5 Things...

Five things I love about fishing in the fall...

1. A river full of salmon. I know their days are numbered but there is a whole “circle of life” Lion King feel to the process.
   
2. The drive to the Sheboygan. Quality time in the car, good CDs, often company for conversation, and most of all the anticipation of a day of fishing.
   
3. Battling the elements. Deep down, steelhead and salmon fishermen love the fact that they sometimes have to shake the ice off the guides, fight some rain, and freeze their ass in the pursuit of their “biggest fish of the year”. I mean really, anyone can go out on a nice summer day - this takes some "want to".
   
4. Steelhead hopes. Swinging a streamer through a good looking hole or run - nuff said.
   
5. Playing hooky from work. Well heck, who wants to battle a weekend crowd?

Speaking of steelhead fishing, check out the nice video from livingstondaily.com on late season fishing on the Pere Marquette. Naturally the hard working Marshall Cutchin at MidCurrent beat me to the punch. In keeping with the theme, the video below is from Patagonia (2007); the Great Lakes Steelhead Chronicles. Jerry Darkes provides an overview of the developing fishery for this great fish through the eyes of local (Michigan) fly fishing guides and outfitters.

Final thought: show your colors and support a cause!

Support wild steelhead with a T-shirt purchase from Patagonia. $5.00 from every purchase goes to support wild steelhead populations as part of Patagonia's World Trout® program.

Salmon Dreams

I could not wait to put out a little Trout Buddha good karma for Bill Carter's Red Summer. This wonderful book was one of my best reads of the summer. Carter brings you into the amazing, back breaking world of set net salmon fishing in Alaska's Bristol Bay in the tiny village of Egegik. The book reads like an adventure novel. He gives insight into the brutal conditions that are endured in order to put salmon into the markets of the lower 48. The isolation of the remote village, the alcoholism, the economic difficulties, make for a ramshackle houses, all a character in the story that revolves around the amazing resilience of the salmon that choke the rivers as they follow their genetic destiny. This is not a book just for fisherman; it is for anyone enamoured with the outdoors, adventure, and an great writing.

Political Action: Save Our Wild Salmon

Save Our Wild Salmon is a nationwide coalition of conservation organizations, river groups, fishing associations, businesses, and taxpayer and clean energy advocates working collectively to restore abundant, sustainable wild salmon to the rivers, streams and oceans of the Western salmon states. Check out their web-site and see how you can help keep rivers wild and wild salmon abundant.