Articles

More evidence that releasing hatchery-reared native fish is harmful

A new study reinforces claims that augmenting or attempting to rescue native fish populations with hatchery raised additions is a recipe for failure

by Chris Hunt - Sunday, Apr 9th, 2023

Spawning pink salmon clog a river in BC (photo: B. Finestone).

The impacts of rearing and stocking non-native fish into watersheds where they don’t belong are well understood: undue competition for limited resources, hybridization, predation — the list goes on. In the American West, we’ve seen how introduced brook trout outcompete native cutthroat trout and eventually take over; or how rainbow trout mingle with native cutthroat trout during the spring spawn and produce a fertile hybrid that slowly eats away at native fish genetics.

Florida's redfish are also on drugs

Contamination by human pharmaceuticals is widespread in key Florida gamefish species

by Hatch Magazine - Monday, Apr 3rd, 2023

A redfish tail (photo: Pat Ford).

A new study conducted by Florida International University and Bonefish & Tarpon Trust has revealed that Florida redfish are contaminated with high concentrations of human pharmaceuticals. The study follows a similar one from last year which revealed the widespread presence of pharmaceutical contaminants in Florida bonefish.

Live Q&A: Becoming a well-rounded fly angler

Join us live at 8 PM on Wednesday, March 29 for another live event with The School of Trout

by Hatch Magazine - Wednesday, Mar 29th, 2023

Instructors John Juracek [left] and Brant Oswald [right] from The School of Trout (photo: Tim Romano).

Most of us still learn how to fly fish through old-fashioned trial-and-error. If a technique works consistently, we continue to employ it. If it doesn’t, we either attempt to tweak it or give up on it completely and move on to something new. And there are no shortage of virtues that arise from being self-taught. Hard-earned skills and experience are often the most valuable, and experimentation on the water is the stuff well-rounded anglers are borne of.

More than 100,000 comment on Okefenokee mining plan

A proposed mine on the edges of the famed swamp could produces dramatic, irreversible changes

by Chris Hunt - Tuesday, Mar 28th, 2023

Heavy sand mining has taken place in southern Georgia for years. Minerals like titanium dioxide and zirconium are separated from the white sands that lie beneath the forests on the sand "ridges" in the area. The mine pictured was operated by Chemours Minererals, which separates the heavy minerals from the quartz-based sand (photo: Chemours Minerals).

Between Jan. 19 and March 20, nearly 80,000 Americans took the time to submit comments to the Georgia Department of Environmental Protection on the merits of a proposed heavy-mineral sand mine on the fringes of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge near Georgia’s southern border with Florida.

According to Sara Lips, public information officer with the DEP, the total number of comments on the proposed mine actually eclipses 100,000 — the DEP received an additional 27,000 comments before the comment period opened.

The greenhorn

Fortunately, I — and only I — know the best spot in the river

by Tim Schulz - Monday, Mar 27th, 2023

Photo: Tshawytscha.

I had just threaded my line through the guides, attached a size 16 Adams to the tippet, and was ready to cast when the uninvited fisherman emerged from the curtain of alders near the river’s bend. In a rushed act of desperate deceit, I hooked the fly to one of the rod’s guides, tightened the line around the reel, and walked casually downstream, toward the man and away from My Spot. Fortunately, I hadn’t begun to fish in what I—and only I—know is the best spot on the river.

“Any luck?” the man asked as we paused beside the tannin-stained water.