The Flyfish Journal News by dylan-tomine

Frankenfish - Lurching Towards a Stream Near You?

Dylan Tomine — Wed, 07 Jul 10 16:52:02 -0700

Twenty years ago, the international fish farming corporations told us their activities were no reason for concern; the open water net pens were a safe alternative to harvesting wild salmon. The fish are sterile, they said. Ocean currents dilute pollution. Nothing to worry about. And now, as we find juvenile Atlantic salmon in Pacific coast streams and watch wild runs ravaged by sea lice infestations, disease and effluent from the farms, the head of one of the largest Scandinavian fish farm companies finally admits what many already know: The net pens are damaging to wild fish populations.

Which brings us to the news in a recent issue of the New York Times, that the FDA is seriously considering approval of the first genetically engineered food animal for human consumption—a salmon that grows at twice the rate of natural salmon. A Frankenfish designed by man to—once again—outdo nature. Produced by Aquabounty Technologies, this is an Atlantic salmon with growth hormone genes from Chinook salmon and a genetic “on switch” from another species entirely, the ocean pout. Awesome.

We are assured by Aquabounty that the resulting fish is “identical in every measurable way to the traditional food Atlantic salmon.” Nothing to worry about.

Start worrying. Then write your congressmen.

Help stop a bad, bad idea in its tracks and watch for upcoming edit in TFFJ addressing this issue.

Photo: Micha hoists a macking B.C. bull trout... or is it a GMO smelt?

Saving Wild Steelhead

Dylan Tomine — Thu, 25 Feb 10 05:50:16 -0800

There’s a lot of talk about angler apathy in fish conservation circles, but I believe the majority of us will do as much as we can to help. Trouble is, most anglers either don’t know how bad things have gotten or they don’t know how to help.

Here's an easy way to get involved: We’ve posted “Five Things You Can Do” on the Wild Steelhead Coalition website--the goal being making it easier for anglers to participate in the process of saving wild steelhead.

As you can see by the numbers, the situation here in Washington is about as dire as it can get. This is a fact emphasized by rapidly shrinking fishing opportunities, as all the major Puget Sound rivers are now closed for what has traditionally been the peak of the spring fly fishing season. The Olympic Peninsula, in addition to absorbing all the displaced Puget Sound anglers, is hardly faring better. In short, it’s time to get together and make some serious changes before it’s too late.

Thanks for the support.

The Skagit Blues

Dylan Tomine — Sun, 24 Jan 10 12:59:06 -0800

SKAGIT/SAUK RIVERS TO CLOSE

I HEAR THE TRAIN A-COMIN’...

Though it wasn’t unexpected, the official announcement still hit like a sucker punch to the guts. Due to disastrously low run projections, the last of the great Puget Sound wild steelhead flyfishing venues will not be open for business this spring. The sand is slipping through our fingers faster than ever. In 2001, when my beloved Skykomish River closed, I suddenly found about 45 extra March and April days on my hands, but I figured it would be temporary. Hasn’t re-opened since. Maybe it was too convenient to simply run north to the Skagit and Sauk. Or west to the Olympic Peninsula and its wild waters protected by the National Park. But now... there’s hardly anywhere to run at all. At least if you want to swing flies for wild winter steelhead in Washington State.

Currently, Puget Sound wild winter steelhead are clinging to existence by a thread. Their population stands between 1.6% and 4% of historical run sizes. Talk about fishing for crumbs! And out west, things are hardly better: The Hoh River has not met escapement goals in 4 of the last 5 seasons, and yet, the tribal and sport harvest of wild steelhead continues. On the steelhead factory known as the Sol Duc, wild fish production is down as well: Last season, the Sol Duc missed escapement goals by 25%. And throughout the state, in spite of evidence showing hatcheries to be detrimental to wild steelhead recovery, we continue to pour millions of tax-payer dollars into these programs with laughably low returns on investment—at a time when we’re closing schools and struggling to provide basic services to citizens....

The only bright spot I can see (and believe me, I’m searching) is the hope that this latest loss of another treasured fishery, and the continued decline of the “healthy” coastal rivers, will function as a wake up call for all who love wild steelhead and have yet to take any action to save them. Along with the incredible sadness I feel for the latest closure and the state of wild steelhead in general, I see an opportunity here for people to pull together and make some real changes. Is this what it will take to motivate us? If the answer is yes, I would suggest contacting the Wild Steelhead Coalition and asking what you can do to help. Thanks for your time, and I will now step off my soap box and return you to regularly scheduled programming.

Trash Fish

Dylan Tomine — Mon, 07 Dec 09 14:30:13 -0800

Trash Fish, by Greg Keeler. Counterpoint Press (2008), 176 pages.

Just finished Trash Fish, and I simply have to say that is one magnificent, completely kick-ass book. Strong medicine. I actually found myself reading with tears in my eyes for a number of highly disparate reasons: Laughter, sorrow, and the realization that the writing’s so damn good, I could never do anything even close. In other words, all the right reasons.

I picked it up at Ted Leeson’s suggestion and dragged it with me all the way to Brooklyn, where, pacing around a tiny apartment (for reasons too lengthy to get into) I started reading it in the afternoon and ended up blowing through the whole thing in one shot. It was suddenly very early in the morning and I realized I’d been living the author's life for about 16 straight hours. I closed the book and had no idea what to do with myself. As a reader, I was completely submerged, gone from the real world. As a writer, well, what can I say… a truly humbling experience.

To anyone else out there, get the book. Read it. Buy more copies and give them to friends. It’s an incredibly well-written story of a life lived in the context of fishing, full of humor, sadness, joy, and always… fish. You may come to love him or hate him, but you’ll know you’re reading an extremely talented writer working at the top of his game. The bastard.

Here's the original cover artwork:

Operation Ditch Pickle

Dylan Tomine — Sat, 23 May 09 14:25:51 -0700

FLY GUYS IN HAWG HEAVEN

Greetings from the sun-baked, heat-seething California Delta!

On assignment for FFJ, local Delta expert and Sage Rep John Sherman, photographer Liz Steketee, and I entered the high-octane, nitro-burning, gear-slinging world of bigtime tournament bass fishing. As they say, it’s a NASCAR world, and we’re just standing in our little aluminum jonboat flinging flies into it.

What can I say? I went in prepared to hate it, and ended up having a blast. The fishing was a ton of fun, the people were awesome, and most importantly, the fly guys didn’t get their asses completely kicked. In fact, I won’t state where we placed yet, but suffice it to say, there are a number of sad-sack gear guys currently on suicide watch for appearing lower on the scoreboard than us. Or, as I’ve been telling everyone, we won the Fly Division.

The pursuit of what some micro-midge tossing, 7X tippet tying, trout purist acquaintances refer to as “ditch pickles,” turned out to be about as much fun as you can have with a fly rod. Just to give a little taste, picture dragging a Bomber across a solid putting green of vegetation and watching the grass explode...un-frickin’-believable!

Many thanks to John for sharing the Delta 411, to Liz for putting her cameras through the fly-box melting heat and prop wash of the 30-some mega-horsepower bass boats that passed us doing 80 mph, and to FFJ for sending us to what they surely thought would be hell. Also, a shout out to Sage for loading us up with the new tournament-legal bass rods that made it possible for even this spey guy to throw big bugs into tight places. Stay tuned for the rest of the feature in FFJ #2.1.

And with that, I will leave you with this haiku:

My black fly box melts
Big bass busting bomber flies
Fish of the future

Note: Sweet pix from Liz will accompany the story in print—these are just some snapshots from my trusty point-and-shoot.

John contemplates the insanity at the starting line.

Weapons of choice--locked and loaded.

See this cool, fast, totally rigged bass boat? That's not us.

Liz documenting while John culls a dink.