Steelhead Country Preview

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Steelhead Country preview from Wild Steelhead Coalition on Vimeo.

The Wild Steelhead Coalition, Patagonia, and award-winning filmmaker Shane Anderson have teamed up to produce a new film series called Steelhead Country. The six-episode series explores the rise and fall of angling for wild steelhead in Washington State – from the heydey of steelheading on the Puyallup River to the litany of legendary rivers that are now closed throughout Puget Sound, including the mighty Skagit. Follow along as Steelhead Country explores the past, present, and hopeful future for this iconic species.

Washington is Steelhead Country, the epicenter of the wild steelhead world. For generations, Washingtonians have been raised with a fishing rod in their hands and a love of steelhead in the hearts. This passion has proven infectious and inspired anglers from all corners of the globe to make the pilgrimage to the state’s famed waters in search of wild grey ghosts, some reaching sizes found in few other places on earth. But while the allure of Washington’s majestic wild steelhead continues to grow, regrettably the state’s steelhead stocks have suffered the opposite fate, as their numbers have plummeted to a fraction of their once great abundance.

Steelhead Country dives deep into how Washington’s mismanagement of its iconic State Fish has caused the precipitous decline of its wild steelhead populations. Moreover, Steelhead Country encourages the state to move toward a more sustainable, conservation-oriented management model for wild steelhead – a model that preserves angling opportunity while also helping restore and sustain wild runs for future generations. It’s not too late to bring them back.

Stay tuned for the full series coming in September.

#WildSteelhead #BringEmBack

estream

USB Device charger with Water Power

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Estream

The Estream is about the size of a water bottle and weighs less than 2 pounds. Once submerged in running water, the turbine rotates and generates electricity that gets stored in the Estream’s built-in 6,400mAh battery, which takes about 4.5 hours to fully charge. A full battery should be able to charge up to three smartphones or action cameras. Estream claims that it’s able to charge devices twice as fast as a regular outlet thanks to a quick-charge function read more …….

esox

Esox Lucius Picture and Video

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As we move from summer into fall this is one of the prime bite periods for the Esox Lucius, other wise known as Pike.  River Pike become active as water temps start to drop in the late summer, and really feed aggressively on baitfish patterns.  Especially top water flies, with baitfish profiles.  Here is a Northern Pike we found this week. Also below is an impressive video by Austin Green.  It’s 25 mins long, but well worth the watch.  If you don’t follow Austin on the social feeds, I would suggest finding him and watching his work, he does some amazing things with the lens.

 

Esox Lucius on the hunt #underwater #seewhatsoutthere #aquatech #korkerslife #fishthetruth

A photo posted by Mangledfly (@mangledfly) on

PURSUING ESOX from Austin Green Photography on Vimeo.

Pic of the Day – Flex Rod and Smallmouth

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Great image by Kevin Feenstra fishing with Jerry Darkes testing out the New Scott Flex Series

Spring Creek Montana Fly Fishing – by Todd Moen

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Some amazing footage once again by Todd Moen

Dr. Whiting talks Hackle

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Patagonia Fly Fishing uses MFM image

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Always flattering when a company like Patagonia asks to use one of our images.

DNR using unique technology

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DNR is stepping up the technology game read more here 

smallmouth bass

Pic of the Day – Yellow streamer and Smallmouth Bass

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Underwater Bass with yellow streamerLow clear water and aggressive smallmouth bass, make for some fun images.  Always appreciate the time that customers give me on days when I can get out of the boat.  Special thanks to Jerome for letting me take a few minutes and capture a quick photo or two on your smallmouth adventure.

Smallmouth Bass fishing continues to be really good, with some big bass around this year.  Make sure to follow along on the river reports page for the Manistee River and Kevin Feenstra’s Muskegon River Report.  For your summer smallmouth bass reports.

Jon Ray

Life Cycle Midwest Steelhead

Life Cycle of a Midwest Steelhead

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I was thinking about steelhead this weekend–they are still quite a ways off but it is hard not to think about them from time to time.    Things look optimistic for this fall; the reports from the big lake are pretty good and the fish are abundant and healthy.     Another indicator that we have about steelhead is by looking at the summer steelhead.   I spend most of my time on the Muskegon, and though we don’t have a sustained summer run, we do get stragglers.   This year  stragglers have been big–this is another indicator of health of the steelhead in the lake.

This spring, we had a period of high water, and I spent my time when the river was flooded photographing steelhead that had moved up into tiny springs that were now swollen.    The photos of these fish can be found here.      You think that steelhead are an awesome fish and then you watch them go through water that seems impassable and realize they are even more amazing than you once thought.

Eventually their mission is complete, fry hatches, and the life cycle continues.    Those fish that were hatched in these tiny streams have a better chance of survival.  The water in these small streams  is cold all year.

Thanks for looking and enjoy the rest of the summer!

Kevin Feenstra