Rising From The Ashes – Wild Steelheaders United
Snorkel surveying the Elwha River, September 2019. Photo: Shane Anderson.
Today, we [Wild Steelheaders United] will launch a movie telling the story of the unlikely resurgence of summer steelhead in the Elwha River. Want some great news? Well, we have it. The summer steelhead, which were nearly extirpated, have dramatically rebounded in a way that no one expected.
My Isolation Breaking Point
By Matt Labash / New York Times / April 17, 2020
This is funny, I needed this COVID-19 stay in my closet laugh.
Matt Labash is the author of Fly Fishing with Darth Vader: And Other Adventures with Evangelical Wrestlers, Political Hitmen, and Jewish Cowboys.
In this endless war against Covid-19, I have tried to be a dutiful soldier. I’ve mostly stayed home to binge-watch and binge-eat (bad news and Fig Newtons, respectively). I’ve yet to poleax any octogenarians as they dive-tackle the last pack of Cottonelle. I only sneeze on immediate family. I’m a regular Audie Murphy.
But even we stoical war-hero types have our breaking point, and I’ve reached mine. My governor, Larry Hogan, banned recreational fishing in his recent stay-at-home order, intended to halt the spread of the coronavirus.
As a proud citizen (now, inmate) of Maryland, once un-ironically nicknamed the “Free State,” I’ve always liked Mr. Hogan. He’s stout and feisty, more workhorse than show pony. He hates many of the same things I do, like high taxes and Pennsylvania (whose tributaries pollute our Chesapeake Bay). He’s that filthiest of words in the modern Republican Party — a centrist. I’ve voted for him twice.
But now I’m rethinking my drink. In early days, when Mr. Hogan started closing schools and “nonessential” businesses, we avid fly fishermen thought our biggest problem would be our parks and rivers getting overrun by newbies, many of whom hadn’t seen sunlight in years. Stir-Crazy Nation now had nowhere else to go (including to jobs, now being eliminated at alarming speed).
Coming Up Fast – Mark your calendar – “FREE”
The must go on.
The Lynnwood, Seattle Fly Fishing Show, was canceled due to a scheduling conflict. “We are already in preliminary site discussions and hope to return in 2022,” said Furimsky.
