When it comes to species protection these days, it's much better to be an asphalt manufacturer than a fish.

In a thinly veiled effort to aid timber, real estate, and power interests, Washington has decided that hatchery-raised salmon shall be included in the counts for determining whether 15 species of salmon should be removed from protection as endangered or threatened. Thanks to Phil Monahan, Editor of American Angler magazine, who sent me the press release he received yesterday from the House Committee on Resources outllining the new "rationale.' It announces the concretization (pun intended) of administration direction we outlined in previous stories on the subject over the past year.

At the same time, the Bush administration issued new guidance on critical habitat, instructing field offices not to designate critical habitat if other conservation steps are already in place.

From the administration's perspective, this is all very good stewardship. According to Bob Lohn, regional administrator of NOAA-Fisheries, the federal agency that oversees salmon, "Properly run, hatcheries can become a kind of extension of natural habitat." If I read this logic correctly, as long as we have facilities to properly manufacture new "genetically similar" panthers, gray whales, manatees, and peregrine falcons, whether they have a place to live is less relevant. And a concrete slough is as good a place to grow up as a wild river.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's telling that the headline of this ArtToday article is "Grandson of Gottardo Piazzoni At Chatham Gallery." Gottardo Piazzoni was a great landscape painter and the grandfather of Russell Chatham.

The ArtToday piece delivers the most detailed biography of Russell Chatham I've seen. Though a bit dated, it gives a sense of the breadth of the man's talents, from landscape painting to selling fine food to writing. The article doesn't mention Mr. Chatham's obsession with fly fishing, but it does list his three great books on the subject: The Angler's Coast, Silent Seasons, and Dark Waters.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mas Okui accepted his first fishing gear from the military police guarding the Manzanar War Relocation Center, an infamous California detention camp for Japanese-Americans during World War II. He also caught his first trout there (Bair's Creek ran through it) and evolved into an expert fly fisher with a self-taught and highly effective technique -- large loops well-mended, and long leaders. According to an article by Bill Becher in today's Los Angeles Daily News, Mr. Okui's accomplished and effective style has earned him the title "Master of Hot Creek."

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

In part three of ESPN's series on fly tying, Lynn Burkhead describes how to tie the elk-hair caddis, pheasant tail nymph, and Clouser minnow.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It looks like this year -- like the past six -- is shaping up to be another low-water year in Montana. In this Bozeman Daily Chronicle article, Kayley Mendenhall discusses the outlook with John Bailey and Mike Blanck, who pretty much echo what the Christian Science Monitor reported yesterday.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The fact that in common usage we use 'technicolor' to describe an ultimate visual experience says a lot about how we value the impact of human culture on the environment. Apparently it satisfies even the most hardened naturists (and I use that term advisedly) like Peter Mathiesen, author of the classic 1959 book Wildlife in America (read it if you haven't). In 1963, Glen Canyon, in Arizona, was dammed to produce the 260-square-mile Lake Powell -- a tragedy in the minds of many who had enjoyed the raw majesty of the landscape there. But as Bob Marshall writes in this month's Field & Stream, the result has included a tailwater fishery -- Lees Ferry -- that rivals any in the country.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

At least it is in the opinion of Jack Gartside and other anglers who haven't let wading among unmentionables deter them from great fishing. Monte Burke writes in Field & Stream about how Boston's water has gotten cleaner and cleaner and turned into a fish magnet, like many other urban locales, including Atlanta, New Orleans, Detroit and Washington, D.C.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Montana's Fish Wildlife and Parks Web site has a neat new tool that gives suggestions for fishing spots in Montana, along with detailed topographic maps and information. I'll admit to being a bit of a map nut, but I think this is the kind of innovative use of Web technology that all states would benefit from using to promote their resources. (Thanks to reader Doug Haacke for providing this link.)

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 4:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Jim Darnell of the San Marcos Daily Record writes about the beauty of Perdenales Falls in the Texas hill country and mentions the opportunities to fly fish for Guadalupe bass and bream.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 8:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Hurteau describes an event that he will never live down in this month's Field & Stream.

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It's easy to forget the role fly fishing for bass played in the development of fly fishing in the U.S. Dr. James Henshall, considered the "Dean of American Bass Fishing" in the 1870s, was also the first to claim catching a tarpon on a fly rod, using a Vom Hoffe reel, a cane rod, and an Atlantic Salmon fly.

This article by Eric Sharpe recounts both Henshall's and Edson Leonard's role in shaping the sport of fly fishing for bass and discusses opportunity for warm-water fly fishers in Michigan . (Thanks to readers Sid Wales for reminding me of the Henshall-tarpon connection.)

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Perry Backus of The Montana Standard offers this brief profile of Stephanie Dueck, a rod blank roller for the R.L. Winston Rod Company of Twin Bridges, Montana. Ms. Dueck plans to take to her feet in protest of the rod manufacturer's intentions to outsource one of its lines to China. (Thanks to Zach Matthews for this link.)

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing has released A Good Day's Fishing by James Prosek. You can watch an interview with Mr. Prosek (if you have the Real Player plugin installed) here. The author says the book is "about a kid who goes out and discovers the things in a tackle box, all the colorful lures." Of course Mr. Prosek is the author and illustrator of several other fly fishing works for non-kids, all of them listed here on his Web site.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

According to the Associated Press, at least 100 local landowners have filed suit against the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks and Monsanto corporation in reaction to the continuing discovery of PCB contamination of Big Creek in Lewiston, Montana.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Montana's Big Spring Creek, which flows through Lewiston, has been polluted by an unlikely source: the Big Spring Trout Hatchery. Flowing out of the Snowy Mountains with more than 90 million gallons a day, Big Spring Creek is a favorite of locals and premiere destination for traveling anglers. According to Karen Ogden in the Great Falls Tribune, "Just below the hatchery, samples of brown trout showed PCBs at 46 times the safe consumption limit."

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 5:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Gotta love it when a plan comes together. Technicians with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries have already found shad preparing to spawn above the location of the breached Embrey Dam on the Rappahannock River in Virginia. Rusty Dennen in the Fredericksburg, Virginia Free Lance-Star.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

According to Sherry Devlin of the Missoula, Montana Missoulian, an analysis of the potential benefits of bull trout recovery, done for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was re-edited in Washington to include only the costs of protecting the fish. According to the reporter, Diane Katzenberger, an information officer in the Fish and Wildlife Service's Denver office, said that "The removal was a policy decision made at the Washington level." The report had touted several benefits of bull trout protection, including reduced drinking water costs, irrigation and in-stream flow benefits.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As many freshwater anglers already know, a huge 17-year cicada brood will be emerging in May or June of this year in the eastern half of the United States. As noted in this USA Today piece by Anita Manning, the last time this brood was seen "Ronald Reagan was president, Three Men and a Baby ruled at the box office and the Twins won their first World Series." Be very, very careful with your weed-wacker.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

At the bottom of this piece about the revival of Arapahoe, Nebraska's Isaak Walton League ("the fastest growing in the nation") is an interesting history of the League, derived in part from William Voight Jr.'s 1992 book "Born with Fists Doubled: Defending Outdoor America, The Izaak Walton League." The original charter of the 1922 founders, according to Voight, was to "go forth and smite the living daylights out of the polluters and the dynamiters and all other miscreants demeaning and diminishing the peerless sport they embraced and which had come to such dire straits."

For more info on the Isaak Walton League, visit their Web site.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A pilgrimage to Roscoe, New York still weighs in the minds of some as more than pleasant duty. As one resident (Joan Wulff) says in this New York Times piece by James Prosek, "You see what tradition provides for people; it's like an anchor."

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A. J. Bonavist's remembrance of last July gives us a preview of the challenges of low water and spooky trout. It reminds me that fly changing, though the first thing that comes to mind when fish are difficult, is rarely good medicine for difficult fly fishing. In Gray's Sporting Journal.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 1:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The last of three days in Key West started out as well as it could for tarpon angling -- 5-knot SW wind and slightly overcast, keeping the oxygen levels low for the first couple of hours of the morning. We left the dock at 7AM and headed east again to the Pickle Barrel. The fish behaved much differently than the day previous: they had moved about 200 yards north and were highly agitated, perhaps because of the presence of sharks. We didn't get a response from any rollers out on the flat, but David D. finally got an eat from a fish rolling in one of the finger channels. Unfortunately the fish fell off. We fished the Barrel for another couple of hours until the sun got up a bit and we could begin seeing laid up fish. It was David's first peek at what a true laid-up tarpon looked like, and he seemed to like it. After a couple of dozen casts he got one of those imperceptible eats ("like trout white-mouthing a nymph," he said), but didn't come tight.

From there we ran over to Peanut Butter Bank and found a few fish, but the water proved eponymously murky and we couldn't see into the water well enough to get on the fish.

I decided we'd better run west and catch the last of the incoming on near the northwest channel, but we stopped at the Swimming Hole on the way and cast fruitlessly at the dozens of individual fish cruising through that vast area; but without light we were really wasting our time.

We continued west and pulled in at the south end of Lost Key, where we found fish again rolling in dirty water. Then we tried to see if any fish were departing the Jewelry Store on the other side of the channel, but other than the hundreds of fish rolling in 40 feet of water didn't see any tarpon.

Finally we returned to the top of Lost Key and immediately began finding tarpon crossing the flat in a brilliant, deep afternoon light. David cast for a bit before Scott C. hooked and landed a nice 70-lb. fish that practically did a somersault trying to eat his fly, missed, then came back to make a vicious take about 15 feet from the boat. After that, Scott and David made me cast to several fish, but I couldn't make them eat.

We ended the day by doing a quick dredge on the outer edge, where David immediately hooked a 40-lb. fish that ran about 150 yds. before some toothy critter sliced his shock tippet in half. All in all a good way to end the trip.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 4:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Got a bit of a late start yesterday morning fishing with David D. and Scott C. and ran across the Northwest Channel in a nice, light southerly wind and great light. The wind was surprisingly cool, and I could see that the water temperature was still down, but we shut down at the bottom of Lost Key and I began poling north. Almost immediately 1 large school of tarpon started rolling down the flat toward us. David L. got in a decent cast or two, but the fish didn't eat; they were obviously on their way somewhere.

We ran through the Lakes and across Boca Grande channel, shutting down on the Easy Side of the Marquesas. Though the conditions were great, we saw only one tarpon roll and another small pod of fish on the bottom. I ran inside to look for fish, but it was empty. We then decided to permit fish and I poled some south side flats, but we got only two shots, one at a school of small fish, and then at a small single that we saw only when he was too close.

From there, I ran to the West side and was thinking of not stopping because of the light when Scott C. and I both saw some laid up tarpon as we were running. I shut and poled back to the fish, which were laid up on a long bar. We had a few shots before David hooked up and had a nice fish on until his shock tippet wore through. We ran from there to the northeast corner but found no fish and headed back across the channel. We ran east to Jewfish Basin and played with several small strings of tarpon but got no eats.

Today, we started early and ran back east to the Pickle Barrel, where David D. quickly launched a 120-lb. fish that was rolling in a small channel. He popped that fish off, but shortly thereafter he made a great cast to a laid-up fish that made several nice jumps before drifting back into a deep cut, where he fought pretty determinedly for about 30 minutes. David finally got him up to the boat -- a fish of about 100 lbs. -- and Scott C. cast a bit before we headed east to Asphyxiation. We saw only one fish roll there -- probably a resident fish -- and ran out to Nowhere, where we also saw one fish roll but where the water was really too dirty to fish.

We ran back west then again to catch a permit tide at the Toilet Bowl. David had 4 or 5 pretty good shots in a row. One fish tailed on the fly but didn't connect. We then ran to Stop Sign, but saw nothing, and then to Renee, where David poled me to a couple of pretty good permit shots. Between the spookiness of the fish and one flubbed cast, I never got the fly close enough to get even a tire kick.

We ended the day back at Lost Key, where there were lots of tarpon rolling in the channels, and a fair number of fish circulating onto the flat. Unfortunately, by the time the fish started to eat we had lost our light. David did have one fish try to eat his fly but miss.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I don't often take the time to recommend offline sources of news of interest to fly fishers, but the April issue of Field & Stream is as good a bit of reading as anything else I've come across in the last couple of months. Besides containing the complete (and expertly annotated) "50 Ways to Fool Spring Trout," there are a number of sidebars on topics as varied as trout vision, shad, and keeping your breathable fabrics breathable, as well as a fine piece on catching monster brook trout on Labrador's Kanairiktok River. And a great photo of Marty Reed's fly-festooned dashboard. Somehow they manage to make it all fresh, and it left me wishing "traditional" fly fishing periodicals would break out of the mold occasionally.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ed Dentry reviews Barry Reynolds's Mastering Pike on the Fly: Strategies and Techniques ($20, Johnson Books, Boulder). Besides being more fun to read, Dentry says, the book is a seminal work for fly fishers, the pike angler's equivalent of the landmark Swisher and Richards text Selective Trout, which changed the face of trout fishing in the early 1970s."

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Field & Stream has published this primer on Zihautenejo and Xtapa on Mexico's Pacific coast. It's a classic destination, well-accustomed to traveling anglers, and relatively cheap as great fisheries go.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ken Schultz and John Merwin talk up their picks for the "lightest, smoothest tackle available" in this month's Field & Stream. On the list: Bauer Mackenzie Z Series reels, Sage Xi2 rods, and the Albright EXS Quartz Fiber rods.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Remarkably, the bankruptcy of Pacific Gas and Electric Companywill result in California getting 140,000 acres of pristine mountain land that is owned by the utility along with a $100 million fund to maintain it. Some of this land borders the Pit, Feather, Yuba and American rivers and other parts include blue-ribbon fly-fishing streams like Hat Creek. Paul McHugh on SFGate.com.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The folks who developed the broadcast enhancement that lays a first down line on the football field at the location of the first down marker have produced a fly fishing game that is quite entertaining. You can download a demo version or purchase the whole game here. The physical modeling of casting and line management dynamics by the FlySim team is quite well done. You can also select your flies and tippets to match the hatches at the destination waters.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)