Articles

Everyone has to love something that they just love to death

New film 'Destination Skeena' offers a glimpse into the world of BC steelheading

by Chad Shmukler - Sunday, Oct 27th, 2024

Photo: Darcy Bacha.

Steelheaders have been depicted as crazy so frequently and using so many different labels that, at this point, it’s become a bit of a trope. Still, most steelheaders are happy to accept the portrayal. After all, who doesn’t want to be known for having saintlike patience, dogged persistence, and an abundance of grit and mettle? But are steelheaders, in fact, nuts?

Stages

When that fish is the only one you want to catch

by Tim Schulz - Friday, Oct 25th, 2024

Photo: Jordan Kapperly.

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.

Hurricane storm surge can benefit tarpon and snook, research shows

A silver lining amongst the devastation of other hurricane impacts

by Chris Hunt - Wednesday, Oct 23rd, 2024

Storm surge near Tampa General Hospital in Florida (photo: Andrew Heneen / cc4.0 / modified).

As the west coast of Florida continues to deal with the impacts of two major hurricanes making landfall within a two-week span, the human costs remain immeasurable. With Helene, which busted ashore on Sept. 26 along Florida’s Big Bend and raked its way north into Appalachia, and then Milton, which made landfall Oct. 9 just south of Sarasota, Florida is, indeed, disaster-weary.

USFWS seeks to expand Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge

Under a new proposal, new refuge lands would be acquired from willing sellers

by Chris Hunt - Saturday, Oct 19th, 2024

An alligator in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge (photo: Tim Parkinson / cc2.0).

The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering a proposal to add approximately 22,000 acres to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in southern Georgia, opening the door for land buyout negotiations with willing sellers.

First salmon in 112 years return to upper Klamath River

In the wake of dam removals, salmon make their way upriver

by Chris Hunt - Friday, Oct 18th, 2024

Chinook salmon spotted in an upper Klamath River tributary (photo: ODFW).

The first salmon seen in southern Oregon’s Klamath River basin since 1912 was spotted this fall in a Klamath River tributary some 230 miles from the Pacific. The fish, a wild Chinook, is the first documented fish to venture into the upper river since four dams on the mainstem Klamath were removed over the course of the last several years.