fly fishing, conservation and politics.
My friend Phil Monahan shot me an email asking if I would write a recap of The Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture Annual Partnership Meeting for the OrvisNews Conservation blog. It was a great opportunity to help tell the EBTJV story so naturally I jumped at the chance.
[Read more…] about Recapping the Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture Annual Partnership Meeting
Next to water, wolves probably ignite more heated arguments in the west than any other subject.
Fortunately eight highly respected hunting conservation organizations penned the op/ed piece below calling for cool heads and some common sense.
Hopefully it will lead to a little restraint.
[Read more…] about “…we are sportsmen, not wolf-haters.” Common sense and wolves
Ned Desmond from GoFISHn.com has posted his three part interview with Eric Schwaab, NOAA’s assistant administrator for fisheries. I wrote about Eric when he was appointed and as you will see in Desmond’s interview Schwaab is a not only a thoughtful leader but a vocal champion of recreational fishing.
Desmond and Schwaab discuss many the pressing issues of concern to saltwater recreational anglers. It is a comprehensive look at the work NOAA is doing and what it means for recreational fishing.
[Read more…] about GoFISHn interview with NOAA big fish, Eric Schwaab
There is a very provocative and thoughtful discussion on fishing ethics, Catching, but Not Releasing in the New York Times’ Room for Debate. It well worth the read.
Here are the topics and authors.
Purity and Predation by James Babb, Gray’s Sporting Journal
Drive a Prius, Eat a Fish by Chris Hunt, Trout Unlimited
An Invasive Species or a Steelhead Run? by Cathy Beck, fishing guide, Frontiers International
The Shifting Moral High Ground by Dylan Tomine, fisherman and writer
Causing Pain for Our Pleasure by Lynne Sneddon, fish biologist, University of Liverpool, and
Feeling Little Pain by James Rose, zoologist, University of Wyoming
The comments are lengthy on these posts but if the topic intrigues you then the comments offer more grist for that particular mill.
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One of my favorite writers, Chris Hunt, often captures the true essence of fishing, in his recent post High Country (below) he outdid himself. I always enjoy his writing as I do our all to infrequent conversations. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do.
Where will I fish today?
Upstream, where hard-bodied trout swim in tight water chilled by perpetual winter. Where wildflowers push the snow away, shine briefly and then retreat. Where spruces pierce the sky defiantly. Where I can cast … alone.
At the river’s head, where water can’t wait to run off the mountain, life takes advantage of its few short weeks free from winter’s cloak. It pulses. It revels in sunshine, soaking it in, for it has to last a long, long time. Bumblebees work tirelessly from flower to flower. Voles and chipmunks furiously gather stores to prepare for the season from which they just barely escaped. Wild trout rise willingly to false promises.
Some say they’re easily fooled. Others dare not waste a cast on something they see as diminutive… not worth the effort they invested crafting a fly meant for something larger, something that looks better in megapixels. I disagree.
“Where wild trout rise willingly to false promises.”
Touching their life force reinforces my own. Fooling them with concoctions crafted in a winter-shrouded basement while they fin, nearly dormant, in water covered in months of snow and ice is an effort to touch Heaven while remaining on earth. It’s a religion. It requires faith.
It’s why, during winter’s grip, I glance often from the valley floor at the high country. I wait for the snows to retreat, for the green shoots of wild iris and columbine to shoulder through the moist, black soil. I wait for the water to clear and the mosquitos to emerge hungrily.
Then I become a temporary visitor. A tourist toting a stick and the simple desire to be part of this place. Just for a bit.
Upstream. That’s where I’ll fish today.
Thanks Chris, hope we fish the high country together soon.
If you are a saltwater angler you probably recall some of the hue and cry surrounding the Obama administration’s Ocean Policy Task Force. This task force was purported to being writing the regulations that would, among other things, close the oceans to sport fishing. The final report from the task force was released recently and for the most part it was well received as good news for recreational anglers as noted here on GoFISHn.com
I added my two cents to the discussion on GoFISHn.com here.
Bottom line. The report is a step forward and an opportunity to work with the new National Ocean Commission to make sure national ocean policy recognizes the important contribution recreational fishing makes both socially and economically.
