my passionate obsession.

[patches]

when i grew up in southern ont i fished for big lake run browns,steelhead and salmon . but steelhead was what really got me going you know?not sleeping , total obsession,dropped out of school at 15 , all in the pursuit of these fish, i would spend weeks on the creek by my house when it was closed, just walking the banks counting,mail to female , fish per km ,and try and get a total for the creek.habits and environment soon terned to genetics, and the skamainean (pardon the spelling guys) summer runs, that were introduced to in lake Erie and gorgon bay became a focus to me, what made these fish come in in summer and some in the fall ? and the difference between those fish to the winters i was used to? and what made some winters fat foot balls like the lake Michigan fish , and others long and slender like the Erie fish ? later in Erie as the summers showed in more numbers all kinds of fish where showing in the creek, all strains of winters and they where there year round ! well studies showed me that all these fish where brought here from the west coast from Oregon to Alaska genetics from all kinds of rivers now flourished in there new habitat ,with abundant food and UNLIMITED spawning territory they spread to every river , stream creek and ditch. they all had large stocked lake steelhead moving in and seeding streams all through the grate lake system. it is just one big system. with popularity as a sport fish grew so did the numbers going into the the lake , both by fish having 1000s of km of spawning habitat and extensive stocking on both sides of the border. knowing that all these amazing kinds of fish came from the west coast, i dropped out of school after grade 8 and ran away from home , off to bc . so i spent the next few years tripin around bc being a hippie all summer and camped on the river in my wall tent all winter ,fishing streams on Vancouver island like the gold,quinsam , cambell all rivers that mr brown made famous by his books and his steel head bee that remains my favorite dry. i was soon to learn that these fish were vary different than the lake fish i was used to . and so was there habits and genetics, but it was there environment that was hardest to get used to . that also meant vary different gear . one day on the quinsam fishing a run and the river was prime a few old schoolers came down and started fishing the run above me , i hooked 8 fish and landed one , barely. they hooked 5 and landed 5 , making a comment about my gear from up stream, i walked over to see what the comments were about. they started in on me about my light rod and lite line that i was so used to fishing back home, you know... longer sensitive rods and the leader the lighter the better!' not hear' they said , you cant come hear with that setup again ," your leaving hooks and lead in there mouths, and what if you catch one do ya think that fish you played for 20 min, is going to recover"? well i was young and it took some time and understanding to realize that these guys have a point! it all has to do with habitat ,and the will to procreate. now this is vary important! A fish is not only a biological extension of its male and female parents but it is a biological extension of the water shed that it was fertilized,hatched and reared. so.... that means that it is selected by the snow on the mountain ,the trees in the valley and the natural bearers that the fish evolve to pass or not , it also means that hear they are also partly selected by the time they spend at sea. so in bc we have some severe steelhead problems , 1) logging in the water shed has wiped out 1000s of km of habitat and silted millions of eggs for a 100 years now and the rivers that once teamed with fish are almost gone,fallen banks, logjams of unbelievable sizes still cause erosion and block fish migration every year,the rivers out here are vary different , moving swiftly from mountain to the sea the forest between and the snow up top are the only thing keeping ground fed systems going through the summer and keep it from coming down in a flash of mud. now that we have taken these trees its like riping up a plant, you lose roots....you loose plant growth on top, if you loose half the roots ,you lose half the plant! if you take half the trees you loose half the fish , ITS ALL CONNECTED, but the logging industry is not the only problem here.2) as numbers drop, people numbers are not, and less fish habitat and more development means less fish .just look at the impact that we have had on rivers like the puntledge of Vancouver islands east side city Courtney, totally devastated. i mean is was once a major summer run river and had a huge winter run its all gone. less that20 summers,now thats a combo of things but development hit hard there , 3) the ocean survival has gone to the basement the past 20years as well but with a fish that leaves our waters and travels more than most people in a year to japan,russia and American waters ,there is little to be done about other countries fishing techniques or to tell the difference between who's fish are who's. so steelhead have had a shit kicking out hear and the numbers are very low compared with the great lake system, but each river as i get to know them has not only a few steelhead , but there each in there own right a different kind of steelhead a sub species unto its own watershed, naturally selected by the rain , snow and and availability to spawning habitat.though these fish are low in # ,to discover all the strains of steelhead that i grew up catching, in their naturally selected river has been a pleasure that i hope my 2 boy get to have in there life . genetic drifting as i call it happens naturally out hear to keep the most options open genetically, that means a fish from the thompson would stay up the squamish and pass on the genetics of the thompson to a squamish fish. therefor widening the genetic span ,and if those genes be useful ,and build a stronger fish, then the offspring will come back , they will survive and it will become part of the gene pool in the squamish, if not the offspring will die. The gean pool used to be huge in most rivers hear , with fish entering rivers with the runoff of glacier feed systems in june and july all through the fall and into winter. then the major run in the spring, a small creek down on the lower coast chapman, had 100--200summers holding at the falls historically and fish entering all fall through to spring ,now there gone and i help catch wild fish in the winter, to help keep the winters from heading down that road . all this being taken into consideration , the grate lake fish have it grate as you can see, pollution is a factor but it is not the problem if a steelhead can survive in the humbar river in toronto than not even a rail car spilling into the cheakamus can stop these fish from continuing ., the grate lake fish have adapted to there environment well and the genetic span in most rivers there is going in the opposite direction, its getting bigger ,with the summers and winters all being tossed into a system .full of food and habitat they filled in the gaps and its almost year round there now as i would like to hear back from any one interested! low and be hold now i fish 15--20lb leader in the winter and 10 or 12 in the summer . the reason is the rivers out hear are hard and fast full of canyon and boulders , logs and big wild west coast steelhead . and to play a fish to exhaustion before it makes its upstream migration to me is wrong, i get them in hard and fast they only leave the water for a picture, and never lift them high . there meant to be weightless and the higher you lift a fish you plan on releasing the more internal damage you can cause ,and they should never hit the shore , if to be released, the final point ill put down to you having talked spawning habit and habitat. fish out east have a lot of spawning habitat, which the fast , steep, now scoured of most spawning gravel rivers out hear lack.and if we try to put it back our rivers. they spit it out again, not till we fix the watersheds will the river be back to it potential for producing sustainable numbers once in these systems. the fish hear have a vary low 2nd return rate which also has a impact on juvenile numbers. in the lakes the fish spawn and return to the lake down a meandering river no seals waiting for them at the mouth, and go back to a rich diet in the lake to return again. hear most do survive the spawn but going down a raging river full of falls is not as easily navigated by a tiered spawned out summer run ,that has spent all summer surviving the hi temperatures of summer in a low pool some were,then all the salmon bullying them all fall ,then the hi waters of winter rains and on through the spawning of spring . so almost a year later these fish are suppose to survive going down a raging river? vary hard to do ! if you have ever been in a jet boat im sure you know, its easier going up than coming down. so you can see why the regs out hear are different. a single, barbless, baitless hook must be used,and there is a total catch and release on all wild steelhead in regions 1and2. iv enjoyed eating steelhaed in my child hood but only have ever killed 1 hatchery fish in bc. though it was the best fish iv ever had, even hatchery fish are to important to kill now . weather grate lake steelys or wild west coast steelhead i love em all ,and i am always studying these fish and if any one has any info that would be usefull please drop me your tail and if your headed this way we can put you in the spot to shake hands with one of the grandfathers of the grate lake steelhead!!

[professori]

Patches-Thanks for the great read and the many good points for thought.

[Eric]

lots of great things said there