360 Represent!

Jay's greatest Facebook post ever wins!

Changes on the White Salmon River

(Photo: Courtesy of Wikepedia)

Two decades ago the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission instructed Southwest Washington that they had to stop planting hatchery steelhead into one of their rivers and they decided on the Wind River. A river rich in history and sought after for its early spring run summer steelhead. This off course disgusted and outraged many of the locals. Now with this about to occur again on the White Salmon River, a public meeting is going to be held on August 31st in preparation of the public reaction.

The White Salmon River flows south off the Mount Adam's glacier. This river feeds into the Columbia River at Underwood, Washington. Condit Dam located 3.3 river miles up from the mouth forms Northwestern Lake and is not only blocking natural stream flow, but also salmon and steelhead migration to the vast majority of the watershed. With the current plans for removal, there is an estimated 33 miles of habitat for steelhead and 14 miles of habitat for chinook, chum and coho salmon.

With the approximate removal of 2011 for this 97 year old dam, plans are being made to remove hatchery winter and summer steelhead from this scenario as an added benefit for native fish. Though the removal of this obsolete dam is an obvious sign of the times, the removal of its hatchery fish will effect the locals that enjoy this river for its angling opportunities. In my eyes this is a small price to pay, but then again this river is not in my backyard. The amount of stray native and hatchery fish in this fishery in the summer is large regardless due to the thermal refuge the river provides to migratory fish that swim up from the Columbia in the hot summer months while on there journey to tributaries in Eastern Washington, Oregon and Idaho. These fish should provide ample angling opportunities for locals, not to mention the neighboring Klickitat and Little White Salmon River. Though the dam will be removed and water temperatures will be higher with stream flow not coming off the bottom of a reservoir, stream temperatures will still allow a thermal refuge like that in neighboring rivers.
















Will the removal of this dam help the few native steelhead and salmon return to this watershed, especially with native only being able to spawn in the 3.3 miles below the dam for almost a century (failed fish ladders were destroyed from floods.)? Only time will tell, but one thing in certain, we are going to try and make it happen. With scientific data indicating hatchery fish are detrimental to native species, removing hatchery fish is needed to help our native species return. We owe it to the resource to see how remarkable Mother Nature really is. Read more courtesy of The Columbian and Free the White Salmon River.

Asian Carp Video

Saw this on Dooby Brain and had to post it.

Tired of Puking!

Pacific Albacore tuna get hammered out there in the deep blue sea from both commercial and sports harvest. Its white distinctive taste is what you get when you buy white tuna at the store. The fish swimming off the coast of Oregon and Washington are for the most part in the 10-30 pound class fish. Larger fish are not uncommon, but you will find most of them farther south, depending on water temperatures. These fish are high in Omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. These Omega 3's needed for cell structure have been shown to help prevent atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease such as strokes and heart attacks by aiding in the reduction of triglycerides.

















A piss poor top water view of a Pacific Sunfish.














An underwater view of a Pacific Sunfish. Courtesy of Phillip Colla.

I have been trying for years to get into some Oregon Coastal blue water fishing. This year I took a couple opportunities to fish for them with Red Sky Charters out of Hammond, Oregon. However this land lover is going to stick with a spey rod for a while and put the 12 weight up. Being the son of a Navy man didn't mean I inherited sea legs and though been out many times over the years chasing salmon, I couldn't help but chum the blue waters off the Oregon Coast. Still it was well worth seeing my Echo 12 weight corked to the grip. On one of the trips a few blue sharks were caught and on both trips we found a few Pacific Sunfish to look at. On the first trip I even saw a small blue shark next to the boat chase a sunfish. An awesome National Geographic moment. Take advantage of the summers months and go gettum. They should be close throughout the summer and early fall.
















Brad Smith fighting one of four tuna he caught that day.
















My first Albacore Tuna caught on a Shock and Awe tube fly with lots of peacock.

No Sports Allowed

For those of you that do not know this leather carving scoundrel, it is Marc Crapo, aka McRowdy. His one of a kind leather work has been sought after for his ability to custom design leather fly wallets, fly boxes, journals, flask wraps, bill folds, guitar straps, dog collars and even brief cases. You also may recognize him from the Fly Fishing Film Tour, touring throughout the country spreading the word about cutting age fly fishing film from around the globe. Check out his leather work at FlyWallets.com.
















My first impression of Marc came from a phone conversation. Knowing that I was half Filipino, he thought it would be entertaining to speak Tagalog, one of the native dialects of the Philippines to me over the phone. Not using this language, nor understanding it well since I was very young, I was shocked that this redneck from Ashton, Idaho was speaking it to me. Not to mention I had virtually no idea what the hell he was saying in a language I very well should know. It has since become an entertaining to me and the half breed Filipino fishing crew. It goes to show you you can not always take everything you see at face value.

While not touring to the 80 or so venues around the country and carving the hide of dead animals, Rowdy is also a videographer. Working with a couple of his boys, Royce Klinger and Aaron :Chubby" Peterson, they have come out with their sequel No Sports Allowed Volume II: How We Do. A worthy video for all trout fishermen out there and something worth checking out.

NSA vol. 2 how we do... from Marc Crapo on Vimeo.

Sight Fishing

Every since the Jim Teeny video, Catching More Steelhead, sight fishing has got a bad wrap for one reason or another. But I got to tell you watching a fish react to your offering is one of the coolest things you can do while steelheading. Dec Hogan discussed this and the different types of takes in his book, A Passion For Steelhead. Yesterday I was fishing a local with a buddy and found several fish in a tailout. With sun right on top of them and a lot of glare I was able to watch them move and not move to our offerings. There were times when the fish would simply move over and look at the fly while at other times they would move over take the fly and just barely open there mouth. I am sure that time of day, lighting and the gear guy that just walked out of the run had something to do with it, but there were not very aggressive to the fly. Fish were hooked, fish were lost, but another learning experience was gained.

Thompson River Bait Ban Petition

Spreading the word for the boys up North. With years of dwindling runs of returning fish to the fabled Thompson River in British Columbia, the Thompson River Bait Ban makes more and more sense. Please take the time to read over the petition and sign if you feel it is the right thing to do for this precious resource.

To: BC Minister of Environment

To the Honourable Barry Penner, British Columbia Minister of Environment.

We, the undersigned, hereby request that a bait ban sport fishing regulation be implemented for Interior Fraser River steelhead prior to the next sport fishing opening. (Interior Fraser steelhead rivers include the Thompson, Chilcotin, Seton, Bridge, Nahatlach and all other rivers in the Interior of BC where steelhead are known to inhabit.)

The principals of a bait ban as outlined in the BC government document Bait Ban as a Management Tool (http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/fw/fish/regulations/docs/2001/bait_ban.pdf) demonstrate that such a regulation would be desirable among the angling public.

These steelhead
- are highly accessible;
- are vulnerable to capture; and
- every spawner counts.

Further,
- there is a need to protect juvenile fish;
- the steelhead population is small; and
- there is a need to spread the catchable supply of steelhead over more anglers.

According to the current BC Freshwater Fishing Regulations the definition of bait is: Bait is any foodstuff or natural substance used to attract fish, other than wood, cotton, wool, hair, fur or feathers. It does not include fin fish, other than roe. It includes roe, worms and other edible substances, as well as scents and flavourings containing natural substances or nutrients.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned