YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK BANS FELT SOLED WADING BOOTS

In YNP these are now Verboten!!!

Yellowstone NP recently announced when the season opens May 26, 2018 felt soles are no longer legal. And, in case you wondered how serious, violations can result in a fine of $5000 and up to 6 months in the slammer.

There is no ban on felt soles in the surrounding states: Wyoming, Idaho and Montana. But the spread of invasive species is real so please heed the following:

Things you can do to prevent the spread of invasive species on your boots:
• Wash your felt wading boots with a bleach/water mixture after each trip.
• Allow felt waders or boots to dry entirely, this should kill most waterborne invasive species
• Buy a rubber sole and replace your felt boots

In my experience (I wear both) rubber soles are no where near as good for wading slippery rivers such as the Big Hole and Madison. But they are way more comfortable for hiking and work pretty well for less rocky rivers such as the Beaverhead and Ruby.

• So on the plus side rubber-soled boots pose less of health hazard to our rivers. But even with studs they don’t grip river rocks as well as felt.

• But rubber is way better than felt for hiking.  And on ice and snow, rubber rules...Period.
Still, most of us give high marks to felt for its superior traction. And I would imagine just as many of scoff at the idea that felt is really the culprit in the first beginning. Siting how many brands which removed felt from their catalogs have now reversed course. 

In my opinion anyone who tells you steel-studded rubber soles are superior to felt soles is either lying or didn’t understand the question. But...

But there are a couple solutions...

Patagonia features a line of boots which feature aluminum bars in lieu of steel  studs.  Like rubber vs. felt, the traction suppled by aluminum over steel is off the charts. Aluminum sticks to rocks like super glue sticks your fingers together...OK so I exaggerate but you get my drift...Right? Patagonia also makes a strap on sandal which features aluminum bars.

In case you are wondering:

• I don’t own either product, but I do have guide buddies who swear by them. 
• I am not affiliated with Patagonia in any way. 

Bottom line: If you plan to fish Yellowstone either deal with it, ditch the felt, or be sure to pack extra cash.

Clean Water/Public Lands: Vital to Our Way of Life

A long life, every chance spent hunting and fishing all over the country and in several Canadian provinces, once seemed the perfect way to avoid being bogged down fretting over what seems to be of late a thundering herd of crooked, self-serving politicians. Bent on ripping the guts out of long-standing  laws and policies designed to protect and enhance continued public access to public lands, assurances for clean water,  wise management of wildlife and fish populations, anything to do with a protecting and enhancing the environment in general and whatever else stands in the way of lining greedy pockets.

What a foolish idea on my part, eh?

Under cover of March Madness, which has so many of us preoccupied Congress is wrangling how best to sneak in as many dirty riders as possible before a vote comes up on the must pass Spending Bill. Imagine! Currently there are an astounding 80 “anti-environmental” riders attached to the bill that attack our public lands, remove protections that mandate our rights to clean water and even the air we breathe and a whole lot more.

One that will have alarming results for not only us fisher folks but for anyone who likes the idea of taking a drink of water not falling ill (dead?) from some deadly pollutant is the quiet move to make it possible for EPA to repeal the Clean Waters Act without public or legal oversight.  Of course the key words here are “without public or legal oversight.” This despite an overwhelming majority citizens have voiced favorable support  of the CWA. In other words with a stroke of the pen the Administration can do any damn thing it wants.  Democracy? Not my definition...

Time is running out to demand a Clean Spending Bill—one free of shameful riders. Contact your legislators and tell them Hands Off!

2018 State of the Beaverhead Watershed

Beav bow/photo by my late friend, Dick Moore, who caught it and shot the photo

Recently the Lewis and Clark Chapter of Montana T.U. met as always at the Anderson and Platt Fly Shop just outside Dillon.

Matt Jaeger, FWP Fisheries Biologist, presented an overview of the ongoing work to protect and enhance what’s left of the native westslope cutthroat trout population within the Beaverhead and Ruby river watersheds.  In brief the process begins by identifying genetically pure populations thru state of the art DNA analysis. The next step is to identify streams with either a natural block to upstream migration or to identify a spot suitable to build a man-made block. Man-made blocks are not cheap so funding becomes a major hurdle.

The main culprit to maintaining genetically pure populations is thru hybridization with love to hate (or much loved, depending) rainbow trout. Rainbows are great travelers as researchers found out in assessing the potential dangers the proposed Black Butte Mine might pose with Smith River trout.  To their surprise not only do Smith River rainbows spawn in Sheep Creek (mine site) but so do some Missouri River bows—BTW a 400 mile round trip.

The ongoing debate on how best to protect and enhance the fluvial grayling population in the Red Rocks National Wildlife Refuge. Several years ago refuge managers determined the Yellowstone  cutts were simply eating the grayling to extinction. Kill the cutts. Problem solved...Not so fast. Despite killing hundreds, maybe thousands, through extended, high-creel limit, fishing seasons, in conjunction with in stream traps, grayling numbers continue to crash.

Meanwhile Matt and crew had pretty much concluded cutts were not the culprits and put the blame on degraded/non-existent spawning habitat largely due to siltation from loss of scouring flows enough to clean spawning gravels and a calamitous loss of over-winter habitat due to a severe drop in oxygen levels in Upper Red Rocks Lake.  Snow cover drives oxygen levels in the the lake—too much, for too long oxygen takes a dive.  Beaver dams prevent scouring of spawning gravels. Only way to help the lake situation is make it deeper (cost prohibitive) but breaching the beaver dams, increasing the flow, scouring the spawning gravels is a possibility. Matt and his crew plan began last spring breaching the dams and have three more years to see what happens.  Refuge managers are apparently not convinced so how this one will play out remains in limbo.

Clark Canyon Reservoir’s recent crash of big fish (8-10 lbs. plus) is due mostly to a decline in the quality of Eagle strain rainbows produced by the Ennis National Fish Hatchery. The hatchery supplies fish to, I think, 13 states and except for Matt none are interested in anything but put and take fisheries...Sad but true, the only solution is to somehow get enough from the source, Eagle Lake, California...Matt is on the  track but still not sure how will work out.

Last season the Beaverhead recovered some from the combination of a too low overwinter flow and an out of balanced population of mid-size fish crowding out the big boys and girls. This winter flows are up some somewhat reducing the overcrowding situation and with the reservoir expected to fill decent flows should continue.  The consensus of guides and outfitters in the room suggested low trout numbers below Hildreth Bridge; Matt’s electroshocking survey did not agree. My take (and that of a couple fellow guides) was at first seemed to agree with the above consensus but once the flow stabilized seemed trout, many of decent size were everywhere in the Henne-Hopper section.  For what it’s worth, I could hardly buy a fish between Hildreth and Henne the few times I guided it. About 2600 trout per mile live in the upper river.

The Ruby: Numbers (about 1600 per mile) and size of brown trout from the dam to Silver Springs was about average; below Silver Springs not so hot.  In my experience and those of the guides I work with the numbers are spot on... Less water due to irrigation demand is the likely culprit. Hopefully something like a drought management plan can be worked out with ranchers and farmers to maintain a more friendly flow regime. Keep your fingers crossed.