Ranches

According to one stereotype, a rancher’s commitment to the lifestyle is mainly self-serving. The fences they build are as much to keep the public out as to detain resident wildlife (translation: elk) for the purpose of selling high-dollar hunting opportunities. When not dewatering streams, they restore and stock them for their own fishing pleasure and that of paying anglers in search of lunkers in a crowd-free…

New bill would clarify management, improve fishing in Colorado

Anglers should rejoice in the introduction of the CORE Act, particularly if they live or fish in Colorado’s iconic Gunnison Valley. The Curecanti portion of the Act, introduced by Sen. Michael Bennet and Rep. Joe Neguse, would establish permanent boundaries for the current National Recreation Area making management simpler and creating improved fishing access.   In 1965, Blue Mesa Dam was completed…

The Rise of the River Herring

If you ever have doubts that ocean-going fish like shad, herring and salmon can recover with just a little help, take a quick look at the video below, produced by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. In Maine’s Damariscotta River, in the community of Damariscotta Mills, the restoration of a 200-year-old fish ladder has increased…

New water rights guide helps California landowners, streams

There are many things rural California landowners can do to leave more water in streams for fish and wildlife. Most involve changes to water use practices that will also increase the security of the landowner’s water supply. So why don’t more landowners do this?  One answer is California’s complex system of water rights. It can be difficult to…

The cruelest month

Biggest fish of the day, general trout season opener, Los Padres Reservoir, April 2019. April is the cruellest [sic] month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain. Thus begins The Waste Land, T.S. Elliot’s most famous work and the defining poem of the Modernist era…