November 2007

It wasn’t long ago that the Trinity’s Rivers Steelhead runs seemingly numbered in the hundreds — the result of debilitating water diversions (most of which headed south to Trout Underground whipping boys Westlands Irrigation District).

After decades of legal wrangling by groups like the Friends of the Trinity and CalTrout, a little water got put back into the river, and viola — a steelhead fishery was reborn.

Now the fishing’s good enough that the Trinity’s become a mob scene. Witness this report from Denis Pierce:

The biggest news in Northern California fishing has been the phenomenal run of steelhead that has returned to the Trinity River. This year’s run is headed toward eclipsing last year’s record return of these sea-run rainbow trout. The weir counts at Willow Creek on the lower end of the river have been consistently over 1,000 fish per week.

In contrast, I can remember years when the entire run was counted in hundreds for an entire season. The combination of an excellent run on the Trinity and a dismal salmon run in the Sacramento Valley has put tremendous fishing pressure on the Trinity.

The bulk of the Trinity steelhead have been holding, up and down river from Junction City. The anglers figured this out and have been hammering the fish. The local boat shuttle service have been moving trailers for up to 32 boats per day in this area. In addition to the boat-based anglers there are plenty of shore-based fishermen pounding these same fish.

The Trinity used to be a largely empty river, and now it’s a parking lot for drift boats. That’s a great example of the value of healthy, sustainable fisheries in rural areas (paying attention Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors?).

Let’s hope the fishermen currently whipping the Trinity’s waters to a froth appreciate what they have, and the considerable efforts from groups like Friends of the Trinity and CalTrout to get it back.

(In fact, go to Friends of the Trinity site and join their petition drive to stop Axis of Evil member Westlands Irrigation District from doing to you what porn stars do to each other. Take you fifteen seconds.)

For an engrossing read about the near-death of the Trinity River at the hands of politicos and water interests, dive into this little document by Friends of the Trinity, which lays out a trail of greed, corruption, lies and sex (well, fish sex) that would make Danielle Steele blush.

You probably won’t find me over there fighting the crowds. But I’m damned glad to see ‘em there.

Welcome back, Trinity River. We missed you.

[tags]fly fishing, fishing, trinity river, steelhead, salmon, friends of the trinity, caltrout[/tags]

Except for the uncontrollable, homicidal rage that surfaces whenever my fly line snags in those damned-to-hell metal boot hooks, I don’t give gravel guards much thought.

How about you? Straq at Way Upstream (fly fishing product guy at Patagonia) is looking for feedback about gravel guards, which is either intelligent product development, or a cagey way to get us to do his job for him.

Sure, Bennet says Straq’s a total slacker, but we’ll give Straq the benefit of a doubt, and suggest you head on over and post an opinion.

From Way Upstream:

A while ago I posted a request for wader feedback that was widely commented on. Since then I’ve been working on the new wader development and have a specific area for the Way Upstream community to focus and comment on. This area is the gravel guard. I’m testing various fabrics, high filtration mesh and neoprene for this integrated feature.

[tags]fly fishing, fishing, gravel guard, waders, fly fishing waders, patagonia, damned to hell metal boot hooks[/tags]

News flash: don’t show up at Tuesday’s Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors meeting if you want to say something about the hugely flawed, access-robbing Natural Resources vote. The varmints have continued that vote until next Tuesday’s meeting.

More coming on this one soon. See you anywhere but Yreka, Tom Chandler
[tags]natural resources policy[/tags]

It’s Monday morning at the Underground, which means I’m getting depressed about the things I didn’t do over the weekend, the things I’ve gotta do this week, and the fishing that won’t get done because of both of them. Then there’s the little matter of our ongoing stream access battle, which I’ll address at the bottom of the post.

See — even in the face of the crippling Hollywood Writer’s Strike — I’m still typing away, bravely entertaining the Undergrounders without regard for my personal safety in the face of roving death squads of Hollywood screenwriters intent on stamping out every word of entertainment written in their absence.

Accordingly, I’m posting this from deep within the Trout Underground’s Hidden Man Cave Bunker, where I’m safe from the bloodthirsty mobs of bad reality show scriptwriters (and the people responsible for Saved by the Bell – cold blooded killers if ever there were any).

Fortunately, other fly fishing writers are also courageously scabbing standing tall in the face of lines of picketing writers, including our own Singlebarbed, who posted a couple more winners over the weekend.

First was his lengthy account of another brownlining trip to new water, complete with beaver ponds and roving bands of bass and pikeminnows. Sounds like fun.

Then there’s a “deep thought” piece on the future of Western fly fishing in the face of drought, global warming, privatization of the resource and more:

There’s little question we’re due for some fundamental change, as even my short life has seen consistent degradation of most of the traditional gamefish.

My question is simple, are we still thinking like settlers, possessed by some silly notion that we can pull up stakes and head West?

Fly fishing includes many more species today than it did when I was young; web sites expound on the thrill of common salt water species, warm water coarse fish, and strange venues like Mongolia or downtown Los Angeles. Those exploits largely fail to make the cover of our mainstream media, but those deeds are as worthy and heroic as any fellow paying $10,000 to catch two salmon.

This is what we’ve got, there isn’t anymore unexplored continents, do we adapt our archaic notion of “quality” or do we wait until someone does that for us?

I am often chided for the “Brownline” angle; fishing for nuisance fish in a contaminated creek. I recognize that I am fishing for “cockroaches” - there is little nobility, no posturing, few groupies, and fewer practitioners. It’s fishing, with the same mixture of victory and despair as a fancy fish clothed in an expensive venue.

I’ve asked this before; why are so many fly fishers hung on trout? Sure, the places you catch trout are gorgeous, but fishing poppers for smallmouth bass is like fishing a big dry fly for a fish that typically pulls back a lot harder than a trout.

So why do so many eyes glaze over when you mention smallies? Give Singlebarbed a read, and leave a comment.

Important Underground Stuff: Our Stream Access Rights Battle Continues

The Underground’s Man Cave Headquarters (located right next to the Man Cave Garage) is finally rounding into shape, but alas, the news isn’t all good — it looks like the Undergrounders are going to have to saddle up once again in our ongoing battle against Siskiyou County’s “no public comment accepted” Natural Resources Policy.

Look for an update later today. This time, I’ll make it easy; we’re going to focus on a single issue.

For now, I’ve gotta go. I think hear a BMW outside — maybe the screenwriters have foun

[tags]fly fishing, fishing, writer’s strike, hollywood writer’s strike, singlebarbed[/tags]

Buster Wants to Fish looks like a collaborative fly fishing blog written by some of our favorite self-described “dirtbag fly fishers” — along with a few names I don’t recognize, but will certainly come to. Their mission?

Broadcasting from high atop the Bilgewater Building in Dogpatch USA, hello and welcome. We are a small mob of dirtbag flyfishers with a web site. Weve stared at the water enough to maybe have some things to say about it. You might disagree, but here you are anyway. Did you bring beer? Weve stumbled out of a variety of regions and fallen together on the internets. Were pretty much staunch localists who are still stoked about the rivers, lakes and beaches were lucky enough to call our home waters, and wanted to get the words down before life goes and robs us of the alphabet. And we want to have a good time doing it.

“We’re Here”

There’s a lot of hand-wringing in the fly fishing industry about the “next” generation of fly fishers — namely that they don’t exist, and if they do, they’re a bunch fat-assed whiners gripping Xboxes and thinking fish and meat are something that comes shrink wrapped from the grocery store.

I always thought that was a little too convenient for an industry that was largely stuck in the 1980s way of doing things.

If it’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that the new wave are out there, but since they’re unlikely to subscribe to a snore-inducing Fly Fishermen magazine or buy $650 fly rods by the dozen, they might as well not be (as far as big chunks of the industry are concerned).

That’s tunnel vision, and while it seems the Internet might as well be the empty space off the flat end of the earth for most fly fishing companies, a quick visit to the right places would set you straight.

Buster Wants to Fish would be one of those places.

It careens between the odd, the sublime and the overheated, alternating kickass fishing reports like this one or this one with bigfoot sightings and the obligatory, anthemic rage against the machine post (which loses a lot of steam if you have to find, manufacture, or prop up a machine to rage against, but by its nature, rebellion requires something to rebel against).

Put it on the old RSS Feed, and let ‘em blast away. It won’t be a boring trip.

Comments from the Undergrounders are always welcome.

See you on the blogosphere, Tom Chandler.

[tags]fly fishing, fishing, buster wants to fish, fly fishing blog, outdoor blog[/tags]

The regular Undergrounders might remember my field test of the Orvis Helios fly rod. I liked it, though not as much as the Detroit Free Press (found via MidCurrent), who loved the Helios enough to lightly bitch slap the biggest name in fly rods. To whit:

I got to use the 9 foot for a 5-weight line last summer, when it was still a big secret, and was amazed. It was incredibly light, about 2.5 ounces, but that’s not what got me. It was the almost effortless casting. You just lifted the line off the water, did a quick false cast and let it fly.

For the past 10 years Sage has set the standards for upmarket fly rods. But when I tried the Helios side-by-side with a 9-foot Sage TCR, using the same reel and line, I thought the Orvis was noticeably better.

Zing! In the genteel (translation: bought and paid for) fly fishing industry, you don’t normally zing the other guys, though apparently the Detroit Free Press didn’t get the memo.

You’ve gotta think the guys at Orvis have already sacrificed a goat to the Detroit Free Press in thanks, and are busily papering the walls of the rod design shop with copies of this review.

For the graphite fly rod set, the upcoming years are going to be interesting indeed…

[tags]fly fishing, fly rod, orvis, orvis helios, helios fly rod, detroit free press, sage tcr[/tags]

Our ongoing stream access battle might be important stuff, but it isn’t exactly what you’d call fun.

Still, the Undergrounders stood up big time for stream access (TU National, take note), so now it’s time step back and enjoy a little comic relief (and no, we’re not watching my fly fishing casting videos).

Instead, I’m firing up Another Underground Giveaway Contest — and this one’s pure fun on a stick:

The winner receives a fresh, unread copy of Kerplunk — Patrick F. McManus’ brand new book.

I first started reading McManus during my awkward high school years (they’ve never really passed), and to a kid without much of an outdoors background, his hilarious stories about the outdoors made it all seem so accessible (and damned fun).

I’ll probably never forget his classic “Deer on a Bicycle” story

This new book is a collection of his Outdoor Life humor essays, but since I haven’t read it yet (my review and giveaway copies just arrived today), I’ll rely on the publisher’s copy to describe it in greater detail:

In these tall tales, McManus and his buddies learn how not to net a fish, why you should never get your hair cut by someone who’s mad at you, what to do when a deer wanders into camp but your sleeping bag has frozen shut, and how to avoid bird-dog flatulence.

How Do You Win?

Simple. You post a comment about the fishing/outdoor writer you first remember reading, and how the writing affected you.

Your first post counts for the contest, and rather than judge the entries, I’m going to pick a number at random and award the book to that comment.

In other words, you can win just for typing your name (we hope we haven’t set the bar too high for most fly fishers).

My Entry?

In elementary school, I checked out whatever the library had relating to fly fishing, fishing and hunting — mostly fairly macho outdoor stories involving some pretty hoary cliches, including the patented “45 minute battle” with a big fish, and the classic “there wasn’t a hatch, so I created my own with repeated casts.”

I don’t remember the authors, but those collected stories were enough to get me on my bike — often at ungodly hours — and riding to a private lake with a couple of friends, where we’d alternately fish and hide from the lake patrol.

I can’t name the writers — and some of their posturing seems laughable in the light of day — but they still made me want to fish, even if the tiny bluegill I caught never fought for 45 minutes.

Undergrounders, it’s your turn. For a chance to win a book about bird dog flatulence and other outdoor treats… comment away.

[tags]patrick mcmanus, kerplunk, book giveaway, fly fishing[/tags]

Here’s a quickie: Do any of the Underground’s readers live in the Weed, Lake Shastina, or Shasta Valley area?

If so, the Trout Underground Needs You!

Please contact me right away via the Underground’s Contact page. We need a three-minute favor, and I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important.

[tags]shasta valley, weed, i want you[/tags]

Ok, the headline is alarmist. I mean, I basically lied to get your attention. So far, it looks like only one drift boat hit a temporary construction piling under Redding’s Cypress Avenue bridge, but there have been close calls — enough that:

Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko says he may restrict or even close the Sacramento River under Reddings Cypress Avenue Bridge after reports that boaters are running into construction pilings sprouting up in the busy waterway.

Anyone suspect (like me) that Bosenko doesn’t fly fish? Later in the article…

Linnea LeBoeuf, who co-owns local guide service River Romance with her husband, Todd, said one of her oarsmen was taking clients on a romantic float trip down the river, when the drift boat struck a bridge piling. The collision dented the rear of the boat and cracked an oar.

A romantic float trip? If it’s one thing we’ve learned reading thousands of romance novels watching hours of manly action movies, it’s that a hint of danger transforms the ordinary into the saucy. Trust us on this one.

Sadly, the guys at the Redding Fly Shop don’t seem nearly as romantic:

At the Fly Shop, which houses the Redding area’s largest fly fishing guide service, Guide Services Director Michael Caranci said he’s heard of at least a half-dozen similar close calls.

“It’s a tight enough passageway that there’s very little room for error,” Caranci said.

How tight is it (you ask in unison)?

Although an average drift boat is about 23 feet wide from oar tip to oar tip, boaters will have just 20 feet to pass between the two platforms.

Twenty feet? My guide friend Dave Roberts would laugh in a bitter and cynical fashion if you told him he was in danger because he had to shoot a 20 foot gap, but OK — given Lower Sac water velocities, let’s just say it’s dangerous.

Closing the river? Ouch. (Once more in unison, Redding Area Tourist Economy — OUCH).

Signs since have been placed at boat ramps and around town warning boaters of the dangers.

The sheriff’s office also has discussed contacting private landowners with access to the river to see if they’ll allow boaters to pull out prior to reaching the bridge, Starman said.

But that’s not enough for Caranci, who says the perils should have been considered and corrected before construction began. He said the potential dangers have been scaring fishermen off the river.

“The city messed up in terms of the recreation value of the river,” he said. “They didn’t take that into consideration when they started this project.”

City tourism officer Bob Warren said any closure to the river could hurt Redding’s economy.

He estimated at least $1 million a year pours into the community because of fishing on the river.

I’d guess City Tourism Officer Bob Warren is way, way under with that $1 million a year estimate (which is probably why the city didn’t consider the recreation angle in the first place).

Given the number of guide trips supported by the Lower Sac — not to mention a big, big dollar fly shop, the hotels, meals, etc — the number has to be higher.

Any Undergrounders been through the construction pilings lately? I’d love to hear your take.

You can read the whole Record Searchlight article here: Narrow access: River construction sandbags access to the Sacramento River