I can’t count the times I’ve heard someone tell me something along the lines of, “I’ve always wanted to learn how to fly fish, but I have no idea where to start and no one to teach me.” This phrase, or one a lot like it, usually comes from spin-cast or baitcast anglers who, in…
For Immediate Release December 11, 2017 Contact: Dean Finnerty, (541) 214-0642, dfinnerty@tu.org Wild Steelheaders United, Trout Unlimited applaud new classification of surface waters for North Fork Smith River New rules enhance water quality protections for the headwaters of one of the best wild steelhead and salmon fisheries on the West Coast COTTAGE GROVE, OreOn Thursday,…
The North Fork of the Smith River. Dean Finnerty knows good steelhead water when he sees it. Finnerty, a lifelong resident of Oregon and longtime fishing guide, says the headwaters of the fabled Smith River are “some of the best habitat for wild steelhead, anywhere.” Indeed, the remarkably lucid green waters of the Kalmiopsis region…
By David Lisi No one around you, you’re in a pristine river setting, fishing for wild, native fish. This is THE magical, nearly unattainable goal for most fly fishermen. Rivers with Brown Bears bounding through the water chasing spawning salmon as you pluck your tenth 20″ wild rainbow trout from their feeding lanes or hook…
By Dave Atcheson Most Alaskans are painfully aware of the recent downturn in king salmon runs on many of our streams. The numbers of returning Chinook salmon have remained alarmingly low for the last several years, prompting fishing closures in many areas, including the previous season’s closure of the entire Southeast region. It was with…
TU’s Dean Finnerty fishing the Sandy River as a teenager. By Sam Davidson Ten years ago, on a river revered for its huge wild steelhead, more than a ton of dynamite reduced a 47-foot high dam to rubble. The dam was named after a whistling rodent and the river after a big sandbar early European…
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 12, 2017 Contact: Alannah Hurley, United Tribes of Bristol Bay (907) 843-1633 or Nelli Williams, Trout Unlimited (907) 230-7121 Photos and video from the hearings: available upon request ALASKANS URGE EPA OFFICIALS TO MAINTAIN BRISTOL BAY PROTECTIONS An overwhelming majority who attended hearings in Dillingham and Iliamna requested proposed 2014 protections…
