Wednesday, December 5, 2018

With Joy and Sadness I Write This . . .

Joy: Northwest Fishing Reports published my latest article, "The Slide Technique," and between now and April 30 I should catch another 20 to 30 steelhead if it's a normal year.  After that is spring chinook season, my favorite fish and time of year.

Sadness: Bob Lackey, Professor of Fisheries at Oregon State University, emailed me a few days ago: “In a 100 years wild salmon runs south of Canada will be reduced to remnant runs.”

This is why I spend time fishing, and as an activist.  It's worth repeating the title of my piece in The Columbian June 25, 2016, "Letter: We must become climate activists."  The first sentence is "By now it’s obvious, saving climate from catastrophe means saving salmon [and steelhead] from catastrophe."

Yesterday in class, one of my students said Mt. St. Helens could erupt soon taking out part of the western U. S. "You think that's bad?" I asked, "What's worse is how it could destroy my salmon and steelhead rivers!"  A fishing student smiled, but others looked like maybe it was time to call the crosswalk guard to get me under control.

I greatly enjoyed the film Low & Clear tonight, mainly because of how Alex "Xenie" Hall reminded me of some of my best fishing buddies, alive and still at it, or gone to where there is no closed season, and no limit.

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