Abundance, past and future

Flow Staters:

A special fishery was called this week on the Sandy River, Wednesday, from noon to seven p.m., for eulachon smelt, a small, oily fish that commutes in droves once a year up from the ocean to spawn. Previously so steeply in decline they warranted Endangered Species Act listing, in the last several years the population has rebounded such that a dip net fishery, one of the few in the state, has been allowed.

Last year it was bananas with fish, and it was an early release day at school on Wednesday, so we went over to see what we could dip. Sadly, both schools had an early release, and the smelt were already upstream. And all hundred or so of us smelters were disappointed.

I was reminded of a few things by the running, and the disappointment. I'm currently reading Peter Matthiessen's Men's Lives, a chronicle of the last of the net fisherman on Long Island, and their fight to maintain a lifestyle outside of the industrial machine, facing cycles of abundance and scarcity and the long odds of positive outcomes across generations. Yet they persisted, entire clans of "Bonacker Poseys" that had been farming and fishing on the island for over 400 years.

And I was reminded of my uncle Michael, who was visiting us in Oregon during a previous smelt run. Like his father before him, Michael is suffering from Alzheimer's, but he was telling me about the smelt he used to catch in Alpena, dipping at night off the Second Avenue Bridge. They could come in from Lake Huron via Thunder Bay. They’re gone now, predated by the steelhead and salmon introduced into the lakes. I'll let him take it from here:

We’d go up on the bridge, and dip for 'em. We’d fill a 55-gallon drum. One year there weren't any, so we caught a bunch of suckers instead. I went home at 2am, and saw my neighbor Andy had his light on, and I thought he might be up doing something. So I says, "Hey, are you up?" And he says "Yeah, I’m up."

I knew he was going to go sucker fishing the day after. "I got a bunch of suckers here if you want 'em," I says, and he says "OK, wait just a minute." And he goes back to where his wife's sleeping and says "Gladys, you can sleep in an extra half-hour tomorrow, Mike came with some suckers."

Leaders ➰

Ten fishy links to start your week on the fly side of life

A Graceful Rise

The American Museum of Fly Fishing published a great series of profiles of female anglers of yesterday, today, and tomorrow in honor of International Women's Day. My favorite, who's sadly not listed? Georgina Ballantine, who pulled a 64lb salmon out of the River Tay in 1922, setting a UK record that remains today. Click through and read some of the amazing stories of anglers highlighted. (amff.org)

Buy the Damn Ticket

Skwala's Rich Hohne went to visit colleague Miles Nolte in New Zealand and was sure glad he bought the damn ticket. As Hunter Thompson used to say, "Buy the ticket, take the ride." (skwalafishing.com)

📚 Demon’s Game – New Book Teaches the Oni School of Tenkara Fly Fishing

Matt Sment at Tenkara Angler explores a new book expressing the tenkara philosophies of Masami Sakakibara. The book is a distillation of several years of stateside clinics from Sakakibara, nicknamed “Tenkara no Oni” (the Tenkara Demon). It goes into advanced tenkara technique. From the presentation diagrams alone, this book appears to be quite technical and thorough. (tenkaraangler.com)

Pending State-Record Muskie Rejected Over a Border Dispute

My big question about the big musky that came out of Greenwood Lake a few weeks back turned out to be pretty relevant: Was the fish caught on the New York side, or the New Jersey side? It made a big difference. (outdoorlife.com)

What Will Shape the Future of Fly Fishing?

Nobody can predict the future of anything, let alone fishing, but there are a few things we can start to plan for. Here's the most notable: The world is getting hotter until we get our act together, and we must plan accordingly, and continue decarbonizing, to re-stabilize our climate. Due West Anglers games out some more fly-fish-specific futures. Who knows what the future holds, and ain't no river so long doesn't have a bend in it, but I can't say I disagree with any of these. (duewestanglers.com)

Our Spring Setup

A promotional mail from Yakoda Supply Co. earlier this week had a great illustration of a double-nymph indicator rig for high water conditions, or runoff. It's a scenario we're likely to be experiencing right now as snow melts and spring hastens its way forward. Click the link below to see the setup. Yakoda's site has all the goods, should you need them. (yakodasupply.com)

Hunting, fishing licenses shifting to mobile or standard copy paper

Washington is phasing out its unique waterproof and tear-resistant fishing licenses in favor of the app, or regular old boring "standard copy paper". I for one lament the loss of another unique license media, which in this case was second only to Montana's old licenses, which were a special kind of soft paper, almost like a vellum, which made great TP in a pinch. (WADFW Bulletins)

Mystery orcas from afar thrill Seattle-area whale watchers

When I first started going whale watching in the Puget Sound I was astonished to learn how accurately the community was able to identify its whales. For those of you "from away," every whale is known, named, documented by its markings, and part of a gigantic book that whale watchers use to relay information about movements to each other. So when three new Bigg's killer whales appeared in Vancouver, BC, CA, last week, it caused quite the stir. (kuow.org)

🎥 FORK IN THE ROAD TEASER

A Nick Offerman-produced documentary about America's food system, featuring voiceover from Wendell Barry? Two treasures, together? Don't mind if I do. The upcoming Fork in the Road documentary seems promising: "More than a call to environmental action, the film illuminates the vital ways that sustainable food practices can nourish our bodies, strengthen our communities, and heal the Earth." It's set to premier at the Sonoma International Film Festival on March 28 and reminded me it's probably time to start my vegetable garden. (youtube.com)

Out There: The State of the (Wild) Union

In January last year, after two years of work, The National Nature Assessment was spiked by the Trump administration, which called it "an ideological pet project" and dismissed the scientists and administrators responsible. But community support brought the project back to life, and it's now been published. The Highlands Current has a great summary, but dig in to the full report for the good, the bad, and the ugly. (highlandscurrent.org)

Join us in Maupin this May!

Register for the Maupin Meetup!
The salmonfly hatch and all the beauty of late spring in the high desert will be upon us soon. Join CFS May 28-31 in Maupin, Oregon, for some classic big bug fishing and the DRA's TroutFest celebration.

Get in there!

Events 📆

Got an event you want the community to know about? Send it over, and I'll include it here. You can see all of our upcoming CFS events on Luma.

March 18, Ann Arbor, MI
Spencer Lecture Featuring climate scientist Dr. Katharine Hayhoe (University of Michigan)

NEW March 25, Charleston, SC
Don of fly fishing media Kirk Deeter will be in conversation with Garden & Gun EIC David DiBenedetto, as Deeter presents his new work on culinary-angling mashups, co-authored with Matthew Supinski, A Fishable Feast. (Ladybird Books)

NEW: March 31, Santa Barbara, CA
Actor Tom Skerritt, author John Maclean, Trout Unlimited CEO Chris Wood, and others gather on a panel to discuss the movie's impact, and more. (Lobero Theater)

April 24-25, Gresham, OR
Sandy River Spey Clave (Sandy River Spey Clave)

April 25, Vida, OR
The Wooden Boat Show on the McKenzie River (The Redsides)

April 30, "Running Wild" Tour, Seattle
(Wild Salmon Center)

CFS: May 16, OR
Waterside fly tying and fishing field trip; more details to come.

May 20, Portland, OR
"Running Wild" showing (Wild Salmon Center)

CFS: May 28-31, Maupin, OR
It's our annual Maupin Meetup! Registered now, before it fills up. (CFS Events)

June 23, "Running Wild" Tour, San Francisco
(Wild Salmon Center)

June 26-28, La Pine, OR
Tenkara Oregon's Tenkara Bugout (Tenkara Oregon)

That's it that's all! Current Flow State is a weekly newsletter from me, Nick Parish.

Who's your favorite female angler? Tell me on Bluesky 🦋, Instagram 📸, YouTube 🎥, or the Fishcord 💬. (Please don't say "your mom.")

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