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Maine Brook Trout: A Promising Future TUer Wears His Cause on His Sleeve
The Elusive Blueback $3 US / $4 CANADA 11 Books for Your Conservation Library
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The Journal of Coldwater Fisheries Conservation www.tu.org FALL 2010
14 l The Naturalist’s Trout Brook trout teach us about much more than fishing. BY CHRISTOPHER CAMUTO 16 l The New Face and Arm of TU One volunteer stands up to help save a fragile population of Paiute cutthroat. BY SAM DAVIDSON 22 l Maine Brook Trout: An Essay of Attachment and Hope The pine tree state’s brook trout heritage regains a foothold. BY CHARLES F. GAUVIN 32 l The Blueback A glacial remnant garners increased attention. BY MURRAY CARPENTER 34 l Books for the Coldwater Conservationist The 11 books every conservationist should have on his or her shelf. 38 l Voices from the River Cochetopa: A place worth living and dying in. BY TOM REED
5 l From the President 6 l From the Editor 7 l Our Contributors 8 l Our Readers Write 10 l Pocket Water Pharmaceutical manufacturers are a major source of chemicals in streams. Zale joins Pebble opposition. Midges are a climate change indicator. Wyoming approves new “fracing” rules. TU projects included
Departments on national waters list. 13 l Question and Answer With Nick Karas, author of Brook Trout . 45 l Actionline Grassroots Spotlight: Dam removal on Mill River opens spawning habitat for wild fish. Georgia chapter earns kudos for its youth and senior outreach. New York art project celebrates TU’s 50th anniversary. Volunteers plant over 1,000 trees in one day on the banks of Big Run. A stretch of the Menomonee is set for a makeover. 55 l The Art of Angling Trout profiles: Landlocked Salmon. BY DAVE WHITLOCK 64 l Native Fish Dolly Varden. BY ROBERT BEHNKE TIM ROMANO Sky Pond, Rocky Mountain National Park, Wyoming
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Trout Unlimited Board of Trustees
Chairman of the Board National Leadership Council Oakleigh Thorne, MILLBROOK, NEW YORK Representatives State Council Chairs
Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees, ARIZONA, James Walker ARIZONA, James Stipe Chairman of the ARKANSAS, Ray Smith ARKANSAS, Ray Smith National Leadership Council CALIFORNIA, Jamie Hunter CALIFORNIA, Drew Irby John “Duke” Welter, EAU CLAIRE, WISCONSIN COLORADO, Thomas Jones COLORADO, Sinjin Eberle CONNECTICUT, Ted Gardziel CONNECTICUT, Jim Glowienka President GEORGIA, Larry Vigil GEORGIA, Charlie Breithaupt Chris Wood, ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA ILLINOIS, Greg Prosen IDAHO, James Piotrowski IOWA, Brett Lorenzen ILLINOIS, Ed Michael CEO Emeritus KENTUCKY, Dale White IOWA, Brett Lorenzen Charles Gauvin, ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA MAINE, Bill Oleszczuk KENTUCKY, Bill Remaks MASSACHUSETTS/RHODE ISLAND, Mark Hattman MAINE, Dan Daly Secretary MICHIGAN, Pat Kochanny MASSACHUSETTS/RHODE ISLAND, Joseph Overlock Mark T. Gates, PALO ALTO , CALIFORNIA MID-ATLANTIC, Bruce Eberle MICHIGAN, Kimberly Wetton MINNESOTA, Bob Lange MID-ATLANTIC, Allan Dale Treasurer MISSOURI, Curt Morgret MINNESOTA, Randy Brock Harris Hyman IV, WASHINGTON, DC MONTANA, Tom Anacker MISSOURI, John Wenzlick NEW HAMPSHIRE, Mary Weiss MONTANA, Doug Nation Secretary of the National Leadership Council NEW JERSEY, Rich Thomas NEW HAMPSHIRE, Burr Tupper Larry Harris, MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA NEW MEXICO, Jason Sides NEW JERSEY, Rick Axt Legal Advisor NEW YORK, Dee Maciejewski NEW MEXICO, Bill Schudlich NORTH CAROLINA, Tim Willhelm NEW YORK, Ron Urban David Armstrong, Esq., GREENVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA OHIO, Thomas Allen NORTH CAROLINA, Dave Maeda OKLAHOMA, Scott Hood OHIO, Jim Augustyn James K. Asselstine, New York, NY OREGON, Karl Mueller OKLAHOMA, Jeff Hartman Sherry Brainerd, Rancho Santa Fe, CA PENNSYLVANIA, Jack Williams OREGON, Tom Wolf Jon Christiansen, Milwaukee, WI SOUTH CAROLINA, Tom McInnis PENNSYLVANIA, David Rothrock Matt Clifford, San Francisco, CA TENNESSEE, Steve Brown SOUTH CAROLINA, Meta Armstrong TEXAS, Jeff Schmitt TENNESSEE, George Lane Charles Conn, Ketchum, ID UTAH, Brock Richardson TEXAS, Bill Higdon Paul Doscher, Concord, NH VERMONT, Chris Moore UTAH, Robert Dibblee Bill Egan, Jackson, WY VIRGINIA, Tom Sadler VERMONT, Chris Moore Lawrence Finch, Wilson, WY WASHINGTON, Bill Abrahamse VIRGINIA, Bill Pierce David Goeddel, Ph.D., Hillsborough, CA WEST VIRGINIA, Dave Fulton WASHINGTON, Tom Van Gelder WISCONSIN, Bill Heart WEST VIRGINIA, Chris Shockey Wallace Henderson, New York, NY WYOMING, John Deakins WISCONSIN, Kim McCarthy Patsy Ishiyama, San Francisco, CA WYOMING, Dave Sweet George Jenkins, St. Davids, PA Eaddo Kiernan, Greenwich, CT Sharon Lance, Centennial, CO Coldwater Conservation Fund Paul Maciejewski, Elma, NY Officers Allan E. Bulley, Jr. Whitney Tilt Nancy Mackinnon, Manchester Center, VT Timothy C. Collins Paul Vahldiek Chair Michael De Vlaming Flinn Henry Wendt Mick McCorcle, Fairview, TX Thomas D. Stoddard Sanjeev Mehra, Greenwich, CT Jim Eden George A. Wiegers Steven Gewirz Rick Murphree, Knoxville, TN Vice Chair Theodore Roosevelt, IV David P. Hunt Ex-Officio Kirkwood Otey, Charlotte, NC Hamilton E. James Charles M. Johnson Duke Welter George J. Records, Oklahoma City, OK John McCosker, PhD. Oakleigh Thorne Kevin Reilly, Santa Fe, NM Secretary Stephen T. Moss Charles F. Gauvin James F. Kelley Mike Slater, Kalkaska, MI Edmond Opler, Jr. Perk Perkins Director Emeritus Steve Strandberg, San Francisco, CA Directors Richard Reagan Thomas W. Offutt, III Gay Barclay Elizabeth Storer, Tucson, AZ Leigh Seippel J. Steven Renkert John Bell Oakleigh Thorne, Millbrook, NY Robert E. Strawbridge III Margaret D. Keller Phil Belling Mark Ullman, New Canaan, CT Robert J. Teufel
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From the President FALL 2010 • VOLUME 52 • NUMBER 4 Chris Wood [ ] EDITOR Steven R. Kinsella ASSOCIATE EDITOR Hannah Moulton Belec Trout Unlimited 1300 North 17th Street First Trout Suite 500 Arlington, VA 22209-3801 Ph: (703) 522-0200 Like your first kiss, everyone remembers his or her first brook trout. I Fax: (703) 284-9400 [email protected] caught mine while walking upstream back to my car with a fly dangling in www.tu.org the waters of Vermont’s New Haven River. My line snagged and my first DESIGN grayHouse design brook trout appeared. [email protected] DISPLAY ADVERTISING My most memorable fly-fishing experience was casting under a sun- Will Jordan kissed, blue-bird day for brookies in small pools in the Monongahela [email protected]______National Forest. Earlier, I’d learned that the friend who taught me to drive (406) 248-3666 a stick-shift was killed in the World Trade Center attack, and that another TROUT UNLIMITED’S MISSION: with whom I played baseball survived after he and another person carried a To conserve, protect and handicapped woman down 68 flights of stairs to her safety. restore North Salvelinus fontinalis are my kind of fish: spectacularly beautiful, not too hard America’s coldwater fish- to catch, prolific. They will strike an errant fly walked upstream, or one cast eries and their by an angler lost in thought. watersheds. Brook trout inspire extraordinary work. Consider Gary Berti and local Trout Unlimited volunteers planting trees with hundreds of kids on 120 Trout (ISSN 0041-3364) is published four times a year in acres of West Virginia’s Big Run River. That project was made possible by January, April, July, and October the extraordinary commitment of TU volunteers in the southeastern United by Trout Unlimited as a service States who created a campaign called Back the Brookie. The campaign is to its members. Annual individual membership for U.S. residents timely. The Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture, an assessment conducted by is $35, $40US for residents of 17 states and partners, including TU, found that brook trout are extirpated Canada and $55US for residents of all other countries. All told, TU from nearly 50 percent of their historical habitat. offers 10 membership categories. But brook trout are resilient. Charles Gauvin’s piece on page 22 demon- Join or renew online at www.tu.org. strates the difference a few dedicated people can make in protecting wild and TU does occasionally make its mailing list available to like-minded native fish. Then there is the brief note in Actionline about New Jersey’s new- organizations. Please contact us est chapter along the Musconetcong River in Warren County, N.J. The first at the address above if you would time I visited the Muskie, TU volunteers took me to an area bound on one like your name withheld. Postmaster send address side by an interstate highway and on the other by a railroad. Walking down the changes to: path between the two we came across an illegal dump of construction materi- Trout Magazine als. Farther down the path lay the stream, bisected by an ATV trail. In it, native Trout Unlimited 1300 North 17th Street brook trout hid below watercress as they had for thousands of years. Suite 500 Henry David Thoreau once wrote of “Faith in a seed.” That’s what TU Arlington, VA 22209-3801 is all about. Faith that when we take kids out fishing, they are learning a lot more than how to fish; faith that we can recover wild fish in the nation’s most urbanized state; faith that the brook trout story is one of recovery, not loss.
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From the Editor [ Steven R. Kinsella] The Power of One In a numeric sense, as a multiplier the number one does not seem very significant. As every school child knows, when you multiply any number by one, that number always remains the same. But when it comes to conservation activism, and especially the work of TU’s grassroots volunteers, one is a very powerful number. For example, take Stephan McLeod, profiled on page 16. As a grassroots TU member, not only did he lead the effort to organize and get off the ground a new California chapter, he recently stood up before a state water board and helped convince them of the need to take action to save the fragile Paiute cutthroat, long a victim of hybridization. In doing so, McLeod joined John Regan, who for years led the effort to restore the Paiute, which is native to a mere 10 miles of a small California stream and its tributar- ies. While their work is impressive, McLeod and Regan personify TU volunteers across the nation, who time and again demonstrate the power of one individual to multiply their impact and thus make a differ- ence in the existence of trout and salmon. Hats off to all of you.
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Elevate youryy Fly Cover photographer Louis Cahill is an Fishing to a new level. advertising photographer, bamboo rod builder and avid fly fisherman who lives in Atlanta, Ga. Since combining his passions a few years ago, his dynamic fishing photos have appeared in various ads and publications. See more of Cahill’s work at LouisCahill.com.
Murray Carpenter has been reporting on
Our Contributors New England’s environment for a dozen years for newspapers, magazines and radio. He lives in Belfast, Maine, at the headwaters of the Penobscot Bay, with his wife and two daughters.
Sam Davidson is the field director for TU in California, where he works on the “protect” Celebrating 10 years of building the finest hand-woven furled leaders. Sizes for all line component of TU’s four-pronged conservation weights and conditions. Saltwater and toothy strategy. He vows to get a tattoo of a trout on his fish, too. The Original, and still the best. Visit arm if he—like the subject of his article in this us at furledleaders.com. issue—ever catches a 30-inch rainbow. BlueSky Furled Leaders Charles Gauvin joined TU’s staff in 1991 1163 Garland St., Green Bay, WI 54301 USA as executive director, became the organization’s [email protected] • Ph/Fax 920-430-1239 president and CEO in 1992 and served in that capacity until February 2010. Gauvin continues to work for TU as its CEO emeritus, senior counsel and as a member of TU’s board of trustees. He enjoys fishing for trout and salmon in many places, but is happiest when he is fishing for wild brook trout in his home state of Maine. WADING STAFF Safe and Stealth! Matt Libby has been guiding “sports” to Maine’s native brookies since 1968. He and his wife, Ellen, are the fourth generation owner- operators of Libby Sporting Camps (libbycamps. com) along with their son and daughter-in-law. Matt has logged over 5,000 hours as a bush pilot in Maine and Labrador. He is active in trying to preserve the heritage
and mystique of the wild brook trout. Wood design provides for quiet, stealth wading Sound travels 5 times faster in water than air Unique handle design promotes stability Outdoorsman and TU staffer Tom Reed Retrieves flies from overhead branches lives near Pony, Mont., on the banks of Field tested on the rugged Pit River North Willow Creek. He is the author of Beautiful white ash staff floats Great Wyoming Bear Stories and Give Me Mountains for My Horses, and co-author of Bear Essentials, Hiking and Camping in Bear Country. This essay was excerpted from his new book, Blue Lines: A Fishing Life, which was published this year by Riverbend
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Our Readers Write
I just finished reading Bill Stieger’s “Voices From the River” article in the summer issue. This one really hit home. Maybe it’s because I too spent the winter obsessing over the coming fishing season. Maybe it’s because I too have been unemployed for the better part of a year. And although I’m 20 years younger and happily married, maybe it’s because I too see my child as reason enough to look forward to tomorrow. Maybe it’s because I too am from the Upper Midwest, a place where people always say “please” and “thank you.” A place where if your neighbor says he needs a hand, you give him two. Mostly it was his description and the accompanying photos of a Driftless Area stream. I too have become attached ownowndepthsIjustwantedtosaytha depths. I just wanted to say thanknk to this unique landscape. It’s no longer you wanting more. The need to protect you to TU and PHW for giving me the completely wild and not yet urbanized, places like this is what got me involved opportunity to do some good when I just lightly settled. The green colors of with TU and eventually Project Healing needed it most. summer here could put any golf course Waters. Volunteering has been both a Mike Kuhr to shame. The fishing is sometimes easy, humbling and rewarding experience Milwaukee, Wis. sometimes challenging, and always leaves that has helped me emerge from my Please do not carry the advertisement from New Belgium Brewing Company for Skinny Dip beer in the future. The advertisement is clearly in poor taste with bare-bottomed models. Trout should be considered a family magazine, which includes women and children who are TU members, and advertising should take that into account. 0\YWÙWSQR^cÙ^YÙW_NPVK^]Ù>ROÙ\S`O\Ù^RK^ÙPSVV]Ù^ROÙWK]]S`OÙ6KUOÙ:YaOVVÙÙ Nicholas Polis MK\`O]ÙS^]ÙaKcÙ^R\Y_QRÙ^ROÙ1\KXNÙ-KXcYXÙKXNÙZ\Y`SNO]Ù ÙWSVVSYXÙZOYZVOÙÙ ^ROÙWOKX]Ù^YÙVS`OÙXO`O\ÙWOO^]Ù^ROÙ]OKÙ,_^ÙS^ÙWO^Ù4YXK^RKXÙAK^O\WKXÙ Vienna, Va. KXNÙÙKÙQ\Y_ZÙYPÙ]USXXcÙNSZZO\]ÙaRYÙK\OÙNO^O\WSXONÙ^YÙObZY]OÙS^]ÙZVSQR^Ù Ù=RK\OÙKÙ=USXXcÙ.SZÙKXNÙWOO^Ù^ROÙ-YVY\KNYÙ
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I read with great interest Conan O’Harrow’s letter, in which he pointed ______out the obvious connection between expanding human population and its impact on limited global energy resources. I would add water, and Blog Rollup hence, trout and salmon to the list. A sample of what our tech-savvy readers are saying about the His suggestion that we try China’s issues. Visit tu.org/blog to voice your opinions. one-child policy was daring, and per- haps at some future time it will prove The Women Who Make TU’s Work Possible necessary, but in a capitalist republic Hats off to all the ladies. Our chapter would be in deep trouble without our it would be a very hard sell. I would excellent treasurer, Jeanne Haney, and many others that always step up to help propose a method more compatible out at outings, work projects and make a huge contribution to our annual fund- with the freedom we enjoy in the raising banquet. Our State Council Chair Kimberly Wetton is also leading the United States. We should do away with charge to keep Michigan TU active and relevant. Thanks to all the ladies! tax benefits for children on our state —Lou Burhart and federal income taxes. People will make the right decisions about family planning if they are faced with the consequences of their actions. I was born at the end of the Great Depression and was the second, and last, child. At that time there was worry that the U.S. population seemed to be headed for zero growth and it was, indeed, headed in that direction. This reduction in population growth was accomplished without the technological and medical advances of today. All that was needed was motivation. The U.S. population doubles every 70 years and the global population doubles every 50 years at present rates of increase. This will wreck the planet at some point. Jack G. Reynolds Lake Isabella, Calif. Trout Magazine Takes Top Honors Trout accepted the gold award for design excellence at the annual Your Letters: EXCEL Awards this past June. The EXCEL Awards are hosted Readers are invited to submit letters by Association Media & Publishing to highlight the best and the on anything that appears in Trout. brightest in association publishing. Trout competed among nearly We may edit submissions for clarity or length. Send letters to: 1,000 other entries, earning the top award for overall design Our Readers Write excellence in the 100,000-plus subscribers category. Describing TROUT UNLIMITED why they awarded the gold to Trout, the judges wrote, “This pub- 1300 N. 17th St., Suite 500 lication exemplifies the idea that magazines are pleasure vehicles. Arlington, VA 22209-3801 I’It’s inviting, from f its cover to the photography and use of fonts and layout.” [email protected] “The magazine’s team is very proud of this award. It confirms what we have heard from the membership—that Trout is not only a valuable source of informa- tion, it is a highly enjoyable and visual read,” says Editor Steve Kinsella.
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Pocket Water news bits and bytes
Pharmaceutical Manufacturers: Major Source of Chemicals in Streams and Rivers harmaceutical manufacturing “This is the first study in the United oids, muscle relaxants, a barbiturate, P facilities can be a significant States to identify pharmaceutical man- a stimulant prescribed for obesity and source of pharmaceuticals in surface ufacturing facilities as a significant an anti-anxiety medication. While waters, according to a new study by the source of pharmaceuticals to the envi- pharmaceutical concentrations were U.S. Geological Survey conducted in ronment,” says Matthew C. Larsen, significantly lower in streams receiving cooperation with New York state. USGS associate director for water. the outflows due to dilution, measur- Outflow from two wastewater treat- “The USGS is working with water able concentrations were detected as ment plants in New York that receive utilities to evaluate alternative water far as 20 miles downstream. more than 20 percent of their waste- treatment technologies with the goal of The study is part of a long-term water from pharmaceutical facilities reducing the release of pharmaceuticals effort to determine the fate and effects had concentrations of pharmaceuticals and other emerging contaminants to of chemicals and to provide water- that were 10 to 1,000 times higher the environment.” resource managers with objective than outflows from 24 plants nation- Outflows from the two wastewater information that will assist them in wide that don’t receive wastewater from treatment plants in New York includ- developing effective water manage- pharmaceutical manufacturers. ed significant concentrations of opi- ment practices.
Midges: A Climate Change Indicator Tiny insects that live in the cold waters of trout streams could prove to be key predictors of the effects of climate change on rivers and streams, according to University of Minnesota entomology professor Leonard Ferrington. Ferrington leads the Chironomidae Research Group, which has developed a rapid biological assess- ment protocol involving the winter-hearty family of aquatic insects known as Chironomidae—commonly referred to as midges. Chironomidae are extremely sensitive to temperature changes and highly affected by temperature swings. And that, Ferrington says, makes them a tiny but important indicator of climate change impacts. The research group tests adults and larvae for tem- perature sensitivity by using tiny thermal probes to monitor their internal temperature. Climate change is predicted to have a greater impact in colder regions, and consequently it could have a dramatic impact on the organisms that live in cold environments, like midges and the trout that eat them. “Our research will improve the knowledge of how climate change impacts cold-adapted species in cold habitats,” says Ferrington.
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Wyoming Approves New “Fracing” Rules The Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission unan- imously approved new rules requiring oil and gas companies to disclose the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing in that state. Hydrofraturing—or “fracing” as it is more commonly known— pumps chemicals, water and sand into a well at high pressure to fracture rock formations and release gas. The chemicals used in the process have long been a closely guarded secret of the energy industry, which rallied against the new rule. Conservationists argued that disclosure of the chemicals is important because of their poten- tial to contaminate ground and surface water. Under the new rules, Wyoming regulators would not share cer- tain information with the public if a company can prove it is pro- prietary. Even if they are able to make that case, state regulators will have the information to help them protect the state’s rivers, streams and groundwater.
Zale Joins Jewelers in Pebble Mine Opposition ale Corporation, the nation’s second-largest jeweler, joined Tiffany & Co. and Z others when they announced this year that they will boycott precious metals from the proposed Pebble Mine. Zale Corporation has 1,930 stores in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. The announcement means that more than 30 jewelers—representing more than $6 billion in annual sales—now oppose Pebble. The Bristol Bay Mining District in Alaska would be the largest in North America, and would be situated directly upstream of one of the world’s most prolific salmon fisheries. Bristol Bay currently produces up to 70 million salmon annually, provid- ing as many as 4,000 fisheries-related jobs with an estimated annual value of nearly $400 million. “We believe gold should be mined and refined in a manner that protects both the environment and its inhabitants,” says Gil Hollander, Zale’s executive vice president.
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TU Projects Included on Waters to Watch List his summer the National Fish Habitat Action Plan tial to fish and wildlife species. Since 2006, the U.S. Fish T unveiled their list of 10 Waters to Watch—a collec- and Wildlife Service has provided $8.5 million to support tion of rivers, streams, lakes and watershed systems that will 188 on-the-ground projects in 36 states, leveraging $20 benefit from strategic conservation efforts to protect, restore million in matching dollars from state and federal agencies or enhance their current condition. The 10 include several and non-governmental organizations. projects TU is involved in. The Waters to Watch projects TU is involved in include The waters represent a snapshot of ongoing voluntary work on the Koktuli River in Alaska, South Pine Creek in habitat conservation efforts in freshwater and marine habitats Iowa, Whitethorn Creek in West Virginia, Big Spring Branch across the country, including rivers, lakes, reservoirs and estu- and Pine Creek in Wisconsin, Trout Run in Minnesota, aries. Examples of conservation work include planting stream- South Fork Little Conemaugh River in Pennsylvania, side vegetation for riparian health, protecting and restoring Maggie Creek in Nevada, South Fork Chalk Creek in Utah fish passage and other efforts that help avoid and minimize and Stinky Creek in Arizona. negative effects from industrial and agriculture practices. For more information on the projects visit fishhabitat.org. The objective of the National Fish Habitat Action Plan is to conserve freshwater, estuarine and marine habitats essen-
Read These Books, For Free What does climate news from the world of fisheries science change mean for fish- ing and hunting? Two years ago, staff from Trout Unlimited, Ducks Unlimited, Pheasants Too mmuchuch finfinee sedsedimentiment Forever,Forever the IzaakI Walton League of America and other sporting groups is bbadad nenewsws fforor trout anandd sasal-l- described the impacts of climate mmon.on. Sediment fills uupp the sspacespaces within change to fish, big game, upland birds thethe gravegravel,l, smotsmotheringhering ffishish eggs anandd aquatic insect and waterfowl in the book Seasons’ End. llarvae.arvae. To counteract this problem, fisheries manamanagersgers Now a new book, Beyond Seasons’ End, hhaveave ffocusedocused on eiteitherher rereducingducing tthehe sources ooff sesedimentationdimentation details what can be done to protect or relying on high flows to flush fine materials downstream. But sporting traditions and fish and wild- now Canadian researchersersrs have found thatththa large numbers of spaw- life populations in a rapidly changing ning salmon can have similar positive effects on sediment levels. In climate. Both books can be ordered for some drainagdrainages,ageges, the process of redd free or downloaded at the Seasons’ End Salmon Restore construction kicksk up more stream website, seasonsend.org. In the books, substrates (gra(gravelravavel and sand on the TU staffers Jack Williams, Amy Haak Their Own Habitat streambed) thanthhanha does spring runoff, and Nat Gillespie provide information on how to build resilience and resis- and from greater depths—uphs—ups—up to 20 inches. ThereThThe appears to be a sym- tance to climate change in coldwater biotic relationship in whichhichich large numbersnumber of spawning salmon help fish populations and their habitats. maintain the small stream ecosystemst they depend on for successful As an added bonus, Beyond Seasons’ spawning—yetspawning—yet anotheranother goodgood reason to increase thethe numbernumber ofof End features striking color photogra- wildwild salmon in our streams. phy of hunting and fishing scenes by —Jack—Jack WiWilliams,lliams, TU senior scientist renowned artist Dusan Smetana. TransactionsTransactions ofof the American Fisheries SocietySociety 2010.2010. Vol. 139. Pages 758 - 767.767.
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Question & Answer with Nick Karas, author of Brook Trout »
When Nick Karas released Brook Trout in 1997, it carved out a comprehensive history of the fish where none existed before. Thus, it was no surprise that his work became the seminal reference book for the beloved but often abused native eastern brook trout. Now the fisheries biologist, Navy veteran and accomplished author answers Trout’s questions about what inspired him to write this modern conservation classic. (See a brief review of Brook Trout on page 36, among the other 11 books every coldwater conservationist should have on his or her shelf.)
When did you start your writing career? Nick Karas wrote the first comprehensive book about brook trout history, angling Actually, in high school. I used to write for the school newspaper. Then in and threats. undergraduate school I edited my college yearbook at Johns Hopkins University. And then I went to graduate school at Syracuse University and added a master’s of journalism to it all. So I’ve been a writer all my life. I was [also the outdoor editor at Newsday] for 26 years.
What drew you to write this book about brook trout—one that many consider to be the definitive work on the subject? I was so fascinated by it as a kid. I was 11-years-old when my uncles took me to go trout fishing and I caught the first brook trout at a little stream in upstate New I think the York. And as I held it in my hand I was so impressed by its colors. It’s just abso- brook trout is lutely beautiful, I still think it’s more beautiful even than saltwater species. the master of What were the historical challenges to brook trout survival and what challenges do they face today? its own future. Brook trout can adapt to quite a few environments, more than any other char By moving into or trout. I’ve seen brook trout and their ability to withstand acidic waters. So waters where it they survived until it just got to be too much and that’s when the Adirondacks were cleaned out by the acidic rains from the mills and from the [pollution can continue to from] the East-Central United States. It affected the brook trout in Canada and everywhere else. But one of the biggest challenges was fish culturists reintro- reproduce, it’ll ducing other species. survive. Are there any new challenges since you wrote the book? Brook trout in the Adirondacks lost 90 percent of the waters they were in because the acidity [rose to] a level that even brook trout could not tolerate. Acid rain is still not totally in control, there’s still some degree of it going on but the biggest problem is a change in environment. And what you stock is very important. There are seven definable strains of brook trout. And brook trout populations that have not been contaminated by stocking hatchery brook trout survive much better and reproduce better in these environments.
Has the outlook changed positively or negatively since you released the book? I think the brook trout is the master of its own future. By moving into waters where it can continue to reproduce, it’ll survive. As long as the environment is not denigrated past a certain degree, they will. And I think the environment is not being denigrated as much now as it had been.
To read an extended interview, visit TU.ORG/BLOG______.
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Watersheds [ by Christopher Camuto]
The Naturalist’s Trout I FISH FOR LARGER, MORE DIFFICULT This is pure fishing—fishing without ourselves anglers on stream—but quarry when the opportunity presents an audience, fishing without the pleas- then broadens our attention, which itself. I’m not unaware of the appeal ant distraction of camaraderie, fishing more demanding fish tend not to do. of race-horse rainbows in broad tail- that doesn’t require tackle any better (Cutthroat probably have the same water riffles, of stubborn brown trout than tackle was 100 or 200 years ago. effect on those who start their angling in weedy spring creeks, impossible The trout are not particularly selective lives in the American West.) Brook steelhead in fog-shrouded western but there is always one good, difficult trout have introduced many anglers rivers or mythological Atlantic boss trout in each pool or run—the fish not just to fishing but to nature. salmon holding in classic, gin-clear to catch first while the others scatter. They teach us to engage nature with pools. But looking back, I know now And there may be one outsized trophy energy, enthusiasm, intelligence and that Salvelinus fontinalis was the only in the mile, a 12 or 14-inch beauty respect. They teach us not only to trout I ever needed. An entry-level with a broad head and some heft to observe but to see. They teach us to trout for many anglers—a hungry, it when you hold the fat arc of it just extend our curiosity and our desire wild fish not difficult to catch in out of the water to remove the fly, the for knowledge from one thing to mountain streams or in northern ponds—I never needed any other level of angling than the brook trout Brook trout have introduced many anglers fishing I have enjoyed over the years not just to fishing but to nature. from Georgia to Maine. All those days coalesce into a single They teach us to engage nature with energy, scene: A mile of mountain stream sheathed in granite and shaded by enthusiasm, intelligence and respect. eastern hemlock. A stiff gradient of white cascades between promising, wild brood fish of the stream, lithe another and inspire a permanent sea-green pools. Impossible log and solid as an axe handle. If you miss desire not just to understand fish jams followed by easy reaches open this fish, you’ve missed the grail for and rivers, but to know the life of to long casts. Boulders so gently the day, however pleasurable the quest woods and mountains. sculpted they seem animate. Great and however many 8 and 10-inchers This has long been the case. In trees casting a green shade under a you counted coup on. To prove your a fine essay, “Fly-Fishing Alone,” cathedral-like canopy. An infinite mettle as a brook trout angler, you fish in his 1864 classic, American Angler’s loop of noise-canceling stream rush every spot as if that prize was hidden Book, Thaddeus Norris recounts how playing all day, making time stand everywhere. The genius of such a day easily the angler of wild brook trout still. Waterthrush and woodpeckers, is that you will get your fill of fishing begins to become a naturalist of his towhees and grouse drumming, but not your fill of the river and the or her surroundings. “It was only just sudden deer stare at streamside or a mountains and the woods, of birds now the red squirrel came down the black bear grumbling around. And and critters, sounds and scents, of limb of that birch….The mink, as trout, wild brook trout—holding in weather and the edgy gleam of time he snuffed the fish-tainted air from the light, hiding in the shadows, passing. my old creel, came out from his hole receding under the tantalizing spread The brook trout, as I think of it amongst the rocks and ran along of the ring of a rise. now, is the naturalist’s trout, a fish within a few feet of me….I recollect The angling is good enough, a fair that first rivets our attention on one once in the dim twilight of evening, reward for the effort of being there. thing—the trout we must catch to prove a doe with her fawns came down to
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the stream to drink….A moment since one expression of natural selection things and have taught us more Latin the noisy king-fisher poised himself on and of evolution—a form of life that than we thought we would ever know. the dead branch of the hemlock….The has succeeded since the Oligocene, If they were more difficult to catch, little warbler sang in the alders close adapting for 100 million years to the they would not leave us as much time to by my old felt hat.” pressures of natural selection. And grow in awareness or help our angling During a long day on stream, our everything we discover in a brook evolve beyond being merely recreation interest in brook trout teaches us to trout watershed—the caddis in the or sport. If you keep coming back to admire all forms of life—all bios—for air, the alder along the stream, the brook trout and the superb place where their own sake and not just for our own oak and hickory on the ridge, that they still thrive, you are coming back sentimental pleasure or psychological kingfisher still harassing the stream— for more than fishing. comfort. Many of us have learned on is a school for understanding both the stream, better perhaps than we did deep poetics and the deep ecology of Chris Camuto is the author of four in the classroom, to feel the subtle watersheds. books, including A Fly Fisherman’s Blue complexity of ecology, to begin to Brook trout teach us to keep Ridge, in many respects an homage to understand in visceral terms what going—to fish the next pool, to brook trout, which is enjoying its 20th nature is, perhaps a more pressing explore the next stretch of river—and year in print. He lives on Wolftree question for us now than in Norris’ they teach us to sit still, to enjoy the Farm in central Pennsylvania and time. Brook trout are, like all spe- life around us wherever we stop. They teaches at Bucknell University. cies, a survival from the deep past, lead us to want to know the names of
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The Face—New and Arm—of One VolunteerTU Helps Make a Difference for Paiute Cutthroat { By Sam Davidson}
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17 LASS DAVID
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Stefan McLeod is one of the best and most passionate fly anglers you’ve never heard of. Yet when it comes to fishing, one of the most significant events of McLeod’s life wasn’t when he brought to hand a 30-inch rainbow from the notoriously fickle Truckee River. It was when he summoned the courage to stand before a California water board and insist they issue a special permit that would help save the Paiute cutthroat, one of the rarest trout in North America. The president of the newly formed McLeod and his tattoos appeared Truckee TU Chapter, McLeod was born at the Lahontan Water Board meeting and raised in Truckee, Calif., and says he earlier this year to stick up for the Paiute has never wanted to live anywhere else cutthroat, a fish listed for protection in his 33 years. He began fishing at age under the Endangered Species Act, that 5 and taught himself to fly fish 17 years is native to only one small drainage in ago. He later became a fly-fishing guide Alpine County. The board was consider- but found that “guiding started to turn ing an application from the California my passion into a job and really took all Department of Fish and Game for a the fun out of it.” permit to eradicate non-native fish in McLeod loves trout so much that he Silver King Creek below Llewellyn just can’t keep it to himself. He wears Falls—the final phase of a Paiute cut- his passion on his sleeve, literally and throat restoration project. Although permanently in the form of tattoos. As the Paiute’s historical range was limited of now, McLeod’s right arm features a to about 10 miles in Silver King Creek Little Truckee River brown trout, several and several small tributaries, pure strain aquatic insects, a river, his two favorite Paiutes in this drainage have been dev- fly rods and reels, and the American and astated by hybridization with non-native British flags. Eventually the tattoo will trout since the early 1900s. be complete with a mountain, a small To restore native fish to a stretch stream winding down his arm to meet of stream that is overrun with non- the river, his old Toyota truck, a big pine native competitors, the first step is to tree and some mayfly duns. electroshock to remove as many fish as
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“Finally I told the board they had a chance to make history by helping to take the Paiute cutt off the endangered species list.”
possible—natives and non-natives alike— from the water. After a few rounds of electroshocking, biologists stock the non-natives elsewhere, where they’re not a threat to native fish restoration, and the natives are set aside for later restocking. The final step is to treat the stream with a chemical such as rotenone, which is derived from natural plant sources. Such treatment kills all But a number of individuals, includ- my notes and nothing seemed to come the remaining fish, as well as other ing some with Ph.D.s after their names, out of my mouth when I spoke. Finally aquatic organisms, but streams usually opposed TU and the DFG plan and testi- I told the board they had a chance to recover their aquatic life within a year. fied against the proposal. Yet it was the make history by helping to take the After barriers are put up to block non- youngest person to testify, and arguably Paiute cutt off the endangered species native fish from re-entering, the native the least polished, who made the biggest list. When I left the podium, I wanted fish are restocked to thrive and rebuild splash. That would be McLeod. to crawl under a rock. I thought I’d let in their historical habitat. “The funny thing was that Stefan was everyone down who had put so much TU, through its North Bay Chapter, so nervous when he got up to speak late hard work into the project.” has been working for 20 years to support in the meeting that he had a hard time Rather than letting the effort down, the DFG’s efforts to restore the Paiute to saying anything,” says David Lass, TU’s McLeod’s testimony had the opposite its native range, including chemically Northern California field director. effect. treating sections of Silver King Creek to McLeod agrees. “When my time “Stefan’s testimony was the defining eliminate non-native fish that are threat- came, I thought it would be a sim- moment of the evening. He was so raw ening the Paiute’s survival. John Regan, ple little speech. I had written down and emotional that he connected with former TU California Council chair, has some notes but when I got up in front the water board, all of whom were at least led the effort from the beginning. of everyone, I choked. I couldn’t read in their 50s,” says Lass. “Afterward, two members of the board came up to him and thanked him for speaking and urged him to come to future meetings to give them feedback on other issues as well.” “TU really brought our collective influence to bear on this meeting of the Lahontan Water Board,” adds Regan. The board’s decision reflected that influence. In the end, they voted 6 to 1 to grant the permit to DFG. And several board members said publicly that the testimony of “the guys with trout in ______their name” was the tipping point in convincing them to vote in favor.
Do you have a fly-fishing related tattoo? If so, we want to see it. Take a photo- graph and e-mail it to [email protected]. We’ll put it on [insertTU.ORG/BLOG______blog ic ] for others to see.
DAVE LASS DAVE TROUT FALL 2010 20 SKETCHANDRELEASE.COM BY ILLUSTRATION ABOVE: KENNETH BRAUNEIS RIGHT:
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Maine Brook Trout An Essay of Attachment and Hope By Charles F. Gauvin
ishing made me into an environmen- talist, and the experience of catching a Maine brook trout was what first made Fme into a fisherman. I was not a Maine resident in my formative years, but in a sense I grew up there. For my father and his buddies, Maine was a fisherman’s Valhalla. It was where they went every spring beginning in the late 1940s, and it was where I most longed to have my father take me fishing. Every year, Dad and his group of fellow doc- tors went to Maine’s Rangeley Lakes at ice-out, to troll by day on Mooselookmeguntic Lake for landlocked salmon, and occasionally to fly cast in the evening for brook trout on a nearby pond. The fly fishing was exceedingly simple; in the weeks after ice-out the pond’s brookies were as passionate about a black gnat as they were about a gray ghost or a white marabou. He and his buddies released next to nothing. Indeed, they measured success by how many coolers they filled with the carcasses of landlocks and brookies. I grew up in the shadow of “the trip;” it occupied much (perhaps far too much) of my mental space. As a matter of birth order, I got to go while my two brothers were still toddlers, but then, when the three of us had all reached adolescence, Dad made participation contingent on scholastic performance. My brothers, who cared less about fishing but far more about their school work, usually got to join Dad, while I, the chronic underachiever, fished vicariously, through their trip reports. ROD SKIDMORE ROD
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Maine ranks second only to Alaska in having the most intact assemblage of native trout waters anywhere in the United States.
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In the late 1960s, salmon and brook Contemporary Encounters trout numbers in Mooselookmeguntic In the mid 1990s, after I had settled fell off, and family obligations tested the in as TU’s CEO and become con- steadfastness of the commitment Dad versant with native fish conservation and the other doctors had made to “the challenges nationwide, I got to know trip.” Around Rangeley and Oquossoc, Forrest Bonney, Maine’s pre-eminent the locals blamed the “biologists” for brook trout biologist, and his boss Ray improper fishery management (there “Bucky” Owen, whom Maine Gov. was also talk of DDT and the impacts of Angus King had appointed to run the spraying herbicides in the surrounding Maine Department of Inland Fisheries industrial woodlands). I was never sure and Wildlife. Bonney clued me in whom or what to blame, but I recall to what was perhaps the nation’s best from my last time with Dad and his kept native fish secret—the existence buddies on Mooselookmeguntic (my of several hundred brook trout waters, grades surged briefly in junior high for which his agency lacked any record school), the fleeting image of a 4-pound of fish stocking. Bonney asked me to brook trout—the only good fish we saw, help secure funding for survey work; he let alone caught, that year—I sighted in needed to know more about the state’s the rocky shallows off Students Island. brook trout populations. By developing I called out to Dad as the fish turned a representative sample of those native and dove into the depths. Later that brook trout waters, he could do a better torpid day, sensibly abandoning all hope job of protecting them, and he wanted of good fishing, I hiked to the top of TU’s help. Oquossoc’s Bald Mountain and, while Bonney’s sense of timing was per- staring at the snow remaining on a few fect. With Owen—a renowned wildlife distant mountains, imagined Ishmael’s scientist and passionate conservation- sighting of the White Whale. That last ist—running his agency, there was gathering on Mooselookmeguntic a chance to reform Maine’s archaic drove home the mythic dimension of fishing regulations and protect brook “the trip;” little did I know then that I trout from overharvest. So as I found would one day have the chance to play money for the survey work, Bonney a part in claiming back the reality of began systematically identifying high Maine’s brook trout heritage. quality brook trout waters, and under LOUIS CAHILL LOUIS CHARLIE GAUVIN
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Owen’s leadership, Maine IFW began changing harvest limits that would protect each water’s population of native brook trout. Although Owen left IFW in 2000 and Bonney retired several years ago, their influence endures. The reforms they initiated inspired TU’s Maine Council and its chapters to take up the brook trout conserva- tion challenge. Having initiated the campaign to remove the Kennebec River’s Edwards Dam and having led the effort to secure federal protection for the last wild Atlantic salmon in the Down East rivers, Maine’s TU leaders sensed a new opportunity and began to focus on brook trout. In addition to sponsoring habitat restoration projects, the grassroots activists took stock of the resource and began advocating for a lasting, comprehensive approach to its protection. It was a long march, and it continues today.
Taking Steps to Protect Maine’s Brook Trout Like so many of the nation’s native trout and salmon fisheries, Maine brook trout were discovered and began to be exploited in the 19th century, were more fully exploited in the 20th century, and will either be protected or lost in the 21st century. The documented presence of giant (4 to 10-pound) specimens in the Rangeley Lakes first staked Maine’s claim to brook trout fame, but it’s worth con- sidering that brook trout were once abundant in practically every ounce of Maine’s fresh water below 3,000 feet in elevation. Exploitation began in the 1840s, with the opening of the woods to logging. In 1846, on his first trip to Maine, Henry David Thoreau noted that “[t]he mission of men there seems to be, like so many lousy ROD SKIDMORE ROD demons, to drive the forest all out of the country, from every solitary beaver swamp and mountain side, as soon as possible.” On the same trip, Thoreau caught and recorded his dreams of
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brook trout: the lovely “painted fish” specific regulations governing the use that “rose to our hooks.” of live fish as bait. The information Much of the resource that shaped they gathered, which TU’s scientists Thoreau’s 1846 experience remains plan to add to the Maine brook trout intact, and preserving that intactness CSI, gives TU’s staff and volunteers is the enduring centerpiece of Maine the guidance needed to address some TU’s brook trout conservation quest. of the most insidious and powerful In 2003, when TU’s fishery scientists threats to the state’s wild brook trout began working with government populations. scientists to document brook trout Brook trout are hardy—far better populations in the East, they “dis- adapted than most salmonids to water covered” in Maine many brook trout chemistry changes such as those from populations still sufficiently healthy acid rain—yet are notoriously sensitive to warrant protection. Maine ranks to competition from invasive species, second only to Alaska in having the including smallmouth bass, lake trout most intact assemblage of native trout and splake (a brook trout and lake trout waters anywhere in the United States. hybrid), white and yellow perch, and By contrast, for brook trout populations white suckers. The presence of some of elsewhere in the East, the priority would these invasive fish is the result of fishery be predominantly restoration. “management,” while others are now In 2006, a report of the Eastern established as a result of illegal fish Brook Trout Joint Venture, a partner- stocking. The illegal introduction of ship composed of federal and state smallmouth bass—a sportfish not native agencies and non-governmental organi- to Maine—today threatens the brook zations (TU among them), described the trout of the Rapid River at the lower condition of the brook trout resource end of the Rangeley Lakes system and from a landscape perspective: has taken its toll on wild brook trout “Maine is the only state with exten- in the Kennebec drainage. sive intact populations of wild, self- Maine’s TU activists led the effort reproducing populations in lakes and to control the smallmouth population ponds....Maine’s lake and pond brook in the Rapid and to prevent additional trout populations are the jewel of the introductions of invasive species in eastern range: Lake populations are native and wild brook trout waters. intact in 185 subwatersheds (18 percent They successfully lobbied the state of historical range), in comparison to legislature to do what Maine IFW, only six intact subwatersheds among despite Owen’s and Bonney’s urgings, the 16 other states.” had failed to accomplish: to make The EBTJV report helped furnish native brook trout waters categorically most of the data for TU’s Conservation off limits to stocking hatchery brook Success Index for brook trout. The CSI, trout. Working with TU’s national staff, a comprehensive analysis of species Maine’s TU Council is now advocat- status and threats, which TU’s scientists ing for additional management steps have now completed for most of the to help conserve wild brook trout in nation’s native trout species, is a tremen- perpetuity, including a wholesale ban dously powerful tool for ensuring that on the use of live bait in wild brook conservation work targets priority areas. trout waters. Yet in Maine, several TU volunteers, including veteran brook trout guide Toward a Brighter Gary Corson, set about to complement Future? the CSI’s data sets on population and habitat integrity with such critical Anglers are by nature a hopeful lot, fishery management information as and for Maine brook trout anglers, stocking records and pond and stream- Continued on page 54 CAHILL LOUIS
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Maine’s lake and pond brook trout populations are the jewel of the eastern range.
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Fishing TU’s Home Waters:
Maine’s Brook Trout Ponds BY MATT LIBBY aine’s native trout make for easy fishing on the best days and terrible fishing on the worst days. The uninitiated angler may often give up on a pond only Mminutes before the “switch” is turned on. This “switch” is what keeps guides guessing and cursing when it is off and thanking God when it gets turned back on. Timing is everything when fishing for Maine’s brookies. It is critical to know the best time of year to fish a pond. Shallow ponds usually turn on at different times than deeper ponds. Higher elevation ponds turn on later in the year than those at lower elevations. Dark-colored waters warm up at different rates than clear waters. And free-flowing waters usually peak earlier than tailwater fisheries. It’s often best if you fish these waters with an expert. A local cousin, fishing bum works well, but if your family doesn’t run deep into the wilds of Maine, hire a guide— see a list at maineguides.org or in the TU Outfitters, Guides and Business Members listing on page 60. Google Earth now offers overlays that actually list guides who specialize on individual Maine ponds. Another good resource is Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s site, mefishwildlife.com, where you can find regulations, articles and pond surveys with depth maps. Look up Maine’s designated remote ponds on this site; they are always a good bet for quality fish in a spectacular spot. Hatches vary even more than Maine’s weather. Old timers will tell you that the first hatch is the worm, then comes the bait fish and finally bugs. There is no great fly hatch spread sheet for North Maine bugs, because they’re very difficult to predict. The hatches vary depending on what type of water body you’re fishing, and what kind of weather the area is experiencing. On an early spring our Hendrickson hatch may be gone almost by the time they start. It seems that the green drakes always start in late June and peak in early July and in my opinion it is about the only hatch that can be predicted. Thus, it’s important to always have a backup plan when conditions won’t allow for your original plan. Although many waters are catch-and-release, native trout are one of Maine’s tastiest and best-kept secrets. In my opinion, a meal of trout and fiddleheads in May is one step above a lobster feed. My mother, who ran Libby Camps from 1936-1977, can’t imagine releasing a perfectly good meal back into the water. My days of guiding in the 1970s weren’t great unless we ended up with a full stringer of trout. But my trout-eating days are few now, even though the trout fishing is better than it was in the 1970s. We have changed our fishing habits dramatically, to make sure we can catch the trout again. We do, however, have to make sure this catch-and-release mentality doesn’t result in overpopulations of fish. I always ask the sport anglers before we go out if they want to eat fish. If they do, I take them to where the trout need thinning out. But most anglers today don’t want to keep trout. If you need a place to camp on your Maine adventure, you can find a list at mainesportingcamps.com, campmaine.com or check out cabin rentals on remote ponds at mainetourism.com.
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Glacial Remnant: Maine’s Rare Blueback Trout [By Murray Carpenter] More than 5,000 years ago, arctic char followed the Hampshire. “I remember still the time when my dad told me about the Sunapee receding glaciers into what is now New England. When the climate warmed, some trout in New Hampshire,” he says. “And that was probably for me one of the first were left stranded in cold lakes. These are the fish now known as blueback trout, and most palpable interactions I had blueback char, or simply bluebacks. Some still call them Sunapee trout, for the with the notion of extinction.” While the blueback from Lake population in New Hampshire’s Lake Sunapee, extirpated for decades. Sunapee and Maine’s Floods Pond were once considered a separate subspecies, The current range of the blueback Kinnison says most people now consider is limited to three dozen or so lakes in New England’s char to all belong to the Maine, Quebec and New Brunswick, a same subspecies, Salvelinus alpinus oquassa. dozen of which are in Maine. But he says the individual populations Most anglers will never see a blueback have been apart long enough to evolve char; they tend to hang out in deep their own distinct traits. Some, such as waters and can be hard to catch. But those in Penobscot Lake, are pale and an 11-year-old angler caught a record- small and feed on snails. The extirpated breaking char in 2009 in Pushineer population in the Rangeley Lakes was Pond. It taped out to over 25 inches, also composed of smallish fish, prey for and weighed more than 5 pounds. the region’s once-massive brook trout. Many are intrigued by bluebacks’ In other waters, like Rainbow Lake, rarity and vulnerability. Michael they are larger and piscivorous. Kinnison, a University of Maine biology In all cases, they evolved in ecosystems professor who has studied bluebacks, with just a few fish species. Consider grew up fishing with his father in New Maine’s remote Big Reed Pond. The
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90-acre pond north of Baxter State occasional stocking of other fish, even Kinnison says roughly one-quarter Park likely had just three species 100 native species, in blueback waters. of the New England blueback popula- years ago: bluebacks, brook trout and Reardon agrees with Frost that illegally tions have been lost over the last cen- redbelly dace. In recent decades, other introduced fish, especially smelt, are tury, and the last survivors in Maine bait fish have arrived—either dumped the most immediate threat to bluebacks. deserve attention. “When you only in by bucket biologists or left behind by “It’s one of the things that may have have about 12 populations in Maine, bait dunkers. Worst among the invaders driven them out of the Rangeley Lakes, each one of them is something we is rainbow smelt. They have dramatically where they used to be forage for the big have to keep a special eye on,” he says. tipped the pond’s ecological balance, brook trout,” he says. “In the end, each time we lose one of and its bluebacks have been nearly And as an arctic species in New these, we risk losing something that wiped out by the little fish, which can England, bluebacks also face threats we’ve just barely begun to characterize out-compete them for food and even eat from a warming climate. “It’s sort of and know.” the juveniles. The Maine Department of the reverse version of plant species Inland Fisheries and Wildlife is now in that only exist on mountaintops,” says To listen to a National Public Radio story the middle of a multi-year reclamation Kinnison. “These are fish species that on the blueback, go to ______TU.ORG/BLOG project for Big Reed. only live on lake bottoms.” Biologist Frank Frost has overseen a three-year project to catch Big Reed’s remaining fish—but the effort netted just Roughly one-quarter of the New England eight char, four of each sex. These fish went to a private, northern Maine hatch- blueback populations have been lost over ery for safekeeping (another, smaller the last century, and the last survivors in fish did not survive the transition to the hatchery). Native brookies from the Maine deserve attention. pond are also being held at the hatchery. This fall, the state plans to treat the lake with rotenone to kill the invaders. In the summer of 2011, if all goes well, the bluebacks and their hatchery-spawned progeny—over 1,100 to date—will return to a smelt-free pond. Frost says the illegal introduction of fish is a problem all across the state, and Wadleigh Pond, another Maine blueback water, is also faring poorly in the face of introduced smelt. Even though bluebacks are listed as a species of special concern in Maine, they are lumped in with brook trout Weminuche Wilderness, Colorado in the state fishing regulations. Jeff Reardon, TU’s New England conser- vation director, says although angling is not likely a threat to the fish, they deserve more protection due to their scarcity. “TU would prefer to see no harvest of bluebacks,” he says. “But there is no reason to stop catch-and-release fishing for these fish, or fishing for brook trout in these waters.” Reardon would also like to see bet- ter monitoring of Maine’s blueback A male and female Sunapee trout (also known as blueback char or blueback trout) drawn by Sherman Denton populations, and an end to the state’s in 1896 for the annual report of the New York Fisheries, Game and Forest Commission.
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Must-Have Books for the Coldwater Conservationist
Throughout American history, written works ranging from
Common Sense to The Jungle have inspired rebellion, social move-
ments and renaissance. In the same way, books have helped
motivate conservationists to protect our wild places for future
generations of anglers and sportsmen and women. Here is
our stab at the 11 books every serious coldwater conservationist
should consider adding to his or her bookshelf in 2011.
Did your favorite book not make the list? Visit TU.ORG/BLOG______
to tell us why your pick is a must-have book for coldwater
conservationists. SK
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A Sand County Almanac Cadillac Desert: The American West (1949) and Its Disappearing Water (1986) When it was first pub- lished in 1949, A Sand Marc Reisner’s 1986 book provided the first detailed look County Almanac became a at the history and the long-term negative roles the Bureau landmark for conserva- of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers tionists from all walks of had in transforming life. A series of essays by water resources in the Aldo Leopold based upon American West. Written the land surrounding his by a skilled storyteller, rural Wisconsin cabin, the the author details how book framed the need to the agencies—using develop an ethic based on dams, pipelines and preserving the “integrity, every other conceivable stability and beauty” of the engineering tool avail- natural world around us. able to them—attempted Simplistic in its narrative, to change the West from compelling in its call to an arid region with action, its relevancy has changed little in the more than limited life-carrying 60 years it has been in publication. It’s no wonder more capacity to a place where than 2 million copies of the book have been printed and the lack of water became it’s been translated into nine languages. a supposed nonfactor. TheTh bbook k shows h theth originsi i of the increasing water- related environmental and social struggles the West is Trout and Salmon of North America facing today. (2002)
Written by renowned fisheries expert and longtime Trout A View of the River contributor Dr. Robert Behnke, this is a must-have book for (1994) anyone wanting to know anything about trout and salmon. Whether it’s If you want to under- detailed descrip- stand the behavior of tions of fish and rivers, including those their biology, that have been altered information by human development, on conserva- there are few books that tion efforts, or can top this classic by detailed maps Luna Leopold. A widely showing native respected hydrologist, and existing Leopold delves into the ranges, this basics of fluvial hydrol- book contains it ogy and geomorphology all. The descrip- but does so in a man- tions and maps are accompanied by beautifully crafted ner the layperson can images of trout and salmon by Joseph Tomelleri, making readily grasp. If you are this 360-page book feel at home on the coffee table or in lookinglkif for one book bkthtill that will helph you understand river the library. channels, flow, discharge, floods, hydraulic geometry, drainage networks, river morphology and sediment load, this is it.
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Brook Trout: A Thorough Look at Cutthroat: Native Trout of the West North America’s Great Native Trout— (Revised 2008) Its History, Biology and Angling Possibilities Initially published in 1987, this book by biologist Patrick (1997) Trotter provided one of the first detailed insights into the native fish Written by Nick Karas, that has been this work is an exhaus- at the center of tive look at this beautiful TU’s and other fish and the history of groups’ pro- angling for it. Karas tect, reconnect shows how humans— and restore from loggers to tanners conservation to fish hogs—nearly practices and wiped out eastern North policies in America’s native trout the West. The and how its existence updatedd d versioni off theh book,b k publishedbli h d in 2008, does continues to be chal- for the cutthroat what Dr. Robert Behnke did for other lenged by threats such trout and salmon and provides a highly visual feast as acid rain. Heavily illustrated by Joseph Tomelleri. The new version also researched, well written includes new information on the biology and ecology and chock-full of details, of cutthroat trout. brookb k trout aficionados—anglersf d l and conservationists alike—will find this book highly engaging. Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder The Lorax (2005) (1971) Ever wonder what the Go ahead and laugh, but more than one conservationist future of trout and became so because their parents or grandparents took the salmon would be like time to read them this book. To get a sense of its social without a next genera- impact, consider that tion of conservationists when Theodor Seuss to stand by their side? Geisel first wrote That is a very real threat and published the unless we do more to book, opponents engage children with of the conservation nature. This book, more movement wanted it than any other, spurred removed from a grade TU to create its Stream school reading list. If Explorers youth member- you are a parent or ship (streamexplorers. a grandparent, this org) and focus on other book should be on youth outreach, from your shelf. And if the Trout in the Classroom to a partnership with the Boy child in your life asks Scouts of America. As author Richard Louv eloquently why you spend those argues, children need nature to help in their emotional weekends and nights and physical development as much as nature needs chil- repairing streams, samplingl water or volunteering with dren. In the new edition of the book, the author includes your local TU chapter, tell them that you’re like the Lorax, solutions and tips for healing this fractured bond starting exceptSan Juan you Mountains, fight for Colorado the trees and the fish. in one’s own backyard.
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Salmon Without Rivers: A History of the Silent Spring Pacific Salmon Crisis (1962) (1999) When published in 1962, this book by Rachel Carson helped Look to this book for an to launch the modern environmental movement. The book in-depth understand- documented the impact of ing of why and how we chemical contaminants arrived at the current on the environment and state of crisis involving the especially birds, while Pacific salmon, including exposing misleading crashing populations of corporate public relations wild fish, Endangered campaigns and the woe- Species Act listing battles fully inadequate attention and fishing restrictions. of government officials A nationally recognized to the problem. Quickly fisheries biologist, Jim rising to the top of The New Lichatowich delves into York Times best-seller list, what went wrong for this the book increased public icon of the West Coast awareness about the harm andd Pacificf Northwest.h Equally important, he details chemicals can cause to the what needs to happen to save wild stocks of salmon from environment, including extinction, including habitat conservation and restoration fhfisheries. IIt also l ldled to stronger regulations surrounding and dam breeching. the use of chemical pesticides.
Storms of my Grandchildren: The Truth about the Coming Climate Catastrophe and our Last Chance to Save Humanity Honorable Mentions (2009) You may also want to consider these other important conservation books If you are troubled by the fact that climate change could for your collection. wipe out or vastly reduce populations of native trout and salmon and you want to take action, this book The Habit of Rivers belongs in your collec- tion. Written by James Unquenchable: America’s Water Hansen, the scientist Crisis and What to Do About It who warned the U.S. Watershed Restoration: Principles Congress in the 1980s and Practices of the threat of climate change long before it An Entirely Synthetic Fish became a cause célèbre, this book lays out in fright- King of Fish: The Thousand Year ening detail what will Run of Salmon occur if the world does The Behavior and Ecology of not change course. An Pacific Salmon and Trout optimist, Hansen also describes what can and Stream Restoration: A Natural needs to be done to save the planet, our grandchildren Channel Design Handbook and trout and salmon from catastrophe.
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Places Worth Living and Dying In [By Tom Reed] Cochetopa is a lonely place: big, open, lost. Pines edge the huge mountain park and the La Garitas rise to the south, one of several twisted and tossed ranges that make up what most people call Colorado’s San Juan Mountains. High country. Ten thousand feet above sea level. Mountains rising 4,000 feet higher, cupping the high, wide park.
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Not many people go here. It is generally hard to access. From the San Luis Valley side, getting to Cochetopa requires a trip over the Continental Divide, then back over the divide on a crisscross hatchwork of washboard dirt roads. Even from the Gunnison side, the park is isolated, a clean 100 miles from the nearest stoplight. It is worth the trip. There are elk in Cochetopa, a few decent trout streams, a fine buck mule deer or two and there’s even moose. The moose were transported in by wildlife officials, but not the first one. That was a young wandering bull, several hundred miles south of where he should have been up on the Wyoming border. A decade later more moose came down, involuntarily loaded into horse trailers and driven southward. There are antelope, too, in a high park spread out wide. Prairie goats at 10,000 feet. Perhaps the antelope are drawn here. I am drawn here. More than 100 years ago, another young man was drawn to Cochetopa. His name, if names mean anything at this elevation in a remote mountain park, was Jack Smith. Perhaps to prove that names don’t mean anything, he had an alias: Jacob Sattler. In 1881, Smith made his way into the mountains between the towns of Saguache and Gunnison. They were wilder mountains then, on the edge of Ute territory, close to a mining district, bristling with trouble. Jack was part of a detachment of Infantry Company G, U.S. Army. He had been a soldier all of his life serving in the Mexican-American War in the late 1840s, then coming west. But something that year set him off. He may have gotten lost as a newspaper account of his death speculated. He may have had enough of fighting. Or he may have decided that Cochetopa was a pretty good place to die. But something stopped him, made him put the muzzle of his Army-issue .45-70 to his head and send a huge chunk of lead through his brain. WILL STENZEL
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I am drawn here. More than 100 years ago, another young man was drawn to Cochetopa.
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The Saguache Chronicle wrote: “The barely readable letters: “Jack Sm” and said Jurors upon their oaths do say part of an old pine casket. that the deceased came to his death They put Smith in a new box, by shooting himself. We farther [sic] hauled him to a more permanent loca- find that the deceased was a soldier tion with a great view of the soaring belonging to the Infantry, belonging to La Garitas, and reburied him with the company ‘G’…There was nothing full honors courtesy of the Gunnison found near the body with the excep- American Legion. Smith was back in tion of [a] belt…and an army musket the ground, hopefully for good. and knife in a leather sheath. From Outdoorsmen have a funny way of information received from the acting stumbling onto stuff in the backcoun- Coroner it appears that the soldier had try. Fishermen found Smith, but it was been out hunting and getting lost and hunters who found another skeleton probably nearly dead with thirst—there late in 1988 in Cochetopa. Again, no is no water in the vicinity of the place one knew the name of the man, but where the remains were found—had this corpse was a whole lot fresher. It was pretty clear what had happened. He had come to the country to die.
determined to shoot himself as the Like a couple-months-dead fresher. best way out of his misery.” So the hunters, their quarry forgotten, Apparently when the Army found scurried into town and reported it to his body, they transported it down the local authorities. valley to where a creek ran, as if the The man, it turned out, was dying sound of water could quench that thirst when he arrived in Cochetopa. Near in the afterlife. his remains, they found a tattered One hundred and seven years later, sleeping bag, a few cans of label-less Smith turned up again. In the summer food, a makeshift shelter made of of 1988, a couple of fishermen were plastic and a colostomy bag. Like Jack plying the waters of Saguache Creek in Smith, the man had left something the Cochetopa when they found part of behind that would withstand the Smith sticking out of a bank that had elements. Plastic. The bag said all it been scoured in spring floods. There needed to say: cancer. he was, leg bones sticking out in the It was pretty clear what had hap- hot mountain sun. The fishermen pened. He had come to the country called the authorities. The authori- to die. Drawn to it, perhaps from a ties, noticing that this particular body childhood memory or a fishing trip was not from 1988, or even from that as a teen. Or just perhaps because it century, called in other authorities was one of the few truly blank spaces and the mystery of Smith started to left on the map of Colorado. unravel. It has a pull, this place. A wide On the skeleton, archaeologists expanse of country, mountains found brass buttons, a spent .45-70 everywhere, ponderosa pines and cartridge—perhaps from the very same aspens and spruce and clear water bullet that did Smith in—the remains running. There is a wild trout stream of a leather boot, the remnants of in Cochetopa, a stream that I can hop what was possibly his ammo pouch across in a running leap. At my back and eight square-headed casket nails. rises a hunk of undramatic mountain
WILL STENZEL There was also a headstone with the known as Cochetopa Dome, and off
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in the distance ahead is Sawtooth and the weight of the line singing in pure as the snowmelt itself. In the Mountain, a soaring hulk, a fragment thin air. Decades have passed and I am highest holds of the Cochetopa are Rio of mountain spit off the Continental well north of Cochetopa and have not Grande cutthroat on the east side of Divide onto the Cochetopa plain. The returned and perhaps never will, but the divide, Colorado River cutthroat on fishing is excellent because it is catch- the place lives on. It is no coincidence, the west. Pure and native and as wild and-release, flies or lures only. I think, that to the ear the word nearly as they were when Jack Smith crested The soul of the fisherman is filled sounds like “utopia.” a sagebrush bench with his .45-70 with special places like Cochetopa. I reckon we all have our Cochetopa. slung over one shoulder. As those Rivulets to streams, streams to riv- I have several. They are born of streams follow gravity, brook trout, ers; time rolls on. But the heart of meltwater and high snow fading. then browns and rainbows appear. All the angler remembers. It remembers They etch our landscapes and seep wild—or perhaps if one is technical— places where sunlight slants to laugh- through granite and limestone, laugh feral. But all eager to rise. ing water, it remembers perfect fish down canyons of lodgepole pine and These blue lines of cold water are and precise casts and it remembers alpine fir, wind and meander through all Cochetopa and their memory. I place. Years slip over life’s smooth sedge meadows and aspen groves, then think that perhaps when we need to, stone, and still the soul does not drop to sage flats that in late summer we anglers will conjure these places forget. It forms its own DVD in swell with the chatter of grasshoppers. and the people. We will recollect high resolution and everything is Mine are blue lines—thin as the cut places that sing, will rewind that song there with just a slight playback—the of a razor, with volume little more and play it again. And smile with the laughter, the scent, the way a stream than that of a few fire hoses. It seems memory. Even if we never return, we talks, the waft of sage on a mountain sacrilege to describe their waters in can go back. current. It’s even there in your arm, cubic feet per second, for these are a muscle memory of a special fly rod birth waters where our trout are as BEN PASCHAL
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News from the Field
Actionline
Colorado A chapter celebrates the end of its first Trout in the Classroom season. 51
Connecticut Dam removal on Mill River opens spawning habitat for wild fish. 46
The Thames Valley Chapter connects fish with heritage for middle school students. 50
Georgia Chapter earns kudos for its youth and senior outreach. 50
Idaho TU introduces immigrant students to the beautiful places trout live. 48
New York A statewide art project celebrates TU’s 50th anniversary. 50
Virginia Families enjoy a day of fishing in the shadow of the Shenandoah Mountains. 51
West Virginia Volunteers plant over 1,000 trees in one day on the banks of Big Run. 48
Wisconsin A canal-like stretch of the Menomonee is set for a makeover. 47
Wyoming TUer Bob Capron is named a finalist for the prestigious Field & Stream award. 48
Other Tools and Tips 52 Stream Champion 53
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Grassroots Spotlight On-the-ground chapter success stories 50th Anniversary Anniversary National Conservation National Awards
Solving the Mill River Dam Problem CONNECTICUT
The long, concrete dam on southwestern Connecticut’s Mill River was so obso- lete, no one even knew for certain what its original purpose was. Regardless, thanks to the Nutmeg Chapter, last August the Connecticut Department of Transportation removed the dam that blocked wild brook and brown trout from passing upstream to spawn. Earlier last summer, chapter President Ron Merly approached the state Department of Environmental Protection about removing the dam, after working with the Aspetuck Land Trust and the Town of Easton—the landowners on both sides of the structure. After a few months without a response, Merly was thrilled to hear back that the “This is a prime example of a chapter ahead to the next big project—removing DEP included the chapter’s proposal in recognizing a problem and working in another dam a mile upstream, on private a scheduled bridge construction project conjunction with land trusts and state property. Merly has already started reach- downstream. The dam removal—along and local departments to rectify it,” says ing out to the landowner about funding with native tree and shrub plantings and Merly. And the chapter won’t lose the options for the dam removal. Merly says erosion control work—was exactly the opportunity to get their hands dirty on Mill River is one of only nine streams in kind of remediation work the Department Mill River just because an agency is doing the entire state that supports wild trout, of Transportation was looking to include in the actual removal—volunteers will be and therefore Connecticut TU volunteers the bridge project. Construction started in involved in stream plantings and other need to do whatever they can to improve August and wrapped up in a few weeks— habitat improvement work after con- those fisheries. opening up valuable spawning habitat. struction. The chapter is already looking
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ConservationUrban Restoration Awards
WISCONSIN
After three years of coordination and out- reach, the Southeast Wisconsin Chapter is celebrating a June announcement from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources that the agency will remove 1,000 feet of concrete from the bed of a Milwaukee, Wis. salmon and steelhead river called the Menomonee. The concrete—which was installed in 1965 for flood control—hinders fish passage because of its steep slope, velocity and absence of current breaks. The result is a fast stretch of water with nowhere for fish to stop and rest. After deconstruc- tion, the project will open up 37 river miles of habitat on the Menomonee River and its tributaries, creating fish passage to the Milwaukee River and Lake Michigan. Although the deconstruction and costs are wrote letters of support for the project, and Throughout the process, the Southeast “way beyond our pay grade,” according to held multiple meetings in Koltz’s office con- Wisconsin Chapter will continue its river chapter President Henry Koltz, the TUers cerning the project. Now the section of the cleanup work, along with tree plantings. got the ball rolling by providing a forum for Menomonee—which presently looks more They plan to do fishing outreach as well, communication between the WDNR and the like a canal than a steelhead and salmon now that Koltz expects bigger steelhead, Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, river—will get a makeover to help restore Chinook, coho and brown trout to be swim- the lead agencies in the project. The chap- a more natural streambed and hopefully ming by Miller Park in this newly restored ter, Wisconsin TU and national TU staff natural banks, depending on the design. section of the Menomonee. PHOTOS BY BILL MEYERS BY PHOTOS 47 TROUT FALL 2010
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back to show their families what they planted. Elkovich says the teachers are already talking about an outing for next year. “What a great way to introduce new Americans to their new home,” says Elkovich.
TU Conservation Hero Honored
WYOMING
Longtime Wyoming volunteer Bob Capron, of the East Yellowstone Chapter, is among six finalists for Field & Stream’s annual Heroes Big Run Milestone of Conservation awards. Capron earned WEST VIRGINIA the distinction as a result of a lifetime of fish advocacy, especially his work to rescue Last May, eight TU volunteers from the Making Mores Creek fish trapped in irrigation ditches along the Mountaineer and P. Pendleton Kennedy Shoshone River. TU volunteers have been Chapters planted more than 1,000 trees on World Famous finalists for this distinction—and with it, the banks of Big Run in a single day, finish- IDAHO prize money for chapter projects—in four ing a multi-year project that culminated out of the five years since Field & Stream in armoring and shading 7,700 feet of the Last June, 50 kids planted 300 native black started handing out the awards. stream. Add that distance to the 7,200 feet cottonwood trees on the banks of Mores of previous plantings volunteers completed Creek, a native redband stream where TU immediately downstream, and TU has has been doing restoration work since 2006. planted over 120 acres of spruce, willow, silky The high-school students were from Boise Got Big News from dogwood, mountain ash, serviceberry, elder- Language Academy—a secondary school Your Chapter? berry and alder along the river. The project, for students who are new to the English lan- We Want to Hear About It. which started in 2006, has inspired local guage, most of them immigrants or refugees The Actionline section of Trout enthusiasm for brook trout restoration and from countries around the globe. So when provides a perfect forum for conservation education. Nearly 3,000 area the school wanted to organize an outdoor exchanging information and sharing students have been involved in the plantings project for the students to introduce them successes. Send us a short item— through their schools. Partnerships with The to their new surroundings, local U.S. Forest 150 to 300 words—describing Mountain Institute and the Monongahela Service staff and TU’s Pam Elkovich stepped your project or event, why it was National Forest ensure future support in to share their expertise. After the wildlife significant and, if possible, how it might benefit other chapters. biologists talked to the students about local for plantings and other bank stabilization Send Actionline submissions, plus efforts, according to project director Gary wildlife, Elkovich took the kids to Mores photos (slides and snapshots Berti. “This is a huge accomplishment,” says Creek and talked about fish and the impor- are preferable), to Samantha Berti. “We have created conditions that will tance of trees in the ecosystem. The kids Carmichael at [email protected],______stabilize, shade and provide habitat for eons. were thrilled to plant native trees along the 1300 North 17th Street, #500, And for anglers, we have left lifetimes of banks, even decorating the bases of their Arlington, VA., 22209. excellent fishing.” seedlings with rocks, and promised to come
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Fly Fishing Therapy Wounded soldiers from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. enjoyed a peace- ful day of fishing on Conococheague Creek near Chambersburg, Pa. earlier this year. The Falling Springs Chapter hosts the event annually, in partnership with Project Healing Waters. TU has hired a fulltime organizer to expand its involvement with Project Healing Waters and other wounded warrior programs, to help returning service personnel heal through fishing and conservation activities. PHOTOS BY ANDY DIVELY ANDY BY PHOTOS
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Across the country, TU chapters sponsor countless community events to bring our conservation message to a broader audience. Here are a few highlights:
which draws over 200 kids—a seniors fish- New Chapter, ing day and a family fishing day. Chapter President Ken Bachman says these events New Efforts bring families into the TU fold. “We use this different angle to further TU and trout NEW JERSEY fishing,” he says. Last spring, the New Jersey Council wel- comed a new TU chapter among its ranks to focus on northwest New Jersey’s Warren County. The Warren County Chapter is hit- Fish and History ting the ground running, joining ongoing CONNECTICUT restoration efforts on the Musconetcong River and brook trout restoration, and Early last summer, the Thames Valley considering relaunching a cleanup effort on Chapter teamed with a regional land trust the Paulinskill. Meanwhile, the council and to host their second annual environmental chapters continued to reach out to poten- education day for 50 middle school stu- tial conservationists last winter by partici- dents. The kids learned about American
PHOTOS BY MARK LOETE BY PHOTOS pating in the world’s largest fly-fishing show Indian history and culture, and the impor- in Somerset, N.J., introducing local residents tance of native trout as a food source for to Trout in the Classroom and restoration Native Americans and settlers. The kids work throughout the state. focused on assessing the quality of the water in the nearby Fenton River—which Reaching Out to Kids and Seniors Art Imitates Trout GEORGIA
NEW YORK Last May, the Chattahoochee/Nantahala Chapter celebrated over a decade of out- To celebrate TU’s 50th anniversary, the reach work with a well-earned Regional Ashokan-Pepacton Watershed Chapter Director Honor Award from the U.S. Fish has organized a public art project to raise and Wildlife Service. The chapter earned awareness about water quality issues in praise for its support at fishing days at the Catskill Mountains, home to dwindling the Chattahoochee Forest National Fish native brook trout populations and the main Hatchery, where over 50 volunteers help water source for New York City residents. with events every year. Favorite local events Twenty-nine local Catskill Mountains-area include a disabled youth fishing day— artists used various media—including oils, acrylics, glass, photography and more—to transform trout-shaped aluminum cutouts into unique works of art. The trout will be on display in places from Woodstock, N.Y. west to Arkville, N.Y., until September, after which the art will be auctioned off to ben- efit the chapter’s restoration work. To see the collection and bid on the artwork, visit theleapingtrout.com.
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had been dammed to power a grist mill from the 1800s until the 1950s—in addition to releasing their Trout in the Classroom fry and making time for some fishing pointers.
The ABC’s of Fishing
VIRGINIA
Last April, Northern Virginia Chapter vol- unteers were on hand at Heritage Day at Graves Mountain Lodge near Syria, Va., to help kids and parents catch and release trout from the Rose River. The annual event hosts various fishing and educational activi- ties, including entomology, fly casting and lessons about the fish and wildlife found in Shenandoah National Park. Dozens of kids participated in the event, which was co-sponsored by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
A TIC Celebration
COLORADO
The Cutthroat Chapter celebrated the end of their first Trout in the Classroom effort last May, when Thompson Valley High School students released their trout into the Big Thompson River. Since launching Colorado’s first Trout in the Classroom program last year, the chapter got the go-ahead from the Colorado Division of Wildlife to expand the effort to five participating schools this fall. With the approval and support of CDOW, the program is likely to expand even more in the coming years. Keep up with their TIC progress at cutthroatctu.org.
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Embrace-A-Stream is Going Digital Starting this year, TU will distribute Embrace-A-Stream application materials electroni- cally to volunteer leaders. Watch your e-mail inbox for the application package for TU’s competitive grant program in late September, and contact your local Embrace-A- Stream representative by November 15 if you’re thinking of applying for funds. Contact Rob Keith at [email protected]______with questions. Mark Your Calendar for the 2011 Stream Keep in E-Touch Cleanup Days Last Chance to Buy TU Chapters rely on e-mail and Plan now for TU’s third annual web sites more than ever to stream cleanup days, April 23 and 50th Anniversary Gear communicate with volunteers, June 18, 2011. TU will give prizes What better way to cele- to the chapter that brings out the and so does TU national. But most volunteers and the chapter that brate TU’s landmark anni- currently, only 25 percent versary than by sporting gathers the most trash. Visit tu.org/ of members have an active tacklebox to see a guide for chapters a TU 50th anniversary e-mail address in their mem- ______hat, T-shirt, coffee mug and councils to help you create your bership file. Update your own successful cleanup event. or tote bag, among many e-mail so you’ll know when to other stylish goods avail- write Congress about Clean able online. The 50th col- Water Act legislation, or when lection products are all an event such as the Fly custom made with the special edition TU calendar 50th logo. So log on to lpestore.com/ Fishing Film Tour is com- ing to your town. To update October 1: ___trout to spread the word about 50 years your contact information, Annual Financial Reports available of conservation while helping to support online TU’s conservation efforts—15 percent of call us at 1-800-834-2419 or your purchase comes back to TU. e-mail [email protected]. October 12: Principles of Successful River Restoration online training November 9: CHAPTER STRATEGIC PLANNING Restoration Using Large Woody Material online training Every year at the annual meeting, TU staff and volunteers come together to November 15: plan where TU is headed in the future. TU national outlines a strategic plan to Annual Financial Reports strengthen the organization over the next five years, but we know our plans need submission deadline to align with our local chapters’ work. So prioritize drafting a strategic plan for your chapters and councils to lay out your goals and strategies. Visit tu.org/tacklebox November 15: Embrace-A-Stream representative for templates and ideas to help you in the planning process. And contact the vol- notification deadline unteer operations staff at [email protected] if you need some inspiration. December 14: } } Small Dam Removal online training Take Advantage of Monthly Online Trainings December 15: Join us for our upcoming volunteer training sessions and tap into the expertise 2011 Embrace-A-Stream proposal of our staff and volunteers on topics from establishing a productive rapport with deadline agencies to producing and editing YouTube videos and everything in between. January 11: Trainings are at 8:00 p.m. EST, on varying days. Contact Rob Keith at _____rkeith@ Organizing Hunters and Anglers tu.org to attend a training session. See tu.org or the calendar to the right for a to Support Backcountry Public schedule of upcoming sessions. Lands Conservation online training
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or participate in a meeting to help ensure that our organization runs in an effi- cient and professional manner,” says Bryan Burroughs, executive director of Michigan TU. “If she had to punch a time clock, I’d guess Kimberly would easily reach 25 volunteer hours each week.” Wetton didn’t start out with the inten- tion of making TU a second job. In fact, she almost quit after attending just a few meetings at the then almost-defunct Fred Waara Chapter in Marquette, Mich. more than a decade ago. But when the members asked her to be chapter president, she embraced the role for four years. She’s been taking on new leadership challenges ever since. “One of my proudest TU accomplish- ments is playing a key role in reviving the Fred Waara chapter,” says Wetton. “I’m glad the chapter has continued to stay active and strong well beyond my involve- Kimberly Wetton ment, even winning a Silver Trout Award Negaunee, Michigan in 2002.” More recently, Wetton can add coordi- Behind every big TU event at the chap- nating TU’s 50th anniversary celebration ter, council or national level, there to her list of accomplishments. She was are people behind the scenes doing central to the volunteer contributions at the nuts and bolts work. They are the Traverse City, Mich. event—sitting in the volunteers who take on tasks such on planning calls, stuffing gift bags, coor- as organizing logistics, dinating raffles and silent ensuring bylaw com- auctions, and helping pliance and verifying organize fishing and insurance coverage— conservation tours. Favorite Fly: not the most glam- The volunteer work The Betty orous work—so that was all the more cru- projects like stream cial that year because Favorite Place to Fish: cleanups, classroom the annual meeting initiatives, youth camps celebrated a half cen- Silver Lead Creek and Project Healing Waters events go tury since TU was founded in 1959 on off without a hitch. the banks of Michigan’s Au Sable River. Most Memorable Fish: For the Michigan Council, that per- Wetton’s behind-the-scenes work helped Coaster brook trout caught son is Kimberly Wetton. As current make the event a huge success. on her grandpa’s lure state council chair, she gets much of the “Kimberly is a doer. She increases the volunteer work done during her lunch level of activity, the capacity and the pro- hour, before heading back to her job as fessionalism of everything she becomes a legal assistant. involved with,” says Burroughs. “Kimberly takes time throughout “You can get a lot done during a lunch every day to make calls, attend an event hour,” adds Wetton. —Sara Kaplaniak
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Maine Brook Trout of a wild fish coming to my fly from Continued from page 28 the dark recesses of a Maine pond or, there is now some reason for hope. I have been fortunate to have had in the right season, a Maine river. For Maine TU activists, along with more than my share of great trout fish- me, that vision will always be a slice of sporting camp operators, anglers and ing trips in many great places, and yet the best life has to offer. environmentalists—the raw ingredients what I dream of each year as the snow But don’t just take my word for it. of a powerful coalition—are joining begins to melt and the season for hope Find your own solitude on a Maine forces to ensure a brighter future again comes around, is to reconnect brook trout water, and ask yourself for an iconic species and its iconic with some version of “the trip” as I the question: How magical was this landscape. For the past 30 years, experienced it—both actually and more country in a primeval time when the environmentalists, landowners and often vicariously—in a time when the glaciers had finally receded and the politicians have done battle over the world, measured in economic, if not lakes and streams deep within the for- dominant uses of the Maine woods. geological, time was a bit younger than est had once again begun to feed the During those years, such hot-button it is today. I guess, after all, that I am sea? Then stare into the eye of one of issues as the reintroduction of wolves my father’s son, and I draw my own Maine’s magnificent “painted fish,” and and Northern Lynx, along with the sense of hope and release in the vision perhaps you’ll find the answer. Although opinions about good fishery management continue to differ, in Maine good brook trout fishing is a subject more likely to unite than divide.
quixotic quest to create the Maine Woods National Park, have obscured the enduring value of Maine’s wild brook trout resource as a barometer of the landscape’s health. Those issues continue to simmer, but today, thanks to broad-scale land protection efforts and TU’s scientific initiative to docu- ment the Maine brook resource and advocate for its preservation, the axis has shifted. Although opinions about good fishery management continue to differ, in Maine good brook trout fishing is a subject more likely to unite than divide. Today, among a majority of conservationists, saving both the native trout bounty and maintaining the state’s historical attachment to a working forest as the lifeblood of the rural Maine economy are no longer irreconcilable goals.
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Art of Angling [ By Dave Whitlock] Trout Prof i les: L and locked Sa lmon Salmo salar sebago
The elegant landlocked salmon (Salmo salar sebago), one of my favorite fish, is the direct descendant of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar). But unlike Atlantic salmon, which spend their lives in both fresh and salt water, land- locks never return to the ocean, and instead live their entire lives in deep, cold, freshwater lakes and the major river tributaries of these lakes. They become landlocked through vari- ous geological and climatic events, or through stocking by humans. Fortunately, they have retained the perfect form, beauty, speed and Landlocked salmon are smaller leaping ability of their sea-run brethren. than their sea-run ancestors and are Though smaller than the typical Atlantic fantastic leapers and hard, fast and salmon, landlocks are a trout angler’s dream long-winded fighters when hooked on small flies and light tackle. fish because they react like trout on steroids. In the northeastern areas of the United States and Canada they are also more affordable, numerous and accessible for fly fishers than are Atlantic salmon. In the lower 48 states, landlocks were native to Maine’s Lake Sebago but are now stocked in over 300 waters in Maine and widely in several other extreme northeastern states. Abundant wild populations of Canadian landlocks, called ouananiche, exist in Quebec,
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Labrador, and Newfoundland lakes I fished to landlocks selectively spots. These beauties swim fast, jump and their tributaries. For a new desti- feeding on nymphs, pupae, duns high and can often be almost impos- nation experience, plan a trip to these and spinners using 4 and 5 weight sibly selective when feeding on black provinces for the ultimate wild medley rods. These salmon were absolutely flies and midges, mayfly spinner falls, of giant brook trout and high-flying amazing in their selectivity and when emerging midges or caddis hatches. landlocked salmon. finally hooked they entertained me Through the summer the biggest ones The best blue-ribbon, landlocked with countless vaults, flashing tail cannot resist a deep-drifted, size 6 or fishing is found in large, deep, cold, walks and torpedo-speed runs! I 4 stonefly nymph or dragonfly nymph. acid free, unpolluted, nutrient-rich was suddenly hooked on landlocks. I One morning on Maine’s Rapid River, lakes that have dense populations of couldn’t help wondering where these I hooked three landlocks of sea-run forage fish—especially smelt—and abun- wonderful fish had been all my life. proportions fishing just that way. dant summer hatches of aquatic insects. Landlocks, like their sea-run rela- The best match-the-hatch wade The average size of landlocks is 14 to tives, have a beautiful, flawless body fishing occurs after the spring smelt 22 inches and fish over 5 or 6 pounds design and are richly tattooed with runs in larger streams that remain are rare. Occasionally I have seen and large, inky spots that look like the cold all summer, especially the tailwa- hooked fish that might exceed 9 or 10 letter “x.” Colors range from bright, ter sections below hydropower dams pounds. I caught a surprise 12-pounder polished chrome to intense burnt like the one on the upper Penobscot. in Michigan’s Pere Marquette River orange, yellow and olive hues with a If the stream warms to above 65 to 72 one summer while fly fishing for pattern of vivid black and rusty red degrees Fahrenheit, most landlocks brown trout. The extraordinary size, I was told, was the result of landlocks These beauties swim fast, jump high and can that were experimentally stocked in Lake Michigan, where the fish found often be almost impossibly selective when feeding unlimited hordes of alewives to feed on. on black flies and midges, mayfly spinner falls, The world record 45-pound landlock came from a large form found in Lake emerging midges or caddis hatches. Vattern, Sweden. My first experience with landlocks was in the mid 70s at a Berkley tackle representatives meeting on Grand Lake Stream in Maine. On a frigid day in late April, I went out with a guide and caught several salmon by trolling a fly tipped with a smelt in the wake of his Grand Lake canoe. The next day I managed to hook three or four dark, skinny, almost lifeless kelts below the dam on streamer flies and a sinking line. Both experiences were not the kind that would make me want to fish for landlocks again. But in 1981, after I established and began directing the L.L.Bean fly-fishing schools in Maine, I fished the Rapid River, upper Penobscot and Grand Lake Stream in June and July. My encounters with the prime, well-fed landlocked salmon in these rivers were a 180-degree shift from my previous experience. Landlocked salmon feed from top to bottom on a wide variety of small fish and insects.
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will move downstream into the cold rock on its descent from its 6-foot-high light rods and fine tippets, you’ll surely, depths of lakes, returning in the fall leap. I was simultaneously broken like myself, want to adopt them and to spawn in October or November, hearted and utterly amazed. take them with you to live in your home after the rivers cool again. Those If you find the opportunity to catch trout streams. Landlocked salmon are few that stay in the warmer rivers one of nature’s best creatures while so beautiful, so fast and leap so high that shouldn’t be fished for due to the wading in a clear, cold, Northeastern they are truly everything a salmon and stressful conditions. stream while matching a hatch using trout angler could wish for. Although landlocks rise beautifully to aquatic insects, most often they are caught while casting streamers on rivers during the early spring smelt runs, by trolling in lakes or on attractor streamers during fall spawning runs. My most unusual land- locked encounter took place one early summer on the upper St. Croix River in Maine. I was bugging for smallmouth and chain pickerel along a boulder- strewn run using a silver, surface-skipping, 3-inch long balsa pencil popper when a 20-inch landlock jumped the bug and then leaped skyward so high it killed itself colliding with a big, exposed, midstream
Seasons of Salmo salar sebago From top: Winter: Kelts are lean and a dull chrome-pewter color. Spring: Salmon that remain in rivers after winter grow robust, brightly colored and marked by feeding on smelt and aquatic and terrestrial insects. Summer: The salmon that return to their lake habitat become heavier and brightly chrome-plated. Fall: From September to November, landlocks move up into their rivers to spawn. They transform into a rich chroma of colors and heavy spotting, similar to their brown trout relatives.
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CLASSIFIEDS
OUTFITTERS & GUIDES Kentucky’s Cumberland River Trout. sharpened hooks! 30 years in the business! Trophy fish! Ken Glenn’s Trout Guiding. The best deal in fly fishing! Free catalog! EAST http://kenglennstroutguiding.wordpress.com/13 1-888-808-7067, www.flyfishingflies.com (270) 784-8101. Maine’s upper Androscoggin River. FREE SAMPLE spent-wing material. Float trips offered on the premier blue- FISH THE WORLD FAMOUS WHITE www.mayfly-material.com (440) 842-5599. ribbon fishery in Maine’s western mountains. and Norfork Rivers in Arkansas! Linger’s Guide Rainbows, browns and smallmouth bass. Service & Fishing Lodge offers complete Bamboo Rod Restore & Repair. Master Guide Sandy MacGregor. guide service, lodging and meals in our 5 star New vintage, upgrades for modern lines and www.MountainRanger.com (207) 221-0798. lodge facility PLUS a complete shore lunch reels, 47 years exp. (616) 844-5358 FREE CD-ROM video. each day! All you have to do is show up and www.reelwood.net or [email protected] enjoy what this world famous area has to offer. www.lingersguideservice.com NH’s Upper Connecticut River. BAMBOO RODS Buy Sell Consign 870-499-5185 or 417-839-0556 Quality trout and landlocked salmon fishing. (616) 554-6239 www.coldwatercollectibles.com Cabin accommodations, professional guide service, Orvis fly shop. Let us host you Little Red River, Arkansas— Buying and selling fly rods. 50+ fly for a memorable fly-fishing adventure in One of the world’s greatest brown trout fish- reels all in excellent or mint condition. For a New Hampshire’s Great North Woods. Orvis eries. Great spring fishing in the foothills of list write CCP, 8307 Alston Rd; Towson, MD endorsed. Lopstick Lodge and Cabins, Pittsburg, the Arkansas Ozarks. Wade In or Float Guided 21204 Call 1-410-296-1746. NH (800) 538-6659 www.lopstick.com trips. Catch and release Sassy Rainbows, Big Browns, and Beautiful Brookies! Beginners or experienced Anglers. Matt Millner, representing Natural and synthetic FLY TYING INTERNATIONAL Jamie Rouse Fly Fishing Adventures. Call Matt materials. We have the popular colors of high @ 501-691-9285 or 501-250-1275 quality materials at reasonable prices. Enter NEWEST RESORT IN NORTHWESTERN and check out the latest fishing blog the discount code TRU9 for a 20 percent Ontario! Lakes, rivers, streams abundant with @ www.mattmillner.blogspot.com Website: discount on your order. www.troutsmen.com wild brookies up to 7 pounds. Countless small www.jamierouse.net brookie lakes that have seldom seen anglers. Northern Woods Lodge is remote, yet road FOR SALE accessible with all the amenities. For more infor- WEST mation, go to www.northernwoodslodge.com or EAST call (807) 937-6584. Gallatin River Lodge, Bozeman, Montana. Elegant accommodations. Wine Mountain Town Creek Enjoy fishing in Spectator Award for our dining. Exceptional miles of streams in the mountains, Carters MIDWEST guides available on the Madison, Yellowstone, Lake plus pools and parks for the family. Gallatin Rivers and private water. Only 50 miles north of Atlanta, Georgia. Northern Driftless Area, (888) 387-0148 www.grlodge.com www.ourlot.com www.kinnicreek.com 1-877-504-9705 Colorado—Gold Medal Waters. Float fish RV LOTS, DEEDED OWNERSHIP for rainbows and browns with the best guides SOUTH North Georgia mountains, only 5 minutes and equipment. Roaring Fork and Colorado from Carters Lake and miles of trout streams. Rivers. Glenwood Springs, Aspen area. Lic. www.rv-lots.com Exclusive Fly Fishing Club in western #1985. (877) 367-7647 canyonguide.com N.C. Enjoy over a mile of private trophy trout stream all to yourself! IRONHORSE OUTFITTERS. WEST www.hollerfarm.com We guide in Arkansas and New Mexico. Wade or float. Great rates! “Art With Attitude” 1000+ feet river front, Rio Grande Gold Arkansas’ White River! McKenzie drift Joepaul Meyers (918) 424-5545 Medal Trout Water, just east of South Fork, boat fly fishing on Beaver and Bull Shoals www.ironhorseforge.net Colorado, 4.87 Acres. 21 Miles to Wolf Creek tailwaters. Scott Branyan, Ozark Fly Flinger, Ski Area. Secluded, fast water, large brown 888-99-FLING; www.flyflinger.com Denali Park, Alaska. Join us on a half or trout, great home site. $285,000. full day adventure searching for our native 713-515-4441. [email protected] Best Trout Fishing in the East. Arctic Grayling on clear water streams in the S. Holston/Watauga River tailraces. Hatches Alaska Range. Denali Fly Fishing Guides, ARKANSAS RIVER HOME near Salida, year round. Located on the South Holston (907) 768-1127, www.denalifishing.com. Colorado with outstanding views, private River. E. Tennessee. Wade or float guided fishing access and riverfront enjoyment. Call trips. Lodging available. South Holston River Headwaters Real Estate at 719-539-0400, Fly Shop. www.southholstonriverflyshop.com FLIES & GEAR www.salidarealtor.com, for more details on this (423) 878-2822. property offered at $399,000. Free Catalog! KBE Flyfishing Company pro- vides premium fly shop quality flies! Chemically
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“YOUR MAN IN MONTANA”— Limited Edition Trout Prints. Framed and residential, ranch and resort real estate in very striking. www.tigerframes.com Southwest Montana. Contact: Michael Thiel, Venture West Realty, (406) 539-4365 or 1946 fully restored military jeep [email protected] (jeep Willys) CJ2A $15,000. You transport from Tempe, Ariz. Contact Tim tmoulton@______GUNNISON/CRESTED BUTTE, moultonlawoffice.com or [email protected].______Colorado. Fly-fishing paradise. Please allow me to share my knowledge of our area, from mountain cabins to premier riverfront proper- INSTRUCTION & READING ties. Call Bob Kray, broker @ 970-349-5313, or [email protected] BAMBOO ROD MAKING CLASSES. Raine Hollowbuilt Fly Rods. Bamboo Rod Making Seminars. Small, hands-on classes, professional Montana fly fishing property, 10 acres, 3 bed/3 bath, Little Blackfoot River, rod shop setting. Personal instruction also 1400 trout per mile, $249,000, easy access, available. For seminar details, schedule and currently B&B, contact Dave Ames, author inquiries phone (530) 235-4058. Please visit: of “True Love and the Woolly Bugger,” www.hollowbuilt.com 406-542-2614, [email protected] Montana Sporting Journal the premier OWNER RETIRING Fly-fishing business fishing and hunting publication of the Big Sky for sale. Retail operation and guide service. State. Call 800-559-4351 for a free trial issue. Western Montana (425) 985-0511. www.montanasportingjournal.com
Salida, Colorado. Fly-fishing heaven, real New book “Granite Lines” - Stories mostly mountain community. Hayden Mellsop real related to fly fishing New Hampshire, Maine ______estate guide, buyers’ agent to fly fishermen. and the northeast. $18.95 205 pages. Order www.Home-Waters.com Pinon Real Estate Group. online: www.catawbapublishing.com for a list of NH area stores www.nhriversguide.com Author Jim Norton of New Hampshire Rivers Guide FOR RENT Service is a licensed guide.
EAST
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Support Trout Unlimited’s Outfitters, Guides & Business Members
Whether you’re planning a fishing trip
or searching for new fly patterns, Trout Ozark Angler Tenkara USA The High Lonesome Ranch Unlimited’s business members can help. Chad Kneeland Daniel W. Galhardo 12305 Chenal Pkwy Ste B 5758 Geary Blvd #226 Scott Stewart / Scott Bystol These companies are run by people like Little Rock, AR 72211 San Francisco, CA 94121 PO Box 88 (501) 225-6504 (415) 238-6613 0275 County road 222 you: anglers who love the sport and want [email protected] [email protected] DeBeque, CO 81630 www.ozarkangler.com to protect it for the next generation. www.tenkarausa.com (970) 283-9420 [email protected] Phil Landry Flyfishing ______The Trout Spot www.thehighlonesomeranch.com Outfitters Guides Lodges Phil Landry Richard Desrosiers Jr. 1898 Oliver Ave 967 Warburton Ave High Mountain Drifters Guide Memphis, TN 38114 Santa Clara, CA 95050-3928 Service (901) 461-8822 1-800-822-7129 Travis Snyder ALASKA Kodiak Legends Lodge [email protected] [email protected] 201 W Tomichi Ave www.arkansastroutbum.com www.thetroutspot.com Gunnison, CO 81230 Alaska River Adventures Trent Kososki George Heim (970) 641-1845 PO Box 128 White River Trout Lodge Truckee Guide Network PO Box 725 [email protected] Larsen Bay, AK 99624 Jo Anna Smith Brian Slusser Cooper Landing, AK 99572 752 County Road 703 www.highmtndrifters.com (877)KLL-4111 PO Box 10731 (888) 836-9027 Cotter, AR 72626 [email protected] Truckee, CA 96162 North Fork Ranch [email protected]______(870) 430-5229 www.kodiaklegendslodge.com (530) 386-0525 Dean May www.alaskariveradventures.com [email protected] [email protected]______PO Box B Mat-Su Expeditions & River www.whiteriverlodge.com www.flyfishingtruckee-tahoe.com Shawnee, CO 80475 Alaska West Guides Andrew Bennett 1-800-843-7845 Tim Kalke & Brian Robison Wild Life Charters 166 NW 60th St CALIFORNIA [email protected] PO Box 1049 Larry Goldsmith Seattle, WA 98107 www.northforkranch.com Talkeetna, AK 99676 Fishhound 900 Maddalena Rd (425) 985-5938 (907) 733-6377 Charles Dohs Beckwourth, CA 96129 Rainbow Falls Mountain Trout [email protected] [email protected] 14101 Valleyheart Dr Ste 200 (530) 249-1580 Nate Johnson www.alaskawest.com www.matsuexpeditions.com Sherman Oaks, CA 91423 [email protected] PO Box 279 (818) 783-4751 wildlifecharters.net Woodland Park, CO 80866 Brightwater Alaska, Inc Reel Wilderness Adventures, [email protected] (719) 687-8690 11300 Polar Drive Inc. www.fishhound.com [email protected] Anchorage, AK 99516 PO Box 922 COLORADO ______907-344-1340 www.rainbowfallsmt.com Dillingham, AK 99576 Fly Fishers Club of Orange County [email protected] 4UR Ranch 1-800-726-8323 Jim Edwards Rancho Del Rio www.brightwateralaska.com Aaron C. Christensen, Gen Mgr [email protected] PO Box 23005 Jeff Gibson PO Box 340 www.reelwild.com Santa Ana, CA 92711-3005 4199 Trough Rd. Denali Fly Fishing Guides Creede, CO 81130 (714) 337-5899 Bond, CO 80423 Rick McMahan Women’s Flyfishing (719) 658-2202 www.ffcoc.org (970) 653-4431 PO Box 156 Cecilia “Pudge” Kleinkauf [email protected] [email protected] Cantwell, AK 99729 PO Box 243963 North Coast Solar www.4urranch.com ______www.ranchodelrio.com (907) 768-1127 Anchorage, AK 99524 Brian Hines [email protected]______Angler’s Covey (907) 274-7113 1468 Funston Dr Trout’s Fly Fishing www.denalifishing.com David Leinweber [email protected] Santa Rosa, CA 95407 1303 E. 6th Ave 295 S. 21st St. www.womensflyfishing.net (707) 575-3999 Denver, CO 80218 Deshka Wilderness Lodge Colorado Springs, CO 80904 [email protected] (303) 733-1434 Michael Yencha 1-800-75FISHN [email protected]______PO Box 123 ARKANSAS Oasis Springs Lodge [email protected] ______www.troutsflyfishing.com Willow, AK 99688 Rick Johnson www.anglerscovey.com (907) 733-6915 Linger’s Guide Service & PO Box 435 Willowfly Anglers [email protected] Fishing Lodge Manton, CA 96059-0435 Fly Fishing Outfitters Three Rivers Resort www.deshkawildernesslodge.com Jim Brentlinger 1-800-239-5454 John Packer John Bocchino PO Box 364 [email protected] 1060 W Beaver Creek Blvd 130 CR 742 EPIC Angling & Adventure, LLC Norfolk, AR 72658 www.oasisflyfishing.com Avon, CO 81620 PO Box 339 Rus Schwausch (870) 499-5185 1-800-595-8090 Alaska Peninsula, AK The Pedaler Bike Shop Almont, CO 81210 [email protected] [email protected] Jeff Jerge 1-888-761-FISH (512) 656-2736 www.lingersguideservice.com www.flyfishingoutfitters.net [email protected] 3826 San Palo Dam Rd [email protected] www.epicanglingadventure.com Little Red Fly Shop El Sobrante, CA 94803 Heads Up Flyfishing www.willowflyanglers.com Jed Hollan (510) 222-3420 Ryan McRorie & Jeremy Nolan Grizzly Skins of Alaska 35 Swinging Bridge Dr [email protected] 308 Silver Queen So. CONNECTICUT Rochelle Harrison Heber Springs, AR 72543 www.theped.com Durango, CO 81301 PO Box 273 (501) 887-9988 (970) 984-8433 J. Stockard Fly Fishing King Salmon, AK 99613 Pit River Company [email protected] [email protected]______PO Box 800 (907) 376-2234 Brian MacDonald www.littleredflyshop.com www.headsupflyfishing.com Kent, CT 06757 [email protected] 942 Quarry St ______1-877-FLY-TYING www.grizzlyskinsofalaska.com Petaluma, CA 94954 (707) 763-7575 [email protected][email protected] www.jsflyfishing.com www.pitrivercompany.com
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GEORGIA Teton Valley Lodge MARYLAND MINNESOTA Bud Lilly’s Trout Shop Matt Berry Dick Greene Escape to Blue Ridge LLC, Blue 3733 Adams Rd Backwater Angler Lewiston Area Trout Guides PO Box 530 Ridge, GA Driggs, ID 83422 Theaux Le Gardeur Mark Reisetter West Yellowstone, MT 59758 Pamela Miracle 208-354-8124 or toll free 800- PO Box 156 165 Whispering Pines Ct 1-800-854-9559 PO Box 4825 455-1182 Monkton, MD 21111 Lewiston, MN 55952 [email protected] Alpharetta, GA 30023 [email protected] (410) 357-9557 (507) 523-2557 www.budlillys.com (866) 618-2521 tetonvalleylodge.com [email protected][email protected]______(706) 413-5321 www.backwaterangler.com www.minnesotatrout.com Craig Fellin Outfitters & Big [email protected] WorldCast Anglers Hole Lodge www.EscapetoBlueRidge.com Mike Dawkins Ecotone, Inc. Namebini Craig Fellin PO Box 350 Scott McGill & Jim Morris Carl Haensel PO Box 156 Frog Hollow Fly Fishing Victor, ID 83455 PO Box 5 6614 McQuade Rd Wise River, MT 59762 Kenny Simmons 1-800-654-0676 1204 Baldwin Mill Rd Duluth, MN 55804 (406) 832-3252 360Frog Hollow Rd [email protected] Jarrettsville, MD 21084 (218) 525-2381 [email protected] Dahlonega, GA 30533 www.worldcastanglers.com (410) 692-7500 [email protected] www.bigholelodge.com (706) 244-4372 [email protected] www.namebini.com [email protected]______www.ecotoneinc.com Cross Currents www.froghollowflyfishing.com MAINE Chris Strainer Savage River Lodge MISSOURI 311 Bridge St River Through Atlanta Guide Appalachian Mountain Club Mike Dreisbach Craig, MT 59648 Rockbridge™ Rainbow Trout Service Shannon Leroy 1600 Mt Aetna Rd (866) 211-3433 Ranch Chris Scalley PO Box 310 Frostburg, MD 21532 [email protected] Alicia Amyx ______710 Riverside Rd Greenville, ME 04441 (301) 689-3200 www.crosscurrents.com PO Box 100 Roswell, GA 30075 (207) 695-3085 [email protected] (770) 650-8630 [email protected] www.savageriverlodge.com Rockbridge, MO 65741 Eaton Outfitters (417) 679-3619 [email protected]______www.outdoors.org Chris Eaton www.riverthroughatlanta.com Waterwisp Flies [email protected] 34 W Julie Ct Blue Heron Guide Service Jim Greene www.rockbridgemo.com Bozeman, MT 59718 Unicoi Outfitters Sean McCormick PO Box 151028 1-800-755-3474 Zentrum Studios Etched Metal John Cross 80 E River Rd Chevy Chase, MD 20815 [email protected] Bookmarks ______PO Box 419 Whitefield, ME 04353 1-800-4-MAYFLY www.eatonoutfitters.com Captain Doug Keller Helen, GA 30545 (207) 549-3355 [email protected] (706) 878-3083 [email protected] www.waterwisp.com PO Box 155 Firehole Ranch Center, MO 63436 [email protected] Lyndy Caine Eldredge Bros Fly Shop & Guide www.unicoioutfitters.com Wisp Resort (573) 267-3033 1130 Firehole Ranch Rd Service Michael Valach [email protected] West Yellowstone, MT 59758 Unicoi Outfitters Jim Bernstein 296 Marsh Hill Rd www.zentrumstudios.com/trout (406) 646-7294 PO Box 69 David Hulsey McHenry, MD 21541 [email protected] 490 E Main St 1480 US Rt 1 (301) 387-4911 MONTANA www.fireholeranch.com Blue Ridge, GA 30513 Cape Neddick York, ME 03902 [email protected]______1-877-427-9345 (706) 632-1880 www.wispresort.com Absaroka Beartooth Gallatin River Lodge [email protected] [email protected] ______Outfitters, Inc. Steve Gamble www.unicoioutfitters.com www.eldredgeflyshop.com 9105 Thorpe Rd MICHIGAN Cameron S. Mayo PO Box 318 Bozeman, MT 59718 Upper River Adventures Munsungan Hunting & Fishing Big Timber, MT 59011 1-888-387-0148 Gene J. Rutkowski Club Cold Springs Forestry, LLC (406) 579-3866 [email protected]______PO Box 974 Jim Carter Chris Fink & Nate Nelson [email protected] www.grlodge.com Blue Ridge, GA 30513 PO Box 186 E5539 Woodland Ave ______www.aboadventures.com 1-800-206-8024 Washburn, ME 04786 Au Train, MI 49806 Greater Yellowstone Flyfishers (207) 592-8411 (906) 892-8665 [email protected] Angler’s West Flyfishing [email protected] [email protected] www.upperriver.net ______Outfitters Chad Olsen www.munsungan.com www.coldspringsforestry.com Matson Rogers 29 Pioneer Way Bozeman, MT 59718 Outside Hub, LLC PO Box 4 IDAHO Red River Camps (406) 585-5321 Matt R. Moore Emigrant, MT 59027 JenBrophy-Price [email protected] Middle Fork River Expeditions 28400 Northwestern Hwy Ste 110 (406) 333-4401 ______P.O. Box 320 www.gyflyfishers.com Portage, ME 04768 Southfield, MI 48034 [email protected] www.montanaflyfishers.com James Ellsworth (207) 554-0420 (248) 351-6323 Greco’s on the Fly PO Box 70 [email protected] [email protected] ______Bill Abbot’s Trout Fishing Only Capt. Brett Greco Stanley, ID 83278 www.redrivercamps.com www.outsidehubmedia.com PO Box 210 800-801-5146 Ennis, MT 59729 Whitneyville Land Co LLC - William M. Abbot Jr. [email protected] Weatherby’s (406) 640-2627 River Edge Development PO Box 1332 www.idahorivers.com Jeff McEvoy [email protected] Paul Renucci Hamilton, MT 59840 ______PO Box 69 www.grecosonthefly.com Grand Lake Stream, ME 04637- 5433 Whitneyville Ave SE 1-800-363-2408 3834 Alto, MI 49302 [email protected] Continued on next page (207) 796-5558 (616) 450-3757 www.abbotsmontanafishing.com [email protected][email protected] www.weatherbys.com www.whitneyvilleland.com
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Continued from previous page PRO Outfitters NEW JERSEY North Flats Guiding OREGON Katie Boedecker David Blinken Linehan Outfitting Company PO Box 621 GBW Insurance 131 East 81 St Big Y Fly Co. Inc. Helena, MT 59624 Glenn Tippy East Hampton, NY 10028 Cameron Larsen 3 Gold Mine Rd PO Box 215 Tim Linehan [email protected]______(631) 324-2860 Flanders, NJ 07836 Maupin, OR 97037 472 Upper Ford Rd www.prooutfitters.com [email protected] Troy, MT 59935-4872 1-800-548-2329 www.northflats.com 1-866-660-5758 1-800-596-0034 Prudential Montana Real Estate [email protected][email protected]______www.GBWInsurance.com [email protected] Bryan C. Atwell, Realtor Watershed Assessment www.bigyflyco.com 1925 N. 22nd Ave., Suite 201 Associates www.fishmontana.com Shannon’s Fly and Tackle Bozeman, MT 59718 Christine Murphy, Managing Partner Fish On! Fly & Tackle Shop Lone Mountain Ranch (406) 579.7616 28 Yates St Michael Unruh Jim Holland [email protected] Schenectady, NY 12305 11186 SE 52nd Ct ______PO Box 171 Ennion Williams www.bryanatwell.com (518) 346-0225 Milwaukie, OR 97222 Califon, NJ 07830 PO Box 160069 [email protected] (503) 756-9010 908-832-5736 ______Big Sky, MT 59716 Semper Fish & Guide www.rwaa.us [email protected][email protected] 1-800-514-4644 Chris Fleck ______www.fishonflies.com www.shannonsflytackle.com [email protected] 23 Gibbon Rd Woodstock Hardware Columbus, MT 59019 Vincent R. Christofora, Jr. www.lmranch.com PENNSYLVANIA (406) 321-0564 NEW MEXICO 84 Tinker St Long Outfitting [email protected] Woodstock, NY 12498 Arnot Sportsmen’s Assoc. Inc Matthew A. Long www.semperfishandguide.com Brazos River Ranch (845) 679-2862 Ron Signor PO Box 1224 Bo Prieskorn [email protected] PO Box 142 Livingston, MT 59047 Spotted Bear Ranch PO Box 3673 Arnot, PA 16911-0142 (406) 222-6775 Mark & Gail McCoy Las Vegas, NM 87701 NORTH CAROLINA (570) 638-2985 [email protected] PO Box 4940 (505) 453-1212 [email protected]______www.longoutfitting.com Whitefish, MT 59937 [email protected]______Armstrong Creek Outfitters 1-800-223-4333 www.nmoutfitter.com Glendorn Madison Valley Ranch, LLC Private Club [email protected] Damon Newpher Elizabeth Warren & Dan Larson Doc Thompson Orvis Endorsed Marc Jackson www.spottedbear.com 1000 Glendorn Dr 307 Jeffers Rd Fly Fishing Guide 1473 Hwy 226-A Bradford, PA 16701 Ennis, MT 59729 Sweetwater Travel Company PO Box 52 Marion, NC 28752 1-800-843-8568 1-800-891-6158 Ute Park, NM 87749 (828) 756-7509 [email protected][email protected] Dan, Jeff & Pat Vermillion (505) 376-9220 [email protected] ______www.glendorn.com www.madisonvalleyranch.com 5082 US Hwy 89 S www.flyfishnewmexico.com www.armstrongcreekoutfitters.com PO Box 668 Laurel Highlands Guide Services The Missoulian Angler Livingston, MT 59047 Land of Enchantment Guides Nantahala River Lodge Casey Hackathorn, Outfitter Annette & Mickey Youmans 1-888-FISH-BUM Jim DiBiase Russell Parks, Owner Noah Parker & Jerry Burton 27395 Wayah Rd [email protected]______PO Box 156 401 S Orange St PO Box 55 Nantahala, NC 28781 www.sweetwatertravel.com Melcroft, PA 15462 Missoula, MT 59801 Velarde, NM 87582 1-800-470-4718 (724) 433-7151 1-800-824-2450 Triple-M-Outfitters (505) 629-5688 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Mark Faroni [email protected] www.NantahalaRiverLodge.net ______www.laurelhighlandsguideservices.com www.missoulianangler.com PO Box 64 www.loeguides.com Dixon, MT 59831 River’s Edge Outfitters The Reel Life Nemacolin Woodlands Resort Montana Fly Goods (406) 246-3249 Toner Mitchell & Spa Garry W. Stocker [email protected] Joe Street & Chris Anderson ______500 Montezuma St. Jonathan Yencha 3180 Dredge Dr Ste A www.triplemoutfitters.com 280 Oak Ave. Santa Fe, NM 87501 1001 LaFayette Dr Helena, MT 59601 Spruce Pine, NC 28777 (505) 995-8114 Farmington, PA 15437 1-800-466-9589 West Yellowstone Fly Shop (828) 765-FISH [email protected] [email protected] 1-800-422-2736 [email protected] Travis Hansen & Justin Spence ______www.thereellife.com [email protected] www.montanaflygoods.com PO Box 1643 www.riversedgeoutfittersnc.com www.nemacolin.com West Yellowstone, MT 59758 Wild Rivers On The Fly Montana Troutfitters Rocking L Fly Fishing (406) 646-1181 Wayne Thurber Seven Springs Mountain Resort Kris Kumlien Jeff W. Loftin [email protected] PO Box 43 1716 W Main St 49 Allen Ln www.wyflyshop.com Taos Ski Valley, NM 87525 Todd J. Bowersox Bozeman, MT 59715 Spruce Pine, NC 28777 (505)715-6773 777 Waterwheel Dr (406) 587-4707 (828) 467-3326 [email protected]______Champion, PA 15622 [email protected] NEW HAMPSHIRE [email protected] ______www.wildriversonthefly.com (814) 352-7777 www.troutfitters.com www.rockingLflyfishing.com Hanover Outdoors [email protected]______www.7springs.com Montana Trout Stalkers Ron Rhodes NEW YORK Joe Dilschneider 17 1/2 Lebanon St OHIO Woodlands World PO Box 1406 Hanover, NH 03755 Dreamcatcher Estates Time Timer, LLC Eric Goodwin Ennis, MT 59729 (603) 643-1263 Leonard Solomon David Rogers 27 W Main St (406) 581-5150 [email protected] 411 River Rd 7707 Camargo Rd Uniontown, PA 15401 [email protected] www.hanoveroutdoors.com Deposit, NY 13754 ______Cincinnati, OH 45243 (866) 472-6969 www.montanatrout.com (877) 275-1165 (877) 771-8463 [email protected][email protected] [email protected] www.dreamcatcherlodgeny.com ______www.woodlandsworld.com www.timetimer.com
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SOUTH DAKOTA Round Rocks Fly Fishing WYOMING Reel Deal Anglers JH, Inc. CANADA Victor Nelson Rhett J. Bain Larva Lace 530 S Main Bear Basin Adventures PO Box 7696 Arctic Adventures Lorie K. Hagen Logan, UT 84321 Heath and Sarah Woltman Jackson, WY 83002 Francine Ashton 1700 W Cedar (800) 992-8774 8103 Hwy 26 1-877-744-0522 19950 Clark Graham Baie d’Urfe, QC H9X 3R8 Mitchell, SD 57301 [email protected] Crowheart, WY 82512 [email protected] (888) 996-4036 www.roundrocks.com (307) 486-2229 www.reeldealanglers.com 1-800-465-9474 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] www.unexcelledfishing.com www.bearbasinadventures.com Rocky Mountain Ranch www.arcticadventures.ca VIRGINIA Management Fish the Fly Guide Service Jim Broderick Z-Boat Lodge River Guides TENNESSEE Ms. Guided & Travel PO Box 10516 Ltd. Kiki Galvin Jason Balogh Brad Zeerip Smoky Mountain Angler Jackson, WY 83002 2004 Dexter Dr PO Box 42 (307) 690-9189 1778 Sleeping Beauty Ln Harold & Nancy Thompson Falls Church, VA 22043 Jackson, WY 83001 Terrace, BC V8G 3Z6 466 Brookside Village Way Ste 8 [email protected] (703) 893-7020 (307) 690-1139 www.rockymountainranchmanagement. 1-866-ZBOATBC Gatlinburg, TN 37738 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] __com ______(865) 436-8746 www.msguidedflyfishing.net www.fishthefly.com www.zboatbc.com [email protected] Sweetwater Fishing Expeditions, www.smokymountainangler.com Lander Llama Co Wilderness Pack LLC WASHINGTON CHILE Trips George H. Hunker III Smoky Mountain Troutfitters Scott Woodruff Emerging Rivers Guide PO Box 524 Salvelinus 2024 Mortimore Ln Services Lander, WY 82520 Flyfishing Patagonia Outfitters Sean McKay Lander, WY 82520 Derek Young (307) 332-3986 Ivan Tarin 6617 Cherry Drive 1-800-582-5262 Knoxville, TN 37919 33902 SE McCullough St [email protected] Chile. X, XI and XII Regions [email protected]______Snoqualmie, WA 98065 www.sweetwaterfishing.com +34 696164810 (865) 567-2441 www.WyomingHiking.com/flyfish.html (425) 373-6417 [email protected] [email protected] Two Rivers Emporium [email protected] www.salvelinus.com www.smokymountaintroutfitters.com ______Live Water Properties Mike Kaul www.emergingrivers.com Alex Maher, Broker/Owner PO Box 1218 Watauga River Lodge & Outfitter PO Box 9240 Sage Manufacturing Pinedale, WY 82941 Jackson, WY 83002 Travis Campbell. 1-800-329-4353 GET INVOLVED… Tim Holcomb 1-866-734-6100 8500 NE Day Rd [email protected]______643 Smalling Rd [email protected] Bainbridge Island, WA 98110 ______www.2rivers.net For information on Watauga, TN 37694 www.livewaterproperties.com 1-800-533-3004 TU’s Outfitters, Guides (828) 260-5782 Wyoming Adventures [email protected] [email protected] The Lodge at Jackson Fork Ranch Rooster Kersten & Business Members www.sageflyfish.com www.wataugariverlodge.com 655 Valley Vista program, or to update Dan Abrashoff Thermopolis, WY 82443 your listing, please 607 Upper Hoback Rd. UTAH WEST VIRGINIA 1-800-687-5723 contact Beverly Lane at Little Jackson Hole, WY 82922 [email protected] [email protected]. Falcon’s Ledge Angler’s Xstream P.O. Box 320 www.flyfishbighorn.com David Danley Rich Beckwith Bondurant, WY 82922 PO Box 67 2109 Camden Ave 1-866-953-1290 Altamont, UT 84001 Parkersburg, WV 26101 [email protected] (877) 879-3737 1-877-909-6911 www.jacksonfork.com INTERNATIONAL [email protected] ______fishing @anglersxstream.com North Fork Anglers www.falconsledge.com anglersxstream.com Tim Wade ARGENTINA 1107 Sheridan Ave Flaming Gorge Resort Carrileufu Valley Lodge WISCONSIN Cody, WY 82414 Kevin Clegg Pancho Panzer 1100 E Flaming Gorge Resort 307-527-7274 BlueSky Furled Leaders AV San Martin 3463 Dutch John, UT 84023 [email protected]______John Cantwell El Bolson, Rio Negro 8430 (877) 348-7688 www.northforkanglers.com 1163 Garland St Argentina [email protected]______Green Bay, WI 54301 Palisades Creek Ranch, LLC 0054-2944-492419 www.flaminggorgeresort.com (920) 430-1239 Matt Cardis www.patagoniafishinghosts.com Park City Outfitters [email protected] PMB #508 Brandon Bertagnole www.blueskyfly.com PO Box 30,000 BAHAMAS 1295 E Whileaway Rd Jackson, WY 83002-0600 Wisconsin John Guides Again Park City, UT 84098 (307) 733-2421 Andros South
1-866-649-3337 [email protected] Andrew Bennett Streamdreams Outfitter [email protected] www.palisadescreekranch.com 166 NW 60th St ______John R Nebel www.parkcityoutfitters.com Seattle, WA 98107 339 Broad St (425) 985-5938 Menasha, WI 54952 [email protected] (920) 722-4004 www.androssouth.com [email protected] www.streamdreams.net
63 TROUT FALL 2010
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Dolly Varden Salvelinus malma
By Dr. Robert Behnke For many years, anglers regarded Dolly Varden trout as a vile predator to be exterminated. Perceptions changed in the last three decades and Dolly Varden are now managed as a highly regarded sport fish, although it has long been misidentified as two other species of western char—the Arctic char and bull trout. The common name Dolly Varden was first used around 1870 for the char native to California’s McCloud River. The now-extinct McCloud River “Dolly Varden” was actually a bull trout. Examination of an illustration based on a photograph of the 32-pound, 9-ounce world record Arctic char caught in 1981 in Canada’s Tree River leaves no doubt in my mind that this fish is a Dolly Varden, not an Arctic char. There are clear-cut differences in size of spots and number of gill rakers between Dolly Varden and Arctic char. The Dolly Varden has been recognized as two distinct geographical forms—the northern Dolly Varden from the Alaskan Peninsula, northward, and the southern Dolly Varden south of the peninsula. Several lines of genetic evidence strongly indicate that the southern and northern Dolly Varden are more closely related to subspecies of arctic char than to each other. The scientific classification of S. malma will probably require revision—not surprising in view of the long history of confusion.
You Can Help Protect the Natives: Alaska TU secured funding for steelhead and salmon restoration projects on Prince of Wales Island and Baranof Island that indirectly benefit The Dolly Varden exists in Artic Ocean Dolly Varden populations. For more information contact Mark Kaelke at drainages east to the Coppermine River [email protected]. ______and Tree River drainages. ILLUSTRATION BY SKETCHANDRELEASE.COM BY ILLUSTRATION TROUT SPRING 2007 64
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Mountain headwater cutts. Beaver pond brookies. Japanese yamame. Farm tank bluegills. Arctic grayling. Dockside perch. Feeder creek rainbows. High lake goldens… The new TXL-F makes every fi sh a trophy.
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Non-Profi t US Postage PAID Harrisburg PA Permit # 406
There are a lot of reasons other than just the tax advantages to make us a part of your estate planning.
For more information, contact Matt Braughler in the Arlington offi ce. (703) 284-9413. [email protected].
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