The end  of the trout season is here soon.  We are expecting snow this weekend in Jackson and you can tell.  The fish in the Snake are hungry and are eating anything you throw at them.  Hoppers are still around and that is just too much of a meal for a big cutthroat to pass up.  I caught 8 nice cuts on the GV yesterday.  All were sitting in the deep runs and came to the surface easily.  There were a few refusals, the take was slow but there. This has been an incredible summer around here.  Our work on the Henry’s Fork Foundation Caldera Project was both challenging and fulfilling. The people at the Henry’s Fork Foundation are an awesome bunch of folks.  From the ED down to the summer interns, we found a level of passion, knowledge and commitment towards the River that we rarely see in our work elsewhere.  There is still more work to be done and we will address that during the coming winter months.  Part of the foundation’s strategy is to work in multiple fresh and saltwater ecosystems.   I wanted to share a recent trip to a Trout Unlimited meeting out in Montauk, NY to fish for striped bass.   Fishing large schools of fish is really different from the delicate cast of a fly on 6x.  But the goal of protecting the habitat and the fish remains the same regardless of location.  Check out the 60 sec video.  Never seen anything like it in my life!Bass Blitz  

With both age and wisdom comes the awareness of what happens next. Not today, not tomorrow but down the road.  We are where we are in the environment - plenty of issues whether we are talking about the Ranch fish count, the impact of diversion canals on flow rates and even the bigger picture of climate change.  We have a lot of work to do to protect and preserve the river ecosystems that we all find essential to our lives. 

Here at Marine Ventures, we are training the next generation today.  Along with the Henry’s Fork Foundation interns this summer, we brought 5 of the next generation conservation leaders to the Ranch, put them in a trailer in the Parking Lot, let them engage the Opening Week old timers and learn first hand why we do the work we do.  They posted blog entries and they cut their own videos. But most importantly they were faced with the same issues the older generation is faced with.  Why do we do now? What choices do we make?  Stocking? Dredging? What are we each willing to do to protect the Henry’s Fork? And all the other Western rivers?   Time will tell what happens but the first step is to get the next generation engaged first hand, in the water, tying their own flies, missing fish, catching a few, getting tips from the old timers.  It is one of the most important things we do as a foundation.   I hope each of you can do the same.  Step up, get involved, protect your own backyard.  Do it now. 

Steve Trafton and I decided to walk the entire 9 mile ranch section from the Logjam to Pinehaven yesterday.  The main objective was to evaluate the aquatic plant levels along the river and along the way, fish a bit.  We started at 1pm after a burger at Trouthunter and got off the river at 8:30pm.  Was an incredible day walking and fishing…  Most people bug out when the winds start blowing but something really special happens on the Ranch when it blows 20 knots…  More later.

Not sure what you guys read out there but there is one man who has a perspective like a razor sharp knife about the Yellowstone Ecosystem:  Jack Turner.  He is president of Exum Mountain Guides, climbed the Grant Teton 400 times and has publish two awesome books:  The Abstract Wild and Teewinot: A Year in the Teton Range.   The Abstract Wild is not for the faint of heart. It dives into the real issues of choice and conservation and forces the reader to take a stand.  I guess I did by deciding to fund work here in the Yellowstone ecosystem and press upon everyone the need to come to terms with the slow destruction of the entire ecosystem.  The Railroad Ranch is just one highly visible part of the Yellowstone world that is in trouble.   Every place is challenged by economic development.

A good example we all know is the South Fork where the rainbows are slowly displacing the native cutthroats.  The Trout Unlimited Program of “Bang a Bow”  where anglers are asked to kill (and eat) any rainbows caught on the South Fork.  Few if any do this.  Why? Well we are so catch and release driven that we want to keep as many fish in the river so we can catch them or their kids in the future.  But in the process we will enable the rainbows to eliminate the cut population.   And when we do that then the South Fork becomes a whore house full of the fish man has chosen to catch not those fish who survived thousands of years of drought, heat, ice and storms.

Rainbows have no rights to be here. They are imported, a guest of humans, a killer of native fishes.  So there is no protection for rainbows - no laws, no ESA, no nothing.  Which means that the water is more important than the fish since the water brings life and income to the people who farm and ranch downstream.   They got you on this one Mr Fisherman.   They can do whatever they want and they have for 100 years and you can not stop them.  Not HFF, not TNC, not TU….

Good ecology or money and fun… I think we have be conned to accept money and fun as the basis for the fishing experience.  If you want to know more about your choices now, read Travels in the Greater Yellowstone by Jack Turner and come to your own conclusions.   Your fishing will improve quickly after you do…

I am back on the East Coast getting my son ready for college.  Back in Jackson on Saturday and will find out what is happening there, post it.  Stay tuned.

 Yvon Chouinard has been my inspiration since my first ice and rock climbing days in the 70s. Who was your mentor?

Just watch this ok…

I heard that Tiger Woods bought a house in a new exclusive development South of Jackson.  When Tiger says “in the hole” then we all know what he is talking about.  But there is another Hole out there that is pretty damn spectacular.  “In the hole” to me means Jackson Hole and nothing better describes life here than opening day for Flat Creek and Blacktail Ponds - spring creek fishing at its best.

Flat Creek was busy today. I walked down to the river from the parking lot around 9am.   There were maybe 40 people fishing spaced about 100 feet apart.  Bugs were everywhere. Crane flies and brown drakes were thick and the fish were eating.   I just brought my camera and HD camcorder, no fly rod - and hung out across from a first timer named John from New York.  He caught 2 nice fish in 10 minutes.   I did not see anyone else slaying the fish.  But the water was covered in bugs…

I left and ran up to the Gros Ventre to see what was happening.  We have not had rain in weeks and the bison were moving down to the cottonwoods along the river for shade and water.   They really are beautiful animals and just walked right by me maybe 20 feet away.

Next I drove over to the Blacktail Ponds parking lot.  There were 8 cars in the parking lot - too many anglers to try and fish the short stretch of the spring creek that holds all the fish.  So I headed up past the head of the spring and hit the river a mile up.  The Snake is running around 2500 cfs and pretty low.  Last year the Snake ran around 4,000 cfs all summer.   My favorite  “undiscovered” spring creek was all skinny water but I did find 3 nice fish holding at the tail just before the main part of the river.   They did not eat my hopper.  So I moved into the main part of the river and landed 3 cutbows in 3 casts - small 8″-10″ fish.   I moved up and caught my first brook trout on the Snake.  I was surprised by the cutbows and brookies… never knew they had moved this far up.   I worked up another mile, saw a ton of elk tracks in the sand but no human footprints - my idea of a great day here.

Tiger - eat your heart out as you keep making your millions on man-made golf courses.  I will take a day in this Hole anytime.

Our ace in the hole

Native fish like the cutthroat trout occupy a very special place in the western United States.  They were here 10,000 years ago, they kept Lewis and Clark alive during their expedition back in 1805 and they are the only Western trout that have rights under US federal law as defined by the endangered species act.  Brown trout don’t, rainbow trout don’t, brook trout don’t - not in the Mountain West.  Why? Well they were put here by people who wanted to have a different kind of fishery - one that suited their taste.  When these non-native fish were all caught out, they just replaced them with more from a hatchery.   A long time ago people crossed the line and stocked the rivers of the West with non-native fish.  There is no point now in asking why they did it but you can ask so what’s next? What are the decisions to be made that give top priority protect to native fish and their habitat and less priority to non-native rivers and streams.

People argue about the economic value of these stocked streams full or rainbows and browns.  Don’t get me wrong.  When a brown trout chases down your streamer on the South Fork, it is a wonderful experience.   But this blog and MVF are not about everybody having a good time.  We have set the bar higher for us, for the ecosystem, for the trout, and for the future.   But back to economic value…  People really have a choice here and unfortunately it is a binary choice - either 1) you are for restoring native populations of trout in Western rivers regardless of the cost and economic impact or 2) you are for wealth extraction from the river, lakes and streams at any cost. Let’s not set our sights to low on either case.

If you choose 2) then economics wins out over biodiversity and all that environment crap and we should go forth fully - stock more rivers more often, grow bigger fish and set new world size and line class records, double or triple the angler visits to the area, drive up real estate prices, boost the local economy and create jobs.  I would not be opposed to stocking rivers like the Henry’s Fork with salmon - big ones…  imagine hooking a 20 lb salmon on a dry fly on a 5 weight!   People would show up in droves to fish. The economic impact would be huge.

If you choose 1) then you are in for a long struggle that requires you to go up against the economic powerhouses in the West - oil/gas, timber, land development, tourism…    Fish have no rights except under the threat of extinction.  A developer can put in 1,000 homes that surround a native cutthroat stream.  All they need is a permit from the county to build.  Some say it is man’s right to take the earth resources for his own personal gain.   I do not believe that any more and I choose to focus our work on protection not restoration.   Does not really matter why.  I just do.

Most enviro/trout groups focus on restoration or the repair from the impacts of 2) more than habitat protection or 1). Why? Restoration is all good business for everybody and an essential part of life in the West. Better flows, fence streambanks to keep out the cows, fight for more instream flows from the irrigators…  Restoration gets people engaged, aware and brings a sense of satisfaction to the community.  I am thankful to groups like HFF and TU that lead the way in restoration.  But there is more to do than just that.

I have come to the conclusion that protection is the #1 priority for me.  That means we choose door #1.  We are running out of native species, habitats and opportunities to protect and preserve a way of life, a habitat that Lewis and Clark found over 200 years ago.  I would rather catch 6-15 inch cuts in a wild river than catch a big 22 inch rainbow on a restored stream.  The cutthroats have been in these rivers for for at least ten thousand years.  They have as much right as we do be live in a safe and protected environment.   Time to take a stand.

So what is your choice? Door #1 or Door 2?

Marine Ventures is supporting the Trout Unlimited study of the impact of irrigation diversion canals on native cutthroat populations on the Gros Ventre River in Grand Teton National Park.  I have been out on the river a few times to get a first hand look at the trout population in the diversion canal about 100 yrs from the main stem of the river.   I can not tell if the fish I caught 2 days ago is a Yellowstone cutthroat or a cutbow.  What do you think?

I think it is a cutbow given the color splotches on its side and the gills.  Any opinions?