I had a great trip out to the Denver area a few weeks ago to hang out with one of my buddies and do a bit of snowriding and flyfishing. We had a beautiful day up at A-basin and a couple of nice days on the river even if it was freakin cold with no hatches coming off. Nymphing is definitely the way to go out there this time of year.
I just returned from a great trip to Colorado (more later) doing a little snowboarding and fly fishing. Since arriving back in town last night I can't think of anything but summer... which sucks because it's 50 degrees, rainy and blowing like stink here in Seattle today. Can't wait for summer time, Duck Dodge, wakeboarding and casting Royal Coachmen to hungry rainbows like this guy...
Date: Saturday, March 27, 2010
Time: 9:30 AM – 3:00PM
Location: Western Fisheries Research Center, Seattle, WA
Hosted by the Steelhead Summit Alliance in conjunction with the Wild Steelhead Coalition and the Wild Fish Conservancy.
The Steelhead Summit is a regular gathering of concerned anglers and other citizens meeting to discuss current issues facing steelhead throughout their range in the Pacific NW and California. Jointly these steelhead advocates make up the Steelhead Summit Alliance which works together for the protection and restoration of native, wild steelhead.
This Summit is an emergency meeting designed to investigate the IHNv disease that has invaded our steelhead fisheries, most recently on the Olympic Peninsula. This disease has been found in both the Bogachiel Hatchery and the wild stocks in the Sol Duc River. The disease is moving throughout our rivers and estuaries and has the fast potential of not only significantly damaging our important coastal wild fish, but also spreading into Puget Sound.
We are hosting a daylong session to meet with scientists who will educate us on this issue, including Gael Kurath (Western Fisheries Research Center), John Kerwin (WDFW), Ray Brunson (US Fish & Wildlife Service) and Jim Winton (Western Fisheries Research Center). Jim has offered to be our host and we will meet at his lab in Seattle. The address is: 6505 NE 65th St. and is at the junction of Sandpoint Way near the University District.
For more information contact Marianne Mitchell, Steelhead Summit Alliance Chair, heritagesea@aol.com, (206) 669-6263.
My buddy Eric left the islands off La Paz, Mexico yesterday on a singlehanded crossing to the South Pacific aboard his Cal 33 SECRET AGENT MAN. The video above is from the Vic Maui race a few years ago on the Santa Cruz 52 VOODOO CHILD. He's the guy in the companionway brushing his teeth as we surf down huge waves at speeds in the mid teens. I'm on the left grinding the kite. The Cal is a very different boat. It's about 2800 miles in a straight line to the Marquesas Islands where he'll make his first landfall - and anyone who has done an ocean cross knows that you never sail in a straight line! If we say 150 miles is a banner day in that boat (which it is - that's a 6.25 knot average!), that's an 18 day trip. The reality is that it could take a month - give or take - depending on weather conditions. Being in a small boat with limited diesel and water capacity, he's got some interesting problems to confront with the doldrums to cross and only a day or so of motoring capability - and he needs to retain some fuel for charging batteries to run the GPS, electronics, running lights, radios, etc! As you can guess, weather routing becomes a prime concern! He has a single sideband radio with a fancy "Pactor" modem turns the digital signal to analog and allows him to send and receive short email messages and weather reports. He's got a shore crew who will update his blog with these emails. The link is on the list to the right of this post, or you can click here. Below is his post from Saturday evening just before departure. Good luck Rone and catch some fish!
Hey guys,
I am in El Cardonal, and am just about to go to bed. I am going to leave tomorrow. I have been really tired doing boat work the last two days. The scope of the voyage made me really want to do a bunch of things that were coming up on the list before being at sea. Cleaning the bottom down here sucks. You get hundreds of baby barnacles all over you, in your hair and ears. But I got the bottom really clean. I checked the rig, and did full maintenance on the engine, including bleeding the fuel system which I learned how to do today. I also put the check valve in the bilge hose which I wish I had done a long time ago because I can now leave the float switch on all the time. Lots more but I have to keep it short. I joined the pacific seafarers net which is a ham net and why I got my license. The propagation is brilliant right now and I am talking to people all over the world on these frequencies... including people with stations in Washington state like we were on the telephone. You guys should get a station at your house it is a really good spot.
Skytruth (http://www.skytruth.org/), an organization that uses aerial images to convey impacts of human activities on our planet has put together a map showing the latest plans for the Northern Dynasty Pebble Mine superimposed over the city of Seattle. How is that for a sense of scale? See their comments below:
Revised footprint of the proposed Pebble open pit copper/gold mine superimposed on the city of Seattle for scale. Mine plan is based on permit applications and public statements by Northern Dynasty Minerals predicting that a total resource of 10.78 billion tons of ore is economically recoverable. That resource would generate a total volume of waste material of at least 13.5 billion cubic yards, based on the average tailings density calculated from the permit applications. We've predicted the additional tailings impoundments that would be required to store the additional waste. The other option for tailings disposal, suggested by NDM in their permit applications, is to dump the tailings in Lake Iliamna.
6 Good Reads
-
This six-pack of goodness covers all sorts of topics and well worth a few
click throughs. Fun to see that Matt Dunn took my suggestion on reading
his stor...
Simms Fishing Products
-
Simms fishing gear was founded in 1980 by visionary angler John Simms.
John at the time was a fishing guide and outfitter in Jackson, Wyoming.
John used h...
Shoshone River Sediment Spill
-
With all of the talk about dam removal in the northwest, much is centered
on the barriers they create to anadromous fish, but they pose other
problems as...
