Along the Way @ The-Fisheries.Net

Bristol Bay: An Interview with Dr. Carol Ann Woody (C)

2010-06-17T03:06:32Z

<b>An Interview with Dr. Carol Ann Woody – Fisheries Research Scientist & Bristol Bay Researcher

Interview by Trout Unlimited Alaska’s Communications Director and Award Winning,
Writer, Paula Dobbyn

Introduction By Scott Hed, Director, Sportsman’s Alliance for Alaska</b>

Many sport anglers may have heard about the ongoing debate over a very controversial plan to allow massive mining development in the Bristol Bay region of Southwest Alaska. Bristol Bay plays host to the largest runs of wild salmon on the planet, including over 40 million sockeye salmon annually. This incredible fishery supports a $300 million commercial fishery as well as a sport fishery valued at over $60 million per year. Rivers like the Kvichak, Naknek, Nushagak, Talarik Creek, and many more fill the dreams of anglers worldwide who travel to this region to pursue some of the largest wild rainbow trout in the world, Dolly Varden, arctic char, arctic grayling, and of course, the five species of Pacific salmon.

In real estate, they say location is everything. Well, in this battle, it's also all about location...the proposed Pebble Mine, a project backed by foreign mining interests, would be sited at the headwaters of two of the most productive river systems in Bristol Bay - the Kvichak and the Nushagak. In this seismically active area, home to earthquakes and volcanoes, the Pebble Partnership proposes to build what would be the largest open-pit mine in North America (and one of the world's largest). The project would include a massive open pit, an adjacent underground mine, and toxic tailings lakes for the mining waste to be stored FOREVER behind a series of earthen dams (including the largest dam in world).

Visit the Sportsman's Alliance for Alaska web site to learn more about the Bristol Bay area and the fight being waged for its future. You'll see that sporting conservation groups like Trout Unlimited, the Federation of Fly Fishers, and Dallas Safari Club have all come out saying this is the wrong idea in the wrong place. Check out the SAA's Latest News page and view the ad featuring over 150 companies in the sport fishing gear industry all joining together to say "Protect Bristol Bay."

In the meantime, we thought you'd enjoy this interview with an Alaska-based fisheries scientist who is doing a lot of field research to document important fish habitat in the Bristol Bay region, all in an effort to keep the region safe from the threats of massive mining development.

<b>INTERVIEW BY PAULA DOBBIN WITH DR. WOODY</b>

Fisheries scientist, Dr. Carol Ann Woody, PhD, unveiled some groundbreaking research this year that greatly expands what’s known about fish populations in the Nushagak and Kvichak River Drainages. These important rivers and their tributaries feed Bristol Bay, home of the world’s largest wild sockeye salmon run and an environmentally sensitive area that’s under threat from large-scale, industrial mining.

Woody and a small group of scientists from the State of Alaska, non-governmental organizations and tribes surveyed for salmon, rainbow trout and subsistence fish in a variety of streams near the Pebble deposit, where a consortium of mining companies hopes to build North America’s largest open-pit copper and gold mine. The consortium, known as the Pebble Limited Partnership, consists of the Northern Dynasty Partnership and Anglo American US (Pebble) LLC, which is wholly owned by Anglo American, a multinational mining company. For several years, the proposed developers have conducted an array of scientific, economic and cultural studies as part of their pre-feasibility planning before applying for permits. Despite several years of exploration and study at the Pebble deposit, the developers had not nominated any new streams to the Catalog since 2004 and results of their fisheries studies have not been released since 2005.

Woody’s goal was to truth check the mining companies’ fisheries studies and to document salmon in reaches of stream that government scientists had yet to survey. Woody had a hunch that there were more fish in the region than the Pebble Limited Partnership had found.

What Woody’s crew found was some 28 new miles of salmon-producing habitat that Woody immediately nominated for addition to Alaska’s Anadromous Waters Catalogue. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reviewed the nominations and accepted them for inclusion in the Anadromous Waters Catalogue. The Catalogue provides most basic legal protection afforded in Alaska to a stream or lake containing salmon. Once included in the Anadromous Waters Catalogue, a body of water cannot be disturbed without the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s prior notice and permission.

Small streams are important because they often provide essential rearing habitat. Large fish can’t get into little streams so fry are able to move around and feed without the risk of predation. Scientific research has shown a linear relationship between coho salmon production and stream length -- as many as 1,952 coho salmon may be produced per kilometer of stream. As such, over 91,000 coho smolt could be produced from the 47 kilometers, or 28 miles, of salmon stream documented in Woody’s study. That’s a lot of fish.

Trout Unlimited Alaska’s Communications Director, Paula Dobbyn, spoke with Woody about her report and the scientific work she and others will be conducting this summer. What follows are interview excerpts:

Q: What prompted you to do the study?

A: I knew that many streams that are potentially capable of producing salmon were being ignored by the Pebble Partnership. Small streams provide ideal rearing habitat for cohos, kings, dolly varden char, rainbow trout and other species. In a Fisheries Technical Working Group meeting I asked Dr. Jim Buell, the Pebble Partnerhips’s lead fish biologist, if they planned to survey any of the headwater tributaries. He said no. I then asked the Department of Fish and Game if they were planning to do such work and they indicated they did not have funding or direction to do it. Under Alaska’s Constitution, it is ADF&G’s job to conduct anadromous fish surveys and maintain the database but the higher echelons have to support such work. Since no one was going to do it I pursued it.

Q: Who funded your research project?

A: I had been trying to get money for years to highlight the fact that many small and as yet unsurveyed streams in the mineral claims area provide viable rearing habitat for salmon and other subsistence species. Last spring, The Nature Conservancy stepped in and provided financial backing for the helicopter, electrofisher, all logistics and my time. To accomplish the work and have it accepted in the science world, I needed reputable scientists to assist. I recruited two Fish and Game employees, who volunteered, the Bristol Bay Native Association contributed Daniel Chythlook and Cook Inlet Keeper provided their water quality expert, Sue Mauger. Dan Rinella of the University of Alaska’s Environment and Natural Resources Institute also assisted on contract to TNC. Rainbow King Lodge in Iliamna donated room and board and the University of Washington provided a vehicle. I pieced most of it together on a shoestring budget and we pulled it off. I know science will play a huge role in reviewing the adequacy of Pebble’s environmental baseline for permitting. I felt I had to underscore what was being ignored. It’s odd how after so many years and millions of dollars invested in environmental studies that salmon fry rearing on top of Pebble West were overlooked.

Q: How did you carry out the stream surveys?

A: I selected 47 headwater tributaries in and around the Pebble prospect. Marcus Geist of the Nature Conservancy used his GIS skills to peg GPS coordinates of each site I selected. We flew out and each day two teams of three people would hopscotch from one selected stream to the next to conduct surveys. At each site we measured basic water quality parameters, like pH, which tells you how acid or alkaline a stream is, and we characterized the habitat. Then we went electrofishing walking upstream slowly and sampling all habitat types. Stunned fish were put in a bucket of water until the end of the survey when they were measured and released.

Q: What’s an electrofisher?

A: An electrofisher is a tool to fish using electricity. We used a battery powered backpack electrofisher. You set the amount of current based on the stream conductivity to stun, not harm, fish. You have an anode and a cathode in the stream and a person with a net following. You run current through the water from your anode to cathode and when fish encounter a high enough potential or current they swim toward it and get temporarily stunned. You have to net them quickly as they recover as soon as you stop the current.

Q: How do you decide which streams to survey?

A: I selected streams based on gradient and whether they were in the Anadromous Waters Catalogue or not. I want to go as high in the watershed as I can to find salmon because we want to define the upper limit of their distribution.

Q: What kind of reaction did your findings provoke?

A: We surprised the Pebble Partnership We showed that they had overlooked lots of salmon habitat which brings into question the thoroughness of their baseline studies The fact that they’ve been out sampling about 5 years and spent millions of dollars and overlooked so much salmon habitat raises lots of questions.

Q: To what extent has the Pebble Partnership released the results of the research it has sponsored?

A: In 2005 Pebble released certain draft technical reports of what they were finding. Dave Chambers (a PhD geophysicist and head of the Center for Science in Public Participation, based in Bozeman, Montana) and Bob Moran (a PhD hydrogeochemist) reviewed them and wrote up critiques and raised valid questions about the data, results, techniques etc. Since then, Pebble has stated they won’t release any information for fear their critics will get it. Now they claim they are releasing all their data but they are not. What they are doing is releasing bits and pieces of information so anyone who is a scientist or critic can never piece together the whole story. After Chambers critiqued the 2005 data release the Pebble folks said, “We’re not going to release more as people are going to critique it.” But that’s the whole point of science: you need to pass the criticism of your peers. That’s the way I approach it. When I release a study I say, “Here’s my stuff boys. Go ahead and rip it apart.”

Q: Why are you focused the Pebble mine project?

A: I focus on Pebble because the size and type of the mine poses a real threat to Bristol Bay and its fish. And I don’t trust the Pebble Partnership. I don’t think they’ve been honest or transparent with the public or regulators. Early on when I was still working for the federal government on this project, the Pebble people gave me reason not to trust them. They went to villages where I had worked for years and told people they were going to use organic soap to wash the gold and other metal out of the pulverized rock. They made it seem as if the processing chemicals used in mining were innocuous, like something you would wash your clothes with. They were talking to subsistence people whose lives revolve around these fish and they had the gall to tell them they would use organic soap as if it were somehow safe for fish. Cyanide is organic and highly toxic. So are many of the processing chemicals used in mining. They deliberately tried to mislead people and still are.

Q: Are you finished with your fish survey or are you doing more research this field season?

A: We’re doing more. Starting on August 11 we begin fish and habitat surveys and plan to go until about September 5. We are collaborating with representatives from ADF&G, USFWS, Cook Inlet Keeper, Trout Unlimited, Bristol Bay Native Association, Nondalton Tribal Council, National Parks and Conservation Association and The Wild Salmon Center. We’ve even invited the Pebble Partnership to come. We want to be open and transparent and so we invited them along.

Q: Why did you invite the Pebble Partnership to participate?

A: We want to be open and transparent, and we want Pebble to be open and transparent. They want to know what we’re doing, where we’re doing it and how we’re doing it. It’s a way of keeping them honest. And we want them to release all of their data. It’s a chess game. We can never duplicate what Pebble has done as far as research. They’ve spent millions and millions and we just don’t have that kind of money. What we can do is trust and verify their data and get them to be transparent. They will only have to deal with us later if they put us off now since we’re not going away. We have some very smart people scrutinizing their data releases as they occur. Really the most important thing is to get them to release their data because if we see their data, we can determine if their results are scientifically valid, or not.

Q: Are there other studies going on this summer besides yours and the work that the Pebble Partnership is doing?

A: Kendra Zamzo, PhD, is an environmental geochemist with the Center for Science in Public Participation, is doing a water quality study. She’s gone to the same sites Pebble sampled and is also doing her own sampling. We’re calling this a trust and verify study: we trust Pebble and the results they’ve given us but we want to check for ourselves, just in case. We’re also getting data from sites outside where Pebble has sampled, such as the Chulitna watershed which drains to Lake Clark National Park and Preserve. We suspect this area is all interconnected by groundwater as soils are highly conductive or porous. Then we’ll actually have a full suite of water quality data which we have not been able to get from Pebble. Kendra will sample twice. Once when there’s run-off when you get the highest levels of metals and other constituents which at high levels could be considered contaminants or toxics. She’ll also go this summer at low-flow as you’ll have different levels then.

Q: Any other studies?

A: Dan Bogan with the University of Alaska’s Environment and Natural Resources Institute will be sampling in June. He’ll be looking at the benthic community – the diatoms, the micro-invertebrates, the small critters fish love in the bottom of streams and creeks -- which is most sensitive to changes in water chemistry. He’ll be basically doing a “what’s out there” study. At certain sites we’ll have a snapshot of the whole living community in that creek and that’s a good thing to use as an index of health in the future. We can go in and look at it this year and say, okay, that’s what the community looks like now. And same thing next year, and maybe next year we see that it’s different. That may be an indicator that something is wrong with the water quality. Fish surveys are important. But what Dan is doing is really crucial. You see, fish are important but if there’s a problem with the mine, really it’s the water quality that will go first and then the diatoms and then the invertebrates. The fish can move around. They’re fairly hardy. But when it gets so bad that they’re affected then you know there’s a huge problem. The benthic creatures are those that will tell you first if there’s a problem.

Q: It sounds like non-governmental organizations are playing a big role in trying to keep Pebble honest. What about government regulators?

A: The government hasn’t played a big role. They can’t even get the Pebble Partnership to provide technical summaries. No reports are required until they apply for permits and trigger the federal National Environmental Policy Act. The Department of Natural Resources, which handles mine permits, hasn’t taken water quality samples to check on Pebble or asked to split samples with Pebble. The most the state does is go out and visit exploration drill sites take pictures and write down what their observations are but they don’t measure anything. They’re not measuring the water quality to compare against what Pebble collects and presents. The state trusts the mining company to conduct the most rigorous, statistically defensible studies to characterize baseline conditions and to monitor environmental change. They say the water looks good. But you know, a lot of things that can hurt fish are invisible in water. You can’t see dissolved copper, but it can kill fish. I think the regulatory system is biased in favor of the mining industry. The current regulations and laws are insufficient to protect an area with sensitive aquatic resources from the effects of a massive sulfide mine in highly porous soils smack dab on top of salmon habitat.

Q: Do you think that science could end up stopping the Pebble mine from being developed?

A: Frankly science usually does not play a huge role in the final decision of whether these projects go or don’t’ go. We can highlight how high-risk this project is to the salmon and clean water. That’s what we’re trying to do – to educate people to the fact that this is a high-risk project and here’s why, a, b, c. d, e, f g. But ultimately it falls into the politicians’ hands, regulators’ hands, and lawyers’ hands. The science plays a critical role in providing real defensible facts in the final debates and decision. That’s where the public has to get involved. My concern is that a lot of the work we’re doing is preaching to the choir instead of educating the pale greens.

Q: Who are the pale greens?

A: People who are pretty conservative, generally pro-development, Republicans who like to hunt and fish and who, if they could really understand the facts would think, maybe this isn’t such a good idea. I think if we could get them to understand the science we could change their minds. They’re not going to change by seeing a bumper sticker. They don’t like that kind of greenie reactionary stuff. But some of them are smart enough if they have defensible information in their hands. They know that salmon have been almost wiped out in the lower 48. They know there’s really no fishing there and this is the last place where salmon are healthy and abundant.

Dr. Carol Ann Woody has designed, supervised and published results of original research focused on salmonid behavior, genetics, life history, evolution, and management in the Kvichak and Tustumena watersheds of Alaska since 1991. Dr. Woody has over 25 years of experience including: 13 years as a fisheries research scientist with the US Geological Survey at the Alaska Science Center; four years with the Fisheries Research Institute at the University of Washington; two years at the National Fishery Research Laboratory in La Crosse, Wisconsin; four years as a fish and wildlife biologist for the Forest Service on the Tongass; two years as a fisheries and wildlife consultant; and 2 years as an aquaculturist in South America.

Running Dry

2010-01-25T06:01:39Z

Running Dry

A huge water crisis is looming – and fish and game will be the first casualties

By Bob Marshall

The year is 2015 and your community finds its water supply diminishing. Government must make a choice: Keep the dwindling reserves moving to homes, hospitals, schools, and factories—or keep it going to fish, wetlands, and wildlife.

Who wins?

I think you know. The nation’s fish and wildlife managers certainly do. They’re already experiencing a water crisis.

“When political decisions have to be made for a diminishing water supply, fish and wildlife becomes a trivial consideration,” says Jim Martin, former chief of fisheries at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and one of the nation’s experts on freshwater supplies.
“We are racing into a water crisis that is pitting people against fish and wildlife, and unfortunately, most politicians either don’t understand it or don’t want to face up to it. But I can tell you, if we don’t become proactive on this, fish and wildlife don’t have much of a future.”

By now, many readers are wondering: What water crisis? Sure, there are water shortages in various areas of the nation—the Southeast, the Southwest, and California. But those are drought-related, as always. When rain returns—as it always does—the reservoirs will fill again, fish will swim upstream, game animals will multiply, and farmers and fishermen will stop fighting.

But the nation’s water experts say that familiar cycle is coming to an end. Like Jim Martin, they see a future in which freshwater is more precious than oil, where tankers transport water to needy regions, where the largest and most expensive pipelines the world will ever see are laid to bring potable water from northern climates to a parched U.S.

Unchecked, unplanned, and ill-advised development is outstripping the water supply. A2007 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office says that 36 states will face critical water shortages over the next decade. And those estimates do not fully account for the increased losses of freshwater due to a warming climate. It sounds like a science-fiction tale. But unless we change our development practices, it’s the not-so-distant future.

A Worst-Case Scenario Come True. The mere thought of a water crisis frightens ish and wildlife managers like nothing else. It makes previous fights over resources such as forests, wetlands, or farming practices seem easy, because this one has a different bottom line: Society will consider a water shortage a zero-sum debate.

A community might decide it can live without another shopping mall or refinery. It might concede its economy can endure without draining a wetland for another few acres of corn.

But there is no adapting to the lack of water. Life stops when the well runs dry.

The terror of that reality is already rippling across the nation. Atlanta came within 90 days of running out of water two years ago. Some Florida communities have canceled building permits due to lack of water for new residents. Towns in Tennessee are borrowing water from neighbors in Alabama. Texas and Oklahoma are involved in a court fight over water from the Red River system.

A look at the crisis gripping California’s Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta region gives sportsmen a taste of what we will be up against in the years ahead.

One of the most important water basins in the nation for fish and humans, the delta was already being overtaxed by allotments to agricultural interests in the Central Valley when the current drought began three years ago, forcing the federal government to restrict supplies to both farmers and fish. Fishing for Central Valley Chinook salmon was closed.

“That run was the mainstay of the offshore California and southern Oregon salmon fisheries for 150 years,” says Dick Pool, a director ofWater4Fish, a California fishing advocacy group. “As late as 2002 we had 700,000 salmon returning, and in 2008 that was down to 66,000—the lowest ever recorded. And biologists say we need a return of 122,000for a viable population.
”The American Sportfishing Association figures that closures have cost approximately 23,000 jobs and robbed the economy of $1.4 billion.

Farmers have been hurt as well. Richard Howitt, an economist at the University of California, Davis, estimates that the impact of water reductions on the San Joaquin Valley—the largest farming region in the nation—may total 80,000 jobs and more than $2 billion.

“This is one of the classic, really difficult trade-offs we are faced within hard times: environmental values versus human suffering,” Howitt told the Toronto Globe and Mail, adding, “We are going to have to make a fundamental choice…it’s fish versus jobs and communities.

”Oklahoma fisheries officials understand that concept now. “Texas wants more water to support the development that has been on going down there, but when we planned the fisheries for the reservoirs in our state decades ago, that wasn’t even a thought,” says Gene Gilliland, senior fisheries biologist at the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. “The periods for their peak demand will be in the summer, when loss of water will have the most serious impact on our fisheries.

“You can see this happening all across the region as the competitionfor water supplies becomes more intense. The way to win these fights isto prevent them from happening.

”Unlikely Allies That strategy starts with forming powerful coalitions that can represent fish and wildlife needs before development is even planned. Sportsmen must band together with environmental groups, as well as homeowners who want to preserve a way of life.

“Our groups have to insist that governments—local, state, and federal—develop water-management plans first, before they consider any future development in an ecosystem,” says Martin, who is now chairman of the board at the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. “We need to be at the table and ready with the facts to say: O.K., this is what salmon or stripers or trout or bass or wetlands need from this ecosystem in the future.

“All of this has to be done on the front end. Coming in after development is a loser because there will be too much invested already. We can’t win that fight.

”That kind of early involvement by the sporting community might have helped reduce damage to the Sacramento Delta. Martin points out that 85 percent of the water drawn from that delta goes to agriculture, and some of that is for cotton production that is subsidized by government regulations. It’s a lose-lose for wildlife, and taxpayers.

That’s why forming coalitions is crucial. A homeowners association, for example, might not care about catching fish, but they will care about property values; a healthy, dependable water supply; and sensible, uncrowded development.

It has been done before. In 1991, Pool was a member of a coalition of anglers, environmentalists, and urban governments in northern California that convinced Congress to pass the widely praised Central Valley Project Improvement Act. The law reprioritized use of water stored in large reservoirs, sending less to farming and more to wetlands, fish, wildlife, and urban areas.

“In later years the state has ignored that law, but that’s why this coalition is re-forming,” Pool says. “We met with some congressmen in Washington this year, and they told the fishing groups: ‘You guys can’t win this on your own. Get that coalition back together.’

“So we are. There’s too much at stake.

”If you foresee any threat to the water supply in your region, here are some tips:

• Become knowledgeable on the subject. Read Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What to Do About It, by Robert Glennon, 2009,Island Press.

• Contact your state fisheries agency and ask if there are any existing water-shortage dangers to fish and wildlife.

• Urge elected officials to oppose projects that would use water irresponsibly.

• Practice what you preach. Water conservation begins at home.

Posted with permission from the November 2009 issue of Field & Stream ® www.fieldandstream.com, Bonnier Corporation, Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. For more information about reprints from Field & Stream, contact Wright’s Reprints at 877-652-5295.

The Big Adventure: My First FFF Fishing Conclave

2009-09-09T03:09:02Z

Author: Deb Berkebile
Location: Geneva, Ohio

About The Author:
Deb Berkebile is a member of the North Coast Fly Fishers Club in Kirtland, Ohio where she serves as Director of Communications. She is also a member of Flygirls of MI.

The Big Adventure

Deb is second from right in the photo

Well, I just have to say that if you have not attended a Federation of Fly Fishers fishing conclave, you are in for a treat when you do! I highly recommend to book all your workshops foron the water topics.

Due to flight delays, my adventure launched with a rocky start, so much so that I missed my first workshop on Thursday morning! By the time I made it to Denver, got my rental car, drove through Denver traffic at no other time than infamous rush hour, I was yearning to hit the streams for some fishing and retire for a while from the hustle and bustle of the city.

I headed up the canyon, for it had been 18 years since I had been to Colorado and I was going to an area where I had grown up. As a youngster, we had moved to Coal Creek Canyon and my father built an A-frame house nestled in the mountainside. Driving through the canyon was like reminiscing; everything was so familiar I could remember it like yesterday. Time must move at a slower pace when in higher altitudes closer to nature.

I passed the road I lived on and decided on the trip back I was going to go see the old homestead. As I neared the location where we were suppose to fish I kept saying the name of the road where I was suppose to end up at Pactolus Rd it just kept slipping off my tongue like an old familiar friends name. Finally it came to me that this is where we used to ice skate, for further down the road was Pactolus Lake!!!

What a site to behold as I pulled up to the old location things really had changed here. The old icehouse was taken down and a lodge erected from where it set. The lake almost looked the same, but we only went there when the lake was frozen over to skate on its cold, windy ice, so seeing it years later in summertime was a breathtaking event.

Soon the fishing commenced. The first workshop was called Instructor Fish Along - Fish With and Learn from the Best. We fished the South Boulder Creek, one of the largest tributaries of the South Platte River, located in Pinecliffe. Being four o-clock in the afternoon, the mist had settled a bit, not rainy, just misting every now and then, so the conditions were just right. I met our guides Ethan Emery & Scott McCaslin and they showed us several different techniques for rigging, reading the water, and picking the flies necessary for these waters. They bragged how big the trout were!!! I soon knew they were not just telling us a fish story.

They were extremely big fish! Have you ever experienced hooking a 21 and 25 inch trout! I caught six from just this one hole! WOW!!! What a rush; a rite of passage to any mountain fisher! I was fishing a rig with two - bead head nymphs and a Thingamabob for an indicator. I hooked a total of ten fish that evening. These were the best waters I fished on while on this trip and to top it all off, later on I found out that I had been fishing with the famous Ally Gowans and Dennis Grant that evening.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, the two are highly professional international fly fishermen. I even had breakfast with Ally, at which time he courteously signed my book for me after a modest display and much teasing on my part! I wanted the cereal bowl he ate out of so I could frame it What a laugh that brought out of him. Us silly Americans!

I did venture down the canyon again and go look at the old homestead. Not exactly how I remembered it, but it was still there. I thought I would not take pictures so I would not ruin the memories that I have of that home built by my own familys hands.

The next day brought another workshop. A Stranger in a Strange Land: River Workshop. Here I got to meet another professional fly fisher, an Englishman, Charles Jardine. What a treat his class was. It was a blast and a highly educational experience.

Charles writes it best from this excerpt of his blog:

- Colorado Trout Gods Partially Appeased
August 1, 2009 by charlesjardine -

After suffering the slings and arrows of the vagaries of fly fishing the sun shone delineating the Rocky Mountains to the Western distance, the group was joyous eager and fun (they mostly are but today doubly so), I had finally got some sleep and a corner of sorts had clearly been turned. The On-Stream Class was to be a Stranger in a Strange World and how I dealt with situations on an unknown river. Given the lack of success earlier in the week just about everything is unknown! Still, we decided to start the proceedings in the hotel amidst a welter of muffins, notes, coffee cups, fly boxes spreading like a pervasive garden weed and a huge sense of fun. Then it was on to the river. Oddly it was as though we could catch fish for fun today and what bright litte trout they were: feisty little (and not so little) browns and rainbows sprang from the turbulence of the Big Thompson in a fountain of spangled spray from the foam and the careening currents. It was just wonderful. I even managed to bring a devoted dry fly fisher into the dark-side of nymphing. All is well today.

The only thing Charles forgot to mention was that we also fished with his very own designer fly, the Zippy, complete with trailing nymphs. We used Zippy as an indicator because he would zip up and down on a leader line so you could change the depth of your nymphs. Very clever and successful! We became so very fond of the fly we dubbed him Mr. Zippy! I hooked a couple fish and learned a lot about rigging and fishing pocket waters from a very fast moving river.

Saturday brought even more exciting activity to a wearied body. I now had fished almost 2 days straight. Getting back into my hotel room at 10 pm and starting all over at 7 am!

My first workshop Saturday morning was Small Creeks, BIG Fun! with Matt Wilhelm. We headed up the canyon from Loveland to some private waters at Sylvan Dale Ranch./p>

Topics for this workshop included specialty casts, reading water, aquatic insects, fly selection, and stealth activity.

Here I caught my first fish on a dry fly! To my amazement: a 12" brown trout! He put up quite a fight and then was suddenly gone. I caught him with a very small yellow dun with a yellow humpy as my rig. This brown just happened to be up stream above a large rock, but still hooked him! This was a beautiful part of the Big Thompson that I had fished on, very clear so I could locate the fish from the bank in prime locations.

I also used some hoppers & Copper Johns successfully. There was a large field of grasshoppers, but the hatch of dun took the prize! Too soon was my morning spent. The afternoon brought me to the other side of Sylvan Dales 3200-acres to their numerous ponds. This workshop was called Sight Fishing Lakes and Ponds with Chuck Prather.

Sylvan Dale has an abundant amount of small bass & trout ponds. We fished on Mother Lake first, one of the many trout ponds. Initially, I fished with a large beetle pattern & a nymph trailing below. Since you could see the trout from the edges of the pond this was were the stealth came into play. The objective was to sneak up to the edge so that the fish could not see you, Bear Grills style!

Unfortunately, the beetle pattern fished to no avail. I finally put on a damsel adult because the pond was loaded with dragonflies. Once I started with this pattern the trout went wild. I had a good size rainbow pop out of the lake to bite at my damsel but I never could hook anything the entire day.

I eventually made my way to Big Lake, which was one of the bass ponds. Chuck explained to me how bass fishing was related to telling your life history. He said that you cast your line out and as you jig your line in you tell stories about your life as your waiting for the bass to strike. Then as you cast again, the second part of your life story can be told. Thus fly-fishing is a great way to get to know ones fishing partner. After a few minutes of this, Chuck took me to a sweet spot on the nearby river. I actually casted quite a few times, but only got a couple of strikes for bass. It was late in the day and it was time to pack it in. I found that a lake is not my favorite setting for fishing, for I would rather be on a fast moving stream, working the water as I go. I have found there are just more escapades and exploits with stream fishing! Maybe after I use my float tube (that I won in the auction) I will change my mind. But for now I have truly enjoyed stream fishing the best.

Saturday night bought quite a nice dinner and the cowboy BBQ food hit the spot. One of the fly fishermen used to be an opera singer, and once he got out his guitar, we truly were entertained with an array of music the rest of the evening. Sunday was my free day, the conclave had ended and before I left Ohio I had bought The National Geographic map for Rocky National Park and the book written by Todd Hosman Fly Fishing Rocky Mountain National Park. I was determined that I was going to fly-fish in the park.

I had mapped out sections of the park that would be very accessible for great fishing. Todds book is a worthwhile read, especially if you want to hit the hot spots of a large park area. He details it all for you. I started out sightseeing around the park. The breathtaking scenery made the enjoyment of fishing ever more acute and poignant. I was taken aback by the view, even though I had lived here years ago, for sometimes life makes one forget what a masterpiece of Gods craftsmanship the Continental Divide really is. Due to a massive flood a few years back there was now a waterfall and a great alluvial fan area, which the fish have taken a liking to. Every bend in Fall River you could see a variety of trout, all different sizes and colors. This is where I tried several different fly patterns, beetles, nymphs, and a yellow humpy dry fly.

However, all these where to no avail. Even after using my newly acquired stealth mode, I could not hook a single trout. Sometimes the will of nature cannot be reckoned with! I stood there on the sandy banks of the alluvial fan watching the trout swim as though I did not even exist. In a way it was like they were mocking me, or just trying to convey the lesson of patience and humility.

As I stood by the waterfall, I could see the trout being thrust amongst the running water against the rocks. If they made it to the bottom through all the cascading rocks and water they would surely survive. Such a harsh path for such a small species imparts another of natures mysteries.

My day ended by casting a few more dry flies and watching the sunset in the greatest place on earth to be at that moment.