This intelligently made film offers a poignant (and often painful) look a the rise and fall of California’s and Oregon’s steelhead rivers – and weaves in a spellbinding story about some of fly fishing’s most iconic figures.

Click for the Rivers of a Lost Coast Web site

Fly fishing legends Bill Schaadt and Ted Lindner began the largely Post-WWII narrative as friends, but ultimately became sworn enemies. Whatever the reasons, the feud divided the nascent steelheading community – which wasn’t exactly an easy club to join.

In interview after interview, people describe the era’s steelhead & salmon runs, the decline in those runs, and how the unique breed of hardcore fly fishermen formed, split, and adapted.

Some didn’t adapt very well – either to diminishing fish populations or the growing crowds of fishermen – and therein lies the true genius of this movie.

“Extreme” characters like Bill Schaadt and Ted Lindner are normally the work of fiction writers, but they’re real – and they’re compelling enough to me that I watched the movie several times.

To sketch the characters, Rivers of a Lost Coast leans heavily on interviews with those who knew and fished with them (including Russell Chatham [read his lengthy Sports Illustrated piece on Schaadt here], Jim Adams, Lani Waller and others).

What emerges is an engrossing – if sometimes hard-to-comprehend – portrait of some of steelheading’s first truly extreme fly fishers.

Most interesting is the picture that emerges of Bill Schaadt, a revered (and often reviled) fly fisherman whose obsessive behavior included hiding his car & boat, and cutting the fly lines of others with razor blades tied in the bends of hooks.

With Chatham and others offering up revelation after revelation during their interviews, the movie flows beautifully – even as the precipitous decline of steelhead and salmon populations plays out (somewhat painfully) before our eyes.

The filmmakers have created something special – something worth a little of your time.

How much did I like Rivers of a Lost Coast? A friend asked me to summarize the film, I told him it’s the movie Ken Burns would have made if he was an obsessed steelheader.

See you at the picture show, Tom Chandler

Resources:

Sports Illustrated article on Bill Schaadt by Russell Chatham
But the Rivers of a Lost Coast DVD
Wikipedia entry on Bill Schaadt

Movie Trailer:

Coming soon to a theater near you?

Fly fishing legend Bill Schaadt is at the center of the movie, and though I never met the man – and I don’t do a lot of steelheading – the stories about him still circulate freely around here.

Some seem so far fetched that they couldn’t possibly have been real – until someone you know says they are.

A case in point are the steelhead flies Schaad was rumored to have tied with a razor blade in the bend of the hook. When cast over somebody’s line, a quick jerk would sever the line from the fish.

I figured them for urban legend – until a recent conversation with someone who had held one in his hand.

Naturally, Schaad’s more extreme behaviors have become the unfortunate focus, which is inevitable, but sad. After all, more than a few suggest he was the best fly fisherman who ever lived.

Russell Chatham wrote a lengthy article about Schaadt for Sports Illustrated, which served to humanize the legend a little, though Schaadt remains – and always will be – a larger than life figure:

My cousin and I spent part of each summer in his parents’ cabin on the Russian River. It was during our first shad season in the early ’50s that we started hearing of a fisherman named Bill Schaadt. The name is pronounced “shad,” like the fish, and not knowing at the time about the German spelling, we thought that man and fish were named alike. Besides, Schaadt is a sign painter, and his trademark SHAD SIGNS appears on all his work.

In the Russian River resort area there are numerous billboards along the roads. Everywhere we went there was a SHAD sign, and the work was distinctive. You could spot it easily from a distance, and it was always a thrill to discover a new one. One year Schaadt repainted all the store fronts in the town of Guerneville, leaving behind to the citizenry an open-air gallery of his art.

When we went fishing on the Russian River we would often be asked: “Have you seen Bill Schaadt?” An article appeared by the venerable Ted True-blood telling about the new sport of fly-fishing for shad on the Russian, and in it Schaadt figured impressively, further fueling our imaginings about the man. We began to stalk Schaadt, who at the time drove a distinctive 1937 black Dodge that he had elaborately striped. After a time he was forced to hide his car and take other measures to avoid people like us who followed him, primarily hoping he would lead them to fish.

But my cousin and I were not particularly interested in being led toward good fishing. In fact, it would have been an embarrassment. For us, Schaadt himself was the subject of the quest. When we would see his car parked along the river, we would stop and peer through the trees searching for the solitary figure who practiced the art of fly-fishing so dynamically. He was our hero.

One spring much later, I was shad fishing on the Russian with a friend who was older and had known Schaadt for years. “I think you should meet Bill,” he said. “Let’s go down to Monte Rio.”

While the movie recounts the rivalry between Schaadt and Ted Lindner, the real message is one of failure – the collapse of some of the richest fisheries in the world.

A couple years ago, word got out that people were catching steelhead on the Trinity again, and soon the turnouts were so clogged with angler’s cars that many couldn’t find a place to park.

That so many anglers would react to the presence of fish that way speaks volumes about the current state of our fisheries; when confronted by even a small fraction of their former abundance, our rivers are considered recovered.

They aren’t.

In truth, it’s our perceptions that are damaged – skewed by years of fly fishing unhealthy rivers for the small handfuls of steelhead and salmon that remain.

Rivers of a Lost Coast will likely correct those impressions while introducing us to the original “extreme” fly fisherman.

See you at the movies, Tom Chandler.

p.s. – to see video clips from the movie or listen to audio, click here. To see a list of showings, click here.

Though I had to cut and run from work on Monday to fish the Rogue with Dave Roberts, I rationalized the escape thusly: I wanted to.

Dave Roberts bravely testing wading boots for the Undergrounders.

It’s not the kind of thing that makes clients happy, but as everyone knows (at least after reading this), an under-recreated writer is a boring writer, and at some point, you’ve gotta fly fish.

For those looking for big fish stories, I’ll be blunt: stop reading here.

Though Dave Roberts knows the Upper Rogue like the rest of us know our living rooms, this was not a hard-charging, balls-to-the-wall, extreme fishing adventure.

Instead, we more or less doodled along the river, fishing for steelhead (one of which bit a streamer, but came unbuttoned after a couple seconds). We also landed a pair of 11″ trout who apparently didn’t know w you’re not allowed to fish for trout on the Rogue right now, which suggests the trout have yet to invent their own version of Twitter.

Looks pretty and scenic from the shore - until you realize your ride to the ramp is leaving.

The Testing Continues

We did manage to further the world’s scientifically derived knowledge about a pair of the next-generation rubber-soled wading boots, testing the newly arrived Simms wading boots against the previously reviewed Patagonias.

The Rogue is positively filled with green snot-covered rocks the size of your average loaf of bread, making it an ideal testing ground for rubber soled-boots.

Slimy enough? Our testing grounds...

On two separate runs, Roberts and I got out and tromped around, then swapped boots and did it again. (The rocks were slimy enough that a fair amount of detached green stuff floated downstream when we waded.)

While more testing is needed (preferably on some remote BC steelhead river, though budgetary concerns suggest the Upper Sac will have to do), we both came to the rather surprising conclusion that these things worked pretty damned well in a situation where we didn’t expect they would.

The work is hard, but no sacrifice is too great for my readers.

It’s possible the Simms’ more aggressive tread pattern gave it a slight edge in the “greasy bowling ball” portion of the test, though we’ve yet to test the Simms boots in varied Upper Sacramento or small stream conditions (coming soon).

At this point, I’d have no qualms about using either boot on the Rogue. And Roberts – who admitted to reading my reports on Patagonia’s boots with some skepticism – was ready to buy either pair, though the Simms fit him best (the Patagonias felt more comfy to me, telling us what we already know – different shoes fit different feet… differently).

More Testing

Plenty more to come from the Underground; I also concluded testing on the Redington 6wt rod & reel combo, and I’ve added it to the “write this” pile (which has grown pretty sizable).

Several DVDs are waiting for reviews, and yes, there’s always the chance for another fishing report.

Hookset, in progress.

See you slaving away, Tom Chandler.

Then Moldy Chum posted 61 photographs of a big steelie being manhandled, taped, and generally beat to hell before release (it ended up on the cover of Fly Fishermen magazine). With its chances of survival about as remote as your chances of inheriting $23 million from a Nigerian Prince, we’re forced ask the obvious question:

What the hell?

Perhaps the world’s steelhead fishermen should to take a lesson from our own glow-in-the-dark Singlebarbed:

A couple dozen large Pikeminnow and the occasional smallmouth were browsing in deep water – and without any vegetation available to hold insects, and with the catastrophic upheaval of the runoff, I guessed these might be hungry and desperate fish.

I had a fistful of the “Ellis Island” reject flies I needed to expend and plopped an Olive unknown into the water above them. With a 4mm bead and 25 turns of fuse wire there was a corresponding mushroom cloud and crater in the river bottom – and most of the fish scattered.

I gave it a quick tug to free the fly and all hell broke loose, some silver flash comes out of the water and does its best Salmonid imitation, screams off downstream and returns to sulk.

I’m long past caring what it is – and from its profile it appears to be a trophy Pikeminnow – but thick and fat like a bass, not skinny and cylindrical like usual.

It’s laying in the slack water at the bank, and I realize it’s the new IGFA world record for Sacramento Pikeminnow. The old version was merely 6.25 pounds – and “Mr. Chunk Monster”, the genetically blessed fatty was likely to tip them scales closer to seven.

Did our heavy-metals-rich friend rush to the nearest certified scales to claim his spot in the record books – and the adulation sure to follow?

Hell no. (That’s why we like him. Well, that and the fact he’s usually good to bum flies off.)

Our take? They’re fish, for godssakes – not magical beings capable of validating our sorry, quietly desperate existences.

See you on the river, Tom Chandler.

fly fishing, steelhead, fly fishing for steelhead, world record fish, pikeminnow

The original group of old- time California Steelhead fly fishing addicts are having a gathering on April 11th to pay homage to our departed friends who made our sport including greats like: Bill Schaadt, Bob Nauheim, Mel Krieger, Mike Fong, Grant King, Myron Gregory, John”Buddy”Tarantino, Andre Puyans, Gary Rowen, Kay Mitsuyochi, and many others. Lani Waller will do a steelhead presentation and Russell Chatham will provide, “A Look Back.”

The program will kick roughly off with a 4:00 p.m. bar opening and hors d’oeuvres, a display of vintage steelhead memorabilia from bygone eras, a 6:00 p.m. Lani Waller presentation, and dinner which will followed by filmmakers Justin Coupe and Palmer Taylor discussing and showing short clips from the great movie about our buddies, “Rivers of the Lost Coast.”  The evening will conclude with a salute and farewell to the Immortals, and a Good Night & Good Luck.

Frank Bertainia is one of the organizers and advises this event will be also be the kick off of the new “Russian River Wild Steelhead Society.” Frank says that one of the main purposes of the group will be to save the  remnant runs of Russian River Steelhead and that they are already discussing the possibility of establishing a Russian River Fly Fishing Museum. Think about possible donations.

The Saturday night event starts at 4:00 p.m. and the $35 per person admission includes dinner. Join us at Russian River Sportsman Club, 25150 Steelhead Boulevard, Duncans Mills, CA 95430 (707) 865-9429 (off Moscow Rd which is off Hwy-116).

If you’re coming, please make sure to RSVP in advance, so that adequate facilities and food can be provided. Call either: Frank Bertania at (707) 573-0759, or Steve Jackson of King’s Sport & Tackle in Guerneville (707) 869-2156. Frank suggests that if you’re staying over, and many are, you might try the Northwood Lodge, 4 miles down river www.northwood-lodge.com (877)-865-1665 or (707) 865-1655 in Monte Rio. However, speak to Frank first, because he’s trying to get a “rate.” There are others as well.

This is not a fund raiser, no raffle, or auctions. This is a celebration of another steelhead season, some of it’s history and about some of those anglers that helped in shaping it’s legacy. There will be a discussion about the wild steelhead habitat restoration of Willow, Freezeout, Austin, and Dutch Bill Creeks and consideration of a low water juvenile rescue plan to help with escapement and enhancement of our wild fish stocks in the lower tidewater section of the Russian River.

Skitt fiske
Marty Seldon

fly fishing, fishing, rivers of the lost coast, bill shaadt, steelhead, fly fishing for steelhead, california fly fishermen

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“A small and self-serving group with guidance from the BC Ministry of the Environment is trying to drive a wedge in the long, happy and mutually advantageous alliance between the good people of the Skeena Valley and the traveling anglers from around the world who have treasured this resource and taken its side when it has been threatened.”

-Thomas McGuane

Fly Rod & Reel just posted a doozie of a story about the drive to largely eliminate non-resident angler access to some of British Columbia’s best steelhead rivers, and writer Seth Norman asked me to give the problem a little ink. Why?

Non-resident anglers (that’s most of us) are not only being shut out of the fisheries (and the process), but Norman believes there’s an ulterior motive here.

After all, what group benefits when you drive a wedge between wealthy foreign anglers (NRAs for the purposes of this story) and local guides, thereby bankrupting those who have a stake in maintaining healthy fisheries?

Any guesses from the Undergrounders?

Answer: the resource extraction folks (mining and energy companies), who suddenly won’t have foreign fishermen bankrolling fights to protect resources – something that’s happened in BC several times, including a recent victory to keep Shell from developing coal-methane beds.

Whew. Sound a little far fetched? It did to me – until I read Norman’s piece, where he makes a convincing case (if not for conspiracy, then for unmitigated incompetence).

First, here’s the backstory:

Hundreds of Canadian businesses with thousands of employees will be crippled or bankrupt if the British Columbia Ministry of Environment (MoE) passes proposed regulations to limit or ban non-resident steelheaders on the Skeena River and its tributaries: Kispiox, Bulkey, Babine, Morice, Skawala; also the Zymoetz (Copper).

Frightened stakeholders in the area estimate damage to the local economy at between $35 and $50 million per year, and losses to local property values in the hundreds of millions.

“What could be so bad,” you say? Here’s a taste of the restrictions out-of-area anglers will face should they invest thousands traveling to the area (hint: they won’t):

Non-Resident Alien anglers (NRAs) shall be:

• Banned from one or more resident-only waters
• Banned altogether from fishing two “premier,” Class 2 rivers, unless fishing with select BC guides
• Banned from fishing other premier rivers on Saturdays, or both week-end days
• Required, unless fishing with select BC guides, to apply in advance for lottery tickets that would permit winners to purchase licenses for one eight day period, valid on (the only) river they may fish at this time, regardless of conditions
• Banned from fishing property they own on premier rivers unless accompanied by a select BC guide, or in possession of a winning lottery ticket with the eight-day and other restrictions described above

You read it right – even non-resident property owners couldn’t fish the rivers on their property unless accompanied by the “right” BC guide.

These draconian restrictions aren’t designed to protect the fishery or even to milk non-resident anglers to the benefit of the local economy. Instead:

“They will bankrupt us,” declares a Skeena lodge owner, anonymous here for fear of retaliation. “That’s why they kept us off the ‘Working Committees’ that came up with these options using the MoE ‘toolbox.’ That’s why the committees kept everything secret, until somebody leaked the draft just before the end. Nobody will travel thousands of miles and spend thousands of dollars to put up with rules like these…We’ll go bankrupt and the Ministry knows it.”

At its best, the process behind the development of the rules is corrupt. At its worst, it’s a process designed to deliver a pre-determined outcome – an outcome that Norman believes has more to do with frustrated resource extraction companies than moronic resource management groups.

To whit:

“There is another: that the allies here—NRA steelheaders, and steelhead-dependent Canadian businesses—are not merely victims of a flawed MoE process, but the targets.

The same stakeholders facing devastation actively supported First Nation and Canadian conservationists in a (so far) successful fight against putting fish farms on the Skeena. They fought again, helping conservationists and First Nation protesters stop (so far) Royal Dutch Shell’s coal-bed methane exploration in that river’s Sacred Headwaters.

NRAs contributed—politically and through donations to these, especially to the campaign that stopped Shell in 2006—the year MoE re-opened the dormant AMP process.

The same allies questioned and may oppose construction of a $4.5 billion segment of pipeline through the area, a project of the American giant Enbridge, Inc. In 2006, Enbridge temporarily abandoned this effort. On November 4, 2008, Enbridge set up two new Skeena-area offices.”

When gross incompetence or extractive-industry funded conspiracy are your two best choices, then it’s clear one of the world’s best steelhead fisheries might be circling the bowl.

What to do?

First, read Norman’s story here.

Then, my strategy is simple – contact the players (names & email addresses at end of story), though whatever you do, don’t send abusive emails to anyone. That, my friends – if Seth Norman’s worst fears are true – is precisely what the bad guys want:

“At every turn of this investigation, I found misleading declarations that it was mainly NRAs—by implication, angry, ugly Americans in particular–who object to the changes in regs that will devastate Canadian businesses.”

Instead, make it clear that the financial implications of the proposed rules are significant – that you and your friends would never invest your dollars in the BC economy under those rules, a fact which would likely doom the local steelhead-related outdoor industry to bankruptcy.

Don’t question anyone’s intelligence or their parentage, just firmly ask that they reconsider – and also ask why so many stakeholders were shut out of the rule-making process.

I believe Norman might be writing a “Part II” followup, and we’ll keep an eye on this one for you.

UPDATE: The Way Upstream blog published an excellent post about this in November, and a couple of the comments below the story are excellent.

Honourable Gordon Campbell, Premier
premier@gov.bc.ca
Phone:250 387-1715; Fax:250 387-0087
PO Box 9041
STN PROV GOVT
Victoria BC

Honourable Barry Penner, Minister of Environment and Minister responsible for Water Stewardship and Sustainable Communities
Env.minister@gov.bc.ca
Phone: 250 387-1187 Fax: 250 387-1356
PO Box 9047
STN PROV GOVT
Victoria BC
V8W 9E2

Honourable Bill Bennett, Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts
TCA.Minister@gov.bc.ca
Phone: 250 953-4246; Fax: 250 953-4250
PO Box 9071
STN PROV GOVT
Victoria BC
V8W 9E9

The bullet points? They’re not pretty:

• If present trends continue, 65% of native salmon, steelhead, and trout species will be extinct within 100 years or sooner.
• Sixty-five percent of the species headed towards extinction are found only in California
• Of the state’s 22 anadromous fish species (which spawn in freshwater and live most of their adult lives in the ocean), 59% are in danger of extinction
• Of the state’s nine living native inland fish, 78% are in danger of extinction

Click image to download a copy of: SOS: California's Native Fish Crisis

Here’s the lead from the Press Release:

San Francisco, CA – Fish and watershed advocacy group California Trout today released the first-ever comprehensive report chronicling the status of each of California’s native fish species (salmon, steelhead, and trout). SOS: California’s Native Fish Crisis was written and researched by Dr. Peter Moyle, UC Davis professor and renowned expert on California’s water systems and the fish that inhabit them.

In truth, the news isn’t that surprising; many of the region-specific trout sub-species are relegated to tiny redoubts and hybridizing with introduced populations, and the over-allocation of California’s water resources is severely stressing salmon, steelhead populations.

CalTrout notes fishing is a $2 Billion industry in California, and the Trout Underground would like to note that the fishing part of the state’s economy could be sustainable (largely “free”) – given a modicum of clean, cold water and a little attention.

The find out more (and find links to the report, which features the attractive cover shown above), simply click on the link: “SOS: California’s Native Fish Crisis”

To read the report itself, click here.

See you reading, Tom Chandler.

Those with a finely tuned sense of irony will find the irrigator’s argument especially amusing:

In the second case, a group of Central Valley irrigators argued that ocean-going Central Valley steelhead population should be removed from the endangered species list based on their opinion that freshwater resident rainbow trout might someday replace extinct steelhead populations.

That’s right, Undegrounders – steelhead and rainbow trout are essentialy the same, at least if you’re an irrigator bent on squeezing even more water from your own heavily subsidized government teat.

I haven’t yet found out if Favorite Underground Whipping Boys Westlands Irrigation District were part of the suit, though we’ll keep looking.

The judge also dealt a setback to the Pacific Legal Foundation, who doesn’t see any difference between hatchery steelhead and the real thing:

In the first case, anti-environment group Pacific Legal Foundation, which represents loggers and water users, argued that the National Marine Fisheries Service must make Endangered Species Act ( ESA ) listing decisions based simply on the numbers of hatchery steelhead produced each year. PLF asked the court to remove five separate populations of steelhead from the list of endangered species based on the presence of hatchery fish.

To the Pacific Legal Foundation, the Underground and the World’s Steelhead Huggers offer this Compelling Closing Argument: Bite Us Hard.

See you in court, Tom Chandler.

pacific legal foundation, esa, steelhead, california steelhead, central valley irrigators

Too complicated for you?

Here it is in Reader’s Digest form: though damned few SoCall Steelheed remain (numbers like 500 keep getting tossed about), the people who are supposed to be doing something about it… aren’t <shocked gasp>:

Saticoy, Calif. – Conservation and advocacy group California Trout today filed a 60-Day Notice of Intent to Sue (NOI) United Water Conservation District (United) and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Bureau) for violations of the Endangered Species Act. The NOI asserts that United and the Bureau are causing ongoing harm, harassment and death to the endangered Southern California steelhead at the Vern Freeman Diversion Dam.

It follows the July release of a Biological Opinion by the National Marine Fisheries Service that outlines the ways that the Freeman Diversion jeopardizes steelhead and the remedies to ensure the species’ survival. The NOI focuses on the lack of action by United and the Bureau of Reclamation to implement the actions specified in the opinion for protection of the steelhead.

“It is never our first choice to file a law suit,” said Nica K. Knite, Southern California Regional Manager for California Trout. “But our first concern is for the few remaining Southern California steelhead, and both United and the Bureau seem committed to business as usual at Vern Freeman without regard to the NMFS findings and no matter what the cost to the fish.”

See you in court, Tom Chandler.

caltrout, lawsuit, steelhead, vern freeman diversion dam

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So when the Online Dating Task Force at Trout Underground/Man Cave World Headquarters dreams up a surefire winner like Catch.com — a dating service reserved exclusively for fly fishers — we’re not shy about saying it’s sheer genius, baby.

Genius.

And hell, that’s just the tip of the fly rod.

Kissing too many carp in your search for a prince? (Torvald Lekvam photo)

We’re also tooling up Catch&Release.com — a dating service for those unwilling (or unable) to make a lasting commitment.

We’re even idly considering IPrettyMuchHateYou.com — the dating service for resentful trout bums and most steelheaders.

Is This Good, Or What?

If you’ve read this far (and who wouldn’t), you realize we’re not the kind of fly fishers who waste energy brainstorming more realistic anal gills on midge patterns.

No sir. We’re Big Picture types — hard at work improving our wealth position the lot of the single or divorced fly fisher (which seems to be most of them).

And we need your help to do it.

This Is The Audience Participation Part

Clearly, the Underground’s not suffering from a shortage of high-powered intellects, but here at Man Cave Headquarters, we’re largely unwilling to get our hands dirty doing actual work.

So we want the Undergrounders to do it for us.

What do we need? Marketing, baby. We need advertising slogans and headlines.

So far, we’ve come up with improved versions of those mind-numbing Match.com ads, where the happy couple gaze into each other’s eyes and say sappy things.

We figure we’d just rip them off (hell, they look pretty cheap to produce), and so far, we’ve got:

“The second she got her hands on my Trout, I knew she was the one for me.”

“Once he showed me pictures of his great, big Steelhead, I fell in love on the spot.”

“When I saw him expertly gut and clean that stockie, I was basically afraid to say no.”

Genius all, but we need more, and we’re willing to give away yet another copy of Patrick McManus’ new outdoor humor book to get it.

Yes, it’s another valuable prize from the Underground!

Got a killer headline? A better concept? An idea so good, you’ll risk public humiliation to publish it?

If so, fire away, Undergrounders. We’ll give it a week or so, at which time we’ll let Wally the Wonderdog pick a winner (we print the entries, place them on the floor with treats on them, and see which he eats first).

Clearly, the fate of fly fishing’s huddled masses of single people now lies with you. We know you’ll give it the respect it deserves.

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