Already thinking about Summer Steelhead!

'Upstream Battle' Removing the Klamath's Dams and saving Wild Salmon and Steelhead

This is an inspiring short video clip from Ben Kempas about Native American tribes and the impact of PacifiCorp's Klamath River dams. This would be the largest dam removal in history and could help restore the declining runs of wild Salmon and Steelhead on the Klamath River.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mSrgbvko_o

Rivers of a Lost Coast

I was able to attend a viewing of Rivers of a Lost Coast this past Wednesday at the Crest Theatre in Sacramento. I was fortunate to attend the show with a few fellow employees of Kiene's Fly Shop that were part of the making of the movie, Chuck Campana and Joe Shirshac. It is pretty cool to know and here stories from these two old time California steelheaders.

What a great documentary! All I can say is WOW! Justin Coupe and Palmer Taylor did a hell of a job putting this movie together. It was better than I could have imagined and I cant wait to get a copy when it comes out on DVD. Having Tom Skerritt narrate the movie along with the classic footage and photographs make this a very special documentary for California salmon and steelhead fishing.

A few minutes into the movie and I had chills running down my spine hearing how much California's coastal fishery had an influence on salmon/steelhead fishing throughout the country and how quickly it was lost. This shows how important conservation and protecting our natural resources are. In the coming weeks I will be posting a few articles on conservation and what we as anglers can do to make our fisheries better. Please stay tuned!

Jason Hartwick

Spey-O-Rama 2009

Spey-O-Rama is taking place this next week April 17-19 at the Golden Gate Casting Ponds inside Golden Gate park in San Francisco. This is a great Spey event that features many of the industries top manufacturers and a distance casting competition. I will be at Spey-O-Rama on Friday and Sunday with the guys from Beulah Fly Rods. Come by and cast the new Beulah Platinum Series Spey rods and elixir and tonic lines. Come by and say hello. I will gladly help anyone with their casting, line/rod questions, or just talk about Steelhead on the Spey trips for the upcoming season. I look forward to seeing ya'll there.

Jason Hartwick

Winter steelhead season has come to a close...

It came and went. 2009 was somewhat of a dismal winter steelhead season. We did get some great conditions on the mainstem Eel River in mid January which provided some good fishing for many. February was a pretty wet month and while we needed the rain and snow, it kept many of our coastal rivers blown for most of the month. Though when they were fishable the numbers of returning fish were down and many were hoping the season would just be late. In March we had better conditons and many of the rivers that fish well into March just didn't produce. Overall, I would say that the returns of fish this year were down and mixed with tough water conditions, i.e. extremely low water or blown out, made for tough fishing.
On another note, a couple of friends and I were able to sneak out for a day of fishing before the season ended. In the last run of the day after a few too many Oly's, Will connected with this little hen. A great way to end the 2009 winter season.

Jason Hartwick