Righting wrongs is a tough proposition in the world of fisheries conservation. Too often, the challenges outweigh expectations. Just as frequently, reality sets in, and desperation takes over. Take the Lower Snake River basin in Idaho. These are rivers that flow from the last, best (and largely intact) spawning habitat for salmon and steelhead that somehow manage to climb eight dams from the mouth of the Columbia through eastern Washington and into the Gem State.

One fish, ten fish, big fish, Zen fish. That’s how Theodor Geisel—Dr. Seuss from our child- and parenthoods—might have described the fly-fisher’s journey. In his excellent essay, “The Five Stages of Fly Fishing,” Todd Tanner includes another phase between big and Zen, something Seuss might have called finicky fish. This stage is when that fish—the one that sips unrecognizable flies from an inaccessible lie—is the only fish we want to catch.