If You'd Only Ever Seen One Wild Steelhead Video...

... then you'd have a pretty good grip on our impact to steelehad habitat if this is the one you'd watched. After first hearing about Pass Creek from veteran Umpqua guides years ago, I pull up this gem every few years and it moves me to the core each time with it's scratchy audio, flickering images and priceless narration. Only Running Down The Man and a few other Felt Soul films impress me this much.

 Click to play. "Provides a penetrating account of a once-rich steelhead trout stream threatened by careless logging practices. Focusing on Oregon's North Umpqua River Basin, the film portrays the impact of clearcut logging on the small tributary streams where most of the river's steelhead are spawned and reared. The subtle interdependence of land and water and the disruption of the aquatic environment caused by stream-clogging debris and warming water are dramatically presented. Hal Riney and Dick Snider, advertising executives and fishermen, produced the film and donated it to Oregon State University. It was widely distributed and viewed in Oregon and throughout the United States through the 1970s and was influential in changing logging practices in the Northwest.

Easily the most moving, well-connected piece I've ever seen on the topic, the kicker is that this film was made in 1968!!!

Give yourself time to watch this piece. It's about ten minutes long, and the first minute or so is silent so don't try to troubleshoot your speakers. Pour a drink, silence your phone & sit back for a bit of watching and thinking.

Thanks.

Guest Blog "Popper Bass" - Brian O'Keefe

It seems a bit early for topwater action at the lake, but I’m not complaining. There seems to be quite a few bass in the two and a half to three pound range, slightly smaller than years past, but there are still a few lunkers. On Monday, under blue skies and on glass calm water, the day fishing was tough. The bass are all over the Lava Flow, back in the coves and on the points.

But, they are spooky. Even sneaking on the rocks and using small leeches, they would bolt. Same with the fish in the reeds. They would spook on the cast, before the fly hit the water. The good thing about spooking a lot of bass in the daytime, you can go back after the sun goes
down and slam them on big weedless poppers.

Plan on fishing right up to dark. Quite a few mosquitos, even 200 yards off the beach. I put my waders on, in my boat, they were so bad. Quite a few flying ants in camp, but I did not see any on the water. Sandhill cranes, eagles and osprey are working the shoreline, also. Here are a few point and shoot photos.