Articles

Warming, toxic waters have devastated Pacific fisheries—is Big Oil to blame?

Union leaders say fossil fuel companies must pay for rising ocean temperatures, but not all boat captains are persuaded

by Chris McGreal - Thursday, Dec 23rd, 2021

Photo: Bob Renee / cc2.0.

Dick Ogg, a silver-haired former electrician who switched to making his living catching crabs two decades ago, is a staunch supporter of the union representing fishing boat captains along America’s western seaboard.

But when he heard that the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations was suing some of the world’s largest oil companies for causing the climate crisis, Ogg took stock of the barrels of diesel oil stacked on his vessel, the 54-foot Karen Jeanne, and wondered if the litigation was not only a mistake but hypocritical.

The Big Bang of trucker country

The story of 'Six Days on the Road'

by Tom Davis - Friday, Dec 17th, 2021

Photo: Jim McGuire / courtesy of The Grand Ole Opry

When you’re in college a long way from home, and you don’t have your own wheels, you take a ride from anybody who offers to give you one. This is a roundabout way of saying that I don’t remember whose car I was in when I heard “Six Days on the Road” for the first time, circa 1976-77. What I do remember, though, is that when those irresistibly propulsive licks exploded out of the speakers, I didn’t know whether to shit or go blind.

“Jesus Christ!,” I blurted out. “What the #$%* are we listening to?”

That's trout water, son

Snow, it's what trout crave

by Chris Hunt - Thursday, Dec 16th, 2021

Photo: NPS / cc2.0.

Some 40 years ago, I remember bemoaning the late-season snow that killed the first fishing trip of the year into the Colorado high country for me and my grandfather. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise–it was Memorial Day weekend, and, generally speaking, Memorial Day weekend was always pretty sketchy.

But for an 11-year-old tired of dunking dough balls in the local drainage pond for carp while winter retreated from the mountains, the chance to actually throw nightcrawlers at real trout in real trout streams was something I looked forward to for weeks. Maybe months.

Streamer tip: Speed kills in clear water

How changing the speed of your retrieve can yield to streamer fishing results, even in the least conducive conditions

by Matthew Reilly - Wednesday, Dec 15th, 2021

Photo: Matt Reilly

Listen to those who are in-the-know on the many tailwaters across the country that produce regular high water flows, and they’ll likely tell you that you can’t catch fish on streamers in low, clear water. They’re dead wrong. But, to their credit, they’re kind of right.

A future with little to no snow? What that means for the West and its rivers

A new study hopes to inspire water managers — and the rest of us — to begin planning for how climate change will dramatically reduce snowpack

by Tara Lohan - Monday, Dec 13th, 2021

The April 1, 2021 snow survey at Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada Mountains (photo: Florence Low / California Department of Water Resources).

It’s that time of year in the West. Winter enthusiasts have started waxing their skis and crossing their fingers for a plentiful snowpack — something that’s been in short supply of late. Of course, it’s not just recreation at stake, as a sweeping drought still has a hold over a region that needs a lot more water to replenish depleted reservoirs and ecosystems.

While tourists watch the weekend weather reports, scientists also have their eye on winter conditions further ahead.