Protected areas have long been a cornerstone of marine fisheries management, and numerous studies have revealed key insights into how these reserves should be designed to optimize success. Despite their proven effectiveness in oceans, reserves have not been widely implemented or studied in freshwater. In fact, freshwater ecosystems are very underrepresented within protected areas, and are often only incidentally included in terrestrial protected areas. Freshwater...
Full Story 

Finally the Trinity River Hatchery is seeing some adult steelhead. This past week the Trinity has sent the message to the steelhead down in the Klamath to start going up the Trinity. This past week the Trinity Valley has seen a significant amount of rain to raise the river and we are seeing fresh adult steelhead moving in the Trinity...
Full Story 

If you’re in pursuit of steelhead-green water this weekend, you’ll probably need to head north. With the Chetco blown out for potentially another week, the Smith may be the only game in town for quite some time. It looks to be a little unstable through Saturday but is forecasted to remain at fishable levels. Friday looks to be marginal for...
Full Story 

I hope everyone had a GOOD and safe New Year. The New Year brought rain and raised the Trinity River to the point of good water flows, the trouble is it is hard to find the steelies. It seems that the upper river is crowded with drift boats and rafts fishing so some fishers are trying the Willow Creek area....
Full Story 

Salmon that lay their eggs in the Stanislaus River have evolved to take advantage of a narrow time window when spawning is most likely to be successful. Spawn too early, and river temperatures may be too warm for sensitive, incubating eggs; spawn too late and temperatures may be too warm for outmigrating juveniles. But what happens when thousands of years...
Full Story 

From high water to low water back to high water, North Coast rivers are all feeling the effects of the yo-yo syndrome. We’ve had some good storms roll through the area, bringing with them some decent river rises. Unfortunately, dropping flows have been as abrupt as the rises. This recipe does not make for quality steelhead angling. Having storms closer...
Full Story