Activism at its Finest

I came across an interesting article a few weeks back about a group of activists who painted a giant pair of scissors and dotted line on a dam in California.

Matilija Dam/ reservoir on the Ventura River has served as a water supply for over 60 years since its construction in 1948. Now the reservoir, filled with mostly sediment, serves no purpose and people want it taken down. It has caused a huge decline in steelhead population and with the removal of the dam steelhead will be able to spawn in the upper river where they once could reach before the construction of the dam. The group of activists who painted the scissors and line are anonymous. Either way, its quite the message. The dam is scheduled to be removed in the coming years. For more information check out the website for the Matilija Coalition...... http://www.matilija-coalition.org/why.htm

Bitterroot Afternoon

Headed out to the Bitterroot this afternoon with Chris and Cody. It was a beautiful day in the Missoula area with clear skies and a high of about 55 degrees. Chris and I were going to streamer fish(like always) and Cody brought out the dries. It looked like a nice day for dries and there was a good number of bugs hatching, mostly mahoganies.

We decided to fish the access where I landed a 15 inch brown a few weeks ago. About 15 minutes into fishing Chris hooked into a nice fish. I was pretty far downstream but both Cody and Chris later explained that it was a beautiful brown of about 16 inches with some nice spawning colors. I wish I could have been there for a picture.

Chris and I crossed the river and found some great water downstream. I hooked into a nice bow of about 16 inches on about the third cast in the run we were fishing. The fish fought pretty hard for its size. I had Chris snap some pics of me with the fish.

We continued downstream finding some more great water. The view of the Selway-Bitterroot mountain range was amazing on this stretch and it made me appreciate how lucky we all are to be able to be here and fish, every single day...........

                                                  Chris chuckin' the big stuff

                                                     Cody in his element

Cody managed a couple of smaller fish on dries. I was surprised not more fish were rising today. I missed one more nice fish in a big pool and then we headed back upstream. It was a great day even though the streamer fishing wasn't too amazing. Chris and I managed to end our 3 day fishless streak. On the way back I showed the guys where I saw a bunch of whitefish on a side pool. I convinced Cody to tie on a nymph to hook into one of his favorite fish (just kidding Cody).

                                                       Always messing around

Clark Fork/ Rock Creek 10/29

Had an interesting day today on the Clark Fork with Chris and Riley. We fished up near the confluence of Rock Creek. We faced 30mph wind gusts the entire time and being on an "open" river with no tree cover made it almost impossible to cast when the winds were high. I got nailed in the neck with my streamer and also had my hat blown right off my head by the winds. Chris also got hit by his streamer. We fished a section near the railroad tracks and fished down to the where Rock Creek dumps into the Clark.

                                                        Chris and I on the way to the river.

All three of us never had a grab. We decided to drive up rock creek a ways and fish some deep pocketwater with streamers. There was far less wind up in the canyon and it felt good not having to duck on every cast. We fished for about an hour and a half with no hits. My confidence went from the highest to the lowest and I quit early. I waited for Chris and Riley and then we began to drive home. On the way back down Rock Creek Road we saw what looked like a bunch of mule deer standing to the left. I stopped the car and as I looked in my rear view mirror I could see 3 or 4 more Big Horned sheep crossing behind us. I got out of the car to get some pictures.

I've only seen Big Horned sheep one other time in Montana and this was the first time I was close to them. It definitely made the day better, even though none of us had hooked up with any fish.

Back to fishing

Had a tough week of academic work. I had 2 exams today and now I'm finally free to fish. I called up one of the local fly shops today and got some intel on what areas are fishing hot. I headed over to the Clark Fork to fish a small section that I've never fished before. The water looked good but the area was crowded with 3 other guys. I waited for one guy to leave and I then fished the same long riffle/run with no results. I fished for a while longer but didn't have any takes. I think that the stretch is a popular one with easy access and if you're not the first one on the day to rip some streamers through it, then you aren't catching anything. I debated going to the car and getting my nymphing rod but decided against it. Chris and I fished the Clark Fork above Missoula yesterday afternoon and had an alright day. I had 3 or 4 good grabs but just couldn't connect with any fish. I think that the upper Clark Fork will be the key this weekend along with the Bitterroot. That's probably where I'll end up.

Back from Washington

The trip to Seattle this weekend was a great one, even though it was a short trip. We started off driving around 11:30 on Friday. Little did we know we were in for a little bit of hell once we got to Snoqualmie Pass. Construction on the pass caused traffic to back up for over 20 miles. We ended up being caught in stop and go traffic for 2 and a half hours. By the time we finally got moving, it was past 8pm.

We got to Bellevue and dropped Riley and Chris off around 9pm. We still had some time to kill before we caught the next ferry to Bainbridge Island so we met up with Cameron's older sister and had dinner at a burger place in the heart of Seattle. It was really cool being right in downtown and I was surprised that the driving wasn't that bad. However, I did have to conquer some of the steepest hills I've ever had to stop on with my manual VW passat. After dinner we got on the ferry to Bainbridge Island. There was an awesome view of Seattle from the ships deck.

We got to Bainbridge island and drove about 15 more minutes to the town of Poulsbo. We dropped off Connor and his friend Chris and then headed for Cam's house. When Cam and I got to the house I was amazed to learn how old the house was and how long it had been in the family. The house was built by Cameron's great, great grandparents in 1889 and is one of the oldest houses in the area. It reminded me a lot of my own house in New York which was built in the early 1900's. The property overlooks the Puget sound and on sunny days (very rarely), you can see the Olympic mountains.  
We woke early the next morning to an overcast day and a nice view of the Puget Sound. I was excited for today. We planned on heading up to the Olympic Peninsula to fish a couple rivers for salmon. Cameron's brother Brendon decided to come along so I rigged up rods for the three of us. I wasn't sure what to expect. I knew that the cohos were basically done running as well as the pinks but the chums should be arriving pretty soon.

The first river we decided to fish was the Dosewallips River. Once a very good winter steelhead fishery, the Dose(as locals call it), has had declining steelhead numbers for the past 20 years. Some say that the run is down to zero steelhead. Some fisheries biologists disagree. All that is known is that there has to be some serious restoration efforts to bring the fish back.

We drove up as far as we could on the access road and started looking for fish. It was difficult to present a fly because there were many leaves and the water was a little high. We drove downstream looking for spots where fish would hold. We found a big pool where I was sure a fish would be. Sure enough I spotted a pink salmon deep in the run. I got my rod out of the car to swing something at the fish but when I returned to the spot the fish had moved.  The river was really beautiful and the pool looked like a perfect steelhead pool and I continued to think "how could a river like this lose all or most of its steelhead?"

After checking a couple more spots we headed down to the mouth of the Dose and found a few zombie pinks. I tried swinging to them but they wouldn't take. A park ranger pulled up as we were leaving and explained to us that the nearby Quilcene was open and had more fish than the Dose. Since it was on the way home we stopped to fish on the way back. Brendon immediately spotted a nice coho resting in a small side pool of water below the bridge. It was an ugly fish, but it was a fish. We went down to look at the fish and discovered 2 more in the small pool. It was cool to see and I got some good shots of the fish.

Cameron and Brendon walked downstream on the trail and I got in the water and started looking. I saw a big spawning salmon on the far side and continued on. I was walking down a fast riffle/pocket water section and saw a big red coho. Unlike the fish I had seen so far, this one was pushing its way upstream. I hooked up with the fish on the first cast. I was very surprised and the fight began. The fish went a little crazy at first and then I saw the fishes head emerge from the water trying to throw the hook. It was a BIG coho. Bigger than any one I've seen in Great lakes tributaries. I fought it for a while longer and then Cameron came to help. I brought the fish in the shallows and just like that, Cam tailed the fish. "This is a big fish" he said. Just as he said it the fish flopped right back into the water. The fight was on again for about another 5 minutes and then the hook just pulled out. I wasn't disappointed though because it felt great to fight a fish from the ocean. I have to say they have a bit more power than their relatives of the great lakes. I continued downstream with Cameron to find Brendon casting at a fish. The rest of the time we fished I didn't see any fish that were moving up. The rest of the fish we saw were pretty ugly and not aggressive whatsoever. After a while of casting at those un-aggressive fish we decided to call it a day and head back to Poulsbo.

That evening we attended a birthday party for a family friend. Everyone at the party was extremely welcoming and were very interested in what New York is like and how the fishing went. After the party we went to ice cream with more family friends. The politeness and generosity of all the people really amazed me. No offense to you east coasters that I know, but overall....people in the western united states are just plain nice compared to the majority of east coasters. Everyone just seems to be so happy, no matter what.

The next morning we didn't have too much time to fish. We wanted to leave at a reasonable time to try and avoid traffic on the pass. The ferry ride back showed a great view of Seattle in the daylight.

The trip home seemed to go on forever and we made it back to Missoula around 10pm. It was a great weekend and I enjoyed seeing a new state and even hooking up with a nice Coho. I hope I can return to the state soon to do some more fishing. Maybe someday I'll even be able to do a research project there. Cameron is pretty interested in the restoration of rivers and fish populations also. It would be funny if we worked on the same study someday.