New Zealand mud snails in Michigan trout streams

More than 180 non-native species have been introduced to the Great Lakes region, and many of them have been categorized as invasive, causing potential threat to native ecosystems and their populations.   One relative newcomer is causing concerns about its potential risks to the region’s trout streams.  The New Zealand mud snail (Potamopyrgus antipodarum) is an aquatic invasive that has appeared in Great Lakes streams only recently. …

Make your voice heard

Brian Wimmer, the fly fishing ambassador at Sundance Mountain Resort, says it all when it comes to the proposed Pebble Mine in the headwaters of the world’s most important salmon rivers. “I can’t believe we’re having to do this again,” he says in the Orvis video above. “It just pisses me off. I thought we…

Politics and the fishing media

A Snake River fine-spotted cutthroat trout. Cutthroat trout today occupy less than 10 percent of their native habitat, and the waters where they do persist are largely headwater streams that could impacted by the EPA’s decision to gut the Clean Water Rule. If the fly fishing media didn’t cover the issue, many anglers wouldn’t know…

Army Corps approves plan to block Asian carp from Great Lakes

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has approved its final plan recommendation for addressing Asian carp at Brandon Road Lock and Dam near Joliet, Ill.   Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite, the commanding general of the Corps of Engineers, signed the report, which will now be sent to Congress for approval and funding.  Asian carp are currently one of the most serious…

The Race up Rock Creek

Some places race horses. Some greyhounds. In Montana, we’re betting on a group of tagged cutthroat trout as they race their way up the Clark Fork River. The project is a joint venture between Trout Unlimited and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks to learn more about how trout use the habitat in Rock Creek. Trout…