything.

Yet all that toil and effort is for naught, because you’re still responsible for global warming.

Cow farts and pollution are the primary and secondary offenders, but as we slowly relinquish our grip on fossil fuels and feed bovines something other than their ground up cousin – and then only the parts we’re scared of –  fly fishermen will become poster children for selfishness and environmental genocide, as well as propagating all those noxious gases burrowing through the ozone layer …

Spin and bait fishermen have lived up to their end, and likely as not are armed with spoiled produce to heave in our direction. All those years of “purest form of fishing – nose in the air – snootiness” will come back as half eaten or half rotten fastballs.

Not because we’re creating the gases, although this post and most parking lot recitals add measurably to global warming, it’s because we venerate the Unclean Thing, never to grace our hook with That Which Lacks Legs…

Studies of soil-dwelling earthworms had showed that the creepy crawlies emitted nitrous oxide because of the nitrogen-converting microbes they gobbled up into their guts with every mouthful of soil.

Peter Stief, of the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Germany, and his colleagues noticed that no one had ever looked for similar nitrous oxide emission in aquatic animals, so that’s where they turned their attention.

“We were looking for an analogy in the aquatic system,” Stief said.

The researchers found that in a variety of aquatic environments, animals that dug in the dirt for their food did indeed emit nitrous oxide, thanks to the bacteria in the soil they ate, which “survive surprisingly well in the gut environment,” Stief told LiveScience.

– via Fox News / Live Science

It’s bad enough that the aquatic worm views a Whirling Disease microbe like a T-Bone, and adds insult to injury by becoming a host and farting uncontrollably …

Nitrogen rich fertilizers seeping into the watershed from evil ranchers and farmers – causing hideous, sustained mayfly and caddis flatulence – and all the Hex nymphs eaten despite their deep burrow as truly selective trout can spot the bubbles forty yards distant …

Scratch a third of the mayfly genus’s and anything else that burrows.

Tags: Nitrous Oxide, Ozone, Global Worming, Worm farts, mayfly flatulence, fly fishermen, fossil fuels, hexagenia limbata

Spread of Invasives coincide with the density of Hedge fund Managers, anglers are in the clear

The National Academy of Sciences claims the “filthy rich” are living up to their moniker, as population density and per capita income are corresponding closely with the volume of invasive species in Europe – more closely than climate, geography, or physical barriers to species introduction.

… which shouldn’t be that startling, as rich countries have the taste for exotic imports and the means to consume them – and rich people have the ability to globe hop to distant and rarified climes and take nasty with them – or bring nasty back…

High numbers of alien species are supported by
a high human population density and great wealth, reaching the highest values in regions with more than 91.1 inhabitants/km2 and wealth exceeding about US$ 250,000 per capita

Using a similar algorithm and a map of the per capita income for the US, I’d think Maryland is a ticking time bomb of infestation, being the richest state in the Union on a per capita basis.

While you contemplate flight to those last pricey enclaves of pristine, remember you’re statically certain to infect those upon arrival. Do us all a favor, migrate to some pricey loft in the Big City – we’ll allow you the occasional visitation rights once you’ve been thoroughly decontaminated.

Tags: invasive species, the rich done it, National Academy of Sciences

He’ll dismiss Poppa as an Anachronism

The arid Pristine shall rise anew The good news is the fish will be larger, more colorful, and more numerous – the bad news is your trout and salmon days are theoretically numbered.

The scientists studied populations of young salmon and trout in the River Wye in Wales, traditionally one of the UK’s best angling rivers. Professor Steve Ormerod and colleagues from the Cardiff School of Biosciences found salmon numbers fell by 50% and trout numbers by 67% between 1985 and 2004 – even though the river itself became cleaner.

The fish were hit hardest following hot, dry summers such as 1990, 2000 and 2003. The results suggest that warmer water and lower river levels combine to affect both species. As both trout and salmon favour cool water, they face potentially major problems if climate warming continues as expected in the next two to three decades.

– via Science Daily

But you’ve plenty of time to act. When your kiddies curl their lower lip at that steaming salmon fillet Ma has cooked perfectly, rather than launch the all-too-familiar argument about how you was glad to get bread and milk after working all day threshing wheat – now you can opt for the low and away pitch …

“You ungrateful little Snot, there won’t be any on your kids table – your Nintendo warmed the Earth’s crust – and they up and died …”

… and when he recovers from shock and snarls a sullen and defiant, “So..” – then you can hit him.

Al Gore says it’s okay.

Warmer water will bring all new aquatic foliage, new bugs – and we’ll pout and pound our chests over invasives, banning everything from garbage bags to bare feet, never seeing the larger picture – that of an entire ecosystem under evolution.

Carp and suckers will frolic in what remains of the heavy forest, they’ll be bigger and meaner and much tougher to catch, but all the pansies will have stopped buying their fishing license by then – and the Arid Pristine will rise anew.

… and one day your child now mature, will call his Poppa to invite him fishing and wonder why the fat old bastard hung up in a huff. It’ll give him but a moment’s pause – as he jumps into the car for the pre-dawn exodus, knowing they’ve rotenoned the entire Upper Sacramento and replanted the native Koi.

Tags: Climate change, wader ban, carp, rough fish, fly fishing, ecosystem evolution, Al Gore, trout, salmon

The Brown just got warmer and darker

delta The brown water looks bad enough already, now the federal government will be requiring California’s many thousands of aqueducts and levees to be shorn of all vegetation.

… meaning all those 100 year old oaks will be chipped and shredded, all the bankside willows and cottonwoods will be ripped up and vanished, and goats will be commonplace – given their incredible mowing ability.

For those out of state, the canal-aqueduct system of California is the next Big One. The potential for a natural disaster of epic proportions – due to water scarcity in the south state, and the relentless development that adds more toilets, mouths, green lawns, and swimming pools where they’ve no business existing…

Many are simple earthworks, built with now-primitive tools in the late 1800’s to reclaim fertile soil for farming. With our propensity for earthquakes, and the power of all that pent up water – a significant breach in the right spot would bleed the freshwater out and cause salt water from San Francisco Bay to rush inland, past the pumps to SoCal, and rendering everything south of Sacramento bone dry.

One temblor away from 25 million people thirsty. There’ll be plenty of soda pop and beer, but after the riots even that will be gone.

If the guidelines are enforced it’ll require the removal of a lot of vegetation and the shade it affords those waterways, and if there was anything naturally occurring – it’ll cease quickly.

… and for those anglers fishing the Delta, it may warm the water a bit, remove much of the bankside cover, and likely cause fish to abandon prior haunts in favor of those areas where vegetation remains plentiful.

Us fellows plying the long rod had better think of brain-addling daytime temperatures and pack plenty of water.

The Delta is a legendary Largemouth Bass and Striped Bass fishery, I imagine this type of change won’t be positive for the resident fish, but SoCal is owed, so it’s necessary.

Tags: California Delta, San Francisco Bay, levee repair, largemouth bass, striped bass, temblor, averting an eco-disaster, fly fishing for bass

Hedge Fund Managers and Wealthy Lodge Owners

Gold Mining The reason the Pebble Mine gets all the vitriol and press? Simple, all those wealthy lodge owners, salmon fishermen, and hedge fund managers have ties to the Powers that Be …

A compelling story in the Alaska Dispatch suggests the Donlin Mine is even bigger, a planned 2 mile wide, 1 mile long open pit mine that will uproot a couple hundred miles of the famed Iditarod trail, host toxic tailings near the banks of the longest undammed river in North America, and add a massive power plant as part of the construction – all of which is proceeding with little notice and much less resistance.

Donlin has attracted little attention, said Pam Miller, executive director of Alaska Community Action on Toxins, because “unlike Pebble, there aren’t the wealthy lodge owners. There’s just poor subsistence residents.”

Wealthy lodge owners might be the ultimate in NIMBY opposition to backyard development. They are extremely well connected, given their clients tend toward well-off businessmen and the idle rich. These are the kind of people with the connections that enable them to get major jewelry retailers to make public-relations claims they will never use Pebble gold in their products, even if it’s hard to trace any gold used for jewelry back to its original source.

Take this power block, couple it with downstream commercial fishermen who hold valuable Alaska limited entry fishing permits for Bristol Bay salmon and a millionaire neighbor running an investment fund worth billions, and you have a power bloc that can make life hell for any sort of development.

– via the Alaska Dispatch

By contrast the Donlin Mine is on native lands, in a historical mining district, and the locals are eager for the employment potential and power infrastructure that the mine provides.

Protests have been muzzled as it’s seen as anti-Native American.

Towing barges of fuel oil up the river sounds decidedly anti-salmon, but we’re the “bleeding hearts of the lower 48”, and we’re expected to say that.

I’m not privy to the full facts of the case, but the Dispatch article is a compelling read. It’s a contentious subject to be sure, but the “wealthy lodge owner” angle is new – and may partly explain why Pebble has enjoyed such extensive coverage and become a cause celebre’.

Tags: Donlin Project, Alaska Dispatch, Pebble Mine, wealthy lodge owners, evil fly fishermen, NovaGold