A federal report released in March has outlined what caused the collapse of the Sacramento River Fall Chinook salmon stocks. In a nutshell, it’s pretty much everything I said in back in an article I wrote in 2008 (to see it click HERE).
Here are some interesting tidbits I found in the report:
•”A broad body of evidence suggests that anomalous conditions in the coastal ocean in 2005 and 2006 resulted in unusually poor survival of the 2004 and 2005 broods of Sacramento River Fall Chinook (SRFC). Both broods entered the ocean during periods of weak upwelling, warm sea surface temperatures, and low densities of prey items. Pelagic seabirds in this region with diets similar to juvenile Chinook salmon also experienced very poor reproduction in these
years.” [click to continue…]
Travis Bryan has done it again, folks! Who’s Travis Bryan, you ask? Well only the Inter-Galactic Squawfish Record holder, that’s who…and he’s been busy of late.
Here he is with his latest trophy, a Feather River dandy that he’s entered into our Smoker of the Year Contest. A nice fish to be sure, but a mere (pike) minnow compared to the record fish that propelled him to squaw stardom several seasons ago. [click to continue…]
(NOTE: This article originally ran in the April 2009 issue of Salmon Trout Steelheader Magazine)
Rush hour traffic is at a standstill on the graffiti-caked overpass 40 feet above our heads. Impatient commuters lay on their horns and bang on their steering wheels like caged monkeys as we hike towards the river. I step over a used rubber glove and then crouch down at the water’s edge near a soiled diaper. I try not to touch the water for fear of contracting some sort of unspeakable disease. A yellow Prestone jug floats by and almost looks as if it’s glowing in the low evening sun.
“Ain’t she beautiful, bro?” my guide asks with a huge grin.
This is definitely not my idea of paradise, but when my spinner gets crushed on the first cast and line starts ripping off my reel at an alarming rate, I start to reconsider. But let me back up here… [click to continue…]
