Tour will highlight proposed Pebble mine’s threat to fishing jobs, Native way of life

Seattle – Alaska Natives, commercial fishermen, sportsmen and seafood processors are heading south on the Save Bristol Bay Road Show to raise awareness and build support for protecting Bristol Bay Alaska, which is threatened by the proposed Pebble gold and copper mine.

The mine, potentially three times as large as the largest current mine in North America, would threaten the headwaters of Bristol Bay, putting thousands of fishing jobs at risk, along with a Native way of life that has existed for centuries. The real gold in Bristol Bay is the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery, a sustainable resource that returns year after year.

In six cities, commercial fishermen, Alaska Natives, sportsmen and seafood processors will highlight the economic risks posed by the mine. The Road Show will also feature a screening of the award-winning documentary, “Red Gold,” delicious Bristol Bay sockeye prepared by local chefs, and locally produced beers.

Melanie Brown, an Alaska Native and commercial fisherwoman, and Ben Blakey, of family-run seafood company, Snopac Products, will travel to all of the cities as featured speakers, sharing the importance of the region as an economic engine, source of jobs, and resource for food. In each city, the program will also feature sportsmen, fishing guides or commercial fishermen, whose livelihoods depend on the clean waters and sustainable fish runs of Bristol Bay. More than 12,000 jobs depend on the commercial salmon fishery in Bristol Bay, along with more than 1,000 jobs related to sport fishing and countless other businesses.

The Save Bristol Bay Road Show visits the following six cities:

Seattle: Monday, October 17, Leif Erikson Lodge, 7 p.m.
Portland: Wednesday, October 19, Bagdad Theater, 7 p.m.
Corvallis: Friday, October 21, The Arts Center, 7 p.m.
San Francisco: Monday, October 24, Temple Nightclub, 7 p.m.
Santa Fe: Tuesday, October 25, Center For Contemporary Arts Cinematheque, 7 p.m.
Denver: Thursday, October 27, Oriental Theater, 7 p.m.

For information, please visit: www.savebristolbay.org/roadshow

The Save Bristol Bay Road Show is coordinated by the Save Bristol Baycampaign, part of a broad, bipartisan, national coalition that supports protecting Bristol Bay and its natural resources from the severe risks of massive-scale development, including the Pebble Mine.

The Road Show is sponsored by the generous support of companies including Tiffany & Co., ExOfficio, Icicle Seafoods, Orvis, Sage, and Chef’s Collaborative.

Speakers are available for interviews and briefings. Speaker photos and bios available upon request.

The life rules for fish break down to the same basic survivor instincts all creatures have: find food, find shelter from predators and reproduce. If you are reading the waters properly you’ll be tapping into all of those fish survivor instincts. For instance, will fish find better food sources in shallow or deep water? The answer is “shallow water” which means you should be casting in those small pools before you cross through to the deep end of a lake or river. This follows along with the idea that fish are typically spooked by just about anything that invades their territory. The moment you step into the water, you have the potential for scaring off your catch so watch where you are treading.

Reading waters also means developing an instinct for finding fishing lies. These are the areas where fish will end up congregating. They are either looking for food, looking for shelter or looking for that sweet spot that offers both. That would be the prime lie and that’s where you want to cast first and cast often. Where are the good prime lies? Knee deep water that is at the edge of a drop off surrounded by natural cover like large rocks or tree roots. With enough practice reading waters should be as easy as reading a book!

Listen to the full 90 minute interview on Reading Water.

A fisheries biologist is well-versed with the ways of the trout and how and where to catch them. Brian spent his career managing recreational trout fisheries, worked on habitat protection and management plans for various lakes.

He said that trout are usually present in eutrophic lakes. These are lakes that are shallow and us and usually have intermittent or no inlets or outlets, which means that they have low flushing rates. The soils and geology around it make them nutrient-rich so that they grow insects for fish.

Brian talked about several other topics including alkaline and acidic lakes, spring and winter turnovers, thermocline, the main food sources for trout, and a lot of other stuff.

Listen to the show now and be surprised at how much scientific knowledge you will get from Brian. Enjoy!

Here’s the description of the product straight from the manufacturer:

The monoMaster is an innovative new fishing tool that is a Must Have for every angler. This handy tool is small and lightweight and collects all the waste line that you generate when changing flies or rigs. Hang from a fishing vest, in your pocket, or tackle box. Whether you generate an inch or a few yards of waste, monoMaster provides an easy and environmentally sound solution. No more tangles in your waders, pockets, or tackle box.

It was also featured in Field and Stream’s “Best of the Best” Fishing 2009. You can find out more about it here monoMASTER™

Is it worth it worth $11.95? Does it work? Leave your comments and let me know…

Oh by the way how do you get the mono out of it?

In England much of the water is private, which means paying every time you go fishing – from a westerner’s view in the United States this seems absurd yet in Colorado we have arrived at the same situation on many rivers. Landowners can keep you from fishing sections of a river that runs through their land making that section totally private – no fishing at any cost. In Colorado, you supposedly have rights to float a river and get out on the bank or in the water but evidently a number of landowners and sheriffs in Colorado currently believe that the public only has the right to navigate on the surface of the water. This means that even if you follow the law you may still get turned away or harassed because local sheriffs and landowners decide to interpret the law differently than how it is written. Other landowners offer fishing for a fee like in England which is generally too expensive for the average angler.

Montana’s state laws seem reasonable in that you can fish a river or stream up to the high water mark. This means from a public access point you can walk up and down the river or float it freely in your boat. New problems; however, have reared their ugly head recently in Montana such as landowners fencing off public access points making it difficult for anglers to get to the water. You have access rights, but yet you don’t, or at least you have them but at the risk of ripping a nice hole in your waders and putting a painful gash in your leg as you climb over the barbed wire fence.

On Wyoming’s North Platte River if you anchor or step out of your boat in the wrong spot – watch out! The local landowner may be taking a picture of you with his telephoto lens and emailing it to the sheriff. End result, when you take out at the end of the day the sheriff is there handing you a hefty ticket for trespassing!

Likewise, in New Mexico, on the San Juan River you can float through private property but you can’t anchor or get out of the boat.

Where is this all going? Is it just a matter of our population growing too fast creating an unmanageable load on our rivers and streams?. Will fly fishing be available only for the rich and famous?

Share with us the situations you face in your local area and let us know your thoughts on what you think reasonable water rights should be.

So what is this blog about? What do we intend to achieve?

We’re starting a conversation of worldwide scope touching fly fishers everywhere. This sport has participants in almost every country in the world and they all have one thing in common – the love of fly fishing.

It’s a sport that requires we learn and practice the techniques and strategies over a lifetime – a rather long learning curve but a thoroughly enjoyable one. If we knew it all we’d certainly be bored, so the learning continues!

We will all learn from the conversations that will take place on this blog and of course there are always several ways to do things and many points of view on many different topics. Techniques, strategies, ethics, etiquette, the environment, water rights, conservation – all are fair game and need discussion.

So here we go, let us know how you feel by commenting on our posts – keep the conversation going and be sure to tell others to join in.

Good fishing,

D. Roger Maves
Host/Producer
Ask About Fly Fishing – Internet Radio